I froze. So Felicity had given him a completely different story.
My eyes filled with tears, and it took a long time before I could speak. I tried to hand the tie to William, saying, "I didn’t, I just…" but William didn’t even look at me. Instead, he handed his cup to Felicity.
I felt like an outsider. After a long moment, I chose not to stay and walked out of William’s house.
Because of this, William and I had our first cold war.
After school resumed, I quietly changed seats, no longer sitting beside Felicity.
And the looks from the other students grew increasingly strange. Felicity told everyone I was pretending to be a victim because William favored her.
Wherever I went, the classroom buzzed with gossip about me.
"See? I told you she wasn’t worthy of the class heartthrob; she just had to interfere."
"It's only because the class beauty is kind-hearted that she’s willing to spend time with her. If it were me, I would’ve walked away long ago. In the end, she’s even worse than before. What’s with all this fake high-mindedness?"
Suddenly, I felt like a rat everyone wanted to stomp on, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.
Even William wouldn’t spare me a second glance.
Back then, as a teenager, I couldn’t bear that kind of humiliation.
Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and went to find William after evening self-study.
He was still correcting Felicity’s mistakes, and when he saw it was me, surprise flickered in his eyes.
I walked home with William, and I told him all my grievances, asking why he was treating me like this.
But when I mentioned Felicity had deliberately tricked me into going to the amusement park and then falsely accused me of taking her umbrella, William frowned.
He cut me off impatiently, saying, "I don’t know why you’re always so hostile to her. She’s not the person you think she is; she can’t understand your scheming."
"Since meeting Felicity, I’ve realized how jealous you are. She’s so kind to you, yet you talk about her like that. Just because she’s pretty, you keep framing her?"
"Do you know she had a high fever that day, and even after you left, she kept wondering if she’d said too many hurtful things?"
I was stunned. After so many years, I didn’t expect William to distrust me this much.
"Emily, after all these years, this is the first time you’ve made me feel so disgusted. Is it because you’re ordinary that you can’t stand seeing others do well?"