From the moment I stepped out of the car, their taunts came at me like arrows, sharp and unrelenting. If an outsider had witnessed this scene, they’d think I was their sworn enemy rather than an old classmate.
Thorne strode up with a slow, deliberate air, his smirk brimming with mockery. He clapped a hand on my shoulder, the weight of ridicule pressing down with it.
"Come work at my company," he said smoothly. "I don’t have a good position for you, but I could let you be a janitor. At least then, I’d make sure you finally own a car, just so you can say you’re one of us."
"Or maybe you should track down your ex-girlfriend. Lilith is a Lawson opera master now, rolling in wealth. Who knows? She might just let you drive a luxury car for once."
Rowan, Thorne’s ever-loyal shadow, wasted no time piling onto the mockery.
Lilith…
She was the girl I had admired for three years in high school. We were never officially together, but there had been something, an unspoken understanding, a quiet kind of encouragement. Maybe there had been ambiguity, but more than that, we had pushed each other forward.
She was the reason I had turned from a reckless middle schooler into the top scorer in the college entrance exam.
Back then, Thorne had chased after Lilith relentlessly, only to be rejected time and time again. Maybe that was why he had always tried to make my life miserable. But as one of the school’s strongest candidates for the provincial top scorer, the teachers had done their best to shield me from his pettiness.
"Don't talk nonsense!"
Before I could even respond, Thorne’s expression darkened. He shot Rowan a sharp glare. "I've been in frequent contact with Lilith lately. I even asked her about Cassius and she made it crystal clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. No ties, no connections, nothing."
Rowan chuckled, shaking his head. "Well, looking at him now, I can’t say I blame her."
I exhaled slowly, a weight settling in my chest. The urge to turn around and walk away was almost unbearable.
People always said high school reunions were nothing more than a stage for showing off and tearing others down. I never believed it.
After all, my university classmates and even those from my advanced studies had been normal enough.