Future Call: Roommate Wants My Life for Grad School

Florence froze, then caught herself fast. "You went to the bar. Everyone knows. Everyone can back it up. You did it, so why can't you own it?" Kate stepped up too, painting a vivid little picture of me sleeping around. Neither of them had found me in the dorm. "Of course you couldn't find me." My mouth curved, my eyes cold. "Because I was at the library." I opened the replay history in my streaming app. To keep from being framed, I'd deliberately livestreamed my study session. A livestream record doesn't lie. "It's right there, clear as day. From the six-thirty evening class until just before nine, I was in the library the whole time." "I can't exactly be in two places at once, can I?" My eyes swept coldly over the two of them, and I pressed on, "You're the ones with a problem. You claim you saw me sleeping around, and you're passing faceless photos around to smear me." "What is it you two want?" Panic flickered across Florence's face. She hadn't expected me to come prepared. The other students crowded in. "Janice really does look like she was in the library. She couldn't have been at a bar at the same time." "Don't tell me her roommates set her up?" Florence swallowed hard, her composure slipping. "You swore up and down that I was hooking up with someone. What proof do you have?" "No proof means it's slander!" I stared her down, so hard she took half a step back. Her fingertips went white, her lips pressed tight. Tears welled in her eyes. Her voice cracked with them. "Janice, I didn't want to expose you. But since you're going to talk like that, don't blame me for not sparing you as a roommate." She pulled three report slips out of her pocket. "These are miscarriage records from the hospital. I found them by accident under your mattress." "Your name is right there on them." The reports passed from hand to hand, and everyone sucked in a breath. The looks turned my way went from disgust to something worse. Kate let out a shriek. "So you had three miscarriages?" Another roommate, Jemima Simmons, said in a low voice, "No wonder you were always saying your period was irregular…" Those words nailed me to the pillory for good. I was shaking all over. "Those reports are fake!" I reached out to snatch them. Florence shoved my hand away. Her whole face said I was a hopeless disgrace, her eyes full of contempt, like she was looking at something filthy. "I demand these reports be checked to see if they're real!" "What if you tear them to pieces?" Florence refused without a second's hesitation. "I didn't even want to say anything, but you're out there sleeping around. You should think about the rest of us for once." "What if you bring some disease back here?" At that, several of the girls edged back half a step. They avoided me like poison. My roommates actually pinched their noses in disgust. "Making friends is fine, but sleeping around like that isn't." Florence delivered the warning with fake concern, then walked into the dorm on her own and threw open her suitcase. "All the evidence is right here. If you still think I've wronged you, then I'll just leave." Kate strode over and yanked the handle of her suitcase. "Why are you the one moving out?" "She's the one who should go!" I gripped the hem of my dress, my breath shaking. They wanted to drive me out. Jemima had even gone and fetched the dorm supervisor, feeding her an embellished version of the whole thing. The supervisor's brow furrowed. Her lip curled. "Girls these days don't know how to respect themselves. This one needs to be dealt with!" I turned my head, my eyes darkening. "Those two report slips don't count as evidence at all. You're the dorm supervisor. You represent the school. Is this how you treat a student?" "You don't have to throw me out. I'll leave on my own!" I threw open my suitcase in a hurry, shoving my clothes in any which way. Jaw clenched, I made my way to the empty dorm at the end of the hall. The laughter drifted after me, sharp enough to ache in my ears. Online, I found the bar's contact information. Laugh all they wanted. It wouldn't last much longer. I was about to close the net too.

Early that morning, when I went to wash up, every girl in the bathroom silently steered clear of me. A wall formed around me. I gave a careless shrug. Then I walked into the classroom. The chatter cut off in an instant, and the room went quiet. Under all those amused stares I made my way back to my seat, and only then saw my desk smeared with red paint, my name scrawled across it. The boys were laughing low under their breath. "Looks so innocent, but off the record she's had that many abortions." "Janice, name your price." Then one of them whistled. My scalp prickled, and a nameless anger rose in my chest. I aimed my phone camera straight at his face. "I've got everything you just said on record. Insult me again and I'm calling the police!" The boy slunk back into his seat, sour-faced. Florence, though, wasn't fazed. She snorted out a laugh. "Even if you call the police, it doesn't change the fact that you keep getting abortions." "Janice, you've dragged our whole dorm's name through the mud. If I were you, I'd have dropped out already." My temples throbbed, and my face burned red. Someone shoved me from behind. I stumbled, couldn't catch my balance, and my lower back slammed into the corner of a desk. The pain made me suck in a sharp breath. "Hey, careful, you lot, don't go shoving the baby out of her belly!" Kate said it under her breath, and a wave of laughter broke out. No one came to help me. I braced myself and forced my way back up. "Enough." The homeroom teacher pushed the door open, a hard glint flashing off her glasses. "These past couple of days I've been hearing about certain students with messy private lives. Don't any of you follow her example." "Girls especially. Sleep around with that many partners and you'll catch something." She was talking to the room, but her eyes stayed fixed dead on me. She was clearly accusing me, just wrapping it in insinuation. Florence sat there smug, one leg crossed over the other. Once I got expelled, or cracked and killed myself, the guaranteed grad-school placement would fall straight into her lap. My nails dug into my palms, and when I opened my eyes again, I could hear the tremor in my own voice, clear as anything. My chair scraped back with a shrill screech. Everyone turned to look at me. "Teacher, a school is a place for educating people. Without enough proof, you shouldn't be talking about me like this." The academic advisor froze for two seconds, then slammed her book down hard on the lectern. "It's not your place to tell me what I can say!" "Having a student like you is a disgrace to my whole teaching career!" My throat tightened, and I wanted to argue back. Then a commotion broke out beyond the door. "Janice, there's some guy outside asking for you! Says you're a gold-digging tramp and to get out here!" My heart jolted. Not out of fear. Out of excitement. He'd finally come. I pushed quickly out through the crowd, and there in the yard stood the heavyset man, five foot seven and pushing two hundred pounds, shouting my name. The second he saw me, his eyes lit up. "Yeah, it's you!" He held his photo of me up against my face and bellowed, "You conned money out of me and won't even go on a date, so today either you give me my money back or we're going to the police station!" My eyes swept up and down over him, and my mouth twitched. I turned and looked at Florence. She was all smug triumph, cocking an eyebrow at me in a taunt. "What are you looking at? You come with me right now, or don't blame me for what happens next!" The reek of sweat off the man hit me full in the face. It made my head swim, and it took an effort to yank my hand free. "I don't know you at all!" His fat frame trembled, and his teeth ground together loud enough to hear. "Janie, last night you swore you'd love me your whole life, and today you don't know me? You take my money and then you run?" "Fine! You've got no heart, so don't blame me for playing dirty!" He roared it out and swiped open the photo album on his phone. "Look, here's the proof you're my girlfriend!"

It was my mirror selfie and a shot of me from behind. The face was blocked, but the clothes were exactly the same. One sharp-eyed classmate recognized me right away. "Isn't that Janice?" "Guess she really did scam money in an online romance!" The heavyset man smirked, pleased with himself, and swiped across the screen. "I've even got the racy selfies you sent me last night!" The whole crowd pressed in. Gasps and mutters rippled through them, one after another. "Wow, she's a real piece of work!" "Playing the sweet, pure type all this time. She turned me down when I asked her out, and now someone finally exposes her. Disgusting!" The photo had been faked into something crude and filthy. I couldn't even bring myself to keep looking at it. Florence stood mixed into the crowd, her voice all fake sympathy. "Janice, why don't you just give the guy his money back? In a minute the whole school's going to know you're a gold digger." "You're a total embarrassment to this school. If you ask me, they should expel you. Make an example of you!" I'd poured a lot into preparing for the graduate-school entrance exam. The classmates who'd always been wary of me acted like they'd finally found their opening, and they were chanting for me to drop out as a group. Anger sat pressed tight in my chest. I clenched my back teeth and said, cold, "Every one of these photos was doctored. Spreading them out of malice violates my right to my own image, and I have every right to sue you!" Florence's breath caught in an instant. The fat man didn't budge. "Hmph. I'm the one who wants to sue you. You took over a hundred grand off me, and you were flirting with other guys on the side!" "Let everyone here be the judge. Who do you think you are?" The classmates buzzed over it, and Kate, as if something had just come back to her, clapped a hand over her mouth and let out a low squeal. "No wonder Janice keeps showing up in new designer stuff. It's all bought by some rich sugar daddy." "I remember two days ago you said your boyfriend was a rich second-gen. Turns out that was a lie too." The fat man had gone almost white with rage. The slabs of muscle in his face twitched. "If you don't give me my money back today, I'm not leaving!" The academic advisor stepped up too, urging me to pay him fast and let the matter drop. "Ned, if you still won't return the money, the school will have no choice but to bring in the police." My gaze stayed calm and certain, and I caught the flicker of surprise in her eyes clear as day. "That's fine. I already called them." The smile froze on Florence's face, and panic pushed her voice up an octave. "Called the police?" "Something this small and you're calling the cops? Isn't that a waste of public resources?" As she said it, she went to snatch my phone, to cancel the call. I caught her hand before she got there. "You, what are you doing?" The smile in my eyes only deepened. I looked at the fat man. "Didn't you say I'm the one you were dating online? Then you must have a phone number for me, right?" I held up my phone, the screen lit on the dial pad. "Let's call it right now! If I really took your money, I'll pay back every last cent!" "No, you can't call it!" Florence had completely lost it. Her nails nearly dug into my wrist, her voice sharp and fast, "Are you crazy? Once that call goes through, you're finished at this school!" She glared at me, lips trembling. The next second, all the color drained from her face. The phone in her pocket had started to ring.