After Rebirth My Class Beauty Led Cheating and I Stayed Silent Chapter 13

After Rebirth My Class Beauty Led Cheating and I Stayed Silent Chapter 13

July.

Application season.

I locked in my first choice: a top-tier computer science program at an elite university in the Northeast. With my stats, it was a guaranteed lock.

Delaney applied to a state university with a my first choice: a topstrong education department and picked secondary English education.

She said she wanted to become a high school literature teacher.

We clinked cups at the boba shop, and then she suddenly set hers down, her expression turning

complicated.

“Tessa, I need to tell you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Naomi came to see me yesterday.”

I took a sip of my milk tea and said nothing.

“She’s lost a ton of weight. Her face looks completely gaunt. She said she’s been hiding at home this

whole time, too scared to go anywhere. Her parents fight every day now. Her mom blames her dad

for not keeping a closer eye on her, and her dad blames her mom for letting her stay on campus so

much.”

Delaney stirred the boba at the bottom of her cup, her voice low and heavy.

“She asked if I’d pass something on to you.”

“What?”

“She said, ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone along with freezing you out.””

My straw stopped against my lips.

Freezing me out.

That was what it had been in my last life.

No-

This time too.

I never stood up and openly opposed them in this life, but when Sienna handed out the devices, she skipped me.

That alone was enough to mark me as separate. And after that, some of them started pulling away in small, careful ways.

They stopped asking me to lunch. Stopped tagging me in the class chat. Stopped sharing practice

materials with me.

It wasn’t dramatic bullying.

But Naomi had been part of it.

“What else did she say?” I asked.

“She said every day she keeps thinking that if she hadn’t taken the earpiece, she’d probably be

looking up dorm photos and roommate info right now.”

Delaney raised her head. “Do you want me to tell her anything? I can pass it along.”

I looked out the window.

Across from the boba shop was a bookstore, and in the display window sat a stack of college

admissions guides with 2024 stamped across the covers in big print.

“Tell her…”

I paused.

“Tell her to study hard three years from now. And not to trust any shortcut anybody hands her ever

again.”

Delaney nodded.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

I didn’t say I forgave her.

Because I wasn’t sure I did.

And I didn’t say I didn’t forgive her either.

Because that wouldn’t mean much.

There was already a cut running through Naomi’s life.

i wasn’t the one who made it. She did that herself the moment she reached out and took that

earpiece.

The only thing I could do now was not pour salt into it.

Nothing more.

We finished our drinks. The ice had melted into a shallow pool at the bottom of the cups

Then Delaney asked, “Tessa, are you going to come back to this city after you leave?”

“I’ll come back on breaks. Summer, winter.”

“That’s good.” She smiled, her eyes curving. “I was scared you’d leave and never come back.”,

I smiled too. “I’ll come back.”

When we stepped out of the shop, the July sun hit like white fire.

Heat shimmered up from the asphalt, making the whole road look like it was smoking.

I narrowed my eyes and looked into the distance.

That road led to the school.

To Building A.

To Room 105.

To the rooftop.

To the place where I died in my last life.

Then I turned around and walked the other way.

Delaney hurried to catch up and hooked her arm through mine.

“Where to?”

“Home. I need to start packing,” I said. “Move-in’s at the end of August.”

“This early?”

“I’ve got a lot of stuff.”

She laughed and shook her head. “That’s so you. You do everything ahead of time.”

I didn’t argue.

She was right.

I did everything early.

I knew the ending early. I pulled away early. I stepped outside the blast radius before anyone else

saw where it was.

And then I watched the disaster that should have landed on me fall instead on the people it actually

belonged to.

That wasn’t revenge.

It was just me finally refusing to take the hit for someone else.