He Turned Me Down, So I Dated His Best Friend Instead Chapter 02

He Turned Me Down, So I Dated His Best Friend Instead Chapter 02

That same night,

the post disappeared.

A message request appeared on my phone.

[I’m the guy who posted about you on Hartwell Confessions.]

I glanced at it.

And left it pending.

It had been two weeks since Julian rejected me.

We hadn’t spoken once.

I’d already made up my mind to stay away from him.

Getting tangled up with one of his closest friends

could only make things worse for me.

That night, I didn’t fall asleep until after two.

So I overslept the next morning.

By the time I reached class, only a few seats in the front row were left.

I took one of them.

I had barely pulled my textbook from my bag

when someone slid into the seat beside me.

Her perfume reached me almost at once.

Soft and understated,

but incredible.

She turned toward me with a warm smile.

“Hey. I’m sitting in on my boyfriend’s class today.”

“He went to get some water and isn’t back yet. Could I borrow a pen? I left mine at home.”

I stiffened.

She didn’t know me.

But I knew exactly who she was.

Dawn Ellis, one of the prettiest and most recognizable girls in the English Literature Department,

and Julian’s new girlfriend.

Over the past two weeks, I’d seen them eating together in the dining hall. She ate slowly, and he

waited beside her, sometimes taking pictures of her. Before Dawn, Julian had almost never

bothered with campus dining.

I’d seen them shopping too. Whenever something caught her eye, he bought it without even

glancing at the price.

They made a striking couple.

As that crossed my mind,

worried my expression might give me away, I handed her the pen at once.

“Here you go.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

Then she lowered her head and began writing in her notebook.

Two minutes later,

Julian walked in.

His gaze passed over me, and his brows pinched almost imperceptibly.

Then he sat down and asked with studied casualness,

“Why are you sitting up front?”

Dawn answered, “These were the only seats left when I got here.”

Then she slid her notebook in front of him.

Her tone turned teasing.

“I got bored and wrote you a little line. What do you think?”

Hearing that,

I glanced sideways without thinking and saw the words on the page.

[All Rhodes lead to Dawn.]

She looked so open and carefree.

On an otherwise ordinary morning, she’d written him a playful, romantic line just to make him

smile.

His last name. Her first.

Even I couldn’t help being moved by the thought she’d put into it.

Sure enough,

Julian let out a quiet laugh.

“Guess we really are made for each other, Dawn.”

I spent the rest of class on edge.

Thankfully, Julian stayed focused on the lecture.

They didn’t do anything else openly affectionate.

When class ended,

they left the room.

I waited until the classroom was empty.

Maybe I was exhausted from the night before, but my head felt heavy. Instead of leaving, I put my

head down on the desk and dozed for a while.

Somewhere between sleep and waking,

someone tapped on my desk.

A cool, clipped voice said,

“Claire Bennett.”

“What’s wrong?”