[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 332 & 333. (Patreon)

Chapter 332: Pettiness.

“I can’t believe you would do this to us, Oliver,” Sarah said, sighing in fake exasperation and shaking her head. “If you wanted to make out so badly, you just had to pull me by the collar and eat me up.”

With my forehead pressed against the table of the club room, I let out another groan. I was seriously out of my depth here. Not even a full day had passed and it seemed like everyone and their mother had heard that I had made out with a girl I had never talked to.

“It is very strange,” Noelle said. “It’s like many people got told this at the same time.”

“Yeah, this is clearly a forged rumor,” Mila said, scrolling down her phone with a deep scowl. “I don’t even understand why. Is it really to try and hurt us in some way?”

“There is… one thing I find interesting, though,” Noelle said. “They’re talking about it as actual cheating, right?”

“Oh!” Sarah’s eyes widened. “You’re right. I guess the magic really is working as the spirit said. They’re assuming we didn’t give Oliver permission, which WOULD count as cheating.”

“Ugh, what did we do?” I asked no one in particular. “Did I upset someone? I try really hard to avoid that…”

“Sometimes you can’t help it,” Mila said. “People see our relationship as normal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is jealous regardless. And you know that petty, jealous people can do stupid things.”

“You’re right that it’s about jealousy, Mila,” Grace said, coming into the club room with Alice, Isabelle and even Thomas in tow. “But it actually has nothing to do with us dating.”

I raised my head. “Did you already figure it out?” I asked, my jaw dropping.

“Seeing her work is kinda magical,” Thomas told me, sitting beside me. “She went up to people and they spilled the beans immediately. Don’t ever actually cheat on her, dude. I’m warning you.”

“You don’t need to tell me,” I said. I looked at Isabelle and Alice. “How did it go for you?”

“The other council members were pissed at you on mine and Noelle’s behalf.” Aliche chuckled. “It was sweet, but I told them to stop believing rumors and spreading them like they’re a big deal. It took a while to convince them you wouldn’t cheat, but I think they’ll help us quell the fires.”

“I spoke to Abigail,” Isabelle said. “At first she said she didn’t want to talk about it, that she doesn’t want to get involved in this mess. A minute later she was telling me how you met her outside the school after you got off work and made her fall for your charms against her better judgment.”

I gritted my teeth. “But I go home directly after work every day! And like I’m the type to make out with a girl I’ve never talked to before!”

“Uuuhh…” Mila, Grace and Sarah exclaimed.

It made me slap my forehead and made Thomas bark a loud laugh.

“Anyway,” Grace said, sighing. “Turns out Abigail is part of the scheme, but not the mastermind behind it. Though calling him a mastermind for such a basic plan is giving the guy too much credit.”

“Huh? Wait, who?”

“Who else?” Thomas said. “Your long-time friend Julian Jenkins of course.”

“Hah!? Him? But… why!?”

“I ended up getting this out of Eric, the music club’s drummer.” Grace winced slightly and bit her lip. “I actually felt kinda bad for him. He got really nervous and scared.”

“Eric? Ah, him,” Sarah said. “We were classmates last year. He’s kinda quiet, like how Oliver was.”

“Nah, Oliver and Eric are totally different,” Thomas said. “Oliver has social anxiety, but he likes having people around. Eric is an actual loner who prefers to stick to one or two friends. He’s also socially awkward, but while Oliver used to give you a death glare, Eric just nods and goes along with whatever people tell him. It’s why Julian likes to have him around.”

“Sometimes I forget you’re friends with like half the school,” I told him.

“Yeah, and everyone’s been giving him crap for being too busy lately,” Isabelle said, grinning teasingly.

“Thomas and Maria, sitting in a tree…” Mila began to sign.

Thomas smirked and sang along. “F-U-C…”

“Don’t,” I stopped him, putting my hand over his mouth.

The girls laughed, at least.

“So… Why did Julian spread the rumors?” Noelle asked Grace, getting us back on topic.

“Ah. Because he wants to make Oliver look bad so that nobody will vote for him at the talent show. He got others involved so that the rumors started from different sources and spread faster. Eric and Abigail were only two of them.”

Mila blinked. “Wait, so he’s trying to get Oliver canceled?”

“Yeah.” Grace nodded. “Make people think that he’s the type to cheat on his girlfriends, tarnish his reputation as a shy and sweet guy and eliminate him as a threat at the competition. Whether we, his girlfriends, believe he cheated or not is not important. What IS important is that everyone else believes it until the show happens.”

“And our school is known for their love of dumb teen drama,” Isabelle said.

“You’re part of that, you know?” I told her.

Isabelle smiled sheepishly. “Guilty.”

“So what can we do about it?” Alice asked, arms crossed. “We know Oliver didn’t cheat, so the rumor means squat to us, but…” She looked at me with worry. “If it affects his act at the talent show…”

I groaned and rubbed the back of my neck, trying to get rid of the awkward sensation. “It pisses me off. I don’t care about the talent show and he’s dragging you all into his problem with me. Can’t I just go talk to him and this Abigail girl and tell them to take it all back?”

“Wouldn’t do much,” Thomas told me. “Even if they did take it back, people would see it as the culprit of the crime trying to get out of it.”

I clicked my tongue, nearly spitting venom out.

“It’s the first time we see him so pissed, isn’t it?” I heard Mila whisper to Sarah.

“Yeah. It’s kinda hot, in a strange way,” Sarah whispered back.

The more I thought about it the angrier I got. This was nothing but some guy’s petty attempt at making sure he won a meaningless school competition. I was immensely thankful for the connection between the girls and I as it proved to them that I was telling the truth, but that this guy was willing to try and damage our relationship with baseless rumors just to get me out of the picture was just infuriating.

“I’m sorry, Oliver, but there’s not much that you can do about it,” Grace told me. “Anything you say will just be seen as you trying to hide the supposed infidelity.” Grace then smirked. “However… It’s not like you have to do anything at all.”

“Hah? What do you mean?”

“I said this was a very basic plan, but it’s also sloppy. You’ll see what I mean very soon.”

************

Chapter 333: Stepping up.

When Grace said ‘very soon’, I didn’t expect it to be THAT soon. I understood what she meant the moment we returned from the club room to our classroom. We heard some bickering inside even before we got in. It was mainly Amanda’s voice. We decided to stay outside for a bit.

“You’re absolutely insane if you think he really did it,” the blonde said. Lena was next to her and they were talking to two other girls and a guy. “I mean, come on! Even if you don’t know Oliver well, you know Grace and Sarah. Do you really think they’d let it go so easily if their boyfriend had actually cheated?”

The trio shared a look. “Now that you say that…”

“Exactly,” Lena agreed. “And besides, you know people in this school love to spread the stupidest rumors over the pettiest grudges. You don’t think someone’s green with envy that Oliver is dating some of the most gorgeous girls in school?”

“Awww, she’s always so nice…” Mila said, whispering.

“It could even be the other way around,” Amanda said. “Have you been to the coffee shop? Have you seen how blatantly flirty some of those girls are with the guy? I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the many he’s turned down got pissy and wants the girls to break up with him.”

“And on top of that…” Mark said, entering the conversation from a couple seats away. It was there that I realized that most of the classroom was listening in. “You don’t need to be a genius to realize that Oliver is not the type to pull that shit. The guy could barely speak until a few months ago, for fucks sake! And you know Abigail fucking hates Grace. Come on, it’s not that hard to realize this is a setup.”

We heard many murmurs of agreement. We also saw that the teacher was coming, so we hurried into the classroom. No one spoke another word about the subject after that.

Something similar happened during lunch break when I went to the restroom. I was in one of the stalls and overheard two familiar voices, Kevin and Ben, talking to some of their friends just outside.

“So Ben, do you think Oliver really cheated on his girlfriends?” one of the guys I didn’t know asked.

“No, I don’t believe it for a second. But why do you care?”

“I think Milana’s hot. If she breaks up with him I might have a shot, you know?”

“Well, good fucking luck,” Kevin said, laughing. “Those girls are crazy about Oliver, and it goes the other way, too. There’s no chance in hell Oliver cheated and even less of a chance they’d break up with him.”

“We once made Oliver uncomfortable in front of them and they almost hanged us,” Ben said, laughing as well. “There’s a bigger chance that those girls would LET him make out with another girl than there is of Oliver going behind their backs.”

“Are you serious? What’s with that guy?”

“Well…” Kevin coughed to clear his throat. “Don’t go spreading this around, but my girlfriend is really close with his girlfriend, right? Apparently Oliver is kind of a monster.”

“A monster? As in…?”

“In bed, dude!” Kevin laughed.

“He’d have to be, right?” Ben said, laughing with Kevin. “Do you think you’d be able to keep five women satisfied?”

“I can’t keep a girlfriend for more than three months, dude…” another one of the guys said.

Fuck me, this was mortifying to hear, and it was also the first time I’d heard that the girls had told Lena (and probably Amanda) anything about our… private time. That was also embarrassing.

Still, I was thankful. To Kevin and Ben as much as I was to Lena, Amanda and even Mark. They were all vouching for me. It wasn’t long ago that I didn’t have anyone who would do that. Maybe I didn’t have the multitude of friends the others did, but…

Yeah. I’d have to pay them all back for this somehow.

On a related note, it didn’t seem to be such a big coincidence that I’d overheard this sort of talk. The others said they heard similar talk, too. This was the new big gossip, after all. But… if it continued like this, it may not be for long.

I waited for the guys to leave first because coming out of the stall while they were there would’ve been stupidly awkward. After waiting a bit I washed my hands and exited the restroom. And yet, as luck would have it, I had another chance encounter. This time face to face with my long-time friend Julian. Eric, the music club’s drummer, was walking with him again.

Eric flinched and quickly looked away while Julian’s eyes seemed to shine.

“Well, well, well… You can’t keep yourself from being the talk of the school, lately, can’t you? When did you become such an attention-whore, Oliver?” Julian asked.

I felt my chest burning. That smug smirk that said he knew exactly what he’d done, what he was doing and that he was enjoying it all would piss you off too, I’m sure.

“No idea,” I told him. “Seems to me like there are losers out there more preoccupied with me than with their own lives.”

Julian’s smile went away, replaced with a glare that he tried to keep in check. Eric, behind him, had to stop himself from snickering.

“So rude. People are simply shocked that the unassuming, quiet guy they knew about turned out to be a cheating scumbag.”

“People get shocked by lies all the time. It’s why I don’t watch video shorts,” I said, shrugging. Then I looked him in the eye. “By the way… The talent show is getting closer. Have your arpeggios gotten better, Julian?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Eh?”

“Your arpeggios. I remember you sucked at them back in freshman year. Your picking and your pull offs weren’t all that great, either. I hope you’re not still showing off those basic tapping skills like they’re a big deal. You’re not so busy that you’re neglecting your practice, right, Mr. Lead Guitar?”

Julian was now openly glaring at me. It surprised me. I was only throwing crap at him from three years ago, yet it seemed to hit him like they were still sore spots. Had he really not gotten better in three years?

“Careful, Brooks. You’re starting to piss me off.”

I stepped forward, closer to Julian. Uncomfortably closer, until my chest was inches away from his. Julian was taller than me by a little over half a head. I had to look up at him, but I didn’t flinch. I put my hands inside my pockets and glared back at him. He seemed taken aback and took a single step back. I was shorter but my arms and my shoulders were at least twice his own. I had to believe that was helping me, but Thomas did say I could give people death glares.

“Same to you, Jenkins. I know the crap you’re pulling. I don’t give two shits about the talent show, but get my girls involved and I’m going to be pissed for real. Don’t fucking test me, because if you do you’ll wish Grace Valentine got to you first. I’m done taking any more of your shit.”

Julian smirked. A shaky smirk. A front. “Threats, now, Brooks? You’re not scaring anyone.”

“Not a threat, Jenkins. Go back to practice your guitar. God knows you need it. Unless you’re planning to get into politics, in which case I don’t see much of a future for you there, either.”

I walked past him yet stopped to look at Eric. When our eyes met, the guy flinched even harder than before. His was pale, paler than he usually was, and looked at me with fright.

I walked away feeling exhausted and awkward. That had felt like one of the fights I had with Isabelle not long ago. And I meant every word.

…

Maybe Grace and Sarah were rubbing off on me more than I thought.