Chapter 2My Roommate Slandered My Private Life

Harvey was right.

The very next day, Anna sent me a text.

"Nate, your roommate just requested to follow me."

I paused. "Zach?"

"Yeah. He said you told him to add me because he had something to pass along."

When did I ever tell him to do that? I didn't even know his Instagram handle.

"I definitely didn't tell him to do that," I replied.

Anna sent back a simple "Aha," followed by a screenshot.

It was Zach's request. The message read: Hey, I'm Nate's roommate. He asked me to add you to tell you something.

I stared at the screen for a solid ten seconds.

Wow.

He was really going for it.

"Did you accept?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did," Anna replied. "So, what is this urgent thing he had to tell me?"

"What did he say?"

Anna sent another screenshot.

Zach: Hey, hope you don't mind me reaching out. Just thought you should know, Nate is a decent guy, but he's kind of a player. Last week I saw him having lunch with this girl from the linguistics department, looking super cozy. Might be nothing, but I thought you deserved to know.

Reading the messages, my blood pressure spiked.

The "linguistics girl" I had lunch with last week was my cousin. She was visiting the campus, so I took her to the dining hall for a quick bite.

Zach had been sitting at the very next table.

He saw us.

But he conveniently chose to ignore the part where I introduced her as my cousin. Or maybe he just didn't hear it because he had his AirPods in.

Either way, going behind my back to tell my girlfriend this was incredibly dirty.

I took a deep breath.

"Anna, that was my cousin. She came to visit last week."

Anna sent a voice note. When I tapped it, her tone was relaxed and amused. "I know, babe. I saw her Instagram post. She uploaded a photo of the two of you with the caption 'Visiting my favorite little cousin.'"

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"Then why did you even accept his request?"

She sent another voice note, this time giggling. "I just wanted to see what other stories he could cook up."

I had no words.

"Don't worry, Nate. I'm not stupid," she added. "But your roommate is pretty entertaining. He's got some serious balls."

I figured that would be the end of it. Anna was smart, and she wasn't going to fall for such a cheap trick.

But I underestimated Zach's persistence.

And I severely underestimated Anna's obsession with me.

Over the next three days, Zach sent her nearly a dozen messages, each one more ridiculous than the last.

Hey, Nate didn't come back to the dorm last night. Just thought you should know.

(I was pullng an all-night study session at the library, and Zach literally watched me pack my backpack before I left.)

Anna, I accidentally saw some sketchy texts from other girls on Nate's phone.

(My phone has a passcode. How could he have seen anything? Besides, my inbox consists entirely of Anna and my mom.)

Anna, I really think you deserve better. Nate just isn't on your level.

When that last message popped up, I was actually sitting right next to Anna. She had driven over to campus to see me.

She turned her screen toward me, tapping her manicured nail against Zach's profile picture.

"Look at this, Nate."

I read it. Then I looked at her face.

She was smiling.

But it wasn't a sweet, happy smile. It was the kind of smile a cat gives a mouse right before a toy is about to break.

"Anna, don't get worked up. I'll go talk to him and clear this up."

"Oh, I'm not mad," she said, tilting her head with bright, glittering eyes. "I actually think it's fun."

"Fun?"

"Yeah." She slid her phone away and wrapped her arms tightly around mine. "Someone is trying to steal my boyfriend. It's so exciting."

Looking at her thrilled expression, a cold shiver ran down my spine.

I suddenly remembered something.

Last semester, a girl from another class spoke to me in the dining hall. It was literally two sentences.

"Hey, is anyone sitting here?"

"Thanks."

That was it.

The very next day, that girl's course registration system suffered a massive, inexplicable glitch. All of her selected classes were dropped, and by the time she could re-register, every single popular lecture was completely full.

At the time, I thought it was just bad university software.

But now...

I looked at Anna. She was happily sipping her iced matcha latte, looking completely harmless.

"Anna."

"Yeah, babe?"

"Don't do anything crazy."

She blinked innocently. "What could I possibly do?"