I’m really looking forward to this weekend, I can’t wait to meet Eve, now I just have to get through the rest of this week. 

I arrive on campus and something seems a bit off. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the way people are looking at me differs from the usual. They don’t seem mad or disgusted, so there can’t have been any too outrageous rumors about me going around, but clearly something has been said. Now I just need to find out what. I don’t let it show on my face that I notice that something is off, of course, but I’m curious. Guess I need to find Becca, she knows everything, so I’m sure she knows what’s up - I mean, she could even be the one who started it, who knows. 

I haven’t really done anything out of the ordinary, other than that walk across campus with Wyatt, so I think that’s probably it, but I need confirmation. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions. Damn, I really should have been more careful, but at least it doesn’t seem like people are too interested in it. It’s annoying, but will probably blow over by the end of the day, when they see that I don’t actually hang out with him. 

I’m running late as usual, so I don’t find Becca and Camilla until after one of the classes we don’t have in common. Usually, I’m grateful that I don’t have every class with them, but today I kind of wish I had so that I could find out the gossip faster. I could of course have texted them, but I have to make it look casual when I ask, don’t want to seem too concerned and eager to find out about it. 

Luckily, I don’t even have to ask, because Becca immediately tells me the gossip before even greeting me. Typical. 

“So, what’s up with you and Wyatt? Heard he followed you around across campus yesterday”, Becca asks eagerly. 

“He did? Says who?”, I roll my eyes, “I don’t even remember, maybe we like small talked about the course work or something.”, I say nonchalantly, looking at my nails.

“Oh.”, Becca seems disappointed, “I just asked ‘cause someone said you looked cozy together”, she is clearly fishing for a reaction so that she can fuel the gossip even further. 

“Pfft”, I dismiss her statement, “Oh, please, really? Cozy?”, I laugh at her, like it’s the most absurd thing I’ve heard - when in fact, it did feel pretty nice walking with Wyatt…but let’s not get into thoughts like that. Focus. 

I got confirmation of what the gossip was about and denied it, so now it’s time to change the topic. I don’t want them to dwell on it. 

A bit later, as I have a bit of time between classes, I’m buying a coffee at the cafeteria. I’m standing at the counter with my airpods in, I need to charge them as they suddenly cut out, but I don’t take them out because I find that people approach me less when I have them in and I’m not in the mood for a conversation right now. So I pretend I’m listening to music, but actually I can now hear what people are saying around me, without them knowing I can hear them. 

What I happen to overhear, does not make me happy. Someone must have seen me because they appear to be talking about the ‘Audrey and Wyatt walking together’-incident. 

“Is he like stalking her?”, one of them says.

“I know right! Poor Audrey”, the other one answers. 

“Like, she’s too nice, you know?”, they continue.

“Following her around on campus is so desperate.”

“And like why would Wyatt think that she would want to hang out with him?”

“Weird, I know!” 

“Just because he’s smart, doesn’t mean he has a shot with her, she’s way out of his league”, they are keeping their voices down as they gossip, but it’s still loud enough that anyone around could hear it if they were listening. 

How annoying, I think to myself, and why are they making it into such a big thing? Stalking? For god's sake! That’s a bit too much of an exaggeration. I’ve always found gossip about me to be quite annoying, but not enough to actually care, but this is getting out of hand. I’m not going to do anything about it, but maybe I would if I were Wyatt. The things they said about him are mean, but they didn’t really say anything offensive about me.  

As I turn around, I as usual, pretend I’m not aware of anything going on around me. I almost stop in my tracks and my smile slips for a second, before I control my features quickly, because I recognize Wyatt’s back sitting in the cafeteria near the gossips. He must have heard what they said about him. Wyatt sits with his shoulders up, hunched into himself. It looks like he’s shrinking into himself, trying to disappear. It’s obvious that he’s uncomfortable with hearing the gossip and that he really doesn’t want to confront them either, or let on that he in fact has heard them. 

I watch in disbelief as one of the people gossiping, pretending like she didn’t just talk shit about him, goes up to him and has the nerve to ask him if she can borrow his notes from some class they apparently have together. I see red, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at me. And what makes the situation worse is that Wyatt agrees to give her the notes. I decide to leave before I absolutely lose it. I think back to the conversation the gossips had, if anyone’s too nice, it’s clearly Wyatt and not me. Like that’s not even kindness anymore, that’s just being a pushover at this point.