“And, guess who won the bet?” Katrina laughed, spreading her arms around her, like an entertainer, about to awe his audience. “Dorian! Because he slept with Eva and she didn’t even know it was all just a bet!”
At that moment, everyone burst out into roars of laughter. The world started spinning around and Eva felt like she was going to fall down. Her head was buzzing, and the laughter first sounded close, then the next moment, it was distant and far away, as if they were all in a cave and she managed to run out of there. Only, she didn’t. They were still surrounding her, making even thoughts of escape impossible.
“I mean, how naive and stupid can someone get?” Katrina kept gas lighting the crowd, and they all loved it.
Eva couldn’t see straight anymore. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she knew if she closed them, the tears would run down. So, she kept her eyes open, painfully open, against every need to close. She felt petrified, as if she was turned to stone by these laughing mouths and pointing fingers, and a dark magic prevented her from moving. All she could do was listen to their sneering laughter and watch their extended fingers point at her.
“Whore!”
“Idiot!”
“Stupid!”
“Naive!”
“Slut!”
She couldn’t even tell anymore if they were saying these words, or if her own mind was joining them, plotting against her.
Suddenly, she felt Bella’s hand grab her by the elbow, and she pulled her towards her. This snapped Eva out of the frozen state she was in. She could finally move again. Her body was hers again. It didn’t belong to the crowd and their whimsy anymore.
“Come on!” Bella roared. “Move, get out of the way!”
Bella kept pushing people to the side, pulling Eva’s body behind her by the elbow.
“Move, come on!”
Bella elbowed someone, but she didn’t care. She needed to get Eva out of there and away from Katrina. Eva had no idea what was going on. The voices were still shouting inside her mind. The pressure on her elbow was something she barely felt.
“Hey, Eva? You need to snap out of this, like now. Come on.”
Eva heard Bella’s voice come from somewhere very close to her. Little by little, the voice became louder and louder, until she finally saw her standing there, in front of her. Eva looked around. They were inside of their dorm room. She quickly glanced at the door.
“Don’t worry, I locked the door,” Bella assured her. “Do you want me to get you a glass of water or something?”
Eva couldn’t focus on anything else but her breathing. It was like her mind was unfreezing, and she was slowly remembering everything she needed to do. Bella sat down next to her on the bed and wrapped her arms around her.
“I can’t believe that bitch said that,” Bella hissed.
It was like a switch was flipped inside of Eva’s mind and she was feeling like her old self again.
“What happened?” Eva rubbed her temples. “I mean, I know what happened, but it’s all a blur. One minute I’m there, and Katrina is telling me about a bet Dorian made, then next thing I’m back in my room, with you.”
“I had to get you out of there, girl,” Bella told her, “you looked like you had a nervous breakdown, which I guess is exactly what Katrina wanted. But, I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of looking at you, and letting them all just laugh at you like that.”
“You’re a good friend,” Eva managed to say, with a weak smile.
“I know you’d do the same for me,” Bella smiled back. “So, do you know anything about this stupid bet?”
“No, I…”
Eva tried to think about it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t believe a word of it was true. She really thought she knew Dorian. He wouldn’t do that. Would he? She trusted him. She trusted them both.
“I’m sure it’s just a horrible lie she made up, trying to hurt you.”
“Well, she did a swell job,” Eva snorted, “and she had an audience, too.”
“Yeah, that was really good timing of her.”