Tyler placed two wrapped bagels down on the table along with two bottles of orange juice.
“Thanks, Tyler. Which one is yours?”
“I got the same thing as you.” He grabbed one and tossed it at me.
“Thanks for skipping class for me.”
“Thanks for getting class canceled indefinitely.” He held up his bottle of orange juice.
I laughed and tapped mine against his.
He scratched the back of his neck. “At least there’s one perk to you hooking up with our professor.” He gave me a small smile and took a bite of his bagel.
I wanted to be able to laugh about all this with him. I wanted him to not look hurt when he joked around about it. But at least he was joking around. That was a good sign. I really just wanted to move past this. I wanted to go back to being friends. Despite what Melissa said, I really thought we could be just friends.
“Do you want to talk about that email?” he asked.
I shrugged.
“Have you heard anything about the investigation?”
“I was interviewed by two detectives last night. They said something about these other girls that claimed James… well, it doesn’t matter. It was all nonsense. Either the detectives were lying or the girls or both.”
Tyler put his bagel down. “Why would his students lie about something like that?”
That was the same question that I had. But I wasn’t going to doubt James. He had asked me to trust him. So I was going to trust him. Even if it was still nagging at me. “I don’t know. But they were.”
“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced at all.
I knew it would be weird to talk to him about his. I took a bite of my bagel. It was delicious. My phone started buzzing again.
“Are you going to answer it?”
“I don’t recognize the number.”
“Well, maybe it’s the dean.”
“That’s kind of what I’m afraid of.”
“Answer it. Aren’t you curious about why class is canceled?”
I knew why it was canceled. Because there were two lying whores out there making up stories about my boyfriend. But I was curious. “Okay.” I swiped my finger across the screen. “Hello?”
“Penny Taylor?” It was a female’s voice.
“Speaking.”
“This is Becca from the dean of student’s office. Dean Vespelli needs to talk to you. Hold for one moment please.”
There was a clicking noise. And then I heard a man clear his throat. “Is this Penny?”
“Yes.”
“Penny, this is Dean Vespelli.”
“How can I help you?”
He laughed. “You can’t really. I’m calling to tell you that the investigation went south. Three female students came forward with similar stories regarding sexual misconduct concerning James.”
Three now? Seriously? “Well, they’re lying.”
“Not so easy to prove. The good news is that so far all the girls have been of legal age, so no charges are being pressed. But in light of these findings, all of James’ classes are being canceled for the remainder of the semester.”
“Okay.”
“The validity of everyone’s grades in James’ classes are in question, so everyone will receive As given the circumstances. The announcement will be in the paper tomorrow morning.”
“Oh.” Is that why the girls had lied? Had they known what would happen if the classes needed to be canceled? That had to be it. Those bitches!
“But I’m calling to tell you that this doesn’t include you. You’ll be receiving an incomplete. It’ll show up as an I on your record.”
“Wait, why can’t I just withdraw?” An incomplete on my transcript was worse than a W. It made it look like I didn’t hand in all my assignments or something.
“You can’t withdraw from a canceled class.”
“You said that the blame for this lies on James. So why do I…”
“If I recall, you confessed to me that this whole mess was just as much your fault if not more. Do you have any idea how much backlash I’ve had to deal with?”
“I’m sorry if…”
“But that isn’t the reason why I’m giving you an incomplete in the class. Apparently you did not cooperate in the investigation. You’re lucky that I’m not giving you your third strike.”
“Mr. Vespelli, those detectives were just trying to pressure me into telling them something that wasn’t true.” I lowered my voice slightly. “James never did anything inappropriate with me. Maybe the detectives pressured those other girls too.”
“James did do something inappropriate. He engaged in a sexual relationship with you. And possibly three other girls.”
“He didn’t.” I wanted to cry. I tried to keep my voice even. “And if the detectives didn’t pressure those girls, then they just lied because they saw an easy way out of taking a class. Don’t you see that? They must have known they’d get As if they made up stories like that. That’s clearly what they were doing.”
“We can’t prove that.”
“Well check their grades.”
“I already did. None of them were doing well in James’ class. But that doesn’t mean that they made it up.”
“Yes it does.”
“Penny, I understand that this news is upsetting in more ways than one.” His voice was calmer. Almost soothing. “I know that you’re probably upset that you have to retake the class. But the incomplete won’t mean anything on your transcript. Recruiters won’t look for that. As for the accusations, there’s nothing I can do. I’m trying to stop the investigation since we’ve already decided to cancel classes. This should be over soon. And if you’re upset about what the investigators found, maybe you should talk to James about it.”
He thought James was guilty. Did everyone think James was guilty? I looked at Tyler. He was almost done his bagel. I felt like he could hear the conversation. I turned my head to the side slightly, in hopes that he couldn’t hear.
“Mr. Vespelli, I know they’re lying. James and I have already talked about it.”
“Then ignore it. Try not to let it bother you.”