"Where you weren’t I guess."

Not even noticing the great opportunity for her to shut Collins up with a nasty comment, Cat went on with her interrogatory;

"And where was that?"

Feeling that Simone was going to be brought up in the conversation, Annabelle thought wiser to start lying;

"Hooked up with some girl…"

"WHO??!!" Exclaimed Kristen and Collins at once.

"A lady never says…" Said Annabelle cheekily.

Cat, rooted to the spot wasn’t going to take "some girl" for an answer.

"You mean Miss Bradley, don’t you Annabelle?"

"Yeah, and Sister Claire… Amazing threesome…" Replied Annabelle not letting her fear show.

"Okay, who was it then?"

"Told you, can’t say. It’s not like I care anyway, she has a boyfriend. Was just a one night thing I guess."

The three girls utterly amazed by the Senator’s daughter looked up to her, dying to hear more.
Embarrassed, Annabelle started getting dressed, her affair with her teacher safe in her heart where no one could see it.

——

Simone felt Annabelle’s eyes on her as soon as she entered the cafeteria; Smiling shyly towards her, she sat next to her aunt.

"What’s up with you?" Snapped Cat as Annabelle seemed way too happy for her own health.

"Who are you looking at?" Turning her back to glance at the room, she saw some girl looking their direction and automatically took it for the girl Annabelle had spent the night with.

Not saying another word, she ate her breakfast while Collins and Kristen exchanged amused looks.

Relieved by Cat’s mistake, Annabelle went on, silently, with her contemplation.
.
——

"’In reality, in love there is a permanent suffering which joy neutralizes, renders virtual, delays, but which can at any moment become what it would have become long earlier if one had not obtained what one wanted, atrocious’ what was Marcel Proust implying with those words?" Asked Miss Bradley to an attentive class.