Ever since she got cheated on by Tom and Tricia, Lillian's life has revolved only around work and study.
Lillian felt so betrayed by the cheating incident she witnessed and never spoke with the two again. She did not help them with their research paper or anything else and avoided them at all costs. Thus, it was Denise whom the two approached as they tried to explain themselves, so they won't look like trash even if they truly were.
One day, Lillian arrived at school and saw Denise with a bruise on her. Alarmed, she quickly rushed to her, "What happened to your face?!"
"I had a fist fight," Denise chuckled, then winced in pain as her bruise hurt.
"What?! With who?! Who dares to hurt you like this?! Tell me! I'm going to do something about this!" Lillian was so furious that she was ready to hit someone.
She had known Denise since they were in grade school, and she had never been violent. Denise was a gentle soul who loved peace and harmony and only wanted to do fun things. There's no way she would be in a fist fight for no reason unless she was pushed to her limits. And Denise was a forgiving person.
"I fought with Tricia and Tom," Denise said, and Lillian immediately understood it was due to the cheating incident.
"Did that trash hit you like this?! Where are they?! I'm going to ruin his face for doing this to you!" Lillian was so furious that she forgot all about avoiding the two and wanted to confront them now after seeing Denise's face.
"Hahaha. Thank you. I knew you would immediately be on my side. But it's okay now. I hit him many more times. His face is a mess right now. Haha. I think I did something terrible, but they deserved it," Denise said vengefully.
"What do you mean, what happened?" Lillian asked, gently inspecting the bruise on Denise's face.
"The past few days, those two kept approaching me, trying to explain and apologize to clear their image. But they're nuts! You know what those ugly, traitorous cheaters told me? They still insist that we were too busy and had no time for them, so they ended up becoming close and fell in love before they knew it. They said they made a mistake once and did not want to do it again since they knew it was a betrayal of you, and they did not want to hurt you. But the mistake kept happening again and again, and they realized they were in love. They said they wanted to tell you, but they hesitated because they were afraid to hurt you and how you would react," Denise said with an eyeroll at how absurd and unbelievably shameless Tricia and Tom were.
After all the badmouthing the two did about Lillian when they were being intimate in Tricia's place, Lillian and Denise knew better than to believe their excuses now. They already knew the two were faking it, so they no longer believed their words.
"Wow. So it's our fault? We were with them almost all the time in school and breaktimes, and when we were not at work. How could they even say we didn't have time for them when we spent so much time with them? Now, they call their cheating just a mistake and even blame it on us? How can it still be just a mistake when they kept doing it again and again despite knowing it's cheating on me and that I'd be hurt by it? They chose to keep doing it. Repeating the same mistake over and over again is no longer making a mistake. It's a choice. They chose to cheat on me and betray our friendship. If they had fallen in love with each other, that sc*mbag could have broken up with me first before starting a relationship with that b*tch!"
Lillian did not want to even utter their name again. They were just Sc*mbag and B*tch to her now. Lillian was amazed at how thick-skinned they could be to still have the gall to blame the cheating on her and Denise.
"Right? They're simply shameless! They're only sorry because they got caught. No, they're not even sorry. They are pretending to be because they need help with their research papers," Denise grimaced.
"Did they really think I would still help them after they cheated on me? Are they idiots?! This level of shamelessness is too much," Lillian could not believe those two were still expecting her to help.
"It seems we've spoiled them. In the past, we always helped them every time they needed help. Now that they were lagging in their research, they think we would still help them if they apologized. They think we are nothing but pushovers. Tom even had the nerve to say he just wanted to make you jealous at first and get your attention. He said you never got jealous even when they were together, because you were always occupied. And that even if you were with him, you were always doing something else," Denise sighed deeply and shook her head as she delivered what she heard.
"Wow, isn't it because every time we meet, he always asks me to help with his homework and other school activities? Now that I think about it, I was such an idiot to help him with all those. He only used me!"
Lillian was infuriated at the thought. She had been blind to the signs that Tom was only using her because she trusted him too much.
"And why would I be jealous of that B*tch? I never was because I trusted her that much. And I trusted he was not a cheater. But it appears neither of them could be trusted. Thinking about our past interactions, I finally realized they were only using us."
Tricia and Tom were almost always in need of help every time they approached Lillian. They always went to her for help. And when she could not help them because she was busy, they asked Denise for help instead.
Lillian and Denise were simply free helpers to the two for schoolwork or activities, and even in their personal problems. Tricia and Tom only exploited them and were ready to discard of them after graduation.