Page 35 of You + Me – Against the World

Vadim stares at me intensely, and I know we’re thinking the same thing right now. About the same person.

“It’s getting late. I’m going to go,” he says.

“What?”

“I’ll call you, Alma.”

I watch him go to my room to grab his leather jacket and then rush down the stairs. I hear him politely say goodbye to Georgia and slam the heavy door behind him.

Just like that, he’s gone.

***

All evening, I’m glued to my cell phone, waiting for a message from him. I sit there while Basile lectures me and comes up with far-fetched theories about the photo. During dinner, I’m bombarded with questions about my new classmate and my “plans” with Timothy Wallace. I leave the table as quickly as possible and hurry back to my room, supposedly to study, but really just to be alone.

To think.

To think back on the night I spent in his apartment, which is forever etched in my memory. The night that could have been the best of my life, if it weren’t for this photo debacle.

And to relive Vadim’s hasty escape—the way he crashed into my world, and then snuck away like a thief. It hurts. He isn’t even on my side.

Arcadius: Alma, are you there?

A window flashes in the middle of my screen while I’m logged on to the college messaging platform in invisible mode.

Alma_from_paris: I don’t know. What I do know is that you’ve been gone for a long time.

My fingers type of their own accord. I want him to reassure me, to come back to me, to take me in his arms. And yet all I can do is send him reproaches. I can only think of the way he fled, of what a coward he is.

Arcadius: It was better for me to leave.

Alma_from_paris: Better for who exactly?

Arcadius: One more minute and you would have told your brother about Felix. He probably would have called the cops…

Alma_from_paris: So, you’ll do anything to protect your buddy! But what about me?

Arcadius: It wasn’t him, Alma. I swear to you, it couldn’t be him.

Alma_from_paris: He’s the only one who knew…

Arcadius: Do you know what the presumption of innocence is? I trust him. He’s my best friend. He’s like a brother to me.

Alma_from_paris: And it’s me half-naked in that photo, Vadim! It was my name they mentioned in that email, and my brother who was humiliated.

Arcadius: Alma, I wanted it to be perfect so badly… That night…

Arcadius: Fuck, if I ever catch the guy who did this…

My heart leaps. Those ellipses speak volumes, and they soothe me.

Alma_from_paris: Thank you for telling me that. Finally.

Arcadius: Alma?

Alma_from_paris: What?

Arcadius: I’m not the asshole you think I am.