Chapter 18 A New Friend

Nina ran in a straight dart towards the university with Michelle closely behind in pursuit. She didn't stop until they reached a safe place.

After a while, Michelle came to her senses and finally exclaimed, "Campus belle, you just hit your uncle!"

Nina corrected her and said, "He is not my uncle."

"But you call him uncle."

Nina explained patiently, "He is not my real uncle."

"Okay," Michelle nodded. "But you can't hit someone just like that."

Nina rolled her eyes secretly.

She was done trying to get through to this girl. She changed the topic and asked, "You haven't seen that man before. What were you trying to catch him in the act of adultery?"

"Oh, we've been talking over the Internet!" Michelle shyly covered her face with her hands, revealing a sweet smile.

This girl was head over heels in love.

Nina warned, "Online love is risky. You should be more careful when you meet him."

Michelle had never met the man in person before, and yet she had been trying to catch him in the act of adultery. Online dating was really unreliable!

Nina and Michelle chatted for a while and then went back to their rooms. Michelle gave Nina her number before leaving. Michelle didn't forget to remind Nina to pay for the sweet potato. Actually, she was hoping Nina would contact her soon.

After that night, Nina didn't meet John again for a week. Students in the college were still talking about the hot posts regarding Isabella and Nina.

Even if the two posts were deleted, everyone had already seen them. The gossip wouldn't stop. It was on the lips of every student on the campus.

It took a while but eventually all of the hype around them died down and was replaced with some new topic.

The new thing was deciding whether Albert or James was more handsome.

Albert was a senior student and was about to graduate and leave school in June. Therefore, James became the top one on the list of school hunks.

Nina always heard her classmates talking about how to flirt with James. She once heard that a girl from the information science department always chased after James.

Nina knew the girl they were talking about was Michelle, but she didn't think that Michelle would be so persistent.

It was no surprise that Michelle ended up crying because of this. She broke down right in front of Nina, sobbing uncontrollably. Through her sobs, she said that James just fooled around with her.

Nina was hardly surprised, but she couldn't understand how Michelle was feeling. She could only listen and comfort the girl, then ask her if she wanted to eat something.

Michelle's face was drenched with tears, but as soon as she heard her ask about food, all her troubles slipped away. She held Nina's hand and they were off to the snack street.

She was really easy to coax and her mood changed so erratically. She soon started coming to find Nina every day and took her to eat all kinds of delicious food, as if she had forgotten all about James.

It seemed that in Michelle's world, eating solved everything.

Initially, Nina couldn't stand how much Michelle talked. It was just a nonstop barrage of words. She got used to it later and was actually kind of interested in hearing what she had to say.

Michelle even started calling her Nini as some form of nickname.

One of the days, Michelle waited for Nina outside the classroom. After class, she held Nina's arm intimately and said with a smile, "Nini, let's go to the canteen for lunch today."

"What new dishes are there?" Nina always knew what Michelle was thinking.

"Just a bunch of delicious stuff. Can you go with me? It's my treat." Michelle showed her meal card with a hopeful expression. Since they knew each other for quite a while now, Michelle knew just how to trick Nina into agreeing with her. Every time she acted like a spoiled child, Nina had no choice but to agree with her.

Michelle noticed that Nina didn't eat much every time they went somewhere. She always just assumed that Nina was trying to save her money or something so she always treated Nina to dinner.

Nina was not good at rejecting Michelle's enthusiasm. She just hoped that she could pay her back in some way in the future.

The meal was going to be much different today though. They ended up running into James!

It had become part of James' daily routine to eat in front of the crowd of girls. He loved the attention he would get from all the girls and his entourage only added to his ego. Today was no exception.

"The campus belle, Nina? Why is she in the canteen so much recently?"

"Isn't that Michelle from the information science department next to her? The one who shamelessly chases after the school hunk."

Hearing Nina's name, James was stunned. Was she the one who caused him to end up like this?

"Who is Nina?" he asked a girl.

"Mr. Shi, do you also like the campus belle? She is not exactly innocent, if you know what I mean," the girl sneered, to the amusement of her friends

James looked through the crowd and saw Nina sitting by the window. Just her side profile was enough to leave him stunned.

"Is that Nina?" She looked so weak, how could she take John down? Was he that weak?

James was curious about Nina. This drove all of the other girls crazy. They were so jealous and wanted his attention so badly that they crowded in front of him to get his attention.

"Go away." James impatiently stood up and parted the crowd to look for Nina but she had already left.

She was nowhere in sight and he had no idea where she went.

As it happened though, Nina had already noticed what was going on over there. She was worried that when Michelle saw James, she would get all emotional again. So she quickly made an excuse and took Michelle away.

They went their separate ways once they left the canteen.

Nina didn't expect today to go from bad to worse. First she met John's nephew in the canteen, and now she met her sworn enemy, Isabella.

She was wearing a dress and her face was ruddy. Obviously, she recovered well. She smiled and trapped her in an empty corner. "Nina, we haven't seen each other for a while now. How have you been? I heard that you have made a new friend."

Isabella had been living a hard life at home after she had been beaten up. It was a difficult recovery while the person who made her suffer was living it up at school. It was infuriating.

"Is Michelle blind or stupid to make friends with such an awful woman?" The smile on Isabella's face disappeared, and her eyes were filled with resentment and anger.

"What do you want?" Nina asked. Since Isabella was done putting on a facade, Nina stopped play-acting as well.

"Don't you know what I want?" She couldn't stand Nina's arrogant tone. She laughed maniacally but she was still enraged.

She had one goal and that was to torment Nina to the point that she never crossed her again!

She grabbed Nina's wrist, digging her nails in as she gripped tightly. She glared into Nina's eyes venomously.

"Nina, you don't have to pretend to be innocent. Let's make it clear. Did you get those people to hit me? Did you write that post on purpose?"

Glancing at her red wrist, Nina had no intention of hurting her since the two of them used to be friends.

Otherwise, she could very easily get rid of this spoiled girl.

"There is no animosity between us. Why would I hit you? Why would I need to do that?" Nina said innocent. She was trying to provoke Isabella.

As expected, Isabella fell into Nina's trap. She gritted her teeth and said, "Because of that perfume and that post. You know all of this. Stop pretending!"

Nina's eyes darkened while her heart ached. Hearing Isabella admit it herself made Nina feel worse.

She was actually hoping that maybe there was some misunderstanding between them.

Now the truth came to light. She had no reason to doubt it.

"What about you? Why did you do all that?" Nina's eyes regained their luster. This time she was doing the questioning.

Nina grabbed her arm ten times stronger than Isabella did. The latter winced in pain.

"Ouch, you're hurting me! Stop it! Nina, I'm not going to let you go!"

"We'll see." It was hard to say who would win in the end.

Isabella saw someone approaching them. She thought up a plan and vigorously withdrew her hand, slapping herself in the face.

Pak!

There was a cracking sound that echoed from her hand hitting her face.

Nina was still bemused, but Isabella started crying.

"Nina, why did you hit me?"

Isabella shrieked, catching the attention of the person coming over.