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 this. 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."
