Chapter 26
Josie scoffed with a humorless laugh. She couldn’t believe he had the nerve to ask, especially since he was the one who'd pushed her to apologize to Natalie back then.
She barely glanced at Vincent. "I'm busy."
"No way!" Vincent raised his voice, annoyed by her refusal. "You're not working with Professor Lawson anymore. You don't have tough classes or that school competition. Putting together some study materials won't even take that long."
Josie gave a bitter laugh. He really just assumed she'd do it. "If it's so easy, ask someone else. I'm not interested."
She hadn’t even turned him down harshly, just made it clear she was busy. But since he couldn’t take a hint and insisted on embarrassing himself, she wasn’t going to stop him.
Josie thought she was still being too soft. That needed to change.
"You're helping Jaden but not me, huh?" Vincent yelled. "We were both your teammates back then—why are you treating us differently?"
Josie had been about to say he should already know why. But when she saw how mad he looked, she suddenly didn’t feel like arguing anymore.
But since he brought up Jaden, Josie let out a small smile. "If I remember right, you and Jaden are studying the same thing. I already organized that stuff once. Why not just ask him for it?"
She let go of the snack bag. "I don't take handouts. You should keep this."
This time, she didn't give Vincent a chance to reply. She turned and disappeared into the crowd.
She was pretty sure Jaden wouldn’t give Vincent those materials. The five of them looked like a team on the surface, but underneath, they were always in competition. They all wanted to catch David’s attention.
They were still in school, but once they graduated, no one knew what kind of jobs they’d end up with. Whoever stood out now would land better offers and higher positions later.
Jaden acted loud and carefree, but he cared more than anyone. He was terrified of falling behind.
Back then, Josie had been the only one dumb enough to never think about that. She'd just focused on helping them all.
People came and went around the dorm entrance. After being turned down, Vincent stood there awkwardly. He felt bad but didn’t want to chase after Josie again.
He couldn’t figure out why Josie had said no. He thought he’d already been nice enough—he’d even tried to patch things up with her.
Even if they didn’t help her this time, he didn’t think she should still be mad. In his opinion, stuff like this had happened before, but Josie always ended up apologizing first. She’d bend over backwards to get back on their good side. He couldn’t understand why everything had changed.
Is it because of Natalie? Vincent thought angrily. Is she just jealous of Natalie, so now she’s taking it out on us? If so, Josie’s being way too petty. And honestly, she really was in the wrong this time.
But more than anything, Vincent was frustrated. If Josie didn’t help him with the materials, he might really have to turn to Jaden.
The problem was—Jaden’s stuff was from last year. This year’s test questions were probably different. And even if he asked, there was no guarantee Jaden would say yes.
Vincent walked back with a frown on his face. He figured he should keep trying to win Josie over, with the thought that maybe if he comforted her a few more times, she’d come around. Josie had always been soft—she cared about friendships. She probably didn’t want to stay mad for long.
While Vincent was busy thinking up ways to smooth things over, Kyle headed back to the lab. The second he walked in, Natalie rushed over. "Did Josie take the snacks?"
"Relax. Aiden bought them, so of course she did," Kyle said, his voice full of disdain for Josie.
Natalie's eyes darkened for a second. "Then did she agree to help Vincent with—"