Chapter 1850

[ 515 words ]

“Do you have any more of that acne cream?” Shirley asked, suddenly remembering her breakout. “Can I have another jar?”

“Sorry, I didn’t think of it. Even if I had some, you’re about to board your flight. You’ll have to wait until you visit Apex again,” Claire said.

Shirley groaned. The cream was a miracle worker.

Claire looked at her in surprise. “Your skin is usually flawless. You shouldn’t break out this easily. I gave you a jar last time; it should have lasted until it expired.” Mentioning the cream made Shirley furious. “It’s all Dex’s fault! He gouged out half the jar! He had a pimple, so I let him use it once. The little brat realized how good it was and stole half of it to impress a girl at school! Next time you give me some, I’m locking it in a safe!”

Shirley was seething just thinking about it.

Claire laughed. “Dex is already trying to impress girls?”

“He’s not a kid anymore! He’s a high school sophomore!” Shirley grumbled, unleashing a barrage of complaints about her brother.

Miles away in his classroom, Dex sneezed violently.

His desk-mate, Riley Summers, looked at him with concern. “Dex, did you catch a cold? It’s the middle of summer. Is the AC too low? Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?”

Basking in her attention, Dex sniffled proudly. “I’m fine. It’s just a little cold. Hey, Riley, do you want to go to the mall this weekend? I heard a new buffet opened.”

“No thanks,” Riley shook her head. “I have to go to the library. Finals are coming up.”

“Then I’ll go to the library with you!”

Shirley had no idea that her idiot brother had actually won his crush’s favor using a stolen glob of acne cream.

Seeing it was time to board, Shirley hugged Claire tightly. “Are you free this summer? Are you coming back to Apex? If you don’t, I’ll come to Cabinda, and we can go on a road trip!”

Claire wasn’t sure what her schedule looked like. “I can’t promise anything yet, but if we go on a trip, I can probably carve out a week. We’ll invite Sophia and Len along.”

A vacation once a year was manageable.

Shirley beamed. “It’s a promise!”

After seeing Shirley off, Claire drove back to campus.

At the front gates, she bumped into Valerie Winthrop.

“Claire!”

Valerie sprinted toward her, nearly bowling over a pedestrian. Thankfully, she hadn’t brought her skateboard.

Claire paused. “Valerie, what are you doing out here?”

“I wanted to grab food, but I couldn’t decide what to eat, so I was just wandering

around,” Valerie admitted.

Valerie had kept her identity hidden, so she didn’t have many friends on campus. Her blunt personality didn’t win her any points with her roommates. Because she had accidentally dragged them into her chaotic messes a few times, they kept their distance.

Valerie didn’t care; she was perfectly fine entertaining herself.

But ever since she met Claire, she desperately wanted to hang out with her.

Plus, Valerie’s spending habits were

vastly different from her peers. She grew up wealthy and couldn’t

understand her roommates’ frugality. Eating out with them was

always awkward and stressful. She

preferred being alone. .net

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