Chapter 1842

Drake's mood soured further.

Debra peeked over. "What're you looking for?"

He avoided her eyes. "Nothing."

"Class is starting soon. Let's go," she suggested, walking ahead.

Drake frowned. "I didn't say I was going to class."

"Skipping at this school is a big deal," Debra said, dead serious. "If you don't wanna get kicked out, you better go."

"Do you have to worry about everyone's problems?" he sulked. "Are you just going around and convincing everyone to love life?"

She shook her head. "No one else around me would give up on life. They're all positive about the future."

"Yeah, right," he sneered. "A rich girl like you only knows other rich kids. Money, power, connections... Even if they do nothing, their future is set. Why would they off themselves?"

For those scraping by at the bottom, even a lifetime of hustle might not get them close to her world. That was the gap. The rich got to enjoy life. The poor were born to suffer and end their misery early.

"That's not true," she said, her voice dropping. "You think I've got it all, but I don't really have many friends."

"Is that so?" Drake asked, skeptical.

"Yeah," she said, catching up with him. "I didn't have friends growing up. Kids at school kept their distance. My parents sheltered me. In middle school, I had one close friend, but she sold me out to my dad's business rivals. If Andrew hadn't shown up in time, I would have been dead."

She paused and added, "After that, I stopped making friends and just kept things surface-level."

Drake caught the loneliness in her eyes. "No friends, no betrayal. Not a bad deal."

"But I'm jealous of people with real friends they can talk to," she sighed. "I wouldn't have to watch my back all the time."

"People who sell you out are not your friends," he said, tapping her head.

Debra rubbed the spot, wincing. "Hey! Why did you hit me?"

"You're dense. I'm checking if your head is hollow," he teased, glancing at her. "Why tell me all this? Aren't you worried I'm a bad guy, getting close to you on purpose?"

"You... You don't exactly seem like a good guy," she said cautiously. "But bad guys don't wear it on their face. I think you're just pretending to be bad, but deep down, you're not."

Drake stopped walking because her words echoed something Debra had said in the real world.

"What, am I wrong?" she faltered.

"Yes, you are. I'm not a good guy," he replied, walking off.

She hurried after him. "If you were really bad, you wouldn't have listened to all my nonsense." Chapters first released on find(ɴ)ovel.net