84 - The chapter where Jackson wants every detail

Christian

The waitress returned with our orders, placing the two cups of espresso in front of the man, giving me a worried look as she placed the cup with the chai latte in front of me.

" Can you get me some chamomile tea? " I asked, once again watching the girl walk away " look, I wasn't with her when it happened and I didn't make her talk more than necessary yesterday. She was already going to relive the situation today during the meeting with the college social worker....”

" 'Stop winding me up and tell me what you know at once! " he muttered, drumming his fingers on the table, showing all his energy accumulated by the excess of caffeine ingested that morning.

" "Maybe I should have this one," I muttered, reversing our drinks, leaving the chai latte for him while pulling the espresso cups for me.

Jack just rolled his eyes but didn't argue, seeming to accept my suggestion, and before he could turn back, I started drinking the first cup, remembering how much I hate coffee. Even more pure and strong like that.

" I had only seen her in the morning, Rose had left earlier than the others for class, and at lunch she and Sky decided to enjoy some alone time to talk. Liam and her had finally hit it off, and Rose had already told me she wanted to know all the details. " I started narrating what I knew about the previous day.

Jack brought the mug to his mouth, grimacing, pushing the drink away from his lips before looking at the contents with a shocked expression.

" 'What is this crap?”

" Chai latte,” I explained, pushing to finish the coffee in one go, only to receive a pair of arched eyebrows in response, reminding me of Rose " 'Black tea with milk and spices.”

" Why do you drink that? " He grimaced, setting the mug aside.

I didn't argue with him about whether or not I liked the drink, as I was forcing myself to drink the second cup of espresso.

" Back on topic, at some point she and Sky split up. I'm not sure why, but she was alone when it happened. Camille and I hardly had lunch, in fact, we only took a quick break before returning to the lab, and we were concentrating on the experiment when several cell phones started ringing with new notifications. The teacher was furious, after all theoretically cell phones are not allowed in the lab " I took up the subject.

The waitress returned once again with the chamomile tea and I pushed it to Jackson, who rolled his eyes at that gesture, although he brought the mug to his lips, sipping a few sips of the hot drink without bothering to cool it.

" Cam was the first to see it and let me know when I opened the video....”

" There was a video? " The man, who was still sipping his tea, moved the mug away from his mouth, practically growling at the new information.

" There are a few videos,” I scratched my throat, “The girls who attacked her made one and then there were others as people found her on campus…”

" Girls? What the hell, you still haven't told me what they did to my girl! " He slammed his hand down hard on the table, causing the waitress to startle a few tables away, looking in our direction looking alarmed.

I made a small sign to her, trying to reassure her, before turning my attention back to the man.

"You better calm down before you end up having a heart attack from all the caffeine you drank," I muttered.

"Show me the videos," he stared at me.

I held his gaze for a few seconds, unsure if that was a good decision. I almost couldn't control my anger when I saw it myself.

" Jack…”

" Just show me the fucking video! " he said impatiently.

I took a deep breath, grabbing my cell phone, locating the main videos, the first one was the original one that was recorded by the girls, the second one some asshole filmed while she was dragged into a bathroom by two girls and a third one some girls filmed her walking across campus wet and with her skin stained, but she still kept her head up and her usual confident pose. If I hadn't witnessed her moment of fragility afterwards, I wouldn't have said she was even slightly affected by the situation.

I handed the cell phone to the man in front of me, he watched in silence, jaw clenching every second. At the end of the last video, Jackson looked like he was about to break the device into a thousand pieces with his bare hands, and to prevent that from actually happening, I took it back, having a hard time pulling it out of the man's trembling hand.

" That song.... " he growled

" Yeah, I know. Rose didn't want you to know about it. In her own words, if Addison found out what happened, not even SWAT would get her off Alicia's back." I glared at him.

He didn't retort or try to deny the information, he just kept staring at me waiting before asking.

" Was it her?”

" 'We have no doubt that the idea came from her and the sorority leader, Audrey, the same one from the party on Friday. Rose threw a glass of drink that she tried to hand to Skyller at her, and well... you saw what happened " I explained " But it wasn't them who got their hands dirty, obviously.”

" Who was it? " His gaze on me made me freeze for a second.

" 'The girls who were chasing Camille.”

" 'And I don't suppose you have any proof of that,' he took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes tightly.

I denied it with my head, putting my cell phone back in my jacket pocket, I straightened up in my chair, deciding to finish the story once and for all.

" I went to her room and had gotten everything to clean her. And after I managed to remove all the violet pigment from her skin, she asked me to call you, but to make something up so you wouldn't get suspicious " I summarized what happened last night.

" She really doesn't want us to get involved? " the man seemed devastated by the possibility.

" 'No, I'm sorry.”

He remained silent, sipping the rest of the mug of tea I had ordered for him. Before raising another question.

" Her cell phone?”

" She dropped it when it happened, and it got hit by the liquid too, I don't know which was worse, but it's not working " I explained.

" Tell her I'm going to give her a new device, so she can pick it out right away. Take her to buy one today " he muttered " How is she?”

" She was a bit insecure in the morning, she didn't want to leave her room, but in the end she seemed fine when she joined everyone," I shrugged.

The man took a deep breath and looked around, seemingly unconvinced by the whole situation.

" I swear I don't understand. That girl chased her for almost the whole period of High School, but when they found out they would be coming to the same college they seem to have put their differences aside, Rose in all her calls was speaking well of her, why did it come back?" he muttered.

I felt uncomfortable with that question, mainly because deep down the whole situation could be my fault. I could be being presumptuous for considering myself the main reason for discord between the two, but Alicia's whole approach only indicated to me that I was correct.

" 'Maybe I'm a little to blame for that,' I said back in bewilderment.

" 'What are you talking about? " Her gaze snapped to me immediately.

I took a deep breath, gathering the whole story in my mind before spilling it out to the man in front of me.

" Has Rose told you how we met? " I stared at him.

" Weren't you part of the group? " he frowned.

I shook my head in the negative, deciding to expose everything that happened.

" My first contact was with Alicia, I saw her the day she was moving to campus and helped her with the boxes. I thought she was quite pretty and I was interested in her. Whenever I had a chance I approached her " this was the first time I had told that full story to someone, and it was a strange feeling.

" That angelic face can fool a lot of people,” Jack muttered disgruntledly.

" She showed me Rose a few days later, and I thought that if I got close to her, it would be easier to get something with Alicia, but my plan didn't work out. “

Jackson raised both eyebrows waiting for me to finish the story.

" "In our first interaction Rose hit me in the head with a glass of green tea while screaming in the middle of the campus how much of an asshole I was " I sighed, seeing a small smile full of the purest pride appear on the man's face " I swore I would never get close to her, then there was a party. Alicia invited me and... she ignored me in front of everyone to be with the leader of the fraternity.”

That outcome didn't seem to surprise Rose's father, who continued with the same expression as before, waiting for me to finish the story.

" Rose was with her when it happened, didn't like her attitude, left the party and kidnapped me on the way, forcing me to accompany her to Waterfall where she was going to get a tattoo. After that I joined the group.”

" You didn't have anything to do with the Waldorf girl?”

" 'No, but she's been trying to get close to me for a few weeks now, and I get the impression it's caused a cold war between them,' I concluded.

He signaled to the waitress, ordering two more mugs of tea, looking calmer than when I had met him. That's when something came to mind.

" 'You said you learned about it from the note of repudiation on the sorority directory page? " I frowned, surprised that the man would access that page when Rose was not a member of any sorority.

" 'Yes, I was about to go into a meeting at work when Eric Waldorf approached,' he muttered.

" Waldorf? " I raised both eyebrows.

" Argh, yes. Me and that pompous asshole work together," he muttered disgruntledly.

That information surprised me, I didn't even know what Rose's parents' profession was, in fact, I had never thought that they should have some kind of job when they weren't busy being the craziest family I have ever met.

" Excuse me for asking, Mr. Campbell. But what do you do for a living?”

" 'I'm a lawyer,' he returned as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe, “at one of the largest firms in Rochester. And unfortunately, so is the Waldorf. We were about to go into a meeting about a new client, and I'm sure I could represent him. Then Eric walked up and said "I'm sorry about what happened to your daughter, Alicia showed me the disclaimer from the sorority directory, it was really unfortunate". At first I thought he was just trying to destabilize me, but when I found the disclaimer, I just let my boss know that a family emergency arose and got in the car. I didn't even warn Addison.”

Alright, that had been a pretty low blow, maybe this runs in the family!

" You've seen that she's fine, I'll keep you informed about everything," I assured trying to get rid of the man, "Liam was going to accompany her to the meeting with the social services and I sent him the names of the girls who did it, they will be punished.”

" "I want to see her, that's the only way I can be sure she's okay," he denied, much to my displeasure.

" "Mr. Campbell, if Rose sees you, she may become unstable. 'I really don't think that's a good idea.”

" She doesn't need to see me. Just take her somewhere I can see her,' he ordered.