The next day, Simon was walking on campus heading towards his first exam. He had grown his beard a bit in the past few days, and even though the unkempt facial hair was itchy and uncomfortable, it also gave him a sense of freedom. He thought about Ian, feeling content that he had stood up for Simon in his editorial. Simon knew that he needed to make things right with Ian as soon as possible. He felt a new sense of invigorated passion for the paper and for his job as a journalist. His version of the article had received the most hits in the history of the Weekly’s online version, and campus was abuzz with not only the scandal of Riley, but also with the mysterious writer who had exposed the story, and who had been treated so unfairly. Simon knew that there was no way that Riley and his son could take any action against him or the paper without creating even more scandal, and the only way they could really respond was by giving empty apologies. But the fact that people were aware of what Riley had done was a good start at bringing about real change at Ridgemont University.
As he was walking his message tone sounded, and he saw a text from Olivia. I miss you and I love you. I hope you’re out of your room and doing better. He smiled thinking of how loyal his friend was, and how well she was adjusting to living with her fiancé.
As Simon walked towards his exam venue, the Humanities building, he heard a familiar voice shouting his name. He looked up to see Zuko, smiling and waving at him. Zuko was dressed in a bright pink shirt and seemed radiant. “You’re looking all handsome with your beard,” Zuko winked at Simon as he came closer.
“Thanks. I’m trying something new.”
“It’s edgy. I like it.”
“What are you doing here? And what happened after the story came out last week? Why didn’t you respond to any of my calls?”
“Sorry, Simon, I’ve just been overwhelmed, to be honest. In a good way. Everything’s been working out since the story broke. The university issued a formal apology to me, and they’ve suspended Conrad Riley and his cronies pending an investigation. I’ve been on a lot of interviews so far with other papers and a TV news team has picked up on it now as well. But that’s not all…” Zuko said, in a mock-game show host voice. “They’ve given me a full scholarship and invited me back. I’m busy figuring out how to transfer my credits from the college I’ve been at for the past few weeks, but they assured me that it won’t be a problem. Looks like I’ll be back here to make your life a little more colorful!”
Simon was overjoyed, and hugged Zuko. “I can’t believe it! I thought for sure that you were furious with me that the story got out with your name in it. Didn’t they come after you for breaking the nondisclosure agreement?”
“Nah, you know it would be a PR nightmare if it ever got out that they were trying to silence me about what had happened. They pretended like it never even happened. Even Prof. Riley himself sent me his best wishes. I guess he’s too powerful to face any real consequences, but I’ll be framing that letter from him because it means that, even in a small way, I won.”
“I think we won in a big way. I think they’ll be changing policies around here for cases of harassment and victimization. You were brave to speak up, Zuko.” Simon hugged him again, not even feeling self-conscious that he was being so affectionate in public. He was just happy to see his friend, and happy to see that everything was working out for him.
“Oh, here he is,” Zuko said suddenly, looking past Simon, and waved enthusiastically at the approaching figure. Simon turned around to see Jeremy, who came up to them and greeted Zuko with a kiss.
“Simon! It’s good to see you again,” Jeremy said. He looked much better than the last time Simon had seen him in front of Zuko’s old residence. “I see the two of you have caught up already.”
Zuko hung onto Jeremy’s arm. “Yes, but I didn’t let him know yet that we’re officially dating.”
Simon chatted with Zuko and Jeremy, enjoying seeing his friend so happy, and also overjoyed that he was back at Ridgemont where he belonged. They made plans to see each other again for dinner, and Simon thought that after such a good start to his day, there was nothing that could bring him down.
He was wrong. As he walked into the building he saw a short figure with a bright-red bush of hair and an orange shade of lipstick so garish it stung the eye marching towards him: Margeaux Chamberlain. Her expression was frightening, and she looked ready - and able - to rip Simon’s head off. His eyes shot around him, trying to find an escape route. There was no telling what she would do.
“Simon! Siiiimoooooon!” she screeched, loud enough for everyone around her to stop their conversations and look over. Simon felt the fear rising in his belly.
“Margeaux, let’s just calm down now. There’s no need to do anything you’ll regret.”
“The only thing I regret was not taking care of you sooner! You’ve cost me everything!” Margeaux was centimeters from Simon’s face, screaming as loudly as she could. “I wrote that story! Those were all my own words! How can you use a word like plagiarism? I might have had a look at your research, but I wrote it all myself!”
Simon felt his confidence build slightly in the face of the verbal assault. “Margeaux, you broke into my private files, saw drafts of my story which I had been working on for months, looked through my interview notes… that’s stealing! Have you seen the comments online? Everyone agrees. Your plan backfired and you need to move on and not take it out on me.”
Margeaux stared at Simon in shock. “What? What did you say to me? You couldn’t pull the trigger when it counted. You sat on that story for weeks. I was simply doing what you probably never would have done!”
“You might have been right, before, but not anymore. I’m not the same scared guy who would have let you get away with something like this. I’m not going to be bullied by you, Margeaux.”
Margeaux’s expression changed suddenly, and Simon’s fear returned. She was smiling! She let out a deep guffaw and seemed to really snap. She turned around and started shouting at the gathering crowd, “Do you all know that he’s in love with someone he’ll never get? He’s in love with Ian Peters! What a Simple Simon! In love with someone who won’t love him back.”
“You’re right,” Simon said. “I do have feelings for him. But you’re wrong if you think he doesn’t feel the same.”
Margeaux, sensing that her last card had been played, let her baser instincts take over and lunged at Simon, ready to attack. Simon ran for his life, and campus security, who had been called by one of the students in the crowd, was soon upon her as Simon made his escape. “I won’t stop until you pay for this, Simon Northbrook! You can’t humiliate me like this!”
Simon giggled as he ran into his exam venue, relieved that he had escaped unscathed. He actually felt bad for Margeaux, whose manipulation backfired on her disastrously. But he was happy that she had been exposed for her lies.
Chapter 25