Chapter 4

For a second, I just stood there, letting their judgment wash over me. I felt a hot surge of anger in my chest. They saw a villain. Mr. Harrison saw a problem student to be corrected. Mark saw a winning lottery ticket. They were all wrong.

I took a slow breath, forcing the discipline from my taekwondo training to take over. Calm. Precise. I looked past Mr. Harrison and directly at Mark. His sobbing hitched for a fraction of a second when our eyes met. He knew I wasn't going to fold.

"An explanation?" I said, my voice coming out colder and harder than I expected. "I' d be happy to give one."

Mark seized the opportunity to play the victim again. "Just... just pay your half, Alex," he whimpered, holding up a long grocery receipt. "It was $302.50. Just give me $151.25 and we can... we can put this all behind us. I' m willing to be the bigger person here and forgive you."

The magnanimity of his fake offer was nauseating.

Mr. Harrison nodded, looking relieved. "There, Alex. That seems like a very reasonable solution. Why don't you just pay Mark what you owe him, and we can all move on with our day?" He was pushing for the path of least resistance, a quick and easy end to the public drama.

I almost laughed. It was so tempting to just lose my temper, to call Mark the liar and a cheat that he was. But I knew that would only make me look unstable, confirming their bias. I needed a different weapon. Logic.

"No," I said firmly.

Mr. Harrison' s face fell. The crowd murmured again.

"No?" the counselor repeated, bewildered. "Why not? This seems very straightforward."

"It's straightforward, all right," I said, my eyes still locked on Mark. "I'm not paying one cent. First, because I never asked for any of this. I never agreed to buy it. This is his food." I gestured to the pile. "That' s his brand of vegan protein. Those are his favorite rice cakes. I wouldn' t eat this stuff if you paid me."

I then turned my attention to Mr. Harrison. "And second, and more importantly, he didn't use his money. He used mine."

A hush fell over the lobby.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Harrison asked, looking confused.

"I mean he must have memorized my credit card number when I was paying for our textbooks online last week," I explained, my voice ringing with clarity. "This entire purchase was charged to my card. I just got the fraud alert on my phone on the way over here." I held up my phone, showing the notification from my bank. "So this isn't a simple disagreement between roommates, Mr. Harrison. This is theft."

Mark' s face went from tear-streaked to ghost-white. He hadn' t expected this. He had planned for an emotional argument, not a criminal accusation.

"That's... that's a lie!" he stammered, his act falling apart. "I would never... he' s trying to get out of it!"

"Then prove it," I said, taking a step forward. "Show us the transaction on your bank account. Show us the receipt that proves you paid for it. If you can' t, then we have a real problem. And I am more than willing to call campus security right now and file a formal report for credit card fraud. We can let them sort it out."

The threat hung in the air, heavy and absolute. The word "fraud" changed everything. It wasn't about being a jerk roommate anymore; it was about committing a crime. Mark stared at me, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He was completely cornered.

Just then, Sarah pushed her way through the edge of the crowd to stand beside me.

"He's telling the truth," she said, her voice clear and strong. She looked at Mr. Harrison. "I was with Alex all weekend studying. We ate at the dining hall. He never once mentioned a 'healthy eating plan' with Mark. Mark is lying."

Her support was like a solid wall at my back. It was no longer just my word against his. Mark looked from me to Sarah, then back to the pile of groceries that was supposed to be his triumph. His brilliant plan was crumbling into dust right before his eyes. He was trapped in his own lie, and he was starting to panic.