Chapter 34

"Wow, Gavin, look at you," Josie said with a cold smile. "Throwing money around like that, huh? Since you’re so loaded now, how about paying me back?"

Gavin wasn’t rich—just a jerk. Before everything had reset, Josie hadn’t known what he was really like. She thought he was honest and hardworking.

So when Gavin kept asking to borrow money for books and school stuff, Josie never doubted him. She ended up lending him almost all her scholarship money and contest prizes. That was why she’d had barely anything left.

Back then, when Josie finally asked him to pay her back, he threw her out. He said he’d never borrowed a cent from her—and even laughed about it in front of everyone.

Josie had seen inside his private room that night—fancy liquor bottles on the table, girls in tight clothes lounging on the couch. The place reeked of smoke and booze. Gavin had been wasted, one arm wrapped around a girl’s waist. He hadn’t looked like a hardworking student at all.

That was when Josie finally realized—Gavin had been hitting the clubs all along, blowing money like water and cycling through girlfriends like socks. Whenever he ran out of cash, he’d come to Josie. She was basically his personal ATM—and he never planned on paying her back.

Gavin froze when he saw Josie. Clearly, he hadn’t expected to run into her here. "Don’t cause a scene," he muttered. "Can’t you see I’m shopping with my girlfriend? We’ll talk once we’re back at school."

"Just send me the money, and I’ll walk away. I won’t ruin your shopping trip," Josie said calmly. She had no intention of letting him off easy. She came here to get her money back, and she wasn’t leaving empty-handed.

Scarlett, the girl clinging to Gavin’s arm, didn’t look too happy. She glared at Josie and asked, "Who’s she? Why’s she saying you owe her money?"

Gavin quickly tried to smooth things over. "Her? That’s Josie. She’s a junior from our research team. She comes from a tough background, so we help her out now and then. You go ahead and keep shopping. I’ll talk to her for a second. Don’t worry."

But Scarlett didn’t move. Instead, she shoved Gavin’s hand off her waist and gave Josie a once-over. "So you’re the leech I’ve heard about, the one who sucks up to your teammates like a parasite. You’re not even cute. Maybe you are just really good in bed or something, right? Is that how you got them to help you?"

Allison stormed over and slapped Scarlett across the face. "Talk trash again, and I swear I’ll teach you a good lesson."

Scarlett looked stunned. She clutched her cheek and turned to Gavin, furious. "Seriously? You’re just gonna stand there and let her hit me, huh?"

"I’m the leech, huh?" Josie laughed, pointing straight at Gavin. "You’ve got no idea what a real leech looks like, do you? If I were one, I’d take every last cent you have without a second thought—just to make sure you’d never dare say something like that again."

She took a step closer. "I’ve still got all your messages on my phone—every single time you begged to borrow money. And I kept every transfer receipt. Do you want me to read them out loud? Or are you just gonna transfer the forty thousand dollars you owe me?"

Yeah, Gavin owed her forty thousand dollars—two full semesters of scholarships, plus the fifteen thousand dollars prize she won in last semester’s competition.

Back when she was on David’s team, she only made five hundred dollars a month as an assistant. She never spent her prize or scholarship money. She saved it all—and lent it to him.

But Gavin, that jerk, had blown all her money drinking and messing around with other girls. And he still had the nerve to talk trash about her. He was worse than an animal.