New Friends

After seeming to let George off the hook, Mr. Long turned to Alex and Lex, "You morons actually dared lie to me," he said angrily.

Alex was so scared that he kneeled in front of Mr. Long and begged for mercy.

Sam was annoyed at being messed around and wanted to hit Alex. "If you are begging for mercy now, that means you are admitting that you are lying."

"Mr. Long, George is lying," Lex answered for his friend. "He must have already hidden the money." It was clear that he was desperately trying to find a way out.

"Enough of your crap!" Mr. Long shouted. "Boys, they're all yours." He was fed up of listening to their nonsense. He looked at his crew as he spoke and Sam led them forward.

"You can't!" Alex shouted in a panic. "I'm Mr. Fuller's man, if you beat me up, you'd be offending him." It didn't really make any sense, but he was so scared, he was just babbling.

"Who's Mr. Fuller?" Mr. Long raised his hand to motion Sam and the others to hold off.

"Mr. Fuller, that's Terry," George replied. "He's at Harrison U as well. He's the son of a rich family with assets worth over a 100 million."

Mr. Long's eyes flashed with greed. And he turned back to Alex and Lex. "And you are very familiar with this Terry Fuller?"

"We're like brothers to Terry," Lex answered. He latched on to Alex's words as they seem to have caused some indecision.

"Mr. Long, think it through clearly. If you beat us, you'll be offending Terry."

"Oh, and then what?" Mr. Long looked at him indifferently.

Lex misread the expression and thought Mr. Long was scared. "Not only is his family rich, but he also has a lot of training. If you hit us, it's one thing. But if you offend Terry, don't think that you'll be all right."

"Ouch!" Mr. Long was amused. "Are you threatening me now?"

"Yeah. Why? Are you scared?" Alex seemed to gain some courage. "Compared to him, you're nothing. You'd be best just to let us go."

Mr. Long's expression immediately soured. He kicked Alex fiercely causing him to fall from his knees to the floor. "This Terry person interests me, but you should know that I hate people who threaten me. You little shit. How dare you insulted me?"

"It's true." Alex doubled down, despite the pain.

Mr. Long was really annoyed. He continued kicking Alex with all his might. Alex's mouth was swollen from a kick to the face. He curled up into a ball and tried to protect his head with his arms. "Looks like you need to clean your mouth out now, you little pig" Mr. Long, stopped his kicking and looked at his men. "Get these two out of here and give them a good thrashing. We'll see if Mr. Fuller can find the money to redeem them."

George was terrified by Mr. Long's actions. He wanted to say something to stop him, but he also didn't want to draw attention back to himself.

After the group left with Alex and Lex, he was left standing in his dorm with Mr. Long. "It was so nice to see you again, George," the man said, patting him on the shoulder. "I'll come find you another time. And we can reminisce about the old days again."

George was scared out of his wits and his sweats started beating on his forehead. He forced himself to remain calm and just said, "Of course, Mr. Long, of course."

Once Mr. Long had left, George immediately collapsed to the ground and couldn't help but laugh at his lucky escape. Fortunately, he had put all the money in his bank account in time. Otherwise a disaster would've been inevitable.

The change that Mr Long's underlings had found was nothing. George had been so happy when he saw Mr. Long's face turn green, when he realized that was all he was getting. Not only did he not find the 50,000, but he could barely buy a cup of coffee with what he did find. This made George feel really good when he looked back at it. He sighed when he thought about Alex and Lex though.

Suddenly, he felt uncomfortable. He wanted to take revenge and give them a slap in the face, but he didn't want to hurt them badly. No matter what, Alex and Lex were his roommates. It didn't feel right for George to just let them be taken away and beaten. Feeling guilty, he took out his phone and made a call to campus security to report Mr. Long's group. After hanging up, he realized that his relationship with Alex and Lex would never be the same. He had done what he could to help them get away from the beating, but he had also instigated it in the first place.

His stomach rumbled. He suddenly realized he was extremely hungry. He changed his clothes, put his shoes back on and then opened the door and left for the cafeteria.

Just as he was about to enter the cafeteria, he received a call from Flora. He answered as he walked past the various students who were sitting and eating, and they could only hear one side of the conversation.

"Hey Flora. Since when did you have time to call me?" He said with a smile. "Buy a car? What kind of car? No. A Lincoln would be too big. Lamborghini? Nah, too flashy. Ferrari, even more so. Too ostentatious," he laughed.

"Who the hell is he talking to?" One of the students, exclaimed. They were all talking among themselves now.

"Lincoln? Lamborghini? Ferrari? Those are expensive cars," said another.

"No, a Porsche won't do either." George continued. "They're too pretentious. Flora, don't be angry. I appreciate your good intentions. As for buying a car though, I'll think about it later." He didn't notice the eyes of the people around him, as everyone with an earshot looked on.

"But he's so poor," a girl whispered to her friend. She couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed at seeing it was George talking. His jacket was full of holes and his pants had practically turned white from washing.

His telephone conversation had created a commotion, however. Everyone turned their heads to look at the source of the voice. Hearing the content of the conversation getting more and more outrageous, they could not help but mock him.

"Isn't this the famous waiter?" Someone asked.

"I thought he was poor. He even works at the bowling alley for Christ's sake. He has two jobs to get him through school." Came a reply.

"I bet he's not even talking to anyone. He's just trying to act cool."

"Yeah. Just look at what he's wearing," said another girl, looking him up and down. "I bet he can't even afford a sandwich."

George finished his conversation and hung up. He went to the counter and was about to order when he heard the conversation at a table nearby. "Can't even afford a sandwich, huh?" He smiled with delight. "I could buy everything here and still not make even a dent in my bank account." He felt insulted, but brushed it off. After all, he was still a rich man with a black card. He ordered nachos, wings, pizza, some sliders and a steak.

The server looked at him questioningly, but he confirmed the order and put it through the register. "That'll be $97, please."

The group at the nearby table looked at George in shock as he took out his bank card and casually paid. A couple of minutes later, he walked over with two loaded trays of food and deliberately sat opposite them.

"All that's just for him?" One of them whispered. Though George could still hear everything.

"Can he even finish it all?"

"What if I can't?" He thought. "I have plenty of money, so I can buy whatever I want. Anything I don't eat can just be thrown away or fed to the dogs."

"Yasmine, didn't you bet he couldn't afford a sandwich?" A student said mockingly. "He just bought a lot more than a sandwich."

Yasmin's face clouded over as her words came back to bite her. She felt embarrassed at being made fun of, but tried to brush it off.

"Yes it was unexpected," She replied. "Who knows? Maybe he's so starved that he just spent all his money on one meal."

George stood up without saying anything. He went back to the counter and ordered more food to be sent to his table. After a while his table was filled with all kinds of food, there wasn't any empty space left in front of him.

When Yasmine saw this, she was dumbfounded. She screwed her face up into a scowl.

Obviously he had heard their conversation and ordered all that food as a slap in their faces. George raised his head, looked directly at Yasmine and chuckled, "You want to eat together?" He called out.

"Get lost!" She responded angrily.

"Oh, sorry. You must have misunderstood," he laughed and pretended to be surprised. "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the nice girls you're sitting with."

The people sitting with Yasmine laughed and one called out, "Well, I didn't expect you to be so interesting."

Yasmine's expression turned even darker as she glared at George. He just thought it was funny that she was getting angry.

"Some people just can't keep their cool," he thought. "Well, get ready because the best is yet to come." He glanced at Yasmine's group and said, "I accidentally bought too much food. Do you want to help me eat it? It's free."

Looking at the table full of food, the other students quickly moved to sit in front of George.

"Sure. If you don't want money, then we won't stand on ceremony," a girl responded laughing. "Let's be friends. My name's Sue. And this is Harriet." She introduced her friend. "We're classmates and also share a dorm. I'm sorry about what we said. We were just gossiping."

"No problem," George replied with a smile. "I like to make friends too. My name's George."

Yasmine looked at her classmates talking and laughing with George and immediately felt jealous. She snorted as she stood up and then turned around and left.