Page 2 of Your Side of the Offense

"What is this shit, Harvey?" I manage, pushing through the emotions clogging my throat.

His lips quiver. "Baby, I'm sorry. It meant nothing." He advances my way, trying to hold me, but I flinch away from him.

He's not denying it.

All hopes of him stopping my disintegration are slipping, and fast.

"Nothing, Harvey? I want you to tell me it's a lie," I demand, no, I plead. Begging him with my eyes to tell me it never happened. That she's just a liar. If he tells me it's all a lie, I'll believe him. I need to. Desperately.

"Sunshine, let's go and discuss this in private." Jaden tries to nudge me to move and I don’t budge.

"Jaden, I don't give a shit about private." I look at Caleb, then Jaden, then Archer, who is beside Harvey, looking sorry.

They all look pathetic and sad.

Stepping back, I feel like I've just been punched in the face four times. When I think I’ll break, I turn on my heel and walk away. I’m barely hanging on to my sanity, and need to get the fuck away from here. From all these eyes. I need to be alone.

Everyone's gazes are hot on my skin and it feels itchy, the kind of itch you can't scratch. I have to get away.

Footsteps rush behind me, and they are all surrounding me the next moment, giving me no choice but to stop.

"Baby, listen. I'm sorry. It was a mistake. I…it's not what it looks like. Let me explain," Harvey tries again, but my focus is no longer on the cheater, it's on the others.

Foolishly, I hope they didn't do it too, or were involved in any way. But I have no hope. How could I? I would have sworn on my life that Harvey wouldn't be unfaithful to me, but he has. And I don't know what could be real and true anymore.

"And all of you, did you know? Did you also fuck her or anyone else?"

"We didn't cheat," Caleb says quickly, like that is supposed to make me feel better. They stayed faithful; I should reward them.

Fucking liars.

"You fucking knew!" I push Archer, who hasn't said anything but looks like he wants to die. "You knew. How fucking long?" I yell.

I trusted them. I trusted him. Archer was never supposed to keep anything from me. Or hurt me ever.

"Baby, please. Let's go and we'll talk," Harvey says again.

"I don't want to hear your shit. How fucking long!?"

"It was once. He wasn't himself," Jaden says.

"When?"

"At Simon's party two months ago," Caleb says.

His words are another hard slap to my face. I was home sick with the flu, and they went without me because my nana wanted to take care of me.

Finally collecting myself, I look at all of them, trying to find the guys I fell in love with. But my heart and mind can’t see anything but cheaters and liars.

My heart fills with so much rage, so much loathing. So much heartache. So much heartbreak.

I hate them.

"It's over. All of it." I move to leave, but they stop me.

"Dump me, baby. I fucked up, but not them. Please." Harvey gets on his knees and I just move around him only to meet the others looking like they suddenly lost their ability to articulate speech or comprehension.

"Let me leave. I have a project to work on," I say in an even tone. Tears still falling, but they are silent tears now. Closing my eyes, I dig for one last ounce of strength, remembering the record I bought, then pull it from my backpack and look at him.

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