Page 29 of Your Side of the Offense

“With him?”

I breathe out the “Yeah.”

Silence befalls the room.

“And it’s all me still?” he asks.

“Harvey, you are a piece of shit, but you were violated by that tramp. She drugged you and forced herself on you, man,” Caleb says before he approaches too.

“She doesn’t even know that. She thinks I cheated. That I was willingly unfaithful to her.”

“She’s just hurt.”

“Well, we are all hurt…” he exhales.

“We need to make it right. Get her alone somehow and get her to listen,” Caleb says.

“Nah,” Jaden says.

I turn to him. “Explain.”

“We’ve tried running after her, I say we change strategies.”

We turn to him and he turns to the window, hands in his pants, with a small smirk.

“I hope ‘make her jealous by dating other girls’ isn’t going to come out of your mouth,” I spit out when I see that’s where this is going.

He shrugs.

“Are you kidding me? I’m not doing that,” I protest.

“Why? She’s clearly out to play this game. Let’s play too. It isn’t fair that she gets to touch other guys and fucking giggle like a schoolgirl at his fucking jokes. We have fucking feelings too. And the guy is mid all across. Fuck is she thinking?” I hear the anger in Jaden’s voice.

Jaden is more burn the house down kind of guy. He’ll call a bluff or take extreme risks for what he wants.

Right now, he wants to play dirty and I consider it for a second. Do I want to hurt her by pretending I’m moving on?

No.

I don’t care what these idiots say, I’m not doing it.

It’s not like I can anyway. Between everything that’s going on with the academics, football and my dwindling mental health, I simply don’t have space for that too. And I don’t want to hurt her any more than she is.

“I’m in,” Harvey says.

“We not actually fucking these girls, right? Just second base if need occurs?” Caleb waves his blunt around.

“No fucking,” Jaden says.

“I am not making any promises,” Harvey says.

“Don’t do that. Don’t do things that will shut us out for good with her,” I say wondering everyday why I’m friends with him.

“Do you know what she’s doing with this guy, or planning to do?” Harvey asks.

His question increases the temperature a few degrees and I feel a little itchy. Could she really do it? Could she fuck him just to be spiteful?

Fuck.

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