Page 82 of Broken By the Bad Boy

Gracie looks up, and my lips twitch. Her smile is missing as she sizes me up. I don’t know what she’s thinking, but I suspect it’s bad. She spins and starts toward the door without a word. Usually, I would volunteer to carry her school bag, but I don’t. We are quiet as we head to her car, and she gets in. My head pokes in through the window. I have a lot to say but no idea how to start.

She ran off on me without giving us a chance to solve the problem. “Why did you do it, Gracie?”

Gracie scoffs. “Do what?” Do what she did. Hitting Olivia was unnecessary. She pushes the key into the ignition, and the engine roars. “Your friend had it long coming. I think I was too nice.”

“You don’t know for sure that she posted that video.” Granted, Olivia can be annoying, but she has other issues in her life right now to worry about Gracie. “You should have waited for us to ask.”

“Then what?” She gets out of the car and slams the door. Her chest heaves as she tries to catch her breath. Her hair falls over her face, but she doesn’t care. “What would have happened after? Another lame apology? If you’re going to keep defending her, then you should go be with her.”

“I’m not defending her.” I look down. It is not what Gracie thinks. She already got a peek into Olivia’s life. She should be more understanding. “It’s just that I understand her. You should too.”

Gracie whips her hair, sending some strands flying into my eyes. “No, I don’t. And I don’t want to understand her.” She bridges the gap between us. Her eyes wide open and angry. I’ve never seen her this furious. That, too, at me. Without meaning to, I take a step back, and she covers it. “Olivia and I are not friends. We can, and we will never be friends. I refuse to understand her toxicity.”

I open my mouth to say something, but she cuts me off. Her hands go up in frustration.

“I can’t understand how you don’t see it, babe.” I don’t know what Gracie sees, but I see beyond the surface and behind the scenes into Olivia’s home life. Grabbing my arms, she says, “She is using you, Benny. She is not this adorable angel you think she is.” Olivia is many things but cute or an angel. Her voice softens for a second. “She posted that video to humiliate me, Benny.”

“It’s not her.” Her fingers dig into my skin so hard I jump back. “What’s wrong with you?”

Gracie’s eyes go cold. The Gracie I love is gone, looking more like the Tessa that haunts me.

Her nails stab my chest. “You. You are the problem.” Another poke. I step back, but it doesn’t deter her. She punctuates each word with a poke. “You have made her a part of our relationship.”

It takes a few seconds for me to recover, but my voice is just as cold when I finally come up with a reply. “You owe her an apology, Gracie.” And she will be lucky if her parents don’t take this up legally. “There’s no evidence to show that Olivia uploaded the video. Was she the only one there that night?”

“What does it matter?”

“Apologize.” I cover the gap and use one hand to cup her face. She shakes her head. “Please. It doesn’t have to be now. She has been transferred to a hospital. I know she didn’t upload that video.”

Her hands wrap around my wrists, and her eyes connect with mine. “No. If anyone owes me an apology, it’s Olivia. And if you cared about me at all, you would be more worried about getting that video down.” I was working on that before I was called to the fight scene. This is all a big misunderstanding, and Olivia is in the middle of it. “But it always has to be about Olivia, right?”

Tears roll down my girlfriend’s cheeks, and my eyes sting from holding in mine. She is hurting my feelings and making me look like the bad guy. The right thing would have been waiting to find out who posted the video. Olivia wasn’t alone at that party. Zoey was also there. Noah too.

Why didn’t she get mad at Noah? Why didn’t she confront Zoey?

“It has always been about you,” I mutter. My thumb brushes her cheek, and I take a deep breath. She is making this difficult for both of us. “I love you, Gracie. You know that. You are the first girl I have ever felt this comfortable with, babe. I am just trying to be a good friend to her.”

“At the expense of your girlfriend?” To those words, I can’t think of a reasonable reply. The scenarios are not comparable. “I can’t do this anymore with both of you. You have to pick.”

I cannot do that.

“Why can’t I have both of you, Gracie?” My voice cracks. I need her to set aside her jealousy and see the bigger picture. I’ll never ask her to give up her friendship with any of her friends, even if it discomforts me. “You always come first, Gracie, but please don’t make me choose.”

Gracie hugs herself. “You have to pick, Benny. Me or Olivia.”

But I don’t want to. I want to be that friend to Olivia because I had no one when I was going through the same thing. No one gets it except they have walked in the same shoes. And I have.

My hands return to Gracie’s shoulders, and I squeeze them. It’s not in my place to tell her the truth about Olivia’s fucked up family dynamics, but I am desperate for her to understand me. Olivia is all bark and no bite. It is her armor. A stupid armor, if you ask me, but it works well.

“Olivia’s parents are getting a divorce.” Gracie nods. She already knows this. I release a soft breath. I am betraying Olivia’s trust by telling her, but I’ll rather be on Olivia’s bad side than my girlfriend’s. The words lump in my throat, and I have to cough to get them out. “Her dad was cheating on her mother with someone close to Liv’s age. So, her mother decided to do the same.”

Gracie is calm now, listening to me. Well, I hope she is. I used to think Mom remarrying was the worst thing that could have happened. But I appreciate their peaceful divorce after hearing about Olivia’s parents.

“She’s cheating on someone older than Olivia with only a few years.” Maybe five or lesser. The rest of the words I should say hang in my throat again. I am doing this, so Gracie might judge her less harshly. “He lives in the house with her mom and Olivia.” I gulp hard. This is the hardest part. “Sometimes he gets into these dark moods, and he, um… he hits her, and he harasses her.”

He touches her in places she doesn’t want to be touched, and her mom does nothing about it.

I shake my hands as if it will ease the anger. It’s one thing when the parents who are supposed to protect you bring the danger to the house.Talk to people about it, they say. What will people do? Nobody gives a flying fuck until you wind up dead, then they troop to your grave with fake sympathies.

---