Page 45 of The Other Half

“Because he’s probably not gonna make it, Oliver.”

“WHAT?” How could my parents keep this shit from me? I should’ve been spending every moment I possibly could with him. I fall to my knees, a sob escaping me. The anger from before has turned into a pure, sharp pain in my chest.

Nate squats down beside me and places his hand on my back. “I’m sorry, man,” he whispers. “This wasn’t how I wanted to tell you.”

I hold my head in my hands, shaking it over and over, wishing I could somehow go back in time and stop this from happening.

Chapter 36

Oakley

I slowly make my way through the lunch line, watching as the cafeteria worker shovels something that looks barely edible onto my tray. Not that it matters, I haven’t been eating much lately anyway.

“Hey! Oakley!” a vaguely familiar female voice calls from behind me in line. I turn around to see Amber pushing her way through the line of people towards me.

“Move,” she says rudely to the guy behind me. He does as she says.

“Uh, hey,” I reply, confused, as I pay for my meal.

“I need to talk to you about something.”

“Oh… alright.” A nervous feeling starts to invade my stomach, and now I know I definitely won’t be eating any of this food.

She leads me to a table, not the one she usually eats at with Oliver and Rodney, though.

“What’s up?” I ask cautiously.

She sighs and folds her hands on the table as if she’s about to say a prayer. “Look, I don’t really want to be the one to tell you this, but I know someone’s going to eventually. So it might as well be me. And you deserve to know.”

“Okay…”

“Last night I saw Oliver all over this trashy slut at the party,” she says, rolling her eyes.

That’s not exactly what I was expecting. I try to hide the fact that I’m hurt, not wanting to appear weak in front of Amber. I already know she sees me as a helpless little girl, I don’t need her reveling in my pain. “Oh.”

“Yeah. And that’s not all. He was doing meth.”

What? Jesus, I knew he dabbled with drugs but I didn’t realize he’d do that one. That’s like, the worst one, at least according to what I remember from DARE camp.

“That’s not good.” I wish she’d just go away. I didn’t want to know any of this information. We’re broken up, so there’s nothing I can do about it anyway. He can do whatever the hell he pleases, it isn’t my business anymore.

“Yeah. I just wanted you to know. I mean… I didn’t know if he was still stringing you along or whatever while making out with that chick. I know I’d want to know if I were you.”

I nod. “Yeah. I appreciate it.” I really don’t, but I don’t know what else to say.

“I can’t believe I ever slept with him. Now he’s a meth head. Nooo thank you!” she announces a little too loudly. I laugh nervously.

She gives me a sympathetic smile. “Hey, would you wanna hang out this Friday?”

“Me?”

“Uh, yeah? There’s no one else here, is there?”

Why on earth is she being so nice? Did we switch multiverses or something? “Um. Yeah, sure, that would be cool. I’ll just need to ask my parents first.”

“Can we chill at your place?” she asks.

I shrug. “Sure.” I hand her my phone and tell her to add her number. My mom finally convinced my dad to give me my phone back, only because she was worried I may need it for an emergency at school.

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