“No, I didn’t have one yet, but it probably would have been better than just showing everyone. I don’t know how to help us in this case and have it work out!”
“I don’t care anymore! What’s done is done! It’s my fault we were caught and I will deal with the consequences. If worse comes to worst I’ll just stay in state and go to a regular college without a scholarship. It won’t kill me.”
“It’s not that, Matt,” I began before Chase interrupted me.
“She’s worried about the rest of this school year. Can’t you see that Jade truly cares? If she didn’t she would have just blabbed about us a long time ago.”
“That’s because it helped her!” Matt stated.
“It did, but it helped you too. You said that life in this school was better because no one bothered you about dating anymore and you didn’t have to hide as much as before. She cares about us,” Chase said, glancing at me appreciatively.
“I really do,” I added for emphasis.
Chase nodded, still staring at Matt. “Everything will work out just fine, Matt, just relax.”
“How can I do that when I just caused this to blow up in our faces?” he cried out just as the bell rang loudly overhead to signal the end of class.
I stood frozen for a moment as students exited class and caught sight of us. There were a few snickers as they either laughed at me for dating a gay guy or at Matt and Chase for being gay, but for which one I couldn’t be sure. I saw Matt hang his head in shame, unable to meet the eyes of his teammates as they stood and waited for an answer. Chase tried to comfort him, but that just made the situation worse as people started to boo. I realized that they were trying to defend me in a twisted kind of way because it looked like Matt had been cheating on me, but this wasn’t how they should treat them. People in this school loved Matt, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from the disapproving looks he was getting.
I felt so bad I said the only thing I thought I could to make it better. “How could you do this to me?” I cried out causing Matt and Chase to look up at me in surprise.
“What the hell does that mean? How could I do this to you?” Matt yelled back, clearly angry. He wasn’t catching on to my plan like I thought he would. Then again, I wasn’t even sure I knew where this plan was going.
“Yeah, you led me on Matt. I don’t care that you’re gay!” I yelled loud enough for everyone to hear.
“What?” Matt asked, confused, just as Chase gave him a light elbow to the ribs to tell him to play along with me. “I didn’t mean to lead you on Jade.”
“You should have just told me when I asked you out that you were gay. I wouldn’t have had a problem with Chase, and I would have understood. It would’ve been better if we started out as friends and then you wouldn’t have led me on.”
“I’m sorry Jade, it’s just—”
“You were scared of what people would think,” I said, finishing his sentence for him. I could tell the crowd could hear me because they looked down at the ground or flashed ashamed glances at each other. “Well, I’m not mad, Matt. I just wish you would have told me. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, and I would have told you as much because no one in this school, or anywhere else for that matter, should care that you’re gay. Now if you’ll excuse me, I just need a minute to myself” I sighed deeply, pretending like I was actually hurt and in shock from finding out that my boyfriend was gay. This was more work than I had initially thought it would be.
I just hoped it worked, then one aspect of my life would at least be okay, and then maybe I would be able to work with Brooke on our friendship again. Here’s hoping. After all, it's all I got right now.
Chapter 29
“Jade, why are we here?” Damien asked curiously as I knocked, and waited impatiently for someone to open the door. Patience is one annoying virtue.
“Because I need to check on Matt, and I thought you should be supportive of me during such a hard time,” I answered. I gave him an innocent smile.
His eyes squinted down at me a bit, obviously not buying my answer. “What does Matt have to do with what’s going on between you, Brooke, and Austin?” Damien questioned, furrowing his eyebrows. He knew about how Matt and Chase had been outed at school two days ago, but he wasn’t connecting that to what I had said. “Unless you’re talking about how he’s out of the closet now? But even then, I don’t see how that would be a hard time for you.” He was right about that last part; Matt would be having a harder time than me.
I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest. “Because people are pitying me. Even people who I haven’t talked to since elementary school feel bad for me and are talking to me. I refuse to get pitied by those idiots. Especially from this freshmen girl who came up to me at least three times during school yesterday offering to help me find a guy like her boyfriend who is ‘one hundred percent straight.’” I scoffed as I added the air quotes. I almost slapped her for mentioning it. Luckily for her, her boyfriend pulled her away before I could. “She thinks she’s popular because she dates a senior. Honestly, I’m just waiting for him to cheat on her to knock her off of her pedestal.” I rolled my eyes, swiping my hair back and tucking it behind my ear and out of my face.
Damien stared down at me with a baffled expression lining his handsome face.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he mumbled, shaking his head. “It’s just a wonder why you don’t have more friends.” His lips turned upwards into a small smile, hinting at the playfulness behind his words.
I hit his arm, poking my tongue out at him. “Well, that’s very rude coming from the guy whose best friend is his girlfriend, and his only friends are her friends.”
“Hey,” he said, placing his hand in the center of his chest to feign hurt. “I’m appalled. It’s not my fault that all of my friends are bad news, and if I want to even stay in the country to see said girlfriend, my best bet is to avoid them at all costs.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but was cut off by the sound of the door opening. I snapped my head to Matt’s front door and was greeted by a smiling Chase as he opened up the screen door for us to come inside.
“What are you guys doing here?”
I furrowed my eyebrows at his words. “Matt didn’t tell you that we were coming over?”
“He didn’t, but I’m sure it’s because he wasn’t ready to meet the new boyfriend,” Chase said jokingly, his eyes flickering to Damien for a moment as we passed him and made our way into the living room while Chase shut the door.
As we entered the living room, I saw a familiar pair of brown eyes meet mine. “Jade? To what do I owe this visit?”
“I just came to check on you. I could tell that you were having a hard time at school ever since everyone found out and I wanted to make sure you were okay,” I said honestly as I took a seat on the couch across from him, sliding to one side so that Damien could sit next to me.
“I was, and still am, having a hard time because you put me into a web of lies and deceit,” Matt spat, glaring at me. “Then it blew up in our faces.”
“Hey, I did what I could to make it work out in the end. You can’t honestly be mad at me, can you?” I asked, my voice oddly level. I knew that I had tried, and if he couldn’t see that, then I would just have to convince him that I had.
Matt was about to say something until Chase spoke up, cutting him off. “He’s not mad at you, Jade. He’s mad at himself for getting caught even though it’s all working out just fine.” I noticed as Chase tossed a glance in Matt’s direction. “Alyssa told us what you did for us, so we couldn’t ever be mad at you, especially for our mistake.”
I furrowed my eyebrows at his words. “You met Alyssa?”
Chase and Matt nodded simultaneously. “Yeah, we met her by accident when she was out with Damien shopping for—” Chase’s sentence stopped quickly and a tight-lipped, worried expression crossed onto his face. I quickly turned to look at Damien, who shrugged his shoulders; a smirk hanging on his lips. After his near
slip-up, Chase began to speak again, stopping me from questioning Damien. “She told me that you stood up to the senator for us. You didn’t even ask her to keep out of your relationship with Damien. Despite how he’s feeling now,” he gestured toward Matt, “he’d much rather have been outed as our mistake, than by a freaking senator on national television.”
“It’s probably the least selfish thing you’ve ever done,” Matt said, finally giving me a smile. It was small, but a smile was a smile, so I’d take it.
“I could have not cared,” I warned with a lifted eyebrow.
“Well, Chase is right, I’m fine. Chase has been taking excellent care of me, and we do owe you a thank you,” Matt said as Chase leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
“Whoa, I didn’t come here to watch gay porn!” I said with a laugh, mocking Matt for his statement when Damien and I had tried to teach him how to realistically kiss a girl.
Matt laughed, catching onto my statement quickly. Then he smirked, saying, “Jade, did you blackmail him into dating you too? We really have to talk about this before you get arrested for blackmail one day. You know it’s a crime right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Just one more thing to add to my rap sheet.”
Changing the subject, Chase spoke up. “Back to the topic of gay porn,” Chase said, a noticeable glimmer of worry in his eyes as he continued, “how’s it going with you and your lesbian lover? Did y'all kiss and makeup yet?”
I shook my head, meeting Chase’s eyes. “Not well. She won’t answer my calls, and I swear she’s been avoiding me in school. We have physics together and she’s been skipping class all week. I saw her at lunch too, sitting with this girl, Violet, but when I went up to the table she practically ran from the room.”
All of the guys exchanged knowing expressions. It was as if they were all about to say that Brooke would come around eventually, but they were trying to figure out who would be the one to say it. None of them wanted to be the one to have to lie to me. It was obvious that Brooke wanted nothing to do with me, and she was making that pretty clear.
“How’s it feel to be out of the closet?” I asked lightheartedly, hoping that they wouldn’t notice the change in topic. Although, judging from the exchanged glances they shared again, they knew what I was doing, but went along with it anyway.
“Well it feels pretty good actually,” Matt answered with a smile. “I thought I would lose my scholarship, but the school didn’t care even after someone tagged them in the photo and outed me on it. They support all kinds of love and just want me to come and play football for them. It was surprising because even though people are starting to accept different types of sexualities, it’s still not widely accepted in football.”
“Tell her about your teammates,” Chase prompted.
“They came up to me after you left and said it was wrong for what I did to you, but if you were okay with it then they were. They all think that Chase and I are good together, and they told me that when they saw me next practice nothing would be different. I thought I would lose their respect because they would see me as less of a man, but they don’t. I didn’t lose them as friends either, they said that I was still the same person and that they would treat me as such. It’s all thanks to you though, and that speech you made up on the spot. I can’t thank you enough.”
“You don’t have to. I owed you a happy ending more than anyone,” I said honestly, smiling as I looked at my two newest friends.
These two boys had become more like family to me over the last few months, and it surprised me that they even considered me a friend. I had blackmailed Matt into all of this, and Chase had gone along with it because he thought that it would help Matt maintain his cover. It wasn’t fair to either of them, but somehow they managed to forgive and forget, and become my friends.
I had never made friends easily. Brooke and I were solid together, but we were awful at making friends. We were similar that way, and it was partly why we were so good together. We weren’t friends, we were more like sisters. I missed her. Just knowing how much we’ve been through together in our friendship, and the fact that we’re more like sisters than friends really helps when I think about whether Brooke would forgive me or not. I just know deep down that she will. She couldn’t stay mad at me for forever.
If Matt could forgive me for blackmailing him, then Brooke could forgive me for sleeping with her brother, right? At least, that’s what I hoped.
Chapter 30
Alyssa came running into my room, shoving the door open wide. Her brown hair was neatly brushed up into a high ponytail with little wispy strands hanging down around her heart shaped face. She was wearing a cute sun dress that was tight at her torso, and then flowed loosely down to the center of her thighs. If it weren’t for the way that she had rushed into my room without knocking, I may have complimented her on her outfit.
Oh man, our parents weren’t even married yet and she was already acting like a little sister; barging into my room unannounced.
She looked excited, and a bit shocked as she said, “Someone’s here to see you!” She wasted no time grabbing my hand and pulling me from my bed. Thank God I had decided to wear a tank top and basketball shorts to sleep tonight and hadn’t just rolled into bed in my usual nighttime attire. That would have given the guest a wonderful show.
“Who is it?” I questioned, being pulled down the hallway against my will. Her grip on my wrist was like a vice, and despite the fact that I had tried to pull my wrist free, I just couldn’t. It only made her clutch harder.
“You’ll see,” she replied in a sing song voice as we reached the top of the stairs.
I rolled my eyes. “It had better be fucking Barack Obama waiting for me downstairs since you pulled me out of bed.” Only the president was going to make me get out of bed, and maybe not even him if I had already been asleep. I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Seriously, who would be here to see me at nearly twelve o'clock at night? Don’t they know that a girl needs her beauty rest?
I let Alyssa pull me around the corner and into the living room, seeing no reason to fight against her. I swear the girl was possessed or something. As we rounded into the living room, and Alyssa finally came to a stop, my mouth dropped open in shock.
Sitting on the living room couch was Brooke, her blonde hair hanging around her face in neat waves. She was wearing a pair of beat up red Vans, light blue skinny jeans with rips in the knees, and a white t-shirt that had the words Panic! at the Disco written on it in big red letters.
Sitting next to her, his arm strangely tossed over her shoulders was a guy that I had never seen before. His hair was jet black and cut short, yet still managed to look a bit fuzzy and soft. His skin was nicely tanned and naturally dark. Noticing that I was staring at him, he shifted his eyes upwards to meet mine, giving me a wide smile that showed off a mouthful of straight, white teeth and one deep dimple in his left cheek.
“Hey,” I said, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
Brooke turned her head, finally noticing that I had walked into the room. She gave me a small smile, her eyes meeting mine for a second before she stood up, and opened her arms out. She waved her hands slightly, beckoning me to her. “Oh, come on,” she tempted. “You know you wanna hug me.”
I smiled, having missed her and her sense of humor. I ran forward, wrapping my arms around her tightly. Her hair smelled like strawberries and I hadn’t truly realized how much I missed having my best friend around until I was standing there, hugging the life out of her. “So does this mean you forgive me?” I asked excitedly, pulling away to look her in the eye.
She raised an eyebrow. “Well,” she began, smiling when she saw my expression drop. “Of course I forgive you. You knew I would forgive you eventually.” She batted her eyelashes, and to my surprise, I noticed that she was wearing mascara, as well as her usual thin layer of eyeliner. She also had on lip gloss, and—was that a hint of perfume I detected
? Since when did Brooke wear perfume? We normally just smelled like bath soap and laundry detergent, but today, she smelled like strawberry shampoo and fucking cherry blossom perfume. What have I missed?
“Yeah, but I didn’t think it would take you a week and a half. I was sure you wouldn’t have a proper conversation with me until after a month or so, maybe even longer.”
Brooke bit her lip. “It probably would have if Bryan hadn’t talked to me about it. He explained that what happened between you and Austin is in the past, and that since you told me it wouldn’t happen again, there’s no point in being mad at you. It’s not worth throwing a friendship away over, and everyone makes mistakes. Yeah, I’m still a little mad at the fact that you didn’t tell me, but what can I do about that now? I can only just forgive you, and tell you that in the future, if you don’t tell me stuff, as your best friend I have the right to shave your head in your sleep.” She smirked at me, tilting her head to the side. “So now you know the consequences for the next time you hide something from me. I won’t be mad, I’ll just shave your head.”
I shook my head at her words. “Well, then as long as the same consequence applies to you, I’m okay with it.”
Brooke smiled, hugging me again for just a second before letting me go. “I missed you too.”
Smiling, my eyes met Brooke’s again. “So who the hell is Bryan?” Then I leaned to the side a bit, staring down at the guy that was on the couch next to where Brooke had been sitting. “And, who the fuck is this?”
Just as Brooke opened her mouth to answer my questions, Austin came marching into the living room from the direction of the kitchen with a plate full of Pizza Bagels and Lay’s potato chips. When he noticed me in the room, a smile creased his face. “Jade, it’s good to see you again.”
“I wish I could say the same to you,” I spat as my smile faded from my lips. “Glad you could make yourself at home like you own the place, too.”
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 21