a step too far, and I really had no comeback seeing as the conversation took a detour into weirdsville.
To my surprise, Stephanie threw her head back and began to laugh, and I’m not talking about a weird witchy laugh either—she really sounded as if she were entertained. “Really? Tough guy Jesse is scared by that? Please. It’s just a quote from my newest fanfiction.”
“Not scared, more like disturbed.” I shuddered to make my point. “Either way, if you take your head out of your stupid elf-themed written pornography—”
“Ha, ha.”
“—you’d see that I’m not forcing her to do anything. She joins me on my—”
“Shenanigans?” Stephanie made a disgusted face.
I shifted uneasily and shook my head. We all knew ‘shenanigans’ was a code word for fooling around. We also knew that I’d never do that with Rocky—not that I didn’t want to, but that’s another story.
“Of course not.” I cleared my throat.
“Good. She’s already been traumatized from that one time she accidentally walked in on you fucking one of your conquests. No need for you to cause further damage by adding her to your bedpost notches.”
The blood drained from my face. “What? What are you talking about? When did she walk in on me?” I paused and winced. “With who?”
“Whoops. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. Forget I said anything about it,” Stephanie replied quickly.
How the hell was I supposed to forget something like that? Especially since she had it all wrong. I was just about to tell Stephanie that there was no way Rocky could have seen me fucking anybody, but she was clearly keen on changing the unfortunate subject, which I was most grateful for.
Brushing her tangled mess of hair away from her face, she sighed. “I’m just looking out for my friend. For some reason, when she’s with you it’s as if her judgment gets clouded.” She paused to scrutinize me. “It’s as if you’re some drug addiction she can’t shake.”
If my insides weren’t twisted before, they certainly were now. Being compared to a drug was the lowest insult anybody could give me, especially given the household I had grown up in. Of course Stephanie was as oblivious to it all as usual. She was lucky she was my friend. She’d get a free pass and avoid the lashing out that I’d been known to give at a drop of a hat.
Stephanie groaned in exasperation. “Besides, she’s been ditching me all month to hang out with you! You know she didn’t show up for our weekly Thursday TV night? We ended up missing our favorite show and for what? So she could join you on the roof? How lame is that?”
Okay, now I was angry. Slamming my locker shut, I turned at my waist and scowled at her. “Is this what this bullshit is really about? You’re mad because you missed watching that stupid actor strut around shirtless?”
Stephanie’s mouth dropped open. “No! Of course not!”
“Rocky’s my friend too. You don’t think I want what’s best for her? If you really want her to stop doing the things she likes to do, why don’t you talk to her and not to me? Seems there’s a common denominator to this question and I’m not it.”
“Jesse—”
I turned and walked away before she could finish her sentence, flipping my middle finger in the air as I walked off. There was enough bullshit in my life, and I didn’t need any more. Especially from somebody who was supposed to be my friend.
As I meandered through the hallways of the school, the crowd parted—on cue—looking like the Red Sea. Usually being the school pariah didn’t bother me much, but that day it especially rubbed me wrong. Maybe Stephanie was right. Maybe I was a bad influence.
“Whatever,” I muttered, sneering at my schoolmates. “It’s just high school.”
Bethel Falls High School was the bane of my existence. It wasn’t like any of those dumb shows on TV depicting high school as the best years of your life, and it definitely was not a place to grow and prosper in—at least for me it wasn’t. With all its social hierarchies and pseudo-caste systems, high school was just a reminder that those who were lucky enough to be considered a member of the privileged bunch had an easier time than lowlifes like me.
Now, don’t go feeling sorry for me. I was used to it…at least I made myself believe I was. It was even a bit fun to think that I somehow had the ability to scare and