“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant you aren’t special to him. Did you ever see him with a girl longer than a couple of weeks? And then he started hanging with Donnie—”
“Donnie Weeks? The douchey captain of the football team?” In all of high school, I think I saw him talking to Donnie once. It was in hushed tones and as far as I could tell, Shane was seconds away from pummeling his face.
“The one and only. Listen, you’re not a guy and you don’t live in our world, but we’re not all good. Even the ones who put on an amazing front.”
“You’re not making any sense. None of this is making any sense. Shane wasn’t friends with Donnie. He hated him as much as we did.”
“Then why did they have a secret bet to see who could nail you first?”
I gasp, jerking away from his words and slamming my head into the window. I barely feel it through the pounding in my chest.
Shane would never do that.
But as I think the words, the day in the hallway becomes clearer.
Donnie had tried to talk to me at lunch. He strolled up to my table and sat down, asking me if I had any plans for the weekend. I got flustered with the way everyone in the cafeteria was gawking and I think I got three stuttering words out before Shane was standing there and telling him we had plans.
After school, when Shane caught me watching them, he broke off the conversation and told me he was giving me a ride home. Then he mentioned my run-in with Donnie to my brother over dinner that night.
Donnie never spoke to me again and by Sunday Jay and him ended their decade-long friendship.
But that picture of him in no way connects with the guy I’ve known most of my life or the guy I spent weeks with.
“Ly.” Jay places a hand on mine. “I know you want to think he’s a great guy, but he’s not. When he told me he had feelings for you, I lost it. I spoke with Donnie earlier in the day and he swore up and down Shane started the bet. It was some stupid graduation prank. We all made them, but most were something stupid like Saran-Wrapping the principal’s car or TPing the rival school.”
I blink back tears of anger or sadness, I’m not sure which. All I know is the image of the guy I’ve been falling for has been shattered, and it’s taken a chunk of my heart with it.
Blindly, I reach for the handle. “I’ll be in my room.”
“Ly, stop. Do you want to talk about it more?”
Talk about the fact that he’s kept this a secret for years and never once mentioned I was some sick joke to a guy I thought was one of my best friends? Yeah, no thank you.
I shake my head and make my way up the front steps. Jay hangs back, knowing I need space. I hate crying in front of other people and when I feel the urge, I lock myself in my room.
So, that’s what I do. I need time to compose myself before my parents get home. No way in hell do I want to explain today or the past couple of weeks to them.
With cell in hand, I flop down on my bed. Even after all the things Jay told me, I still have the urge to reach out and see if Shane is okay.
How sick is that?
What I need is a girls’ night.
I shoot off a text to Scar telling her to bring all the essentials before I bury my face under my pillow and hope a nap will help soothe all the emotions and thoughts whirling around inside me.
“Pizza or Chinese?” Scarlett asks as she whips out her phone and pulls up the delivery app.
I shrug, leaning against my velvet headboard, and try to focus on the movie playing on TV. Scarlett said it’s a rom-com, but I haven’t processed more than a handful of words the characters have spoken.
“No thoughts on food? Are you sick or something?”
I wish it were that simple.
When I don’t answer right away, she drops her phone and crawls over to me. “What’s going on?”
I’m going to regret this, but… “Do you think Shane is the type of guy who would bet to sleep with a girl?”
“Shane?” she laughs. “Um, more like the type who will threaten to beat the crap out of another guy for glancing his girl’s way. Why?”
“My brother found out about us. Today at lunch.”
“Shit.” Her hands fly up to cup her mouth. “What happened? Was Jay pissed?”
“Oh, it went about as well as you would imagine. The best part was almost getting kicked out of the restaurant and then Jay dragging me out of there as if I’m some child who needs to be grounded.”
“He can go all caveman with me whenever he wants.”
“Gross.” I cringe and she laughs.
“Sorry. Continue.” She crosses her legs and leans an elbow on her knee.
“He said he’s known Shane liked me for a while.” And that he was using me as a bet. A fact I still can’t wrap my head around. “Do you remember Donnie? He graduated before you moved here, but last summer we bumped into him in the grocery store and he all but ran the other way.”
Scarlett tilts her head in confusion, probably at the sudden topic change. “Oh yeah, that frat boy. I swear he acted as if you were gonna hex him just by looking his way.”
“That might be because he had a bet with Shane to see who could sleep with me first and when Jay found out, he threatened to castrate him.”
Scarlett’s black-rimmed eyes widen in shock. “No way. Shane doesn’t seem like the type of guy to do something so terrible. Jason and Dax maybe, but not Shane.
I shrug. “That’s why Jay and him stopped being friends. Donnie confessed, probably out of fear.”
“Wait. Donnie said this. Not Shane?”
“I mean, I’m sure Shane fessed up after being called out by Jay. He looked pretty guilty when Jay was all up in his face and didn’t even try to fight back.”
“Hmm.” With one of her freshly-tipped nails pinched between her teeth she glances away. “Did you ask Shane?”
“We haven’t spoken since he dipped without a backward glance.”
“Call him.” She holds out my phone.
“What? No way.” If he admits I was some bet, I won’t be able to handle it. Sure, we’ve only been kind of dating for a few weeks, but he was one of my best friends for years. Knowing that all I was to him was some sexual conquest will tear me apart.
“Fine.” She jumps off the bed and for a second I think she will drop it. The only thing that drops though is my stomach when I realize she still has my phone and now has it pressed to her ear.
“Scar. Give me the phone.”
With a flick of her hand, she gives me her back, and then she’s talking. “Shane, this is Scarlett. Yeah. So, you bet you could bang my bestie back in high school?”
Their conversation fades as the pounding of my heart fills my ears. In a second I’m up and launching at Scarlett’s back. I somehow hold on, but her stupid cheerleader legs are stronger than I gave credit for and she stays upright.
“Yeah. With Donnie Douchebro.”
Shane shouts something but can’t quite make out the words. Scarlett doesn’t get to ask him to elaborate because I get my hand on the phone and rip it away from her ear, pressing the end button before throwing it across the room. In the next second, we’re in a heap on the ground. Scarlett is laughing and I’m scowling and rubbing a fresh carpet burn on my elbow.