Chapter 16

Part 1

Somehow, word got out to the school janitors that I had actually done the after school cleaning duty that one afternoon Mr. Matthews decided to be a prick and threatened to lower my grades if I didn’t do it. Since then, the janitors have been forcing me to do their shit every once in a while in exchange for only a quarter of what they make in a day.

The janitors spoke to me today during lunch, and once again, I was stuck at school until 6 P.M doing the same tedious work that made me want to kill myself the first time. Except for this time, it was a lot less fun than last time as I no longer had Xela with me anymore.

Speaking of Xela, absolutely nothing has changed since the last time I’ve spoken to her. We’ve both been avoiding each other as much as possible and neither of us attempted to fix the fact that we haven’t talked in nearly a month. There was no need to fix that. Chad and Xela were getting along perfectly fine, and me coming along in the picture would only ruin things.

However, I couldn’t deny the fact that I was lonely. Since Xela started distancing herself, I’ve had nobody to text nor talk to after school since Rebekah and Will have been too busy with each other, leaving me all on my own.

Part 2

After 3 whole hours of cleaning the school, I decided to call it a day. As I was leaving the building, I saw Rebekah near the exit of the school, getting ready to leave too.

“Hey,” I greeted. “What are you still doing here?”

“Oh, hi Johnny. I just had to take care of some club stuff. Why are you here so late?”

“I had something to take care of too. Well, I’m going to get going now, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, hurrying to the exit.

Just as I was about to step outside, I felt her grab my arm. “Wait, Johnny! We need to talk.”

“I already know what you’re going to say and I’m not in the mood to hear it,” I said, turning back to face her.

“Please, hear me out this one time and I’ll leave you alone all you want.”

“What is there to discuss? Xela found herself a boyfriend, they seem happy, end of story.”

“You’re stupid if you think that’s all there is to it.”

“Are we really going to talk about this?”

“There’s no running away from this Johnny.”

“Can I at least sit down? I’ve been cleaning the school for three fucking hours and now my legs hurt.”

“Fine.”

We walked to the nearest hallway we found and sat down next to each other with our legs stretching out. I enjoyed my last bit of silence until Rebekah began scolding me.

“Okay, what the fuck is wrong with you? Do you have any idea who that guy is???”

“No.”

“They call him Chad the Dick, and he’s notorious for being the biggest fuckboy in the whole city. I know like four other girls who think they’re dating him, but once he fucks them, they’re tossed out the window the next day.”

“Quite a reputation he has.”

“You can tell just by looking at him that he’s that kinda guy.”

“I know.”

“So you knew?”

“Yes.”

“What the fuck? Why would you encourage, let alone allow her to date him then?” she asked.

“I tried talking her out of it and she got really pissy, so I just decided to support whatever decision she makes.”

“Jesus Christ you’re stupid.”

“What???”

“When a girl gets pissy like that, it’s because they’re kind of happy you’re trying to talk them out of dating someone else. You know how she feels- or at least felt about you right?”

“Yes, because I was supposed to know that when girls are acting pissy they are actually happy. That makes total sense.”

“Everybody knows this!”

“I didn’t!’

“Because you’re stupid. How many times do I have to tell you this?”

“I get it!”

“Do you really? Clearly, you’re not doing anything about it. I’m confident that even after all of this, you’re going to go back and continue fucking everything up like you always have,” she said, her voice growing more and more furious.

“What the fuck was I supposed to do? Force her not to date him so I can take her for myself?”

“No, but you certainly weren’t supposed to do whatever the fuck you did either. Let’s see… you encouraged her to date the biggest fuckboy in the city, you lost all connection to her to the point where you two are completely avoiding each other now, and now she tells me that you were talking to some other girl now!”

“Alyssa?”

“Who the fuck is Alyssa?”

“Never mind her! I talked to her ONCE! ONCE!”

“That’s enough for Xela to think you want nothing to do with her anymore.”

“Did she really say that?”

“If I were her I’d say the same.”

“Whatever.”

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

“Wrong answer.”

“I don’t care.”

“You do realize that if nothing changes, you’ll probably end up never talking to her again, right?”

“That’s okay as long as she’s happy with Chad."

“What about him tossing her out the window after he’s finished with her do you not understand?”

“Xela’s different than other girls. If he has a brain, he’ll realize it sooner or later and break off whatever he has with anyone else.”

“Guys like him don’t have a brain!”

“Just believe in him. If they manage to stay together, good for them, If they break up, it’s not the end of the world.”

“If they break up, you know she won’t come running back to you right? You need to do something now before it’s too late,” she said.

“Why don’t you try doing something then?”

“I have. Believe me, you don’t know how much I’ve tried convincing her to break up with him. She won’t listen to me.”

“What makes you think she’ll listen to me?”

“She listened to you when you told her to date him, didn’t you? If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

“Things have changed. She won’t listen to me anymore.”

“You won’t know unless you try.”

“The only fucking person she’s going to listen to now is Chad,” I said.

“God fucking dammit Johnny! I knew you were gonna do this. Stop being so scared and actually do something about it for once in your life.”

“Why do you care so much anyway? All that matters is that Xela’s happy right now. We’ll deal with the other stuff when and if they break up.”

“Don’t forget that you’re my friend too. Look at you, you’re miserable.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine”

“Stop pretending you’re okay! I know you well enough to see that all the smiles you’re putting on for everyone are all fake. Be honest with yourself!”

“Can we not make this about me? Only thing that matters right now is Xela, and I’ll say it one more time- everything is fine as it is right now. End of discussion. I’m leaving now,” I said, as I stood up and began to leave.

Suddenly, she stood up as well. “What about your relationship? What about everything you built up until now? Are you gonna let that dickhead completely take all of that away from you?”

I stopped walking and turned back to face her one last time. “She’ll be fine without me.”

“What about you? How will you manage without her?”

It was too late for me to respond as I was already out the door.

Part 3

On my way back home, I decided to stop at the convenience store to pick up something to drink. As I was about to walk in, I saw Will standing near the entrance, looking as if he was waiting for someone.

“Hey,” I called out to him.

“Yo.”

“What are you doing here so late?” I asked.

“I was waiting for Rebekah to finish with her club work, but since you’re here I guess I’ll just walk with you instead,” he said as we began our walk home.

“You don’t want to keep waiting for her here”

“Nah, it’ okay. She’s not really the needy type. Besides, I haven’t talked to you in a while either. Here, have this,” he said, tossing me a bottle of water he had in his hand.

“This was supposed to be for Rebekah. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. You look like you really need it anyway. What happened?”

“3 hours of cleaning the school followed up by your girlfriend furiously yelling at me.”

“Yeah, she hasn’t really taken the Xela situation lightly. Wait, you know we’re dating.”

“Yeah, she told me a while ago. That’s besides the point.”

“Right. Anyway, you had it coming for you. When Rebekah gets mad, she gets mad.”

“I know. I was expecting it sooner or later.”

“You’re lucky you’re still alive.”

“Haha, I expected it to be worse too,” I said while lightly laughing. “What do you think about all this? Do you think I made the right choice?”

“No.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“But I can understand why you did it. Honestly, if I was in your situation I’d end up probably doing the same thing.”

“THANK YOU! Finally, someone that says something other than ‘oh, stop being so scared.’”

“Were they all girls?”

“Yes.”

“Thought so. Girls don’t understand just how scary they are.”

“Still, I have to put some blame on myself. In fact, this whole situation is mostly my fault.”

“What are you going to do about it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. What should I do?”

“That’s up to you to decide.”

“Fine, let me rephrase. What would you do if you were in my position?”

“Hmm, that’s a hard question. I’d probably try doing everything I could to break them up.”

“I don’t think I have what it takes to do that.”

“I figured you’d say that. Oh well. Know that whatever you do, I’ll support your decision,” he said, taking a sip out of his own water bottle.

A few steps later, we reached the intersection where our paths home differed.

“Well, this is where we part ways,” Will said as he began walking the other direction. “It was fun talking to you, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Hey, Will.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for talking to me today, it really helped.”

He turned around to face me with a grin on his face. “Anytime, Johnny.”