quick lasagna dinner. When the bath didn’t work, I took some Benadryl and crawled into bed, willing sleep to hurry up and take me.
The next morning, I woke up groggy from what I assumed was the Benadryl, but at least I had gotten the sleep that eluded me most of the week. The clock showed that it was ten-thirty. Throwing off the blankets that covered me, I got up and put on a pair of black stretch pants and a purple long sleeve waffle weave Henley reserved for cold days. Slipping on a pair of thick purple socks, I made it out to the kitchen where I made myself a bowl of cinnamon oatmeal. Sitting down at the bar with the tasty, but unappetizing-looking breakfast, I took the first bite and the phone rang. On the third loud shrill, I answered. It was Jensen.
“Hey,” he said with a soft voice.
“Hey, yourself.” It was good to hear from him, but I could tell something was wrong.
“How’s senior year treating you?”
Small talk. Do we really need to do this? “Oh, you know. Not really that different from junior year. Anything new about Savannah and the … ummm … situation?” It was awkward referring to Jensen’s kid as ‘the situation,’ but I didn’t know what else to say.
“Yeah, I, ah, called her and we talked about everything. I took a DNA test last Wednesday and will know for sure in a couple of weeks. I already know what it’s going to say though. I’m going to have to tell my parents so we can talk to our lawyer about child support and drawing up some kind of agreement about visitations and stuff like that. Savannah says she doesn’t feel it would be fair to make me pay for anything retroactive since she made the decision not to tell me.”
“Do her parents know?”
“She’s going to tell them after we get the DNA results back, but I’m sure they’ve had an idea I’m the kid’s father all along. I think I’ll fly up and tell my parents at that same time, too. This isn’t the kind of news you tell over the phone.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, biting my lip. I could tell there was something else on his mind.
“Mia,” Jensen deeply sighed, “I need to tell you something. You know, I’d prefer telling you this in person, but this is eating me up inside and I need you to know before another day passes.”
Oh, shit. My stomach clenched.
“When I came back to school early, I was in a bad spot and smoked some of Erik’s weed because I thought it would help with the stress I was dealing with. Anyway, Erik got me to go to a party where I had too much to drink.” He paused. “Fallon was there.”
“You got high?” Was that the first time? For some reason I noted that and not the fact that he said Fallon’s name.
“Yeah, but that’s not the point,” he quickly said.
A lump started to form in my throat. Do I want to hear the rest of this?
“The thing is … we ended up back in her dorm. I don’t really know why I went, but we kissed. That’s it. I stopped it before it went too far because I love you.”
“You kissed her?” I croaked, not sure if I should feel relief that I had not only done the same thing, but more. Wouldn’t we be even? No. What he was saying felt like betrayal, so I could just imagine what he’d feel if I told him what I had done.
“Shit.” I could almost see him running his hands through his hair nervously. “We made out ... touched each other.” He was talking faster than ever. “She took her shirt off and mine came off, too. She was wearing a bra, but I touched her tits. She touched my dick through my pants. That’s it, I swear.”
I remained quiet. Jensen didn’t normally use the words ‘tits’ and ‘dick’ to describe body parts, at least around me, and it caught me off-guard. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing hysterically. I wasn’t sure why it was so funny.
“Say something,” he pushed when I stayed mute.
Searching for something to say, I glanced up and through the window I noticed Aria’s car pulling up in my driveway. She flung the door open and it appeared as if she was already running when her feet hit the ground. She looked angry. “Jensen ... I ... I have to go. Aria’s here and she doesn’t look happy.”
“Mia, wait—” Jensen pleaded as I hung up on him.
After tossing the phone down on the couch, I stood up and took a deep breath. It rang again almost immediately, but I ignored it and started toward to the door to meet Aria outside.
“Mia! You are such a fucking bitch! How could you?” Aria’s hair was wild, she wore no make-up, and she was dressed only in a black and white t-shirt and black leggings. She looked like she’d left the house on a whim.
Nate had definitely told her.
“Does Jensen know you cheated on him with Nate?!”
Aria was seething and all I could do was just look at her. What could I say? She knew the truth and what I said wouldn’t make any difference. Just then I heard the sound of an engine and looked over to see Nate’s car pulling in behind Aria’s. He jumped out almost before it came to a stop. The two of them must have been in bed together because his hair was also mussed up and the jeans he wore were unzipped and his grey t-shirt appeared to be inside-out.
“Aria, don’t do this,” he pleaded. “It was a mistake and she didn’t know what was happening. She was pretty hammered and thought I was Jensen. We didn’t have sex, I swear! We only kissed and slept in the same bed.”
My eyes were wide as I stared at Nate. What the fuck? When I asked him if we’d had sex he had said yes! I dug into my memory of the next day to confirm. Wait ... no ... actually he hadn’t. I asked him if we had slept together. Technically we had and he was telling the truth, but he led me to think we had. Come to think of it, he also never really answered my question about whether or not we used a condom, either.
“She blacked out,” Nate admitted, trying to comfort Aria and pull her into his arms, but she was trying her best to hold him at arm’s length.
“And what if she hadn’t?” Aria screamed. “Would you have gone for a home run and fucked her? Is that it, Nate? What the fuck? How could you?
“I was drunk, too. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. You know I love you.” Nate looked like he was about to cry as he tried pulling her closer to him. Aria tried pulling away and then finally gave up, sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder as he slowly combed her hair with his fingers. Over and over he said how much he loved her, looking at me as he did so.
I pushed the small thought aside about how I was glad I didn’t have close neighbors to witness this shit show in my driveway so I could focus on my own anger at the situation. “How could you lie to me?” I demanded. “And what if I had told Jensen?”
Nate didn’t answer; he only looked away. Aria, who had finally calmed down, tore away from him and pushed herself right up into my face. I held my ground as I stared down at her red and blotchy tearstained face.
“You. Stay. Away. From. Nate,” Aria furiously demanded. “Stay away, got it?!” Her eyes were bulging but instantly narrowed before turning and breezing her way past Nate to get to her car. Sliding inside, she slammed the door closed and gripped the steering wheel while waiting for Nate
