A Hater's Gamble (BxB)

NINE

"Beautiful Mistakes, I make inside my head"

                                     M I L E S

My hands were bound behind me. I gave a tug, but they were so tight that I felt my blood circulation slow. When I peaked my eyes open slowly, I realized I was in a cellar of some sort. Dirty floor. Scruffy walls. It smelled horrible.

Liam was beside me, his eyes were closed and his head was resting against the wall. I knew he wasn't still unconscious. He was too still. I nudged him with my elbow, hands still bound. He opened one eye.

"Stop that. Close your eyes, play dead," he whispered harshly.

"What are we doing here?," I asked, feeling panicked. "What did you do?"

With both eyes closed, he said, "If you don't shut that whiny mouth of yours, I'm going to do them a favor and kill you myself."

"This is all your fault," I whispered back.

His eyes flew open and his mouth drew back in a snarl. "How is this my fault? You're the one who came to my party in the first place. No one fucking asked you to come."

"Grace did," I retorted.

He scoffed and shook his head. "Whatever, Medley. I can't believe I'm going to die here, next to you," he said in disgust.

I looked down at my lap. "Trust me," I muttered. "The feeling is mutual."

"No," Liam said. "No, it's not mutual, I'm not a coward. I never sold out my friends. Not like you did."

I removed my gaze from my lap and faced his fierce blue eyes. Oh, how I wanted to be untied so badly, only to strangle him.

"You don't—," I stopped short and swallowed. "You don't know what really happened. I don't owe you an explanation."

In eighth grade, we were just kids. Liam, Diego, Sam, Frank, and I. We were close, very close. Inseparable. Until one night, when we were caught stealing from a very expensive art store. There was truly no purpose of stealing, we were only bored.

The police didn't see it that way. In fact, it was a sure crime.

I escaped without them, and when I arrived home and hysterically explained the situation to my mother, all she said was, "You weren't there. You're not going to be dragged down along with those friends of yours."

I protested and told her that we needed to go back and bail them out of trouble. All she did was drag me to my room. Back then, she had a good relationship with the police department because of her roots in the town, and they never once questioned me, her beloved son. I remembered sobbing myself to sleep that night, because I knew that my mom would come up with a fabricated story of how I was in no way involved, when that wasn't the truth.

The next day I discovered that I was right. My mom convinced the police that I had been home, preparing for an exam. The police department took her word. Liam and Diego lost their chances on the baseball team that year, and the following. I was the only one who got to play at the start of freshman year, but I declined it, because that was when everything toppled.