Take Me

Chapter Twenty-Two

♔ Chapter Twenty-Two ♔

"I forgive you," Hebe admitted. Her eyes looked somewhat sad, somewhat pitiful. All I could hear in her voice was resentment.

"You do?" I asked, barely audible, wondering why. Usually, when I fucked up with Hebe, she'd stay mad at me forever, until I came crawling back with my tail between my legs. Even if it was her fault, I'd always run back to her in the end, because usually, I had no one else to run to but her. But our time apart, all because of one stupid argument, forced me to stand by myself, even if only for a little. It let me meet new people like Darby, and become friends with Bobby. Above all, it sorta brought Luke back to me.

"I just said so, didn't I?" Her eyes were playful, a smile on her face. Hebe was supposedly my best friend, ever since we were younger, but she really knew nothing about me.

When my brother died, she didn't speak to me until the whole situation died down. Once it seemed like I was okay again, she bounced back into my life, all smiles and rainbows and sunshine. Whenever things got tough, she avoided the problem, she never brought it up. When she caught me crying or just generally being depressing, she'd turn her back and pretend she never saw it.

It wasn't that she was cruel, I just think she didn't really understand affection, especially dating someone like Isaac. I don't think she knew how to comfort someone, so she avoided it, she pretended like she wasn't witnessing her best friend in the whole world crumbling right in front of her. She ignored my problems, she ignored that I just needed someone to talk to, always the master pretender.

But at the end of the day, Hebe and I always met each-other halfway, we'd always come back to each-other, no matter how much of a bad influence she could be sometimes. And that was just Hebe, always looking out for number one, I guess.

I hadn't realised it, but I didn't think I was even actually friends with her, not in that moment. It was like I was something at her convenience, someone she could toy around with while they were around, and then constantly ignore for days, or even weeks at a time, before diving back in again. It was what she did, she came in, left, and came back.

She got your hopes up that maybe you were really friends, and then she'd pretend you didn't even exist for days at a time, only to come running back like nothing had happened at all. I'd never really told her any of it, but it was all there, bubbling at the back of my head, that she was actually just a terrible person. But I loved her anyway, I couldn't help it.

"How are you and Isaac?" I asked, closing my locker. She'd sprouted up randomly, surprising me.

It had been a few days since I'd last seen Luke, writhing under me, imagining me taking his virginity. I'd avoided everyone since then - my mum, Darby, Isaac, Bobby. I knew with the situation that I was in that I couldn't even go back home. I'd packed what things I could, and I'd been sleeping at Bobby's. That was, at least, until Mrs. Doorsdale found out and invited me to stay at her house, which was practically now where I lived. She had a nice son, a year younger than me. Quiet, shy, definitely closeted.

"Isaac and I are great, just great, couldn't be better, you know? And the sex? Great. Just fucking fantastic!" As she spoke, her face got redder and redder, it was easy to tell that everything was not fucking fantastic. "We broke up."

I sighed in relief, but managed to switch it back to an encouraging yet disappointing groan. "Really?"

"He dumped me, but I'm so telling people I dumped him. I can't even believe it. But you know what? I'm so okay, because I don't need a man in my life, I really don't. I'm fine. Whatever."

"Why did he do it? Did he say anything?" I asked, my lips trembling. What if he spoke about us, about what we'd been doing recently?

"You'll never believe this, right, Tom. He told me there's someone else," she gagged, looking more angry than upset. She was probably upset that he cheated on her before she got to cheat on him. Hebe loved creating drama.