sweatshirt ✓ [ON HOLD]

4. blackmail

Tate

After spending what felt like a thousand years looking for Brian, I finally decided to give up and just head home.

He's probably hooking up with Kelsey again.

The walk home was longer than expected, probably due to the fact that I was drunk and it was almost two o'clock in the morning. Maybe I should've texted my mom or my dad to come and pick me up, though they would probably be sleeping.

Normally Brian's older sister Andy would have picked us up, but seeing as I could not find Brian, it would just feel weird getting a ride home with his sister. Besides, it's not like my house is hours away.

When I make it home, I sneak into the backyard and slide the glass door open. Thank god my parents didn't lock it, otherwise i would've had to climb onto the second story and jump in through my window.

The second I make it inside, I jump straight into bed and fall peacefully to sleep.

>>>

The weekend went by in a flash, and by Monday, everyone at school was talking about Archer and Stella's break-up.

"I can't believe she cheated on Archer Wilde!" I heard someone say as I walked down the corridor towards my locker.

"Maybe now I might have a shot." Said another voice. 'Pick-me' much?

"O-m-g! Archer must be soooo depressed." A girl dressed in beige said, her expression neutral as she swiped through whatever was on her phone.

"There's already a hashtag on tiktok about it!" What the f-?

"Do you think Archer would take my v-card?" Oh my god?! I wish I could un-hear that.

"Tate Remington." An all too familiar voice pulls me from my eavesdropping.

I look up to see Jemima Singh twisting a thick strand of her hair with a manicured index finger as she leans against my locker.

"Jemima! So good to see you!" I lied.

"I saw you at Wilde's party." Oh, we aren't exchanging pleasantries?

"I didn't see you."

She pushed herself off of my locker, allowing me to unlock it.

"You left in quite a rush." The bell for last period may ring before she reaches a point.

"I saw you walking out of Wilde's bedroom..." she went on. "In his shirt."

Oh......

"Right...... you see, I kinda.." I attempted to explain. "Well, I fell and." God I'm terrible at this. "I fell into him—the door opened—I fell back, there was a drink then SPLASH!" I act out getting drenched by an alcoholic beverage. "My shirt was ruined."

Jemima laughed, louder than expected, which caused a few people to look our way.

"So he gave you the shirt, that he was wearing?" She shrugged in confusion.

"Yea?"

"Here's the sitch. I make sure to leave this specific scandalous detail out of my next blog update, and in return," she smiled wickedly. "You have to do whatever I say."

This took a turn...

I was completely speechless. "Huh?"

"I am blackmailing you."