When the Bad Boy Isn't Bad

Chapter 25: Matches

Charlotte got over Blaze in a couple weeks, for the most part, and other than that, life was normal.

There was a huge party a couple weeks before Christmas break, at a guy named Holdyn's house. Of course, all my friends and I went together. Fletcher had told me he couldn't go.

We were having a great time, dancing around wildly from the alcohol in our systems, screaming and having fun.

Some guy was attempting a keg stand in the kitchen, but the guys holding him up were pretty drunk too, so he was swinging around and alcohol was splashing all over his face.

"Jennifer, let's go get a drink!" CJ yelled, tripping through the crowded bodies. I followed after her, quickly losing her and my sense of direction.

"CJ!" I screamed. I wasn't extremely drunk, mostly just hyper.

I couldn't hear anything over the yelling and laughter, so I pushed through the crowd, looking for her.

I ended up near the stairs and realized how badly I needed to use the bathroom, so I made my way up the stairs, pushing through couples making out and the occasional passed out drunk guy.

Once I was through that, I started looking around for a bathroom. All the doors were closed, so I gritted my teeth and picked one, hoping what was behind it wasn't too bad.

It was like one of those game shows, but what I would find would either be bad or worse.

I pushed the door open slightly, just enough to check if there was a sink or anything in there, but stopped when I saw a familiar face.

It definitely wasn't the bathroom, but it was worse.

I opened the door more to reveal a shirtless Fletcher, who was busy making out with the head cheerleader.

No way.

No fucking way.

I slammed the door open and pushed in between them, yelling in Fletcher's face. "Hey! Remember me? Your girlfriend?" I screamed, smacking his arm, tears beginning to pour down my face.

He looked at me, startled, as I screamed at him.

"You know what? Your girlfriend days are over. I'm done, I'm so done with you Fletcher," I sobbed. "We're over."

I ran for the door only to be jerked back by his hand gripping my wrist.

"Wait, Jennifer, I can explain," he begged desperately.

"No!" I yelled. "Go to hell, you fucking cheater!" I wrenched my hand out of his grasp and ran out the door and down the stairs, people parting for the insane screaming girl that came running through. I ran straight out the front door and to Charlotte's house, a two mile run, but I was too upset to care.

She had stayed home from the party, not wanting to be reminded of Blaze or even worse, see him, especially with someone else.

I knocked on her door frantically, and her mom opened it to my tear stained face, my makeup running wildly. She said nothing as I ran up the stairs to Charlotte's room, tears streaming.

"Charlotte," I gasped, falling through her doorway. She looked up at me in surprise and immediately her expression softened.

"Oh my god, Jennifer," she stood, rushing over to hug me.

"He cheated on me," I sobbed. "With the head cheerleader, they were just making out in some room, I couldn't-" I gasped.

She led me over to her bed and sat me down, handing me a towel. "Wipe your face, here, I'll help, God, he's such an asshole," she muttered.

"Why?" I sobbed.

Charlotte hugged me and it was a long time before she answered. "I don't know. Guys are jerks."

Three hours and five boxes of Kleenex later, I had finally calmed down somewhat.

"We're swearing off bad boys, forever," I said. We had both been hurt, and it was definitely not something we wanted to repeat.

"Forever," Charlotte agreed. I offered her a weak smile, a couple tears still slipping down my cheeks.

We decided to make it more official, so we gathered up all of my tissues and Charlotte found some of hers from a couple weeks ago when she had been crying over Blaze, and we brought them out to her backyard, dumped them in the fire pit, and threw matches in one by one.

"This is for every time we thought we liked them," I announced, dropping a lit match in.

"This is for every time we thought we loved them," Charlotte choked, dropping another.

"This is for even thinking they could be nice," I yelled, dropping about five matches in.

"This is for ever trusting them," Charlotte wiped a tear from her face and dropped in another match. By then, the fire was roaring and we were both crying. As much as Charlotte wanted to be over Blaze, she wasn't.

We sat outside until everything had been turned to ashes, and then we let the breeze carry those away.

I hugged Charlotte tight. "Never again," I whispered.

"Never again," she repeated.

We called our friends and told them to come over, and then I cried again as I told them what had happened.

"Maybe you should have let him explain," CJ suggested worriedly.

"There's nothing to explain. No way that can be made right," I said bitterly.

"We swore off of bad boys, anyways," Charlotte tells them.

CJ and Avery glanced between each other. Brianna and Madelyn looked at us approvingly.

"Okay, what do we have to do?" CJ asked.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"We're all swearing off bad boys too. First Charlotte, then you. Bad boys are no good. It's probably the best idea we've heard all night," Brianna said.

We all grabbed each other's hands and closed our eyes.

"We're never dating bad boys, ever again. We are completely swearing off bad boys, now and forever," Charlotte announced.

"Forever," everyone echoed.

"We just saved our own butts," CJ commented. Everyone laughed. Even I half-smiled.

~~~~~

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