Playing His Game

Chapter Thirty-Four | Soul Survivor

Thirty-Four:

"I didn't sleep with her."

The words were replaying themselves on a constant loop, rattling around and bouncing off the walls of my brain to the point where I couldn't take it anymore.

Sitting across from Austin in Starbucks, forcing myself to listen to him talk while the words sat on the tip of my tongue, was absolute torture. I had been conflicted; I wanted to tell Austin so badly, to blurt out everything that had just happened, but a bigger part of me was scared. What if he didn't believe it? What if he thought I was pathetic for even thinking about what Trent had told me?

So I'd kept it to myself, cutting our time together short on the grounds of not feeling well, which was pretty believable considering the cold I was still getting over.

It was now Thursday, marking almost 24 whole hours since Trent dropped the bomb on me, and I feared I would go insane if I kept it to myself any longer.

Sharing a class with Lauren didn't help matters, either. It only seemed to make things worse for me, especially due to the fact that it was almost physically impossible for me to keep a secret from anyone, let alone my best friend.

The second I opened the door to Honors English and saw Lauren, I imagined myself throwing my arms up and yelling, "He didn't sleep with her!"

Instead, I bit my lip and trudged towards my desk, staying silent as I sat down.

I felt her eyeing me sideways as I stared ahead, bouncing my leg up and down and practically humming with nerves.

"You okay?" She asked.

My eyes flicked sideways as I gave a sharp nod. "Yep. Fine. Just...had a little too much coffee this morning. Hah, you know what caffeine can do to me sometimes!" I gave a nervous laugh.

Her forehead wrinkled, her mouth turning down into a frown of skepticism. "Yeah...I guess it's good to see you so energetic again."

She briefly turned away from me to accept Tyler's greeting kiss when he arrived next to her at his desk, before facing me again. "Anyway, how was coffee with Austin yesterday?"

I sighed a little, somewhat grateful to get my mind off my own thoughts. "It was fine. He's been a good friend lately."

"Yeah? And how did Trent feel about that?"

I balked. "Doesn't matter. And thanks for that, by the way. Don't think I didn't notice the way you basically called him down there."

Mr. Brooks finally rose from his desk with a steaming mug of coffee in hand, no doubt about to finally start his lesson, but it didn't stop Lauren from giving a self-satisfied shrug while answering me. "Sorry, you guys had to start talking out your problems at some point."

I bit my tongue, grumbling under my breath in response.

Lauren arched a dark eyebrow in question. "Soo, did you?"

"Did we what?" I rolled my eyes.

"Did you talk it out?"

Yes! No! Maybe!
He didn't sleep with her!
"Not really. He was just mad about me seeing Austin and that was pretty much it." I lowered my voice when I noticed the people around us stop talking. "Why? Did he say anything to you?"

Lauren glanced from the front of the room to me, shaking her head. "No," she answered in a whisper. "But don't think I won't be getting some answers soon enough."

...

Lauren's last words rang true for me less than two hours later, when I stumbled upon the last person I expected to see.