The Benefits of Sexting

Chapter 10

Porter was having a meltdown.

I'd seen him worked up over things before, but never like this—never so dramatic.

"She's going to kill me, murder me. Next time you see me I'll be a human chair or stuffed in a basement freezer."

Ty and I exchanged worried glances. "Porter, you still haven't told us what happened."

"She's going to burn me alive, that's it. That way there's no mess. She can just leave my ashes in the forest somewhere."

I shook my head. "Do you think he can even hear us?"

Ty shrugged. "Let's find out. Hey Porter, there's a big ass centipede right by your foot."

There was absolutely nothing more intense than Porter's fear of centipedes, though maybe his mother was somehow able to top them. Porter barely moved. Instead, he lowered his head into his hand and started to swear.

"Wow, did he just drop the f-bomb?" Ty asked.

Porter was hardly one to curse.

"She's going to go through my things once she's disposed of the body and find my old action figures I promised to throw away," he muttered, standing up as he began to pace the room.

"Okay, this is enough." I stood up and grabbed Porter's shoulders and shook them as fiercely as I could. He wasn't a huge guy, but he was still a lot taller than me so the action altogether wasn't the easiest. "Get yourself together, man," I shouted. "Tell us what the hell is going on."

Porter's glazed over eyes focused on me. "Last week I was so distracted with writing our history paper that I totally forgot we had a test in physics. We got it back today, and there's no way my mom isn't going to murder me for the grade I got."

Ty rolled his eyes. "What, an A minus or a B plus? I got a C and that was even unexpected. One low A or B won't kill you man. She'll understand."

"I got an F. A fifty three percent to be exact," he admitted.

Wow, I thought. That was something I thought I'd never hear Porter say. "No way, dude, I got a higher grade than you on the test," Ty laughed.

Once again, that was something I never thought I'd hear. "I'm sure she'll be upset for like a day or two and get over it. Maybe you can retake the test?"

Porter shook his head. "I already asked—begged. It's a no. And the last time I got a B on a test she wouldn't look at me for a week. This is disastrous."

"You know what's disastrous," I said. "The fact that I'm meeting with Jack in an hour at Ally's Bistro and I have no idea what I'm going to say."

Ty threw his arm over my shoulder and gave me an assuring squeeze. "It's good that he wants to talk, right?"

"The last time we talked I may have blown up on him. I don't know, guys, tell me what to do. What does this mean in guy world? He said he wanted to talk."

"Then he wants to talk," Porter told me, sounding slightly calmer. 

"I mean, sometimes guys say that when they're about to break up with a girl, but seeing that you're already broken up..."

Great, I thought. Could this be Jack's way of finally breaking off all ties he had with me? Or maybe he was finally going to tell me why he broke things off in the first place. At least I'd finally have closure.

But I was still hopeful. If he was upset about the idea of me being with another guy, that meant he still cared. And that meant we still had a chance.

"How are things with Emily?" I asked, hoping a change of subject would distract me.