Begin Again - A.I

forty two.

"No way, so she's cheating on him again?"

Michael was telling us his new Marie updates the following Monday at lunch. It was weird for me to hear about because I wondered if Ashton know, and if he did, did he even care? What was so great about Marie that he was willing to look past all the wrong she had done and continues to do?

"I told him but he doesn't believe me," Michael says, chewing his sandwich somewhat angrily. 

"Just like last time," Calum says, shaking his head.

"What happened last time?" I ask.

They all sigh.

"Basically she cheated on him," Luke says. "Multiple times."

"She'd go on and on to him about how much she loved him, and talked about their future, but she didn't mean any of it," Michael says. "She just liked Ashton because he liked her. She liked the attention. She continued to cheat on him and we all knew it, and we all tried to tell him, but he wouldn't believe us. He was too invested in her."

"Then one day he finally saw it happen and he confronted her about it and she completely flipped the whole thing and made Ashton feel like it was all in his head. That it's his fault, everything's his fault, he doesn't deserve her, he's worthless." Luke sips at his water. "It fucked him up."

"She's very mean," Calum says.

"She's fucking evil is what she is," Michael cuts in. "She treated Ashton like shit and now she's doing it all over again."

I almost feel like crying. I hated Ashton for what he did, but I felt so much sympathy for him. I didn't know why he let her destroy him like this. I missed holding him. I missed kissing him and hearing him laugh. I missed loving him.

"We need to find a way to expose her. Make him see the truth," Luke says.

"Like what?"

"Set her up. Plan to see her fall."

Michael sits up straight. "The rally."

"Yooo, yes."

"What's the rally?"

"It's this stupid fucking thing we have every year for the soccer teams-"

"Soccer?"

"Football. Shit, I forget you're American. Anyway, it's supposed to be this huge game and-"

"Well, it is a huge game," Calum interjects. "It's our final and-"

"Yeah, whatever, can you all just let me get to my fucking point?" Michael sighs. "Anyway, it's a huge game and the whole school attends because it's this huge social thing."

"Will Marie go?" I ask.

"Not normally," Michael says. "But she's changing things up due to her slut ways, take the party for example. Marie hates social events but lately she's been to quite a few. She'll probably be at the rally."

"With Ashton," I state.

"How are we going to expose her?" Luke asks.

Michael leans in. "Alright. Here's what I'm thinking ..."

-------

"So how was the movie date?" I ask Michael as we walk to the gym. It was Friday night, the night of the rally. And our plan to destroy Marie was full go.

"It wasn't bad," he replies. "We saw The Avengers, which was awesome. She said she really enjoyed it, which is double awesome. We had fun."

"Are you going to go out with her again?"