Teach You How *Scömìche*

Chapter 6

SCOTT

Kirstie stares at me with one eyebrow arched from across the table. We're sitting in Starbucks, and I'm sipping my drink slowly, avoiding eye contact with her.

"So you weren't with someone?" she asks.

"No."

"I heard someone laugh."

Dammit. Mitch giggled at something I said during my awkward conversation with Kirstie earlier. I should've known she would hear.

"That was..." I trail off. She'll figure out eventually. Should I just tell her?

"That was someone," I finish my sentence and lean back in the seat.

Kirstie gasps and leans forward. "I knew it! Wait, you- I thought- are you a virgin?" She lowers her voice a bit when people start looking over at us.

I feel heat flooding my cheeks as I remember the events of last night with Mitch. And this morning.

"N-no. Not anymore," I admit, looking down at my half empty cup. She's going to figure it out and be pissed at me. I know it.

Startling me, I hear her fist slam down on the table. When I look up, Kirstie looks mad.

"You went to that goddamn party, didn't you! You went to that goddamn party and slept with someone, and you were with them this morning! Come on, Scott!" she groans, covering her face with her hands.

It's going to be worse when she figures out who it is.

"Who?" she queries, peeking at me through her fingers.

I clear my throat and look away.

It's my life though, so she can't control what I do. I can do what I want, who I want, when I want. I'm going to be moving again probably at the end of this school year, so why does it matter? And besides that, college.

I really shouldn't be getting this close to people already, but oh well. I'll miss Kirstie, but Mitch is just a fling. Right?

"Oh my God. It was Mitch, wasn't it?" she exclaims angrily, "You let Mitch take advantage of you!"

"He didn't take advantage of me," I mumble a response, but Kirstie doesn't pay attention to my answer.

"He's not- ugh! Why didn't you listen to me?" she grunts, running her hands through her hair.

That gets me a bit irritated. "Because you're not the boss of me?" I snap.

The door to Starbucks opens and I hear three familiar voices. One, I recognize really well. The other two, not as well.

Kirstie looks past me to the door and glares at me. "They're coming this way."

"Hey, Kirstie. Hey, Scott." Kevin says from behind me. I look over and make eye contact with Mitch. It hasn't been that long since I saw him last, but I feel my heart beat a little faster.

"Hey," Kirstie replies, shooting a dirty look in my direction.

There's a bit of an awkward silence, all of us just looking at each other, until I decide to break it: "You want to sit down?"

It's kind of funny watch Kirstie get more and more irritated with me by the minute. I guess I never realized how much she really hates these guys- well, just Mitch, I guess. I actually don't really know how she feels about Kevin, but she has a thing for Avi.

My phone makes a sound, so I check it. I have one new message - from Kirstie.

You fucking idiot. What are you doing?

I look up and shake my head at her. The three pull up chairs at our table.

"So how was the party last night?" Kirstie says, not even bothering to hide the venom laced through her voice. I don't get why she's so worked up about this. It's my life. I can do what I want. I understand that she might be worried about me, but it was one night. Well, and this morning. But it won't happen again.

Mitch glances over at me. I bite the inside of my cheek and give him a small nod, as if I'm saying, she knows.

"Pretty great, actually. You should come to next week's party," Kevin says to Kirstie.

"Yeah, you should," Avi adds, looking at her with some sort of admiration in his eyes. It's kind of cute, actually.

"Yeah, Kirstie. It'll be a lot of fun. You should come too, Blondie," Mitch says, keeping his eyes on me the whole time.

Kirstie gives him a sickly sweet smile. "Ooh, sorry. I have better things to do than fuck every person that makes eye contact with me." She raises her eyebrows at him and shrugs innocently. Mitch's jaw tightens.

I look between Kevin and Avi frantically, but they both seem unaffected. Does this happen a lot?

"Excuse me? At least I can have a little fun. At least I don't have a stick up my ass," he retorts, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"Fun? Yeah, if you find prostitution fun, then yeah, I guess you're right."

"It's not fucking prostitution, you bitch. You're just angry that your one and only friend ever disobeyed you and came to that party. Since everyone has to listen to you." That last sentence is absolutely dripping with sarcasm. I look between Mitch and Kirstie. I don't want them dragging me in the middle of this, them arguing because of problems in their past.

I've been in this town for what, a week barely? I've never had to deal with anything like this before. I have no idea what to do.

Kirstie's jaw drops. "Because I don't want him around you! But looks like that didn't work! You probably forced him-"

Mitch cuts her off. "I didn't force him to do anything!" His lips move up into a smirk. "You really think I forced him to fuck me-"

"Stop!" I yell, standing up.

Everyone in Starbucks turns to look at me. I have no idea how they didn't hear the argument, but now they're staring. I push my chair back and storm out of the coffee shop. I don't want to hear any of it.

I hear footsteps behind me, so I speed up, keeping my hands in my pockets and my head down.

"I don't want to talk to you," I grumble, not caring who it is. I don't want to talk to either Kirstie or Mitch.

"Scott, stop."

It's Avi.

I stop abruptly and turn around. "What?" I snap.

Avi adjusts his beanie. "They have problems, as you can probably tell. But... ugh... They shouldn't have dragged you into their problems, and I'm not apologizing, I'm just... They've never argued before, they just ignore each other, until you. But you might be able to bring them together, and I think that'd be cool, because I like Kirstie, and..." he trails off, looking away. His cheeks are tinted red.

"And if you two ever got together you don't want Mitch to totally hate her guts?" I finish for him. He shoots me a small smile and nods.

"It'll be hard. Like, really hard. Didn't you see what just happened?" I chuckle a bit. This is ridiculous. They're ridiculous.

"Yeah, but... Give them both a chance to cool down, I guess." Avi shrugs.

"Yeah." I look past him, towards Starbucks. "Hey, if they're both still in there, tell Kirstie I'll talk to her later, okay?"

Avi half-smiles. "Sure." He turns on his heel and walks back.