The Bet

CHAPTER 22: Can I Trust Her?!?

ARLAN

I was sitting in the couch at home trying to focus my attention on a project that's due soon and is worth the majority of my grade when I hear the front door open and see my brother come walking in along with his girlfriend, with groceries in their hands.

"Hey bro!" He smiles.

"Hey." I reply as I feel like shit still from all that's going on.

"Is it cool if we talk? I've got to ask your advice about something?" He asks.

"Sure." I reply and close my laptop and set it beside me on the couch then get up and head out to the back to see what he wanted.

Before anything was said as soon as I closed the sliding glass door behind me, I felt a blow to my face really hard.

"You piece of shit!" He yells at me as I get up and start hitting him back and we get into a brawl.

"What the fuck is your problem?" I ask as I throw a blow to his face now and we continue like that for a while.

"You! You're my fucking problem! What the hell did you do to her?!" He yells as he pushes me up against the wall.

I knew right away who he was talking about.

"I hurt her!" I shouted back admitting.

"Why?!" He asks.

"Because I had to! I had no other choice!" I exclaimed and he looked like he was about to hit me again but stopped himself and shook his head.

"You always have a fucking choice bro. Why did you make this one?!" He asks me.

"You wouldn't understand." I tell him as I spit some blood out from my mouth.

"Try me. Because as far as I'm concerned, that money you're supposed to get, you're never getting." He tells me.

Now, before I fell in love with her I would have been pissed and practically devastated but I know that's not what I want anymore. I just want her and I deserve to not get it.

"I don't want it anymore." I tell him.

He scowls at me and looks confused also with his arms over his chest, waiting.

"Well this I gotta here." He says as he pulls out two chairs and has me sit in one.

"I'll always regret a lot of things and in a way, the bet being one of them. But I can't regret all of it. If it wasn't for that, I never would have gotten my best friend back. My real best friend." I started to say while feeling the pain come back again.

"What the hell ever happened anyways?" He asked.

"You were out of town and it was in Freshman year when I threw a party. That night I had planned to tell Korinna that I wanted to be more than friends with her. So I looked everywhere for her and then I..." I stopped myself. "I saw her and Rick kissing and he was moving his hand down her back and I just was pissed off and hurt. So I left and got my first hangover from that night." I tell him.

There's a few moments of silence between us before he broke it finally.

"So you assumed that they did something? Did you even ask her about her side? I mean no offense but, I have always hated that Rick guy. I've known guys like him and they can be dangerous and can't be trusted." He begins.

I suddenly begin to recall the night we first had sex and she had bled. Oh my god, why the hell didn't I figure things out then. That was proof that she was a virgin. They never did anything.

Fuck! Fuck! Holy shit! Fuck!

"Oh god, fuck!" I said louder.

"Now you're gettin' it." He laughs. "You have a lot of damage to repair but, you need to find out what really happened that night." He looks at me with a cocked eyebrow and I know he is serious and right.

"Yeah, I'll figure it out." I agreed.

"Good, cause if you don't, I will not hesitate to put you in the fucking hospital. Brother or not." He looks at me serious.

"Okay." I smile.

We give each other a bro hug and then we both head inside to clean ourselves up.

When the next day I go to school, I noticed in the first period that Nina had the side of her face covered. She's so vein I don't think I had ever seen her like that.

Then during the in-between classes break, I walk up and as soon as she turns to look at me, I notice that she is trying to hide her swollen up eye.

She quickly turns back to her friends and right away I knew who did it.

"I need to talk to you." I begin.

"I'm talking with my friends right now." She says.

"I don't care. It's important. It's about Rick." I tell her.

She takes a moment before turning back around to look at me after sending her friends away.

"What about him?" She asks looking down at the ground.

"He did that, didn't he?" I asked.

"I had it coming I got him upset." She says.

"Come on. You're not that stupid." I tell her.

"What do you want me to say? That he roughed me up a bit, took me against my will?" She asks with tears falling.

"The truth, yeah. Because believe it or not, he needs to be taken down. I need evidence though." I tell her.

"What kind of evidence? He'd kill you anyways before anything were to happen." She asks.

"I wanna try. People like him don't need to get away with shit. I need a recording of him admitting..." I stopped myself for a moment to fight back the tears and the anger before continuing. "Him admitting that he did something to Korinna that night at the party I threw in Freshman year." I tell her.

She looked at me surprised and then had a look of guilt.

"I'll see what I can do." She tells me. "I broke up with him, so I'll need to tell one of the guys to do it."

"Nobody can know about this." I tell her.

"Don't worry, everybody has been wanting to take him down for a while. Since the moment he changed you." She says.

"Well, thanks." I tell her.

She just sniffles and then nods her head before turning around and walking away.

I really hope this doesn't backfire on me and that she will really do this. We owe this to Korinna, not to mention, I will need her for getting the flash drive also. But I know, one thing at a time.

I have to see if I can trust her with this first.....

Next chapter will be posted soon! :)