Broken(13 Reasons Why)

9.4

~Althia~

"It's that bad, eh?" Jeff broke the silence as he read our body language
We kept our gaze on him and he sighed
"Look I came here to talk to you guys but if you're going to give me attitude and just stare at me, I'll walk back straight out the door" Jeff told us
"Do it" Jessica challenged him
"We didn't ask you to come here, you decided to come" I reminded him
Jeff kept our glares until he blinked and closed his eyes as he leaned on the wall, taking a deep breath
"You said this is about the dance..." Jeff spoke again more to himself than to us "What did I do?" He groaned
"Jeff, seriously?!" I exclaimed
"You ignored us the entire fucking night!" Jessica added
Jeff opened his eyes and looked at us
"That's not true, I talked to you guys" Jeff defended himself
"That's bull fucking shit" Jess told him
"Talking to us at the snacks table for a second and then rushing off is not talking to us, Jeffery" I shook my head as I pursed my lips
Jeff winced a little at the sound of his full name
"You didn't come to me either, you can't put the whole blame on me" He threw his hands up in irritation
"Oh please" I scoffed "You showed up at the last possible minute, we shouted at you when you finally showed up, you saw us, you waved at us, you walked right past us, you danced right beside us and acted like we weren't there, you barely talked to us at the snacks table, you saw us slow dancing with the other guys and still you didn't say a word, you ignored us all night, you complained on Instagram that you didn't get any pictures with us, you commented on our pictures like you hung out with us the whole night" I listed everything he had done "As if you didn't know all of this" I finished
"Look I'm sorry that you both feel like I ignored you, that wasn't my intention. I was busy with Claire, she was my date. You guys know how excited I was about going to this formal with her" Jeff told us
"That doesn't matter" Jess said "I went to the dance with Alex. Did I ignore Monty? No. Did I ignore Justin? No. Did I ignore Althia? No. Did I ignore Zach? No." She added
"We were going to this dance as a group. Sure some of us had dates but that doesn't matter" I continued with where Jessica was going "If we managed not to ignore all of our friends, there's no excuse for you" I went on
"But I was with Clai-" Jeff started to say
"We don't like her! None of us fucking like her, Jeff!" Jessica exclaimed before shutting her mouth right after, realizing what she had said
"Jesus Christ, Jess" I muttered
"Fuck" She mumbled
Jeff stood in front of us taken aback from what he had just heard
"You guys don't like her?" He quietly asked
"Jeffy" Jessica got up and reached for him, obviously feeling bad for what she had just said
Jeff pulled away from her as I gently stood up as well
"No" He clenched his jaw then unclenched it "Saying you don't like her isn't fair, you don't even know her" He said
Jessica and I exchanged glances
"You both said it yourselves, we didn't even talk to you guys at all last night" Jeff continued "How-How can you say you don't like her when you barely spoke a word to her? That doesn't make any sense" He added
"Jeff, that's why we-" I started to speak but Jeff interrupted me
"I should've known this would have happened" He shook his head as he ran his tongue over his teeth "You guys were so excited to help me find a girl but you didn't expect it to go well because hey, Jeffy is supposed to stay single forever right? Nope! You're just saying you don't like Claire because I actually really like her and she'll be taking my attention away. That's the real problem here! Althia and Jessica need all of the attention in the world and the second they don't get it, it's World War 3! Well guess what?! I don't give a fuck! For a second there, I thought you were looking out for me but no that's not it. You're just afraid of losing some attention. So let me guess, if I don't end things with Claire, you'll replace me with someone else? Is that where we are now? Replace me with whoever, hell, you can even replace me with Bryce... There's no bad attention, am I right ladies?" Jeff ranted, spiting the words at us
My jaw dropped as his words cut me deeper and deeper
"Wow" Was all I said
"If that's how you really feel, Jeffery, maybe you should leave" Jessica spoke
"Go give your attention to Claire" I told him "We'll hit up Bryce and Scott because we're just needy for attention" I added
Jeff glanced at us one more time before turning away and walking out of the room. Seconds later, the front door was being slammed closed.
"I cannot believe that just happened" Jess exhaled
"What the hell was that?" I questioned
We stayed there for a moment, both going through what had just happened in our heads silently before slowly walking towards the stairs where we started our way upstairs
"That didn't sound too good" My dad grimaced as he past us on the stairs
"Dad..." I looked at him
"Sorry it was kinda hard not to listen but I'm needed at the office now so you two will be alone" He told me
"Okay" Was all I responded
"Call me if you need me" Dad said
"Thanks for letting me stay over" Jess gave him a small smile
"Anytime, Jessica" Dad replied as he grabbed his laptop bag and put his coat on
We continued our way up the stairs
"Oh and ladies" Dad spoke making us turn around "He'll be back soon and hear him out, he'll know that he screwed up... Don't be so hard on the boy" He told us
We both nodded before finishing our way up the stairs where we went into my room and decided to watch Gossip Girl because, and I'm quoting Jessica, "Who needs real life boys when you can have Chuck Bass".