Chapter 5 - Overthinking

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I stayed up hella late to write this and am very tired and so there are probably errors in this, please comment if there are :)

I caught Alex's eye and lightly motioned towards the door. He cleared his throat.

"Actually, Evan and I should probably head out." Ben sent a glare his way, but soon everyone else followed suit and started shuffling and grabbing their things, saying goodbyes to each other.

Alex and I followed a few others out and everyone dispersed. He pulled out a cigarette when we made it outside and I sighed, giving him a glare as he lit it up. He ignored my disapproving look and inhaled, his eyelids dropping a fraction in content before he exhaled.

"So, what the hell was that all about?" He asked, motioning towards the bar. I frowned,

"I have no idea, you know them a lot better than I do."

"Well, yeah. But you've just spent an hour with Rowan—"

"Alex, you smoke?" Erik had snuck up on us. His phone was in his hand and I could make out the Lyft home screen. He turned and grinned at him,

"Only when—"

"He's drunk." I finished for him, plucking the cigarette from his fingers and putting it out on the bottom of my shoe. Alex groaned and pulled out the carton again.

"That's really stupid. And it'll hurt your stamina for basketball season, you won't be able to play more than a quarter if you keep it up." Alex laughed before lighting a new one.

"As if I'll make a college team, Erik." He shrugged,

"You never know. Anyway, you guys should come to my grad party this Saturday."

***

I plopped down on Lucy's couch in her guest room. Alex was on the bed fiddling with the remote and Madison was sitting cross-legged on the ground. Lucy had fallen asleep before we'd gotten there.

"So Maddy. What the hell was that all about?" She turned and looked at us, Alex stopped messing with the remote to listen. She sighed.

"Okay. Ben just has, like, a really bad reputation, specifically with girls." I frowned as she continued. "Like everyone else, he tried going after Lucy freshman year and got like, really creepy when she said no."

"Creepy how?" I asked. I'd never heard the rumors and was slightly hurt that neither of them had told me.

"He just... wouldn't stop texting her. She blocked him and he confronted her at a party once. Nobody's outright said he's raped anyone, but girls say he gets really aggressive when he's drunk. Lucy just told me that he tried putting his hands on her at that party and she left."

"Shithead." Alex muttered. "Wait, why haven't either of you ever told us anything?" Madison rolled her eyes.

"It's different for girls. I don't know. You guys would've gotten all protective and macho when we can handle ourselves perfectly fine." Alex scoffed.

"That's not true we're your friends we wouldn't have made it worse." She shrugged.

"You would've confronted Ben though, right?"

"Yeah, well, duh."

"Point proven." Alex crossed his arms but I still felt like it would've been better had we known. We could've looked out for them.

"Well," I joined in, "luckily we won't have to ever see him again, right? We're done with the high school bullshit."

They nodded along and Alex figured out how to operate the remote and switched the tv on. Madison left to go to bed and Alex had fallen asleep on the bed as Real Housewives started playing.

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