Today is the day of the Halloween dance and I have half a mind not to go. Everyone will have a date but me. Even Trisha has a date. Her and Josh are going as Shrek and Fiona. Patrice and Scott are going as Beauty and the Beast, and Drew and Courtney are going as Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.
Where’s an asp when you need one…?
Em and Mark Cooper are going as Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and me…I’m just a lone assassin. How fitting?
After much convincing, begging, bribing and threatening to scuff up the new shoes Drew bought me, I agree to go to the stupid dance. Trisha, Josh, and I all climb into Josh’s car, and the closer we got to school the more anxious I became. Drew had already left, which meant he’d be there with Courtney and I’m not sure I’m ready for this.
The music in the gym is so loud you can hear it from the parking lot. We make our way into the crowded building full of super heroes, ghosts, vampires, and various Disney characters to the ticket counter to hand in our tickets.
“Hey you made it!” Patrice shouts over the music.
I turn in her direction and come face first with the reason for my anxiety. Drew and Courtney stand hand in hand looking like the picture of puke-worthy perfection.
“Dang Sid!” Xerxes looks me up and down. It’s the reaction I was hoping to get from Drew, “I’ll be your hidden tiger any day of the week, just say the word.”
“Ew,” I scowled, “You’re like my brother Xerxes.”
“Did you really show up here alone?” Courtney chuckles, “Where’s your date? Oh wait…right…I got your man.”
Don’t punch her…don’t punch her…don’t punch her…
“Court, don’t,” Drew tugs at her arm.
This is exactly what I expected from Courtney, “I’m gonna go get something to drink,” I told them, making a quick exit. I couldn’t get away from Drew and Courtney fast enough.
“Sid,” Drew calls after me.
Why did he have to come after me? Why couldn’t he just leave me alone? Or leave her alone? “What do you want Drew?” I sigh.
“I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Yeah, and since when do you care about whether I’m okay or not? If you really cared you wouldn’t be parading Courtney around in my face.”
“It’s called an open relationship for a reason Sid.”
“Yeah, and I don’t want one, but apparently you do. So I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
“Can we talk about this later?”
“Why not? Nothing I say matters to you anyway.” I shrug.
Drew walks away and it takes everything inside me to keep it together. I want to find whoever invented the idea of an open relationship and beat them senseless…then kick myself for thinking this was a good idea. I shouldn’t be here. I should be home wallowing in self-pity.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Quincy walks up next to me.
I’m about to give him a piece of my mind when I notice he’s dressed like someone from Assassin’s Creed. I’m ninety percent sure he did it for me seeing how he doesn’t have a date and my lips curl up into a smile.
“You don’t ever give up do you?” I smile.
“Not when it’s something I want,” he smiles back.
“Who told you I was going to be an assassin?”
“No one. I don’t know if you know this, but you and I sort of have this connection,” he smirks.
“Yeah, and her name is Patrice,” I laugh.
“How did you know?”
“Because she’s the only one who saw my costume.”
“Busted,” Quincy laughs.
“I love your costume.”
“I love yours too, would you like to dance?”
I look around the room. For the first time since arriving I haven’t wanted to slit my throat or be swallowed up by a black hole, so I’m tempted. Quincy holds out his hand for me to take, and throwing caution to the wind I take it. Drew was punishing me anyway. I may as well get punished for a reason.
As if the universe wanted to send Drew a message, the DJ put on Rihanna’s needed me. He and I made eye contact but Courtney’s big butt grinding all over him pulled his attention away from me again.
“Ignore them and focus on me,” Quincy turned my face towards him, “I’m your date.”
“Oh so now this is a date?” I laugh.
“It’s probably the closest I’m ever going to come to one since you keep flaking on me.”
“About that,” I grimaced, “Things with Drew and I…they’re…complicated.”
“Drew’s a complicated guy. I mean he’s with the most beautiful girl in school but tonight he’s planning on sleeping with the one girl in school EVERYONE has slept with,” Quincy scoffs, shaking his head.
“Wait, what?” I reeled back, “Drew’s planning on sleeping with Courtney? Tonight?”
“You didn’t know?” He seems surprise. “A few of us guys were giving him a hard time about being whipped and about being a virgin because he’s waiting on you. Needless to say he didn’t take it very well.”
“Why would you do that? Oh my God…I have to go.”
No wonder Drew asked Courtney to the dance. She was what the guys called a sure lay. Quincy and the other guys on the team set off a ticking time bomb otherwise known as Drew with all of the comments and jabs at his manhood. I knew he had a problem with his friends thinking he was whipped, but I thought he’d gotten past it. I guess their constant harassment has finally taken its toll on his pride and he decided to do something about it. Drew was finally falling in love with me and his friends had to go and ruin it. UGH! I need to find him.
It wasn’t hard. He was still on the dance floor with Courtney warming up for what he had planned for them later. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from Courtney.
“Don’t do it. Don’t go through with it. I know you’re planning to sleep with Courtney but I don’t want you to. Just…come home with me,” I plead with him.
“Sid-”
“If you do this, it will change everything. EVERYTHING.”
“Are you done?”
“Um…yeah,” I nod.
“Good, because I’m gonna go back to my date and you can go back to talking to Quincy.”
“Seriously Drew, you have some nerve,” I scoff, “ you brought another girl to the dance. You don’t get to be upset about Quincy and I talking to each other.”
“I’m done with this conversation.”
Drew starts to head back over Courtney but I stop him. “Listen to me, please. Our first time should be with each other, not you hooking up with some random girl. I know you’re pissed and you feel like you have something to prove, but this is more than that to me Drew.”
“See now, there you go trying to control me again.” Drew scoffs, “you’re always trying to control me.”
“What? No. Drew…I’m not trying to control you, I love you,” I explain, “there are some things I’d rather just keep between us and sex is one of them.”
“Duly noted,” he nods, walking away.
“Drew.” I call out to him. “Drew!”
He ignores me and returns to Courtney. The two of them come over to say goodbye to everyone and he purposely doesn’t say goodbye to me. He’s ignoring me.
“We’re gonna head out,” Drew hugs Scott.
“Have fun,” Scott smirks.
“Are you really going to go through with this?” I ask, “don’t do this.”
Again he ignores me and says goodbye to the rest of the team. The closer he gets to the door, the more I feel like my heart is going to implode. I’ve never had my heart broken before, but if there were anyone who could do it, it would be him.
“Sid, are you going to be okay?” Patrice asks.
“No.”
Taking a deep breath, I follow Drew and Courtney out into the parking lot. I don’t try to stop him, I just watch as he and Courtney drive off together. There’s no way he’d go through with it, right?
I don’t want to go back inside the gym and pretend like everything is okay. It’s not. Besides, I know what’s waiting for me inside the gym. There’ll be nothing but pity in my friends’ eyes and I’m so pissed at Quincy and the rest of the Drew’s teammates that I just want to go home. As a matter of fact, that’s what I’m gonna do.
I take the twenty-minute walk back to my house. Patrice texts me when I’m halfway there to find out where I am, and I told her to let everyone know I went home.
Turning onto my street I stop cold when I notice Drew’s car sitting out front of his house. I text him hoping he decided to drop Courtney off at home, but he doesn’t reply. There’s nothing but silence on his end and now my mind is running wild wondering what he’s doing. His parents aren’t home, and something tells me that if I knock on the door he won’t answer.
What if he’s inside with Courtney?
I head into the house and go straight to my room where I pace the floor, staring out my window at Drew’s house. I text him several more times, but he’s not answering. Anxiety spreads through me and I practically burn a hole through the floor I’m pacing so hard. Why won’t he just answer his phone?
Because he’s probably sleeping with Courtney…
The thought makes me feel sick to my stomach and panic takes over. I climb out onto the landing outside my window and I watch his house. Em, Josh and Trisha come home at around ten but Drew still hasn’t text me back yet.
Around midnight Drew’s front door opens. I’m praying he’s alone, but when Courtney steps out onto the porch, all my hopes are dashed. I watch from the landing as a car pulls up to take her home. It’s her brother. Drew kisses her goodnight, she gets in the car and then she drives off. She was in there the whole time doing God knows what with him.
He starts to head into the house then stops like he can sense me watching him. He turns and sees me sitting on the landing, then crosses the street and climbs up to the landing to sit down next to me. For several minutes we both just sit there in silence staring off into the distance. But curiosity gets the better of me and I can no longer avoid asking the question driving me crazy, “Did you do it?” I ask, dreading his answer.
He nods, sending a shockwave of hurt throughout my body, “Yeah.”
I look over at him and tears form in my eyes. I know we have an open relationship and I know I agreed we were both free to do whatever we wanted…but as I take in his eyes, his lips and remember the abs I know Courtney just enjoyed at my expense, I can’t help but feel…robbed. Tonight Drew took something special from me out of spite.
“I hate you,” I stare off into space as more and more tears fall from my eyes.
“I know,” he sighs.
“Leave.”
I’m angry and hurt, and I don’t want to look at him anymore. After climbing back into my room I shut the window and close the curtains. I can still see his silhouette sitting there for several more minutes before he finally gets up and leaves. Cupping my hand over my mouth, I allow myself one audible cry. That’s it. I change into my nightgown, curl up in my bed, and allow my silent tears to put me to sleep.
Em wakes me up the next morning with a cup of Starbucks and a teddy bear. “I heard about what Drew did to you,” she smiles apologetically, “I bought this for you. His name is Mr. Sniffles.”
“I’m pretty sure the world has heard by now,” I groan, pulling Mr. Sniffles into a hug.
“What are you going to do?”
“What can I do?” I shrug, “he made it perfectly clear my feelings don’t matter to him, so you know what, I’m just gonna do me.”
“Are you breaking things off with him?”
“Yeah. I think it’s probably for the best don’t you? I’m not dumping any more feelings into us. Our relationship became a joke the moment he slept with Courtney.”
Em hugged me and I squeezed her as tightly as I could. She let me know Josh was waiting downstairs for me, so I got up, got dressed, grabbed the shoes Drew bought me and hurried out to the car.
“How are you feeling?” Trisha asks.
“I’ll feel better once I dump Drew.”
“Are you really going to dump him?” Josh asks.
“I deserve better,” I nod, “I may love Drew, but he made me look really stupid last night. I don’t care what our relationship status is, I deserve better.”
Trisha and Josh exchange glances. I’ve made up my mind though. I can put up with a lot of things, but what Drew did last night was so disrespectful and selfish. I couldn’t be with someone like that.
When we pulled into the parking lot Drew’s car was there but he wasn’t waiting for me like he normally would be. We always walked to first period together.
After putting the shoes and his hoop necklace in my locker, I headed to first period. When I walked in, Drew was flirting with Courtney. His back was turned to me, so he didn’t see me, but she did. She pulled him into a kiss and he didn’t protest.
When he turned around and saw me sitting in my usual seat he hesitated for a second. I shook my head at him and focused on my attention on the day’s lesson, which was written on the board.
I didn’t bother talking to him at all during first period. As a matter of fact I ignored him to the point of actually forgetting he was there. When the bell rang for me to head to second period, I didn’t bother looking back to see if he was following me. It was the same for third and fourth period. I didn’t want to talk to him until I was ready and I could hand him back the stuff he gave me.
Once lunchtime rolled around I planned to do just that. I went to my locker to retrieve the things Drew gave me, and then I met up with Em, Trisha and Patrice for support. They walked with me over to the table where Drew was having lunch with his teammates and Courtney was at his side. I tossed his necklace down in front of him and sat the shoes down on the table.
“What are you doing?” Drew looked at me like I’m crazy.
“This is everything you’ve given me,” I explained, “I’m giving it back because I’m done. You can give your shoes to your new little girlfriend and you can cut your necklace up into tiny little pieces for each of your teammates to have to since what they think means more to you than I do. Have a nice life Drew.”
I turn to leave when he grabs me by the arm and pulls me down into the seat next to him. He slides both the necklace and the shoes back over to me, demanding I take them back.
Is he out of his mind…?
“You’re not going anywhere.” He glares at me.
“Drew…”
“It meant nothing.”
“You say that like that makes it okay,” I scoff, raising my voice. “That’s part of the problem with you! You act like you’re the only one that matters in a relationship! You do what you want, when you want and with who you want, but when the shoe is on the other foot you can’t take it! I barely say two words to Quincy and you ignore me for a week, but its okay for you to sleep with Courtney? I’m DONE!”
I stood up and for the second time, he pulled me back down in the seat next to him. “Lets take a walk and we can talk about it.” He suggests.
“Really? Oh now you want to talk,” I laugh, shaking my head. “When I wanted to talk to you, you couldn’t be bothered. So you know what…talk to the hand because the face aint listening.”
Thanks to my outbursts all eyes are on us. I stand up to leave and he tries pulling me back down into the seat a third time. But this time I’m able to yank away from him. I sit back down with my friends hoping he’d just let me move on with my life, but a few minutes letter Em nudges me to let know he’s on his way over to talk to me.
WHY…? WTF!
Thankfully, Josh cut him off, “You should go back over to your friends and let her cool off,” Josh told him.
“Get your hands off me Josh,” Drew stared him down.
This is turning into a nightmare. Drew isn’t as accepting of the fact that our relationship is over as I thought he’d be. He’s staring through Josh like he isn’t even standing here and I have no doubt that he’d go through Josh to get to me.
Josh held up his hands, but he didn’t budge from where he stood. Drew attempts to go around him and Josh tries to stop him. That’s when things escalate and Drew shoves Josh backwards. Now Josh is in Drew’s face and if I don’t stop this, my brother and ex-boyfriend are going to come to blows.
“Drew, stop!” I shout at him.
“Then talk to me. I’m not leaving until you talk to me and as much as I like your brother I’ll go through him if I have to,” he demands.
“Fine,” I cave.
Whatever stops you from making a scene...
Scott hands Drew the bag I gave him and I follow Drew out into the hall. When he doesn’t stop there, I follow him out to his car and he practically peels out of the school parking lot. I have no idea where we’re going, I just know Drew’s pissed and I have no intention on backing down.
ns 18.68.41.167da2
