Megan hurried out to lunch, barely able to believe what Greg had said. She'd broken up with Jake? Well, that would definitely explain why he wasn't talking to her. And why none of his friends seemed all that thrilled to see her either. She could only imagine the reason they thought she'd given for it.
As she sat there with her friends, Megan's shock started to turn to anger. Sure, they weren't really dating, but did that matter? He'd broken up with her. They were supposed to at least be friends. She couldn't tell which hurt more – the fact that her pretend-boyfriend had broken up with her, or the fact that she'd let him trick her into thinking that they were even friends in the first place. Besides, she couldn't help but notice that Jake had managed to put all the blame for this right on her shoulders. She hadn't done anything to ruin their relationship, so why did he have to make everyone think it was all her?
Well, she guessed she did lose the bottle. Maybe that was enough of a reason for him to break up with her. She had to admit, if she was in his shoes, she might have done the same thing. She wasn't completely sure she'd really stay with someone who'd let her get kidnapped like that.
Still, did he have to make it all her fault? Why couldn't it have been mutual or something? At least then she wouldn't have Jen's boyfriend so mad at her. Of course, if Megan thought Greg was annoyed with her during Spanish, it was nothing compared to how he felt when she sat down at the same lab table as him during science. At least in Spanish, she'd been near the back of the room – completely out of either his or Jake's line of sight. But here, they got to sit and face each other.
Greg was already at the table when Megan sat down. He completely ignored her, which Megan guessed was better than what he could have done. But when Jake sat down, things only got worse. The two of them started talking quietly together about some soccer game Greg had coming up, and Megan decided that now would be a very good time to pretend to be interested in the reading she hadn't actually done last night.
Jen sat down next to Megan a few minutes later. She took one look around the table before her eyes landed on Megan.
"Well this is going to be great." she mumbled under her breath.
Greg glanced over at her but didn't say anything. That was odd – Jen hadn't said it loud enough for Greg to hear, had she?
The bell rang, and Ms. Harle started talking about how to do chemical equations. But Megan had a hard time paying attention. She found herself glancing up at Jake, trying to figure out what was going on with him. But of course, he was as emotionless as ever. Maybe Jen was right – maybe she really had made a mistake in thinking that he liked her. But if he was just using her because she'd been his master, why did he have to pretend to actually be her friend? Couldn't he have just acted more like a roommate or something? If he'd done that, it would definitely have made this whole thing bother her less at least.
Jen slid a piece of paper casually in front of Megan.
You ok? she'd written.
Megan just nodded numbly. Jen snatched the paper back and wrote something else.
You don't look ok, she'd written, before shoving it back under Megan's nose. Megan sighed before writing down a message of her own.
I'm fine. Except for the fact that I broke up with Jake, she wrote. She still couldn't believe that Greg had really said that.
Yeah – this weekend. Jen looked at her like this was old news.
When? Megan asked, giving Jen a look. Wasn't Jen over Megan's this whole weekend looking for that stupid bottle?
Jen thought about it for a minute. She turned and looked at Jake, studying him intently. Then, a light seemed to go off in her head. Suddenly, she turned back to Megan, scribbling furiously.
You didn't break up with him, did you?
Of course not. Megan wrote back. But Greg thinks I did, and Jake's not talking to me.
And Megan didn't see the need to mention that even Jen had thought they'd broken up until about five seconds ago.
Jen seemed to consider that, not saying anything. Then, she glared up at Jake, suddenly looking incredibly annoyed at him.
Megan was just glad someone else was beginning to feel the same way. She'd been starting to wonder if maybe it was just her; no one else seemed to have a problem with what Jake had done.
Jake stared levelly at Jen, not blinking. Actually, he kind of looked like he was daring her to say something. But what would he possibly want Jen to say? Didn't he know that Jen would be only too happy to confront him about all this? But maybe that was his whole idea – to rile them up. Megan would have thought Jake would try to be more careful than that, but maybe now that he was with someone else, he wasn't as concerned. Besides, Megan knew that look – he was ready to cause trouble at any cost.
Megan hadn't seen that look in a long time – at least, not since he'd stopped acting like her genie a month or so ago. So, if he was back to that...was it all an act? Megan couldn't decide.
Greg looked at everyone at the table carefully. Jen looked mad, Jake had a strange kind of smirk on his face, and Megan was pretty sure she just looked stressed.
"Everything ok?" Greg asked, eyes going from Jake to Jen and back.
"I'm ok." Jen told him. "But maybe you should ask your friend."
"Nothing's wrong with me." Jake shrugged, like Jen was just overreacting to something.
"Oh yeah?" Jen snapped. "So what happened with you and Megan anyway?"
"Jen – don't." Megan mumbled.
What was Jen really expecting Jake to say? It wasn't like he'd be telling them the truth – especially not with Greg sitting there. Besides, Megan really didn't want to get into a table-wide fight right here in the middle of class.
Jen just looked at Megan, eyebrows raised. Megan found herself staring down at the table; she really didn't want to have to deal with this right now. All she wanted to do was put her head in her hands and pretend that none of this was really happening. The only thing stopping her was the fact that she didn't want to look pathetic in front of her best friend and her apparently ex-boyfriend.
Against her better judgment, Megan glanced back over at the boys. Greg was looking a little confused at the way Jake and Jen were acting. He might not be able to decide quite what he thought about those two at the moment, but he still seemed to be pretty sure of his opinion of Megan. He saw her looking at him and glared; whatever his friend and girlfriend might be doing, Greg obviously blamed this whole thing on Megan's breaking up with Jake.
Slowly, Megan slid her eyes back over towards Jake, trying not to look too pitiful when she did. When Megan had stopped Jen from going after him, he'd been surprised; she'd seen the look flash quickly across his face. And as soon as he realized that Megan wasn't going to let her friends tell each other off in the middle of class, his whole demeanor had changed. Now, he was back to wearing that emotionless expression on his face that he only got when he was demonstrating just how little he really cared about what was going on. Of course he didn't care – why should he?
That did it. Megan raised her hand.
"Ms. Harle – can I be excused? Please?" She didn't even bother to think up a good excuse – she probably didn't need one anyway. Ms. Harle looked at her a minute.
"Is there a reason you need to leave right now?" she asked.
Megan just stared at her. She'd been so used to doing whatever she wanted at school that she couldn't quite believe Ms. Harle would even ask.
She glanced over at Jake – he did something, didn't he? So, it looked like her wish really had stopped working.
"Can I go to the nurse's office?" Megan asked. It was the first place she could think of other than the bathroom. And the bathroom might have been less dramatic, but she wouldn't be able to stay there all period.
It took Ms. Harle almost a full minute before she nodded her consent.
"Go." she said.
She might not have believed Megan, but it looked like she also didn't want to have to deal with the possibility of Megan being sick in the middle of her classroom.
As soon as Ms. Harle nodded her dismissal, Megan stood right up. She grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She was just about to leave when she turned back to Greg.
"Just so you know – I didn't break up with him." she whispered tersely.
Greg looked at her, shock on his face. And out of the corner of her eye, Megan saw that even Jake was having a hard time keeping that neutral expression he loved so much. Good. Now maybe he'd have to actually explain to Greg and Jen what he'd really been doing.
And with that, Megan turned around and headed out the door, not even glancing back as she left the room.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDacpQPnFrr
