BROKEN AND SCREWED(Broken_Part One)(12)

“Hey, guys!”
Both shared a look at my bright smile.
“What?” I rolled my eyes. “You guys want coffee?”
“No.” Angie snorted. “We’re just at the coffee hut to smell the merchandise, not actually to buy it.”
Marissa grinned and tightened her hold on the bags in her hands.
“Where’d you guys go?” I tried to count the bags, but there were too many. I wasn’t surprised. Marissa was the shopper in the group.
She shrugged and flipped her black hair over her shoulder. “Just some stores. I got a sexy outfit for school. You need to go with me next week. I’ve seen your wardrobe. You need something sexy for the first day.”
Angie narrowed her eyes. “Where were you last night? Justin had people over, but neither of us could get a hold of you all night.”
Ben sucked in his breath beside me. He started to hum from his excitement.
I shrugged. “I stayed home. I didn’t feel like going out.”
“But you couldn’t tell me that? I texted you a million times.”
Marissa arched her eyebrows and looked at Angie in surprise. She bit her lip as a frown formed.
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been out of sorts.”
“You’ve been out of sorts for a long time,” Angie snapped and crossed her arms. “What’s going on with you?”
“Hey—” Marissa opened her mouth.
“I don’t need a friend intervention. I’m fine. I’ve just been sad lately. Get off my back,” I snapped back.
“You took off with Jesse yesterday.”
“You did?!” Ben’s breathing picked up. He whispered underneath his breath, “That is awesome.”
“You did?” Marissa’s tone chilled and she moved back a step. Her arms formed over her chest as she mirrored Angie’s pose. “I thought the two of you were nothing to each other. When did this change?”
I felt caught in their sights. And something told me they both knew more than they were sharing. So, I sighed in surrender and asked, “What have you heard?”
Both girls frowned and glared at me, but Marissa was colder than Angie. Her shoulders squared back and she raised her chin. “Just that Casey Wright said you were in Jesse’s bed last night. She left the party with him, but came back an hour later majorly pissed off. And the things she was saying about you…if I wasn’t so pissed that you lied to us the whole night, I would’ve taken her out.”
I froze as I heard her words.
They both knew I lied.
This was not good.
Then I looked at Angie. Her eyes had softened, but I saw the hurt in them. “I’m sorry for lying.”
She softened even more. Her arms fell back down to her side. “It’s—whatever. I guess. So what’s going on with you two?”
Marissa looked away.
I wasn’t going to win with either of them, but they deserved the truth. I only hoped that I wouldn’t lose Marissa’s friendship because of it. “I thought you supported the idea of Jesse and me.”
“I did, but you’d been distant and even quieter since graduation two months ago.” Her hands lifted in the air. “What do you want from me? You’ve been off since Ethan died and you were finally becoming a little more normal until that night. Since you left with Jesse that night—”
“Wait. How do you know that?”
“I saw you.” Marissa sounded hurt too. “You never responded to my text, so I came out to make sure you were okay. I saw the two of you and he got in your car. It doesn’t take a genius, Alex. I knew what you did. And you never came to Barnies the next day for breakfast.”
“And you’ve been so distant from us since then. We can’t even depend on you to hang out with us. I mean, Justin had a party last night and you wouldn’t respond to our text messages.”