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Jason
Alita climbed into his car, eyes red, eye makeup smudged. She slammed his door. “Are we going somewhere?”
He’d asked her to meet him at his car. He hadn’t said they were leaving the school parking lot. “No. I just wanted to talk somewhere private.”
“Well, drive somewhere,” she ordered. “I’m not sure if I want to be seen with you.” She looked toward the doors of the school.
This surprised Jason. Normally Alita thrived on drama. The more spectators the better. He started the car but didn’t take it out of park. “This isn’t going to take long. I know you hate me, but I had to say that I was sorry.”
“You wait till the end of the day to speak to me and then you say this isn’t going to take long? Wow, thanks for penciling me in!”
He suppressed a groan.
“You know what the worst part is?” She returned her attention to the front doors of the school.
That he had cheated on her with one of her friends? He didn’t answer her.
“That I had to hear about it from some loser’s text message. Are you kidding me? Why couldn’t you just tell me?”
He thought the answer to that was pretty obvious, so he didn’t give it.
“Did you actually think you were going to get away with it? In Carver Harbor? Nobody ever gets away with anything!”
He leaned back against the headrest. He was tired. He wanted to get this over with. “I’m not asking you to forgive me, but I just had to say that I was sorry. And that’s pretty much it.”
Her head snapped in his direction, and there was fire in her eyes. “That’s it?” she screeched. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t know what else you want me to say.”
“We were supposed to be together forever. We are supposed to get married.”
“I know,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying you’re sorry!” she screamed.
He opened his mouth to say he was sorry but then snapped it shut just in time.
“I don’t want to hear how sorry you are. I want to hear how you’re going to fix it!”
Fix it? What did that mean? How did she want him to fix it?
“Well? Are you going to say anything?”
“I’m not sure what you want me to say.”
“Stop saying that!” she screamed. “I want you to say that you’re going to help her get rid of this stupid pregnancy and then you’re never going to look at or speak to her again. I want complete shunning. Then we can try to get back to normal. And I want you to say that you’re never going to cheat on me ever, ever, ever again!”
He was gobsmacked. He hadn’t expected any of this. “Alita,” he said, trying to be gentle, “I don’t think we can survive this.”
“Of course we can,” she snapped as if he were a stupid child. “Just let me take care of that.”
He shuddered to think of how Alita would be treating Chevon in the future. Whether or not he ended up with Chevon, he couldn’t stay with Alita and allow Alita to try to ruin Chevon’s life. All of a sudden, he was too tired to be dealing with this anymore. He just wanted her out of his car. He knew that was wrong, but he didn’t care.
Through clenched teeth, she said, “I can find you the money, if that’s the holdup.”
He felt sick. He was going to pretend he’d never heard those words. “We need to break up.”
“No!” A torrent of curses came out of her mouth at a piercingly high pitch. “That is not the way this is going to end! You don’t get to break up with me!”
“I’m not breaking up with you. You’re breaking up with me because I’m the jerk who cheated.”
“Jerk?” She snickered evilly. “I think that’s the understatement of the century.”
“Call me whatever you want. I’m sorry for being dishonest, and I’m sorry that I hurt you. But this relationship needs to end, and this conversation needs to end.”
Her mouth fell open, and her whole body shook with rage. “You’re sorry for being dishonest? Does that mean you’re not sorry that you slept with Chevon?”
He opened his mouth to say that he was sorry for that too, but the words didn’t come out. Was he sorry? Sometimes, yes. But sometimes he wasn’t. He didn’t know. It was too confusing, but it felt like if he told Alita that he was sorry he’d slept with Chevon, then that would be betraying Chevon in some way. “Alita,” he said, again trying to be gentle. “Please get out of my car.”
At first she made no sound and no movement. But then she wailed. Just a crazy, long high-pitched wail. Then she opened the door and as she got out of his car, she screamed, “I hate you so much!” She slammed the door and then whirled toward the building to check the doors.
