Backstabber

Chapter 11

"You know, ignoring him's a pretty crappy thing to do."

Autumn glared down at Lena; the other girl shrugged and flipped a page in her calculus book. They'd been planning the study sleepover all week, but Lena was starting to wish she hadn't come.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Autumn shoved the book aside. Heather caught it as it slipped off the mattress and set it on the nightstand.

"You haven't looked at Jason in almost a month," Autumn sat on the edge of the bed. "And I want to know why."

Lena sat up and crossed her legs, taking out her scrunchie to smooth down her ponytail.

"He's just been a jerk," she twisted it back around her hair. They gaped at her.

"How can you say that?" Heather asked. "He saved your life!"

Lena fingered her bracelet, a delicate gold chain with a beautifully engraved name plate, one of the few pieces of her mother's jewelry she had now that her jewelry box was gone. She was sure Kara had found it while she was hospitalized and sold it all to help fund her drinking habit. Those bottles of wine hadn't been cheap.

"It's just," she swallowed hard. "When I think about him now, I feel guilty."

Autumn laid across the foot of the bed, her purple pajama top riding up slightly.

"Because you made out with Chad?" she and Heather questioned at once. Lena blanched.

"How'd you find out about that?" she stammered.

"Please," Autumn turned and reached over the white footboard, grabbed a short-eared stuffed rabbit from the decorative trunk in front of her bed and held it on her stomach. "He's liked you since day one. Did you really think he'd be able to keep something like that to himself?"

Lena smiled weakly when Autumn's new kitten clawed his way up the comforter, then jumped in her lap and curled into a tiny, fluffy white ball.

"I guess you're right," she picked at a loose thread on the pink and white striped comforter. "But I can't stop thinking about what happened to me..."

"That wasn't your fault," Autumn admonished. The buttercup-yellow toy tumbled to the floor as she abruptly sat up. "You didn't ask for any of that to happen to you!"

Lena winced, trying to take comfort in the kitten's soft fur and quiet purring; she could feel Autumn's eyes burning into her, biting her lip when she felt tears sting her own.

"Chad said the same thing," she sighed. "I don't know why I can't get that through my thick head."

"We don't, either," Heather set the bunny back on the trunk. The kitten squirmed out of Lena's lap and scampered across the bed to settle on a pillow. A pale pink heart. Lena shivered, rubbing her arms.

"I don't know what to do..."

Autumn shook her head.

"The first thing is to tell Jason why you've been avoiding him," her face softened. "He cares about you, Lena, just like we do."

Lena bit her lip.

"How could he once he finds out? H-He'll probably—"

"Kick Eric's ass again," Heather grinned slightly. "And this time, we'll record it for you."

Lena blinked.

"Wait, he did what?"

"Lance told Jason what happened," she clarified. "How he got Stephanie to admit she and Eric were involved in the whole thing."