Falling

53

Carson Hughes

Isaac's glare told me all I needed to know.

"I think you're setting yourself, and him, up for disappointment," he said.

I had just told him about how I spent Thursday afternoon with Vinny, and that the two of us spent a lot of that time making out in my bed. Needless to say, Isaac wasn't pleased to hear that.

I groaned. "I know. I just— I don't know what I want. I want him back, but I'm afraid if we rush back into things, it won't work out."

"It probably won't," he said. He was being brutally honest, but it was what I needed to hear. "And you kissing him and acting like his boyfriend while you aren't isn't going to make things any easier."

The two of us sat on my couch on Friday afternoon, waiting around for the rest of our friends to arrive later on. Archie and Isaac were going to go with Hadley for her to officially break things off with Darren, and Dana was helping her mentally prepare for that.

"Look, what happened to him is really serious," Isaac continued. "And he's vulnerable right now after having that spread to the whole school and I know you want to comfort him because I know how you are, but I think you should be careful with how you choose to comfort him."

Ever since I had been involved with Vinny, I started confiding in Isaac more. I used to confide in Logan with everything, but I couldn't do that when I needed to talk about his brother. And Isaac was always brutally honest with me. He didn't hold back, and even though it sometimes made me feel like shit, I knew that was how I needed him to be.

I didn't even want to bring up the fact that Vinny had asked me to have sex with him, or that I was seriously considering it. I was actually more than seriously considering it. I wanted to do it and I trusted Vinny enough to know when he was ready. He didn't need me trying to tell him that he wasn't.

I knew what Isaac would say to that. He would tell me it was a bad idea and that the two of us would only end up hurt if we went through with it. I knew it was true, but I tried to tell myself I could be content in this in between phase with Vinny, that I didn't need a commitment from him in order to be happy. I didn't know how true that was. Part of me believed it could be, but the other part wasn't so sure.

"What are you going to do when you go see Darren?" I asked, changing the subject.

Isaac's expression darkened.

"Try not to strangle him. Keep him away from Hadley," he replied. He let out a sigh and shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts. "I'm not so sure Archie is going to be able to hold himself back."

"Don't let him cause bigger problems," I said, leaning back in my seat.

"I'm hoping Darren just doesn't make a fuss about it," Isaac replied. "He should know this is coming. Hadley hasn't talked to him since everything went down and from what I understand, he hasn't tried to seek her out at all. He probably knows where she stands on the whole thing."

I wasn't too convinced he would be a good sport about being dumped in front of an audience meant to protect the person dumping him because nobody trusted him. That alone put me on edge, thinking Darren would try something when we least expected it.

That was the thing with Darren; none of us suspected anything about him. He always seemed so normal and kind and so good to Hadley. But that just showed you could never trust what you saw on the surface. There would always be something lingering underneath, hiding away and waiting to appear for when you never saw it coming.

Beneath the surface, Darren was a monster. We all knew that now, but who knew how long it would have been before he showed his true colors to Hadley, when he became angry enough at her that he showed the possessiveness, the anger that lingered within him.