ETTSON: Rewritten

Chapter 15: Brashness & Burgers

"THAT'S IT!" Tony screeched, "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!!"

Everybody was taken by surprise, especially Ness and Jeff.

"YOU GODDAMNED EAGLELANDIAN BOYFRIEND-HURTING SCUM!! FIRST YOU FRAME MY JEFFREY AND THEN YOU PRETEND NOTHING HAS HAPPENED?! ARE YOU KIDDING?!"

"Jeff, you are SO blind to ALL of this! He's pretending to be your true friend...! I'm your true friend, ME!  What do you have to say for yourself, Ness?!"

Ness was in an awful situation. Being accused of something true in front of people really close to you can surely affect your life for ever. But he couldn't lie. The guilt would eat him from the inside until he couldn't handle it anymore. He had to spit it out.

"Fine."

"Huh? What? Ness?" Jeff asked, confused.

"I did it. I accidentally framed you."

"A-ha! Ahahaha!" Tony laughed almost maniacally, "The traitor admits!"

"What? Why didn't you tell me, Ness?"

"I was worried about my safety-"

"YOUR safety?!" he was starting to yell, "I'm literally ON THE RUN! A police officer could come in now and extradite me to Winters! And just because you were 'worried about your safety'."

He said this last part in a mocking tone.

"Your safety didn't mean anything then! It was mine and that poor woman's safety."

"But she has been harassing you for a long time, right? You said she locked you up in there for a year! I wanted you to take retribution!"

"Yeah, but we managed to deal with it by ignoring her no matter our punishment, Ness! You do stuff without even thinking first! And this foolishness would eventually land someone in trouble! And who was that someone? Me! What were you thinking?!"

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I really am, it's just... I was doing this for you and... I was so angry."

"Well, I'm angry right now and you don't see me punch my teacher in the face repeatedly! You've got anger management issues, man! There's no coming back from this, Ness. You have dug me and you into this hole and only one of us will be getting out of it. Now, leave."

"What?! This is my house!"

"I said, leave!"

"Please! Just-"

"NOW."

Ness, who was close to crying, looked at everyone around him. A shivering Paula, a disappointed Poo, an astonished Ninten and Ana, a confused Lloyd and a livid Jeff and Tony.

He stepped out and shut the door after him. He trod slowly and somberly down the path. He felt like a horrible person, not only for getting Jeff into major trouble but hurting that poor woman in the first place.

After a few seconds of the cityside silence, the door opened behind him. It was Ninten. 

"What are you doing here, man?"

"Family stick together," he responded, "I'm not leaving without you."

Ness' lip quivered. He ran to his cousin and hugged him as he started sobbing.

"It's alright man... Just let it all out."

"I didn't mean to..."

"I know, man. You wanted to protect him, you just did it in a bad way. I can relate to that. People like us, we're bold people. We do stuff without thinkin' about the consequences. You've done it, I've done it. Heck, I still do it to this day. We're... uh... what's the word for that again?"