Don't Say You Love Me

Chapter EIGHT

Cohen

Dude. You went to the party.

   A text from Rex comes in the next afternoon and I can't help but laugh as soon as I read it. Rex knows me. He knew I was going to go to that party. But now I'm wondering how he knows. Unless he's just assuming that I went, which is also reasonable.

   Yeah. It was pretty much a nightmare, I send back.

   Rex: I saw.

   What does he mean he saw?

   Me: What?

   Rex: It's all over Instagram, Co.

   I close the texting app and open Instagram faster than I've ever moved before. My fingers are flying across the phone as I open my account and start scrolling. At first, I don't see anything incriminating. But about ten photos down - there it is. A photo of Lola, her arms snaked around Raff Donald's neck. He's a local that I knew in high school. We were actually friends. There was no sight of Josh Raman at the party but I didn't feel any better seeing Lola with Raff, last night. I scroll away and only a few photos down is a shot of a few guys standing around the fire. I'm one of the guys and I look depressed as shit. I don't even recognize the insta handle. It must have been taken after I saw Lola. After she saw me and told me off.

"Seriously, Cohen? You come back and don't tell anyone and then show up tonight?" she yelled at me.

   "I just came to check out the party," I said, but I know I wasn't fooling anyone.

   "You really should just go. No one wants you around."

   Those words hurt. A lot. A few minutes later, Isaac Wright, who's party it was, dragged me off away from Lola and handed me a beer. I stood near him and some friends of his, looking at the fire, for half an hour, tops, and then left the party.

   Before I close the app I scroll for another minute and see the same fire. The same party, actually, but I see Luke Turner and a girl that looks oddly familiar. She looks angry. She looks like she's wet?  Wait. That's the girl from last night. The girl who lives at Lola's dad's house? She was at the party? That must have been before I showed up.

   So you saw Lola. She was with Raff?  A text from Rex breaks me from my thoughts of this mystery girl.

   Meet me at the Creamery. 3o min, I send back, because I am so done talking about Lola.

   I don't even check to see if he replies before I hop in the shower. My mom has agreed to pay  the bills, like hydro and water, while I'm here but she also suggested I get a job. I feel like she's going to start making me help out, plus I'm sure I'll be on my own for my cell phone bill soon. Maybe I do need a job. But at least for now I have hot water.

   I'm only in a towel and heading to my bedroom to get dressed when I hear a knock on the door. Whoever it is will have to wait, but I do rush through getting dressed and don't even bother getting underwear from my drawer.

   Swinging the front door open a few minutes later, there is Kelly Turner. She's young - for a mom with teenagers - blonde and I'm oddly attracted to her. She's also married to a cop and her son, Luke, is way bigger than me. He's a football player, like Rex. I swear he could bench press me. I'm tall, but I'm pretty thin.

   "There he is," she says, a big smile on her face showing her perfect white teeth. "I've been out here for a bit."

   "Oh, yeah, sorry. I was in the shower and then getting dressed," I say quickly.