Faking It

Chapter 32: Truth Bomb

Text to: Jake Morris-Whittaker, 12:03 am

Jake?
You up?

Yeah
Everything ok?

Yeah.
I just miss you
And boys are confusing

Aww El 🙁
I miss you too
Want me to call?

No, it's late
I'll be okay

Ok 😕
How about I Amazon Prime some Halloween chocolate to your dorm?

😀😀😀
YES PLEASE
🍫🍭🍬

Done and done 😊
Hope you feel better 🤗
I'm always around if you ever wanna talk about it

Thanks
Love you Jake

Love you too El

~*~

Practice?

The text from Theo woke me up on Saturday morning, alone in my dorm room. Gyeong-Ja had stayed at Audra's after their movie marathon, which was probably a good thing. She'd have demanded details about the party, and I was so emotionally exhausted that I'd definitely have slipped up and spilled the truth about the entire thing.

I stared at my phone, thumb hovering over the keyboard. I didn't really feel like dragging myself out of bed, and I had a team practice later anyway. But Theo hadn't said a thing besides goodnight since we'd argued, and maybe this was his version of an olive branch.

Now? I replied, squirming a little. I wasn't exactly eager to revisit our fight, but I wasn't about to back down, either. I knew I was right. I just didn't know if I felt like getting into it this early in the morning.

Yes, he sent back.

With a groan, I shoved off my duvet and got dressed. It wasn't as cool as I was expecting when I shoved open the dorm doors and strode into thick, early morning fog. I bounced my soccer ball a few times along the path, then stopped at the top of the stairs. Theo wasn't on the field. He was sitting on the bleachers, in a sweatshirt and jeans, elbows resting on his knees.

"Those don't look like practice clothes," I said, sliding in beside him.

He glanced over at me, then heaved a sigh. "No, they're not. But I kind of suck at apologies, so here we are." He stared down at his Nikes. "You were right."

"About?"

His jaw muscle tensed. "All of it. Madeleine. Me lying. And I agree, if we want to keep this going, I owe you the truth."

I set my soccer ball down, pretty sure that we weren't about to be doing any kind of practicing. His chest swelled as he inhaled, and then, with a scrape of his hand through his hair, the dam broke.

"We dated last year, for three months. Except she'd just gotten out of this thing with a graduating senior, so she insisted we keep it on the down-low. Like a lovesick dumbass, I agreed. That was right when Will decided he'd had enough of Ava Rabinovitch, and, like an even bigger dumbass, I didn't try to hide how happy I was because of Mads. She was perfect, and I was over the moon."

I swallowed the bitter lump in my throat at him calling Madeleine perfect. And at the nickname he used for her, like they had their own little private secret names for each other. "So why did she go to prom with William?"