call it what you want

Chapter 47

Jackson

The entire drive back to the dorms is quiet.
I don't know what to say and I'm too busy wracking my brain for somehow I can prove that I didn't send that message and that I sure as hell didn't cheat on her.

When I park, I glance over at her and the wet hair she still has from the rain.
Before she gets out, she turns to me. "For the record," she pauses. "I wanna believe you Jackson."

I fumble my hands together as I look into her eyes.

"I'm gonna talk to the people there and I'm gonna prove to you that I didn't do this," I say lowly, in basically a whisper. I can feel my eyes start to form tears as I swallow and force them away.

She nods her head slowly with sad eyes before turning and opening the car door and I feel my heart breaking as she shuts the door again. The rain sounds are muffled once more.

Watching her back, walking away from the car, walking away from me, crumbles me.
"Fuck!" I shout to myself as I hit the steering wheel.
I pull my phone out and dial Max's number.

Ameeriah

I'm walking back in the rain to get to my dorm from the parking lot. It's about a fifteen minute walk from the parking lot to my dorm, and since cars aren't allowed on campus grounds, you have to walk.
Normally I wouldn't choose to walk this distance in the pouring rain, but I'm not staying in that car with him.

I make it about ten minutes into my walk when I hear Jackson yelling in the back.
I turn around and see him running towards me with his phone in hand.

"Ameeriah wait!" He says as he catches up to me.
"Jackson," I sigh because I honestly just want to take a shower and go to sleep.

"No just listen," he says as he holds a jacket over my head with one hand, and holds his phone so that it's by me and under the jacket.

"Dude the rain already soaked me I don't think this jacket is gonna help—"
"Will you just shhh and listen," he says as he motions back to the phone. "Okay Max can you repeat what you said just a sec ago?

"Oh yeah," I hear Max's muffled voice through the phone. "It was me and Elijah's idea to throw Jackson a surprise party because he threw me a birthday party last semester, but Jackson was a total bitch left right once he walked in."

Jackson rolls his eyes as Max continues. "There was a chick there, I think her name was Meredith or something. One of the guys must have invited her and she really wanted to fuck Jackson like really wanted to fu—"
"Dude just fucking get on with the story," Jackson says into the phone.

"Anyways," Max continues. "We told her that Jackson had a girl and when Jackson ran out so quick, he had left his phone. So when you had texted, Grant said it would be funny if we sent you some kind text and that chick grabbed the phone."

I look up at Jackson and he's staring right at me. His face looking partially relieved and also pleading with me to believe him. Seeing his eyes, I know that this is what actually happened, Jackson didn't cheat on me.

But I still don't think I'm gonna be able to to fully believe anything, because Jackson could have easily just called Max to make him say this to me.

Like reading my mind, Max continues. "I had someone filming on my phone so I could set off the confetti, and when I watched it back, they must have kept filming because Jackson says in the video that he was leaving," he pauses for a second. "I sent Jackson the video, so just go watch it and you very clearly hear him leaving."

As I'm looking into his eyes, I hear Max continue. "Elijah and me and some other guys saw her sent the message, you can check with them too. We didn't check what she sent because we figured he would be with you and it wouldn't be a big deal."