How to Date Someone You Hate

Chapter 8: The worst night ever, Part 2(Mavis)

What I assumed would be an uneventful but annoying night watching Warren became a nightmare.

Warren is pacing around the house, talking on the phone with his friends. I'm too nervous and stressed to turn back on the TV, so I just stare at the wall and process this.

Warrens girlfriend apparently cheated on him. I don't know most of the details, but I can hear bits of Warrens conversation.

"Was I not good enough?" He whimpers. There's a pause. "Brian, I need your support, not your confirmation." He snaps. 

I decide not to listen to his panic party and get on my phone.

This isn't the first time Warren has been cheated on. In the 3rd grade he dated some girl for 3 hours until she got a flower from another boy and ditched him. I had to give him all of my cookies to cheer him up. 

Warren and I were close up until, well, actually up until Allison came into the picture.

"Mavis, get up. We're going out." Warren snaps me out of my trip down memory lane. 

"What?" "I have to confront Allison." He puts on his coat and grabs his keys. 

"Warren, if you confront her now, you'll be seen as a crazy boyfriend and all the girls will pity her and trash you." I say, standing up. 

"No they won't! She's the one who cheated!" He shouts. "Yeah, but in this society, if a girl cheats then they assume the guy was the one who fucked up. Sometimes that's true, sometimes it isn't. Either way, you need to calm down before confronting her." I walk up to him and try to grab his arm, but he pulls it away. 

"Well then how the hell to I tell her it's over?" He snarls. "Text her?" "No, that's rude and unfair." I shake my head at his stupidity.

"I have an idea, but you're not gonna like it." I hesitate. "Go for it. What could possibly be worse than this?" 

"You should get her to admit what she did. The friend will never tell her she told. So we gotta plant evidence that we know without her knowing we know." I look away, bracing for more yelling. 

"That's actually not terrible. Play the long game, right?" He looks like he's thinking. "But we gotta do other stuff too. Maybe I should make it look like I'm cheating on her as well...? He smirks. "No, no. That's not a good idea. There was no clear evidence that she was cheating, so if you left hints you were, it would backfire."

We both think for a moment.

"Welp. We're screwed." He sighs and plops onto the couch. 

"Maybe you should just break up with her over text after all." I sigh. "Yeah, I'm texting her now."

...

"How many times is she gonna call me?" Warren groans. I just shrug at that.

"I don't wanna know what's gonna happen at school tomorrow. All the girls will either call me a monster, or they'll be swarming me like flies." Warren runs his hand through his hair, a nervous habit he's had since we were kids. "You did nothing wrong, Warren. She's the one who cheated." I shrug. 

"Why are you being so nice to me?" He mutters, curling up in a ball. "Because even though you suck, you obviously don't need conflict right now." I admit, patting his head. He just grunts and looks away. 

"Listen, I've never been cheated on, so I don't know how you feel. But I know that as much as a jerk you are, you were still too good for her." I don't know why I'm sharing all this. 

"How?" He asks, still refusing to look at me. "You're funny, smart, really cool, and... I kinda wish our friendship never went to shit." We sit in silence. He leans in, and for a moment I think he's gonna kiss me. But then he says:

"You're a simp." He smirks his snarky smile and all my sympathy melts. Bastard. 

When I'm about to reprimand, the door bell rings.

I get up and look through the peep hole. "Oh fuck." I gasp. Warren sits up a bit from the couch. "Who is it?" "Allison." 

We both give each other a look and panic. "Hide!" We say at the same time. "Mavis, I gotta face this." Warren groans. "If she sees you here, she'll get the wrong idea." He opens the door and I duck behind the couch. 

"Warren, please hear me out-" Allison sounds like she's been crying.

"What is there to hear?" Warren snarls. "It was a mistake, we got drunk at a party and... well, it went on from there." She admits.

"You kept seeing him?" He snarls. "Yes, but I thought of you the whole time!" She sobs. 

I'm getting tired of her crocodile tears, but I know Warren can handle it.

"Fuck you!" He shouts.

Nope. Scratch that. 

I get up from behind the couch and Allisons whole demeanor changes.

"So you scold me for cheating, yet you're here with another girl?" She scoffs. "It's not like that!" Warren tries to reassure her, but to no avail. "You're a hypocritical piece of shit, you know that?"

"Nothing happened!" Warren snarks back.

"You know what, we're done." She turns around to leave. "WE ALREADY WERE!" Warren shouts after her. 

He slams the door and now it's just the two of us. 

"Mavis, I think you should go." He sighs. "Yeah, I'll text your mom."