My Best Friend, The Bad Boy

10 | Flowing Rivers & Raging Tides

Carter Williams: (not edited)

I decided to go for a walk after dropping Kaillie off at her house. It left me some time to think about everything by myself. I don't know what to do. Part of me thinks it was a major revenge scheme, although I don't know what exactly what Sara would have to gain from Kaillie's misery and my anger. My reputation being bumped up to the school "bad boy" made her look even better after we broke up, as if she once had something extremely valuable. Someone popular. I won't say I haven't noticed the increased female attention whenever I go to parties-because it's hard not to-but it's all quite ridicuous. A lot of those girls just want to get with me for the sheer purpose of being able to say they have. That they had the supposed "unattainable" bad boy of the school. It almost makes me sick. So often, it seems high school is a big popularity race. Especially when it involves Sara. She thrives on. She lives for it. She likes it. Who the hell likes drama? It's stressful. It makes me sick to my stomach that she somehow could have included Kaillie in her sick, twisted game. The other part of me thinks there was no plan at all. That Zach is just an unfaithful cheater, who chose one of the sluttest girls at school to sleep with. Even just the cheating makes me sick. I know how it feels when sommeone cheats: it's a terrible feeling, almost self loathing. You ask yourself if there's more you could have done, why you weren't good enough, why they did it. Most people don't get an answer as to why. Some people are just cruel. But the thing is that he chose Kaillie to do this to: she's sweet and innocent. There's a reason she's known as the school's good girl. If he wasn't happy, he should have just said so and broke it off. It would have been so much less devastating for her. Even if she didn't love him, being cheated on is still a devastating, cruel thing to do to a person, for a person to have to know, to somehow have to make peace with. At least she knows now, before she fell farther and said those three little words to him. Because cheaters don't change. It's cruel but it's true. It's unfortunate for the rest of us, because we don't necessarily know whether someone is a cheater beforehand. Before it happens. Or, someone might have this idea that a cheater can change, and they give them a chance, and it still happens anyway. It's just the way life works.

As everything is going through my head, I turn the corner and see Zach walking toward me, unintenually of course. His head is down, and he's holding flowers. Flowers that look sad, as if they have been trampled. He must have tried to get back with Kaillie, I think, my anger flaring.

"Zach," I say stoically, crossing my arms as he reaches me. He looks up, an interesting look in his eyes at seeing who it is.

"Carter," he responses indifferently. He looks like he's trying hard to be strong, and he keeps walking-or tries to. But I hold him back, taking the flowers from his hand as he attempts to brush past. "What's your problem?" he says, stepping back, feigning to act tough in front of me.

"You. Who were those flowers for?" I inquire, getting straight to my point.

"My mom," he says. But I notice him twitching, meaning he's lying. I mean, he can't seem to stand goddamn still. You'd think a cheater would be a better liar.

Taking a step toward him and getting in his personal space, I say lowly, "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying!" he reponses a little too quickly in a defensive voice.

"Really?" I'm pretty confident I sound like the cheshire cat right now. "Or do we need to have a little chat about lying?" I threaten.

I see his face pale. Hey, I may not have wanted the reputation I have, but it does come in handy when dealing with ex boyfriends of some of my best friends.

"No," he says quickly, shaking his head as I step back.

"Then who were the flowers for?" I repeat as if I'm talking to a little kid.