Letterman Jacket

when she wore his scarf

"I'm not going to school today."

Nico held his phone tighter against his ear. "Why?"

Faust's silence was enough of an answer.

Nico curled his free hand into a fist. "Stop lying to your girlfriend, Faust."

"I haven't seen Anya in a year," his best friend said almost pleadingly. "She remembers me. I just—I just know that I have to do this. I want to do this."

"And what did you tell Thea?" Nico asked, unable to keep the venom dripping from his voice. "She was torn up over what happened at the pep rally, Faust. You need to talk to her and apologize."

"I know what I need to do," Faust answered lowly. "Thea's fine, I already talked to her. Just—just don't tell her about this yet."

Nico clenched his jaw.

"Please," Faust said.

"How long will you be gone?"

Faust paused for a moment. "Two, three days."

Nico rubbed his forehead. "Fine. But I'm telling you right now, Faust. You're going to regret this."

His best friend exhaled deeply. "I'll decide on that. Thanks, man. I owe you."

Nico shut the engine of his car and stepped out. "Be safe."

"You too."

JJ met him at his locker. He looked strange—the usual wide smile on his face was missing, and he wasn't approaching Nico with a massive bear hug that crushed him to the bones. JJ looked worried. Nervous, even.

Nico arched an eyebrow. "What's wrong with you? Why aren't you in class yet?"

The blonde sighed. "Where's Faust?"

"Going to Belham," he answered curtly. "What's wrong?"

He shoved his phone in Nico's face. "This isn't good."

Nico's eyes had to take a second to adjust to the screen lighting. His eyebrows furrowed when he recognized the school paper's website. The article title: Faust Carter: Northvale's Basketball Hero stood out in big, bold letters, and Thea's name was written underneath in a smaller font.

"Take a deep breath first," JJ told him. "Then scroll down."

Nico took the phone in his hands. With a frown etched onto his face, he said, "I don't understand, what's the big—"

The comments section was alive and unforgiving. With each new derogatory word thrown at Thea, Nico's eyes grew harder, harsher, and fire suddenly burned in his blood from the fury he felt. Thea didn't deserve this. No one deserved this.

Nico threw his arm back, but JJ was faster. The blonde snatched his phone back and gripped his wrist. "Calm down. I know you're angry—I'm angry, too."

"You have no idea how fucking mad I am, JJ," Nico said with a laugh. "Let go."

"Don't do anything stupid, then," JJ snapped. "You almost smashed my phone."

"I'll smash your fucking face in—"

"I'm not the one you're supposed to be mad at, Nico. Part of this is Faust's fault, but assholes can be assholes when they want to be."

Nico yanked his arm from JJ's hold and looked at his friend. "Where's Thea?"

"She went in the staff room a few minutes before you came in," he said. "Sutton tried to stop her."

"You're basically telling me they let her read all that bullshit. She's going to believe them. Why the fuck didn't you—"

JJ shook his head. "It's not my place. Whatever the staff decides to do with the comments, let's trust them. Sutton isn't going to let this go. Also, we can't protect Thea from everything, Nico. She's not a kid, she needs to know these things. But she's going to need someone, and we'll be there for her. Simple as that."