The Anatomy of a Broken Heart //Completed//

25. Caleb

This party was going to be a bummer. I was actually nervous to be around Santana and her friends. What if this was all part of some twisted ritual and they sacrificed me to their creepy demon king?

The phone buzzed and I read Santana's text saying she'd pick me up at nine. I replied back with a simple "Ok" and went down for lunch. Ansel was there with Nanny already stuffing a sandwich down his throat.

"Hey, man," he said when he saw me. "What time are we going tonight?"

"Going where?" I sat at the table as Nanny set a plate of food in front of me. Ansel looked at me like I'd lost it.

"The game tonight, loser. It's the Homecoming game against the Vikings."

I forgot we'd made plans for that. We were all supposed to go together. Farrah was even on the Homecoming court and I was supposed to be her date to that, but the dance fell a week later on Friday. There were scheduling conflicts with the dance hall or something so the school had to push the dance back. Maybe I could drag Santana with me to the game instead of the party. But I wasn't altogether sure I wanted to go to the game. I didn't want to endure the pep of the cheer squad or try to pretend I had enough school spirit to cheer on a team that had lost almost every game they'd played.

"I kind of have a date with my new girl," I said, taking a bite out of my own sandwich.

"Oh, shit. So you guys are actually doing this?"

"Yeah dude, it was your idea."

"I know...I just didn't think you'd actually make it after the first day. At least I didn't think she'd put up with you for that long." He laughed and shook his head, incredulous.

Yesterday had been pretty painful for both me and Santana. Nobody asked me anything outright, but I suspected they were all waiting for one of us to yell "Sike!" and then their lives could move on to the next juicy piece of drama. I hated that they involved themselves so much in our lives. As if we were a television show they could binge watch on Netflix.

My family wasn't the wealthiest in the city. That honor befell the St. James', but since I was a kid, I could remember seeing my father on television and being asked for countless interviews. They were like celebrities and when Ansel and I started school, we were never seen the same as everyone else was. Even the teachers tread glass when speaking to us. Still did. I loved it though. It made everything so much easier. The downside was that everyone was always on tenterhooks waiting for us to explode. And apparently, I just had. This only added fuel to the fire-but it had to be maintained in order for the goal to be reached. We couldn't let this get out of control.

When we were fifteen, Ansel had gotten a girl, Sally Maverick, pregnant. After a week, just when he had decided he was going to run away with her to who the hell knows where, her parents packed their bags, sold their house, and moved away. Sally called h, telling him she'd lost the baby and that she was leaving in order to avoid a scandal. Unfortunately, we couldn't just run away from the problem and for the whole year, Ansel's misstep haunted us until someone else took the torch of shame.

"You know, everyone was asking me if you'd had some sort of mental breakdown." Ansel's voice still rang with mirth. "I just told them you'd screwed your head on straight and had seen Farrah for what she really was."

"And what is she really?" I didn't look up at my cousin. It wasn't a secret that he'd never liked Farrah. Some of the guys could swear he was just jealous but I knew Ansel; if he liked someone, he went for it. In third grade, he stole Annie Fabens right from under me, claiming we weren't a good fit and that he was better suited for her. I cried for the whole day until she dumped him too. She ended up joining the marching band so we were both lucky, I guess.