If seeing the five of them at lunch together is strange, then seeing the five of them give each other the cold shoulder the next day is even stranger.
Jo has never sat alone at a lunch table but she does today. Blair sits as far away from Scott at their usual table, and Bronwyn sits with Marshal at her oddly empty table. People stare and ask what happened in hushed tones like they would suddenly be willing to spill their guts to a stranger because they lost their friends.
Jo picks at her salad and Blair tunes out her friends. Bronwyn and Marshal talk quietly but are unable to completely forget about that session yesterday. Bronwyn is scared that Scott will tell, and Marshal is afraid that Bronwyn will be put in a bad spotlight, and just when he had finally gotten her.
Scott looks at Jo and something festers in his mind, You're the new Donna. What did that mean? Wasn't it Bronwyn who had split up Jo and Blair? He is desperate for answers and he knows who has them all.
Jo doesn't answer the door then the bell rings for the fourth time, she can hear it from the back porch but doesn't move a muscle from the bench swing. She can't escape it though, whoever it is comes around the side of the house to the back. "Scott?"
"Hey."
"What do you want?" She crosses her arms and puts her feet down to stop the swing.
"I want to say sorry." He approaches as much as he thinks she'll let him.
"It's gonna take more than that." She says while she stares him down.
Scott sighs. "I think I underestimated the complexity of what happened between Blair and Bronwyn."
"That's an understatement."
Scott knows she's fuming, but so is he, he feels that Jo tricked him into going to the session to find out more about what he saw that night. "Something Bronwyn said to me after you left has been bugging me. She implied that I was like Donna, what does that mean?"
"It means you've been blaming Bronwyn for something Donna did."
Scott can't ease into this slowly now, he's too interested. He sits next to Jo on the swing and his movement makes Jo's feet lift off the porch, they're swinging slowly while Jo turns to him. "So Donna broke up Bronwyn and Blair? Why did you all just stand by?"
"I'll tell you if you promise me you're not hiding anymore secrets from that night."
Scott frowns. "Last time I told you something you told Bronwyn and it blew up in my face."
"So there is something." Jo leans against the back of the swing and closes her eyes as if to shut everything out.
"Trust me, you don't want to know."
Jo's eyes open wide. "You're seriously asking me to trust you when you don't even trust me?"
"I trust you to tell me the truth about Donna."
Jo frowns, if he is ever to trust her he needs to know that she isn't an awful friend, that Bronwyn isn't awful either. "Fine."
Scott was beginning to think she'd never tell and now he looks at her with a soft expression. He waits her her to continue.
"Blair, Bronwyn and I have been friends forever, we were rising to the top of the totem pole when Donna moved in last year. She was so manipulative and got whatever she wanted from Bronwyn. It's like there was some creepy connection between the two of them. When Donna told Bronwyn to drop one of us, she did. And I know I could have gone down with Blair, she didn't do anything wrong, I still loved her like a sister."
"But?"
"But that would leave Bronwyn in the hands of Donna and I was not about to leave her alone with that... that..." Jo can't think of a strong enough word.
"You let Blair go to help Bronwyn?"
"I know it still sounds bad, but Blair landed on her feet, and she has you."
Scott is shaking his head. "She landed on her feet? Are you kidding me?" Scott stands and the swing goes wild. "She was heartbroken for months."
"You know what? Everything I've heard about you is true. I thought for the past few days, Blair knows how to pick her friends, maybe Scott is actually decent. But you're just a messed up foster kid who gets himself in trouble and can't trust anyone. Instead of asking yourself why Blair hasn't turned on Bronwyn, you should be asking why the heck Blair is friends with you." Jo doesn't let Scott answer, she shuts the patio door behind her forcefully.
Scott puts his head in his hands. So he hasn't made up with Jo, but now he understands her connection to Bronwyn and he wishes he hadn't accused her of hurting Blair so badly. Another mistake. Why is Blair friends with me?
