Love to Hate You • E.D.

twenty seven

"The bet wasn't Ethan's idea, it was ours, completely. We made him do it because we thought he would never be able to win you over, and we would score a quick buck. It was all fun and games at first but then Ethan really started to dig you Ana. We could tell because he would constantly be on his phone, he always had a smirk on his face, and he was constantly ditching us for you. When we would confront him about it he would deny it but we knew he was lying."

"He never told us to call off the bet, that's why we still gave him the money, and he didn't refuse it either." Jack adds, "I mean he did earn the money far and square, but he also won in a completely different way that none of us expected. Even him."

I stood my ground, chewing on my lips as I took in all their words.

"And?" They rolled their eyes with a stupid grin.

"And we're trying to tell you he really fucking likes you Ana. He's never felt this way about any chick before. He always ignored their texts, hung out with us first, and ditched them in like a month. He never stuck around like he did with you. When he brought you to prom that's when we really knew he was hooked, we all knew."

I took a deep breath keeping my hard composure, but on the inside I was breaking.

"Why should I even believe you? Y'all started all of this shit and y'all do nothing but bad mouth both of them. How do I know this isn't answer little bet of yours huh?"

"Because Ethan and Grayson dropped us." Jack shot, his eyes hard.

"Excuse me?"

"They dropped us Ana, they told us to go fuck ourselves. Especially Ethan."

"Why should I-"

"Because we wouldn't be here otherwise! We'd be with them dammit! But no, we are here, at your house, without them, because they hate us." Jack was getting pretty heated.

"We admit we did some dumb shit but E and Gray always had our backs man. They were great friends and we fucked that up, but you still have a shot." Cameron gestured towards me.

"What do you mean?" it was getting harder to remain strong.

"We mean you still have a chance with Ethan. Ethan loves you man, like we said. You should have seen him after prom he fucking flipped. He almost beat the shit out of Grayson when he tried to calm him down, like he was losing it. Andrea is just rebound and we know that for a fact."

I took a deep breath, turning my attention to my socks. I had two choices, to believe, or not to believe them. It seemed simple but yet it was the hardest decision I had ever faced.

"And how do you expect me to even do this?" They looked to each other, shrugged, then back to me.

"The last football game is tonight." Cameron said.

"And we could get you in." Jack added.

I peered at them for a moment longer.

"And I'm so going to regret this." I said before making my way back into the house.

I sat with my arms folded tightly over my chest in the back of Cameron's yellow jeep. It was one of those open ones that suffocated you with all the wind circulation. Good thing I decided to go with a ponytail or else I'd be showing up with a rat's nest on my head. It was pretty quiet most of the way there, until Jack started to ask questions.

"So uh, how you gonna do it?"

"I don't know."

"Were you and Andrea like close?"

"No."

"Did you seriously walk in on them?"

"Yeah I did, could you shut up?" He didn't say another word.

We pulled up the school as the sun was setting and hopped out of the jeep.

"You gonna pay my way in?" I asked.

"Nah, we're gonna sneak you in." Cameron said casually.

"Excuse me?"

"If we just walk through the gates everyone is bound to see us, but if we shimmy in through the bleachers, we'll just blend in. I mean, you were trying to surprise Ethan, weren't you?" He looked back at me with a curiously raised eyebrow.

"Actually I hadn't thought any of this through so thanks for making all my decisions." I gave him a thumbs up accompanied by a sarcastic smile.

His eyebrow dropped almost immediately and he turned back around.

I followed Jack and Cameron to the back of the bleachers where we walked until they found the perfect spot.