Benefits

Chapter Twelve: Confession

The next morning when I woke up, I had a text from Justin. I'm driving to school on my own today. Better to keep up appearances.

I shrugged, sure that he was right and that was the smartest thing to do. I got dressed and did my makeup quickly, before getting into my car and driving to school alone for the first time in a long time. It felt strangely lonely to not have Justin next to me making jokes or trying to make me blush.

When I got to school, as I expected and had grown used to, people were staring at me. When I got to my locker, Jaida and Gabriela were already there, waiting for me. "It's true, isn't it?" Jaida asked as soon as I went up to them. "You and Justin broke up."

"Yeah..." I decided to wait until KC and I were together to tell them the whole story.

"Aw, I'm so sorry, Annie!" Gabriela threw her arms around me and I hugged her, patting her back.

"It's okay! It sucks right now, but it'll be okay."

"So, why'd you guys break up?" Gabriela asked, pulling away and holding me at am arm's length away.

"We just... didn't think that we were meant to be together..."

"Really?" I was surprised by Jaida interjecting. Usually it was Gabriela that did all the comforting after a relationship ended. If Jaida was dumped, or the one time I was dumped in fifth grade, it was me or Jaida threatening to break their faces.

"Yeah, why?" I asked her curiously.

"Well, I don't know. It just seemed like you guys really liked each other. If I thought you would break up, I never thought it would be because of that..."

Damn, maybe Justin and I did too well of a job convincing people we were dating. "Yeah, I really liked him," I lied. "But it's Justin. He's, you know, a ladies' man. It would never work, he'd get bored with just me."

Jaida huffed, scrunching her eyebrows. "I used to think that too... But, then I saw how he treated you, how he looked at you. I know you guys were only dating for like, a month, but I think he cared about you a lot. You guys could've gone the distance..."

"Jaida," I interrupted her sharply. I didn't want either of them questioning anything about our breakup too hard. I knew neither one of them would understand why we faked it until I got KC. "Just drop it. It's over. It wasn't meant to be."

Jaida looked shocked at my sudden harshness. "Alright, I'm going to let that one slide because you're heartbroken from your breakup."

She walked away, and Gabriela sighed, wrapping an arm around me. "It'll be okay! If you think you weren't meant to be, you weren't meant to be! Let's go to class." I smiled. Gabriela was always there when Jaida and I got into our rare little spats. She never took sides, but would be there to change the subject so we wouldn't dwell on our anger at each other. "You know, why don't we do something? Have a girl's night at my house on Friday!"

"Uh... Actually," I said hesitantly, scratching the back of my neck. "I have plans on Friday. Is Saturday okay?"

"Yeah, Saturday should be fine! I'll ask my parents. What do you have on Friday?"

"I'm, uh... Going to a concert with KC."

When I looked at Gabriela, she was looking at the floor, her eyebrows scrunched up. "Is that why you and Justin really broke up?"

"What? Gabriela, no! KC and I planned this as just friends."

She looked at me for a moment, and I held my breath, hoping that she'd believe me. I needed the girls on my side if I was going to end up with KC. "Okay," she finally said, "I believe you. I'll talk to my parents about Saturday."