Jellyfish

15. Confession

The lesson to be learned from my adventures in revenge was probably something along the lines of stop trusting strangers. I trusted Miles and he turned on me, Frankie too. I gave those dumb ass kids the benefit of the doubt and it bit me in the ass. With all that happening in such a short amount of time, perhaps I really should've seen this coming. It was a Tuesday, the worst day of all days in my opinion since you don't have the relief of the weekend and you're not anywhere near the end of the week. It was a day job day, where I stared bored from the counter at wandering customers until someone stepped up and paid. There weren't too many customers that day, just one druggie looking college student and a mother with two giggling kids. It didn't make for very good entertainment so when the bell over the door chimed, my eyes were drawn straight to the two people I didn't want to see. If I hadn't been so pissed myself, maybe I would've noticed sooner how pissed they were.

"What the fuck August," Miles practically slammed his hands down on the counter.

Startled I jumped back and glared at him. "I'm sorry, do you need something, sir?"

"You know, I get that you're upset, and I get that we hurt you," he continued undeterred. "I am truly fucking sorry, but why would you ever do this to someone? Maybe Cain did put the idea out there, but Diego made the decision himself. Nobody forced his hand."

"What?"

Frankie's hand on his arm was likely the only reason Miles didn't reach across and slap me. Looking at him, it seemed like Frankie had been crying and it worried me despite how much I convinced myself I hated them. He looked to me, more sad than angry saying, "Did you really have to do this?"

"I sincerely don't know what you're talking about," I looked between them, trying to find any hint as to what was going on. "I assume something happened to Cain."

"He got outed. With a fucking sex tape." Miles deadpanned, obviously not believing my innocence. "I'm sure you know all about that though, don't you?"

Outed? Sex Tape? The obvious confusion on my face must've been enough because Miles slowly softened until he, too, just looked confused. "You really don't know?"

"No," I insisted. "I mean, I didn't even know he was gay. I wouldn't out someone and I definitely don't have access to videos of Cain having sex." What I didn't add, was that I knew who would and it was still very much my fault.

"It has to be Tobias then," Frankie concluded. "No one but him would have those videos Miles, and you know how he can hold a grudge."

Playing dumb, I asked, "Tobias? Someone else you all fucked over?"

"Yes," Frankie confessed at the same time Miles let out an indignant, "No!"

"We did," Frankie insisted, watching Miles as if chastising him for lying. "I mean, we didn't but Cain did. Tobias was his boyfriend once upon a time. He worked for the firm and they fell in love, but Cain was terrified of coming out. His parents are pretty strong homophobes and with eyes on him all the time, it was just too much to try and keep Tobias. Instead, he cheated on him and piled on work until Tobias gave him a reason to fire him."

"That's horrible," I suddenly didn't feel that bad anymore. Yes, I would never condone forcing someone out of the closet, but just how much of an asshole was Cain? It seemed like the more I learned about him the less I feared, and the more I just felt sorry for him. "What is wrong with you people?"

Never one to lose a chance, Miles latched onto my arm, "We're not bad people August I swear. I absolutely did not get to know you with the intention of using you and if I had known what Cain was planning to do I wouldn't have asked what he wanted. I swear I didn't and after we found out we thought it would be better not to tell you because we were still getting close and it was just, I don't know. I didn't want you to leave yet," he trailed off. "I'm really good at chasing people away on accident, but I had hoped you'd stay a little longer."