A Fresh Start

Secrets

"Damn Renolyds what'd you do to that chick?" I rolled my eyes at Glen's gossipy nature. He was the first to accuse someone of being a pussy, yet he was more attuned to gossip than half the girls at this school.

"Nothing you need to know about," I replied bluntly, hoping that he'd take the hint and drop it. I should have known better, when Glen smelled a secret he was insatiable. 

"C'mon why's she so pissed, she can't handle the hump and dump?" Glen said as he spun the dial on his gym locker. I felt anger start to build up in my chest as he spoke, but I knew his perception of me was my own damn fault. After all, I used to be that person, I couldn't blame the school for my labeling me as a stereotypical fuckboy. 

"Jesus Glen, everything's a story with you, she lives with me dumbass, I couldn't start something with her even if I wanted to." I felt a pang in my chest as I spoke the last few words, she had no idea how badly I wanted to be with her.

"Please Sebastion, we have eyes, that girl's hot as fuck, and knowing you-" Glen raised his eyebrows suggestively. I felt the spark of anger flame up with the way he was talking about Marie. 

"Just shut the hell up Glen," I said, stuffing the rest of my stuff in the locker so I could escape. It was hard enough living with the girl I loved while not able to be with her, I didn't need the reminder shoved in my face. When I turned back to Glen I immediately regretted my words, I shouldn't have given him a reaction.

"So you don't care if I want to fuck around with her then?" He asked belligerently, a smirk sliding its way onto his face. I clenched my jaw as I answered,

"Do whatever you want Glen, I really don't give a shit about either of you." All I could do was pray that Marie could see through this asshole's lies. 

As I went through my day in a half-aware state I realized that I couldn't dismiss the situation with Glen. If it was any other guy I'd be less concerned, but Glen was different, he might pretend as though he was indifferent to me but he wasn't. It started when he couldn't make the varsity soccer team I was the captain of, granted he started football by junior year, making that a small part of the issue. The bigger blow to his pride was the fact that I suspected his big secret. Not that it was hard, I mean when you act that hyper-masculine it's easy to draw the conclusion that you're trying to compensate for something. Aside from that it sure didn't help that he had a total crush on my brother, as someone who spent tons of time with said brother, it became sort of hard not to notice. I'd never confronted him about it, but I'd thrown in enough subtle hints that even he figured it out. It was ridiculous for him to hate me so much for it, I'd never tell anyone, I knew better than most that coming out was a sensitive process.

Sure I felt for the guy, I knew it couldn't be easy to live a lie. I could even handle his barely veiled and completely unfounded dislike for me, but hurting Marie to get under my skin, that was crossing a line. I knew how badly I'd hurt Marie, and every day I saw her hurting all I wanted to do was run to her, but I couldn't do that to her. I was still sure that my decision was for the best, but I knew she was seeking comfort right now and I sure as hell wasn't going to let Glen manipulate that and hurt her. I knew she'd move on eventually and I told myself that I would too, but not with someone who was only using her.

As I walked into the cafeteria and took a seat with my brother I couldn't help looking at Marie sitting with her friends. She was wearing some random t-shirt and jeans, but she made it look like something featured in a magazine. I tore my eyes away from Marie as I heard my name called. I looked over to see the speaker and immediately fought to forgo rolling my eyes. Brittney was standing in front of me, her hands placed on her hips and her eyes were narrowed.

"Seb, Seb, are you listening to me," she said, jutting her hip out and pulling her heavily painted face into an expression of hurt. Sometimes I just couldn't stand her, when situations like these arose I cursed my past self for his slutty behavior. Brittney was every classic rich girl stereotype rolled into one, her parents are loaded workaholics who basically bought her love to make up for their absence from her life. Her mansion and absence of parent supervision made her a popular party host, and therefore one of my hookups during what I've deemed the dark ages. Before you berate me for my awful behavior I should mention that the girls I hooked up had been agreed to the whole no strings attached thing, most of them didn't remember in the morning anyway. The last person I'd expect to have an issue with me not wanting a relationship was Brittney, normally she treated guys like her own personal toys and got away with it because of her pretty face. For some reason I was the exception, maybe it was because I really wasn't interested in her, frankly, I didn't care, at this point, it was just annoying.

I nodded as Brittney blathered on about some party she was planning and before I knew what was happening she had sat in my lap. "What are you doing?" I asked her, both shocked and annoyed at her forwardness. 

"Getting more comfortable obviously," she said with a roll of her eyes. God, I hated past me for sleeping with her. 

"Okaay, but can you get off please?" I was pretty impressed at my ability to veil my annoyance, Brittney, on the other hand, was not. 

"One day you'll see what your missing and come around," she said with a huff. After delivering her dramatic statement she promptly flounced off. 

"Not likely," murmured Ben shooting me a look. I ignored him, out of the corner of my eye I had seen Glen get up from where he was sitting. When I realized where he was heading I stood up, making my tray fall to the ground with a loud clatter. Thankfully I managed to intercept Glen, saying I had an important question, he hesitated, but when I mentioned that it pertained to my brother he followed me willingly. Thank god we had the next week off.

Marie's POV

Thanksgiving break went by in a blur, most of it spent hibernating in my room with Netflix and a new romance novel. I was pretty proud of myself when I changed out of my robe to get groceries for the big dinner with Gloria. Thanksgiving wasn't a big affair for the Renolyds, most of their family lived out of town, but Gloria's brother was joining us with his family. Roberto and Ben ended up cooking the dinner, Sebastion attended to the pie, and Gloria and I mapped out black Friday plans. 

The dinner was uneventful, it was nice having so many people around, it was a lot easier to distance myself from Sebastion. Gloria's brother was really nice, he shared Gloria's unwavering enthusiasm for pretty much everything. His wife was more reserved, but she opened up after a glass of wine, she turned out to be a great storyteller. The couple also had a son around our age named Chris, he, like his mother, took a while to warm up, but after sitting next to one another during dinner and enduring our slightly tipsy parents we grew comfortable with one another. We shared a love for the Beatles and ended up talking about all sorts of things during the duration of their visit. After the pies were eaten the adults sent us to watch a movie, probably so they could drink some more. 

I ended up sitting next to Chris, now we were talking about Florida, turns out he wanted to go to college there. We were just talking about the frequency of hurricanes when we were interrupted:

"Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but we did want to pick a movie this year," Sebastion said, glaring at us. I rolled my eyes at him, he was probably pissed off about that dodgeball game.

Jesus, I knew I bruised his pride (and probably his stomach) with that dodgeball, but this was taking it too far. Sebastion was refusing every movie offered, I wasn't going to put up with this anymore. "You know what Sebastion why don't you pick out the movie," I said, my voice laced with annoyance.

"Nothing here is interesting," he said, his face the picture of innocence. 

"Well, what do you suppose we should do then." I could feel myself starting to get angry.

"We could always go back to watching you and Chris get it on," he said with a smirk. I felt my face get red, I couldn't believe this, could he be jealous? No, he didn't like me, I was just a toy to play with until boredom resurfaced. Just the other day Brittney had draped herself over him. Well, regardless he had no right to humiliate me.

"What the hell are you going on about, I was pretty sure that ball hit you in the chest, not your head." I saw Sebastion's face get red, but I wasn't done yet. "You are in no position to tell me that I've gone overbored with PDA, you and Brittney were all over each other the other day."

"You know Ben and I are gonna go look on Netflix," Chris said, quickly exiting the room, leaving Sebastion and I to our yelling match.

"W-well, I mean, Brittney and I, are-" I didn't understand why he looked so nervous, he had made it abundantly clear that he didn't care about me or my feelings. When I told him as much he turned on heel and walked out of the room, leaving me more confused than ever.