Match

52: Say You're Sorry

Wham! The door smacks into the doorstop, making it vibrate.

"Careful Hayden, jeez," Cole says in a huff.

"Hah, sorry door," his speech is slurred.

He kneels down like a parent tending to their child, except with a door. Cole sighs, nudging him so he can move out of the way. He's never seen his roommate drink so much so quickly. Right from the get-go he knew he was going to be the D.D. He takes off his shoes, along with Hayden. On the small clock by the fridge he notices it's almost quarter to eleven. As his eyes search for Hayden, he hears the door to the bathroom slam. He cusses under his breath.

"Are you going to vom?" He runs up.

"No! No I'm, not," the more Hayden speaks, the more his speech has a drunk accent. "I need to take a pish."

Pish? Cole thinks. Oh, he means piss. He does one more knock on the door.

"Don't take too long. I need to shower."

No answer. He leaves Hayden alone to do his business, sitting down on his unmade bed. He checks his recent notifications on his phone and sees Jonah sent a response almost an hour ago.

'Jonah:

Dude I wish. It's hard to babysit two kids that are drunk off of mocktails. :P'

His eyes wander to the bathroom door, still closed. He shakes his head with a sigh.

Cole:

try 1 roommate that had 2 tequila shots and god knows how many peach schnapps.

As he charges his phone and grabs extra clothes, he hears the door squeak open. He makes his move and sprints into the bathroom, locking it shut.

"Shith, mayn!" Hayden says. "You were like, Sonich speed man."

Cole holds his tongue, tossing his clothes to the floor and turning on the shower. He can smell a faint scent of alcohol, but thankfully no vomit.

———————————

"Hi, Jone."

Ben's tone sounds disappointed, matching his posture. His palm is planted on Ethan's shoulder. Ethan is attempting to hide his face by lowering it. Jonah may have found this unexpected for them to show up at the door, but he had an idea Ben had a long night and wanted to wrap it up quick.

"Hi, Ben and Eth," he says. "What's, up?"

Ben nudges Ethan forward, making him hesitate on whipping back and smacking his brother. He plants himself in an attempt to look chill, burying his hands in his pockets.

"I want to say sorry," Ethan says. "For like, busting you like that."

Jonah so badly wants to beat around the bush, but even he feels Ben's intimidating aura.

"You were the one that put matches by my car and in my bag, right?"

He takes a quick glance to his brother, then back to Jonah.

"I only put them in your bag-"

"No you didn't," Ben cuts him off. "At the corn maze? You did that too. Your room was stashed with matchsticks."

"Fine," he huffs. "I did that too. Just as a prank. But those were the only times I had them, I swear."

Jonah raises an eyebrow. "Wait, you're saying you weren't one of those guys that caused the arson at the field?"

Ben shakes his head. "He was grounded the night it happened. Our whole family's eyes were on him."

"Huh? For real?"

"Yeah," he crosses his arms over his chest. "He's grounded again, for trying to make Molotov cocktails with some of his 'friends' and set fire to an abandoned building by the outskirts."

"I told you I wasn't going to do that shit!" Ethan turns to him. "I swear on my life I thought we were going to play beer pong at Jayden's!"

"Your text messages tell another story."

The boiling anger on Ethan's face makes it look like he's about to land a punch on his brother. He hides it by walking back to Ben's car and cussing to himself.

"I didn't want any part in that," he mumbles.

Ben sighs. "Anyway, sorry to interrupt your night Jone. We just wanted to drop by to clear some things up."

Jonah waves a hand in the air. "It's alright. Sucks you had to miss the awesome light show."

"Eh, it's all good," he then mutters, "I just don't want my bro to be as reckless as I was when I was his age."

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he laughs. "We'll leave you be now. Have a good night."

They exchange fist bumps, then Jonah shuts the door. He sinks a little as he leans against it, trying to digest all that's happened. He may have gotten answers he wanted, but there's still room for more questions. If Eth really wasn't one of the suspects, then who the hell had the bullseye on the team? Immediately he pulls out his phone to text someone, ignoring the notification.

Jonah:

You'll never guess what happened.