Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Part 3 Chapter 5a

"Why does it even matter?"

Ophelia felt the air leave her body. His words were so defensive, so unwilling to continue further. She struggled to breath out, "What?"

"Why does it matter who turned it in?" Zach persisted. His eyes went down to the food in front of him. "I mean, you admitted it was a good idea. You said you were glad it happened."

"I...." Ophelia stopped, wondering if his passive aggression meant what she thought it meant. "I am glad, but..."

"Okay," he stressed, "So why are you making a big deal of it now?"

Ophelia grimaced. His tone seemed hostile. He hadn't spoken to her like this since they were kids and got into petty arguments. He wasn't lying. He was trying really hard to not say anything that would be a lie.

"But it was Scott, right?" Ophelia repeated. "It was Scott that turned it in-"

"That's what you told me," Zach insisted, getting so nervous to answer that he ended up cutting her off.

Ophelia felt guilt, and she felt it so strongly that she considered she should stop asking the question. But she couldn't. She needed to know.

"Zach. Who turned it in?"

Zach felt backed into a corner, and all he knew was that he shouldn't have let things go this far, or let the lie live this long. Zach had thought he would have told her by now, but he kept putting it off. He shouldn't have kept putting it off.

He was debating his next words, and she must have become impatient. She reached forward and grabbed his lunch box and moved it out of the way so he couldn't focus on it anymore.

"Zach."

But Zach couldn't say 'me'. He was too scared.

So instead he sputtered, "I didn't tell Scott to take the fall. He decided to do that himself."

Ophelia felt like someone had taken cold water and splashed it over her. It shocked her, but more than that...it hurt. His words made her body hurt. How could words cause pain like this? And it wasn't even like he was hurting her self esteem by saying mean things, it was average words that sent her spiraling into guilt and regret.

"You did it?" Her voice came out in a high pitched whisper.

Zach felt the pain behind her question, but he didn't understand why she was this upset at all.

"Yes."

Her hand flew over her mouth, shocked.

Zach reached forward and tried to grab her hand. She pulled it back. He cringed, and said quickly, "Ophelia, Montgomery was getting to you again. And after Bryce's trial, after he testified, I could tell that you wanted to forgive him. But he didn't deserve your forgiveness."

Ophelia just kept the hand over her mouth, shaking her head, not believing what he was telling her.

He continued defending himself, "The only reason Montgomery has been staying away from you is because he's on parole." But he hadn't stayed away from her. "You have power over him because he's on parole. If you would have forgiven him-"