Maeve was angry. Seething. That lying bastard! A part of her didn't believe he would do this, but a bigger part was smugly pointing out she should've expected the disappointment by now. She was just here for confirmation, and then she could cut him out of her life, like all the other ballast dragging her down.

Otis closed his locker, and was surprised by the person leaning against the locker next to him, glaring at him. Maeve looked a little angry.

"Bastard."

On second thought, she looked a lot angry. "What? Why?"

"Did you get a kick out of it? Having a girl be vulnerable and confess feelings for you?"

"No? I mean, of course it's nice to hear, but -"

"Right," she barreled on. "I had some time to think yesterday, when I was walking home after you abandoned me with Elsie at school. You say you liked me, turned yourself inside out. Heart breaking stuff. Really got to me. But, oh wait, that liking me would've been at the same time you told Jackson how to get me. Those things can't both be true. One of them's a lie, Otis, and I know the Jackson thing is true. So you. Were. Lying."

"I wasn't! Well... I mean, yes, I did technically help Jackson, and maybe I wasn't telling… the whole truth... but I didn't -"

"That's what I thought." The confirmation had Maeve screaming inside. How did she never see this? He wasn't cute or awkward, he was just making excuses! "So when I spoke to you yesterday, opened up to you, did you figure you had me where you wanted me, time to rub it in, humiliate me, maybe get angry for a bit, make me feel bad, see how far you could get!?" By the end she was nearly shouting, but she didn't care.

Otis felt completely railroaded by the conversation, and started responding in kind. "Yes, I did get angry! You can't just -"

She didn't want to hear any more. She was done with this conversation. "I can't believe you, Otis. Truly a wolf in sheep's clothing. You're despicable. Don't talk to me again."

Otis doesn't talk to her again, but he can't help but feel something precious had just been twisted inside of him.

Ola and Otis are arguing, more every week.

The entire school's following it like a soap opera. New episodes are almost daily now! Their resident all-knowing therapist has stumbled and they're all watching with bated breath to see if he'll make a save or fall off his pedestal. It's especially fascinating because the snippets of fights the collective student body is able to piece together show the source of the arguments is his 'field of expertise', his bedroom performance. Juicy!

This last argument seems particularly brutal. They're in the middle of the hallway, starting with a whispered conversation but ending with forceful, frustration-filled phrases. Everyone around them is avoiding eye contact, but also not-so-subtly listening in and relishing in every overheard word.

"You can't put all the blame on me! A relationship takes two, takes effort, and if there's a problem, we just need to work it out, together."

"If there's a problem?! Otis, I have been trying to work it out with you for months now. You don't work with me. Every time we try something intimate, it's like you hit a concrete wall at full speed. Then you just apologize, making me feel bad, and then you clam up even further. This past week, we haven't exchanged more than pleasantries, movie choices, and scheduling arrangements. You never let me know what's really going on in your head. It's frustrating as hell! Besides, Lily told me I'm not the first you're disappointing in the bedroom. And the common element is you, Otis. So, in fact, I can blame you. You need help, and I have tried, but I just can't, won't be the one suffering your deficiencies any longer."

Ola hadn't planned to vent so much, let alone break up in a school hallway, but she felt relieved, as if a stress factor was removed from her life. She was done with Otis, and it felt great.

Otis looked around, and saw all the students surreptitiously checking for his reaction. He felt like he'd just been punched in the stomach, but he also felt like he didn't deserve that. And he definitely felt like it was none of the other students' business. He headed to the old toilet block. Maybe he'd get some privacy there.

The rumor was all over school in fifteen minutes. Sex kid got dumped, and apparently wasn't even able to get it working in the bedroom. It gave Maeve a vindictive sense of satisfaction. She didn't buy into the whole bedroom issues story, she knew from the pool that Otis had no problems there. She suspected Otis hurt Ola the same way he hurt her, and Ola was making up the story to get back at him. She felt bad for Ola though, obviously another victim of Otis' fake good guy image.

Maeve sat down next to Ola in the library. "So Otis showed his true colors to you too, huh?"

Ola slightly turned away, lifting her book up. "Don't talk to me."

"What? Don't be mad at me, you should be mad at him?"

Ola sighed. "I am mad at him. And at you. I can be both."

Maeve felt the conversation heading off course. "What have I done, then?"

Ola took a deep breath, but managed to keep her voice calm and even. "I'm not helping you two sort your shit out. I'm angry, remember?"

"I'm not asking you to sort anything! I wanted to commiserate, you know, pain shared is pain halved, all that? We shouldn't take it out on each other. What have I ever done to you?"

Ola lost her calm and even voice, and exploded. "You completely fucked him up, is what you did! Must be nice, get tired of the school jock, look twice at a new boy and he's ruined for everyone else! Go find another boy to break, and never talk to me again." Ola stood up, and marched out of the library.

Maeve sat back, slightly stunned, looking at the door Ola disappeared through. That did not go like how she'd imagined it. What was her problem?

Jackson smirks, the next time Otis runs into him. "Hey Otis! Heard about your troubles. That's really too bad, man. I thought you were this wise, little mum man, but turns out you're even more fucked up than the rest of us. You know, it's strange, in a sense you're still helping me. Helping me feel better about myself, that is. And who knows, maybe now that you've obviously botched it, Maeve and I will give it another go. We always did have this passionate chemistry, if you know what I mean?"

Jackson almost leers when he says all this, and Otis wonders how long Jackson has been waiting to let out this... resentment. Where did this come from? Had it always been there? Jealousy from when Maeve and Otis were close, and Jackson wanted that too? Did it start when Maeve suddenly dropped Jackson? Or was this his form of retaliation, a weird form of feeling protective after Maeve being hurt lately, assuming like everyone else that Otis had done something despicable to her?

"Cheer up, though," Jackson continues, "I'm sure you'll find someone just as bad at sex as you are." He pats Otis on the arm as if sending a toddler on his way, and takes off.

Otis sighs. He had noticed the other kids being a bit more… jeering, since his falling out with first Maeve and then Ola. He understood. Jackson was obviously just trying to be hurtful, but there was a core of truth in there. He had played at something he was not, with the clinic, with Ola, and especially with Maeve. Kids liked his advice, but they loved seeing him put back in his place. This bit from Jackson was the worst, and by far the most personal and hurtful. He couldn't deny Jackson had known exactly which buttons to press: he did miss his little interactions with Maeve, and something inside ached each time he thought about the chance he had missed. He trudged to class, taking a seat near the back.