A/N: Thanks for the follows! Would love to hear your thoughts/reviews.

Ch 3.

"Hey Mallory," Paul crooned, leaning against my locker at the end of the day, holding a piece of paper. I shewed him away so I could open it and get some books.

"What is that?" I asked, seeing a numbered list of names on a lined piece of paper.

"These are all the girls. All the girls that I…"

"Fucked and then dumped?" I asked him head on.

He pursed his lips. "It wasn't all like that," he said defensively. "But these are all the girls I hurt. Some of them were girlfriends I cheated on, some of them I strung along, and some I had sex with and then ghosted, like Caroline and your other friends," he said. I stared at him in disbelief at how plainly he said this.

I looked at this list, there were 21 names, with Caroline's being the last. Her name was crossed off. My eyes nearly bulged out their sockets. "Paul! You've slept with 21 girls! You're only 18 years old." I cringed. "We live on a very small Reservation next to a very small town." I paused and looked at him dead in the eyes. "You definitely have an STD," he pushed me down a less crowded hallway.

"Will you please keep your voice down? And no, I am clean as a whistle, thank you very much. I get tested." He puffed up his chest, like it was a badge of honor.

"Highly unlikely that you are clean as a whistle," I said sardonically.

He looked at me with dubious eyes. "And how many are on your list, huh?" He gave a big zero with his hand and a giant smirk seemingly wanting to peg me as a sexually repressed virgin. But it wasn't true. I rolled my eyes at him and put up two fingers, like a peace sign. Paul looked surprised. Not upset or bothered, but just caught off guard.

"Who?"

"That's really none of your business," I said to him in a whisper, crossing my arms firmly.

"I'm showing you my list ba…" he was definitely about to call me baby. I glared at him, "..uh, Mallory."

"Fine," I huffed. Max Wild Horse and Ethan Running Tree." He nodded, recalling both guys.

"They were your boyfriends?" he asked.

I exhaled. Why was I telling him all this?

"Max was my boyfriend for about a year, until this past December. It just fizzled out. He didn't purposefully hurt me, I mean I ended it. But it was still sad."

Why was I rambling on? I couldn't seem to help myself.

"Ethan was basically a rebound. He didn't hurt me either. We had sex after a party a couple months ago, and then a few times after that. But we both knew what it was and consented to it. He didn't ghost me or pretend like I wasn't alive anymore, like you did with all those girls. It just ran its course and ended."

Paul pursed his lips, and gazed at me as if the gears in his brain were deciding how to process all this information.

Why did he even care? I thought.

"Did you love him?" he asked straight. "Max."

My shoulders tightened. I wasn't even sure I knew the answer to this question. I really liked Max at the time. He was fun and sweet, but after a while it just fell flat. And I never looked at him like Kim looked at Jared. I shook my head no, unable to articulate any words at all.

He then looked down at his list and we started to walk toward the double doors together. I tried to refocus on the task at hand.

"So…these apologies, Paul. They have to be genuine. Just like Caroline's, okay? Totally heartfelt." He nodded as we walked outside.

I looked down at the list and then saw someone I recognized. "Look, there is Shalie Porter. Number 16." He looked at me with a hard glance and moved forward toward her. Shalie was also a junior. She was beautiful and cool and if Paul had a type, Shalie would definitely be it. Flawless make-up, good hair, high cheekbones. I vaguely remembered him dating her for a few months last year, mostly because of their grotesque public make out sessions. He walked up to her slowly.

"Hi Shalie," he said softly.

"Paul?" She questioned, surprised he was speaking to her. He took a deep breath.

"I'm gonna cut right to it, Shalie. What I did last year with you and Kaylah was wrong. I'm really and truly sorry. You've always been such a good person. You were a great girlfriend and have such a trusting heart and I totally took advantage of that. I know I hurt you, Shalie, and this may be too little too late, but I am sorry for cheating on you, and for being a really shitty boyfriend. For saying I loved you when I wasn't ready. It was wrong and cruel of me to treat you so poorly. I was totally being selfish, that whole time."

She stared at him, completely staggered. "Uh… Okay, Paul. Um, I gotta go," and she left in a state of shock and pulled out her phone to make a call.

He turned back to me and shrugged. Witnessing another apology was a bit unreal. It was as if another version of Paul slipped into his skin. One who was emotionally aware and reckoning with his shame. And it just seemed to pop on like a light switch.

"I guess she didn't expect that," I said.

"Apparently, not," he said. I looked back at him. Was this really real?

"Was that genuine Paul? Do you really feel that way?"

He nodded. "To be honest, I never thought about it at all before. But since you told me to, it just comes out of me. And it's real. I feel so…" he searched for the words for a bit, "remorseful." And then after a few seconds he added, " It's actually fucking horrible." But he didn't look like he was going to cry or anything. He still seemed stoic and stonelike.

"Weird," I said. "Well hopefully it brings some closure to them." He shrugged at me again.

"Her apology was so different from Caroline's… you remembered all that stuff about her…?" I trailed off.

"Yeah," he said, a bit exhausted. "I mean I didn't really let myself think about it too much at the time, but I guess it was all in there, waiting to come out."

A few days later I got a call from an unknown number.

"Hello?" I answered suspiciously.

"Mallory, it's me," Paul's husky voice boomed.

"Uh, hi Paul," I said warily, but clearly recognizing his voice. "How did you get my number?"

"Kim. Anyway, I knocked 7 names off the list. Caroline and Shalie and then Aubrey, Tayrn, Maddie, Nicole and Shannon."

"How'd they go?" I asked.

"Shannon slapped me. Maddie broke down in tears and then hugged me. The rest seemed totally freaked out."

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"Awful," he said "It's fucking awful. I'm a total bastard. Was a total bastard." Then silence.

"Listen," he said. " Since I did 7, a third so far, I was wondering if we can go on a small date. A mini date, it can be a group thing," his voice perked up.

"Paul… that was not the deal..."

"Come on Mallory, I'm getting hit here. Everything is totally heartfelt and genuine... and it's… it's emotionally exhausting," he blurted out. "I know I made my bed and now I have to lay in it but give me a little carrot to keep going on." He was pleading again. I thought about it. He sounded reasonable enough. He did seem to be putting in a lot of effort here.

"Fine," I said, reluctantly.

"Great! We're going to a bonfire tomorrow. I will pick you up at 8pm on my motorcycle, so dress for that."

I agreed and hung up. Maybe I did make a deal with the devil.