Chapter 3: The Talk With Jeff

Matt's P.O.V:

After about ten minutes of Jeff repeating 'It's all my fault' over and over he finally seemed to calm down. I reached over and took the keys out of the ignition; he didn't say anything or try and stop me. I sat back in my seat, looking at Jeff as he was leaned back, staring out the window.

"Jeff, please tell me what's going on?" I ask him hesitantly, not knowing how my little brother was going to react. Its a few moments before he looks at me and opens his mouth to speak.

"From the beginning?" He asks me, turning to look out the window again.

"From the beginning, I need to know everything," I tell him. I want to know this, but I don't.

Jeff lets out a shaky break and turned in his seat, facing me now but he's still avoiding my gaze, looking down at his hands. "Do you remember when Shannon set me up on that blind date and my date ended up being a drag Queen?" He asks, looking up at me.

"How could I forget?" I reply, laughing a little as he continues.

"Well I was pissed off at him and I wanted to get back at him," Jeff paused, "You know that singles site Shannon goes on that no one visits?" He asked.

"Yeah," It was all I could say.

"Well I made a profile."

"Yeah" was all I could say.

"I made a profile on one, but I used a fake name, a screen name since it says you're not supposed to tell people your full name or your real name for some fucked up reason to do with security. Anyway I messaged him saying I was interested in him and so Shannon started talking to me. He didn't know it was me though and it went on for two weeks which was why he seemed so happy. He thought he'd found someone," He paused, sighing.

"I felt bad for taking it that far so I decided to break it off with him, but then I figured out a better way to end it, without actually ending it." He stopped, seeming to take a moment to gather his thoughts and take a couple calming breaths.

"How?" I can't resist asking.

"When I was trying to come up with a way to break it off with Shannon I came up with something I thought would work," He paused again.

"So what was the idea you came up with?" I asked.

"I started talking to this guy, though I guess you could say I was posing as Shannon, does that make sense?" He asked, looking at me.

"So far yeah," I replied, trying to keep up with it.

"Okay, well I started talking to this guy and he seemed like Shannon's type so I told him everything me and Shannon had talked about over the past through weeks with email and IM. After we had finished with all that I told him that my account had been hacked and that I'd made a new one, so instead of giving him a new address I gave him the link to Shannon's profile. Does that make sense?" Jeff finished.

"Yeah but Shannon only knew your account, not this other guy's," I replied, feeling slightly confused.

"I was about to get to that. I told Shannon the same thing I told the guy, giving him the link for the guy's profile. So it was easy, I got out of the fake relationship and Shannon didn't get heartbroken. Do you understand?" He asked, looking up at me, his eyes shiny with tears.

"Yeah I get it. I got to hand it to you Jeff, I never thought you had the brains or the patience to come up with a plan like that," I tell him with laughter in my voice. I glance over to see him wiping away fresh tears.

"Yeah well I should have just broken it off and told him the truth, I would rather have him be mad at me and hate me then for him to get hurt," He murmured more to himself than me.

"Go on Jeff, I know there's more," I encouraged, not trying to be pushy but I need to know the whole story.

"Well a couple of days later I called and asked him how it was going, since I was the only one he'd told about his relationship. He didn't want anyone to know because he didn't want to jinx it and wanted to surprise everyone if and when this was serious since no one seemed to think he was going to settle down or find anyone. He told me it was great and he really liked him, he was excited because he and this guy were gonna talk on the phone and he was nervous as hell," Jeff explained, laughing softly this time.

"Two weeks ago Shannon told me that he thought this guy was moving too fast for him, he tried telling this guy they were moving too fast and that he wanted to slow it down. He said after that the guy got more intense and started demanding things Shannon didn't want to give, that's when Shannon broke it off with him. Shannon said the guy was pissed, that he was scared he might come after him and try and hurt or kill him but he did actually think the would come after him. And now look where we are, this guy has Shannon and he's doing god knows what and it's all my fault," Jeff finished, crying again.

"Jeff you didn't mean for Shannon to get hurt, it's not your fault," I tried to comfort him before Jeff cut in.

"Matt don't say that it's not my fault! We both know it's my fault because I screwed up like always and now I may have just cost my best friend his life!" Jeff shouted before punching the window as hard as he could, it didn't break.

"Jeff calm down!" I yelled, grabbing his wrists and holding onto him until he stopped fighting and went limp. He was still crying and I saw his hand was bleeding. Reaching into the back I grab his bag which he left in the car and pull out his first aid kit, taping his hand.

Getting out I manage to walk around to the driver's seat and practically carry Jeff around to the other side before getting into the driver's side and heading to South Carolina.

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