Guy and Alexa had decided to spend lunch on Tuesday eating in the back of the library out of the old librarian's sight. They liked to be alone, especially at lunch so they could avoid the noise and excitement of the cafeteria. Alexa was going on about the History exam she'd last period and how ridiculous it was that her teacher expected her to memorize twenty specific dates in the Civil War. Meanwhile, Guy had been trying to figure out just how to tell her about what Connie had told him the other day. He knew that keeping the truth from her was a bad idea, so he wasn't going to do that, but he also didn't want her to get mad at Connie when he told her.
Alexa took a breath in the middle of her story and Guy used that opportunity to interrupt her. "Hey, uh, Alexa, I have to tell you something,"
She took a bite of her sandwich and nodded. "Is everything okay? You've been acting weird all day,"
"Yeah, everything's fine, I just . . . I have to tell you something," he repeated himself. Alexa put her sandwich down and stared at him like she was expecting him to say something serious. "So you know how I told you I was going to take care of Connie on Sunday?"
She nodded.
"Nothing happened," Guy explained quickly, not wanting her to jump to any conclusions. "But she did tell me that she's still in love with me. I didn't say anything back, I promise. I told her I'm with you and that's not going to change and I'm sorry I waited to tell you, I should've told you right away –"
Alexa started laughing.
"Are you laughing? Why are you laughing?" he asked, concerned.
Alexa buried her face in his shoulder so she wasn't making noise and pulled away tentatively. "You are so stupid," she said lovingly.
"What did I do?"
"Hun, why are you acting surprised that she told you that? I mean, everyone can see how she feels about you,"
Guy raised his eyebrows. "What – what do you mean?"
"She was gonna tell you eventually. You'd have to be completely blind not to see how she feels. I mean, for God's sake the way her face lights up when you walk into a room says it all."
Guy tried to picture Connie's face when she saw him and couldn't think of anything special about it. Well, not exactly not special. She looked beautiful, but she always did, that was just what she looked like. "So . . . you knew? And you didn't tell me?"
Alexa smiled. "Of course I knew. I thought you knew too."
"Why would I know?"
"Because everyone knows. Martine and Rachel had a bet going as to how long it would take for her to tell you,"
Guy took a breath, trying to think of how the hell he'd missed something that was so obvious to everyone else. Did the Ducks know about this? They had to have . . . but then why keep him in the dark about it? They should know him better than to assume that he could pick up on things like that. "I didn't do anything to lead her on, I swear,"
Alexa laughed and put her hand on top of his. "I know. I mean, you guys are friends and that's cool. And I understand it from her end, I mean, you're you. It's kinda hard not to fall in love with you,"
Guy's head piped up as soon as she finished speaking. She was smiling sweetly at him and he felt himself blush. "You love me?"
"Duh,"
He leaned in and kissed her. "I love you, too,"
Fulton and Portman were sitting on a bench next to the soccer field during their shared free period. They usually spent the time on the roof of Portman's dorm throwing trash onto unsuspecting students, but today Portman had mentioned something about wanting to talk to Fulton. He never wanted to talk about anything really so it surprised Fulton a bit, but he could kind of guess what it was going to be about.
He had assumed that the cocaine that Orion had discovered yesterday belonged to his friend. Fulton had seen him do coke a couple of times at parties, but not often enough to bring it up to him. He didn't see it as a problem – it wasn't like Portman was shooting heroin or something.
"I gotta tell you something, bro," said Portman.
Fulton nodded. "Kay. What?"
"Those drugs Coach found were mine,"
"Yeah I know,"
Portman, leaned back roughly, looking offended. "The hell you mean 'yeah I know?'"
Fulton shrugged. "I've seen you do coke before. No one else on the team does it. At least I don't think they do,"
Portman's shoulders and face relaxed. "Yeah, well . . . it's mine,"
"So . . . are you gonna tell Coach?"
"Hell no. The fuck I look like?"
"Portman, you have to tell him," Fulton said calmly. "If you don't tell him, he's telling the Dean and all of us could get busted,"
"Don't care,"
"You don't care? Then why are you telling me?"
Portman shrugged. "Cause . . . I don't want you getting in trouble I guess,"
Fulton was confused. "What do you mean?"
"If anyone accuses you, I want you to tell him it's Jacob Grimes's. He's some sophomore I bought it off of, he keeps like all of his stash in his dorm. But don't say shit unless you get accused. I'm no snitch, and I don't want his bitchass calling me one,"
Fulton nodded. He'd do what Portman said, if only because he was a good friend and didn't want to let him down. And he appreciated that Portman was protecting him. "Oh, and more thing," said Portman. "If anyone starts saying it's Julie's say the same thing,"
"Who would accuse Julie?"
"I don't fucking know, just do it, okay?!" Portman said aggressively.
Fulton didn't even need to ask as to why Portman was willing to be called a snitch to protect Julie. He knew that his friend liked her, but he didn't think that he liked her enough to risk getting called a name. If there was anything Portman hated, it was getting called names.
"Alright, bro. I've got it,"
"Swear?"
"Yeah, I swear,"
Portman nodded. There was an obvious thank you there, but he didn't say it. He quickly returned to his normal, brash self. "Alright, man, let's go. We don't need to sit around fucking staring at each other all day,"
Averman had been sitting around for the past week debating his date with Julie. He'd made a huge scene by asking her out publicly, made a big deal about asking her out in general, and now he was chickening out.
He was embarassed, if he was being honest. Goldberg had had no problem taking Julie out and here he was, sweating over it. He didn't even think that he was a "moral compass-y" kind of guy, but taking Julie out just to try and see if he could have sex with her didn't sit right with him. Averman didn't know if Goldberg and Julie had had sex or not because Goldberg hadn't said anything, but he figured they didn't because Goldberg would've been running his mouth to anyone who'll listen. That alone made him feel a little better, but not good enough to call off the date completely. He'd postponed it because he was scared – mostly of the sex factor. If Julie did want to sleep with him for whatever reason, he was a virgin. He was going to be bad at it and he knew that Julie had slept with Zack, who was a far more experienced lover if he was going to put it in such terms. Averman didn't exactly think that Julie was going to laugh at him or anything if she didn't come or if he came too early, but it didn't matter. He didn't want her regretting the experience.
So that day, Averman finally decided that the best thing to do was to tell Julie about the bet. It was probably going to cause some sort of fight between himself and Goldberg, but probably not a serious one. Obviously nothing was happening between him and Julie, so if it was all settled, he wasn't going to be pissed. Even if Julie was mad, it would make him feel a lot better knowing that she knew.
They were having some chips in the student lounge alone together when it felt like the perfect time to tell her. Julie was doing homework, talking occasionally about her day when Averman interrupted her. "Hey, uh, Cat, I need to talk to you about something,"
She looked up and smiled. "What, are you cancelling on me again?"
Averman cleared his throat. "Uh . . . yeah, actually. I am."
Julie raised her eyebrows. "Oh, uh, that's okay. But why? I mean you asked me out in such a rooomantic way,"
"It's got nothing to do with you . . . it's me," he tried to avoid eye contact with her. "I gotta . . . I gotta tell you something,"
"Is it going to be in corny limerick or something?" Julie said jokingly.
He shook his head. "No,"
Averman was almost never serious about anything so Julie's smile fell from her face. "Oh God, what? Are you okay?"
He nodded and swallowed hard. "I'm fine . . . it's just . . . it's about us . . . and Goldberg. We, uh, there's a reason that the two of us asked you out and . . . you and Connie were kind of right,"
Julie put down her pen.
"Goldberg and I kind of made a bet to see . . . to see which of us could um . . . get with you first," Averman looked up to see how Julie was looking at him. She wasn't really making any sort of notable expression and he began talking super fast. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm so, so, so, so sorry and I feel really bad and I wanted to tell you, but you know, guy code and all and I'm –"
Julie put her hand up, interrupting him. "I don't need to hear it," she didn't say it like she was angry, just like she was disappointed.
"Julie, I'm sorry," he repeated himself.
"Whatever," she stood up from her seat and grabbed her backback.
"Julie –" he called after her but she was already walking away from him and out the door.
Truly, the first thing Julie thought to do when she heard the truth from Averman was to tell Connie. Connie was the smartest person probably in the world, and she really needed the comfort of her best girlfriend.
She figured it wouldn't be best to tell her at school the next day because she knew she'd do somethin rash like explode on Goldberg and Averman, so she invited Connie to her dorm room Wedensday afternoon to tell her. And just as she expected, Connie practically exploded. "Those fucktards! Are you fucking kidding me? I fucking knew it! I knew they were up to something! Are they kidding? Like are they kidding?! Holy shit, like what the hell? What the actual fuck? Who the fuck do they think they are?! I swear to God, I'm going to kill them,"
They were sitting on Julie's bed and Connie pulled Julie's head to her chest, hugging her and stroking her arm. Julie wasn't crying, she was more angry than anything, but not shocked for whatever reason. Even she herself knew that something was up when Goldberg and Averman had asked her out in the span of a week. "I'm sorry," Connie whispered into her ear. She said it calmly, but she was practically shaking from rage.
Julie sat up. "I know . . . I just feel stupid,"
Connie furrowed her brow. "Why do you feel stupid? Those two idiots were planning on fucking you just so they can brag to their friends! They should feel stupid!"
"I just feel like I should've known . . . I mean, it was obvious that they were up to something,"
Connie shook her head and whispered, "I'm so fucking pissed off right now, I can't,"
"Just what did I do to them, Connie? Why did they have to make me feel like dirt?" Julie said, feeling tears stinging her eyes and Connie hugged her tighter.
"It's not your fault, don't think that for a second," she was obviously trying to calm herself down to soothe Julie but to no avail. Connie pulled the blanket from the edge of Julie's bed and draped it over them. "I just – I mean, did the rest of the team know about this? Are we the only ones who didn't know?"
Julie shook her head but kept herself on Connie's shoulder. "No, Adam couldn't have known. He would've told me,"
"Guy couldn't have known either," Connie said, definitely much more calm than she was a moment ago. "There's no way he would've been okay with this,"
"I don't know," Julie wiped a tear from her eye. "If any of them knew about this it's just as fucked up,"
"Ugh, they probably all knew. That stupid fucking guy code shit – I don't put it past any of them," Connie continued to stroke Julie's arm, but just thinking about this whole situation was pissing her off. "Shit, we need to do something,"
"Like what?"
"I don't know, some sort of revenge prank. Something to make them look stupid,"
Julie groaned. "You know I'm not good at pranks,"
"Yeah, but I am," she said and Julie lifted her head.
"You're gonna do something?"
Connie nodded like it was obvious. "Of course. I'm not letting them fuck with you and get away with it,"
"What are you gonna do?"
"I'll think of something."
