TROY

Senior year, day two.

"Dude, what the fuck was that about this morning?"

"Nothing," Chris tells me as we're driving to Chipotle for lunch. "She's just looking for ways to be mad."

"Why would she want to be mad?"

He laughs, "hell if I know! I don't know the inside of a female brain."

Sexist.

I bite my tongue as I come to a red light.

"You were yelling pretty loud at her. It looked and sounded wrong," I tell him, "look, I don't know what happened, but you can't be doing that shit, man. It's not right. Do you know how many people asked me if you guys always fight like that, their eyes basically asking, does he ever hit her?"

"Shit," he breaths, "I know I shouldn't have, but fuck, she gets mad for the dumbest things."

"Like what?"

He shrugs, "I didn't go to dinner at her house, big deal."

I pretend to know nothing about it. "Oh, she invited you and you were like, I'm busy, I can't make it today?"

"Something like that," he says, "okay, maybe I implied I'd be there, but she didn't specify a time and she never texted me after God knows what she was doing after school. I wanted to hang out and she said she was busy so like can I be mad?"

"No, you can't be mad because she never told you she could hang out and then not hang out," I defend her, "you're kind of in the wrong here."

"Seriously, dude? You too?"

I push on the gas to go, immediately turning right into the first entrance at the shopping center.

I'm all about right over wrong. Not about who.

I'm loyal.

I'd do anything for Chris. And for any of my other friends.

But he straight up lied to Gabriella. He wasn't with Brian last night because I was with Brian. He came over after school, we went to grab some tacos and then we played indoor soccer with some of our friends. We invited Chris, but he said he was busy. We figured with Gabriella since things were good with them again, but now I'm finding out that he lied to her. And the whole text messages yesterday morning. I don't even know what to think.

"What'd you end up doing?"

"I went to my aunts," he shrugs, "nothing to even get mad over. She's being ridiculous."

Right.

I dropped it for the time being. It's none of my business.

But they're my friends.

Both of them are my friends. Sure, I think I might be in love with Gabriella, but she's still my friend.

And I care about her and her feelings and if she's being treated right.

I always thought Chris did treat her right. They were never this insanely in love couple where you look at them and think they're going to be together forever. But they looked solid. They looked happy and like things were going good. I mean, I'm sure he'd tell me if something was up with them.

"You going to the game this Friday?"

"Nah."

"No?" I question Chris as we scarf down out burritos as fast as possible to make it back to school in time for 5th period. "What are you doing instead?"

"Alex is coming into town for a few days and I doubt he wants to go to a football game."

Just like that, I don't believe my best friend anymore.

He liked about Brian.

And I have the strongest feeling he's lying about his cousin coming to town.

One, because whenever his cousin does come into town, he hangs with us. He invites him wherever he goes and Alex always manages to have a good time. He's one of those guys that goes with the flow and can get along with pretty much anyone. In fact, I remember him coming to a couple of football games throughout our high school life so I want to call bullshit on this so bad, but I don't need to argue with Chris. It's the last thing I need.

"Oh, cool, I wanna see him while he's here."

"Sure," he nods, "if you don't go to the game. We're headed to Boulder for the rest of the weekend. Not much to do in this town, you know?"

"For sure."

It's all bullshit, really.

One look at Alex's Instagram or Twitter account will prove me right.

But do I really want to know? I think I'd rather be blind to whatever Alex is doing. The less I know, the better maybe.

"I think the game will blow, anyway."

"Yeah?"

He shrugs, taking another big ass bite of his burrito, "McEntyre's hurt, Branson's still recovering. I think it'll be kind of a shit show. But I know everyone's going to this one cause it's our rival school so maybe it will be fun. Keep me posted about it."

I nod, washing down my food with some of my soda, "Hear Moore's having a party. If you and Alex are interested in that, should be fun."

"Yeah, I'll see," he nods.

Whatever shady thing he's up to, I decide I don't want to know.

Turning a blind eye to all of it for now.

Fuck.

Confession?

I hate elevators. Absolutely despise them.

One of my fears, actually.

I'm closing my eyes, praying that today is not the day I go down and I make it to the third floor safely.

The doors opened and a deep breath emerges from me.

I always take the stairs. It's only three floors to my dad's, but seven to my mom's. But they've been closed for the past few days due to renovations or something like that. New tiles? New rails? I have no idea. But it's made me have to take the elevator and it's something I'm not happy about at all.

But I'm here.

I cruise down the hall, saying hi to some of the staff members as I make my way to my dad's office, lunch in tow.

The door is slightly open, but I knock anyway.

My dad tells me to come in.

I did, but I didn't expect Dr. Montez to be sitting in a chair in front of him.

"Oh, you guys busy?" I ask, halting.

"No, we're just talking... nothing work related," my dad laughs, telling me to come and take a seat. I do. and I greet Dr. Montez, "actually, David was just inviting us to dinner tonight. Anna is making her famous ribs and you know we cannot say no to those."

Dr. Montez laughs, nodding away, "join us, as well. There's more than enough. It's been a little while since we've all gotten together."

My dad leans back in his chair, "it has, hasn't it?"

I think so.

I'm not really sure, though.

Dr. Montez and my parents work in the same hospital. All head of their department, but on different floors. Obviously, their profession causes them to work together sometimes. I know they did a surgery together last month because my dad raved about it, telling us Dr. Montez was at his absolute best. They hit it off the day Dr. Montez got transferred to this hospital and have been friends ever since. My mom and Gabriella's mom get along great.

"Well, I'll let you guys have your lunch," Dr. Montez tells us, standing up, "don't eat too much, though. Dinner's at 7, come hungry."

"We definitely will," my dad laughs, "see ya then."

It's 2.

This week, I've been getting off a little earlier since we don't have soccer the first week of school.

So, I was able to bring my dad some lunch from one of his favorite spots.

I'm still pretty full from my Chipotle.

"Can you make it tonight?" My dad asks, unwrapping the tacos I brought him while fishing for the salsa in the bag, "I'm sure Chris will be there."

"Yeah, sure," I nod, thinking about if I have any homework. Not really. It's still early. "I'll talk to him about it."

"Great."

I get up before getting comfortable, "I'm gonna go say hi to mom."

My dad nods, biting into his tacos.

Once again, I'm closing my eyes, praying in the elevator. The ding take me out of my misery and I step foot onto the 7th floor. Not too much out of my misery because we're in the pediatric department now and it's the worst thing to witness. Sick kids left and right. It breaks my heart to see.

I knock on my mom's door and her sweet voice tells me to come in not a second later.

"Hey, mom."

"Troy, what a nice surprise," she smiles at me.

"Yeah, I was bringing dad some lunch," I tell her, "he told me you ate, though, and you have a surgery at 2:30, so not to bother bringing you anything."

She laughs, "yeah, that's true."

I wasn't planning on coming up to my mom's office. I was just gonna catch her at home. But sitting there, this thought just came into my head and all of a sudden, there was nothing more I wanted than to talk to her about something.

"Can I talk to you really quick or are you busy?" I ask her, taking a seat on the couch she has, "because if you are..."

"No, I'm just resting a bit before the surgery, what's up?"

"I need advice."

She swivels around in her chair to face me as she pulls her brown locks back with a hair tie. "Advice?"

I nod, "yeah, like friend advice."

"Okay," she says, "tell me the problem."

The problem. Okay. Well, the problem is I like his girlfriend and...

Yeah, right.

"I just... it's no one you really know so you don't have to feel weird about knowing their problems. But I think he's being cheated on. I don't have solid proof or evidence but it's all kind of lining up and I don't really know what to do with the information. I don't know if I should tell him or just kind of leave it."

"You think his girlfriend is cheating on him? Do you know his girlfriend pretty well?"

"No, just from around."

She looks at me a little funny, "then how would you know she's cheating? Did you see her or something, kissing someone?"

I shake my head, "not kissing. But in compromising positions."

"Okay," she nods, "what does your gut say?"

"My gut wants to tell him," I breath out, "but I know there's a chance he won't believe me and then it'll just ruin the friendship and I don't really want that."

"Right, of course. That's tricky."

"And I don't want the girl to hate me, either. I don't want any of them to hate me."

My mom smiles at me. "You want to do the right thing because that's just who you are. And you're scared of telling him because you don't want to hurt him and you don't want it to blow up in your face. What if you do tell him, but they decide to stay together? Maybe they believe you, maybe they don't, but the bottom line is that they stay together? You're going to be on the outside because they're a team. They won't be too happy with you."

She's right.

But it's just something that I can't get out of my head.

I don't know for sure if Chris is cheating, but it fucking seems like it and it makes my blood broil. Gabriella does not deserve that whatsoever.

"What if they'd want to know, though?"

"I know," she nods, "you want to help your fried out. But even then, you're going to become the bad guy. He'd believe you, butt hen throw back in your face, how long did you know? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why were you doing this or that? It's all so complicated."

She's right... again.

Fuck. WHAT DO I DO?! I have no idea what to do.

For now, I don't know he's cheating. And I don't want to investigate t. I don't want to be privy to anything even if I've already been.

"You're right," I tell her, "I'm just going to stay out of it. Turn a blind eye."

"Until you have to. You'll know if you do."

"Thanks, mom," I smile at her, "I'll let you go now."

"You're the best, you know that?" She gets up to come give me a kiss on the head, "you'll do the right thing."

Will I?

I have no fucking idea.