Chapter 6 Jason

I heard a ruckus outside and decided to go see what was happening.

In my head, maybe it was just a fan who followed us and was trying to get into the rink.

Immediately when I got out, the first thing to hit my face was a tight slap followed by my curses.

I let the slap sting before looking at who slapped me and the anger in my eyes disappeared the moment my eyes laid on Maya.

"Do you do that for?" I asked as I rubbed my face to soothe the pain.

"Are you happy now?" she asked as tears fell from her eyes.

"Are you happy? You and your little girlfriend ruined my life once more. Go out and celebrate because you guys have won," she said, poking my chest so hard I thought a hole would form.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused, trying to match her pace and her words.

"You are just a stupid dick who carries joy at seeing others in pain," she said, cleaning her eyes. Chad went over to calm her down. She pushed Chad off.

"I hate you so much. I hope you don't wake up tomorrow," she said before getting on her bike and wheeling off.

I stood there confused, Chad's hands on his waist as we both watched the bike wheel away.

After about three hours of unsuccessful skating and missed shots, I decided to call it a night and go back home.

I was supposed to stay at Chad's house because, well, my dad didn't want to see me anymore until I found a way to fix whatever was going on.

On my own, without his money or influence, and even though I thought he was crazy, I couldn't argue.

Chad's parents were out of town, so I wouldn't have to face hours of scolding or advice from his dad.

We got to his house. I immediately fell on the bed. Chad sat close to me.

"What was her deal?" I asked, staring at the ceiling, replaying everything that had happened over and over again.

"Are you asking me?" Are you the one with the bright idea?" he said coldly before resting his back on the headboard?

"Why are they being mean to me?" I asked, sitting up to look at him, and he was looking extremely serious.

"Because you make these stupid decisions without thinking about how it affects other people," he said, gesturing for reference.

"I only wanted to save my face—"

"No, you just wanted to feed your stupid ego," he said, pointing his fingers at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking at him in shock.

Chad and I had quarreled in the past, but he had never for once said I was egotistical. I was confused about where this was coming from.

"I mean, recently you've just been making stupid decisions without thinking about how it affects the people close to you," he said, pointing at me before standing up.

"You beat up Reagan at the expense of finals," he said, spreading his arms for effect.

"He insulted me," I said, defending myself.

"Save me that bullshit story. You were trying to defend your slut of a girlfriend. Now, look at it," he said in anger.

"I can't stay here with you tonight. Who knows you might decide to push me off the bed later in the night because the space wasn't enough for you?" he said, taking his pillow?

"Come on," I said, kneeling on the bed looking at him as he walked away.

The door slammed shut, sealing his decision. I fell back on the bed stuck in my thoughts.

I had lost my rights to play during finals, my dad had cut me off and now my best friend

I wanted to cry, but then I remembered I should be brave and, besides, it would make me look like a weakling.

I sat down thinking of what could have made Maya act that way.

I took out my phone and went to my Instagram and went straight to Tiffany's account to see if she had posted anything about Maya.

And to my surprise, she did. She posted a horrible picture of Maya repeating what she did in high school that cost Maya her scholarship.

And the comments were even worse, and the threats to stop patronizing Hayley were wild.

I decided to call Tiffany to understand why she was roping Maya into something that was going on between the two of us.

"You brought upon that bitch the moment you decided to cheat on me with her," she said nonchalantly.

"The fuck do you mean?" I asked angrily, trying so much not to insult her through the speaker, because knowing Tiffany, she could be recording this call and would be ready to use it against me tomorrow.

"You have to take down those videos, this is between me and you. It has nothing to do with her," I said, trying to reason with her.

"Look, it has everything to do with her, she's your side, bitch, right, I'm only giving her what a side bitch deserves," she said, and the line went dead.

I took a deep breath as I tried to calm myself down.

The next morning, Chad was giving me silent treatment.

I tried talking to him and everything he dodged, and, painfully, we were living in the same house and it felt like hell.

I had to look for Maya, if anything, to apologize and look for a way out of all of this.

I went to the arcade to meet his co-worker. I didn't register his name.

I got there, and immediately I entered, the look he gave me was enough to tell me that I wasn't welcome.

"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," he said, giving me the dirtiest look as he chewed his gum while cleaning the display case.

"You are Maya's friend, right?" I asked, trying to strike a conversation.

"Yeah, Do you want to drag me online too or something?" he asked with the most unfriendly tone ever.

"Do you know where she lives?" I asked eagerly.

"Why could you send your little lunatic to go beat her up?" he asked, dropping the rag and resting his elbows on the counter?

"I just want to apologize," I said, trying to reason with him.

"How do I believe what you are saying?" he asked, scanning me from top to bottom?

"You can go with me if you want, I just want to air things out," I said, resting one of my elbows on the counter.

He looked at the big clock on the wall before turning to look at me.

"You are lucky, I got out of work a few minutes to wait while I cleared things out, so I locked up," he said before walking away to the back.

Minutes later, we pulled over in a very beautiful and serene neighborhood.

"Here we are," Justin said, opening the door as he walked out of the car to go knock on the front door.

Maya opened up. I was seated in the car looking at the scene playing out.

Justin talked to her, pointing at the car, and she dramatized before going in and slamming the door shut.

Justine walked up to my car and tapped the glass.

"Too bad champ, she didn't want to see you, and you should leave before she calls the cops," he said before walking back to her house, waving at me as he entered.

The weekend rolled by in a blur and I tried on several occasions to talk to Maya but she refused. Sometimes she hit me.

Sometimes she cussed me and slammed her door in my face, and I was honestly running out of time.

The next game was in a week and I needed to be there to watch

I didn't want to watch from home. I needed to be at the Rink even though I wasn't playing. At least watching them from the sidelines was better than nothing.

It became worse in school when people would paste shit on her bicycle and she had to spend minutes cleaning it off before she got on.

At some point, she stopped coming to school with her bicycle.

I managed to corner her in the library during her reading hours.

"You need to stop avoiding me so we can find a way to fix this," I said, my hands pinning her head.

She looked up at me and I stared at her with pity. She looked drained, her eyes swollen with really dark eyebags.

"First of all, you are too close," she said, putting her hand on my chest and pushing me away.

"Second, you created this mess, clean it up. I am currently unemployed, and I need money to settle things, so hurry up," she said before turning to walk away.

"Be my fake girlfriend," I said before I could stop the words.