“You’re wearing a fucking tie.”
My face flushes. “I had a meeting at the fraternity. Everyone wears suits for them.” I loosen the tie self-consciously and shuffle my weight on the boulder. “How’s everything with you?”
He’s quiet for so long, I don’t think he’s going to answer. Finally he clears his throat.
“You said you wanted to explain. So here I am. Explain. And then leave me and my family the fuck alone. The last thing Stace and Ma need is you coming back and hurting them. They’ve already lost enough.”
“I … ”Fuck.“I’m sorry, Evan.”
He looks disappointed. And I know at this point, sorry isn’t enough.
“I’m sorry, but we were just kids. You know I didn’t mean to get you into trouble. I didn’t mean any of it, it was just a stupid mistake.”
“It’s not the mistake though, Nate. I know you didn’t mean to fuck up but you stole a fucking car.”
“I know that, and I wish I could take it back, I-”
“That’s not what I’m pissed about, and if you can’t even see what you did wrong….”
Frustration bubbles until I’m standing, looking down at him and speaking in a voice that’s way more high-pitched than my normal voice. “So tell me then. Stop making me guess, just fucking tell me.”
He squints, like he’s trying to figure out if I’m for real. “You really don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Nate, you threw me under the fucking bus. Your stepdad’s fancy lawyer nearly got me thrown in juvie. They made me look like a fucking delinquent. They said it was all my idea. That I ‘influenced’ you to do it.”
My heart drops. My blood going cold.
“What?”
“I never expected your stepdad to pay for my lawyer, but I didn’t expect you to sell me out like that. You could have got off on the charges without feeding me to the fucking sharks.”
“Evan, I … ” I scramble back down to the seat next to him, reaching for him before thinking better of it. He flinches from my touch. “I didn’t know, I swear, you’ve got to believe me, I would have never … ” It’s like a switch has been flipped in my head. Relief and dread rushing through me at once. So that’s why he ghosted me? I really did screw him over, and I didn’t even know.
Evan’s face has softened, but he still won’t look at me. When he speaks, it’s practically a mumble. “It doesn’t matter now anyway.”
“It does. I can make it better.”
He scoffs. “How you gonna do that, Nate? You got a time machine in the trunk of thatfancy-ass car?”
My face floods with heat. “Okay, I deserve that. But you’ve got to know I didn’t choose this, any of it.”
He sighs, shaking his head. “I’m not blaming you for accepting his money. I’d do the same in your place. Someone tried to give me a Beemer? An Ivy League education? Yeah, I’d take that shit too.” He looks down, his face flushing. “But I’d never sell my friend out for it.”
“Neither would I!”
He shakes his head, turning his body away from me before wiping sand off his legs and standing up. “I don’t know what you want from me, Nate.”
“I don’t want anything. I just want to be there for you.”
“You don’t have to be. It’s done. Forget it. You told me you didn’t know, and I believe you. You can go back to your frat bros and your fancy college with a clear conscience.”
I try to reach for him, but he flinches from my touch again, like I burned him.
“Just leave me alone, yeah.”
His tone cuts right through me. Have I really hurt him that much?
