My brain is so confused. Zah is my girl, but why would she think I cheated? I would never cheat on her. She was crying?
My heart begins to ache with the thought of her in tears over anyone. However, the thought of me causing her pain guts me. I haven’t done anything, so I’m even more hurt and confused.
“Wait, what the fuck are you talking about?”
“Zahirah called me last night, crying. She said the guy she was seeing cheated. She was balling her heart out. I think she really liked him. Bentley, please, can you do something? I hate not being there for her.”
My heart aches even more to hear how upset Erica is. My sister and Zah are tighter than tight. When we were younger, you couldn’t find one without the other.
“Have you spoken to her today? What makes her think this guy cheated?” I ask, trying to gain some clarity.
“No, she’s locked in for her meet. We only texted once this morning. She said she’d call me after. I don’t know any more than the fact that she had sex with the douche, and he cheated. You’re going to kick his ass, right?”
I groan and close my eyes. What the fuck is going on? I don’t tell Erica that I’m the guy. Clearly, Zahirah chose not to. I’m going to respect that until I can talk to her to straighten this all out.
I rub at my chest. This can’t be happening. I was looking so forward to our date tomorrow.
I have it all planned out. It was going to be epic. How is this happening?
“Yeah, I’ll make it right. Let me know when you speak to her again. I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
“Thanks, Bent. Love you. You’re the best.”
I scoff as I hang up. She doesn’t realize I’m the guy she’s trying to get fucked up. I can’t believe my baby was crying, thinking I cheated on her. I would never, could never cheat on Zah.
My brain begins to fully wake and clear. I groan as I remember Pacey trying to throw herself at me and Carly watching with that shit-eating grin on her face. I’d bet my career on those two being the source of this problem. This is some bullshit.
I knew I shouldn’t have gone to that party last night. I throw my legs over the side of the bed and go to text Corey and Jason to see if they might know something. Before I can open my phone to send a text, I see all the text messages waiting for me.
Jason and Corey have been blowing up my phone trying to find out what’s going on. I open Corey’s text first and find a screenshot of a picture of me and Pacey. When I read the caption, my head nearly explodes.
“Son of a bitch,” I growl.
I glance at the clock and note I have about nine more hours before Zah makes it back on campus. While I would love to spend that time tracking down Carly and Pacey, I focus my attention on how I’m going to prove the truth to Zah. I shoot a couple of texts off in reply to all the messages from Corey and Jason.
“Fuck,” I roar once I’m done and it all sets in.
We haven’t even made things official yet. I’m supposed to be proving myself. This is going to go a long way to kill that for sure.
I can’t allow that to happen. I love Zah. That’s it … that’s how I fix this. I need to show her how serious I am about her, how much I love her.
With a clear plan in my head, I rush to take a shower and get dressed. I have a lot to get done in the next nine hours. After I’m showered and dressed, I make my way to my first stop. I can’t help checking my phone every five seconds to see if Zah or Erica calls or texts.
I have to force myself to focus after I almost rear-end someone in town. I toss the phone into the glove compartment and keep my eyes on the road. My mind is a mess as I think of how fucked up this is.
“You’re going to pay for this shit,” I growl to myself as I think of Carly and her stupid friend.
Zahirah
I wonboth my races and broke another three records. After crying myself to sleep last night, I woke this morning and channeled all that heartache into my superpower. I ran like I was running from all the pain and hurt. I ran as if Bentley was chasing me to laugh at me.
Now, as we make our way back to school, I’m balling all over again. I have my hoodie on with the strings pulled tight as I sit inthe back of the bus, curled up in my seat. My AirPods are in as I listen to sad songs, wondering how I got here.
A part of me is trying to wait to get back to campus to address this. Then there’s a part of me that wants to call Bentley and yell at him. He’s been texting, but I refuse to read any of them yet.
This is so embarrassing. Arlene has texted me to check on me because she saw the pic as well. I just want to get home and curl up in my bed.
The app on my phone says we’re five minutes away from campus. I wipe my nose and start to gather my things to be one of the first off the bus so I can do just that. I wish I had a bathtub to soak in.
