I think it’ll be better to leave it until after dinner.
Obviously, he has a lot going on. He’s probably worried about something already. I’ll just check in with him later in the evening…
You coward. When did you turn into such a chicken?
Harsh but fair.
“Hey,” I say, sidling up to him before I can talk myself out of it for the umpteenth time.
“Hey,” he responds without breaking eye contact from his phone.
“I need to have a word.” Nerves get the better of me and I grip my hands together in front of me to hide their shaking. “Can we go somewhere private?”
“For what?” His eyes slowly scan me from head to toe, frowning at what he sees. “No. I’m in the middle of something.”
The boy to his left sniggers and the one sitting nearby leans farther forward, head tilted with interest.
“It’s personal.”
“Look, if you want me back, all you need to do is ask. Nobody here minds what you have to say.” Joseph’s smirk is a shade less offensive than Seb’s on a bad day, but still enough to get a rise out of me.
The privacy is a two-way street, just as much for his benefit as mine.
“I’ve tested positive for chlamydia, and you’ll need to go to the clinic to get tested, too.”
The smile drops off his face in an instant as he jerks fully upright. “You what?”
“If you have it, it’s a simple one-dose cure. You’ll have to inform any other sexual partners—”
“What sexual partners?” Joseph’s face distorts into thunderclouds, hail and rain. “When did you—”
He breaks off as the seated friend displays a wide smile. “What the fuck are you grinning about?”
Perhaps friend might be an extension because the boy looks even happier at the shout, retorting, “The fact that the love of your life was fucking around on you.”
“I’m not the love—”
Joseph bunches the front of my hoodie and slams me against the wall. “Who was it? Who were you having sex with when you swore you weren’t sleeping with anyone else?”
Sure. I’ll answer his question while he’s shouting in my face so hard that spittle lands on my cheek. Holding his clenched fist near enough for me to see it from the corner of my eye.
I turn my head to the side, seeking help from the assembled crowd, but it’s like I’ve sideslipped back a year, that I’m staring at the uninterested faces of my classmates as the latest bully takes a go.
And did I sense this? Is this why I chose him instead of all the other placid, pleasant enough looking boys?
Even after I ran from everything that twisted my life into misery had I still wanted someone who I sensed could hurt me? Someone who’d make me pay.
Well, fuck that girl. I don’t want to be her any longer.
“Let me go,” I push against Joseph, hearing the tear of fabric at my neckline as my clothing moves but his fist doesn’t. “Who I do and don’t see isn’t any of your business, remember? I’m just informing you like I’m meant to. If you want to take it out on someone, try your next girlfriend. We’re done.”
“We’re not done until I say we’re done.”
I stare at him with incredulity. What in the Andrew Tate is this fresh hell? “That’s not how relationships work, Joseph. Let me go.”
“Tell me who you’re fucking.”
“Anyone I like,” I scream in his face. “Now let me go.”
