I almost choke on my popcorn. “You what?”
“We had sex, and it was glorious.”
Eddie and I share a look, one Rich immediately picks up on. “What?”
“It’s nothing,” Eddie exclaims, trying to hide the secret we’ve both been keeping from him. Neither one of us wants to take away his thunder.
“No, you guys know something. Tell me!” he demands.
I hate this.
Eddie shakes his head, but Rich is one of my closest friends and he deserves to know.
“She doesn’t care about you, Rich. Not really,” I tell him.
“Lies. Zoe loves me. She told me herself.”
“It’s a lie, dude. She only went out with you because her friends bet her she wouldn’t. It’s going around school.”
“And you’re just telling me this now?”
“We saw how happy you were and didn’t want to ruin that for you,” I argue. “We know how self-conscious you can be about your scars, and how happy having a girlfriend has made you. We thought the relationship was harmless.”
“Until now,” Eddie adds. “Now she’s taking things too far.”
Rich looks mortally wounded. “I can’t believe this. I won’t believe this.” He quickly whips out his cellphone and starts texting Zoe.
“Fuck!” he growls. “She’s got me blocked.”
“Rich, I’m sorry,” Eddie exclaims.
He glares at us both. “You guys should’ve told me. I fucking lost my virginity to her. I—” Tears form in his eyes. “God, I was so fucking stupid.”
“She’s not worth it, dude,” I remind him. “She’s just a stupid girl.”
Eddie’s phone rings, breaking up the awkwardness between us.
It’s Pippa.
“Hey, Pippa, what’s up?” He keeps his eyes trained on Rich, who’s angrily typing something out on his phone and then deleting it. “Oh, yeah, sorry. We already started the movie. Yeah, I’m sorry. Wish you could’ve come over too. Yeah, sure. I can take a look at it. Tomorrow? Sure, see you then.”
Eddie hangs up the phone and sighs. “She never gives up.”
“Like Rich said before, Eddie. Just give her a chance. Who knows? She might be the future Mrs. Eddie Frazier.”
Eddie sinks further into his couch. “I guess it’s worth a shot. She is hot, and I do like her. But it’s hard to push for something that isn’t exactly there.”
Rich suddenly shoots up to his feet. “I gotta go.”
“Come on, Rich, we just put in the movie,” I plead.
“Nah, I need to fix this, Wes. I need to prove to her why we work so well together.” He’s practically frantic as he moves toward the door. “We can do this again next weekend.”
If he was mad at us, he didn’t show it. He was too desperate to find Zoe and talk this shit out. But we all knew where this was going… Zoe only dated Rich because her friends bet she wouldn’t do it, and she got money for every month she stayed with him. I wonder what she got for sleeping with him? It makes my stomach twist just thinking about it.
“Fuck,” Eddie growls, running a hand through his hair. “This is bad, Wes.”
“I know.”
