“Listen, Anderson, I appreciate the sentiment and… I do think we both made some very wrong choices this past week, but if one bad week was enough to break us, what we had clearly wasn’t very strong. And all of the issues we had last night? We still have them today. It’s not about being mad at each other. Yeah, we both got mad last night, but we didn’t break up because we were mad.”
“No, we broke up because you still had some kind of attachment to Hunter and I picked up on it and acted like a jealous asshole,” he states plainly. “Maybe I’m reaching here, but after last night, I’m thinking maybe you’re over that?”
My stomach hollows out. I knew he’d heard stuff about last night, but he didn’t specify which parts. I kind of figured he either hadn’t put together that I was in the room with Hunter, or he had, but in his quest to be a better boyfriend, he chose not to believe it. To give me the benefit of the doubt the time I didn’t deserve it, since he hadn’t when I did.
“I guess you’ve heard about last night,” I say without looking up.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know exactly what you heard, but… it’s not all a lie this time. I didn’t have sex with Hunter in middle school, and I didn’t sleep with my married history teacher, but I was in Valerie’s bedroom with him last night. You haven’t heard it from my perspective, but… I did hook up with Hunter after you left.”
“I figured.”
He sounds unhappy about it, but not mad.
“I didn’t know he was dating the devil,” I mutter.
“I figured that, too.”
I look up. “Did you? Know about him and Valerie,” I specify, since he never said anything to me about it.
He shrugs. “I heard things, but I didn’t pay much attention to Hunter’s love life except as it pertained to my girlfriend. I take it he sent the flowers?”
I nod, looking down again. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“I don’t, either,” he says easily. “I just want to know if you’re done with him.”
I scoff, keeping my gaze trained on the blanket. “Oh yeah. I’m definitely done with him.”
“Good.” He pauses. “Then I’d like to propose we give us another shot.”
I thought that might be where he was going with that.
I sigh, my tone regretful as I tell him, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Anderson. Done with him or not, last night still happened. You’ll hold it against me, we’ll end up right back where we were before.”
“I won’t,” he says firmly. “I won’t do that, Riley. We were broken up. You didn’t do anything wrong. Do I hate that it happened with him? Yes. But I’m not going to hold onto it. I want to give us a real shot this time, none of that petty bullshit.”
“It’s not just that, though. Valerie already hated me, but now it’s going to get much worse. And Hunter… I have no idea what he’ll do. This year is going to be bad, Anderson. There’s no reason you should have to deal with all that.”
“There’s no reason you should either,” he points out.
“It’s different for you. They’re your teammates, your friends.”
“I don’t need friends that act like that,” he says simply. “If they want to shun me for dating you, let them. Maybe it won’t happen that way. Who knows? Maybe I could shelter you from some of the blowback. I know I’m no Hunter,” he says, rolling his eyes, “but I’m not exactly the head of the AV club, either. I have some social standing of my own.”
“You did,” I say, meeting his gaze. “I don’t know if Hunter will let you keep it if you date me.”
“I’m not afraid of Hunter Maxwell,” he tells me.
Maybe you should be.
I don’t say that.
I try to ignore the sinking feeling, the dread gathering around me. We’re talking about Hunter too much.
“Taking Hunter out of it, Valerie, all of them…” Anderson catches my gaze. “What do you want to do? Don’t try to protect me; I can look out for myself. No one else gets to dictate this decision, Riley. If you’re sure you don’t have any feelings left for me, then all right, I’ll accept your decision. I won’t like it, I still don’t think you’ve seen what a relationship with me can really be like, but that’s my fault. I moved too slow over the summer because I’ve never met a girl like you, you don’t act the way I’m used to girls acting when they like me and I couldn’t tell what you wanted. Then Hunter came back, and that was it. But it doesn’t have to be like that this time. If you’re willing to give us a real shot… that’s what I want.”