The Unexpected Happily Ever After

Chapter 4

    Everyone was staring at us at this point. I knew I needed to drop it and leave, but I couldn't. Her words stung. It felt like she had driven a knife into my gut. She had embarrassed me in front of my friends. I wanted to hurt her like she had hurt me. I didn't even think before letting the words tumble out.

"You know I really always thought you were better than the jealous bullshit. The guys said you had had a crush on me, but I didn't believe them. I figured you were smarter than that. Thinking that I would ever want to date someone like you. I offered you prom out of pity. I was your friend out of pity. I felt bad because no one like you. Hell even your dad didn't want you." I seethed.

I was cut off from continuing when her fist connected with my jaw. A sickening crunch rang out at the same time as my head snapped back. I was completely caught off guard. I hadn't expected her to hit me, and I damn sure hadn't expected her to pack a punch like that. As I was trying to shake the stars out of my vision, I heard her pained scream ring out. Snapping my head in her direction, I saw her clutching her bloodied hand. Trey rushed over towards her as Matt snatched me back away from her.

"What the fuck is wrong with you dude?!" Matt roared as he got in my face.

"What the hell did I do? She hit me!" I yelled back indignantly.

"You pushed her. You... You... I can't believe you would say that shit to her. To anybody. Go home." Matt ordered looking at me with disgust.

"Is she okay?" I asked ignoring him.

"I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure it's broken." Trey said.

"How can you tell?" Andrea asked looking worried.

"I'm the physical therapist for the football team. I see a ton of broken hands from the guys fighting. You need to go to the hospital and get it seen about." Trey explained.

"I'll go when I get back to Boston. For now I want to get the hell away from this town. Thank you two for the help. We'll send you both the money on Venmo." Arden replied trying to smile at Trey through the pain.

"The tire was free Arden. It's the least we can do." Matt shot over his shoulder as he stayed standing in front of me.

"At least let me wrap it for you before y'all leave. It will help with the pain." Trey said before turning to grab something out of the car.

"Go home Dylan." Matt growled.

"Fuck off. Arden are you okay?" I asked.

"Piss off Dylan. You've done enough." Andrea shouted before pulling Arden to her car and buckling her in.

Trey came back and wrapped her hand earning and hug and a kiss on the cheek before they drove off. I felt my heart sink as I watched the car drive off. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I never saw the hit coming when Trey pounced on me. I sported two black eyes after that and a broken friendship. Trey and Matt refused to talk to me. Liam refused to even hear me out when word got back to him about everything that had happened. It was two weeks before I ran into him at the gym and cornered him.

"Dude what the hell? Are y'all just really never speaking to me again? Admittedly I was an ass, but she hit me not the other way around." I argued.

"What you said to her was fucked up on levels that I didn't know existed. If that's who you are then we don't want to be friends anymore. The mean girl, bullying, popular crowd crap was one thing in high school, but we're adults now. We've all grown up except for you. Until you decide to grow up, we don't have anything to talk about. The other guys feel the same way." Liam said.

"I was wrong for saying it. It was stupid. The shit she was saying hurt, and I just wanted to hurt her the same way. I shouldn't have done it. I know that. It was childish. Hell, I don't think she was even trying to hurt me when she said it. I feel like absolute shit. There was a time when Arden was my best friend in the whole world. She was there for me when my mom had cancer. Losing her as my friend is possibly the worst damn thing that's ever happened to me, and I know after what I said the other day that we will never go back to being friends. I don't know what to do." I replied.