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"Go on," I say, biting my tongue—deep down, although it's just a gut feeling, I know that he's homophobic, but he's just too smart to let it get out into the open and into the public—he's a closet homophobe.

"It starts with Beth—"

"That was settled, it was a misunderstanding—"

"No, it was your callous treatment of her—"

"I apologized even after she was the one who misunderstood and jumped to conclusions—"

"Clearly, we're talking about separate events, because I'm not referring to the date," he says, relaxing his hands back to his sides. Now I'm utterly lost as to what he's on about, although I obviously sense foul play—perhaps some ridiculous rumor that got out of hand.

"What are you referring to then? Because, that was the last time that I saw her."

"Not from what's been said," he says, plainly and practically confirming what I had just surmised.

"What's been said? What are you on about?" I ask, readying myself for the lies that are sure to come.

"You showed up afterwards on her doorstep and not only refused to apologize, but you slapped her for, I believe you said something along the lines of, her 'not knowing her place'—"

"Is that a joke? Clearly, that's a lie, because that's nothing I would ever say." I feel as if I shouldn't even have to bother defending myself from something so obviously false—if someone's going to spread rumors, at least make up something that's good—something that's believable—something that plausibly fits my character. I don't beat girls. Never have. Never will. Not even under some twisted pretense of retaliation. Nor do I even hold the view that women are subservient to men, because that's just plain ridiculous—I may have come from a hick town, but I'm clearly not a hick.

"That's what I said when I defended you, but then she showed everyone the mark on her face and the bruise on her arm where she said that you viciously grabbed her and held her to keep her from escaping your rage."

"Not only is it all a lie—don't you think it's possible it was self-inflicted?"

"Again, that's exactly what I said when I continued to defend you. I told them that, 'I know my dearest, closest friend in the world, and he wouldn't do any of that.' But several people came forward saying that they witnessed that exact event."

"That's ridiculous, I was never even there, like I've already said."

"They came forward, separately. At different times. With only their closest friends. And all of that happened, before Beth even came forward herself."

"I call bull—that just means it's all just a slightly more complex fabrication that involves more people—and surely Beth herself—all colluding as a group of false witnesses. I'm sure that she feels she had the right, which means she has more than enough motive."

"That's pretty much exactly what I told them—again. See! Great minds do think alike. But, there are limits to what even I can do to persuade people to see the truth."

"So you defended me the entire time? Really?" I came here to point the finger at him as the sole person to blame—yet, here he is, saying that he defended me. Surely, he's the one who ultimately ousted me, right? This is just another one of his angles that he loves to play—he's just manipulating the truth to fit his own, hidden agenda—as usual—and I just don't know what that agenda is just yet—as usual.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I? I know you didn't do it, but then Base chimed in and said he believed that, and I quote, 'you are more than capable of losing your temper and hitting someone, even if that someone was a girl.' And that's when everyone wouldn't listen to me at all—you know how much sway he has, and how influential he can be, especially when he actually tries."