𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇, 𝐩𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐥𝐚𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐞.

𝙛𝙞𝙫𝙚.

Jessica snorts a laugh. "You'd love to do be doing that."

Dorothea nods. "Exactly. I guess the dance will be quite fun, then."

"Or," Jessica says, swallowing the candy in her mouth, "you could ask Paul."

"Paul?" Angela echoes. "As in, Lahote?"

Dorothea and Jessica look at her, and Jessica nods. "Yeah, Dor has some history with him. What do you know about him?"

"You have some history with him?" Angela asks Dorothea, ignoring Jessicas question, eyebrows raised.

Dorothea rolls her eyes. "I'd hardly call it history, we've spoken twice, and it was two weeks ago — I haven't seen him since."

Dorothea is, secretly, hoping that Paul may show up, or that she'll at least get to see him, so she can get his number and just get to look at him again. Usually, Dorothea wouldn't still be thinking about a boy she met two weeks ago, but Paul is still there in the forefront of her mind.

"Well, I'd keep it that way if I were you." Angela advises softly, Dorotheas eyes widen at her.

"Why?" She asks, confused by Angela's cryptic warning.

"Hes bad." Angela answers. "Haven't you heard about him?"

"Well, I know he broke up with Jessicas cousins friend, and he likes to party, but nothing besides that." Dorothea shrugs.

"He cheated on her, didn't just break up with her." Jessica corrects.

Dorothea shakes her head, ignoring Jessicas correction. "Okay, well, thats really all I know about him. Is there... more that I should know?"

"A little." Angela says.

Jessica leans forward, eyes full of anticipation for gossip. "Do tell." She urges, wrapping her blanket tighter around her shoulders.

Angela settles in a little bit before beginning. "I only know about him because of my sister, her boyfriend lives on the reservation, and she hears things from him about Paul, like how at every party he goes to, he gets into a fight, its almost always physical, with people who don't even want to fight. Her boyfriend says it's because hes always drunk."

"So, he gets drunk and fights people?" Jessica asks, sounding a little bored, like she was expecting more. "Alcohol does that to me, remember at Coopers party when I got too drunk and tried fighting a rock?"

Dorothea laughs loudly. "Oh, I remember that. That was funny. Didn't you throw up everywhere after that?"

"I did." Jessica says, nodding and grimacing. "It was totally gross, which is why I don't drink just vodka anymore."

"He also does drugs." Angela adds.

"Like, crack?" Jessica asks.

"No, like weed, and stuff." Angela tells her. Dorothea doesn't find it that bad, because at least it isn't crack like Jessica had assumed. "But hes also a womanizer. My sisters boyfriend says hes been with most of the girls on the reservation. He leads them on, uses them, and then just ghosts them in the span of, like, a week.
He acts out in school, too, if he even shows up, I guess, but he mostly ditches."

Dorothea listens to her, but the warnings don't really apply to the Paul she has spent time with. She doesn't want to just believe things told about people, rumors spread like wildfire and who knows if they're even true?

"Um, is that not Paul right there?" Jessica quickly asks, making Dorothea lose her train of thought and look as she points towards a group of three approaching boys, and shes right, Paul is one of them, the other being Jared, but the third is someone Dorothea cannot recognize.