Love Arranged (#1)

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six: Maggie

Luckily I was able to slip out of Jess's house without being caught.

I texted Evan telling him I had gotten sick that day during the pool party and that I couldn't bear staying another second, and that I apologize for going back home without him.

I also asked him if we could perhaps return to the whole Beth situation another time and for him not to come and visit me, considering I just wanted to be left alone with my so-called stomach flu for a while until I get better.

He agreed and perfectly understood my dilemma, saying how I should text him whenever I feel better again to go out, and I couldn't help but feel guilty because the truth is, I was more than ready to go out at any time. Regardless of whether or not I will tell him or not.

Because I wasn't sick and I most certainly did not have the goddamn stomach flu, and clearly I was just using that as a pathetic excuse to do what I'm about to do today.

Arriving at school was just simply unbearable, because for starters:

I told Evan I wasn't going to show up when in reality, I did.

I know this is wrong. It would be much easier if I had just waited for him to tell me the truth instead of snooping around trying to find my own, but again, I was impatient.

Impatient and ridiculously paranoid to the point that I couldn't help but think his reassurance that nothing happened between him and Beth was just off because clearly, something did happen between them and he was just sugarcoating it.

Plus me eavesdropping on Jasper, Colin, and Zach's conversation proved that because I was able to gather the information I never would've thought I needed to accumulate.

More specifically, a person I never thought I needed to resort to.

It was nerve-wracking, to say the least, trying my best to remain discreet in school while I was out doing a man-hunt for a certain Sean Harris.

Fortunately enough, however, he didn't really blend in with the rest of the students because he stood out quite prominently.

His tall frame and pleasant aura didn't fail to catch the eyes of many, and as I spotted him from the middle of the hallways surrounded by other students, I couldn't help but wonder how a guy like him could have a vendetta towards... Evan.

Then it all came back to me.

"He was the friend of mine Mandy had cheated on me with,"

"... I stole a girl he was planning to ask out, a girl he really liked, but because of how I always wanted things my way, and how I always felt the need to take what isn't mine, and how I was so jealous that Sean could easily be in a serious relationship with someone and for our friends to actually take him seriously, sparked something inside me that was so ugly."

"Because back then he always felt the need to spite me because I wasn't able to devote myself to a relationship, to a girl specifically, the way he can. He was this charming and well-received guy that people swooned over because he actually had a disposition worth taking seriously."

No, that can't be possible.

Evan couldn't possibly do something like that, especially towards Beth.

I know Beth may have her moments, and most of the time she does find herself being mixed in with the wrong crowd, but their paths couldn't have crossed due to such unfortunate circumstances, it's just absurd.

But hypothetically speaking, if it were to turn out true, I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at Evan the same way again, because the first time he told me this, we ended up fighting because I wound taking Sean's side instead of his, and how it was clear he tried to victimize himself when really, the only person worth victimizing in his story was Sean and quite possibly, Beth.