The New Boy [boyxboy]

Chapter Seventeen

                The look of determination on his face hardened. ‘Good. Because I’m going to fight for you.’

                And before I could even respond, he unlocked the bathroom door and walked out, leaving me standing, shocked, in the bathroom.

The ride home this evening was totally awkward. I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Dexter in private after what happened in the hallway and we were both uncertain of where we stood. I didn’t know if the drama was too much for him and he’d decided to focus exclusively on liking girls again, and I guess he didn’t know what had happened after I tracked Gary down.

                I pulled up in front of our houses and we all said an awkward goodbye, then Andie followed me like a dog foaming at the mouth for gossip, barely waiting until I had closed the front door behind us before demanding to know what had happened.

                Weary from the events of the day, and too preoccupied worrying about Dexter and Gary to censor myself, I told her everything.

                For once she didn’t try to make a joke out of it, just sat solemnly on my bed and listened as I poured it all out, then put her hand over mine once I’d finished.

                ‘He’s going to fight for you’ she asked quietly. ‘He really said that?’

                I nodded miserably.

                ‘Maybe I haven’t given him enough credit,’ she muttered, half to herself.

                ‘I’ve always wondered what it felt like for people who had people fighting over them,’ I said. ‘I always thought it would be kind of exciting, but it’s not.’

                ‘No,’ Andie agreed, who for all her promiscuity, almost always has guys fighting over her. And she usually doesn’t care figs for any of them.

                ‘What am I supposed to do here?’ I asked desperately.

                Andie shrugged. ‘Well it seems pretty clear to me that Dexter is the one you want,’ she said candidly. ‘I guess you just have to be honest.’

                ‘He is,’ I agreed. ‘But I don’t think I can bear to do that to Gary. You know how humiliated he’d be, it’s not fair.’

                Andie bristled, and I knew that even though I was about to get some harsh home truths, she was still reigning herself in from being too honest. ‘Because he’s never humiliated you,’ she snapped. ‘Treating you like a child or a pet in front of your friends and family, bossing you about and acting like you don’t have a brain of your own.’

                ‘He apologised for all that,’ I said quietly. ‘He said he’s going to change.’

                ‘Are you willing to risk that?’ she asked. ‘And are you honestly saying that even if he did change, even if he stopped treating you so badly, you’d choose him over Dexter?’

                ‘No,’ I said miserably.

                ‘Exactly. And I know you don’t want to hurt Gary, but leading him on, letting him think that he still has a chance with you when you don’t feel anything like that for him anymore is just going to hurt him worse.’

                ‘You’re right,’ I admitted glumly. ‘I’ve never had to break up with anyone before.’

                ‘You already broke up with Gary,’ she pointed out.