Casey

One

"I'm sorry, Fin, I really am," Benny said softly, reaching out to hold Finley's hands one more time.

"Then don't break up with me! If you're sorry, if you don't want this to happen, then don't let it!" She strained and jerked her hands away from him.

"You don't understand-"

"What don't I understand? Because it seems a lot like my boyfriend is leaving me for - for some stupid reason." Her voice wobbled and she looked down at their feet in case she started crying.

It made sense, really. She shouldn't even be surprised. She'd known this was happening for a while know.

But knowing doesn't make it any easier.

"Benny..." She sniffled and looked back up at him. He was nearly a foot taller than her, at 6'4".

"Don't make this harder than it is Finley," He scowled, then under his breath he muttered,"Like you usually do."

Hurt stung her heart and she was almost convinced she was having a heart attack. Maybe, she reasoned. If I did pass out, he'd have to do mouth-to-mouth.

She didn't have the chance to test that theory.

"Goodbye, Finley," Benny said with a finality that couldn't be argued with.

To be honest, Finley didn't really have any friends.

She'd been the new girl in junior year and it hadn't been until Benny asked her out that she had finally met people.

By people, she meant mostly Ben's friends.

Which meant they'd all side with him.

And therefore, she had no friends to call her own or rant about stupid boys or having her heart broken.

The worst part was, she couldn't figure out why he couldn't have broken up sooner - they would be getting out of school in a month, and because of weather conditions the senior prom had been set back to the last week of school.

Finley wiped her eyes and sniffed one more time, heading to the bathroom to clean up a bit before going home.

She'd kept the secret of dating Ben for two years now, and there was no way she was going to blow it and get grounded for the rest of senior year.

When she walked in, there were two girls chattering at the sink. So she rushed to a stall and locked it, waiting the girls out.

"You won't believe what happened -" one girl said excitedly. "You know Benny Reno?"

"Who doesn't? He throws the best parties."

"Anyways, so that girl he was dating. What was her name? Melissa? Molly?
Well, they just broke up. Like this morning."

"I thought he was dating Finley Rivas?"

Finley thought she was going to throw up. All this talk about Benny wasn't helping matters, and who was this 'M' girl?

There was a pause. "Oh," said the first girl innocently. "Was he?"

They giggled at some inside joke and kept chattering on their way out of the bathroom.

Finley spent another half hour hiding in the stall, trying to figure out why Benny broke up with her.

Was it that M girl? Could he have been cheating on her? What was going on?

Her phone buzzed from her pocket.

A text from an unknown number.