Jealous

Chapter Eighteen

18.

It had been over a week since Riley and my argument. Tyler had forgiven me, and Em had become a fast friend. When I had told Archer some girl named Erysimum had come looking for him, he freaked out and asked what she had said.

After I had assured him she hasn't said anything out of the ordinary, he yelled at me for answering the door. I just flipped him off. I was still deciding if it would be worth yelling at him about snitching.

He had gotten more and more private with his phone calls. I had stolen it one time, and it had a lock on it. He had only locked his phone once or twice, and if he did he always told me. I asked him about it, and he had ignored me for a very long period of time. Saying I had 'invaded his privacy'. There is no privacy when it comes to siblings, Jerk.

My mum was warming up to Em. She had met her, and suddenly all they could talk about was books. I kinda felt like my friend had been hijacked. But whatever. I, well, I was suffering the wrath of an ice cold Riley. She went out of her way to ignore me, and avoid me if she could. However, she had never been very good at concealing her feelings. I could tell, under her rage, that she was upset. Like, a sad upset not angry.

With the Halloween party rapidly approaching, I couldn't help but feel my spirits lift, even if it's just by a little bit.

Right now, I was procrastinating about doing my homework by sitting on my bed going back and forth between texting Em and scrolling through Instagram. I pull my eyes away from the alluring screen, and my eyes land on something. I noticed my diary sitting under a clutter of things on my bedside table. Sighing, I throw my phone to the side and look at my diary. Flipping it open, and looking through the mundane things I've written. Slowly progressing past my entries written about when Harris and I were dating. Early September I had caught him cheating, at least according to the date. I wish I needed my diary to remember when and how I had broken up with him.

It had been on a weekend, a few weeks after school had started. Harris had gone to a party thrown by Erika. At the time, strangely enough, she had been pretty low on the social web. Her party was one of the first things she did on her rise to popularity. When they started officially dating she clawed her way to the top. We had walked in, the music was loud, but not horribly so. In fact, it was one of the calmest parties I had gone to. Of course, there was some drinking, and I admit I did have some punch. Not too much though, I kept my wits.

About halfway through the party, Harris had disappeared. I hadn't minded, we weren't attached at the hip. I had trusted him. I was naive and stupid, a mistake I wouldn't make again. Thinking about it, I'm not sure what possessed me to fake date, someone. Even if that wasn't what it really was. I could barely handle a real relationship. I eventually had gotten bored and had wandered up to the stairs on the search for a bathroom that wasn't in use and smelling of vomit. The house itself was big, a lot bigger than mine.

There were many rooms in the house, and I had opened the first. It seemed like an office, so I moved on, to the next one. And then the next when it wasn't a place I could release the pain in my bladder. I opened another door and wondered how many rooms were in this house. It had been Erika's, it had a medal, and a picture of her at cheer hung up with some of her friends. I was in the picture.

The room wasn't unoccupied. I had flushed and was about to leave them to what was going on when I realized who it was. I would recognize that hair cut anywhere. My fucking boyfriend. With the beautiful girl who was better than me in every way.

I didn't want to know how long it had been going on, I couldn't bring myself to think if that. He has become more distant. But I had never expected this. I loved him. I fought down a sob. The shock was making me numb. I grabbed my phone and pulled it out. Taking a video, making sure that when I confronted him, he couldn't deny it. I felt broken, useless.