The Player Broke My Leg

Chapter 21

I shrugged. "I don't have anyone to lie to, so I wouldn't know."

Evan nodded as he pulled the chicken out of the pan and onto a nearby plate. Suddenly, the phone in his pocket. He pulls it out, and when he checks the caller ID, he frowns. "My dad's calling. Can you give me a hand?"

I nodded as I slide out of my seat and walked over to him. Just before I got there, he dumped the onions as well as garlic into the pan. 

"Stir this until they brown. I'll only be a minute," he tells me as he shoves the spatula before he turns to leave the kitchen with the phone in his hands. "Hey dad," I could hear him say just as he walked to the front of the house and quietly closed the door behind him.

I couldn't help but chuckle as I started to stir the onions, but I immediately regretting helping. My eyes started to water as the onions sizzled in the pan. Carefully, I took a step back and outstretched my arm.

In the corner of my eye, I looked up at the back door just to see Jasper enter the kitchen. Our eyes locked, and anger washed over me. He was that last person I wanted to see at the moment. After the kiss last night, I just wanted to stay far away from him.

"Hattie," Jasper said as he started to walk towards me, but I quickly took the pan off the burner and lifted the rubber spatula and pointed it right at him. "Look, I'm sorry I kissed you. Really, I am. But there's something you need to know."

"Jasper, please," I begged as the spatula shook in my hands. I was so angry, and all the emotions I had felt last night were rushing back. "Just leave me alone."

Jasper frowned and shook his head. "I can't. Look, I don't have much time until he gets back in here."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "What did you do?"

"Called the restaurant to report an awful delivery boy," Jasper said as he looked down the hallway that led to the front door. "Hattie, Evan is lying to you. He's just like everyone else."

"Jasper, please," I continued to beg. Tears started to sting in the corners of my eyes, and I knew it wasn't from the onions.

He sighed and shook his head before reaching into his back pocket. I stood there confused as he pulled out a piece of paper that was folded up into a neat square. As if it pained him to hold it in his hand, he slowly opened it up and turned it to me and I read what it said in my head.

FUCK YOU 

"Evan wrote this."

My eyes widened, and I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. Was Jasper telling the truth? How would he know what Evans handwriting looked like? They aren't exactly close. However, I did recognize the note in his hand. I remember finding it in my locker one afternoon when I went to my locker in between classes. I really didn't pay it any attention, though. I just tossed it in a pile with the others.

"No," I say as I lower the spatula slowly and stepped back.

"Hattie, I know his handwriting when I see it," he told me with a sad look on his face, but it was obvious he knew I had doubts. "Evan and I were chemistry partners last year. I saw him write all the time."

"You're lying," I told him, anger pooling out of me. "This is just one of your messed up ways of torture. I just know it."

"Hattie, I wish I was lying, but Evan is lying to you," he said as he tossed the paper onto the counter, but I refused to look at it.

"Why would he lie, then?" I asked him, but Jasper just shook his head.

"I don't know, Hattie. I wished I did."