The Paperweight | #HomeBeforeDarkContest ✔

Short Story

I was elated when Trent asked me out. He might not have been the captain of the football team, but he was a pro-skater at 15 and I knew his school schedule by heart.

A part of me questioned whether he started dating me because of my mom. It wasn't the first time someone had thought they could bump their Spanish grade by dating the teacher's daughter. But I ignored that.

Trent would come over every Friday for family dinner and afterwards we'd escape to my room. I'd cue up Netflix on my laptop and he'd fix us ice cream sundaes. It was our little routine. I Ioved it. I felt so pampered. He'd snuggle with me and trace his fingers along my arm. I never would've guessed he had an ulterior motive.

Then one morning my mom asked if anyone had moved her paperweight. It wasn't worth anything but the sentimental value was huge. So when I found it a week later in a box under Trent's bed, I was really confused. The box was filled with my mom's knickknacks.

He'd walked out of the bathroom at that moment and caught me. He looked so angry that I apologized immediately for snooping. Then he shrugged and said it was harmless. He wasn't taking anything valuable so I shouldn't rat on him. That's when he told me he loved me for the first time. He said that he hoped I loved him enough to trust he had a good reason.

I'm ashamed at how long it took me to tell my mom. I avoided her studiously for a whole week. Then one night, I realized that this wasn't love. People you love shouldn't ask you to keep secrets that make you feel so shitty. So I walked into my mom's office shaking with tears spilling down my cheeks and I told her everything.

She confronted him over dinner that week. His face had changed in that moment. I'll always remember it. Any remnant of the Trent I'd known faded away and only a cruel smirk with dead eyes were left. He'd called me a pathetic snitch and said that when he'd realized my mom was going to fail him in Spanish, he decided to get back at us. Every week he'd take something from my mom's office. It was a memento for each week that he screwed over the Spanish teacher and her fugly daughter. I think I was too shocked to cry. There was yelling but the tears didn't hit me until I heard the front door slam. Then I cried for days. I felt raw like I'd poured all of myself out and only emptiness remained. My mom explained everything to the principal. Trent was suspended and lost his skateboarding sponsors. Once I recovered from the shock of it all, it felt good to know he'd paid for his deception but the scars never really went away. I swore to myself that I'd never be that gullible again.