I Know What Sin Is

Chapter 16

The last time I'd seen Sarah look this mad was when I knocked over her $40 Thymes candle she'd gotten her mother for Christmas. I had been attempting to straighten a pair of reindeer antlers on my head and brushed it off the counter with my elbow.

But looking at her now, I thought I would rather make the drive out to Bed Bath and Beyond in a freezing blizzard all over again.

"So, um... what do we have to talk about?" I asked slowly.

"A lot." Her eyes were blazing. "Does the freak have to be here?"

I glanced at Michael and he licked his lips before responding. "Tell me what you guys wanna eat and I'll go-"

"Just leave us alone!" she cried. "God. I hate whenever you're around."

"Fine, I won't get you anything." He turned to me. "What would you like?"

To get the hell out of here. "Uh... chicken sandwich?"

"Want mayo?" he asked.

"Sure."

"C'mon," Sarah huffed, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me back to her table while Michael walked away. "Do you have any clue how many texts I've sent you? How many times I've called you?"

"I lost my phone," I said casually, taking a seat across from her. "Are you sure you're not hungry?"

"How'd you lose your phone?"

"Pizza looks good," I told her, staring at a table of two girls with slices. "You could get that."

"Shut up about the pizza," she snapped. "I want you to tell me what you were doing last night. What you've been doing all these nights."

"Um..." I gulped and looked at the pizza girls. One of them was scribbling something in a notebook. "Homework," I said quickly. "I actually still have a lot of homework to do, so..."

"Stop lying," she said. "You say that all the time, but now I know the truth. You're... god, you're disgusting."

I narrowed my eyes, flicking them towards where Michael was ordering his food. She couldn't possibly know, could she? "Listen-" I started.

"I thought I knew you," she interrupted. "Thought I knew the kind of person you are. But you've changed. Ever since we got here you don't call me anymore, you don't tell me things anymore, you keep secrets and you run off every night and you do gross things."

"Sarah," I said desperately as my heart began beating faster and faster. "It's really not as bad as you think. It's just like getting with anyone else. Just, you know, different."

She sighed heavily. "Yeah, well, it's kind of an important difference."

I could feel drops of sweat forming along my hairline. "Not rea-"

"I mean, god, if you really had to have... sex... that bad, why couldn't you just find a nice, normal girl who... who studies, and has a future... not someone like that!"

I looked down, the weight of her stare crushing me. "I know," I mumbled. "I know. You're right. I'm just... I'm kinda low on options right now."

"Ugh," she groaned. "This is why I hate men. You're always such dogs. I swear you'd fuck a rock if it had a hole in it."

"That would hurt," I said.

"Stop trying to be funny!" Sarah yelled, slapping her palm on the table. "You took advantage of that poor girl!"

I paused, then tilted my head. "Wait... girl? What girl?"

"Do you have any idea what I'm even talking about?" she asked, her eyes widening in disbelief.