I went to his room and locked the door behind me. I sat on his bed, knees curled into my chest, going over it in my head.Whatever happens in Cabo stays in Cabo. The look on Lacie’s face, the way the other girls gasped. It played in my head like a movie, over and over. The two of them talking tonight. The way he’d shrugged when I said she was nice.
I had to know for sure. I had to hear it from Jeremiah.
I left his room and went looking for him. As I searched, I could feel the shock turning into anger. I pushed my way through the crowd. One drunk girl slurred, “Hey!” when I stepped on her foot, but I didn’t stop to say “excuse me.”
I finally found him standing around outside drinking beer with his frat buddies. From the open door, I said, “I need to talk to you.”
“Just a sec, Bells,” he said.
“No. Now.”
The guys all started cracking up and going, “Oooh, somebody’s in trouble.” “Fisher’s so whipped.”
I waited.
Jeremiah must have seen something in my eyes, because he followed me inside, up the stairs, and into his bedroom. I shut the door behind me.
“What’s going on?” he asked me, looking all concerned.
I practically spat the words out. “Did you hook up with Lacie Barone during spring break?”
Jeremiah’s face turned white. “What?”
“Did you hook up with her?”
“Belly—”
“I knew it,” I whispered. “I knew it.”
Even though I didn’t know it, not really. I didn’t know anything.
“Hold on, just hold on.”
“Hold on?” I screamed. “Oh my God, Jere. Oh my God.”
I sank onto the floor. My legs couldn’t even hold me up.
Jeremiah kneeled down beside me and tried to help me up, but I slapped his hands away. “Don’t touch me!”
He got down on the floor next to me, his head hanging between his knees. “Belly, it was when we were on that break. When we were broken up.” I stared at him.
Our so-called breakup had lasted all of a week. It wasn’t even a real breakup, not for me. I always assumedwe would get back together. I had cried the whole week, while he had been in Cabo kissing Lacie Barone.
“You knew we weren’t really broken up! You knew it wasn’t real!”
Miserably, he said, “How was I supposed to know that?”
“If I knew it, you should have known it!”
He swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Lacie kept following me around all week. She wouldn’t leave me alone. I swear to you, I didn’t want to hook up with her. It just happened.” His voice trailed off.
I felt so dirty inside hearing him say that. Just disgusted. I didn’t want to think about the two of them, didn’t want to picture it. “Be quiet,” I said. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“It was a mistake.”
“A mistake? You call that a mistake? A mistake is when you left my shower shoes in the shower and they got all mildewy and I had to throw them out. That’s a mistake, you jerk.” I burst into tears.
He didn’t say anything. He just sat there and took it, his head hanging down.
