Homecoming

“Connor,” I reason with him in one word. But don’t get me wrong, I’m furious as well.

He frowns. “Nate,” he counters.

“She can’t be,” I deny with a shake of my head, trying to think back to when all of this started and notice the details of her behavior.

“No! It all makes sense. The first dare, she had the pool key-“

“But she helped us! If she was trying to ruin us she wouldn’t have helped.”

He shakes his head, still thinking, “She was also at the party. A-and, she’s friend with Alex! And he knew!”

“So, Alex knows a lot of people now.”

“They have the same fucking number!” He exclaims, bringing his first point back into light, “She doesn’t like me, too.”

I had so many other questions, other points that could falter his evidence but I didn’t want to bother the reddening boy with them. I keep evaluating my friendship with Ginger and thinking, would she do something like this to me?

Connor keeps yelling and flailing his arms, repeating his points over and over again so I text her before my neighbors start to complain at this time of night- or morning. She immediately responds to me saying I need her, texting that she’s on her way. I go to sit on the swing while waiting.

What I hate most, excluding whether or not Ginger is actually the blackmailer, is that it was all for nothing now. Now, maybe everyone won’t see a picture of Connor and I in bed together or kissing, but they will have the memory of Connor blowing me almost to the point of my orgasm, etched and maybe even burned in their minds forever. All this that we did to prevent anything of this kind, now worthless in one night.

The last month of stress could’ve ended before it began. The picture of us, covered, laying down next to each other, was better than this. And if it is Ginger, then actually spreading the rumor and pictures had to have been a bluff. We outed ourselves.

I only look up from the woodchips as I hear an SUV coming to a stop on the street. I look to Connor, whose sitting, probably still coming up with his master plan on the little plays cape, out of her immediate sight. He raises his head at the sound of tires stopping with a glare.

“Natey! What’s wrong?” She starts to rush over, still in costume. I don’t stand even though I know she has it coming to her. I figure she won’t get hurt too bad as I continue to sway on the swing. I only hear crushing wood chips and a swish.

It’s a sight, watching Prince Charming tackle a gypsy. She goes down with a scream, face first and he sits on her back. “What the fuck are you doing!?” She tries her best to get up but has no chance with Connor’s muscle. I only feel a little bit bad because she’s a girl.

“What’s going on, Nate?” She still screams though she stops resisting physically. For a second, I wonder what will happen if anyone just happens to drive by this park at two AM.

Connor pulls out his phone as an answer, holding the screen with the dare too close to her face. She squints at the bright light in the darkness but then her whole face falls. She starts to shake her head, “I-I..I’m…”

And that proves it.

“I fucking knew it you fucking fire crotch bitch!” He lifts himself just to sit on her again as she screams and tries to swat at him with her hands, “Now get off me, fat ass! I obviously can explain.”

“What do you mean obviously, bitch?”

“I mean, that I have a good reason, way to be mature, Connor. Nate and I are like best friends-“

“No. I thought we were like best friends,” I get off the swing to sit by her body, finally glaring.

“And not even best friends!” Connor interjects, “Just really close, because I’m his only best-“

We keep cutting each other off, this time it’s Ginger, who has seemingly not even heard Connor’s ranting, “Like you thought you and Connor were best friends?” Her eyes narrow just a bit, though I don’t think that this was intended to hurt me. Her breathing is deep, I know it’s probably a struggle being pressed into the ground.

“No, nothing like that,” I shoot back, “Connor wouldn’t intentionally hurt me.” I see Connor’s curt nod out the corner of my eye.

“I’m not either! You two get stupid when you’re together! I know that you’re in love,” Ginger rushes out.

Connor stops wiggling to press her more into the chips. He grabs her hair, “Excuse me?” He pulls the red locks so tight, her head raises, I’m surprised they don’t snap.

“Get the fuck out my hair! Stop acting dumb, I’ve known that Nate was in love with you for years and I know that you needed a goddamn reality check, Conner. And I needed a fun way to start the year.”

He let’s go of her hair suddenly, her face once again falling into the wood. She groans, “Really, Nate, you’re going to let him do this? You know I wouldn’t hurt you. I just…didn’t know a better way to make you two do something different with your perfect lives to make you see the one thing you were missing.”

There’s a heavy pause- collective thinking. Me, I’m thinking if I can really even believe all of this.
“Where does Alex come into all this shit?” Connor asks.

“Well after the whole lunchroom fight thing I told him about it to make him feel less bad. But also after that I started doubting you, Connor. I thought if you were that much of an asshole, maybe the love is one-sided. So I kind of sent Alex in as a rebound, but I guess it became more to him…”

“If he was in on it, then why would you tell me to break up with him?” I ask, softly, my belief in her words becoming evident.

She gives a small smile, “That was actually his idea. It was kind of a test to see if you still had feelings for Connor. You passed, until he told me about the next morning.”

I nod with the biting of my lip, still feeling bad about hurting him so suddenly even though he was actually in on what was making my life so stressful almost the whole time.

“And what the fuck was that shit you pulled tonight? I still hope you choke on a cock,” Connor questions and insults, still enraged even after her explanations.

She keeps her eyes on me even though she’s answering the more hostile boy’s questions, “Well that was last minute. I thought that by the dance you guys would realize how perfect you are together. But then over the last week you guys started acting like nothing changed, which surprised me because over the last month your behavior had obviously changed with the severity of the dares. So I did that to make Connor grow some balls…and the everyone finding out thing was just because of his stupid popularity.” Her eyes down cast at her last sentence and I know that she really didn’t want that part to happen. I have friends with the weirdest intentions.

“I don’t believe you,” Connor shifts on her, making her yelp, “They shouldn’t have known I was up there.”

“That wasn’t me! I swear, if anyone, it had to be Alex, though I haven’t even talked to him lately- I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s out to get you.”

I look to Connor to see his facial response to this but he gives a smug smirk. I’m surprised because Ginger just said that someone doesn’t like him, which is means for him to freak out.
“I hate him too,” Connor mutters, finally, slowly standing. He looks down at Ginger who quickly sucks in a deep breath and breaths out, panting with closed eyes. But he doesn’t offer her a hand, he offers me one. I look at his hand quizzically before looking back up to his eyes, which he rolls before grabbing my arm.

He pulls me to my feet and without any time in-between, into his arms. The kiss is forceful, like he’s been waiting years though it was only a week ago that we decided not to do this.

“What are you doing?” I whisper in a rush as he breaks for air.

“Shut up,” he says before reattaching our lips.

And suddenly it all really does make sense. Connor getting a dare to break up with Kailie, me getting a dare to break up with Alex, the intimacy, the new feelings.

It was all planned brilliantly to our benefit and we didn’t even know it.