Price Check On Monogamy

"Caleb, I know you're pissed, but you can't ignore me forever."

Caleb leaned back, thumping his head against his bed's headboard. He'd listened to three different voicemails so far, all from Tandem, all saying basically the same thing. Thumbing the phone's dial pad, he sighed and deleted another one.

"Twelve new voice messages..."

Caleb groaned, frustrated, and tossed his phone to the end of his bed. He didn't want to listen to Tandem try to explain anything. The asshole couldn't even be bothered to show up to school and do it in person, dammit, why should he give a fuck now?

Caleb rolled his eyes as his cell rang again, the third time since he'd come home from taking Heather out to dinner. Half an hour ago.

Pulling himself up and snatching the phone back, Caleb answered the call for the first time, but put his end on mute and Tandem's on speaker.

"Caleb? ... Caleb, I know you're there. Dammit, Caleb, will you talk to me? ... no? Fine, then can you at least listen? I know I fucked up, man, and I should've told you. I was gonna tell you last weekend, before all hell broke loose and that psycho bitch kissed me. You believe that, at least, right? I didn't kiss Kip. I don't even like Kip. I didn't mean to hurt Tiger, Caleb."

Caleb closed his eyes and leaned back onto his bed. Fact was, he did believe Tandem; the guy was a horny bastard, but he would never touch Kip. If he was that bad, Caleb would've never agreed to the damn bet.

"Caleb? Dammit, Caleb, if you don't fucking talk to me and tell me how she is, I'm going over to your house!"

... now that was something that Caleb could't have happen.

"What, Tandem?" Caleb snapped, taking the phone off mute and speaker. "What the fuck do you want?"

"I didn't think that that would get you to talk," Tandem sighed, relieved.

"Stay away from my house, Tandem," Caleb snapped. "I don't think you understand just how much you fucked up."

"You don't think I understand?" Tandem shouted, loud enough to make Caleb pull the phone away from his ear. "Fuck you, Caleb, I understand perfectly fucking well! What do you think I just lost, you fucking asshole, a bet?"

"That's exactly what you lost!" Caleb snapped back.

"Fuck you!" Tandem shouted. "You know damn well it's nothing like that! Go to hell, Caleb, you didn't lose jack shit because, even now, you didn't have the balls to tell her what was really going on!"

Caleb opened his mouth to snap at Tandem again, but shut it suddenly, his words sinking in. His first instinct was to hurl his phone against the wall, but his next instinct caught him off guard as he choked back a sob.

"Fuck you, Tandem," Caleb said quietly. "At least you had something to lose, you asshole. I didn't have a damn thing, and I'm pissed as shit because, even with something to lose, you still lost it."

- - -

"You have another date with him!" Tawny squealed, making my cringe. I hated admitting they were right, dammit. I really, really hated admitting they were right.

"Shut up," I groaned, pulling off my shoes and falling back on my bed. "Yeah, yeah, the date went alright."

Though, "alright" was kind of an understatement. It was like Tyler knew he'd lost ground in my view of him, and was busting ass to make up for it. He took me to the city park and we had a picnic; he'd even brought his dog, a beautiful dalmatian named Abby who took to me instantly. He took me to get ice cream, then to go see a late movie.

I didn't get home until about one in the morning, five minutes ago.

"Well, you are, aren't you?" Tawny said slyly. "Why did you agree?"

"Because I had a good time," I mumbled. He'd asked if I would want to hang out again tomorrow night right before he'd taken me home, and I'd said... well, I'd said yes.

"You owe me and Lexy a thank you!" Tawny shouted over the phone, making me laugh. Before I could say anything, though, my door slammed open and Caleb stood in the doorframe.

There went my night.

"Where have you been?" He croaked out, before i could tell him to get out. I was about to snap at him, when I realized that he looked-- and sounded-- like he'd been crying.

"What happened?"

Caleb scowled. "Shut up and answer the question. Where were you?"

I narrowed my eyes and turned away from the door. "Fine, I was just trying to make sure that you were okay," I mumbled. "Whatever, it's not like you give a shit, anyway, so why the fuck should I?"

"Just answer the question, Tiger," Caleb said loudly, trying to clear his throat at the same time.

I turned and stared at him for a second. "I was on a date," I said flatly. The words felt weird coming out of my mouth toward Caleb, but what was he supposed to do now? Scream at me? Whatever. My decisions officially didn't effect his life at all.

Caleb opened his mouth, but snapped it shut. He looked me directly in the eyes for a long second, before he turned and walked away. I didn't get up to close my door until he slammed the door to his room.

"Hey, Tawny, can I call you back?" Caleb ruined everything, I swear.

"Don't let him get you down," Tawny said softly, comfortingly. "You're moving on with your life, remember? You're finally free of them. Just get some rest, and we can hang out tomorrow before you go on your date with Tyler."

I sighed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Tawny. I'll call you tomorrow, then, alright? Night."

I leaned over the side of my bed and almost screamed. Yeah, alright, fine, I had a great time with Tyler. Yeah, fine, he was a great guy, and I still remember why I liked him. Yeah, I was finally out of that stupid bet.

But, fuck, man, I only went out with Tyler because I didn't want to fight with Tawny and Lexy. I only agreed to go out with him again because I felt bad for not giving him a chance before.

It was like I couldn't feel a thing, so I was just gonna let everyone feel things for me.

So how was I in charge of my life, again?