More Than This

10 - Matt

Part of the ending scenes from Some Kind of Wonderful (one of my inspirations) is attached ⬆️

Song of the chapter - Policy of Truth by Depeche Mode

"Your bitch just burned you, brah."

Fucking Pete. Always has to dig in, every fucking chance he gets. Amber hadn't even walked away thirty seconds ago and he was already rubbing it in. I couldn't effing figure out what his problem with me had been lately. But I could tell things were about to blow up.

I said nothing, just sat back down at the table, using everything I had within me to appear unaffected by her tirade. He was right, though. She had burned me, in front of everyone. I should be pissed at her, I should be calling her every name in the book for destroying my rep that way.

It just wasn't in me anymore. The energy it took to be an asshole was more than I had to give. I was just so tired of it all.

"You gonna do anything about that?" Pete continued.

"Like what, you ass? What the fuck do you want me to do about that?" I actually used air quotes on that last part.

"Oh, I don't know...pull one of your classic 'who gives a fuck about that slut?' Or even better, the 'I was about done with that bitch anyway' is always a winner." Pete seemed to be asking for me to beat the shit out of him right there in the quad.

I was about ready to when Jeff interjected.

"Pete, leave him alone." Jeff put his hand on Pete's chest, physically pressing him into his seat.

"You mean like he left Hannah 'alone' at the Lot?" Pete smirked.

Shit! I hadn't talked to Jeff about that, not knowing what he already knew. One look at his reaction told me he had no idea Hannah had taken me to her house. His eyes widened and he looked back over to me.

"You what?"

I just looked at him, not knowing exactly what to say. But of course Pete jumped right on that little bomb and let it explode.

"He hit on her, even as drunk as he was, right when you left with Becca. She grabbed his keys and they jumped in his car and left." Pete confessed for me.

"She texted that she left with some of the girls!"
Jeff shouted, obviously unhappy hearing that she had lied to him. "Where the fuck did you two go?" He directed his anger right at me.

So much for having him play middle man.
He had jumped right over the fence to Pete's side.

"Um...she took me to her house." I replied quietly. This was not going well. "I spent the night there."

Part of me added that last line because I was tired of the lies. But the fucked up part of me knew how it sounded, and I wanted everyone to think that more had gone on between Hannah and I. It would definitely repair some of the damage to my rep that Amber had just caused.

"You WHAT?!? That's my cousin, you fuck! Not one of your brainless bimbos!" Jeff stood up and glared down at me.

Well, if the rest of the school had been uninterested before, their full attention was now on our little show. I had a quick decision to make, and Hannah's words came rushing back to me.

"What kind of guy are you?"

I wanted to be the kind of guy that deserved Amber. The kind of guy she wanted to have with her. But it was too late for that. Did I want to say fuck it all and just continue the way I had, pretending I was in control?