“Bro how was Veronica?” Ken was standing in the doorway behind me with his eyebrow raised feeling quite smug. “I told you she would be all over you as soon as you made yourself available.”
“Not now asshole.” I scrambled through my phone with the hopes that Jason had an international plan. “I shouldn’t be doing this right now FUCK!” Immediately to voicemail.
“Bro you good?” He wandered over to the bench near me. “Who you trying to call? Jason? It’s probably another 5 hours before he even lands.”
“I’ve made a mistake man…Jenna’s gonna find out and he’s gonna be mad and…”
“Jason won’t care.” Ken hit his vape as he pat me on the back
“How do you know?”
“Dude, you aren’t an item and he doesn’t even want to be your boyfriend. I’m surprised you stuck around this long.” He stared off into the forest behind whatever house we were occupying. “You’re doing that thing that girls do to you. The whole assuming the relationship thing.”
Ken was too smart for his own good. It sucked hearing exactly what I needed to hear. Despite my best efforts Jason and I weren’t anything past friends. I looked back down at my phone, with nothing better to do except sulk about my poor decisions.
“Sucks being on the other end huh?” Ken chuckled “My boy Johnny Han has fallen for a dude.”
“Shut the fuck up Ken I don’t need the peanut gallery right now.” I sat on the bench and brought my arms behind my back. “I don’t even know what I’m thinking.”
“Well here’s how I see it, either you wait for Jason to come home from fancy land or you have one hell of a summer. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must see a man about a beer. See you inside champ.” With that Ken left me along with my thoughts.
I think what excited me so much was the chase. Jason just wasn’t intimidated by me in the slightest and he always had me on his toes. Most importantly he didn’t concede any part of him to please me, way too many people just give up who they are in high school to fit in. His smile whenever he managed to annoy me was what got me up in the morning. I never thought I’d feel like this about someone, let alone a guy like Jason. That was when I made the decision to swear off hookups.
Houston was definitely working out at the school gym. We had just gotten a brand-new setup and athletes got first dibs. That meant Jenna was there as it was pretty much my only shot of having enough time to hash things out. Sure enough though the window I was able to see Mark Houston doing Flys with Jenna right by his side.
I wasted absolutely no time getting their attention through the window. Jenna looked like she was going to rip my head off and Mark was already talking her down before she even came outside.
“Babe. Babe I seriously think…”
“YOU STALKING PIECE OF FUCKING GARBAGE” Jenna must have been high off Pre-workout because she was never this vibrant “WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”
“ME? I’M THE GUY TAKING YOUR BEST FRIEND OUT FOR HIS BIRTHDAY WHILE YOU FUCK HIS CHILDHOOD BULLY”
“So what you come here for my blessing? I gave that to you already when I wished you luck with his fucking mood swings.”
“No Jenna I’m fucking here to settle all this bullshit between us. I just want to know why you hate me so much and how we can move on.”
“Not happening, don’t need to explain myself to a sleaze ball who fucks girls the second the person they’re interested in isn’t in the picture.”
“How many times must I tell you that was a MISTAKE? I am sorry.” She just couldn’t let something that happened 3 months ago die.
“Like I give a fuck. Who knows when you’ll give into temptation again? This is a waste of my fucking time; Marky let’s get back to work….” She tried to walk back into the gym, but Mark just stood there nervously as if he needed to spit something out.
“Uhh……Jenna……” He scratched his right arm and he tried to find the words “I think Johnny’s really good for Justin….”
“You WHAT? Mark what the actual fuck are you…”
“Hear me out please.” It seemed like Mark had finally found where he had placed his balls, ” Jon Han has literally always smashed and dashed in my history of knowing anything about the guy. If it took more than a day to get with someone, he wasn’t interested. This time it’s different, Jon has been around longer than I’ve been with you and hasn’t expected anything in return.” His eyes wandered knowing he was going to be chewed out for this as soon as I left. “Maybe…I don’t know….and this is all up to you of course…let Jason try this and be there if he screws up?” He shrugged and flinched expecting Jenna to maul him to death.
I stood there dumbfounded. The one person in the world that Jason hated was advocating for me at this very moment and it might have worked.
“You WHAT?” Jenna just kept screaming. I was afraid the front desk attendants were going to come out soon to see what was going on “You’re TAKING HIS SIDE? After all the stupid fucking shit I did to help you, you have the nerve to say that he’s not a piece of shit?”
“I just want whats best for everyone involved.”
“And you actually think this SLEAZEBAG is good for my best friend?”
“Yes I do.”
“I’m fucking done. I’m done with YOU and YOU and I’m especially done with this shitty conversation where everyone claims I’m this fucking awful person only hurting my friend when all I want is to protect him” Jenna sounded like she was ready to cry out of pure frustration. This was standard honestly; she was known for her well timed crocodile tears.
“Babe you can break up with me if you want but I’m done being a coward.” Mark became more dejected as he continued to talk, he was clearly ashamed of his past actions and hated even talking about them. “I originally wanted to just get on your good side but like…”
“Like what Mark? Like it’s MY fault he’s so messed up? OH NO WAIT THATS YOU AND YOUR STUPID FRIENDS.” You could really tell how unhinged she had become about this entire ordeal, just lashing out at anything she could reach. “You know what. Fine. Go on your stupid fucking trip, fuck the shit out of him for all I care. When you hurt him like you inevitably will I’ll come back and clean up the stupid pieces!” She slammed the door open and marched in.
“Sorry about that.” Mark shook his head. “I’ve kinda been following her lead in trying to figure out how to make it up to Jake but she’s definitely being irrational here.”
“Look man I don’t care. I don’t know if I even trust you after what we did when we were younger.”
“I get it, I really do.” Mark turned around, super out of character for a guy who has it all. Houston was a guy you could tell was just destined for greatness. Insane grades, insane looks, captain of the soccer team, he literally had it all and wasn’t usually this shy or dejected. You could tell this was really bothering him. “There isn’t much I can do or say that will make this situation any better so just enjoy your weekend alright?”
“Thanks man, I’m not gonna hurt him I swear.”
“If you could…” I knew what he was gonna ask, there’s no way I was in any position to help Mark despite how much he had just helped me.