Page 12 (1/2)

Okay, that’s not weird

"What other obligations did you mean?" I asked

"Oh," she said with a nervous sot pretty bad here Jared was out at all hours Soot worse with the stress of Jared’s behavior" She paused and shrugged her shoulders "OrI don’t know But I entered rehab for about a ht years now, Jared’sprobleo to work and handle Jared After he cao, he’d changed, and Jared’s ot into soether But steps needed to be taken, for both of us"

I continued to listen, unfortunately too interested into this rare peek of Jared’s life She still hadn’t explained the "other obligations", but I wasn’t going to pry further

"Anyway, a fewwith hi on, and I just don’t feel like he needs hts, but he knows to stay out of trouble on the weekends"

Yeah, instead of taking his debauchery elsewhere, he brought it hoical, since Jared was alment form As much as I liked her, I bla up

I didn’t know the whole story, but I’d heard enough to figure out that Jared’s father wasn’t a good man He had left when Jared o, before I even lived in the neighborhood Katherine raised her son al problee When Jared was fourteen, his father called and asked if Jared could coreed and left for eight weeks After the visit, though, he returned cold and cruel His ot worse, and he was utterly alone

I’d always known, deep down, that Jared’s problem with me was tied to that suh I’d never met Jared’s father, I resented him, too I would take responsibility if I’d hurt Jared, but I had no idea what I could’ve done to deserve his hatred His parents, on the other hand, had clearly abandoned hiue to ask her about his scars, but I knew she wouldn’t tell lanced at me, and I instantly felt like I’d invaded Top Secret territory "No," was all she said

The next day in first period, I sat taking notes about linear approxi the screen to bring up the e, I completely lost ht

I sed hard Before I had a chance to respond, she’d sent another e

He wanted to make sure I was ok See? He’s not all bad

What the hell did he ith her? KC was pretty Definitely She was also my best friend, and that had to factor in so!

Maybe, maybe not was her response

That was the last I heard from KC until lunch Physics, PE and French passed in a blur as I fought the urge to text her again

"Hey," she said as we rab our lunch

"Hey, so talk to , and we exchanged a few ht it was nice that he checked up on ht he was nice? We exited the line after paying and h how the hell KC went fro he was "nice"

"Well?" I was trying hard to seem like I didn’t care "What could you two have talked about after that?"

"Oh, not much…other than you cut the electricity to his house?!" She laughed it off, but I could tell she wasn’t as aht she’d be Maybe she was pissed that I didn’t tell herfor words Jared complained about me to her? "The assle’s party was too loud, so I shut it down" I clearedit out loud

We took our seats at a picnic table and began digging into our food She stayed quiet, but I caught her glancing at me between bites

"What?" I asked, annoyed "You told ame, remember?"

"Did you at least ask him to turn it down first?"

"No" It came out more like a squeaky question "Well, yes On a different occasion I did" It started to feel like I was on trial

"And how’d that turn out?" She paused, water bottle in hand

"Well, he wasn’t cooperating So…I incited a panic and yelled ‘cops’ People kind of left after that" I tippedher eyes I was still proud of that night, but KC clearly didn’t find it funny

Instead, she rolled her eyes "Tate, when I said to play his gaame!" I blurted out "You didn’t say to kill hi hiht Zone, and KC had been body-snatched

"All I’ is that Jared has talked to you" Her voice was calm, the opposite of mine "That’s it You look like the bully now You’ve broken up two of his parties, broken his friend’s nose, and kneed that sa off looking like the victi the whole story," I sputtered "He broke into the girls’ locker roo confused "He just talked to you, though, right? He didn’t touch you?" Thankfully, she showed some concern for me, finally I was ready to rip her head off

"Well, he didn’t attack me, of course," I snapped defensively For aher that he’d broken into my house, but that would just send her back to him with questions that he’d answer…his way