Matthew

The alarm goes off and I groan, reaching over Vanessa and shutting the alarm off. I lay back down in the bed and run my hands over my face. Vanessa shuffles beside me, turning her back to me and pulling the blanket up to her neck.

“Babe, I have to go,” I whisper. Today was the first tutoring session with Parker.

She doesn’t respond immediately. “Then go, Matt.”

I sigh and remain laying there. Vanessa and I had gotten into a huge fight last night. I told her I was tutoring someone and then made the mistake of telling her who it was.

After Venessa caught me and Parker in that compromising position, I chased her to her house. She yelled, she cried, she begged me to leave. She asked why I did what I did and how long had it been going on. She told me she loved me. She asked me to stay, to not hurt her, and she cried some more.

I didn’t know why I did what I did. Even worse, I knew if I had the chance to do it again, I knew it would probably happen. I’m an asshole. I wanted to be with Vanessa, I’ve known her my entire life and she was genuinely an amazing, great girl. My parents wanted us to get married, they loved Vanessa, her parents loved me, our parents loved each other. Everyone just wanted to be a big happy family. And I loved Vanessa, I really did but…we’re eighteen. I wasn’t ready for all that. I wanted to date around, see what else was out there. Fuck, I’m an asshole.

When the opportunity to tutor Parker rose I jumped on it before I even knew what I was doing. Hayden was supposed to tutor her but she was feeling overwhelmed, so I approached her and our counsellor and we were able to figure something out. Now, I get to see Parker for an hour every day. I was looking forward to it.

I’m an asshole.

Last night I figured I should bring it up to Vanessa. I knew she wasn’t going to be happy about it, but it was already done. So, I told her. And we fought, and we fought, and then we fought some more. She thought I volunteered to tutor someone in hopes that it would be Parker, she said I was just trying to spend more time with her. She wasn’t wrong, but I told her she was. She told me to leave, she didn’t want to talk to me or see me. I talked her into letting me stay, I didn’t want her to be upset. I didn’t want her to be hurt.

She let me stay the night with her but we argued the entire time until she turned out the lights in the middle of a sentence and climbed into bed. I climbed in next to her, hoping when we woke in the morning everything would be okay, but I guess not.

So, I laid there in bed beside her trying to think of something to say, to make her not mad at me, but my mind ran blank. After a long few minutes, I rolled over and kissed Vanessa’s shoulder. “I’ll see you at school, okay?” I whisper in her ear. She doesn’t answer me. I sigh and kiss her cheek. “I love you.”

I roll out of bed without a reply and put on yesterday’s jeans and a rolled-up Metallica shirt. I slip on my shoes and grab my bag and am out the door. On the way to school, I decide to stop and grab a couple of coffees. I’m running late anyways, so I guess I better have a better excuse than my girlfriend and I stayed up all night fighting about you.

When I arrived at the school, Parker was pissed. She’s always pissed; she’s so cute when she’s pissed. She gets more pissed as the hour ticks on, and eventually I decide to just leave, knowing she will chase after me. She acts like she hates me, but I know there’s something else there. She follows me into one of the chemistry labs. Oh, yeah. She totally has a thing for me despite that fucking boyfriend of hers.

I ask her if she’s coming to the party at Brian’s tomorrow. She’s playing hard to get and she knows it. God, I want her. She exits the room and I take a moment before following her. The bell rings, announcing that Period zero is over and Period one will begin in five minutes. Okay, I have five minutes to talk her into going. I can do that.

I spot her at her locker, talking to her friend Bethany. I start to walk in her direction until my path is obstructed.

“Going to see your other girlfriend?” Vanessa asks me.

I suppress a sigh. “No,” I tell her, grabbing her waist and pulling her to the side of the hallway. I pin her body between mine and the lockers and kiss her. She hesitates at first but then kisses me back.

“I have to get to class,” she tells me.

I give her a look. “Will you please stop avoiding me?”

“I’m not.”

“Okay,” I say slowly. “Are you still coming over tonight?”

She looks away from me. “I need to study.”

I pull away from her. “Fine,” I roll my eyes.

She rolls hers too. “You don’t get to be mad here, Matt. You’re the one cheating on me what that…that…slut!”

I shake my head. “I’m not having this conversation with you again, and especially not here.”

“Whatever,” she replies. “I have to get to class.”

I nod. “Am I going to see you at the party tomorrow?”

She shrugs. “I’m going to Los Angeles with my mom. I don’t think I’ll feel up to it.”

I chuckle humourlessly. “Whatever, Vanessa. I’ll guess I’ll see you next week then.”

“Fine,” and she walks away.

The rest of the day is much like the beginning – shitty. Parker is sure to be around her boyfriend any time I’m around and Vanessa continues to avoid me. After school, the guys come over and we have band practice. Brian started dating a new girl named Michelle, and so she was there hanging out and distracting my lead guitarist and Jimmy was too busy embarrassing Brian to focus on his drums. In the end, we stopped band practice early. Tomorrow I planned to spend the entire day drunk, and the day after that I knew I would be hung over so I did my homework and then passed out watching some movie.

The next day I get myself pumped for the party. Everyone was going down to the beach hours before the party to get drunk before they, well, got drunk. I went for a run and worked out in the morning and then grabbed a bite to eat with Zack and Johnny before we went to the beach. Zack ran off to a group of girls calling his name and Johnny headed straight to the ice chests full of beer. I, however, began to walk around the beach hoping to run into either Parker or Vanessa.

Have I mentioned I’m an asshole?

After a couple of rounds, I make my way over to the ice chest of beer. I grab a can and bring it to my lips. I’m going to need something stronger if I’m going to be here all day without Parker…I mean, Vanessa.

A few hours pass, drinks get stronger and the sun sets. The party begins to move from the beach to Brian’s house. As the crowd thins from the beach, I and a couple of other guys begin to carry the ice chests to the house. As I drop off the last ice chest and turn to join the rest, I hear yelling coming from the beach. Footsteps grow louder and a figure emerges from the shadows.

Parker doesn’t see me at first because she’s too busy wiping her eyes. She’s wearing a maroon bikini top and a pair of those sexy jean booty shorts. Had she been at the party this entire time? How did I keep missing her? She stops when she sees me and puts on a brave face.

“What are you doing here?” She asks me.

I raise a brow at her. “It’s partially my party, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” she mumbled. She tries to walk past me but I grab her hand, turning her back to me. I’ve missed out on seeing this, seeing her in her tiny bikini top all day, there was no way I was letting her out of my sight so soon.

“Let me get you something to drink,” I offer. “It looks like you’ve been having a rough night.”
“Yeah, you could say that. I think I’m just going to go home.” She tells me.

I shake my head. “Just one drink. Come on.”

She stared at me, and I knew I had her. She couldn’t resist me. “Fine,” she sighed. “Just one, then I’m going home.”

Oh, this was going to be fun.

Notes

Thank you for reading! and thank you to Hollie, imagine fiction, BuiltForSyn, Cheyenne16 and MeRi for commenting!

Title credit: The Script "Anybody There"