Gwen Diaz leaned against the back of the main school building with a cigarette in hand, and a disgruntled look clearly plastered on her face. The three friends of hers who tagged along seemed to be concerned about her sudden change in mood. Of course, they all knew what the reason was. Her ex-boyfriend, Benjamin Otto, had started dating the most popular girl at school, Zoey Brahm, and would be going to the dance with her.

She took a puff of her cigarette then let out a sigh.

“This sucks.”

“Hey Gwen, it’s okay. Seriously! Forget about Ben! There’s way better guys for you out there.”

The reassurance came from her best friend, Penny Taylor. A dark shadow was cast over her face as she was forced to once again witness her friend being plunged into despair over Ben.

“Please, it’s been almost a year. Just move on, okay?”

“How can I just forget about him, Penny? He’s the best boyfriend I’ve ever had. I’m never going to meet anyone like him again.”

“But…”

Penny wanted to say something, but she held her tongue.

“But Ben hit you, didn’t he?” The words came out anyway, but they weren’t from Penny’s mouth.

It was Lawrence Young, commonly referred to as “The Law” by other students. He’s the captain of the basketball team, and he has an ego to match it. Despite this, he generally treats people fairly, which is why his nickname happened to stick.

“I mean come on, Gwen. Sure, he might’ve been nice to you at first, but you’ve gotta remember the bad parts too, right?”

“Shut the fuck up, Lawrence. You’re probably secretly hoping he beats the shit out of Zoey because she won’t go out with you.”

“You must have a real low opinion of me.” He smiled playfully as if the accusation were just a joke to him..

“But if you’re not going to get over it, then what else is there to do? Are you going to try sabotaging their relationship or something?”

Gwen paused to think about it, and then took another puff of her cigarette.

“Maybe I should just kill her.”

Lawrence laughed, as if completely certain that she was only joking.

“Listen Gwen, I’m not unsympathetic here. I get it. I’ve been walking around the halls too, you know. Everyone’s calling Zoey an upgrade. Of course I understand that you’d be hurt.” Lawrence leaned his arm on the wall above Gwen’s head, then looked down at her with a playful grin. “But instead of making idle death threats, don’t you think maybe you should move on to something better?”

Gwen clicked her tongue and looked away. “You’re like, so fucking gross. You’ve never gone out with a girl seriously. Why should anyone waste their time with someone like you?”

“Don’t know, but it doesn’t sound like you’re against it.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t be against it if you weren’t a complete psychopath. That’s like saying I wouldn’t mind dating a drama kid if they played football.”

“Hey, I think drama kids are cool.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“How many of them have you fooled around with?”

“Three, but that has nothing to do with how I feel about drama kids.”

She clicked her tongue again, as if the sudden segue into Law’s dating life were only making her mood worse.

Warren Jackson, another member of the basketball team, had been squatting and drawing in the dirt with a stick the entire time. He seemed completely uninterested in the conversation. It was as if he were dragged along against his will.

Penny cast him a glance to see what he was doing, then nervously shifted her attention back to Gwen and Lawrence. She was looking for a moment to interject, but the heavy atmosphere left her feeling that it was impossible to step in. But despite that, she tried anyway.

“Uh, guys…”

“And besides Gwen,” Lawrence continued. “I’m not saying that we need to go out for real. It’d just be for the dance. You know, to show everyone that you’ve dated up from Ben. Maybe piss him off too while you’re at it. Think about it. There’s no downside for you, is there?”

“Guys.”

“Well, maybe…”

“Guys!”

Gwen and Lawrence turned to face Penny, who finally got her foot in the door.

“What?”

“Shouldn’t you just let it go?”

“Let it go? Let what go?”

This time, it was Gwen who asked.

“Penny, are you for real right now? How the fuck am I supposed to just let it go? He used me and left me, and broke my heart into a million pieces, and now he’s just gonna go and date Zoey fucking Brahm? Like, are you actually taking his side right now?”

“This isn’t about sides! Like seriously, are you going to spend the rest of your life thinking about Ben like this? You deserve way better than him!”

“Can’t deny that,” Lawrence laughed. “What do you say? Let’s go to the dance together.” He placed his hand on her head, but she slapped it away immediately.

“Don’t touch me. I don’t know where your hand’s been.”

“Man, you’re such a neat freak...”

“And Penny, I just… I don’t get what you’re saying. You think he should just be allowed to walk away and live his best life after hurting me like this?”

“N-no, I mean… I just think it’d be better if you moved on from this. You’re like… like…”

“Picking at the wound,” Warren said without turning away from his drawing.

“Yeah, that. It looks like you’re in a lot of pain whenever you look at him.”

“God, both of you…?” Gwen heaved a sigh of resignation and flicked her cigarette. “I’m just going to head to class. I don’t have to stand here and listen to this.”

“Hey, wait!” Lawrence called out to her, but it was already too late. She had already slung her backpack over her shoulders and walked off. The other three remained in place, staring at her back as she slowly receded into the distance.

“I should probably go after her,” Lawrence said.

He didn’t appear to be upset with the other two over their pushing, despite his plan to go to the dance with her falling through, but he didn’t seem to have given up either.

“Wait,” Warren said, still drawing in the dirt. It was apparent that he was working on a dirt illustration of a Chinese dragon. It was surprisingly well drawn for being done in such a makeshift medium.

“What, man?” asked Lawrence.

Penny remained silent, but she turned to Warren.

“Do you guys really think that Zoey started going out with Ben just because she wanted to?”

“What? What do you mean?”

Warren placed the tip of the stick against his chin while staring down at his drawing, still pondering Lawrence’s question.

“Well, whatever any of your opinions are of Zoey, she’s not an idiot. Being as well-connected as she is, she must’ve heard about Ben’s history with Gwen, so I have my doubts that she’d want to go out with a guy like that. And I say that as the guy’s best friend.”

“Couldn’t she just think he’s worth it or something? I mean, maybe she just really likes him.”

“I don’t know about that line of thinking,” he said, returning to his drawing. “This is a girl who’s had her pick of the male student body for three years but chose to stay single. Why would she suddenly start dating someone now? And why would it be someone as lightning charged as Ben?” The two of them went silent. “Besides, I happen to know that Ben was thinking about giving up on asking her to the dance just yesterday. She wasn’t exactly head over heels for him, you know.”

Ben trusted Warren a lot, so he kept him in the loop about a lot of things in his life. He was the one who brought it to the group’s attention that they were suddenly dating in the first place.

“So what,” Penny said. “You think he’s threatening her?”

“No, I’m not making any rash assumptions here. We don’t know anything about the circumstances of their relationship. I’m just saying that this stinks.”

“Stinks is right,” Lawrence said. “I don’t really see those two together. I think you might be right that something’s up.”

“Aren’t you just saying that because you want her to go out with you instead?” Penny sighed.

“Doesn’t matter. Either she lost a bet or she’s being blackmailed. Both of those make infinitely more sense than her just suddenly deciding that she’s into that crazy guy.”

Penny rubbed her temple in frustration, and Lawrence pushed himself off the wall then placed his hands in his jacket pockets.

“Either way, I’m going to talk to Gwen about this. She deserves closure. Like, real closure. The group’s gonna get depressing real quick if she keeps moping around like this.”

He left them with those words and walked off back to the school entrance.

Warren and Penny could only watch on in silence as the slow, painful, splintering of their friend circle became more and more apparent.