Chapter 30
Surprise
TJ
This past week was dreadful. I went out of my way to see Charlotte at school every chance I got, but I made sure she didn’t see me.
She seemed so sad. I thought she’d be happy with her new boyfriend, but maybe she was just keeping up the manipulation for Tracy’s benefit—or something.
It took all of my strength not to run up to her and tell her how I missed her and loved her every single time I saw her. But I knew I couldn’t. Her breaking up with me would crush me. I wasn’t strong enough.
My only saving grace was that all of this happened at such a busy time of the year, so I had plenty to keep me distracted.
I was spending every night working hard with the guys online. I knew they were probably getting sick of it, but I kept using the excuse that we had less than two weeks left, so that shut them up.
I thought Mars had figured out that something was going on, but he wasn’t pushing me for details. He had always been very perceptive when it came to me. I was lucky to have someone like him as my best friend. I was pretty excited I finally got to meet him and the others tomorrow.
All the guys flew out today, but I couldn’t because Tracy and I were signed up to tour one of the local colleges. I didn’t care about going to that school, but I had promised Tracy a while ago that I would go on the tour with her.
So here I was, on a boring tour, while my friends were partying it up without me.
“So, why didn’t you take this tour with Charlotte?” I asked, knowing she and Charlotte seemed to do almost everything together.
I felt a stab of pain when I said her name. I wondered when that would go away. Hopefully, someday.
“Oh, she’s out of town this week,” she casually told me.
Oh yeah, she was supposed to go meet her boyfriend or something.
Man, now I was even more depressed.
I couldn’t wait until tomorrow when I could hang out with the guys and distract myself. Actually, that reminded me, I needed to check how Mars’ flight was. I had a short text conversation with him and found out he actually sat next to one of our top competitors on his flight. I’d have to ask him more about that tomorrow.
I also found out that Nep and Mars have been wrestling or something, since Mars said Nep broke his butt. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know more about that.
I decided to put my phone away and focus on Tracy, so I spent the day walking the campus with her. After the tour, we were allowed to roam freely around. They had lots of trees and some fountains around, making the facility seem very peaceful.
I wasn’t sure if she really wanted to go here, but it was a nice place, and she seemed excited. I tried to be upbeat and happy for her sake.
I thought she could tell I was faking it slightly, but she didn’t call me out on it.
After Tracy had seen everything she wanted on campus, we decided to head home. I needed to pack for my early flight tomorrow. Tracy helped pick out what clothes I should take since she said the interviews and matches would probably be televised.
I honestly didn’t care what I wore, but she insisted that I not look like a slob on TV. Whatever. Once I was done packing, Tracy and I watched a movie together downstairs.
I hated to admit it, but I did kind of enjoy spending time with her. We hadn’t been able to do that much recently.
The next morning, my alarm went off entirely too early, yet I somehow managed to crawl out of bed and drag myself to the shower. As I was getting dressed, I used my phone to order a ride to the airport. Parking for a week would be so expensive that it made more sense to just order a ride and have someone pick me up when I came home.
By the time I was dressed, I had a notification on my phone that my ride was here, so I went downstairs and got in the car to head to the airport. On the way there, I texted Mars to complain about how early it was but figured he was asleep when I didn’t get a reply. Since I couldn’t talk to Mars or the other guys, I just used my phone to review some videos of our competition.
Several hours and a long flight later, I finally arrived at the destination airport. I was so tired of sitting in a little tin can and couldn’t wait to just get to Plut’s house.
Before our plane even got to the terminal, I received a text from Mars complaining about Nep hurting his butt again.
I was beyond confused about what those two were doing. I would have to ask Plut in the car because I was a little scared.
Speaking of Plut, Mars said he was on the way, so I sent him a quick text to find out exactly where he was. He quickly replied that he was a few minutes out, which seemed perfect since I still had to go to baggage and get my suitcase.
About ten minutes later, I was in the car with Plut on the way back to his house.
“Yo, Plut, great to finally meet you in person,” I told him.
“You too, man,” he replied.
“So, what the heck have I been missing? I’ve been getting some weird texts from Mars about his butt and Nep? Frankly, I’m a little worried about what I’m going to be walking into,” I said.
“Oh, yeah, Mars is a lot different than we expected. I think Nep is having a fun time messin’ around. Mars is pretty fragile, so Nep keeps accidentally causing injuries,” Plut replied.
“Yeah, given the lack of social skills and stuff, I kinda picture Mars as the stereotypical gamer—skinny white dude, bad skin,” I said, making Plut crack up.
“Not exactly. You’ll see.” He laughed again. Weird.
“I was surprised when he said he was seeing someone. I didn’t know he had the guts to talk to guys,” I mused.
“Oh, apparently, they sort of broke up. Mars is pretty upset about it, so I suggest not bringing it up,” he replied.
“So, I guess clubbing is back on, then. Find some chicks and a guy for Mars?” I asked.
“Wait, weren’t you seeing someone?” he asked, confused.
“Um, turns out she liked someone else and was just playing me, so I
broke it off,” I replied hesitantly.
“Dude, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, plenty of fish in the sea,” I replied casually, hiding how much I didn’t believe that.
Pretty soon, we were parking in front of a two-story house on the beach.
“Wow, man, sweet house,” I told him.
“Yeah, it’s convenient for keeping a surfer body and gamer lifestyle,” he laughed as we walked into the house.
“Nep, Mars, we’re back,” Plut said once we entered the living room.
“Yo! What’s up,” a tall, built guy said, pulling me into a bro hug.
“Mars is in the shower.”
“Okay, so I take it you’re Nep, then?” I asked.
“Yup, Nep in the flesh,” he replied.
He took a step back, creating a space for us to converse. But before we could exchange more than a couple of words, a soft voice echoed through the room, “ATTACK!”
A petite girl then burst in, attempting to tackle Nep. The sight was comical, given her small stature against his towering frame. He effortlessly caught her mid-air and tossed her over his shoulder, giving her butt a playful smack.
I had to give it to her—she had a nice ass. I couldn’t fault Nep for taking the opportunity.
The more I observed the petite girl, the more I felt a sense of familiarity.
I studied her for a few moments, which was a challenge given her upside- down position on Nep’s shoulder. Then it hit me.
“Charlotte?” I blurted out, my voice laced with confusion.
What was she doing here? She was supposed to be out of town with her
new boyfriend.
Oh my god. Could she be dating Nep?
How would she even know him?
This was beyond my worst nightmare.
Was she aware of his reputation?
I was utterly baffled.
She slowly turned her gaze toward me, her face mirroring my
confusion. “TJ?”
She began to wriggle.
“Nep, for the love of God, put me down. And if you dare drop me, I’ll have Plut kick your ass!”
“Yeah, because you clearly suck at it,” Nep retorted, chuckling, before gently setting Charlotte down.
She took a few steps toward me, her face a mask of unreadable emotions.
“What are you doing here?” she asked softly.
“I think I should be the one asking you that,” I retorted, my tone laced with anger. I couldn’t believe she knew Nep. How in the world had they ever met? Was she using him too? Was he her text “lover”? She really was a manipulative bitch.
Without warning, she burst into tears and turned around, running out of the room.
“What the heck, man?” Nep said, before turning and running after her.
Plut just stared at me for a minute.
“Well, I figured this would be eventful, but that’s not what I was expecting. Why don’t we put your stuff in the guest room? Then we can talk about whatever all of that was.”
Pluto showed me upstairs, where I saw Nep knocking on a door. He turned for a second to glare at me before he started knocking again.
“Come on, let me in, please,” he pleaded.
“Yeah, um, you and Nep are in here,” Plut said.
I put my stuff down, and then we both walked back downstairs to the living room. Before we could even sit down, Nep came into the room,
looking defeated.
“She won’t let me in,” he said sadly.
“Good, you don’t want her anyway. She’s manipulative as hell. She’s just using you,” I told him.
“Dude, you don’t know what the heck you are talking about, so you should really shut your mouth before I beat you up,” Nep said.
She obviously had him wrapped around her finger. I’d never thought of him as the violent type.
“Okay, both of you calm down. Jup, you know her? Like, really know her?” Plut asked.
“Of course, I do. She strung me along for months, made me think she cared, then crushed my soul.”
“I’m still not getting it,” Plut admitted.
“We go to the same school, and we dated,” I said.
“Wait, TJ?” Plut questioned, looking at me.
“As in her ex, TJ?”
“That’s me.”
So she gave them some sob story about me and is playing it all up.
“Dude, you’re her ex? Why the heck would you ever break up with that smokin’ hot chick? Can I have her?”
“Trust me, you don’t want her. But don’t you already have her?” I asked.
“Of course not. She’s crazy in love with her ex, although with how you just treated her, I’m not sure why. Honestly, we’ve been trying our hardest to keep her mind off things, but you can see in her eyes we’ve been failing,”
Nep replied.
“Let me ask again, why did you break up with her?”
“Because she is in love with someone else,” I told them, finally through with her manipulation games.
“That doesn’t really fit with what she told us. She said she was in love with you, but you broke up with her, saying you two weren’t a good fit or something,” Plut said.
“I broke up with her because she was going to break up with me, and I couldn’t handle that,” I admitted.
“Yeah, that still doesn’t match what she said,” Nep replied.
“That’s because she has you twisted around her finger.” I was over this conversation.
“I don’t want to talk about her anymore. Where’s Mars so we can talk about the tournament and not about your little side piece upstairs?”
“Are you that stupid?” Nep asked with hostility. I guessed I did insult his girl, so I could understand him being mad.
“Mars is busy and I’m out. I’ll be at the beach if you need me, Plut.”
“Um, that was fun. Wanna play a game while we wait for him to cool off?” Plut asked, trying to be diplomatic.
We spent the rest of that sorry afternoon playing duos online.
