Chapter 31
Mars
CHARLOTTE
“Mars, are you okay?” I heard Nep calling as he knocked at the door.
TJ was here.
I wasn’t sure what he was doing here, but he was here.
I’d thought I was doing okay. It hurt really bad, but I was doing well and not thinking about him—but now he was here. My one sanctuary, and
he had invaded it.
He hated me.
The look in his eyes, the tone of his voice. He really hated me. What had I done to make him hate me so much? It wasn’t fair. I loved him.
“Come on, let me in, please.” Nep was trying to get me to open the door, but I didn’t want to see anyone right now. I was too confused, too sad, too broken. I just wanted to be alone.
He knocked for a few more minutes before it got silent. He must have left, gone back downstairs, where I assumed the guy who had ripped my heart out was still hanging around.
Had TJ found out where I was going? Had he come here to torture me?
Did he hate me that much? Why couldn’t I stop loving him? Why wouldn’t the tears stop? Why was everything so blurry?
· · ·
I was awoken by a soft knocking on the door. I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I must have. At least I had made it to the bed before collapsing.
“Mars, please come out, or let me in—anything,” Nep pleaded.
I looked over at the clock and saw it was almost six o’clock at night.
Wow, I had slept most of the afternoon. It was almost dinner time, and I had
missed lunch. No wonder I was hungry.
“Please.”
I didn’t like Nep sounding that upset. I guessed I needed to talk to him, even if I would rather have curled up in a ball and cried.
“Are you alone?” I quietly croaked out. Man, crying sure does a number on your voice.
“Just me,” he assured me. Good, I did not want to run into HIM again.
I slowly got up and walked over to the door. The room was still a little blurry from the tears, but at least it was just a small trickle instead of the flood of earlier. I unlocked the door and opened it a tiny bit to allow him to come in.
Nep looked me up and down slowly, but not in the perverted way I was used to from him.
“You look like crap,” were the first words out of his mouth, making me crack a slight smile.
“Is that how you get all the girls?” I asked him.
“Part of my charm, babe. Part of my charm,” he smirked.
“Seriously, though, wanna talk about it?”
He grabbed my hand and walked me back to the bed before sitting and pulling me down beside him.
“What’s there to say? That’s my ex, TJ, who ripped out my heart and crushed my soul,” I said as the tears started to fall.
Nep pulled me into a hug and let me cry on his shoulder as he gently rubbed my hair and back.
“Why are you being so nice and not trying to hit on me?” I asked between sniffles.
“I may be a player, but I’m not a jerk. You know I always help a damsel in distress. Besides, you’re one of my closest friends. I care about you,” he
admitted.
“Thanks.” I sniffled again.
After I calmed down a little, he decided it was safe to talk about TJ again.
“We already established you are still in love with him, but I don’t get why you two broke up in the first place.”
“He just doesn’t like me,” I replied.
“Yeah, not buying it. With how hostile he is being toward me, he definitely still likes you.”
“What did he say to you? Why is he being hostile?”
I really didn’t understand basic human interactions. Why would he be mad at Nep when I was the one he hated?
“For some reason, he thinks something is going on between us and is jealous, hence the hostility.”
“Something between us? Ew! I mean, no offense or anything.”
“Yeah, adding no offense doesn’t make it any less offensive.”
“Sorry. I just know you a little too well. I’m not looking for the same type of relationship as you are.”
“I’m just giving you a hard time. I’ll tease you, but you’re too much like a sister to actually date,” he admitted.
“You don’t date,” I reminded him.
“I was trying to be polite with my wording, but if you insist—to screw.”
“You’ve never been polite before, please don’t start now. I wouldn’t know how to respond,” I giggled. It felt good to be able to giggle. Nep had a way of cheering me up.
“Any chance you’ll come downstairs with me?” he asked carefully.
“Is he still here?”
“Um, yeah.” Why did he look so hesitant?
“I think I’ll wait until he leaves, then.”
“So, the thing is, he isn’t leaving.”
“What! Why not? We have work to do. He needs to go so we can focus.
Can’t Plut kick him out? Why is he here, anyway? How did he even track me down?” I ranted.
“I’m not really sure how to tell you this, but, um, that’s kinda Jupiter,” he sheepishly replied.
The world went silent for a moment. Then everything seemed to be
spinning.
“WHAT!” I yelled.
“Okay, so, I get that it’s a shock, but calm down.”
“TJ is—TJ is my best friend, Jup? But TJ hates me. Oh my gosh, my best friend hates me. What am I gonna do? I can’t lose TJ—and Jup! It’s not
fair!”
Tears started pouring down my face again.
“Come on, Mars, please calm down. Jup doesn’t hate you,” he replied, rubbing my back.
“Yes, he does. He hates me. My only friend hates me. He’s been my friend for years, and he hates me. I can’t have my only friend hate me.
We’ve been together forever. He’s gotten me through so much; I can’t go back to being alone. I can’t lose him.”
I wasn’t even sure my words could be understood by the end of my rant.
The sobs were too loud.
“First off, he doesn’t hate you. More importantly than that, he is not your only friend. You always have Plut and me, and what about that girl, Tracy?”
“She’s his twin; she’ll pick him,” I cried.
“I really don’t think anyone has to pick. You should talk to him.”
“I don’t wanna,” I cried. I knew I wasn’t really being logical, but logic didn’t matter when your heart was in pieces.
“Okay, but you’ll have to talk to him soon. We are competing as a team
in a few days,” he reminded me.
“Not today,” I said, still crying.
“Maybe tomorrow.”
“Okay, tomorrow, but early. We need this resolved.”
“Okay,” I conceded.
“Promise?”
I just nodded my head in confirmation.
“For now, want me to bring you food up since you don’t want to go
down?”
“Please.”
Nep brought me food a little later and ate with me in my room. After that, he left me alone, and I cried myself back to sleep again.
I never imagined Nep could be so sweet.
The next morning, I decided that I needed to “man up,” or rather “woman up,” and go talk to TJ.
It was mind-scrambling to reconcile my best friend Jupiter as being my ex, TJ—but surely we could get past this?
Even if TJ didn’t like me anymore, Jup had been with me for years.
That had to count for something.
I really didn’t want to lose my best friend.
“He better fix this, man. I don’t even care about the impact on the tournament. They’re both my friends, and they’re best friends. This isn’t right,” I heard Nep say as I walked down the stairs.
“Yeah, I can’t even really tell what broke them up, since the stories are so different,” Plut added.
“It really sounds like a he-said-she-said thing.”
“Agreed. So, think he’s figured out that she’s Mars yet?” Nep asked.
What? TJ didn’t realize who I was yet? How was that even possible?
Who did he think Mars was?
“Best I can tell, he hasn’t,” Plut replied.
“Are you two still talking about me?” I heard TJ ask. He must have been in another room.
“Are you still being a huge a-hole?” Nep asked back.
“GUYS!” Plut shouted.
“We have got to get rid of all of the hostility. Can we please just have a
logical conversation?”
“I am being logical,” TJ’s voice said.
“Nep needs to back off. So I insulted your girl. She deserves it after the
way she played me.”
What?
I didn’t play TJ. What was he talking about?
“I thought we were friends. What happened to ‘bros before hoes’?” TJ went on.
“I’m picking bros. I’m just picking the bro that seems to be the most innocent in all of this. I’m not dating her. Never have been and never will be. She’s like a sister to me,” Nep replied.
“So, what—she’s here as support? You’ve never mentioned her before,”
Jup commented.
“I talk about her all the time, so does Plut,” Nep said.
“Neither of you have ever talked about Charlotte,” Jup replied.
I decided this was a good time to stop eavesdropping and make my presence known.
“No, but they have both talked about Mars,” I said, walking in.
