“Hm?”
“If I asked you a question, would you tell me the truth?”
“Depends.”
“Something important to me.”
“Like I said, Molloy, it depends,” he whispered, not looking up from his copybook, as he scribbled something down, and then flipped the page over.
“On what?”
“On whether or not you needed to know the truth.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Forget it.”
Joey sighed heavily and turned to look at me. “Ask your question.”
“Will you give me the truth?”
“Just ask your question, Molloy.”
“Have you heard any rumors?”
“Rumors.”
“About Paul.” Releasing a shaky breath, I added, “Messing around with some girl from Tommen.”
Joey tensed for a moment before flicking his gaze to where Paul was sitting. A beat passed before he turned his attention back to me. “No.”
My heart sank in my chest.
He was withholding.
I knew he was.
“I never thought you’d lie to my face, Joe,” I muttered, feeling thoroughly disappointed in him. “It hurts worse than I thought.”
“I didn’t lie,” he was quick to reply, tone hard. “You asked me if I heard anything about Ricey messing around with some girl from Tommen, and I haven’t heard anything about some girl from Tommen.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means what it means, Molloy.”
I stared at him for a long moment before finally getting his drift. “You’re being semantical.”
He turned his attention back to the open book in front of us. “Do you want me to write down the notes for you?”
“I want you to be real with me,” I whisper-hissed. “Joe, if you know something and aren’t telling me, then I’m going to be really hurt.”
Blowing out a frustrated breath, he rubbed the back of his neck and reached for his pencil. “It’s not my business.”
My heart plummeted into my ass. “Yeah, well, it’s my business.” I reached across the desk and grabbed his forearm. “Tell me, Joe.”
He remained stone-faced when he said, “I’m no rat, Molloy.”
“But you are my friend.”
Tossing his pencil back down, he muttered something unintelligible under his breath before turning to face me. “I don’t know about anyone from Tommen, and I’m not going to stand over anything I haven’t seen with my own two eyes, but I know he exchanged some messages with one of the girls from here.”
“You saw those?” My breath hitched. “With your own eyes?”
He nodded slowly.
“Who?”
“Molloy.”
“Who, Joe?”
“Danielle.”
My heart sank.
Of all the girls in our year, I felt threatened the most by her.
Knowing that not only Joey but Paul had both succumbed to her allure was gutting.
"What happened between them?"
"Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me, Joe.”
“Nothing happened,” he repeated. “There were a few text messages exchanged a while back, but that’s as far as it went.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“The fuck was I supposed to say?”
“How about ‘hey, Aoife, your boyfriend is cheating on you’.”
“Like I said before,” he growled. “It wasn’t my business.”
“Yes, it was,” I snapped. “You’re my friend, Joey. You’re more my friend than you are hers. Your loyalty should be with me.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Molloy.”
“The truth,” I snapped. “But apparently, you can’t do that, so you might as well not talk to me at all.”
“I didn’t send any damn messages behind your back,” Joey hissed, eyes flaring with heat as his temper rose “So, pull your head out of your ass and place your anger at the right person’s door. Don’t take your shit out on me, Molloy. I warned you about him. I told you what kind of an asshole he was, but you took him back repeatedly, so don’t fucking start with me.”
Yeah, he did tell me, but that didn’t make this easier.
Pulling my phone out of my skirt pocket, I quickly tapped out a text and glared across the room until the asshole recipient answered me.
Aoife: Danielle?
Paul: Danielle what?
Aoife: You were texting her.
Paul: No, I wasn’t.
Aoife: Don’t deny it. I’ve heard it all before.
Paul: Aoife, I swear to God I haven’t laid a finger on Danielle. X
Aoife: I didn’t say you touched her, asshole. I said you texted her.
Paul glanced across the classroom at me and shook his head.
I narrowed my eyes in warning as if to say don’t you dare lie to me this time.
Paul: Listen, nothing happened with her. Those texts were a joke. I sent them ages ago. They meant nothing, babe. I can explain everything. I swear xxx
Glowering, I shook my head and shoved my phone back into my pocket, ignoring when it vibrated to alert me that I had received another text.
“Are you okay?” Joey whispered from beside me.
“No,” I snapped, feeling hurt, betrayed, and a million other emotions. “My boyfriend is a lying whore and my best friend’s an even bigger one!”
“You shouldn’t call Casey a whore, Molloy.”
“I was referring to you, asshole.”
“I didn’t lie to you.”
“You didn’t tell me the truth, either.”
“It wasn’t my —“
“If you tell me that it wasn’t your business one more time, I swear to God I will scream,” I choked out, feeling my eyes water.
“Don’t you dare,” Joey warned, releasing a frustrated growl. “Don’t you even think about playing the girl card and spilling tears on me.”
“Don’t worry, asshole, any tears I spill won’t go to waste,” I snapped, sniffling when I reached up to bat a traitorous tear away. “I’m planning to save them up to drown you with.”
“You asked me to tell you the truth and I did,” he whisper-hissed. “And now you’re mad at me for doing what you wanted me to do in the first place.”
“Because what you should have done in the first place was tell me when it happened,” I choked out, digging him in the side with my elbow. “Not leave me in the dark, looking like a fucking idiot.”
“You don’t need me to help you with that,” he spat. “You get plenty of practice every time you go running back to that asshole boyfriend of yours.”
“Oh, go choke on a clit.”
“Fuck you, Molloy.”
“Fuck you back.”
Feeling vengeful, I held my hand up and waited for the teacher to notice me.
“Yes, Aoife?”
“Joey called me fat.” Sniffling, I batted another tear away. “I’m really upset about it. Can I please be excused?”
His mouth fell open. “You bitch.”
Fuck you, I mouthed back at him.
“Joey!” Ms. Falvey snapped, looking horrified. “Yes, Aoife, go on outside and get some air.”
“I didn’t call her fat,” I heard him defend, as I stalked out of the classroom door. “It’s not her weight she has a problem with. It’s that deranged vindictive streak in her.”
SPECIAL_IMAGE-images/svgimg0003.svg-REPLACE_ME
I was dawdling outside of the girls bathroom, wasting the last few minutes of class until the final bell rang, when a sour looking Joey came stalking down the corridor towards me.
“Thanks a bunch, Molloy,” he called out, green eyes narrowed, as he closed the space between us. “Falvey put me back on a red book for the foreseeable.”
“Oh please.” I rolled my eyes. “When aren’t you on a report book?”
“Do you know how big of a hassle that fucking book is? Having to get it signed before and after every damn class, and then having to meet up with Nyhan at the end of every day to be bitched at?”
“No,” I drawled, tone laced with sarcasm. “Because, unlike you, I know how to behave myself.”
“No,” he corrected, stopping short when he reached me. “You’re just sneaky enough to not get caught.”
“That, too.”
“Here.” He dropped my school bag at my feet. “You left your bag.”
“Thanks.”
“I cleared the stash of chocolate in your pencil case.”
I sucked in a horrified breath. “You asshole.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not sorry,” Joey shot back with a shrug. “You deserved it for pulling that stunt on me.” Releasing a frustrated growl, he added, “But I am sorry for not telling you about prick-face sooner.”
Anger dissipated, and feeling sheepish, I leaned in close and nudged his shoulder with mine. “And I’m sorry for telling Ms. Falvey that you called me fat.”
“And?” Joey pushed.