Page 40 of Ask No Questions

"I'm asking myself that very question right now. I've tried multiple times to talk to you, and each time, it turns into a bigger disaster.” I looked down at my smoothie, wishing it was a crystal ball with all the answers, or at least a Magic 8 ball.

“Haven’t you been warned to stay away from me by your friends already?”

My head shot up. How did he know that? “Maybe. But nobody will tell me why. They just tell me you’re bad news, and you could ruin a girl’s reputation.”

He smirked at that. “That makes sense, I guess.”

“Will you tell me? I don’t usually believe rumors, but it might be all I have to go off of with you. Please?” That seemed to change his mind. He looked me in the eye for a few moments and shrugged.

“I don’t get why you care so much, but since you asked nicely, I’ll tell you.” He took a sip of his smoothie and sat back in his chair. He looked away from me toward the windows as he spoke. “Freshman year, I started hanging out with some kids that were into drugs. I didn’t know it at first, but they seemed cool, so I hung around them. I only ever tried smoking with them once. I never really got why they did it.”

He seemed lost in the memory like it was the first time he was retelling it. “The school was having random locker searches one day, and they found a stash in mine. It wasn’t mine, but that didn't matter to the school or the police officers they called in. My parents were so mad at me that they requested I get sent to juvy instead of community service. They wanted to teach me a lesson, I guess.”

“Your own parents sent you away? For a first-time offense?” I was shocked. My parents were strict, but they would never do that to me… unless sending me to California to live with my brother counts. My parents sent me away. This wasn’t juvy, but the point was the same.

The betrayal was the same.

“I needed it. I would have kept hanging out with those kids and wasted away. A few weeks straightened me out.”

I interrupted him without meaning to. “So you have a horrible reputation for a stint at juvy during freshman year? Either nothing happens at this school, or there’s something you’re not telling me.”

He gave me a half-smirk and shook his head. “I was getting there. I came back to school and did my best to stay out of trouble. I got my grades back up, so I could get into AP classes the next year. The summer between freshman and sophomore year I met Julia. She was beautiful and sweet and popular.” He paused, smiling to himself.

“So what happened to her? Are you guys still together?” He looked at me like I had obviously missed something.

“No, we’re not. We did date through the start of the next school year. Everyone was shocked she was with a guy like me, but Julia didn’t care what other people thought. She knew the real me and accepted my past mistakes.” He paused again as his expression darkened.

“I took her to an outdoor concert for her birthday, some stupid boy band she liked. We were driving home late at night. We were almost to her house, just one stoplight away. I was turning left when a drunk driver ran a red light and hit us. Just behind Julia. She should have been okay, but the impact was too much. She died instantly. I was hospitalized for a few weeks with some internal problems, and the other driver walked away from the accident without a scratch.”

I wanted to reach out to him. I wanted to comfort him somehow, but I didn’t know how to cross that line with him. “That’s awful, Gage, but it wasn’t your fault.”

“You’re the only one to think so. Her parents, her friends, the whole school blamed me. Even my parents said I could have done something, anything, differently.” He sat there looking so dejected, like talking about this brought him back to that time. “No one at school has forgotten what happened. That’s why I’m a loner, and people hide their children around me.”

He was being dramatic now, but I finally understood his tough, elusive exterior. “I have my own issues, trust me. I know what it feels like when no one has your back, even my parents. I don't know your whole story and you don't know mine, but I think we can be friends.”

He looked at me like I just grew another head. “Why would you want to be friends with me? You've been claimed by Mike Thomas, your best friends are the three most popular girls at school, and you went on a date with Dreamboat Keller.”

“I was just thrown into this. Mckayla’s my cousin, so she and her friends just accepted me into her group by default. I don’t know what I did to make Mike turn into my personal bodyguard, but he’s been so nice to me so I can’t exactly tell him to back off.”

I don’t know why I was so defensive. I’ve been lucky to make friends so quickly and to have people accept me without any effort, but Gage had tainted that.

“Are you mad that people have befriended me but still ignore you?”

“No, I’m just not going to feel bad for you when your life is perfect.”

Now it was my turn to be mad. “You have no idea about my life, but I can tell you right now it’s far from perfect!”

I stood to leave, but he caught my wrist and pulled me back.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I, of all people, should know not to make assumptions about people.”

The only thing that kept me in the seat was how genuine he seemed at that moment. I didn’t know what to say to him. I just sat and listened to him without judgment, and he insulted me the first chance he got. I sat back and glared at him waiting for him to continue.

“I’m really sorry, Aubrey. You’re the first person to make an effort to talk to me in over a year. I guess I’m not used to having a friend anymore. Let alone a friend with the entire football team at her beck and call.”

That got my attention. “What are you talking about?”

He seemed just as surprised as me in that moment. “I’ve been getting threats since the first day back to stay away from you. Half the team has personally come up to me and warned me. That’s not including some of the lacrosse team and even the volleyball guys, which was pretty entertaining. They might be tall, but they’re not exactly intimidating.” He laughed like it was no big deal, but I was freaking out.