Page 77 of Talk to Me

“Give me the abbreviated version,” I said. “Because I am not going through all of those notifications again.”

Theo grinned. “Well, uh, Ben has turned off notifications to all of his videos. And deleted the one about that guy giving me his number.”

“What?”

“People were flaming him in his comments, calling him a liar, shit-stirrer, drama queen—all kinds of stuff. Telling him to stop harassing you and me,” Theo said, unable to keep the grin off of his face. “He tried fighting them in the comments, but everyone kept tagging him in the video you made, proving that what he said in his video was wrong. So…he deleted it and turned off his comments.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Theo said. “I texted you last night to thank you for making the video. Lots of people are apologizing in my comments, sending me cool messages, that kind of thing. I tried to text you this morning and again a few hours ago, but you didn’t respond. I thought…I thought you were mad.”

I shrugged. “No, I’m not mad.”

Theo eyed me for a moment. “But?”

“I’m annoyed,” I said, looking up at him.

“With me?”

“No,” I said. “No, not you. Not really. You’re just part of the equation. I’m annoyed that someone can just make some video, put it on the internet, and ruin someone’s life without any truth whatsoever to anything they said in the video. And people just believe it. They don’t even ask questions—they just jump on the bandwagon. It’s frustrating as shit.”

Theo chuckled darkly.

“Welcome to my world,” he said.

I shot him an annoyed frown.

“It’s not funny, man,” I said.

Theo cleared his throat. “I know. But sometimes all I can do is laugh or I’ll cry.”

I sat back in the chair and groaned, looking up at the ceiling.

“I simultaneously want to punch that smarmy fucker in the face—”

“Ben?”

“—yeah. But also, I can’t help but feel sorry for him.” I finished. “I mean, what he did was wrong, but also, we have to kind of understand, right?”

“Why do you say that?” Theo frowned at me.

With a sigh, I sat up to face him again.

“Look, I wasn’t lying when I said I’ve never Google’d you or looked you up on the internet,” I said and Theo gave me a quick nod. “But the first time I saw you on campus, it was because Collin pointed you out. He told me about what happened between you and Ben. You…cheating on him and stuff. And you kind of alluded to it before.”

Theo looked down at his lap.

“I can’t be mad at him for being mad at you. For being bitter and lashing out,” I explained. “I’m mad he dragged me into it, but I get it, you know? Even if it seems it’s time for him to move on.”

Theo nodded gently.

“I knew what had happened and still chose to try and befriend you,” I said. “So, I guess I should have known that there was some baggage there. I shouldn’t be sitting here acting innocent and shocked that some of the fallout landed on me, you know? I’m frustrated and mad and empathetic and annoyed and tired.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“And I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry you’re still going through this. I’m sorry that anyone is still feeling hurt and betrayed and feels the need to keep picking at the scabs. But I can’t make myself get really mad about all of it, all things considered, and that just annoys me more.”

Theo laughed lowly with me.