Page 176 of Dear Love, I Hate You (Easton High)

“Remember what I said to you on senior prank night?”

His question sears the memories into my brain. We were stuck in the Chem lab together at 3:00 a.m. I told him I hated him, and Xav argued girls only said “I hate you” to the guys they liked.

“So, what? I hate you means I love you now, is that it?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“So, according to your theory, I just told you I loved you?”

“Sure did. You see, whenever you tell me I hate you from now on, it’ll mean the opposite.”

Holy shit.

Of course.

How could I miss this?

“Still doesn’t explain why you did it,” I accuse.

“I didn’t know what else to fucking do, Vee, I… Brie was watching my every move. It was the only way I could think of to get you the message.”

“Brie?” I arch an eyebrow. “What the fuck does she have to do with anything?”

Realization sucks me into a vortex of shock.

I gasp. “Oh my God… is she—”

“Admin of the Facebook group? That she is.” Xav nods.

The bombshell shakes me to my core.

“She’s also the one who released the confessions. Bitch has been following us around for a while now,” Xavier adds.

“So, you’re saying Brie forced you to do all this shit? Rejecting me? Treating me like I meant nothing?” I spit.

Guilt obscures his features. “I’m so fucking sorry, Vee.”

It sounds so good coming from him, so simple.

It’d be so easy to pin the blame on his crazy cheerleader ex, but he lost my trust. And he’ll need a lot more than pretty blue eyes and botched apologies to win it back.

I wince. “I want to believe you, Xav, I do, but…”

“But you don’t.” He zooms in on the tiled floor.

A beat of silence.

His heard jerks up. “Fine, then believe this.”

Xavier meets me by the front door, unlocking his phone and scrolling through his camera roll. He flips the screen around to give me a good look and presses Play on a video. The footage shows Xavier sneaking to aisle six before pulling the poetry book off the shelf. The video was shot in between bookshelves so he wouldn’t notice. He scans his surroundings.

Then he slips a confession inside the book.

Crap.

Talk about damning.

“Brie sent me this the day after we went to the springs,” Xav continues. “Girl’s never been rejected in her life, and she didn’t take it well. She promised she wouldn’t rat me out as long as I remained her little bitch. Her only conditions were that I stay away from you and get back with her. She’s been acting like a delusional psycho. It’s like she thinks we’re really together or some shit.”