Page 48 of My Rules for Revenge (Twisted YA Mysteries #1)

EDDY

O ver the next couple of months, I was devastated and depressed as the school year was set to end. I was in love with Heather. I didn’t realize it until she refused to look me in the eye. She thought I was bad news, and I couldn’t exactly blame her for it. I broke her trust.

Once the basketball season was over, things went very sour. Since I didn’t have anything to distract myself with, I just thought about what I did over and over and over and over again. I replayed every moment where I screwed up.

My anger and resentment at Frankie, Porter, Marcus, and the other guys on the team began to rot inside me.

I replayed the moment in the locker room where they surrounded me and forced me to be quiet.

I imagined myself taking them all on and swinging in every direction.

I knew they’d beat me down easily, but at least I would’ve stood up for myself.

I had no one to talk to about this stuff, which was maddening. My relationship with my parents was strained enough. They were on the verge of divorcing, and I was afraid to find out the reasons why. I was already dealing with enough torment.

I wanted to talk to Heather, but obviously, that wasn’t an option. A chance encounter with the last person I expected to see outside a convenience store in Central Lake Plaza changed everything.

I walked there to buy a couple of snacks after school.

I was letting myself go during the offseason despite the pleas from my coach to stay in shape.

I didn’t care one bit. Once I walked out, I glanced up and saw Jacob.

He had just walked out of the nearby GameRocks store. He grinned and approached me.

“Eddy? I thought I recognized you,” Jacob remarked.

“Hey, man.”

“How have you been?”

“Eh, I’ve been alright. You? How’s the new school?” I asked.

“Well, it’s trashy and ghetto. It’s filled with roided-up morons and gangster wannabes. They’re very similar to the people that live in my neighborhood.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah, it’s splendid. Well, it was cool seeing you, bro. Take care of yourself, Eddy.”

As Jacob began to walk away, I had a strange compulsion to continue talking with him. Probably because I had no one else to talk to.

“Wait up.”

Jacob stopped and turned around. He looked surprised.

“What’s up?”

“Are you hungry, by chance? We can go to that Chinese place that’s right here. If you want, of course. It’s entirely your choice,” I offered.

“You know what? Fuck it. Let’s do it.”

As we went inside and ordered, we caught up. Admittedly, it was weird to think of Jacob as a friend when he was the guy who leaked Heather’s nudes. I wasn’t sure why I asked him to have lunch, but it was a difficult time in my life, and I needed to vent to anyone who was willing to listen.

“So, I was in the area because I needed to get some school records for college,” Jacob explained.

“Are you still going to Bright Rock?”

Jacob shifted uncomfortably and sighed.

“Honestly, bro. I have no idea. The admissions team is ghosting me. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Damn. That sucks.”

“Yeah, but guess what? I brought it on myself. You already know why,” Jacob pointed out.

“That situation with Heather and Indira seems so far away now. It’s crazy,” I remarked.

“It’s like a fever dream.”

“It’s like a nightmare for me,” I added.

“I feel you. I’ve had nightmares about what happened. For the record, I still think you’re a good guy,” Jacob commented.

“I don’t feel like one, but thanks.”

“Fucking Carlos, man. He’s the one who helped Indira do that. If it weren’t for him, it probably wouldn’t have happened,” Jacob said, with regret in his voice.

“Do you still talk to him?”

“No. We’re not friends anymore. Last I heard, he got kicked out of PC support, and he’s on academic probation. And so is Manny. They cracked down on them abusing admin privileges and other things,” Jacob explained.

“Damn,” I exclaimed.

“I’m truly sorry about them, especially Carlos,” Jacob said with a tinge of regret in his voice.

I slowly shook my head.

“Don’t be sorry. It was my fault anyway. Those pictures were on my phone, and I let my friends leak them. That’s what started this freaking mess,” I confessed.

“Your friends on the basketball team?” Jacob asked to clarify.

“Yep. I shouldn’t even call them that. What kind of friends would do that?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“I don’t know, man,” Jacob said and shook his head.

“I’ll tell you who, Frank Jackson, my supposed best friend. He’ll never admit it, though. I just know he’s the one who got my phone at that party.

“He has hundreds of nudes from all the girls he hooks up with. He’s a complete scumbag.

I know he’s the one who sent Indira’s pictures to Porter, Marcus, and the other guys.

I wanted to do something about it, you know, but when I tried to get the truth, they immediately shut me up.

Frank came up to my face, looked me straight in the eye, and told me that if I talked about it any further, there were going to be problems,” I explained.

“Dude?!” Jacob exclaimed.

“If I threatened them in any way, they would’ve killed me. I was forced to forget about it.”

Jacob raised his eyebrows and drummed his fingers on the table.

“Shit, Eddy. I didn’t know about all that stuff.”

“It’s whatever. It’s done already. I can’t do anything about it,” I mumbled. I felt useless.

As I thought about it more and more, my emotions that had been bottled up for months finally got to me. I slowly grasped the handle of the knife that was placed next to me and picked it up. I subtly pointed it towards my throat. Jacob noticed and cautiously raised his hands.

“Eddy, what are you doing?”

“My life is screwed up, Jacob.”

“Dude, chill.”

“I don’t know what else to do.”

I slowly raised the knife higher and higher until Jacob suddenly leaned over and grabbed my wrist, stopping me. I struggled against him to raise it higher while my eyes began to water. After an intense couple of minutes, I dropped it, and it clattered onto the table.

“I’m sorry—I’m really sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” I finally admitted.

“Jesus, man. Are you okay?”

“No. Everything’s wrong. I ruined everything, Jacob.

I betrayed Indira first and then Heather.

Even when I was trying to make things right with Heather, the thing with Indira snuck up on me.

I’m a complete mess. Now, they both hate my guts.

Why am I such a pussy? I’m a complete loser.

There’s no point. There’s no point to anything,” I declared.

“Hey, man, quit that talk. That’s not going to help you now. So, what? You ended up not being a perfect goody-two-shoes after all. You screwed up, big deal. Your life isn’t ruined. No one’s perfect. I’m obviously not. For what it’s worth, you’re a better man than me,” Jacob pointed out.

“I don’t know, Jacob. It’s hard to be positive right now.”

Jacob stared at his empty plate. He seemed to be in deep thought. After a couple of minutes, his head tilted up, and he looked me in the eye.

“The same place you’re at now, I was in as well. Guess who helped me out of it? You helped me, Eddy, when you didn’t have to. I’m willing to help you now. We will do what we have to, to make this right,” Jacob reassured me.

“How do I make this right?”

“I’m not sure. How do you want to make this right?

The way I see it, we can go one of two ways.

We can do it your way, the peaceful route, or…

we can do it differently. Don’t think that I’ve forgotten what you did for me.

You helped end the feud between Heather and me. I owe you,” Jacob said with gratitude.

That was all I needed to hear from Jacob. I felt a fire starting to burn in my very core. All I thought about was how my relationships with Heather and Indira had been destroyed because of Frank, my supposed best friend.

He was helping me get a D1 scholarship, but I didn’t care anymore. He ruined everything and faced zero consequences. Instead, I paid for it, Heather paid for it, and Indira paid for it. We all paid for it, except him.

After everything I went through, everything I had done to keep the peace… I knew I didn’t deserve this. This was a sudden, cruel twist of fate, and I didn’t accept it. I was prepared to do anything to redeem myself.

“You know what? I’m done being the good guy.

I want to expose Frank for everything he’s done.

I’m done protecting him and his secrets.

He’s a freaking pervert who treats girls like objects—he thinks he owns them.

I’m tired of pretending I don’t care about what he’s done.

I don’t care about the consequences anymore.

I have nothing to lose now. I don’t care about basketball right now. I want him to pay,” I declared.

Finally, I was standing up for myself, and it felt good.

“What do you want to do?”Jacob asked.

“Are you still friends with Manny?”

“I’ll text him. He’ll help,” Jacob assured me.

“This is against everything I believe in, but I want Frank’s dreams to be crushed, and I want his personal life in shambles.”

Jacob nodded.

“I will give you the tools you need to do this, but I can’t get directly involved. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this sort of thing anymore, but I’ll make sure it gets done.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it myself. I want to be the only one who’s involved. They’ll only know my name,” I promised.

“What’s the plan?” Jacob asked.

“I’m going to expose every single horrible thing he has ever done,” I remarked.

After we discussed things and left the restaurant, we exchanged numbers.

Once he left, I met up with the guys from the basketball team.

They wanted to get me to play pick-up basketball at the gym.

I almost ignored their texts, but I decided that I needed to pretend to be their friend for the time being.

They couldn’t get a single whiff of what I was about to do.

When Porter’s SUV pulled up, I heard rap music blasting from his speakers.

He was driving while Frank sat in the passenger seat next to him, and Marcus was in the back seat.

When I entered, I sat behind Porter in the backseat.

They were all happily dancing and bouncing around in the car.

It made me sick to my stomach. I took one long, hard stare at Frank until he noticed me.

Soon enough, he glanced in my direction and turned his head around. He gave me a quick head nod.

“What’s up, Eddy? You look depressed. Are you good? Do you want a little weed? Bro, don’t tell me you’re still mad about that thing with Heather and that other Indy chick. Forget about them—they’re history. Plenty of other fish in the sea, bro,” Frank chuckled.

“There’s not much left. You impregnated fifty percent of the female population in Brightwood,” Porter pointed out.

They all laughed.

“Yeah. I’m good,” I smirked.

“Cool. We’re about to show these clowns who go to Pinecrest who’s boss.”

Once he turned back around, I frowned and looked outside the window. That was the moment when I decided that we were no longer friends.

He had no idea of the storm coming his way.

END OF BOOK 1