AITA for telling my friend she’s being cheated on? #2
Becca was pretty, a petite brunette with her hair in a long frame, and an upturned nose. I didn’t get why anyone would cheat on her. A pretty girl who was sweet natured and smart? Like, was Kenneth dropped multiple times as a child? No other way to explain his stupidity.
Dropping into the chair across from hers, I leaned across the table. “Becca.”
Becca paused in pulling her notebook for the class out, eyeing me warily. “That’s not a good face, Abby. What’s up?”
“Listen, I am so sorry to drop this bombshell on you, but I literally just put the pieces together. Kenneth is cheating on you.”
I expected anger, and her heart breaking, but instead she stared at me for a long second and the first emotion that raced through her was the dark teal of sad acknowledgement.
A confirmation of a suspicion. Then the tears welled in her eyes and I could see the hurt, the betrayal, anchor near her heart chakra.
Skylar reached out, taking her hand, and sympathy laced her voice as she spoke. “You knew.”
“I suspected,” Becca whispered. “He was supposed to pick me up Friday for a date but cancelled last second. And he’s been weird since, not responding to texts, telling me I was overreacting.”
Classic gaslighting, in other words. Wow.
“Abby, I almost asked you to confirm it for me but felt like I shouldn’t.”
“No, please ask.” I felt bad for her all over again. “I’m happy to confirm that shit, I hate cheaters. I’m so, so sorry, Becca. You absolutely do not deserve this. Please break up with him.”
“I am. Thank you for telling me.” She sniffled, using the heel of her hand to wipe away tears.
Mr. Hendrix kept two tissue boxes in the classroom, along the back windowsill. Skylar popped up to grab tissues from the nearby box. Becca took them with thanks, blowing her nose, but then she just looked lost.
I chose to share the rest. She needed some righteous anger. “Becca, it gets worse. He was fucking Emily, and she’s now pregnant. It was more than over the weekend, too, as Emily’s a good month along.”
There it was, watermelon red indignation, hot red anger rising like a volcano preparing to blow. “He did what?!”
“Yeah. I avoid Emily as much as possible, so I didn’t see it before today.” I felt bad, like I should have been paying attention. To safeguard a friend, if nothing else. “But she’s at least four weeks along, maybe five. Kenneth is absolutely the father, there’s no question there.”
She stared at the table for a long second, processing, and I could see her lines go haywire. Grief mixing with betrayal, anger slamming into regret, tears transforming into rage.
Uh oh. She was about to blow.
“That fucking bastard,” Becca breathed. She shot out of her chair, racing out the door.
Where was she going…? Wait, she wasn’t going to confront him right now, was she?
Skylar watched her go too and then jumped up, realization dawning over her face. “Wait, isn’t Kenneth in the class next door to us this period?”
“Is he?”
Either way, I didn’t think it a good idea to leave Becca alone to deal with them.
I hustled after Becca, could hear Skylar on my heels, and the second I breached the hallway, I realized my girlfriend was right—Kenneth apparently had a class near us this period.
He had one foot through the door of a classroom, but had half-turned to look at Becca.
Becca stood with hands in fists at her side, vibrating with the need to punch him, and she screamed, “You fucking cheater! We’re done!”
“Oooh, bitch,” Skylar murmured.
Everyone in the hallway abruptly stopped as well. Humans as a whole adored drama, and live action in-person drama? Chef’s kiss. That was the feeling running rampant through all of them.
Kenneth’s first reaction was a very classic oh shit she knows, but on the outside, he was trying to play it cool. He looked annoyed, even though there was a nervous tic near his eye he couldn’t quite lock down. “Becca, stop being such a drama queen—”
“She’s four weeks pregnant, by the way,” Becca snapped at him. “So you better get ready to pay child support, dumbass.”
Oh, that got him. Go Becca! Look at her, charging in, taking no prisoners. I seriously had to become better friends with her, she truly kicks ass.
I decided she needed backup and joined her. “Don’t try to lie, Kenneth. You can’t lie to me, I can See it all.”
Now he was nervous. Like, the last slice of pizza at a weed convention kind of nervous.
Jon’s told me often that for some reason, when a person got cornered, their first instinct was to lie, bluff, try to make the other person out to be the unreliable narrator. It had never made sense to me why, but Jon was once again proven correct as Kenneth opened his fat, lying mouth.
“No one actually believes you’re a psychic! You can’t see shit, stop pretending—”
I just arched a brow and stared him down. “Emily.”
He croaked to a stop and went deadpan white. Like, Dracula after a hundred year nap in a coffin kind of white.
The watching crowd went oooooh like this was some kind of competitive sport and I’d scored a major hit. I had, actually, he was internally panicking.
Just for his insult to me, I chose to really let him have it. “You shouldn’t be doing a friends with benefits at seventeen anyway, but dude, you really should have been using protection. Better go tell her that she’s pregnant, she’s only about five weeks along, so she might not know yet.”
I expected that to make him run off, panic, something.
Not what happened. He got mad.
“Bitch, shut up!”
Skylar clapped, mockingly. “What a big word for Elmo!”
Our audience laughed; even I snickered. Damn, I loved this girl. She really took no shit from anyone.
Kenneth tried to get into her face next. “You shut up too!”
“Hey, you’re the one cheating and creating sexually transmitted dependents. If you don’t want to be called out, maybe don’t, I dunno, be an asshole to begin with?”
Becca got a finger right into his face. “And don’t think I’ll take you back. That’s like taking a shit and cramming it back inside, I ain’t stupid enough to do it.”
Damn, really got to make better friends with this girl.
Having said her piece, Becca turned and stomped off. She was crying, and I saw her best friend rush in, grab her, and haul her off to the bathroom, probably. She was in good hands, I didn’t feel the urge to immediately follow her.
Skylar abruptly moved, I heard a meaty thunk, but fast as I snapped around, I almost didn’t clock it.
Kenneth had actually gone for me?! It looked that way, he had a fist made up, and his lines were throwing off hot red anger and a need for revenge like he was manning a Fourth of July fireworks display.
Skylar had intercepted him, deflected his first blow, and was now a solid defense in front of me.
“Try that again and I break the hand.” Skylar was livid. Wow, I’d never seen her this mad except maybe the time that stupid detective had tried to kill Jon. That was the only thing that really compared, which said something. How bad had Kenneth just tried to hurt me?!
Mr. Hall apparently got alerted by someone that something had gone down as he hustled toward us, beer gut swaying. “Whoa, whoa, what’s going on here?!”
Skylar pointed at him and demanded, “Lock his ass up. He just tried to hurt Abby!”
“I’m going to need more details than that,” Mr. Hall said patiently.
To my surprise, Jeffrey stepped forward. I didn’t know him super well, but I’d tutored him some through History as a favor because he’s a super nice guy. He’s built like a mountain, too—like, I’d suspect he was related to the Havilis if I didn’t know better.
“Sir, I saw the whole thing go down. Abby told Becca Kenneth was cheating on her, so she broke up with him on the spot, and Kenneth started going for Abby. Blaming her, basically, but he did just try to hurt Abby. I think he was going to grab her hair and then punch her, that’s what it looked like. ”
Oh. Yeah, that would explain why my girlfriend was planning out funeral arrangements.
Mr. Hall frowned at Kenneth. “I don’t like what I just heard.”
Kenneth, a boy who couldn’t seem to learn from his mistakes, flung a finger at me and yelled back, “She’s just some wanna be psychic! She doesn’t know shit and now she’s accusing me of cheating and knocking some bitch up, when I haven’t done anything!”
Now, that I wouldn’t let stand. Wannabe?
Oh, he shouldn’t have said that. “Yeah? Let’s do some show and tell, then.
Mr. Hall. You’re fifty-two, married for thirty years, four kids, native to Nashville with a brief stint overseas for four years—Europe?
—and a severe caffeine addiction that is screwing with your liver and kidneys. Was any part of that inaccurate?”
Mr. Hall looked at me gob smacked, like seriously, I think his jaw had skittered off under someone’s feet.
Then his eyes crinkled up, crows feet distinct, as he grinned at me.
“No, Abby, that was all accurate. I did do a stint of working overseas, Ireland, in fact. Damn, you really can see everything.”
“I can.” I didn’t always understand what I saw, but I’d get there. “He really is cheating on Becca. He really did get Emily pregnant.”
“Whoa, whoa, okay, this just got even more serious.” Mr. Hall frowned at Kenneth. “You, you’re coming with me to the principal. Abby, Skylar, come with me as well, I think this needs to be a parent conference. Which Emily?”
“Hanover,” I supplied.
“I’ll call her to meet us there.”
She’d be in for the shock of her life. I didn’t think it nice to drop the news of a pregnancy on someone while there was an audience, but I also felt like cheaters got whatever was coming for them, so…no regrets to be found here, folks.
Skylar whipped out phone and frantically started texting. Who, not sure, but at a guess likely Jon and Donovan. Maybe her parents.
I’d better text my dad, for that matter, to give him a heads-up. I didn’t think I was in trouble…? Still, better he know.