Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 34
I always ended up staying late in my last class of the day. While I’d made good progress in math and English, my progress in history class was slower. I’d talked to Coach Wilson about wanting to get ready to be able to go to AP history classes next year or the year after, and he’d kind of blown me off.
The whole class was football players and cheerleaders, and Coach didn’t really understand my wanting to push for better classes. Not that he stopped me, but each time I asked for more homework, it was a long process. The AP classes were taught by the government and economics teacher, not the coach, and so I was pretty sure that half the time he put me off was so he could get the assignments I was asking for from her, or having her look through the assignments I turned in.
I’d asked last semester about just going to her directly, but he said she had her own classes to deal with and he didn’t want to unleash me on her.
So once or twice a week, I had to wait while he went to ‘find the answer,’ which meant I had to run to practice. Not great, but it was what it was.
By the time I headed down the athletics hallway toward the field house, most students were either on their buses or out in the parking lot, which at least made it easier to hurry.
I turned the corner and was surprised to see Melanie sitting on the floor beneath the trophy case, her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. Her blonde hair fell like a curtain around her face, but I could see that her shoulders shaking. She was crying.
I sighed and stopped.
The last thing I wanted to do was get caught up in more Melanie drama. She’d made her decisions and I didn’t want any part of whatever this was.
I took a step backward and had just turned around when she said, “Blake.”
I stopped, although a part of me wanted to just ignore her and keep walking. But I wasn’t completely heartless.
Annoyed. But not heartless.
“What do you want, Melanie?” I asked, turning to face her but not moving from the spot where I was.
“What do I want?” She let out a bitter laugh that sounded more like a sob. “I want my life back. I want to not be treated like I have some kind of disease every time I walk into a room.”
She stood up and started walking toward me. I fought the urge to back up.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me? Do you have any clue what my life has been like since you decided to ruin everything?”
“I haven’t...”
“Don’t you dare try to deny it. None of my friends will even look at me anymore. Sarah won’t sit with me at lunch. Emily acts like I don’t exist when we pass in the hallway. And the others whisper about me constantly.”
She was standing right in front of me now, close enough that I could see the red rimming her green eyes.
“I’ve probably lost any chance of making varsity cheer next year because of what you did to me. Coach Martinez looks at me now like I’m some kind of disappointment. Like I let the whole team down.”
“Melanie...”
“Are you happy now? Is this what you wanted? To completely destroy everything for me? Because congratulations, Blake. You got exactly what you were going for.”
She was unbelievable. Just seemed incapable of taking responsibility for anything in her entire life. Everything was someone else’s fault.
“How is any of this my fault?”
“How is it your...”
“No, seriously. Explain it to me. Because I’m having a hard time figuring out how I could be responsible for ruining your life when I haven’t said a single word to anyone about what happened between us beyond the basic fact that we’re not dating anymore.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but I wasn’t finished. She’d had her moment, now I was going to have mine.
“You want to know what I’ve told people when they ask why we broke up? I tell them it didn’t work out. That’s it. No details, no drama, no finger-pointing. Meanwhile, you’ve been spreading rumors about me all over school.”
“I have not...”
“Really? Because I’ve heard some pretty interesting stories lately. Let’s see...” I held up my hand and started counting on my fingers. “According to the rumor mill, I’m apparently gay. That’s a fun one. Oh, and I also supposedly took advantage of you when you were drunk.”
Her face went pale, but I kept going.
“And then there’s my personal favorite, the one where I deliberately sabotaged my own teammates by keeping them from getting invited to Kenneth’s party. Because that makes perfect sense, right? I definitely had the power to control Kenneth’s guest list.”
“Those aren’t ... I never said...”
“Cut the crap, Melanie. You haven’t been subtle about it. Did you think no one would tell me what you said? The only real question is whether you actually think everyone else is stupid enough to believe you.”
She took a step back, her face flushing red. “People are talking because...”
“People are talking because you gave them something to talk about. And not just the cheating either. It’s the lies you’ve been telling afterward that have everyone looking at you sideways.”
I shook my head, genuinely amazed at how she could stand there and act like she was the victim in all this.
“Do you honestly think people can’t see the contradictions in your stories? You’re telling some people I’m gay while telling others that I sexually assaulted you. How exactly does that work in your head? Did you think everyone was too stupid to notice that those two things can’t both be true at the same time?”
Her mouth opened and closed without any sound coming out.
“And the party thing? Everyone knows Kenneth makes his own decisions about who gets invited to his house. But somehow you’ve convinced yourself that I had enough influence over him to control his guest list while simultaneously being so irrelevant that he’d hook up with my girlfriend right in front of everyone.”
I could see the tears starting again, but I wasn’t about to stop now.
“The problem isn’t that people believe your lies, Melanie. The problem is that your lies are so obviously desperate and contradictory that they’re making you look pathetic. People can see right through your manipulation attempts, and that’s the real reason nobody wants to be around you anymore.”
“That’s not ... this isn’t fair.”
“It’s completely fair.”
“No, it’s not. I don’t deserve to be treated like this. I made one mistake.”
“One mistake?” I couldn’t help laughing at that. “Is that really how you’re going to frame this? As one little mistake?”
“My sister...”
“Is nothing. Your family problems don’t excuse spreading lies about me after I broke up with you for cheating on me. This has nothing to do with Donna or your grandmother or any of the other stuff you’re dealing with. This is just you being vindictive because you got caught.”
“I wasn’t trying to be vindictive.”
“Then what were you trying to be? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you keep trying to use your trauma as a shield to avoid taking responsibility for your bad choices.”
She wiped her nose with her sleeve, leaving a damp streak on the fabric.
“It’s not that simple.”
“It really is, though. You keep looking for excuses instead of just admitting that you messed up. And that’s your real problem, Melanie. You’d rather use schemes and manipulation to get what you want instead of putting in actual hard work to earn it.”
“That’s not true. I do work hard at things.”
I almost laughed out loud at that.
“Really? Because I’ve been to your cheer practices. I’ve seen your definition of hard work.”
“I practice just as much as everyone else.”
“No, you don’t. You spend half of every practice gossiping with whoever will listen instead of actually working on your routines.”
She didn’t have an answer for that.
“This whole thing with Kenneth is the perfect example of how your mind works. What exactly did you think was going to happen when you slept with him?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure you do. Did you honestly believe that hooking up with him would somehow make Tammy lose all her social standing so you could just step in and take her place? Did you think Kenneth was going to dump his girlfriend of two years for a freshman?”
She was staring at the floor now, unable to meet my eyes.
“Either you didn’t think through your actions at all, or you didn’t care about the obvious fallout because anyone with half a brain could have predicted that Tammy would find out and make your life miserable. Did you really think she was just going to roll over and let you steal her boyfriend?”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”