Page 95 of Better Than Revenge

“Do you believe he invited Jensen’s girlfriend?” the phone operator asked with a laugh.

“He has balls,” someone else said.

“Jensen stole his spot, so now he’s going to steal his girlfriend?”

“It was the last game of the season; I wouldn’t really call that stealing.”

“Hey, Theo,” the phone operator called. “Would you call what Jensen did to you stealing?”

Theo looked over. It was hard to tell if he knew he was being recorded, but his hand rubbed over his knee. “The hit?” he asked.

“Yeah, you think he tackled you that hard after the play on purpose so he could kick in the playoff game?”

I could see Theo’s jaw working. “Yes,” he said.

“So now you’re going to get with his girlfriend?”

Theo’s eyes shot to somewhere past the camera, probably to where I was standing with my friends.

“You couldn’t steal his girlfriend,” someone else said. “I heard she’s sworn off football players now after the whole podcast thing.” I hadn’t sworn off anything at that point, but it didn’t surprise me that a rumor like that had been spread.

“Oh, please,” Theo said, “I could steal her with my hands tied behind my back and make her think it was her idea.”

I sucked in a gulp of air, my eyes immediately stinging.

They all laughed, and something must’ve hit the cell phoneor the person operating it because the video abruptly changed to a picture of the grass and then some jerky, blurry frames until the screen went black.

“Oh no,” Max whispered from beside me. “That’s not good.”

My heart felt like it was at my feet.

“I’m sorry,” Deja said, as if her showing me the video made this all her fault.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. I wanted to run away and not look back, forget everything that had happened over the last few weeks.

“What are you going to do?” Lee asked.

That’s when I saw Jensen walk into the courtyard, looking around. A slow fire started in my belly and burned up my chest.

The others must have seen him as well because Deja said, “Remember when he announced to the whole school that you would make a sucky podcast host?”

“Remember when he showed up at your house claiming it was because your grandma texted him?” Lee said.

“Remember when he said the podcast ideas you came up with for him were boring and basic?” Max said.

“Remember when the only podcast idea he came up with, the one he tried out with, wasyouridea?” Deja said.

I knew what they were doing. They were working me up. I was glad for it, but I didn’t need any reminders of how he’d screwed me over. “You think I’m going to give up?” I asked, realizing that’s exactly what they thought. Knowing that my past self probably would’ve in the face of this new hurdle. But I’d worked hard for this. And maybe I’d fail, but I wasn’t going to give up. I had to see this through.

“No, we…” Deja trailed off.

“Maybe?” Max said.

“Don’t worry, I’m still trying out.”

Theo came skidding into the courtyard, frantically looking around. Before he saw me, he and Jensen saw each other.

Jensen advanced on Theo like he was there to avenge me.