Page 61 of Tutor With Benefits
“Did he?” Taylor asks.
“Oh yes,” she says. “He remembers that night. He told me that he felt so bad for that poor girl. But at the same time, it was one of the funniest things he has ever seen. He held it together enough to give her a compassionate look while she was there, but then he and his friends spent the rest of the night making fun of her.”
“Oh shit!” I say. “He told you that?”
“What an asshole,” Taylor says. “I hope you let him know it was you.”
“I told him it was,” Tori says. “I’m like, wow. I mean, I get it was funny that it happened, but I didn’t know it was that funny, and the way you looked at me made me think that you really did feel sorry for me. And he was like, ‘There’s no way that was you! If it was, I would have been the first person to get up and help you with that.’”
“He’s fucking stupid,” I say. “I hope you made it clear to him that it was you, and he should have done that anyway.”
“We got into a bit of an argument over it. He insists it wasn’t me, but I don’t know what else to tell him. It’s not like I would make it up and tell the world that it was me when it wasn’t. I mean, come on, who would do that? And shit, why would he have to have someone be attractive before he would get up and help them? We made eye contact that day, and he just gave me a look and that was it,” she sobs.
The three of us exchange a look, and with tears running down her face, Tori looks up at us.
“What?” she asks.
Taylor clears his throat, and Cory looks down at his shoes. None of us want to come clean about the fact we also laughed at her, but we don’t feel right keeping it from her with how upset she is about the way Johnny behaved.
I can see it in their faces, and clearly I’m the one who has to say something.
“Look, we were there, too, and we laughed, but you know, being around you has really changed us,” I tell her.
“Great. I’m sure the whole fucking school was there laughing,” Tori says with a sniffle and a slight scoff, but Taylor stops her.
“No, what Zach’s trying to say is that we’re sorry. We did laugh, but we aren’t that way anymore. We can’t really sit here and judge Johnny for what he did when we did the same thing. But now I think it’s pretty obvious to all three of us that any one of us would jump up and give a hand to anyone we saw fall flat on their face like that.”
“Exactly” Cory chimes in. “That was shitty of us, and to be honest, we were all pretty shitty not all that long ago, but there is something about spending time with you that has really brought out a different side of us, and I think we are all genuinely different.”
“Exactly,” I say. “Like, don’t get me wrong, there are still things that are funny, but we were real assholes that day, and we are all very sorry for not getting up to help you. And for being an asshole about it.”
‘Well, that was right after I said I wouldn’t help you, so I guess you could say it was karma,” Tori says.
“It doesn’t matter,” Taylor replies. “You didn’t deserve that, and if we could go back in time, you better believe we would do things differently. There’s no way I would just sit and make fun of you or anyone else after what we know now.”
“After what we have become now,” Cory corrects him. “You’ve had a real impact on us, Tori, and that’s definitely for the better. I don’t know how else to put it but you have really changed these three assholes into being less asshole, you know?”
“I just wish I had that same sort of effect on Johnny. Maybe it would make more sense to me how I feel,” Tori says.
“You are way better off without him,” I say. “What an asshole. Clearly, he’s the kind of guy who only cares about a girl when she’s hot. I mean, how shallow can you be?”
“It’s not just that,” she says. “But like, I don’t feel like I really changed my appearance that much. My hair has always been close to this length. All I’ve really done is put on a bit of makeup and style it differently along with being a bit more confident. I don’t see how that little change is enough to make him think that I’m an entirely different person.”
“Again, fuck him and fuck that,” I say. “You didn’t have to change a thing for us to have sex with you. Remember that?”
“I know. I told him I think we need to take a bit of a break and figure some things out. I don’t know if I’m stupid or being dramatic for doing that, but you know, I just didn’t know what else to say,” she replies. There are fresh tears running down her cheeks.
“You should have said you had three guys all over you at the same time and this was after they spent all kinds of time getting to know you for who you are without your makeover,” Taylor tells her.
“I mean, you were sort of inclined to with a contract,” she says with a giggle.
“But still!” I tell her, and the other two join in. “We knew who you were long before you were part of that contract with us. We sought you out for help before we were in that situation, too, I might add. I don’t know about you, but if I were you in this situation, I would seriously wonder what I was doing with someone who didn’t even see me when I was right next to him for months. Like, shit, does that mean when you get up in the morning and don’t have your makeup on or something he’s not going to know it’s you?”
She laughs again at this. “Right? I mean, I guess I can give him the fantasy of being with more than one girl that way. There’s the hot me and the ugly me.”
We all laugh with her on this one, and I hope it’s working to get her to see that he’s not the person she wants to be with.
“You’re never ugly,” Cory says. “In fact, I think it’s a privilege that we get to see you without your makeup on now that you make a point of doing it before you go to school. It’s almost like we get to see the real you that’s not wearing a special face for the rest of the world.”