Broken Trust & Broken Rules

trust: [truhst]; noun; reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.

    "So what should we do tonight?"

    Ethan shrugged, continuing to scroll through his phone as Scarlet played with his hair from the bed above him; he preferred to sit on her floor when he was over.

    "I don't care what we do. It's up to you, Princess."

    "Ugh, I hate when you pull that." She groaned, "I just want you to pick what we do for once." She reached down and plucked Ethan's phone out of his hand, turning it off and throwing it backwards so that it landed on her pillowcase. "Can you please think of something?"

    Ethan rolled his eyes good-naturedly and turned around, taking Scarlet's hands in his.

    "Let's see. We can watch a movie or a TV show, or we can play board games, or we could stop pretending that we're going to do anything tonight other than make out." He grinned and stood up, hopping on Scarlet's bed and pulling her towards him. "What do you think?"

    "I like the last one." Scarlet smiled slyly, "You know me very well Mr. Meek."

    "I'd like to think so." He kissed her, ignoring the voices in his head that just wanted to know what his phone said.

    He had been having a conversation with Nova.

    When his phone buzzed, Scarlet's head was directly next to it--something Ethan had prayed wouldn't happen.

    She broke away from him and turned to look at who had texted, and her expression immediately shifted.

    "Nova?" She exclaimed, pushing Ethan off of her and grabbing the phone before her boyfriend had the chance to, "You were texting Nova this whole night?"

    "It was just musical stuff." Ethan lied. He wasn't sure exactly why he was lying, since Scarlet was already scrolling through his phone and looking at all the messages.

    "How much do you text this girl?" she gasped, her thumb still scrolling quickly. "And you were not talking about the musical. You texted her 'hey, what's going on?' five minutes after you got to my house!" She turned to glare at Ethan, "Am I that boring that you have to start texting your side hoe the second you get to my house?"

    "You're not boring." Ethan promised. "I'm just friends with Nova. I'm sorry that she happens to be a girl."

    "It's not that she 'happens to be a girl', Ethan. You know that! I don't care about the cheerleaders that hang on your every word, I don't care about the freshmen who drool over you in the hallway, I don't even care about the teachers who would get with you if it didn't mean losing their jobs. I don't care about any of that. I care about this girl that you kiss for a musical eighteen times a week. Do you even understand how that makes me feel?"

    "I don't." Ethan acknowledged, shaking his head. "I don't know how that makes you feel, Scarlet. But I do know that the way you're talking makes me feel like you don't trust me, and that hurts."

    "Don't turn this around on me." Scarlet snapped. "I have every right to not trust you. You haven't acted like this in the entire two and a half years of our relationship, and then Nova comes along. You miss my calls, you don't respond to texts for hours, and when we're together you either want to make out or get out. There's nothing real here anymore."

    "Nothing real? Is that how you feel about me?"

    "You know what, I can't deal with this right now. Get out." Scarlet shook her head, handing Ethan back his phone. "Get out of my house."

    Ethan obeyed, leaving her room and walking out the front door. That had been the most mature he had ever seen Scarlet; there had been minimal yelling, just quiet disappointment.

    That's what scared him the most.

<><><>

    "Class, today's debate is on another relationship issue, since you're all in high school and probably dealing with this crap. So, amongst yourselves, debate the qualifications that go into 'leading someone on', whether in a romantic or platonic way. Go."

    Mr. Hunter's attempts at teaching had become pathetic, and Nova was hardly surprised that they would be doing another debate about something that had no meaning when it came to English. She was pretty sure that Mr. Hunter figured that as long as he held the students' interests, they wouldn't tell the principal that he hadn't taught a real lesson since October.

    "I'll start."

    Nova had been hoping that he wouldn't be the first to speak, and yet Ryan Fowler was clearly in the mood to be petty.

    "Go ahead, Mr. Fowler."

    "I think that leading someone on would be a result of a person--actually, for the sake of my argument, the one leading someone on is a girl. I think it would be the result of a girl accepting multiple invitations to go on dates with a guy, to fancy restaurants and big-ticket movies and things like that. The girl goes on these dates, has a great time, but deep down, she knows she doesn't like the guy. But instead of telling the guy how she feels, she continues to go on dates with him for an extended period of time...let's say two whole months. There's something wrong with that. And then to seal the deal, she only ends up revealing her dislike for him when he tries to make things official and ask her to be his girlfriend." Ryan sat back in his seat, smirking at Nova. "I think that qualifies as leading someone on."

    The class was silent for a moment. Until Nova broke it.

    She wasn't someone who usually spoke up in class, but the entire room was staring at her after Ryan's speech. Everyone knew she had been dating him for a little while before things stopped suddenly. Everyone knew who he was not-so-subtly talking about.

    "I don't think that qualifies as leading someone on." She began.

    "And why not?" Ryan jabbed.

    "Let me finish, please." Nova responded politely, albeit through gritted teeth. "I don't think that qualifies as leading someone on because the girl could easily think she has feelings for that guy, but when he tried to make things official, she realized she didn't feel that way and was trying to keep herself from hurting the guy further."

    "She could have said no to the dates in the first place."

    "Not if she didn't know whether or not she liked him."

    "How could she not know?"

    "Not everything is black and white, Ryan!"

    "Yeah, the gray area comes when you try and go after a guy with a girlfriend."

    "Don't you dare--"

    "Why not?" Ryan grinned, enjoying himself far too much. "Because he's in the room?"

    Nova felt her face turning a terrible shade of crimson as the anger built up inside of her. But Ryan wasn't relenting.

    "Come on, Nova. Why are you so worked up over this? Why are you--"

    "Why are you such a douchebag, Ryan?" She finally exploded, causing Mr. Hunter to look up from his laptop.

    "Wait, no name-calling, Miss Desai--"

    "Huh? Why do you insist on being such a royal pain to everyone you encounter? You act like you're so high and mighty, when in reality you're a drama geek and no one thinks anything more of you!" Nova yelled, ignoring her teacher.

    "At least I'm not trying to act like a saint when I'm one of the biggest whores in the school!" Ryan yelled back, standing up.

    "Whoa man, that was across the line." Ethan stood this time.

    "I can handle this, Ethan." Nova snapped.

    "I never said you couldn't."

    "Then sit down!" Nova screamed, tears starting to flow. "Both of you sit down and stop acting like you know anything about my life!"

    The room was silent as a tomb as the three of them stood, staring at each other in a deformed triangle around the room.

    "I'm going to dismiss class early." Mr. Hunter said quietly from behind his desk. "Please return next time with a more...forgiving attitude, you three."

    Nova grabbed her books and stormed out of the classroom, her eyes watering and her face red. She couldn't believe she had just freaked out like that. But she also couldn't believe that Ethan had stood up for her.

    Scarlet had been sitting right next to him.