Wednesday, evening

     After school, and a decent conversation with Arun, Frey had told his father he was going over to Arun to study, and sleep there. His father—unaware of the fact he was lying—had agreed to it, glad Frey was getting out of the apartment again. Glad he was going out for something else than school.

He agreed to text his father in the morning to tell him he was heading to school so his father would be sure he went.

It wasn't to try and control Frey, but more to prevent him from making an even bigger mess of his life.

Frey had showered, and put on some decent, clean clothes, styled his hair and made sure he looked as handsome as possible.

He didn't feel attractive, but he knew that it was his depressed mind that made him insecure. He knew he was attractive, he just didn't feel it.

But he was feeling better today, and he had Arun and Vicky to thank for it. And maybe the fact he hadn't felt controlled by his mother in three days, now free to decide when to do his homework, when to do nothing important in particular, and when to go out.

In this case to meet an attractive looking girl that had flirted with him for three days straight. He couldn't deny he felt as if they had a click, but that was still not what he was looking for on Sparkl.

He grabbed his bike, leaving home in time since he didn't want his father to notice he wasn't taking his school bag with him, and because he didn't want to have to hurry and become all sweaty because of it.

So, he arrived in the bar about five minutes early, checking to see if Vicky was already there.

She wasn't, and he took a seat in a booth in the back of the bar, like she had suggested. It would give them a bit more privacy while getting to know each other.

He actually started feeling nervous, and he didn't exactly know why he was. He never got nervous on dates. He wouldn't exactly call it a date, more than he would call it picking up a stranger in a bar.

It was kind of the same to him.

He ordered a beer for the wait and played a game on his phone in the mean time.

He observed the surrounding people, finding most of them to be older people just hanging out after work, sitting at tables, standing spread around the room, laughing, talking, a little too loudly to Frey.

He didn't like overly crowded places when he was having a shitty mood. He hated the noise, he hated the fact people could see him.

Especially since he was still seated on his own 10 minutes after he arrived.

It wasn't like he expected her to be there exactly in time—she wouldn't be the first to arrive a bit late—but he did feel uncomfortable. As if everyone inside the bar was judging him for being on his own, sipping from a beer in silence.

He even contemplated on leaving when he started to feel a bit restless. Why did he accept meeting her here? Why didn't he suggest meeting at the club, where Frey knew he could always go on and drink—for free—or hide in the back until she finally arrived.

He had accepted it even though he normally liked to set the time and place, and due to his shitty mood, this wasn't a success at all.

On the contrary, Frey felt a bit panicky when, at a quarter past ten, the door opened, and a loud group of men came in, laughing and cheering over something. They looked like they just came from some sorts of game and their team had won.

Still, Vicky wasn't there, and since he was growing more anxious of his surroundings, he decided to check in with her, opening Sparkl to send her a message.

The account, however, didn't exist any longer. He got an error when he went to her profile, and the chat told him her account did no longer exist.

Vicky wasn't going to show up. She deleted her entire account, and she stood him up.

He wanted to leave, but his body had started to shake, and tears were threatening to escape. He already felt on the edge of a break down, and this wasn't helping him at all.

But he had it coming, right? It was only a matter of time before people would try to get back at him. He just wondered who was behind it. It couldn't be Michelle, she was way too sweet. Besides, she knew how bad he felt because he had spilled some of it when he was drunk.

And he hadn't hit on anyone else after her, so he was kind of at a loss about who this could have been.

It didn't even matter, because thinking about all the shitty things he did in the past months, didn't help to settle his anxiety, or stop him from shaking. It didn't calm his breath down, it didn't stop his eyes from watering.

Frey needed everything to stop right than. He needed everyone to leave him the hell alone and let him be. But the voices around him only sounded louder, more aggressive, scaring him even though nobody was there to talk to him.

He was about to shakily push himself up from his seat, when someone slipped on the seat opposite from him.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, practise ran late."

He knew that voice, and he turned his head, staring at Jenna in disbelief. She was trying to catch her breath, chuckling awkwardly with a hand on her chest, waving a hand in her face.

"God, I must look like a mess... I hurried to get here as soon as possible."

"Wh-what?" Frey stuttered, sinking back in his seat, surprised, confused. What was Jenna doing here? "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass." She leaned forwards. "Just play along, okay?"

"I—" Frey wanted to protest, but he also realised she pulled him out of his anxiety in seconds, just by surprising him that much. "I don't understand."

"They... we... wanted to humiliate you, for treating people like shit." Jenna hurriedly explained, stopping as a waitress stopped by their table. She ordered a glass of wine and smiled happily, before turning back to Frey. "Not that I agree with the way you treat girls... but I spoke to Julia. I... get it, okay?"

"Get what?"

"It doesn't matter right now..."

"What did Julia tell you?"

Jenna bit her lip, shortly looking in a certain direction, and Frey followed her eyes to find Lacy with an annoyed look on her face, Samuel and Jordy—looking shocked—and Julia, confused. "Can we just pretend this is a date, so Samuel won't have anything to make fun of?"

"I'm still confused..."

Jenna chuckled. "I'll explain later, let's just have a fun night. And not like you expected. I'm not going to take you home."

"I didn't expect you to." Frey chuckled too, feeling somewhat relieved, but thankful for her to be willing to sit here with him, while Samuel was obviously pissed because she did.

He didn't quite understand what was going on yet, but a fun night sounded good to him. Even if it meant no sex, no getting drunk.

     Even though Frey initially didn't really like Jenna—maybe he was biased—she appeared to be great company.

She appeared to be a reputation-saver too. Thanks to her, Frey wasn't completely on his own.

They talked about little nothings, and he learned that Jenna was a student at Durant High School, and they spoke about his brothers probably going there next schoolyear too.

She explained a bit about the school, how the classes were small and there were a lot of free hours to work on whatever you wanted to work, enabling each student to develop their own talents.

Frey figured it would be the right place for his brothers, and Jenna even offered to come over some day to talk to Victor—who rather wanted to go to South Haven High like Frey and Julia.

They agreed it would be best for Victor to hear about the school from one of its own students, but Frey held of on actually setting a day and time, since he had no idea when he himself was able to see his siblings, let alone take an almost complete stranger home to talk to one of them.

He didn't even know if his mother would allow him to have contact with them whenever they weren't with their father.

But Frey didn't spill those things to Jenna. Those things were none of her business, even though she seemed to know a little more about his housing situation than she let him believe she did, and Frey suspected Julia to be the one that might have told her more.

Jenna refused to explain anything about the set-up with Vicky that night, but promised him to tell him more another time.

And way past midnight, they were still seated at the bar, Samuel, Jordi, Lacy and Julia had all long left by then, and they were still not done talking.

It was as if they had been friends for years, and they were simply catching up.

It was weird, but Frey felt comfortable around Jenna, who didn't seem to judge him any longer.

He knew she had judged him before tonight, but she seemed to turn around and warm up to the idea of him, and that made him feel a bit better about himself.

That was until Jenna decided to ask more personal questions, and things became awkward.

"Why do you do it?" Jenna casually slipped the question after both of their glasses had been refilled.

Frey had switched to wine since Jenna insisted he needed to taste, and even implied it was more sophisticated for a man to drink wine when he was out on a date with a girl.

It showed class, according to Jenna. But since she had a sort of daring smirk on her face when she said so, Frey wasn't exactly sure she was serious, or just messing with him.

He liked the wine anyway, so he stuck to it.

"Do what?"

"Use girls the way you do?" Jenna looked at him, but Frey was staring at his glass, not willing to make eye-contact.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes. Because a lot of people think you're a complete asshole because of it and I can't figure out why you would want that kind of reputation."

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because I'm attending Durant. I'm one of those annoying people who wants to know and understand everything." Jenna chuckled, and it made Frey smirk. He liked her giggles, her laughs. He even thought it was cute when she snorted.

What the hell was wrong with him?

"So?" Jenna pressed, nudging him since she took a seat beside him a while ago. "Why?"

"Because..." Frey lolled his head, not really knowing what to answer. "I don't know. I just..." Was it okay to tell Jenna something personal? Could he tell her he just had episodes in which he went on and on and on for weeks, taking risks, not giving a fuck about anything or anyone.

He was still sceptic about her presence, and he still thought she was possibly just hearing him out to get something to screw him over with.

So, Frey shrugged. "It's fun."

"No, it's not." Jenna rolled her eyes and laughed. "It's not fun to them, and not to you either. Have you ever had a serious relationship?"

"No." Frey pulled up his nose at the thought. Not because he didn't want a relationship. He just didn't want to bother anyone with his bad moods. And being in a relationship with him, would mean he would bother the other with it.

"Okay, we'll drop the subject. I know I won't be able to talk you out of your habits. We just met."

Frey laughed along with her and they both sipped from their wine with smiles on their faces.

"One last question, and then I'm actually going to go home." Jenna announced. "My mom's going to kill me for staying out on a school day this late."

"Same." Frey chuckled, realising he needed to go him if he didn't want to spend a night out on the streets. "Dad thought I was going to stay over at Arun's place. Guess I'll have to go home anyway."

"Sucks." Jenna chuckled, since she really didn't seem to feel sorry for him, and he couldn't help but laugh because she had no reason to either.

"So, what's the question?"

"What's the story behind you and Mitchel? Danny said Mitchel asked you out, and the next thing that happened was you ruining Danny's pretty face."

"Oh... ehm. Mitchel suggested some disgusting things, and said Daniel was the one who told him I would be into it."

"Danny would never do that. First of all, he likes you more than he is willing to admit. Second of all, everyone—even you—deserves better than Mitchel,"

"Agreed."

"and thirdly, why do you keep exclaiming gay things are disgusting? It really hurts Danny."

"What?" Frey choked on a sip of wine, and coughed for a while, until he recovered enough to set things straight. "I'm not disgusted by gay people, Jenna. I'm disgusted by Mitchel because he treated Daniel like shit and I care about Daniel."

"You guys seriously need to talk, because that fight you have going on? It's based on a lot of misunderstanding." Jenna placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to tell Danny the same, but you both are idiots. And don't tell Danny I said this, but he likes you. Don't mess with his feelings, okay? He has a hard-enough life as it is already, without unrequited love added to the mix."

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