Chapter Two

ERIN

"I never liked him, just so you know." Erin shook her head as she sat on the beanbag in her older sister's room, trying to remember when she and Braxton had decided to get Starbucks with Daniel. "He always rubbed me the wrong way."

Cory rolled her eyes.

"Erin, I haven't dumped him yet. I want to be sure that this girl is telling the truth first."

"Want me to figure it out?" Erin asked, shrugging slightly, figuring going to coffee with two of her best friends—one of which she was slightly crushing on—wasn't the worst idea. "I can have results to you by tomorrow afternoon. 24 hours."

Cory laughed slightly, shaking her head.

"Alright. Find out what you can, please. But don't be obvious, Erin. I swear, he cannot know thay I don't trust him. Just in case...the girl's lying or something."

"Believe women, Cory."

"That is not about this."

"Yeah, you're right. It was just the first thing that came to my head."

"It's also your Instagram bio."

"Yeah, I know." Erin replied, standing up slowly and groaning as she did so; she hated moving. "So maybe that's why I thought of it."

She walked out of Cory's room, armed with a screenshot of that girl's text to Cory on her phone and a determination to prove that Houston was a good-for-nothing toolbox who would never step foot in their house again. She had kind of been waiting for this opportunity, since she felt a little weird about finding her sister's boyfriend attractive in the slightest.

But then again, he had been growing his hair out for the past few months and was starting to look like a homeless mountain man.

So she texted Houston.

It was the first thing she could think of, which also meant she was going to have to figure out some stupid surprise birthday present for her sister that she could include Houston in.

***

"Hey, Houston! What's up?"

Houston Collet was hands-down one of the most attractive people in the senior class at Yorktown High School, and yet no one seemed to be batting an eye at the fact that he was out with someone who was not his girlfriend, which Erin immediately took a mental note of as she sat down. She knew the guy well enough at this point to know exactly what he would do when he sat down: pull his phone out of his pocket and set it face-up on the table in front of him.

"Not much." He laughed slightly, "So what's this surprise birthday present for Cory?"

Erin felt her eyes widen slightly—she had spent the entire ride over trying to come with something and had still fallen flat.

"Well, it's, uh—"

"Erin Hall?"

"Can you grab that for me?" Erin asked, sighing loudly and shaking her head, her body breathing a faint sigh of relief at the fact that her order had been ready so quickly, "And maybe grab me some napkins and sugar packets?"

Houston nodded silently and stood up, leaving his phone on the table. Erin checked to make sure he wasn't looking at her and then picked the phone up, typing in the password she knew would be there: 042845, the date he and Cory started dating. She went straight to his Instagram and found his DM's, checking on the ones from a certain @hadley_hunter, which were right there at the top.

Well, there it was.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Erin almost jumped out of her skin as Houston came up behind her, slamming the coffee down on the table and snatching his phone out of her hand.

"Houston, I can explain—"

"Don't." He shook his head, staring at the messages. His face started to grow red as Erin slowly stood up, picking her coffee up from the table. "I...this isn't what it looks like. Did Cory send you here to spy on me?"

Erin shook her head vehemently.

"No, of course not!"

"Then why were you looking at my phone?"

Erin shrugged.

"I'm just a snoop, I guess." She laughed slightly, "I don't think that you're understanding everything here quite right, I'm not trying to—"

"Break us up?" Houston shook his head, "Well, congrats. You succeeded."

Erin turned around and walked out of the store quickly, starting her car and pulling out of the parking lot so quickly that she almost hit someone turning into the lot on her way out.

She pulled into her driveway three minutes later and ran inside, not bothering to remember her coffee and leaving it in the car.

"Cory!" She yelled when she got into the house, running past her little sister and mother in the living room, "Cor!"

Erin ran upstairs and into Cory's room, watching as her sister turned around slowly, revealing her left hand holding her phone up to her ear.

"Fine." She said to the person on the other line, "I understand. Bye."

She hung up the phone and collapsed onto her bed, falling backwards and staring up at the ceiling, her expression cold and unfeeling.

"He broke up with me." She whispered, "So..."

"He was cheating." Erin said immediately, "I saw his DMs, he texted Hadley and said that she had never had a problem with him having a girlfriend 'before,' whatever that means, and I—"

"Thanks, Erin." Cory nodded slightly, sitting up slowly. "Could you leave me alone for a little while?"

Erin nodded, backing out of the room and closing the door behind her. Her phone buzzed with a DM and she almost threw it against the wall.

A/N: Thoughts? Hope you're enjoying it so far! Also, I kinda love including Instagram DMs in this, I've never done those before lmao.