All Chapters of Filling in the Boyfriend spot: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Tom kept talking. His voice made me remember how easy our relationship had been. Uncomplicated. There weren’t ex-girlfriends to contend with or feelings to decipher or roles to be played. We had just been together.Silence took over the line and I realized he was waiting for me to respond to something I hadn’t heard. “I’m sorry. What?”“I want to see you again.”“You do?”“Yes.”Hayden and the way he’d been standing so close to Eve, laughing with her, flashed through my mind. “Can I ask you a question?”“Of course.”“What did you like about me?” I was feeling very unlikable.“You’re fun. We had a lot of good times together.” That was all he said. Then he stopped like that was profound and should be enough to send me running back to him. Not that I was judging him. I was pretty sure that would’ve been my answer if he had

“For the record, I may be a lot of things—selfish, shallow, snobby—but prom night with you was the first time I’d ever lied to my friends. And when I wanted to tell them the truth that night, you kept it going. Not that I’ve been anxious to tell them since. And as for Spencer, he was such a huge jerk to Laney, but I hardly knew him. You liked him so I thought I’d give him the benefit of the doubt instead of tattling on him to you. My point is that I’m not a liar.” I gave a humorless laugh. “I guess I can’t even say that anymore after prom night, can I? I’ll just add it to the list. I’m a selfish, shallow, snobby liar with a strong need for validation.” Who had gotten extremely good at feeling sorry for herself lately.“tia, stop. You’re not any of those things. I’m just confused because one of my best friends is telling me one thing and you’re telling me the complete opposite. Can you understand why I might be a little conflicted?”

Why did that news send dread into my heart? “I thought you hated the internet.”He smiled like it was a joke.“Help with what?”“You’ll see.”“How did you know I was here?” I asked him.“Mom and Dad have a GPS in your phone. Tell me you knew that.”“I know. I just don’t know why they insist on giving that information out to everyone.”“Because I brought you a surprise. A make-up gift. Something your friend assured me you’d be happy about.” With that he smiled at mea and the dread in my heart turned to ice.“A make-up gift?”“A present to make up for my extremely horrible behavior.”I smiled nervously. If Jmea was involved, this couldn’t be good . . . or maybe Claire had been giving her the “try harder” speech too. Maybe she really was trying harder. Maybe she’d watched that video Drew m

 Drew stumbled into the kitchen after me and read the note over my shoulder. “You broke Mom.” I clenched my teeth. “You broke Mom.” I pushed past him, grabbed the keys off the hook in the laundry room, and left the house. Drew was right. I’d broken everything, but today I was going to fix it. So when I pulled into the lot, I parked in the section where Claire always did. Her car wasn’t there. I waited with no luck until the bell rang. The second bell didn’t magically produce her either. My eyes drifted to Laney’s car, parked a few rows over. Had they driven together? I knew I needed to fix things with Laney and mea as well, but I wanted to start with Claire. I sighed and climbed out of my car. As I headed to class, an idea took over. I was student body president. I usually didn’t abuse that title, but today I was going to make it work for me. I changed my

I pulled my arm back and threw the ball with all my might. It hit the door with a loud clank then bounced off and rolled across the ground. The ding it left in the rusted door was hardly noticeable and only heightened my need to do damage. Real damage. I picked up another ball and hurled it. Then another.Soon it wasn’t just Hayden I was trying to crush but mea and my parents, Drew and myself. I reached down for another ball and felt nothing but dirt. I had thrown them all. My heart rate was high and my cheeks were wet with sweat and maybe a few tears.I started to gather the balls when behind me I heard, “Do you want to throw a few at the actual person those are intended for or is the car satisfying enough?”I whirled around. Hayden held out his arms like he was really giving me permission to pelt him. It was tempting.My shoulders rose and fell several times. After the week I’d had, I