Author's Note: This has been intentionally written to work as a stand-alone story, as I know many prefer one-shots. However, it is also the second chapter of my '
Adventures in Teenage Hormones
' series, so if you like it feel free to check out the first. The following is an entirely true story, only the names have been changed.
Disclaimer: this story took place towards the end of Year 13 (the US equivalent of which being high school senior year) and so all characters are 18 or over.
*****
"You fingered Annie!" yelled Jackie, "in a drama hall full of people! You must have known someone would see and I'd find out, but you didn't care, you did it anyway!"
Funnily enough she was wrong: no-one had seen. Or at least, no-one was confident enough in what they saw to tell anyone. It's ironic actually, given how blatant we were, that the truth only got out because Annie stupidly trusted her friend Megan with it. I felt as if Jackie wouldn't appreciate this irony though, so I kept quiet.
"I'm sorry," I replied, "I really am. I'm not gonna try and excuse what I did, all I can do is ask for forgiveness and promise that it'll never happen again."
Jackie took a deep breath. "Maybe, given enough time, if I thought you truly regretted it, I could forgive you. But I could never trust you again, and a relationship is built on trust. We're over."
Of course I begged and I pleaded with her, but she wasn't for turning. In hindsight, the breakup was for the best: we weren't right for each other at all. It certainly didn't seem that way at the time though; I was genuinely devastated.
The breakup had wider consequences as well. The majority of my friends were also friends with Jackie and, understandably, took her side. As a result I had only two people who were willing to exchange words with me that weren't insults: Nicole (a girl I met at a concert and only met up with rarely), and Annie.
This situation was made more complicated by the fact that I still hated Annie for how she had treated me when we had been together (before I got together with Jackie) and for 'tempting me' into cheating on Jackie. In reality of course, I was the instigator far more than Annie was, but that wasn't how I saw things at the time.
Inevitably, I ended up getting closer to Annie. I didn't really have much choice, given I was spending all my time in school with her now that I had no-one else.
We weren't really flirtatious with each other, mainly because I still had very conflicted feelings towards her. On the one hand I still hadn't forgiven her, but on the other I was increasingly being reminded of what attracted me to her in the first place. On top of that, I was still a horny teen, and she was by far my best chance of getting laid.
In the end, I think when I did finally ask her out it was at least partially just to simplify things. Up to then, I was increasingly disliking Jackie - but equally feeling massively guilty about what I did - while she pretended to be my friend in an effort to appear the bigger person, but was passive aggressive to me the entire time. Meanwhile, I was pretending to myself and everyone else that I hated Annie, yet also spending all my time with her and inexorably falling for her again.
Eventually, it was just easier to get back with Annie. That way, I liked Annie and she liked me; I disliked Jackie and she disliked me: everything was straightforward. Of course, that disregards the hatred for Annie that was still simmering, but my approach was to ignore that and hope it went away. Needless to say it didn't work, but that's a different story.