Fallen For the Devil

Six Months Too Long

"Kyle, oh my God! You all watched her spill her drink on me and none of you tried to stop her?” Sophi yelled again..this was the tenth time since we got home from school. She hadn’t stopped ranting, and honestly, I was done with it.

Avalon and Mia were trying to calm her, but she wasn’t having it. And honestly? I didn’t care. I was fed up with her endless complaints.

Right now, I just wanted peace.

So I stood up to leave—only for Sophi, being Sophi, to block my path again.

“Kyle, I’m talking to *all of you!*” she yelled, stopping me mid-step.

“Sophia,” I said, forcing calm into my voice, “I’m not your bodyguard or your emotional punching bag. Snap out of this and move on.” I didn’t wait for a response—I turned and walked to my room, shutting the door behind me.

I collapsed onto my bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking:

The same girl I knocked down that day—she was in my school too. We had physics and biology together. And yet I still didn’t know her name, only that she was called Lodge because she came late that day.

There was something about her attitude. The way she seemed unbothered, like she could silence Sophi without even trying—I liked it. It *switched something off* inside me. It reminded me of Ashley.

I missed Ashley so much.

But as Dad had told me—*we weren’t meant to be.* That’s why she left… and became one of the stars.

No. That wasn’t it.

It was my fault. I caused Ashley’s death.

I sank to the floor, and for the first time in a long while, I let my guard drop. I didn’t cry—*I never did.* Not even when Ashley breathed her last. I just stared into nothing, letting the cold swallow me.

I was hurting—but tears never came.

“Kyle… not again…” Ashton’s voice cracked, and I barely even heard him walk in.

I looked up at him, expression frozen.

He could tell I was hurting—he *was* my best friend.

But I still couldn’t forgive them.

They’d made me ruin someone’s life. They had betrayed me.

“We know we cheated you and made you do things,” Ava said gently as she sat beside me. “But we’re still your friends. Don’t hold the pain in.”

I stared at her, speechless. *Pain.* That word barely scratched the surface.

I never forced myself on a girl before. I didn’t even know who she was. And part of me didn’t want to know—because knowing would make the guilt even heavier.

Six months. Six months of carrying that night.

I r***d a girl.

And that same night… I lost Ashley.

“You want me to forget all of it, right?” I asked.

They nodded—but it only made my chest burn.

“f**k off,” I snapped. “What if it was you, Avalon? What if it was you, I r***d? Would you ever forgive me? Would you ever forget?”

She didn’t answer.

But Ashton did.

“But Kyle, she meant nothing to you—” he started, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Just get out of my room,” I said. Angry, but controlled.

“But Kyle, the *b***h* meant nothing to you…” Avalon repeated, and that was the last straw.

I gave her the coldest look I could muster.

They all froze—like they hadn’t heard the first time.

“Get. The. Hell. Out of. My. Room.” I emphasized every word, barely holding back how furious I was.

They left—silently.

And the frustration didn’t disappear. It just anchored itself deeper in my chest.

I had r***d a girl who was a virgin—and I knew it had traumatized her.

Then I lost Ashley.

And later I found out everything that went wrong that night?

It had all been caused by my so-called best friends.