Between Ties

Cough Up

Rhyett's Point of View

Maverick, Xander and I sat in front of the principles office waiting for him to address the situation.

The fight.

Maverick's lip was cut open and he had a cut below his eye while Xander was busted up all over, black and blue. They we both in pretty bad shape but Maverick would definitely feel confident in saying that he won.

I lightly dabbed the cut Maverick had underneath his eye with cream I had gotten from the nurses office.

"Rhy." He said for the third time as he closed his eyes feeling a stinging pain. "Kenzo will fix this, but please be gentle. f**k it! you're pressing on my wound as if you're popping a pimple." He nagged.

"Stop complaining!" I demanded as he then closed his eyes again and became silent.

Oh my god. Did he just listen to me.

I glanced over to see Xander staring at us.

"We need to talk." I said to him sternly and then he exhaled "I know." He nodded.

I was hurt that he would do that to me, go behind my back and sleep with somebody at that party, but I couldn't be too mad at him about this because Maverick and I literally slept in the same bed last night and I have feelings for him, so in some way I went behind Xander's back too.

"Can we have a little privacy." I asked Maverick kindly and then he glared at me. "Go then." He folded his arms over his chest and then closed his eyes again.

"Maverick!" I protested.

"Fine." He accepted defeat and then stood up from his seat "I need to stretch my legs and smoke a cigarette anyway." He said and then grimed at Xander "Respect her or I'll kick your f*****g face in and the last thing you'll see before you open your eyes in the hospital is my f*****g shoe." He threatened, and although he was harsh and mean. He didn't use magic, not once and that speaks volumes. The magic wasn't beginning to control him and this had just proved that Maverick wasn't the person Nixon had told me about,

At least not anymore.

"Walk away, breathe and relax!" I said reminding him that being angry right now wasn't going to fix anything.

He didn't turn to look at me but I knew he had heard me as he kept walking, while pulling his cigarettes out.

I swallowed as Xander and I were now alone sitting across from each other "Rhyett, I'm sorry." He started.

"Look Xan," I breathed "I...it's okay..I mean it's not it's damn awful and it hurt me. I don't know why you did it or if what you had with me wasn't as real as you made it seem..." I tried to speak but he had cut me off

"It was!" He protested. "Rhyett it was a mistake. What I did isn't okay, I'm sorry for not considering you..."

I cut him off "I'm sorry for not considering you too...Xander I think...I have feelings for....Maverick. I didn't know I did and to be honest I only realized that I did last night and I wasn't being one hundred person honest with you either Maverick and I had a moment. A very intense one and.." his eyes grew "nothing happened! We didn't have s*x!" I said honestly.

"Rhyett. I forgive you for whatever went down with you and Maverick. I'm not mad about it...I f****d up too but I still want this and I hope you're willing to forgive me." He said.

"I do. I do forgive you. I don't hold grudges. I  prefer to understand and forgive but I don't think you and I can work. I forgive you but I won't be able to trust you and I don't think you'll ever trust me." I swallowed.

"I want to be with him." I nodded and then he shook his head in disappointment.

"You want to be with who?" Beth interrupted as her footsteps approached where Xander and I were seated.

"I took off sick from school today but I came as soon as I heard that you weren't okay and there was a fight." She said to Xander and then she had faced me.

"But Rhyett...you said that you wanted to be with someone." She paused "who?" Knowing exactly who I was talking about but she wanted me to say it so that I could feel worse than I already did.

"Me." Maverick came walking around the corner, I swear he probably never went to smoke and was eavesdropping the entire time.

I wouldn't put it past him.

"Don't f*****g stand there and think that I'm going to let you bully Rhy." He c****d his head back.

"If you wanna argue with anyone it should be me. I made a move on her and I wanted her." He said "she distanced herself from me for you and for you and what the f**k do you both do...?" He questioned "you f**k another girl." He pointed his hand at Xan and then his eyes at Beth "and you? Were you even a real friend to her? You only call her when you need s**t and you basically treated her like a shinny new toy for you to play with."

He narrowed his eyes "and she fought what she felt for me to consider the two of you." He shook his head "I actually wouldn't be surprised if the two of you f****d behind my back." He had no emotion on his face.

"And you!" He turned to face me,

Wait what did I do?

"you need to stop considering other people's f*****g feelings over what you feel is right for you. It's fair to do that, but not when the people you're considering don't deserve you, nor appreciate you! And in this case give a f**k about you!"

"Yo Mavs! Don't you f*****g tell Rhy how I feel about her!" Xander spat out his words "Yeah I actually don't f*****g have to...your d**k in another girl already speaks for you." He smiled smugly but it hinted anger.

"Right, and when your d**k was in half of the school did that also tell Rhy how you feel about her?" He asked with a smile.

"The difference between you and I...is that she didn't want to speak to me, she choose to let me go..so I tried to do just that, let go...but you..." He laughed under his breath "you and her were on good terms, she even trusted you and you betrayed her while you were with her and felt nothing....you see the difference is If I was with her I wouldn't betray her." He said and then paused to shrug.

"The f**k outta her." He was done with Xander "your ass is lame." He cleaned his teeth with his tongue and then I spoke up,

Because I had too. I wasn't an angel here.

"Beth. I'm sorry." I said to her and then Maverick looked at me as if I didn't hear anything he had just said, but I ignored him.

"I'm sorry for not telling you about the confusing situation between Maverick and I. He might be right, and maybe you and I weren't even real friends but I'm not a piece of s**t and you still deserve an apology from me because that's the right thing to do. Regardless of anything, I should have been honest with you and told you."

She was quiet and then sniffed before she nodded while looking at the ground "thanks, I appreciate that." She said and I could tell that she really did.

"Ima get us food, call me when this is all over and I need to pick you up." She said to Xander and then smiled small at me as I did the same as I watched her step down the hallway to leave.

I think she was over all of this drama and just wanted to exclude herself from leaving, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to apologize to her because in some ways, I guess I did wrong her,

But now I felt so relieved to have all of this off my chest.

Xander pulled me from my thoughts.

"Rhyett. I still want this with you. I forgive you for what had happened with Maverick, and you forgive me for what had happened at that party. We can work on this."

"Shut the f**k up! She don't want your dumbass. Do you f*****g want her to spell it out for you!?" Maverick narrowed his eyes and then glanced at me.

"Go ahead baby, spell it for him...Back the f**k off.

I'll start it for you because I'm a gentleman...B-A-C-" he nodded his head waiting for me to spell out the rest.

"Maverick." I exhaled reprimanding him, because he was doing his Maverick thing and then he smiled "okay you can just tell me that your spelling game is weak. It's okay we'll work on it and when I teach you...he'll hear back from us."

The principles door swung open as his chubby tall figure stood in its frame.

"The two of you. Get in side." He had eyes of steel as he watched Maverick walk in "My top student. I never thought I would see the day Mr Novak!" He was furious and disappoint and then Maverick turned to face me "I like you." He winked and then turned to face Xander with a smug look.

"she likes me back."