Better Off

23

I swear I don't become a crazy stalker girlfriend after the drug-dealing incident. Just because I know Thorne is hiding something from me doesn't mean I go out of my way to figure out what it is.

At least, that's what I tell myself. And most of that is true. I don't start acting crazy whenever I'm around Thorne. Instead, I find that I'm surprisingly good at pretending I don't know that something's up with him. Pretending like nothing is wrong. And I definitely don't start stalking him, as there's no way that would even be possible on my schedule. And I don't necessarily go out of my way to figure out what he's hiding, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't do a little snooping.

The first thing I do is talk to Charlie. It's easy to tell that she's the closest to Thorne out of all of his friends, and she knows a lot about his past. I casually ask if she thinks Thorne has reverted back to his old habits, and she tells me that she doesn't think so. She says that he seems to be doing better than ever, and that she'd tell me if she thought something was going on. I don't tell her that I know something is going on. I don't tell her that Thorne is lying to me, and to her as well.

Recalling that Thorne said he was covering for Asher the day I caught him selling drugs, I nonchalantly ask Emmie what she knows about Asher's line of work. She tells me that the only job she knows of is his part-time job at the town's car wash. She seems to be totally clueless about whether her boyfriend is involved in a gang or not, but it's not like I come right out and ask her about it, either.

Basically, I come up empty-handed. Whatever Thorne has been up to lately, whatever secrets he is keeping, he has buried them so deep underground my shovel can't seem to reach. Try as I might to figure things out, I remain as in the dark about what Thorne has been lying to me about as ever.

That is, until tonight.

I don't mean for it to happen. I swear. I don't mean to end up where I am right now, doing something I know I shouldn't be doing. But I couldn't just pass the chance up, either. When opportunity comes, you have to grab it while you can.

Put yourself in my place. If you see your boyfriend—whom you know is keeping something potentially illegal from you—walking the dark streets on the sketchy side of town at eight PM on a cold winter night, you wouldn't just let him get away, would you? No. You'd do what any sane girlfriend who wants to know what their boyfriend is up to would do. And that's follow him.

I was driving home from the grocery store, using downtown as a short cut to my neighborhood, when I spotted Thorne walking along the sidewalk by himself. I knew it was him immediately because I got a clear view of his face. That's how I ended up swerving into a parking space and hightailing it out of my car.

My first thought was to run up to Thorne and demand to know what he was up to, but that's when I realized I could end this all now by just keeping my distance, following him. That way I could shadow him without his knowing, to really figure out what it is he's doing. Because I know if I were to go up to Thorne right now and demand to know what he thinks he's doing, he'd only lie to me. And I'm tired of the lies. After all this time, I'm ready for the truth.