Jared’s face gets harder. “Watch it,” he says, quietly.
“Watch what? What are you going to do?”
Nathan’s standing off to one side, still hangover-squinting. He says, “I’m sure this can all be straightened out–”
“Shut up!” I shout at him. “Things were fine around here until you showed up.”
“Christ sake, Mike,” Jared says. “Is that was this is about? I knew I couldn’t tell you! I knew you’d be jealous!”
“Jealous?” Nathan asks.
But Jared’s still going. “You stick to me like a tick! I can’t breathe without you wanting to know it! I can’t live my life without you wanting to crowd in.”
“You never tell me anything, Jared! It’s always the same. All this stuff you don’t want me to know!
Like some power trip you have to have over me at all times.”
And then he says–
Well, he says this:
“Maybe if you were a real friend instead of an endless bag of need, I’d have told you about Nathan first. Did you ever think of that?”
At that, I just stand there.
And stand there some more.
Jared’s face softens. “Mike–”
“Just get your dad to take it down,” I say, looking at the ground.
“Mike, please, I didn’t–”
“Get him to take it down.”
“I will.”
I get in my car. They watch me go.
“But I’m not worried,” Mel says, as we sit on her bed.
“Are you sure?” I ask her.
“It’s politics,” Mel says, leaning back with a frown. “It’s filthy and it’s disgusting and dirties everything it touches.” She shrugs, still frowning. “It’ll blow over in a week.”
“Mom went mental,” I say. “She’s already got lawyers on it. There’s no way that lady wasn’t made-up in those photos.”
“They don’t want me, they want Mom. So it’s her problem. I told her that and she agreed. She says she’s fixing it.” She hugs herself, lightly. “I’m just … really disappointed about Mr Shurin.”
“I know–”
“Maybe even nice guys get tired of losing.”
I feel an ache in my stomach when she says the word “losing”. I want him to lose like the loser he always is, I said to Jared. About his own dad.
But so what? He attacked my sister.
Almost like my thoughts summoned him, both of our phones buzz at once. It’s from Jared. He’s taking it down. Today. Says the campaign team kept pushing him on it and he finally said yes and regrets it. He’s pulling out of the race altogether. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.
“Wow,” Mel says, quietly.
“Won’t stop the blogger suing, though,” I say. “The damage is done. It’s already spread to other sites.”
“But so has his resignation.” She shows me her phone. Congressional Candidate resigns over attack on opponent’s teenage daughter.
“That’s a site friendly to Mom, though. There’ll be more.”
Mel sighs and starts texting. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“Texting Jared back. I don’t blame him. He’s probably the one who talked his dad into pulling out of the race.”
I don’t say anything. It’s kind of loud.
“He didn’t mean to hurt you,” Mel says, looking up at me. “You know that, don’t you?”
I run my fingers across the top of her bedspread. “You’re more important. This is way bigger than my stupid thing.” She looks at me. “You see? That’s what I mean. The pity. That’s what I don’t want or need and you just have to stop.”