Free Out at Home by JL Paul

ground as anger swelled in her heart. “What? You have a guilty conscience now, too? You want me to meet with Brady and talk to him so he can tell me everything and it will rid you of your guilt?”
    Lips set, he shook his head. “No, it’s not like that. I don’t have anything to feel guilty about, except maybe for not beating him to a pulp.”
    She relaxed slowly, shoulders sagging. “Sorry. He’s just got me in such a mood lately.”
    “ It’s okay. But it’s all the more reason to talk to him.”
    She blew a long breath at the loose hairs hanging in her face. “I will. But not until he gets back from his road trip. I have too much on my mind at the moment.”
    “ Your dad?”
    She nodded and filled him in on her latest conversation with the doctor.
     
    ***
     
    “ We need to talk, Taylor,” Josh announced as soon as she opened the door. The sappy smile she’d been wearing since she woke that morning faltered a little bit.
    “ What’s up, Josh?” She led him to the empty family room. Her father was still in bed and Teddy was spending the weekend with his friend.
    Josh sat on the coffee table, motioning for her to sit in front of him on the sofa. When she sat, he took her hands. “Taylor, what happened last night after Prom?”
    She frowned. “What do you mean?”
    “ Did you go anywhere with Brady?”
    “ Yeah. We went to a party. Why?”
    He scooted closer and squeezed her hand. “Did you go anywhere alone with Brady? Did Jason and Amanda go somewhere alone also?”
    She pulled her hand out of his. “I don’t know about Jason and Amanda but I do know it’s not really your business where I went with Brady.”
    He dropped his head to his hands. “Oh no. You did, didn’t you?”
    “ Josh what is your problem?”
    He took both of her hands again and held them tightly. “Please hear me out, okay?” She nodded and bit her lip. He took a deep breath. “It was a bet, Taylor. The whole thing.”
    “ What do you mean?”
    “ Honey,” he exhaled. “Brady and Jason made a bet. They had to find a virgin, date her the rest of the year, and have sex with her on Prom night. The one who succeeded won the bet.”
    She snatched her hands out of his as though they were on fire and scorching her skin. “No. Brady’s not like that.”
    “ His brother just told me the whole story last night.” He moved to sit next to her and draped an arm around her shoulder. “He told me that they were bored so Jason invented this bet. They had all kinds of stipulations. I’m sorry, Taylor.”
    “ No,” she protested, shaking his arm off of her body. She got up and stormed into the kitchen. She yanked the refrigerator door open but he appeared behind her and slammed it. Turning her around, he bent to her level.
    “ I’m so very sorry, Taylor.”
    “ It can’t be true,” she whispered. She searched his eyes for confirmation. She found none. “It just can’t be. He said he loved me.”
    Josh groaned and squeezed her shoulder a little too hard. “Taylor, I’m sorry I didn’t find out sooner.”
    She jerked away from him. “No, I don’t believe you. Please leave. I have things to do today.”
    “ Taylor,” Josh pleaded.
    “ Go.”
    After Josh left, she flopped on her bed and stared at her ceiling.
    She should’ve known. She was smart, after all. The signs had been there all along. She was a nobody at that school, having started the beginning of senior year. She had no friends and wasn’t included in the ‘in crowd’. And neither was Amanda. How could she not have seen it - the two most popular guys at school dating two nobodies?
    Muffling her sobs in her pillow, she realized that graduation was the next day. There was absolutely no way she could go. How humiliating. How she hated Brady Nolan!
    What an idiot she’d been. She’d actually believed him when he’d said he loved her. She’d trusted him. But worst of all, she let herself love him.
    She vaguely registered someone shuffling down the hall to