Page 143 of The Friend Scheme
I do hate seeing him so put out.
Then I remember he deserves it.
“I wouldn’t want to be you, either. You might be the worst person I’ve ever met. Yousleptwith me.”
He just nods.
“You made me think I’d made a friend. Do you even know how big of a deal that was for me?”
“No, I know. You told me, remember. At the hospital.”
I’m sort of surprised he remembered that.
It was all fake.
Yet he remembered.
I take him in. I sort of can’t believe I didn’t see it before, but he looks like a rookie cop. With his crew cut and fit body, he fits in a lot more with that side of the law. I guess that’s part of the reason I was so drawn to him. He’s never belonged to my side of the world.
I get why that was appealing to me.
“This trip… was it just to get me away from my family?” I ask.
“Yeah. It was pretty obvious you wouldn’t tell me anything. I was getting nervous, because I thought the longer I was with you, the more in danger I was in. So I needed to push you. Coming to LA was Mom’s idea. The whole scheme was, actually.”
“What about your friends? Couldn’t they have given it away?”
He shakes his head. “They were in on it. You never went to my real school or met my real baseball team. The dance was another school’s that we joined. We hired a few actors to pretend to be closeto me, so that you’d trust me more. This was a huge project, man, led by my mom. She was constantly thinking of ways to get you to like me.”
“She sounds like a real winner.”
“You have no idea. She controls everything about my life. I didn’t even want to be a part of the scheme. But she made me. She said I would do it, or I would find somewhere else to live. She said if I didn’t, she’d get rid of my college fund and my trust.”
“You expect me to feel sorry for you?”
“No. I just want you to know why I did it.”
“Why doesn’t really matter to me. You still did it.”
He bows his head. “I know.”
“You could’ve said no.”
“Have you ever said no to anything your family has asked you to do?”
Huh.
I guess he does have me there.
“Don’t turn this back on me. You’re the liar here.”
“And you’re the one heading straight for a life of crime.”
“I…”
I can’t even disagree, because I know it’s true.
“But that isn’t you, Matt. I know it. I’ve known it the whole time. You were nothing like I was expecting. When I was told I had to befriend the son of a criminal, I thought I’d have to deal with a monster. But then I met you.”
