Riley had been watching the door ever since Jessie and Cameron had left together. The tone and look on their mother's face made Riley worry about what kind of poison she could be feeding them about him.

Cameron was still a close friend to him all these years, and they even live together now too. It would suck to lose his roommate, and be forced to live with someone he might not like.

And Riley was enjoying the little thing he had going with Jessie. The teasing and mind games were all part of the fun they had together, and Jessie brought a little bit of spark into Riley's life that he didn't want to put out yet.

The physical fights could have been toned down a little bit though - but Riley knew he also had a part in that too.

Riley turned up the speed on the treadmill as he awaited their return. It didn't take long to see Cameron walk back in, and Riley turned up the speed as a distraction from Cameron approaching him.

"Get off the machine, I want to talk to you."

"You can wait your turn." Riley joked, "I just got on."

Cameron moved to stand in front of Riley, and his face showed that he wasn't as angry as Riley thought he would be. "I'm not mad at you, Riley."

"You're not?"

Cameron shook his head and smiled at his friend. "Thank you for going down there and helping my little brother. I really appreciate it man, and I'm glad you two are starting to put things behind you now."

A sense of relief washed over Riley as the feeling of guilt flew right past him. He was glad to know that Cameron wasn't angry about it.

"Why'd you keep it a secret?" Cameron asked.

"Because he told me not to?" Riley admitted in between breaths, "Jessie was worried about how you and your family would react, so I didn't tell anyone."

A small smile appeared on Cameron's face before he joined Riley on the machine next to him. "My baby brother arrested... I can't believe it." He laughed.

Riley joined him as he sensed it was safe to joke about now. "It was priceless! Who knew the school president could be such a dumbass?"

"Where was his shirt?" Cameron asked as he laughed harder.

"He lost it when he was trying to have sex with some random girl, but got caught by her dad before they even did anything." Riley told Cameron as they laughed harder together.

The treadmill Riley was on suddenly halted, sending Riley forward as he slammed his forehead onto the monitor. The impact caused him to fall off the machine, painfully landing on his back to see Jessie standing over him - looking furious.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessie felt his soul leave his body as he watched his mom leave. He was crushed to be seen as a disappointment once again, and Jessie was hurt knowing that the distance between his parents and himself were now even greater.

He wiped away the last tear he wanted to shed over the incident, and his mind naturally drifted to how he was caught in the first place.

Jessie was certain that he never blabbed to anyone, he wasn't exactly proud of everything he did that night to even begin sharing.

And given that he also never heard from the dad or the daughter ever since, Jessie thought it was out of the question they would do all this work to tell his parents.

'It had to be him...'

There was nobody else who knew he got arrested. Luke didn't find anything suspicious when he came home late that night, and Olivia completely forgot that she had ditched him that night, or even wonder what happened to him afterwards.

Jessie deduced that Riley spilled the beans to get one over him. He thought that Riley was deliberately messing with him, trying to inflict even more pain after he begged Riley to keep it a secret.

'That bastard would do anything to tarnish my reputation, because he hates me as much as I hate him...'

Jessie stormed out of the empty classroom and angrily paced himself to the gymnasium. He looked through the window and saw Riley laughing with Cameron about something.

'He's laughing at me... That bastard has told everyone, and now he's laughing at me behind my back.'

Jessie hurled the door open and ignored the looks of his classmates when he charged up to the laughing Riley.

Jessie pressed the emergency button on the treadmill so that it would immediately stop. He watched as Riley was dealt with a fraction of the pain he was feeling on the inside, and stood over Riley as he fell backwards.

"You told them!" Jessie prevented Riley for talking by sitting on his chest, crushing his windpipe as he then grabbed Riley by the collar of his shirt. "I should have known to never trust you!"

Riley felt the back of his head hit the cold floor again, as Jessie slammed it and landed a fist to his cheek. It instantly became pink as Jessie continued the assault, all the while Riley was holding back from defending himself with more violence.

"I didn't Jessie!"

"You liar!" Jessie screamed, the vein in his temple popping as he was unleashing all of the anger that had built up in the past several minutes.

Riley held onto Jessie's fist so that he would stop punching him. He didn't want to hurt Jessie back because he saw that Jessie was already hurting, and Riley wanted to make sure that Jessie would listen to what he was saying.

All eyes were on them as they watched the captain and vice captain fight each other on the floor. Nobody knew what it was about as they continued watching, while Cameron was trying to pull his brother away from Riley.

"Jessie, that's enough!"

Jessie only held on tighter because he couldn't let go off the pain he felt on the inside. "You know that the last thing I wanted was for everyone to find out I was arrested, and you promised you would keep it a secret - you promised!"

Jessie was finally pulled off Riley as the teacher came back and helped Cameron separate the pair on the floor. The teacher kept silent as he worn a stern look on his face, forcing Jessie to go to the principal's office effective immediately.

Riley sat up from where he was sitting, and flinched when his head began to ring slightly while his vision became slightly dizzy. He looked and saw the tear slip down Jessie's face, and watched how he defeatedly left the room.

"Jessie, wait!" Riley called out.

Cameron held him in the place as he was concerned about Riley's injuries. "We should get you checked out by the nurse."

Riley ignored how his own knees wobbled when he stood up, as Riley was focussed on chasing him so that he could explain everything to a devastated Jessie. "Jessie!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Jessie felt the world around him was crumbling as he was lectured by Principal Shepard. His body was hunched over as he stared at the ground, letting her words go into one ear and out the other.

"Jessie, I am extremely disappointed in your behaviour right now. This is not what I expect from the school president, and this is a behaviour we simply cannot tolerate at this school."

Cameron had forced himself into the room so that he could defend his brother. Cameron felt protective of his brother as he was sitting next to Jessie, who remained silent because he was punishing himself.

"Please be lenient on him Principal Shepard, this is the first time I've ever seen Jessie like this." Cameron begged. "He's been a model student ever since we came to this school, so please don't throw him out over something that will never happen again."

Principal Shepard was tapping her own pen against the desk as she thought about what to do next. "We need to make an example of his behaviour, Mr Summers..."

"Then just a slap on the wrist!" Cameroon immediately requested, "I don't want my little brother to have his future ruined because of a stupid fight."

A protective Cameron then turned to his brother and begged him to speak up for himself. "Jessie, say something!"

Jessie was too ashamed to look at anyone in the room as he shook his head. "She's right though, I should pay for what I've done." The guilt and shame he was feeling continued to overwhelm him, as he felt regret for taking it out on anyone but himself.

"Stop being an idiot!" Cameron cursed as he shook his brother. He then turned to the principal with pleading eyes. "He's just having a bad day, I promise I will look after him properly!"

Principal Shepard heavily sighed as she watched the contrast in the brother's behaviour. She looked at Jessie who seemed saddened and remorseful of his actions, and she weighed up the fact that he had never been troublesome ever since.

"Given that this is your first offence Jessie, I'm sure we can keep this incident out of your personal records."

Cameron sighed with relief while Jessie stayed quiet in his seat. "But I can't let you get away with this so lightly, so you're going to have to pay it forward another way." Principal Shepard told them.

"Anything," Cameron immediately answered on Jessie's behalf, "He'll do anything to put it right."

"Later tonight, I want you to repaint the entire field so that it is all neatened up. And I want a full page essay, apologising to Riley Williams, on my desk and given to him by tomorrow morning." Principal Shepard decided.

Cameron whispered to his brother, as it looked like he got off easy. "That doesn't seem too bad."

"And of course I will have to tell your parents about this too." Principal Shepard added.

Jessie was finally awakened from his somber mood when he had heard the last sentence. "No, please! You can't tel them!" Jessie begged her.

Principal Shepard remained firm with her actions as she ordered them both to leave her office. "The decision is final. Now get out of my sight, and make sure I never see you in hear like this again."

Principal Shepard had pressed on the speaker and called the secretary in to send the boys away. Cameron understood why Jessie began to panic, while Jessie became even more anxious by adding more things onto the list on why his parents hated him.

The halls were quiet as the pair left the office together. They had closed the door behind them and saw Riley waiting for them, with a cold compress pressed against his head.

"You okay?" Cameron asked Riley as he looked at the other marks on his face.

"It's no trouble." Riley told him. He then turned to look at Jessie so that he could hopefully talk to him properly. "Jessie, I didn't-"

Jessie's voice was quiet as he couldn't bare to even look at Riley. "I don't believe you... I never want to see you again. I never want to hear from you again. I should have listened and stayed away from you Riley..."

Riley wasn't sure why, but all of the sudden he felt himself feel crushed on the inside. "Jessie, please... Don't cut me out."

Jessie ignored Riley's pleas as he walked away from him. All these years, Jessie ignored how people were telling him that Riley was a bad influence on him. And Jessie thought that he should have never engaged with anything that involved Riley in the first place.

Jessie was ready to bury that part of his life away, and he was going to concentrate on everything else that was good in his life instead. He didn't need Riley, there were other things that he could look forward to instead - other things and people that wouldn't hurt him.

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