Make Me Hate You

by Kandi Steiner

“I know what happened between you and Tyler.” All the color drained from my face. “I’m sorry I didn’t say something before now,” she rushed. “I just… he told me in confidence, and I knew you were hurt over your mom, and I didn’t want to bring up something that obviously meant nothing, and I figured you’d be embarrassed.” She kept going, but my mind was sticking on the words tumbling from her mouth at a hundred miles per hour. He told me. Meant nothing. Embarrassed. “… bring it up, you know? But then you guys just stopped talking, and you never came home, and I missed you and I missed us and I guess I just thought that you coming back home, that you guys could put everything behind you, and we could all be friends again, you know? Like the old days.” She smiled weakly. “The Wagner Kids — Plus One.” I think I smiled. I think I managed to clear my throat before I asked, “Tyler told you?” Morgan grimaced. “The next morning. You were still asleep in my bed, and we were both down in the kitchen, eating cereal. He was all quiet and broody and then he told me what happened.” I blinked. My head was whirling, and I needed to sit down, but there was nowhere to sit. “I was furious at him,” she continued, waving her hand in a gesture. “Obviously. I mean, you and James had just broken up. And then your mom, God,” she says, shivering. “I just knew you were in such a dark place. And then for him to do that, to… to sleep with you,” she whispers. “I was horrified.” “You told him you were ma...