“How could you, Jade?” she shrieked as I heard the betrayal cracking in her voice. “He’s my brother, and you slept with him! You told me that there was nothing going on between you two. You lied!”
“I know, and I realized that—”
“How could you keep this from me? I thought we were better friends than this!”
“We are!” I cried out, not realizing that now my audience was leaning forward toward me, trying to hear the other end of the conversation.
“It doesn’t seem like it! You didn’t tell me, you lied to me about it, and even after it’s over you don’t have the balls to tell me the truth!”
“Brooke, I’m sorry,” I replied honestly. I was at a complete loss for words, but that seemed like the best option. It was the only thing I could even think to say to her, but I knew it wasn’t good enough.
“I don’t want to hear it, Jade. It’s a bunch of lies and I believed it the first time; fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I think it would be better if you didn’t come around anytime soon. Austin and I are both pretty upset.”
“But, Brooke,” I began.
“It’s for the best. Bye,” she finished curtly before hanging up the phone and leaving me standing there with a pain in my stomach. It was as if Mohammed Ali himself had punched me in the gut and was ready to K.O. me to win the fight. I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t move, but I could feel the pain of hurting my best friend and losing her trust.
“Jade?” Alyssa questioned as she and Damien approached me. “What’s wrong?”
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly taking in a few much needed breaths of air before answering Alyssa. “Brooke found out about my fling with Austin and she’s pissed,” I stated, opening my eyes just as Damien wrapped his arms around me for support.
“Well, just go talk to her,” Alyssa suggested as if it was that easy.
“I can’t with Austin there, he will just add flame to the fire.” After I spoke, an idea started to form in my mind. “But he’s easily distracted by a pretty girl,” I said as a smile came across my face.
My sudden change in demeanor seemed to worry Alyssa because she took a few steps back. “Is he now?”
“He is. Please help me, Alyssa. I just need you to talk to him. He’s so nice normally, and I promise he won’t try anything on you, but please help me.”
“I don’t really know him that well,” she replied awkwardly.
“That’s fine. He just won’t be in the mood to talk to me right now, and I need to talk to Brooke alone, but he needs someone and you’re just the person for the job.”
She sighed heavily. “Fine, I’ll help.”
“Do you want me to come too?” Damien asked with worry deep in his eyes. I was touched that he cared so much, but I knew that he would only make it worse by showing up. It would make Austin upset and in turn make Brooke more upset.
“No, I have to talk to Brooke alone. I owe her that much.” With that, I gave him a quick kiss on the lips before turning and pulling Alyssa out of my room with me. I had to get to Brooke before she decided to run away and hide like she did when she was a kid. Normally she ran to my house, but with her being mad at me I was worried about where she would go.
Alyssa and I hurried from the house. I knew I had to fix this now before it got worse. I couldn’t lose Brooke or Austin, but I wasn’t sure I could fix this. How do you fix the fact that you lied to your best friend and snuck around with her brother behind her back?
I guess I’m about to find out, I thought as I slipped into the back of Alyssa’s car with her and the car took off.
Chapter 27
I walked into the Montgomery house without even knocking, much to the horror of Alyssa who started to berate me for not at least announcing my presence. I was about to tell her that I didn’t need to announce my presence when Austin appeared at the top of the stairs. His confused expression quickly changed to one of pure anger and hatred. He didn’t even lighten up when he spotted Alyssa. Maybe bringing her wasn’t going to give me the result I wanted.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he sneered as he rolled his eyes.
“I’m here to talk to Brooke,” I said as I made my way up the stairs, stopping only a few inches from Austin. While he was my friend, I wasn’t sure how he was when he was angry. He had never been this angry with me before now. I didn’t like this side of him because the Austin I knew and grew up with would never turn my best friend against me. He never would have thrown a fit and blurted our secret out to his sister. He would have put our friendship before his feelings, but now I’m not so sure.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” he said smugly.
“That’s because you opened your big mouth and told her we were having sex behind her back. I bet you told her that the only reason we couldn’t be in a relationship was because of her too. When you know for a fact that it was because of you!”
“It was because of you if anything, Jade! We could have been happy, but you chose not to be. We could have told Brooke from the start, and yeah, while she would have been a little upset. It would have been better than it is now. We could have been a couple, but you chose Damien instead!”
“That’s because he was honest with me from the start. He let me know that he wanted me, and he never went to some other girl just to get laid! You chose that girl when you knew I liked you, and the second I moved on you decided you wanted to date me.”
“I always wanted to date you!”
“Bullshit!” I cried out. “You were always looking for a better option than me. You didn’t like me, and you only liked me after I got rid of my braces and changed my style,” I countered, gesturing to my tight skinny jeans, Public Enemy band t-shirt, slouchy black beanie, and combat boots. I looked like a mix between rocker and skater styles, but it worked for me. “Don’t think I didn’t notice, Austin, it was kinda obvious and really shallow of you.”
“Okay, yes that’s when I started liking you, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Really? The guy who rejected me not even a year prior decided that he wanted to date me after I changed, and in his own words, 'became ridiculously hot'? Then he decides to confess his feelings for me? I don’t think so, Austin.”
“You don’t know what I thought of you before!”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I remember everything you ever told me about why we would never be together and how you planned on having that girl over and over again. It was sickening to hear and I moved on.”
“Clearly you didn’t if you’re still talking about it,” Austin pointed out.
“I feel nothing about it now. I’m just stating the facts that even you know are true, so stop trying to act like you’re the victim here because you struck me first. If we keep this up there may not even be a friendship to salvage because we’ll constantly be trying to hurt each other,” I stated, pushing past him and heading to Brooke’s room.
“Where are you going? We aren’t done here,” he called just before I heard his footsteps following close behind me.
“I’m going to talk to Brooke. Why don’t you keep Alyssa entertained? She just told off her mom and I’m sure she would love to tell someone that wasn’t there.” I sighed in annoyance, trying to rid myself of the anger Austin had just caused before I opened Brooke’s door to see her lying in bed with her computer open in front of her. It looked like she had just showered from how her hair was four shades darker than its usual bleach blonde.
She heard the door open and glanced over her shoulder to see who it was. When she saw it was me, she rolled her eyes and quickly went back to typing furiously on her keyboard.
I closed the door behind me, locking out Austin and anyone else who would possibly try to intervene.
“Brooke,” I started as I approached her bed.
“What do you want?” she spat without even looking at me as she continued to type.
I groaned, walked toward her bed, and slammed her laptop shut. “J
ust look at me! Give me a chance to at least explain everything and then after you’ve heard me out, you can feel free to hate me. Okay?”
Brooke scowled, her eyes turning to slits. Despite her unwelcoming facial expression, she sat up on her bed, crossing her arms over her chest and said, “You have five minutes.”
“Five?”
“Now you’re at four minutes and fifty seconds. Are you going to talk or not?”
I sighed deeply, beginning to pace as I started talking. “I’m so extremely sorry that I slept with Austin, but even more sorry that I didn’t tell you. You’re my best friend, and it’s not that I didn’t want to tell you about Austin and me, even though he and I never really were a ‘we,’ it’s just that if I told you then it would make it real. I guess the reason I initially started hooking up with him was because I still liked him, and I knew that if I told you, you would be all judgmental and be pissed at me for doing something so stupid in the first place.”
“I would have been less mad than I am now,” she stated matter-of-factly.
I wrung my hands together as I nodded in agreement at her words. “I know you would have been, but you don’t understand, I couldn’t tell you about us because of that. Trust me, there were times when I wanted to tell you. Hell, it would have been easier if I had told you. Then you would have fully understood how badly Austin had hurt me before. What if I told you that I had kissed him, and he kissed me back, and I thought I was really in love, but then the next day he was bragging around school about him sleeping with another girl. Remember?”
She nodded, her demeanor still angry.
“Yeah, well maybe that helps you understand more. I slept with him and I truly thought that he liked me, but the next day when I was going to tell you, I found out that he had just used me. It hurt too much to tell anyone, even you. I didn’t know how you would have even reacted, so I decided to just try and forget that I had been so naive, and it’s much easier to keep something a secret when only two people know about it.”
Brooke’s eyes softened a bit before returning to their glare. “So then why the hell did you think it would be any different the second time around?”
I shrugged, biting my lip.
“You’re running out of explanation time,” she stated, tapping her wrist as if there was a watch there where she had been keeping track of the time.
“I was different. I looked different. My braces where gone and I finally found a style that fit my personality.”
“Your personality has always been the same though, Jade, and if you would have talked to me about this sooner, I would have told you that you shouldn’t give yourself to someone who doesn’t see you for who you are and love that about you. Nothing about you changed except for physically. In first grade you use to shove kids over at recess and you and that girl Brianna would go around beating up the guys. Before you came up to me to ask if I would be your friend, I was scared of you. If I would have known then that one day you’d be banging my brother behind my back I probably would have declined your friendship request.”
I furrowed my eyebrows at her statement. “Declined my request? What is this, real life Facebook?”
Brooke rolled her eyes, obviously not finding my attempt at humor funny.
I sighed again, staring at her angry face. “Just think about it, Brooke. Put yourself in my shoes. Say I had an older brother and you had a crush on him. Then, finally, he shows an interest in you and you guys do the deed. It’s your first time, so naturally the first person you think to tell is me, but the next day at school when you come to tell me, you find out that my jerk of a brother had sex with another girl and he was telling everyone about it, not caring that he slept with you too. Then afterward he treats you like shit and pretends like it never even happened. Would you have told me and risked the chance that I may have taken his side, or that I’d have been mad at you for sleeping with him in the first place? Then to pity you because you got hurt? Would you have told me?”
Brooke looked down at her bed. She breathed out a heavy sigh and began picking at the black nail polish that was chipping from her finger nails. “Yes,” she said curtly.
I tilted my head, crossing my arms over my chest. “Oh, really? You would have told me?”
“No,” she mumbled. “I wouldn’t have told you right away, but I would have told you eventually. I wouldn’t have let your brother be the one to tell you! I also definitely wouldn’t have allowed it to go on again after the fact. And I especially wouldn’t have kept it hidden from you for a whole freaking year.” Her eyes met mine. “Now, you’re time is up and you can leave.”
“Brooke,” I pleaded, trying to get her to calm down a bit. “I truly am sorry.”
She bit her lip. “All right, you can stay and I’ll leave.” She hopped up from her bed, not looking me in the eye again as she passed me to exit the room. “I just need some time to think about it—alone,” she said as she walked out into the hallway and left me standing there afraid that I had done something that was irreversible. Something that she may not even be able to forgive me for.
But as I stood there, staring out the door of the room that I had spent so much time in since I was little, I found myself hoping that she would find it in herself to forgive me. Brooke was the only stable thing in my life. She was unchanging and always there for me. She was there when my mom died, when my dad got engaged, when Austin broke my heart, and even when I was too drunk to stand on my own. She was always there and now I hoped that I hadn’t ruined that. I couldn’t lose my best friend after everything we had been through together.
I hung my head low, taking a seat on her bed. This time, I’d really screwed up.
Chapter 28
I laid my head down against my wooden desk, allowing the coolness of the surface to calm my headache. I was staring down at my phone, hoping that it would light up with a message from Brooke, or even Austin, saying that I was forgiven. Instead, the screen remained black, concealing the screen saver of Brooke and me at Halloween last year. It was one of my favorite pictures of us.
We looked so happy and were dressed as sexy versions of Mario and Luigi. Brooke had been Mario, while I had been Luigi since she thought that the green material in the costume made my eyes stand out. In the picture we were standing in front of Brooke’s house, posing with our arms hooked together. That night had been so much fun. I wish we could go back to that time, and I could change the way that everything turned out. Boy would that be helpful.
“Jade?” someone whispered from next to me.
I groaned, glancing up to see who was bothering me. Sitting next to me was a girl with long red hair and chocolate brown eyes. She blew a large bubble with her gum before popping it with her pointer finger and proceeding to smack on it. Then, noticing that she had my attention, she leaned toward me, brandishing her phone. “Aren’t you dating this kid?”
I squinted my eyes at her. “Huh?” I questioned, giving her a blank look.
She rolled her eyes and then handed me her phone. My eyes flickered down to the screen as she said, “Aren’t you dating him?” while tapping the picture on the screen with one perfectly manicured nail. “I’m willing to bet that I’ve seen him walk you to class, and kiss you too.”
The last thing she said was completely lost on me. It wasn’t that I was ignoring her, it was just that I was so focused on the picture on the screen of her phone.
“Where did you get this?” I questioned, my eyes finding hers.
The girl tilted her head to the side as if she was trying to read my expression. “Someone posted it on Facebook. Then someone else posted it on Twitter and then Instagram. Then my friend’s boyfriend sent it to her and then she sent it to me and my sister. You know how it goes.”
I handed her phone back, grabbing mine.
I sent Matt a quick text.
Me: What the hell is going on?
I waited impatiently for his reply, the image that the red head girl just showed me imprinting into my mind. Him a
nd Chase kissing for the world to see. I had done everything I could do to prevent the secret from getting out and now this happened. What had they been thinking? The sound of my phone buzzing brought me out of my thoughts quickly.
Matt: Meet me in the hallway outside of your classroom and I’ll explain everything.
After receiving that message, I hurriedly stood to my feet, receiving a knowing look from my classmates, a few snickers, and a curious look from my teacher.
“Miss Phillips? Are you in a hurry to go somewhere?” My English teacher, Mr. Nelson, questioned, staring at me as I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.
I covered my mouth with my hand, hurrying to the door to leave the classroom. My eyes met my teachers as I mumbled the word clinic and pushed my way out of the room.
Once outside, I saw Matt instantly, then Chase who was stood next to him with his hand on his forehead. “Come on,” I said as I grabbed Matt’s hand, then Chase’s, and pulled them around the corner and away from my classroom. Once we were out of view and earshot, I grabbed both of Matt’s shoulders, shaking him as I whisper yelled, “How did someone get that picture?”
Matt moved my hands from his shoulders and stepped out of my reach before speaking. “We were in the wrestling room,” he began, but before he could finish, I cut him off.
“The wrestling room? Seriously? Even after Brooke and I caught you in there?”
Matt nodded slowly while Chase held his hands up in a surrendering motion. “Don’t look at me. I told him that it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Matt, what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I missed my boyfriend and I needed a few moments to be myself instead of the perfect fake boyfriend,” he answered honestly.
“Well, now you’ve done it.” I sighed, leaning against the wall for support.
“What the hell does that mean? There was no way out of your plan anyway, just admit it!” Matt yelled.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 20