Girlfriend's Best Friend
CHAPTER 43
x x x
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Carter and Graham came back after that
and we walked back to the pizza shop now that things between me
and her were straightened out. Now we just had to fix things
between her and Brooke, if they could even be fixed at
all.
We walked in to see Brooke already at a table with Jace,
Mattie, and Duke, her face changing from carefree to irritated
in just a matter of seconds, as if that was going to make us
not try to settle all this out.
We all sat down at the same table; Brooke crossed her arms,
Kelli grabbed my hand, neither broke their eye contact with
each other.
“Brooke, do you want to say anything?” Graham
tried.
“No,” she answered.
“Kel?” he asked.
“No,” she repeated.
“Want to know what I think the problem is?” Carter
asked, clearly showing how annoying this was.
“No,” they both answered in unison.
“I think the problem,” he continued anyway,
“is that Kelli’s jealous that Brooke’s a huge
flirt and gets a lot of guys but Brooke is jealous that
Kelli’s the one who actually has a boyfriend. And because
you each know that that makes the other jealous, you both go
out of your way to try to seem better to the other one. And I
know girls are really into drama but guys hate it so if you
guys can just end this and be friends again that would be
‘perf’.”
“Ew, don’t say ‘perf’,” they said
at the same time again. They laughed a little that it was the
second time they did that, but once they realized they were
both laughing, they both stopped.
“See, you even say the same things at the same time and
it’s because you’re so similar. You’re too
good of friends to let this sh.i.t get in your way. We like
hanging out with you guys when you’re friends. Just stop
fighting, it’s stupid,” Carter couldn’t have
explained it better.
“I’m sorry, Brookie,” Kelli was the first to
apologize, after a moment.
“I’m sorry too, Kel,” Brooke finally said,
but her piercing stare never left my eyes.
And there she went again, giving unclear signs of what she
really meant that only I would notice. Was she actually sorry
for being just as mean to Kelli as Kelli was to her? Or was she
sorry for hooking up with her best friend’s boyfriend,
although she’d never tell her that? Or was she sorry that
Kelli was with me in the first place, and was apologizing to
Kelli that she had to put up with me—a soft boyfriend who
can’t stand up for what’s really right because
he’s too afraid—all the time?
I would never know.
But one thing was clear—she was losing her patience. She
couldn’t keep the secret much longer, and I really
couldn’t either. It was tearing us apart and ruining a
lot of things, yet neither of us could let it go. Why?
I don’t know.
