Best Friend's Brother

Chapter Eight

I managed to keep my mind off of everything for about ten seconds at a time at the beginning and then I was managing full minutes before thoughts of Marcie plagued my subconscious. The guilt was gnawing at me and by the time Friday came around four weeks later I felt like I was going to be sick.

Quarter after eight there was a knock at my door so I slipped out of the ball I was in on the couch and went to answer the door. I wasn't really expecting anyone but that didn't stop my friends from showing up out of nowhere.

I opened the door and smiled. "Bree!"

She laughed and pulled me into a hug. "Hey girl hey! I haven't seen you in forever!"

I hugged her back just as tightly. "Bree, it's been like a week or so. I know you're busy with work and home life and everything. Besides, we talk on the phone basically daily!"

She giggled and closed the door behind her. "But this is different! Talking to you is great but I haven't actually seen you in forever. You'd think working so close to each other we'd at least go out to lunch together!"

Like Whitney, Brianne worked at the elementary school near my building. They'd had it all figured out by grade nine and somehow had managed to make it come true. While Whitney was a kindergarten teacher and ran the school daycare in her "spare" time, Bree was a fourth grade teacher and a mentor to all the kids she taught.  

We might work close to each other but we were never free at the same time. She was right, it was frustrating at times.

"So what brought you here?"

"Whitney told me you lost your V card, girl."

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. "She did, did she?"

She laughed at my expression. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out? She was bursting all month to tell me but she didn't say anything until today at lunch."

I laughed. "Well I'm surprised she lasted this long."

"I know right? That girl has trouble keeping anything from us. I'm so glad we can trust her with the rest of the world, though!"

I smiled. "Truer words were never spoken. That girl's more loyal than a cat!"

We walked through the house and down into the basement to where the games room was talking about the most random things we could think of. Somewhere between our discussion about Leprechauns being friends with monkeys and Munchkins and arguing over whether Tom or Jerry was better, the pain in my gut came back stronger than before.

I gasped and clutched my stomach doubling over. Bree placed a hand on the small of my back. "Are you okay, Claire?"

I took a deep breath and the pain went away. I still felt like I was going to be sick but it wasn't so bad anymore so I nodded. "I think I might be coming down with something."

"Then you'd better be careful," she said leading me over to the couch. "We wouldn't want you being sick over the weekend."

I laughed and brought us back to the topic we had been talking about. "So about Tom..."

Saturday morning I woke up and ran to the bathroom. I made it to the toilet just in time to puke. A horrible way to start the weekend off but it let me feel a little bit better.

I had to sit by the toilet for a couple of minutes before the feeling went away. I was not going to have a good weekend if this kept happening.

I stood up and walked back to my bed thinking that I should probably stay in bed for a while longer until I was sure I wasn't going to be sick again.