Promise. (Manthony)

Thirty-Four

A month later.

     I set my drink down and grimace in disgust as I watched Elijah wrap his arm around Christian's waist. For a month, he'd been taunting me with his relationship with what seemed to be my ex-best friend.

Whether it was holding hands, hugging, an occasional kiss, or flirting in my presence, they both knew what they were doing, and I hated it. Did I deserve it? I'd say so, but that didn't make me hate what they were doing any less.

Because I was a selfish and a jealous asshole, I had to stop this stupid relationship somehow.

I take a deep breath and turn to my brother.

"Do you know where Amber lives?" I ask casually. Clinton shrugs, and I watch as he pulls up her contact. Clinton turns his screen towards me, and I read Amber's address three times to be sure I had it memorized long enough to enter it into my Maps app.

"I thought you didn't like Amber?" Clinton questions. "Why do you need her address?" Clinton continues to ask as I get up from the barstool I was sitting on. He was so damn nosy.

"I need to talk to her about something," I reply.

"About? If it's Christian and Elijah, I wouldn't suggest it. She is Christian's best friend, and I don't think she's quite fond of you either. " Clinton says.

I grab my jacket from the empty chair I had left it on next to me. "For my brother, you're not very supportive," I reply. I button my jacket once it's on and take another sip of my half-empty beer. Clinton rolls his eyes at this.

"You're meddling into a relationship we're all trying to be supportive about." Clinton reminds me for the fifth time this week. I shrug. I didn't give a fuck.

"No one should have ever tried to be supportive of Christian and some low-life piece of shit in the first place." I snap back. I set a ten-dollar bill down next to my glass and exit the bar. I glance back at Elijah and Christian for a moment.

Oddly enough, both of my exes were dating each other. So the universe wanted to fuck me over. Congratulations on it, then.

I refocus my attention back on Christian and see him smile widely at Elijah. He looked genuinely happy, and I hated to admit it but so did Elijah. I could feel my blood boil to an unhealthy level. That was supposed to be me Christian should be happy with. But I had fucked everything up so severely that it was starting to look like he was losing interest in me.

I look away and find my car that I had parked somewhere in the parking lot.

My mom had raised my brothers and me to ask the owner of the house if it was okay to come over before showing up, but with all the pent-up anger and sadness I was holding in, the manners I had been taught flew out the window. I just hoped Amber would be home so I wouldn't have to ask next time.

I couldn't risk her telling Christian and having him question what my motives were with her.

It sounded extremely shitty of me to destroy something that seemed to be making Christian happy, but he didn't know who Elijah was and what he had put me up to. Of course, I had so many secrets I'd have to own up to, but I would prefer to have to do when Christian was single and knew what a horrible person Elijah had become.