My Boyfriends Best Friend

Chapter 2

When I finally manage to hit the button, I am surprised to be greeted by the same guy I had seen this morning before I left Darren's. His smile grew big and glowing when he opened the door and he promptly invites me inside. I was perplexed I thought this was supposed to be a date. Why was this guy here? "You must be Alice," He said, looking over his shoulder at me as we walked upstairs into what looked like the dining room. "Darren has told me so much about you." He turns back to look at me leaning against a door frame on the other side of the room that I assume leads into the kitchen. I force myself to smile and hold up the bottle of wine awkwardly. "I brought some wine," I say acknowledging the wine bottle in my hands. Was he going to be having dinner with us? I thought to myself. "I'm sorry I didn't catch your name," I say to him, my gaze finding his. He smiles or maybe smirks, before sticking out a hand for me to shake. "My name is Jon, Jonathan King," he says, "nice to meet you". I fumble with the wine bottle for a second before I am able to shake his hand. I have to bite my tongue not to gasp out loud at the literal tingles that explode in my palm when my hand touches his. "Alice, Alice Hart. I mimic back to him with my own name.

Before anything else could happen, Darren bounds up the stairs, and Jon lets go of my hand before crossing his arms over his chest. My hand fell back to my side It felt colder somehow and it made my heart ache a little. Wait, no, I was not sorry that some random guy I had never met stopped holding my hand. I close my eyes before looking back towards the stairs at Darren. His dark curly hair looks slightly damp and his curls look defined. He is wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with black Jeans. He smiles when he sees me, then his eyes catch on Jon, and he frowns. "What are you doing here? I thought you left like 20 minutes ago?" He asks Jon, the slightest hint of annoyance in his voice. I look back at Jon as he runs a hand through his hair and turns his back to us before walking further into the kitchen and opening one of the many cabinets. "I had to meet the girl that you just haven't shut up about," Jon says before retrieving what looked like a granola bar from the cupboard. "Besides, all 16 of my roommates are driving me insane, and I was hoping I could crash here for a couple of nights," He said as he looked back at Darren. I watch as Darren rolls his eyes at Jon, "Why do you even bother paying rent when you practically live here?" Darren says sounding exacerbated. Before Jon can actually answer that question Darren turns to me "Do you mind if he sticks around for a little bit? I promise he won't bother too much"? Darren flashes me a toothy grin. I hadn't noticed before but Darren has come to stand beside me at the dining table and is only standing about 3 inches away from me. "I don't mind," I say back to him, giving him the brightest smile I can muster. Yeah, I don't mind that I now have to spend more time with this Jon guy. I have this feeling he doesn't like me already. He was going to be staying with Darren for a couple of days can I even have sex with the thought of some other guy in the house, especially Jon. Ugh, why was this happening to me? I don't like things this complicated. Darren was supposed to be a rebound a light easy rebound.

Six months ago, I had my perfect life. Perfect as in I thought I had finally attained all I had ever wanted. I had just gotten my dream job (the dream of being paid above minimum wage) and had been dating my boyfriend for almost two years. We had just signed a lease on a beautiful apartment that I had literally spent three months looking for, when he told me he cheated on me. It broke me, and I was living in Colorado at the time, had no family, and the only friend I had lived three hours away. I had to drive up to stay with her, and once everything settled, I went back to him. I laid in bed next to him and stared at the ceiling of our new apartment, and when I went to my dream job, I would sit and cry in my cubicle.

God, how had I been so stupid? How had I not seen the signs? Honestly, the more I look back on it, the more he was an abusive piece of crap, and I am glad I got out when I did. Back then I was naive, I thought he could change. For his birthday, I bought him a promise ring. I thought maybe if he made a promise to me to marry me or not cheat again, it would make things better. He told me to return it because he wasn't a ring guy. Two weeks later, when he was at work, I packed up all my stuff and drove home to Washington.