Girlfriend's Best Friend

Chapter 2

              I still noticed that she was looking at my friends, and that killed me. I’d never gotten that jealous over a girl before. There was that time that I was hooking up with this girl from school and Mattie got with her. I was jealous then. And there was that time I fucked things up with this other girl and Carter let her cry to him just so he could fuck and chuck her. I was even more jealous then. But I’d never even experienced Brooke before, and now I was questioning if I ever would. Why couldn’t I get her to take an interest in me?

            “Brooke and Kelli. Beautiful names for beautiful girls, I guess,” I did what I always did- jokingly act like that stereotypical guy who thinks he’s good at picking up girls. It worked every time.

            Brooke laughed but immediately asked my friends, “What about you guys? What are your names?” She looked Carter up and down, obviously enjoying what she saw, and then continued on to do that to each of the other guys. But still, not me. And in that exact moment, I gave up. She wanted them, and if I continued to try to get her to want me, the guys would bag on me forever. They’d bag on me ten times harder if they got the satisfaction of stealing the girl they knew I wanted. I had to make it seem like I didn’t want Brooke, and quick.

            Kelli.

            I could definitely start taking an interest in Kelli to get over this pathetic little crush I’ve had on Brooke for months. She was so pretty, and I bet once I got to know her, she’d have a personality just like Brooke’s- they were best friends after all. People are always good friends with people who have with similar personalities. That’s why I’m friends with my friends- we’re all major d.icks but at least we can admit it. She probably knew exactly how it felt to get the attention taken away from you by your friends; she probably knew that feeling better than me.

            She was a little shy, but I knew could change that. She’d be perfect.

            I missed whatever they’d been talking about, but I’d heard Kelli’s voice for the first time say, “Right? No one will ever forget out names.” Her voice was higher in comparison to Brooke’s raspy-ish voice, and her laugh was really cute. This was where I’d have to make the first move.

            “I don’t think we’ll be forgetting your names any time soon,” I winked and pulled her a little closer to me by the hem of her shirt. She giggled and looked back at Brooke, then back at me.

            Brooke jokingly asked if our group has a dress-code because of how similarly dressed we all were in our khaki shorts, tanks, vans, and skateboards and Jace joked back, “Do you and Kel always wear baggy t-shirts, Soffe shorts and flip flops?”

            “When we don’t know we’re going to run into hot guys we do. Otherwise we would’ve dressed nicer,” she laughed and everyone else laughed too at her honesty.

            “Well we’d love to see how beautiful you guys look when you’re actually trying, because you’re stunning just like this,” I said, staring straight at Kelli so she knew it was intended for her.

            My friends were drooling over Brooke and she was soaking up the attention. Kelli looked back over her shoulder at Brooke who was currently holding onto Mattie’s arm and laughing into it. She rolled her eyes as she turned her head back and I could just tell how annoyed she was.

            “Must be hard,” I said.

            “What?” she asked.

            “Being friends with Brooke,” I said.

            “Shhh,” Kelli made me lower my voice.

            “We’re far enough ahead of them,” I said. “And besides, she won’t be able to hear us over her ego.”

            Kelli laughed really hard at that, shocked I even said it out loud. “Oh my God, that’s awful,” she said, still laughing. “She’s my best friend!”

            “You’re the one who laughed at it!” I said. “I’m just saying, it seems like the attention’s always on her.”

            “That’s because it is,” she admitted. “But that’s just Brooke’s personality. She’s really outgoing and well-liked and funny and pretty and-”

            “Perfect?” I cut her off.

            “Yeah,” she fake-smiled. I could tell how much it actually hurt her to say those nice things about Brooke though.

            “I’m sure you are too though,” I said. “Someone like that isn’t going to hang out with someone who’s going to bring them down. They’re going to hang out with someone just like them.”

            “I guess we’re pretty similar. I know she’s not trying to but she takes the attention away a lot of the time. Sometimes it feels like she is trying to. But it’s usually just Brooke who everyone wants to get to know instead of me. But I honestly have the exact same personality once you get to know me,” she said.

            “Is that an open invitation? Because I’d love to,” I flirted. She smiled and looked down, not wanting me to see her blush.

            We walked along the boardwalk for a while as Brooke had my friends’ attention swarming her, her confidence roaring. No one even noticed when Kelli and I stopped to get some fries. I asked her about herself and that’s when I really started to notice little details about her.

            How her eyes lit up when he talked about something she loved, how excited she got when she talked about her plans for the summer, how her nose scrunched up a little when she laughed as she told me funny stories about her and Brooke, how passionate she sounded talking about how much she loved to write, how she flipped her long hair from one side to the other with her hand as she blushed and tried to look away when I complimented her- all these little details started adding up, hitting me like rocks being tossed at a window, gently pelting me with every little thing I could possibly fall in love with about her.

            So why couldn’t I get Brooke out of my mind? We walked back to our friends who were playing a game but I still stayed off to the side a little bit with Kelli. I don’t know what happened, but the way I felt about Brooke before is how I was starting to feel about Kelli- nervous.

            “Cody, come here,” Brooke smiled at me as we waited on line for the Ferris wheel. How could I say no to Brooke? I walked straight over and she stood on her tip toes to whisper in my ear, “I think you should get with my friend.” I looked back at Kelli who rolled her eyes, obviously not knowing what was going on.

            I could obviously tell that Mattie had started to take an interest in Brooke and I’d rather he get her than Carter, so glancing at Mattie I whispered back, “I think you should get with mine.”

            She looked at him then back at me, “Let’s do it.”