Girlfriend's Best Friend

Chapter 16

             I didn’t know what to do—I’d always wanted to get with Brooke, but not enough to cheat on my girlfriend with her. I couldn’t have a repeat of last year. Her lips were soft on mine, but I wouldn’t kiss her back. I stayed still with my eyes wide open and pushed her off of me. She looked at me confused.

            “Brooke, that wasn’t okay,” I raised my eyebrows and slightly shook my head. “I’m sorry if I gave you any idea that we should kiss but I have a girlfriend I really care about. A girlfriend who is supposed to be your best friend…”

            “You even just said it yourself that she isn’t a good friend to me. Cody, you cannot honestly tell me that you haven’t been waiting for that kiss,” she lowered her voice, her blue eyes tempting me.

            “What?” I was caught off guard. Was she actually trying to get with me now that it was too late and I had a girlfriend? Why didn’t she do this four months ago?

            “You wanted me to kiss you,” she said blatantly. “Isn’t that why you kissed me first?”

            “Your forehead, to let you know that we’re friends and I’m here for you. On the lips is completely different,” I said, starting to lose my patience. I know I have a history of leading girls on, but being led on is a completely new thing to me—I wouldn’t let Brooke do that to me.

            “Cuddling with me? Rubbing my hair? Wanting to get to know the real me? Come on Cody, you know that kiss meant something,” she kept trying.

            “Of course I wanted to kiss you Brooke. But not while I had a girlfriend I really cared about,” I pictured Kelli’s reaction when she found out Brooke kissed me. She overreacted when she found out I used to like Brooke—imagine what it’ll be like when she finds out I actually kissed her. I didn’t want to be known as a player anymore. I wanted to be able to stay with one girl who I loved and who loved me back.

            “Telling Kelli would kill her. We both made a mistake,” Brooke said, suddenly making this my fault too. “Let’s just forget about it and continue on like it never happened. No one has to know.”

            What?? She kissed me and tried to convince me that I wanted that kiss too, and now suddenly we’re going to act like it never happened? Brooke is not going to try to beat me at my own game. I didn’t ­get played, I was always the one doing the playing. I didn’t want to be a player anymore, but it’s what I did best. Last year taught me I had to change my ways, but Brooke was adjusting the rules and making new exceptions, enticing me to rejoin the game. And if I knew I could get away with it, then why not?

            “If no one has to know then we can do it again…right?” I asked, Brooke unintentionally pulling me back into my old ways.

            “Kelli will never find out?” she asked.

            “Never,” I kissed her.

~~~~~~~~~~

           I have no idea how long we’d been going at it, but we pulled up the second we both heard Duke say, “Yo, there is no way that happened!” Brooke shifted away from me a little and we both redirected our attention to the movie that had been playing that was almost over now.

            I definitely wanted more, and what I wanted, I usually got. This would work out perfectly—I’d keep Brooke a secret and still be able to keep Kelli as my girlfriend without her finding out. It’s not like Brooke would tell her—she secretly hated Kelli, but telling her would mean she couldn’t get with me anymore. When Kelli gets back, she’ll see the way I act around Brooke and she’ll be a little suspicious but I’ll convince her otherwise. She won’t be convinced though, and she’ll try even harder to keep me so that Brooke can’t have me. That’ll make Brooke want me more too, because she doesn’t want Kelli to have me, and that’ll convince her even more to not tell Kelli. Basically, both will be fighting over me and never tell the other.

            It sounded complicated, but I knew exactly what I was doing.

            Jace handed some fries to Brooke and then threw a McDonald’s bag at me, probably still angry about what I said before about Brooke leading him on. I was expecting him to sit back down and ignore me, but instead he turned back and said, “Dude, holy shit! That hickey on your neck—it’s huge!”

            “What??” I quickly covered my neck but Carter came over and ripped my hand off my neck so he could see too. “Oh my God!” he laughed.

            “It looks like you just got it,” Graham said confused. I couldn’t tell my friends what was going on, because they’d tell Kelli immediately. They were players too, but I was the worst of them. They wouldn’t even hesitate to rat me out. And once they did, I couldn’t see Brooke anymore.

            “I guess Kel really got you good,” Brooke laughed to cover it up. Duke laughed at the thought of what would happen when my mom sees it—she’s crazy about this stuff. “Remember when Kel left her shirt in your room and she found it?”

            “That was like, a week into our relationship and I swear all I did was take her shirt off when we were making out. But my mom screamed at me and then the next day she put a box of condoms in my room with a note that said ‘be safe’ hahaha,” I laughed.

            Duke said he couldn’t believe that Kelli wouldn’t let me have sex with her yet because it’s been four months and Brooke surprised me when she said, “Wait…you haven’t had sex with her yet? That’s impossible, I literally held her hand as she cried and took a pregnancy test two months ago.”

            “I mean, I definitely want to but she won’t let me,” I said. Kelli was already fighting for me over Brooke, trying to discourage Brooke from even trying but I knew that would just make Brooke try harder.

            Everything was already working itself out.