Girlfriend's Best Friend

Chapter 25

            “Does Kelli know?” he asked after a long and awkward silence.

           “Bro, of course not,” I said. If I couldn’t even tell him and my other best friends about it, why would he think my girlfriend would know? I made him promise he wouldn’t say anything to anyone.

           “But like…why?” he asked, confused and disappointed.

           “It’s complicated,” Brooke said.

           “Do you guys like…like each other or something?”

           “No,” I quickly said at the same time Brooke said, “Kind of.” I looked at her, begging her not to tell the whole story, but she looked at me sadly, “Cody.”

           “Guys, whatever’s going on…I just want to know. Because the guys and I have had our suspicions but I didn’t completely believe it until now,” he said.

      “You guys were right. Brooke and I have been hooking up for over a month now. Nobody knows, and nobody is supposed to know. We’ve been going crazy trying to cover this up and it’s been getting to both of us. We just got into a fight because I fucked up and she wanted to go home. But I wouldn’t let her. Not by herself this late at night and this far away from home. So she texted you and I was going to wait with her and leave just before you got here. I was expecting you to text her or something you were almost here and then I’d know to leave. But you didn’t give us any warning. You weren’t supposed to see anything,” I explained it the best I could. Jace stood there, licked his lips and brought in his bottom lip with his teeth.

      “But what about Kel?” he looked hurt.

      “What about her?” I asked.

            “I don’t know, it just seemed like you really loved her. And she was telling me about how she was so happy that she finally had sex with you a month ago because it was her first and she was sure you loved her and I know sex isn’t a big deal to you Code, but to girls it’s pretty big and she’s going to feel lied to and…I mean, I feel like a dick saying this but-”

      “She’s going to feel cheated,” I said, my head in my hands. I looked back up, “It’s because she was cheated.”

Jace didn’t know what to say, but he at least told us he wasn’t mad, which is what I was afraid he would be. He said he didn’t want to be a part of this, so to act like he never knew. He told me to go see Kelli because she really loves me. Nothing was alright, but he wanted me to pretend it was for her sake. I told him I’d go see Kelli, but there was honestly no point.

             This thing was only hours from breaking down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

         “You didn’t say anything, right?” I asked Jace quietly as we walked into the pizza shop. He promised he didn’t, and I knew he probably wouldn’t, but I still hated the fact that he knew.

            We ordered a pie and sat down at a table. The second Carter sat down he stood right back up. “Oh, shit, anyone else see that really hot girl just walk past? Graham, come with me to talk to her,” he grabbed his hand and pulled him out.

            “Don’t hold my hand, dude,” Graham pulled away and the two left to find the girl. Jace downed two iced teas while we waited forever for the pizza and left to go pee as Mattie told me and Duke about this band he found.

            “Yo, they did show at my brother’s college a few months ago, I saw them with him. They were really good live,” I said.

            “Do you have pictures from the concert?” he asked. I nodded, unlocked my phone and told him to go through to find them. I was just so hungry and still shaken up about last night to pay attention to anything.

            “Oh my God!” Mattie’s mouth dropped and turned the phone to Duke who’s eyes widened and then smiled.

            “What?” I asked.

            “How the fuck did you get this??” Mattie asked, showing me the naked picture of Brooke that she sent me. I took my phone back and told them not to worry about it.

           “Did she send that to you? Bro, at least send it to us too, we won’t show anyone!” Duke said.

            “She sent it to me a while ago, I don’t know why,” I lied.

            “Does your girlfriend know?” Duke asked.

            “Regardless of if I have a girlfriend or not, Brooke’s still bangin’,” I bragged.

            “You told them everything going on with you and Brooke?” Jace came back to the table. I turned my head and widened my eyes to get him to shut up.

            “She just sent him a picture, calm down Jace,” Mattie laughed.

           “Wait…there’s more, isn’t there?” Duke asked. When I didn’t answer he punched my arm and said, “Bro, are you getting with her??”

            And that’s when I had to tell them the whole story, from start to finish.