It's Complicated

Chapter Nine

"So are you ready to tell the truth?" I asked Stanley as we sat down on a secluded bench outside of the park.

"You sure you didn't want to talk at home instead?" Stanley asked "this is not exactly the conversation to have outdoors."

"Look Stanley, you've been hiding whatever this is for too long, I want to know and I want to know now," I said harshly, I was anxious about hearing this story because from the looks of it, it was serious, but this was the time, I needed to know what was happening and I needed to know now.

"Okay Sof, but don't say I didn't warn you," he stared at me as if for feedback but I remained silent. "I don't even know where I should start."

"Maybe at the beginning?" I sassed.

"Do you remember how you and Josie became friends?"

"Obviously Stanley, it wasn't that long ago."

"I mean I know you remember, but do you also remember how weird it was that she just came up to you suddenly, out of the blue?"

"Yeah, I guess," I replied as my mind drifted to the day Josie and I became friends. I had just started high school, about a month in, I had absolutely no social skills, I hadn't made any friends or acquaintances, not that I really cared. My goal in school was always to excel and friends could come after, if ever. My fellow classmates couldn't stand my presence, they called me the overachiever and teachers' pet. They claimed that I acted like I was better and smarter than everyone else. The day that Josie and I became friends ,I was in the school library doing research when she came to sit at my table and randomly started a conversation about food,I was confused but I went with it. After about an hour of talking, she finally introduced herself to me and asked me if  wanted to be friends. I found it a little strange that a girl like that, who looked like she was popular, would want to be friends with me, I didn't have anything to lose so I agreed to be friends with her. Before I even realized Josie and I were doing everything together. "What are you getting at?" I asked Stanley.

"What if I told you that I knew Josie before she became your friend?" Stanley asked.

"What are you even saying?" I said confused. "like you knew her from around school or something?"

"Not exactly, look Josie had a big crush on me, that I've known about for all this time." He blurted out the sentence like it had been holding him hostage.

"What? I thought she had a crush on Levi?" I asked. Where was this story even going?

"No, she only pretended to have a crush on Levi to get my attention, she also became friends with you in order to get closer to me," he said the last part in a softer tone. I couldn't understand what was coming from my brothers mouth. How could my best friend have become my best friend only to get to my brother. This was beginning to sound like a lifetime movie.

"Stanley, you're not making any sense, how would you even know all that? And even if that was the case, what does this have to do with everything that's going on now?"

"Okay, since Josie had started high school, I had heard rumors about how she was obsessed with me, I didn't see it as a threat, a lot of girls in high school was obsessed with me. One day she asked one of my friends for my number, but they didn't give it to her. Finally she approached me herself and I told her that I wasn't interested and she wasn't my type. Next thing I knew you started high school and I left and I saw you come home with his girl as your new friend. Soon after I approached her to ask if she had told you what had happened between us. She told me that it was water under the bridge and she didn't see a reason to let you know. So I thought what was the harm? My sister had a friend and she was happy, so that made me in turn also happy. Then the three of us became friends and it was like nothing had ever happened, you had a best friend and I saw her as a sister. Then there came that dreadful day when we had movie night and Josie and I had decided on a movie that you didn't like, you had ended up falling asleep. That night Josie tried to come on to me, I started to reject her and that was the night she got the call from her mother about her father's accident."