"Jake, bro—"
I walk right up to him. "What. Did. You. Tell. Her?" I say, enunciating every word.
I'm so pissed that I can feel my fists shaking at my side, but I manage to keep my voice flat.
"Hey," the girl, Maisie, comes up from behind. "That's no way to talk to him."
"Maisie, stay out of it," Chris tells her before turning to me. "What the hell are you talking about?"
I hold up my phone which has a screen grab from the CCTV footage. I knew that he would try to deny it when confronted, so I brought proof.
His face pales.
"Where did you get that?"
"From my apartment where you visited my girlfriend?"
Chris scoffs. "So, she's your girlfriend now? When did that happen?"
"Chris—" I warn him. "Why did you go by my apartment? You knew I was in Spain. You and Henry both knew. So, why?"
"I'm sick of your accusations."
"What did you tell her? Why did she leave?"
He starts to laugh. "Spoiler alert, bro. If she left because of one little lie of mine, she never loved you in the first place."
My blood runs cold. He doesn't have to tell me. I connect all the dots. The phone he was holding up. Kiera's tears afterwards. Everything makes sense now.
"You told her I was with someone else."
He doesn't even try to deny it this time. "I was trying to save you. She would have ruined your life the same way she ruined mine."
"What did you do?"
"It was simple enough," Chris says, gesturing to the girl. "I changed my contact from Maisie's name to yours. I called her, she answered and told us you were not there at the moment. Woke the poor girl up, too."
What the fuck.
Chris starts to circle me.
"It was a test, and she failed it. Jake, don't you see? I always have your back." He leans in. "Even though you didn't have mine back in college when you let Kiera walk in on me. You wanted that, didn't you? You wanted her for yourself. But I'm not as selfish as you. I'll always be there for you, even when she isn't."
I ball my fists and look up to see Chris smirking at me. Everything goes red.
My fist connects with his face and sends him reeling into the couch.
Maisie screams, rushing toward him.
Chris groans as he starts to sit up, blood pouring out of his nose. "Screw you."
"Stay away from me, asshole. You're no friend of mine." And with that, I walk out of the apartment.
I drive around the city aimlessly. Blood still pounding in my head, giving me an awful headache. I remember Kiera's new address and decide to drive down there, picking flowers on the way.
I wait outside her apartment with a pounding heart, waiting for her to open. But when the door opens, a petite woman with flaming red hair comes out.
Wait, am I at the wrong apartment?