Page 42 of Just Friends Forever
She thinks I’m still in love with Stevie. Why does no one believe me?
“I’d rather end things before I get more invested, Troy, because my gut is telling me I’m only going to get hurt in the end.”
I shake my head, chewing my cheek in frustration. I’m not going to beg Lyla to stick around, partly because we haven’t spent enough time together for me to know whether I really want to keep dating her, and partly because I’m still frustrated she told her friend about Stevie.
But I know what it’s like to feel like you’re competing with an impossible standard—I’ve been set up against Austin my whole life—and I hate that I’ve made Lyla feel like that. Just as much as I hate that she thinks I’m secretly in love with Stevie.
“I understand.” I blow out a breath and grimace.
It goes quiet as we both process what’s happening.
I grimace as I meet her eye. “So that’s that, huh?”
She mirrors my expression. “I guess so.”
* * *
I drive home in silence—somethingI never do. It’s not like I’d pictured Lyla and me getting married or anything. I was just seeing where things went. I’m not sure how to feel about things ending tonight, though.
How am I going to tell Stevie? She’ll ask about my date, and she’ll want to know why I’m home so early. And my sisters? They won’t rest until I spill the beans. Telling them the truth means revealing Stevie is the reason Lyla and I won’t be going out again, and I’m not about to do that. It’ll make Stevie feel terribleandmake things weird between us. Inevitably, she’ll start worrying I’m still in love with her.
WhatdoI say, though?
I take a sudden left, and my tires squeal like I’m onThe Fast and the Furious. I may as well grab a few things at the store before heading home. It’ll give me some time to decide how to handle the conversation with Stevie and my sisters.
I take my time roaming the aisles, my interest in nutrition facts suddenly insatiable. Who knew Italian sausage had so much selenium? Also, what is selenium? There are only so many aisles, though, and when I pull up to the house, I’m still not sure what I should say. I’m supposed to be seeing a movie right now.
There are a few camera-clicks and flashes as I get out of the car. I don’t pay them any attention because my mind is elsewhere. I’m tempted to slip quietly inside my apartment to avoid conversation altogether.
From the foyer, I can hear the TV downstairs, and I gently open the door to Austin’s apartment.
A man’s voice says something about poetry being the food of love, and my mouth quirks up at one edge. Sounds like a true, dyed-in-the-wool girls’ night if they’re watchingPride & Prejudice.
I set down my groceries and creep down the stairs, realizing I have a great opportunity to scare them now. Maybe that’ll distract them from the subject-that-shall-not-be-named. But when I get to the pony wall and peek over, I pause.
The three of them are on the floor, fast asleep, with Stevie in the middle. There are only two pillows between the three of them, so Stevie’s and Tori’s heads are resting against each other. They’ve pulled the blanket from Austin’s bed, and it’s haphazardly thrown across them, the lower half of Siena’s legs entirely uncovered.
Stevie’s hair is still up, but the bun on top of her head has migrated to the side, almost in Tori’s face. She looks so peaceful, so at home between my sisters. It’s not the image I need right now. Or ever.
Divorced or not, Stevie has never been interested in me in that way. As for me?
I’m trying really hard not to feel all the same things I felt in the past. I’m trying not to prove Lyla right.
15
STEVIE
It’s not normal.I realize that.
A just-divorced woman shouldn’t wake up burning with curiosity over how her best friend’s date went last night. But that’s where I find myself—staring up at the ceiling and wondering how soon Troy and Lyla might decide to take things to the next level.
I thought for sure I’d still be awake when he got home last night. Tori fell asleep first, and even though Siena laughed and suggested writing on her face with Sharpie, her own eyelids “took a rest” half an hour later.
I made it farther than them intoPride & Prejudice, but all the junk food we ate must have put me to sleep soundly enough that Troy’s arrival didn’t wake me. Siena shook Tori awake at one to head home, and it was only when I saw Troy’s car in the driveway through the window that I realized he’d already gotten home. I felt oddly disappointed he didn’t come debrief us after the date.
I’m realizing more and more how being deprived of substantive human interaction for so many months has affected me. The first person I saw after it ended was Troy, and apparently, I’ve imprinted on him. My mind is constantly veering in his direction, and I feel weird and vulnerable when he isn’t around. But imprinting is something reserved for birds and zebras and characters inTwilight, not normal adult humans.
I’m not reading into the little flickers of jealousy I feel when I think of Troy and Lyla. It would be silly for a few reasons.
