Page 60 of Acting Merry
Reese
“Reese?”
I blink rapidly and dash away a tear before forcing my mouth into a smile and turning toward Megan.
Her eyes widen, and she hurries over. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?”
“Yeah!” My voice is high and wobbly. “Ridiculous to cry when I’ll probably see him in, like, two days, I know.”
“Cole left?” she asks, avcreasing her brow.
“He had an urgent work thing.” I hate lying. So much. Why did I ever think this was a good idea?
Megan watches me for a few seconds. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
To my annoyance, my eyes fill with tears again, and my throat thickens until it’s impossible to get out a single word.
Megan’s eyes fill with sympathy. She puts her armaround me and guides me down the hallway to her room, shutting the door behind us.
Tears are streaming down my face. The hose nozzle has been turned, and there’s no shutting it off now. It’s a steady stream—all the emotions I’ve been trying to stuff down since the breakup with Brady have bubbled up and are spilling over in front of the last person I’d choose to show them to.
Well, second to last.
Brady takes the bottom spot on that list.
Megan and I sit down on the bed together, and she puts her arm around me and rests her head against mine.
Half of me wants to tell her I’m fine, but the other half wants to unburden myself. And myself is a complete mess.
I just wanna be done with pretending. I’m so tired of trying to figure out what I can and can’t feel, say, and do.
“Cole and I aren’t dating.” I have to start somewhere, and that’s the part I’m struggling most with at the moment.
Megan pulls away and looks at me, her face full of concern. “You guys broke up?”
I shut my eyes and lower my head. “We were never dating in the first place.”
She’s quiet, and I look up. Her eyes are full of confusion.
I take in a breath and let it out slowly. “I brought him because I didn’t know how to face you and Brady alone.”
Her face crumples.
I look away because I don’t want pity. I just need this off my chest. I need to tell her the truth.
I’ve lost Cole. Maybe I’ll lose Megan too. But at least I won’t be pretending anymore.
“I was too embarrassed to come by myself,” I say. “Too…hurt.”
Her eyes shut and the arm around my shoulders drops.
There it is. I said it, and it’s already messing things up.
She takes my hand. “Reese, I’msosorry. When Hannah told me you said I could bring Brady, I worried you’d just said it to be nice because you’realwaysso worried about making others happy. But then Hannah said you were bringing someone too, so I convinced myself you really were okay with it.”
I smile wanly. “No one could blame you. That’s what I wanted you to believe.”
She searches my eyes. “But you weren’t okay.”
