Infliction

16

"To be honest, he probably downgraded from you to me."

"Don't belittle yourself like that," she says, laughing. "Anyway, how'd you two meet?"

I tell her the same story. About how my best friend abandoned me for some guy at a club how I found some company in him at the bar area, and about the day my mom met him and soon allowed me to catch a plane with him.

"That's intense," she speaks, putting down the bowl we finished. "Are you guys doing okay so far?"

So far? Did she expect us not to be doing okay?

I shrug my thought and give her a smug answer. "If by fine you mean those biceps and back muscles of his then yes, we're doing mighty fine."

She chokes out a laugh. "You know what I mean."

"We just have to know each other a little bit more."

"Oh, you'll soon be doing a whole lot more than just knowing him," she says, wriggling her eyebrows.

After that, we spoke about random things. I didn't entirely enjoy her company but the conversation was flowing easily. She's fluctuating and makes underhanded comments every now and then. All I can say is that I learned she's also an only child. That was whenever she wasn't talking about herself or fake-praising me.

There came a knock at the door and we both turned to look at the intruder. Whether it was for the best or not, I really can't tell. I was already looking for an excuse to leave. Kyle's head peaks in and he checks left and right before walking in.

"Well, this is in order?" he says but it sounds more like a question. If only you knew. 

"What does that mean?" she asks.

"I was pretty sure I would have to break up a fight." I stared at him to see if he was joking. He wasn't.

"I'd most probably be dead 20 seconds into the fight," I reasoned with him and saw her nodding in my peripheral vision.

"So you guys are getting along?" Something like that. In fact, something far from that.

"Yeah," we answer at the same time. She seems to be enjoying this while I'm dreading every second of it.

"You guys are 'best friends'?" he makes air quotes and Leigh-Ann slips her sandal off and throws it at him, missing his face and hitting his shoulder instead. He gives her an amused look which she deliberately ignores and asks for her shoe back, pouting her lips.

"What's your problem?" she asks him when he drops her shoe by her foot and takes a seat between us. A thought of why they broke up crosses my mind but I don't ask right now. It just doesn't feel right.

"I'm just super excited," he says cheerfully, looking at me. I fail to meet his cheerful attitude with one of my own.

"I failed to notice," I reply.

"What time should you be home?" he asks me, his hand finding it's way on top of my knee. I'm about to tell him we can leave now when she beats me to it.

"She can leave whenever," she answers for me.

I raise my eyebrow but don't say a thing. I just watch her scoot next to me.

"Hey," she exclaims, hitting my lap painfully. I bite my tongue and put one leg over the other. Surely she didn't mean to use that much force, right? My thoughts are interrupted when she speaks up. "You don't have my number."

You hit me that hard for a number? I almost ask but decide to play it cool. I pull my phone out and unlock it, handing it to her as she does the same with her phone. I enter my digits and save it, sending a text to my phone before deleting it from her recent messages. My gut feeling told me she wasn't going to save her right number and that she only asked for my number to improve her façade.

"Here," I hand her hers and take mine back. She sits up right and puts her leg freely on Kyle's lap. It's just a friendly gesture, right?

Then they start talking in hushes whispers, occasionally laughing out loud. I'm really trying to convince myself that it's all right. That Kyle and I will work out. That she'll remove her leg from his lap. He doesn't seem caught off guard by it, it's probably something they do all the time.

My vision becomes blurry and I space out of the conversation as it clearly became theirs. After a while, I start to feel the beating of my heart become faster and I take slow breaths. My eyes start stinging and I blink a couple times before excusing myself.

"Where you going?" she asks sweetly. I turn to her and stare at her for a while before shaking my head.

"I got something in my eye. I'll just use the bathroom if that's okay," I ask but don't wait for an answer.

We're now 'best friends' after all, aren't we? And everyone knows best friends share everything; clothes, rooms, bathrooms, secrets and ultimately, boys. I'm becoming a third wheel in my own relationship. Or am I just overreacting?

I dab my eyes with a wet tissue and pull myself together. I step out and head back to the patio but stop when I hear laughter. I slowly walk and hide behind the curtain as I spy on my new boyfriend.

Leigh-Ann glances at the window where I'm standing for a second. I don't think she saw me. I watch how she leans in and kisses him on his cheek, her eyes searching something around the curtains before they find what they're looking for.

She proceeds to wrap her arms around his neck and sit on his lap, holding him tightly. He doesn't even try and brush her off. A sly smile makes it's way on her face as we make eye contact.

Then she winks and kisses him on the lips.