Best Friend's Boyfriend: The Sequel

Chapter 10

The next Monday at school was terrible, because despite the fact I got out of Cody's room in time, Kelli still sent out my nudes. Cole promised me he talked to Cody about it, and even though Cody begged Kelli not to do it, just like with telling people about my scar, she still did it.

Cole told me I should tell the school administration or the police because Kelli was technically distributing child pornography, but I couldn't do that without also going down for it. I was the one who took the picture of myself and sent it to Cody. And if I wanted Kelli to get in trouble, all those people who ended up with my picture would go down for it too, I'd be even more hated, and worse, my parents would find out. Kelli had won, again.

As cheesy as it sounds, the only thing that really got me through it was Cole's love. He supported me through the whole thing and never made me feel like it was my fault. He understood my decision not to report it and didn't make me feel stupid for still be sad about it, even though I was choosing to do nothing.

Another month passed, and although people at school were still mean to me, I was learning to handle it better. Cole's twenty-first birthday is tonight, and the only thing he wanted was to be able to have a double date with his brother. I understood how much it meant to him to be able to do things with Cody. Cole confided in me that he feels like he's losing his relationship with Cody to Kelli because she won't let him hang out with anyone, Cole included. Although I hated the idea of sitting across from Kelli at a table, I would do it for Cole.

I already sat across the table from Kelli every Sunday night when the Hayes invited us over for Sunday dinners. I had the satisfaction of knowing Mr. and Mrs. Hayes liked me better. Mr. Hayes invited me over their house for Easter—I was surprised to find out Kelli wasn't invited. Mrs. Hayes took me for pedicures last week—again, Kelli wasn't asked.

I also had the satisfaction of knowing I was in a happy relationship while Cody and Kelli were not. But above all that, I had the satisfaction of knowing I was happy in general, despite all the ways people tried to break me down.

On the morning April 19th, I showed up to my boyfriend's house in the cutest lavender sundress with a ton of gifts and balloons for him, even though he told me not to get him anything. Mrs. Hayes let me in and I made my way upstairs, quiet not to wake Cole. I set down the gifts and jumped on him, kissing his face all over until finally he laughed and said, "Okay, okay, I'm awake! Thank you, Brooke."

The entire day went great—the only thing that could've made it better was if I had no anxiety about dinner with Cody and Kelli tonight. Cole promised me I had no reason to be nervous. He already talked to Cody about being nice to me, and told him to keep Kelli in line. Apparently, Kelli was reluctant to even agree to Cole's birthday dinner, but Cody was finally able to convince her.

Cody and Kelli finally met us at the restaurant. Cole got scared that they weren't going to even show up, but I assured him they would, even though at one point I wasn't sure they would either. Cody pulled out Kelli's chair for her and helped her in. She didn't thank him, and she didn't say a word to us either.

Every time I contributed to the conversation between Cody and Cole, I could see Kelli growing more angry and jealous with every word I said. But that's not even why I was contributing to the conversation. It was nice to have dinner with my boyfriend and his brother, almost like normal couples would.

"Cole Hayes!" we heard a group of people call from the bar. Cole looked up and instantly had a smile on his face.

"Those people used to be some of my close friends freshman year of college! I haven't seen them in forever! I'll be right back," he excused himself.

I smiled and watched him walk over, and then redirected my attention back to Kelli and Cody. Kelli looked at me with a look she had to know I would recognize. It was the look she always did back when we were friends when someone was rude to me and I should be mad.

"What?" I asked her.

"You're not angry he just ditched you for his friends?" she asked, eyes wide.

"No..." I said, kind of confused. "He didn't ditch me, he's saying hi to some people he hasn't seen in a while."

"Alright, sorry," Kelli said really defensively, as if I was just rude to her. "I'm just saying maybe you should be worried. There are girls over there."

"I don't think he'd cheat on me in the five minutes he's over there," I laughed. "I don't think he'd cheat on me at all."

"All they need is a slut to tempt them," she said.

I took a deep breath before speaking to her. "Kelli, it was months ago. I don't know how many times I've said sorry, but I've already apologized and told you how much I regret it. There's nothing else I can do. You need to let it go."

She turned to Cody to see if he was going to let me get away with speaking like that to her.

"Brooke's right," Cody said. "You need to get over it."