The Truths That We Hide

𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝

It was always horrible to lose a great friendship. Sadly, Bree had experienced that too. This story wasn't about Xavier who wasn't only the love of her life but also her friend. No, this one happened with Wesley Hamilton.

He had been a friend of her since freshman year when they got to know each other during classes that they shared. Unlike with Chris who started to hate her immediately after she rejected him, Wesley actually had taken time to get to know her and became friends with her.

They had been really close, at least that's what she thought. Yet, the minute Chris had become childish and desperate for good revenge to one of her pranks and told lies about her, her best friend had believed him without even questioning her first.

That was the end of their friendship, leaving her nothing but good memories and tears from the way he started to treat her afterward. Bree hadn't talked with him for months and when they did, it was all arguing between them. No wonder that she didn't feel like going to him when she figured out that she was pregnant.

It was a shame because there was a time when she thought that they would be friends till the end but apparently she overthought that too. All it took one photo to destroy their friendship.

One photo that was photoshopped by no other than Christian Adams who had done it so well that there were no mistakes or anything else that might have proved her right.

She didn't know how he was able to do that nor did she care about that. No, she was sad, angry and most of all betrayed that her friend didn't even try to believe her.

She had a huge surprise after the summer holiday when she went back to the familiar high school. It was almost lunchtime and Bree was starving after teaching biology for four hours to people who most of whom were still feeling like being in the holiday.

She was tired as well. Poor Quentin had a nightmare in the middle of the night and she had spent a lot of time trying to calm him down. After he had finally fallen asleep, she had troubles at sleeping on her own which caused her to stay still for an hour or two, trying not to wake her son up for a second time that night.

She was about to leave her classroom to get something to eat when someone knocked on the door. Frowning, she checked the time and saw that it had been ten minutes since the class had ended.

Most of the students were either eating or doing something else that entertained them during their free time. She stood up, thinking that someone had forgotten their books or something else, only to freeze by the shocking appearance of her old best friend who was looking back at hers filled with excitement and nervousness.

"Hello Bree. Missed me?" he joked with a smile and just like that, whatever plans she had for lunch were long forgotten.

🌺🌺🌺

A boy, who used to go by Wes, wore glasses but wasn't called a nerd or whatever stereotypes young people had. He wasn't a nerd but he wasn't sitting in the popular student's table at lunch. He didn't have muscles like most of those jocks who spent at least six hours every day at the gym.

He didn't care what people said about him but the thing was that no one really had anything to say about him. He just was. And that's what made her want to be his friend in the first place.

Now, that boy seemed to be long gone and it was replaced by a grown-up man with a slight beard, muscles that certainly came from the gym and the always so happy brown eyes weren't now behind the glasses.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just got a job here a week ago as an art teacher and got permission to start on the first day because, well, you know..." Wesley started to explain but that wasn't what she meant. The cruel truth was that she couldn't care less about his job at the moment.

No, she wanted to know how he ended up in a city where she had lived for years. She wanted to be happy to see him after so long but she wasn't. If the man in front of her had even a little wisdom in his brain, he would also know why she wasn't jumping from happiness.

"I meant what are you doing here? In New York? From all the cities in the world, New York? Why?"

"Oh! I moved here a week ago. We always talked about moving here together, remember? But before you say anything, I swear I didn't know that you worked here until this morning! The last time I heard about you was in senior year when your parents told me that you moved away. You never said goodbye..."

"Any guesses why I didn't? And now you just decided to came here and have a little chat with me? For a good times' sake?"

Bree wasn't fair with the sarcastic comment but she couldn't help it. He seemed to understand though, because he shut up, not bothering to comment anything. Both of them knew that this wasn't a good time or place for that conversation.

Deciding that lunch was, in fact, a good option right now compared to this awkward silence that filled the classroom, she was about to inform her plans to him so he would leave. That worked until he pretty much started to beg for her to listen to him and leave only after he got to say what he had in mind.

After a small pause, she agreed, knowing that there wasn't any good reason to move this to later, no matter how uncomfortable and emotional it made them both.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for not believing you back then. I should have known that you wouldn't do that but, I don't know, something in me snapped when I saw that photo of you two," as he explained the past, he looked sad and disappointed and it didn't disappear as Bree started to talk.

"You thought I'm some bitch and would do that to you? You should have known me better than that. I mean, dammit, you were my best friend! How could you believe some stupid, photoshopped photo over me? Believe Chris over me?"

She tried to sound confident and stubborn but it was clear that she had already forgiven him and if not, she would be soon. All she had ever wanted was an apology and explanation why things went down like that and now there he was, in front of her, doing exactly what she had wanted for years ever since that horrible day.

"But it was so good photo..." he muttered but stopped the second Bree threw an annoyed look towards him, telling him to shut up before he would say even more wrong things. "Not like that! God, definitely not like that. I meant that there wasn't any mistakes or anything, it was photoshopped to look as good as real."

He needed more than that to get his title back as her best friend but it was a start. Start with a beautiful reunion and a great friendship. Now wasn't the time for any of that but a cup of hot chocolate after school would make her day better, giving them a time to catch up and actually have time to the real conversation.

"You can buy me-" she started to say with a smile that she couldn't resist but was cut off by the man who still seemed to remember her taste.

"Hot chocolate with whipped cream and cherry on top?"

"No! I meant coffee 'cause I don't like hot chocolate anymore, especially a fancy one like that," she said, lying straight to his face because she didn't want to give him the pleasure of being right.

It might be a bit childish and maybe even stupid but because she already had a reason to be angry with him, a good one, she wanted to find even more reasons to dislike him. She didn't want to forgive him too easily. And trying to prove him wrong about her taste was one way of doing so.

Alright, even she had to admit that her logic made no sense. Maybe this was the reason why so many people thought it hard to understand what she was talking about sometimes.

"Sure you did, Bree."

A/N: Happy Valentine's day everyone! I hope you have a good day whether you're at school or work (like me) or spend your day at bed watching Netflix alone or are with people you love!