When You Know It's Real

part 11

“I, he didn’t...I broke up with him.” She stops and looks at all of us before she continues, “Last night, after work, he caught me and Matthew...together.”  Amber and Rhiley gasp, Krista’s eyes go wide and my jaw drops straight to the floor.

“You what...!?”  I try not to yell, but if it is one thing I hate, its cheaters.

“It just sort of happened!  I, we...we have been talking at work a lot, and on the phone; and last night, Josh was late picking me up so Matt offered to let me wait in his car.  I didn’t want to wait outside, and he told me he wasn’t going to leave me until Josh got there anyways, so I waited in his car.”

She pauses to catch her breath, and looks around the room at us again.

“But if it was you,” says Rhylie, “why didn’t he break up with you?  And you were just sitting in his car...”  I wanted to ask that question too, but it seemed rude.

“We were, at first.” She says to us.  She knows how much I hate cheaters, so she says this next part looking at me, her eyes pleading for my forgiveness.  “I don’t really know how it happened, but we were just talking- he’s really sweet Rachel!”  I give her a look, signalling for her to continue, “And with Josh, its just so comfortable.  He never says nice things to me anymore, it is like we are brother and sister now.  And Matthew, he said that I had really pretty eyes.  Then he asked if he could kiss me, at first I said no, but then I realized that I wanted him to kiss me.

We stare at her with wide eyes.  She pauses from her story to blow her nose, and it looks like she is done crying.  “I told him he could kiss me, but, then he said no.  Not when I am still dating Josh.”  We were all confused, if Matt said no, how could Josh have caught them together?

“I pulled his face to mine and thats when Josh came.  He told me it was okay, and that we would work through this... no questions, just acceptance.  Thats when I realized that he had a secret and it turns out he has been cheating on me...” She pauses and takes a few more deep breaths before finishing, “Matt took me home and asked if I would go with him to Brads party, so he should be here soon.”

Well that was an interesting turn of events.  Wow, he had been cheating on her...who knew?  As if on cue, my doorbell rings.  I look at Kait, who is a mess, then motion for her to go down and get the door.

“But its your house!” she says to me.

“And its your guest,” I reply smugly.  Its her mess, she should have to deal with it herself.

“Please Rachel!  I need to clean myself up before he sees me!”  I sigh and leave the room, telling her that I will stall him for as long as I can.

I rush down the stairs and answer the door, just as the person was raising their fist to knock.  The person standing on the other side of the door was wearing a black suit and he had a tie that was the exact same colour as my dress.  It wasn’t Matt, it was Derek! 

When he sees me, his eyes go wide and his jaw drops causing me to blush deeply.  I move over giving him room to come into my house.  I am still blushing and I cant look at his face.

“Wow,” was all he managed to say.  I look at him now, and smile.

“Hi,” I say to him, I look down again and say, “Everyone is upstairs, come on.”

We go up to my room, and Rhiley is fixing Kait’s hair, while Amber is doing her makeup.  When she sees us coming in, she squeaks and runs into the closet, shutting the door.  Derek gives me a funny look and I just shrug,  “Kait, calm down, it’s Derek.” 

“Oh,” she says, opening the door.  “Hey,” she says to him while taking a seat on the bed so the girls could finish her hair and makeup.

“Derek?” I say to him, after a few minutes of silence, “How did you know the colour of my dress?”  The only people who knew were Krista and Amber... and-