Page 129 of Best Served Cold

18

ZANE

The drama was over by the time I made my way through the crowd gathered in the backyard.

Aaron was standing with Mason and some of their friends, and pockets of people were huddled together and whispering, but with the scandalous looks being tossed my way, I wasn’t sure if that was because of what had just gone down with Noah and me, or with Chanel.

“Where’d she go?” I asked one of her friends.

She waved in the direction of the gazebo in the back corner of the yard, her eyes as round as saucers as she stared at me like I was a ghost and she was waiting for me to disappear in front of her eyes.

“Thanks,” I muttered, and headed toward the gazebo.

A lone figure sat on one of the benches, hunched over with her arms wrapped around her torso.

Chanel looked up as the wooden stair under me creaked. “What do you want? Come to make fun of me too? Go ahead.”

I sat next to her on the bench, keeping about a foot of space between us. “Not here for that.”

“Then why?” Her shoulders slumped as the fight left her.

“We’ve known each other a long time, right?” I started, fumbling over the words a bit.

“Yeah. Since high school.”

“I know we’ve never been close, or whatever. But something happened that made you act like this.”

“Act like what? Like a crazy person?” Her voice was shrill, but I could hear the pain behind her words. “Yeah, that’s right. Crazy Chanel being a crazy bitch.”

“You’re not crazy.”

She seemed to deflate in front of my eyes. “You’re the only one who seems to think that.”

“What happened when you and Aaron broke up? You weren’t like this before.”

“What makes you think something happened?” she mumbled, her eyes on the floor of the gazebo. “No one else gives a shit about my side of the story.”

“I don’t give a shit about his side. So tell me yours.”

“What have you heard?” she asked warily.

“Nothing. Just that you broke up and he’s with someone new.”

She snorted derisively. “That’s what I thought too.”

I leaned my arms on my thighs and waited so she could gather her thoughts.

“He cheated on me. Not with her, but with God knows how many other girls,” she said softly. “And everyone knew.”

I kept quiet, letting her talk.

“They lied to me. Everyone did. They covered for him, lied for him. They made me think I was crazy every time I questioned things or even tried to talk to anyone about why I thought something was going on behind my back.”

A long pause.

“Do you know how I found out he was cheating?” she asked, sounding hesitant.

“How?”

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