Page 132 of Summertime Friends

I sit there and stare at her. Hands under my legs to help contain my anxious ticks.

“Did you sleep with him?”

She takes out two plates and places two giant waffles on each. Opening the containers of blueberries, she washes them before placing one in every other compartment of the waffles. In the other compartments, she places chocolate chips.

“Syrup?” she asks.

“Natalie,” I demand.

“No.”

“I don’t believe you. You are the most sex-positive person I know. For the slimmest part of my sanity right now, tell me if you did.”

“I didn’t, I promise. It’s a line I didn’t want to cross.” Natalie’s eyes pinch.

“Seriously? That was the line you drew? You’ve got to be kidding me, Natalie. That is ridiculous, you know that?”

“Yeah. . .”

We eat—Natalie eats, I stare at her—in silence, my frustration fuming, and all you can hear is the clinking of the fork and plate.

“Soooooooooo,” she comments behind her napkin, which she wipes her mouth with.

“Why’d you do it?” I ask directly.

“Emme, you have to believe I never meant to hurt you.”

“That’s what you start with? You never meant to hurt me.” My eyes flutter. I laugh. “You’ve got to be shitting me, Nat. You can’t even lead with an apology.”

“You have to believe me—”

“Why? Why should I?” I shake my head at her, pushing my uneaten waffle to the center of the counter. “You lied. You manipulated him and our relationship for your own game. How did you not expect to hurt him or me in the process?”

“It wasn’t a game.”

“You could have told him the truth. If he loves me like he’s saying, he wouldn’t have needed you to fool him into coming back to me. What does that make me? Second place. A consolation prize of friendship, how wonderful. I should have seen it earlier. You’ve been doing this our entire friendship. You take advantage of my weaknesses to get what you want. You devalued the friendship I thought we had. And now, you devalued whatever the hell Liam and I were!”

After Liam confessed everything Natalie did, I told him I needed space and a chance to figure this out. I was hurt that he didn’t say anything to me. I understand that Natalie promised she would tell me, but why didn’t he bring it up? His excuse was that he thought I would freak out. Well, he’s right.

“That’s not true. How does this do that?” She’s shaking her head at me like I’m the crazy one in the situation.

“Are you serious right now? How could I not think that if you knew who he was and intentionally did this? You did this for yourself. You always do everything for yourself.”

“I did this for YOU!” she raises her voice. “Emme, you barely, BARELY, told me about him. I’m lucky I saw a glimpse of him three years ago to even know who he was.”

“You saw him three years ago?”

“A photo. Your photos. On your birthday, when you were putting all that clutter into a box in your closet. I was awake that morning and could see the photos. I snuck back into your room later and looked at them.”

“You snuck into my room?” My head jerks back at the audacity she has. “You were the one to tell him never to speak to me again.”

“Yeah, I did. I was mad that you didn’t tell me about him.”

“I did.”

“That’s bullshit, and we both know it. You said you met someone and broke up. Nothing else.”

“You kept Liam a secret and away from me for a year.”

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