Page 34 of Cross My Heart

“You look cozy.” Scarlett points at my jacket, and I narrow my eyes on her. “We need to talk.”

“Oh?” I look away, making sure no one is listening to us. For some reason, I know this isn’t a conversation I want to share with others. “About?”

“You and Tyler.” My eyes snap back to hers and her nostrils flare. “How about you stay the fuck away from my boyfriend, huh?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I reply slowly. “We haven’t even been alone together.”

“Oh, don’t play stupid, Noah. It doesn’t suit you.” Her face transforms, and she looks like she could kill me right here, right now. “You fucking kissed him.”

My blood freezes in my veins, my heart stopping altogether. My breathing gets shallow and my nostrils flare in an attempt to take in air. “Huh?” I attempt to deny it, even though we made eye contact when it happened.

“I fucking saw y’all, Noah,” she hisses. “Don’t even try to deny it.”

I nod. “So why are you telling me this?”

“So you stay the fuck away from him.” Scarlett’s lip curls, and she snaps, “Don’t even fucking look at him anymore. Pretend he doesn’t exist.”

“I think you’re giving the ultimatum to the wrong person,” I smirk. “Why don’t you try it on him?”

Scar sputters.

“Didn’t think so,” I tell her with a smile.

She’s quiet.

“How about confront him or mind your business?”

“He’s not yours,” she says quietly, and River and I make eye contact. He looks between her and me, and I subtly shake my head. “And he never will be.”

“We’ll see?—”

That’s all I’m able to get out though, because suddenly Tyler is behind us, looking down at us. I can see it in his eyes that he knows something is wrong, but he’s too scared to ask. So he doesn’t.

And for once, I’m glad for it.

I sigh, because goddamnit. I never meant for this to happen. Yes, I’ve always hoped for Tyler to finally come to terms with his feelings, but not at the expense of Scarlett’s and my friendship. We’ve been best friends since we were in diapers, for fuck’s sake. Our mothers were best friends. And now here we are, tearing each other apart over dick.

But that’s not true.

He’s everything to me.

I just wish it didn’t have to be this way. I wish she had never seen anything. It was supposed to be a secret, never to happen again. And now I’m a shitty fucking person. The worst, really. A home-wrecker if there ever was one.

I know Ty will never be mine. He doesn’t have the balls to leave Scarlett, and I know she was right all those years ago. He’s going to marry her, and I’m always going to be the guy on the sidelines, pining after him. But enough is enough.

I have to get over him.

For the sake of our friendship.

For the sake of Scarlett and I.

So I get up and head to the woods to take a piss myself, but before I can take care of business, a branch snaps from behind me. I turn around, eyes wide, hoping it’s not a fucking bear. But it’s just Tyler, and I sigh in relief.

“I’m sorry, Noah,” Ty whispers, and his voice is choked. “I didn’t mean to?—”

“What?” I raise an eyebrow. “Fuck your girlfriend? Spare me the bullshit, Tyler. What’s done is done.”

“I know.” He nods. “But I feel like I have to say something.”

---