Page 52 of My Scorned Best Friend

All I remember thinking was how beautiful they looked together.

“Clara!” Cam raised his hand at me as if I didn’t see him.

My name caught Xavier’s attention and he turned away from whoever he was talking to. Our eyes locked and a million words floated on the breeze across the asphalt. It didn’t take long though before Giulia slid her arm through his and pulled him back into the conversation they were having.

My stomach twisted painfully. It was clear the night wouldn’t go as planned, so I ambled over to the group, trying to preserve some of my dignity by not just fleeing in the other direction like I so badly wanted to do. I tried to put on a bright face and distract any attention away from myself by putting it on Allie and asking if I could touch her belly.

I could feel the eyes of everyone in town on me, looking for my reaction. They didn’t know what had transpired between Xavier and me—they only knew that we were no longer best friends. The rumor mill would be working overtime tonight with theories about how I felt that Xavier had brought Giulia, what it meant that we hadn’t spoken, and wondering about how Xavier had seemed to change.

Chevelle arrived moments later and after we found Presley on the bleachers and sat next to her. I swallowed the bile rushing up my throat when Xavier was called up and Giulia was at his side and pretended not to be bothered by the way everyone who looked at me gave me a smile that indicated that they felt sorry for me.

“Did you see Xavier?” Fisher asked Cade.

He rolled his eyes. “Think fame has gone to his head?”

“He looks like a GQ model instead of a pro quarterback,” Jed chimed in.

“Okay, guys, let’s give him a break,” Hank said.

At least I wasn’t the only one who sensed the change in Xavier.

“How isn’t she blue when she’s only wearing an inch of fabric?” Posey asked, unimpressed.

“Fashion over common sense, I suppose,” Presley said. Her hand slid out from under her blanket and squeezed my knee before she leaned in close. “Are you still going to talk to him?”

I watched him walk up to receive his award with an unfamiliar arrogance on his face, Giulia on his arm. The longer they stood there the more eyes I felt on me. Sure he had every right to bring the woman he’s seeing with him tonight, but right or wrong it still felt like a slap in the face after all that had transpired between us. Everyone in town thought that Xavier and I had crossed the line and now I’d been cast as the scorned best friend and lover.

Xavier walked off the stage, careful to hold Giulia’s hand so her heels didn’t get stuck and off the field without a backward glance. I knew in that instant that our friendship was over.

* * *

At eight o’clock, my phone rings and Xavier’s name shows up on my screen. A strong set of butterfly wings flap in my stomach. Actually, they feel more like bird wings. I place my hand over my stomach to calm it. I do not need to get my hopes up right now.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Hey.” His voice is the same one I’ve been used to my whole life. Casual and suave, like he’s just lying on the couch. “How was your day?”

“Good. I went for a run and spent probably one of the last days sitting by the bay before it gets too cold.”

I’d gone there to think. To be alone.

“And?”

Unfortunately, Xavier knows my rituals. He knows that when things are chaotic in my life, I go to the bay and watch the water while I sort things out in my mind. “You assume I was thinking about you?”

“Were you not?”

“No, I was.”

“And?” he asks.

I pick at some imaginary lint on my leggings. “I want to give this a try, but I’m scared. Especially after what happened the last time we changed things up.”

“I know. I’m scared too, but everything worthwhile is scary, right?”

I laugh and lean back in the chair. “What made you do a one-eighty so fast?”

“Ben reminded me that I was scared shitless starting everything I’ve ever gotten in this life—our high school state championship, my D1 scholarship, the draft, my first Super Bowl. The first day of kindergarten—until a little girl with brown pigtails befriended me.”

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