Alix: What!
Cecily: And I hooked up with someone.
Alix is calling.
Shit.
“Hi,” I answer the phone.
“No fucking way, Ce. You hooked up with someone? Who?”
Shit, that’s the part I don’t want to reveal.
“Spill the beans, bitch!”
“Dylan,” I wince.
She inhales sharply. “Dylan? Dylan who?”
“This guy I became friends with. We’re just friends, though. Nothing more.”
“I literally gave you the green light with Dane,” she scoffs.
I huff. “I know. I know. Oh my god. It just sort of happened with Dylan, but it was just a one-time thing. Dane is endgame.”
“My brother will have a goddamn heart attack hearing about this.”
I backpedal. “No, no, no. You cannot tell your brother, Alix!”
I hear the smile in her voice. “Why not?” she prolongs.
My stomach twists into a knot. How do I tell my best friend that her brother has been my crush for the longest time, and the reason I’m using Dylan in the first place? She gave me the green light the last time we talked, and I want to be experienced. I want to impress Dane when I finally hook up with him.
“Because you know I don’t hook up with just anyone, and this needs to stay a secret. I’m not dating Dylan—”
“Right, you’re just using him?”
“Don’t make me sound like such a bitch.”
“You are a bitch,” she argues.
I huff. “You wouldn’t believe how much of a bitch I was being to Dylan today.”
“Oh, I can imagine. You’re always a big bitch to me,” she states. “I know you’re only best friends with me so that you can get with my brother.”
Here we go. Her lifelong tale about me wanting to seduce her brother, and that I only put up with her. It’s all lies. I love her. But I let her say that anyway because I do want her brother.
I defend myself at the very least. “He replies to my stories. I can’t help that.”
“Well, how about this? I won’t tell Dane about your little situation if you…”
Great. I know what’s coming. Sometimes in life, it’s all about who you know and what you know so that you can twist it to your advantage. Right now, my best friend is being a smart businesswoman. She’s going to squeeze me dry every time I squirt some juice her way.
“Okay?” she says.
I shake my head. “What?”
“Yeah,” she says.
