“Soooo….yeah.” Brooks didn’t really have anything profound to say.
Neither did I.
Whatcouldwe say?
The truth was out now. Well, not all of it, but there was no way I was going tell Brooks the real reason my eyes were puffy from crying, and I looked like a circus clown was because I was really aching because of him. He’d become my friend. More than that. He’d become—what? I didn’t know how to describe it. But when we werefakedating, it had just been so . . . perfect. Everything I’d never expected in a relationship, but everything I ever wanted. It was like God had said, “Hey, you know how you made this guy up? Let me drop him into your life, and you can see what it’s like when I get involved with the real deal.” Only, we’d stuffed it all into one big box of make-believe, and now here we were.
Shamed for being a scam.
Disappointing friends.
Hurting family.
I looked at Brooks and couldn’t help the pang that hit me in the heart. He looked so regretful for the mess of things, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn’t heartbroken over me. It was made worse when he opened his mouth and spoke those dreaded words.
“I hope we can still be friends.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. “Yeah. Sure.” I mean, what was I supposed to say?
No! I can’t be just friends! You’re everything I didn’t know I needed. I needyou, Brooks Mason.
Enter the old Tom Cruise phrase from that ’90s rom-com Mom made me watch at least once a year...
You complete me.
But he didn’t. Because Brooks had never been mine, and I had never been his. And that was pretty much what sucked about the whole situation.
One thing was for sure. I was never going to use AI ever again. For anything. Ever.
Never.
Never.
Ever.
Brooks
I almost told her how I really felt, but she’d already been through enough trauma. It would be selfish of me to blindside Brielle with some sort of plea that I reallydidwant to be her boyfriend, I reallyneededto see her in the stands watching my games, that I reallycouldn’tsee myself at schooljust giving her a casual wave in passing like we were old pals who once had the entire world believing we were the next big couple.
I’d already been selfish enough. I hadn’t even felt guilty using her to get extra credit for Lit so I could make sure I stayed on the team. Now, we had to finish the project—but to do that, I’d need to read the book. To my credit, Ihadfelt guilty not telling her that the recruiter thought our relationship was an example of my maturity. But now I was glad that I hadn’t told Brielle. I knew her well enough by now to know she’d feel like she’d ruined my future chances by proving that I was anythingbutmature and responsible.
“So, see you around?” I said. Dumbest words ever spoken.
“Yeah. See you around,” she responded.
I could tell by the look on her face as Brielle closed the door that she was glad to be done with me. Done with the whole charade. It was over. Finished.
We would do our walk of shame for a week or two, and then things would move on. Life would fall into a routine. This would be just a memory. A really great memory that finished really badly.
I stood there in front of Brielle’s front door. It was closed now, but for some reason, I couldn’t get my feet to move. I just stood there. Like a complete doofus.
My phone pinged. I tugged it from my pocket.
It was Reece.
Dude. Why are you standing on my front porch?
I stared at it for a second and then responded.
