I slid out of bed, my feet hitting the cold wooden floorboards softly, and headed to the kitchen for painkillers and coffee, expecting to be alone. It was only 8am so finding Louise curled up on the sofa with a blanket over her was not what I expected. Especially when, as I got further into the room, I could see that on the opposite end of the sofa was Damen.
My Damen.
He was topless, his hard chiselled chest on full display, a nipple ring glinting at me. The duvet covered the lower part of him, and I couldn’t stop myself wondering if he was completely naked under there. His hair was wilder than it usually was; a messy mop of too long darkness, that dropped into his eyes without styling product. His eyes were bloodshot from all the late-night drinking and no sleep, but if anything, he looked more attractive than he normally did. The ‘just fucked’ look really did suit him. It was a shame he had that look because of Louise and not me.
I stopped in my tracks, caught off guard by them both curled up like a loving couple and not two people who barely knew each other. Anger and resentment was travelling through my veins like steam. Finally it hit my heart like a nail in a coffin.
Louise looked up at me, her blond hair in a messy top knot on her head. She smiled, dark rings under her eyes telling me that she hadn’t been to sleep yet but was getting ready to crash at any moment. I hated her more in that moment than I’d ever hated anyone before, and I’d hated a lot of people. How could she, after no sleep and drinking all night, still look so fucking perfect?
“Morning sleepyhead,” she said, her voice husky from all the screaming she’d been doing all night.
Damen looked over, his gaze leaving the movie on the tv. “Hey…Anna, right?” he asked with a sheepish grin.
I looked between the two of them in stunned and awkward silence, listening as the seconds ticked by on the large clock on the kitchen wall.
“Err, hey,” I finally managed to spit out, my mouth feeling like it was full of cotton wool as the shock absorbed its way into my bones.
“I’m sorry if we kept you awake last night,” she said, with a Devil-may-care tone and slight twist of her cupid’s bow mouth.
I tried to pry apart the reason that she would call him and ask him to go out with her. Why she would bring him back here, to our apartment. And why, oh fucking why, she would fuck him noisily all night and then display him like a prized steak on our shared sofa.
I tried and tried, but the only explanation I could come up with for why she would do this was that she was evil, cruel and a total bitch.
A best friend wouldn’t do this, she just wouldn’t. Not when it was so easy to see, so transparent, that I liked him first.
Turning on my heel, I headed back to my room, slamming the door behind me. I sat on the edge of my bed, waiting for the world to stop spinning and my breathing to return to normal. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be.
A soft tap came on my door before it slowly opened. I looked up sharply as Louise’s figure filled my doorway before coming in and closing the door behind her.
“Look, don’t be mad, okay?” she said, her voice a whisper.
“Why would I be mad?” I asked through gritted teeth. “It’s not like you met the man I’ve been talking about for months, invited him out the same day you met him and then brought him back to my home and fucked him all night, is it?” I glared at her through my rage.
“Woah, hang on a minute, you said you weren’t interested!”
“So you took that as your cue to have him for yourself?”
She cocked a hand on her hip and shook her head. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I got his number for you, you said you weren’t interested, so I called him. We hit it off.” Louise shrugged helplessly, like this was all being blown up out of proportion. “Can we just not do this while he’s here? We can talk about it later or something.” She headed back to the door and the image of me grabbing a handful of that pretty blond hair of hers and smashing her head into the door came to my mind so clear and true that it was practically a memory.
She opened the door and left. I sat and stared at the space where she’d just been stood, fury and sadness making my heart feel like it might explode at any point. I realized that I could either deal with it or lose my best friend, and I’d already gone through too much to let the latter happen.
Sooner or later, she’d get bored of Damen and I’d be right here waiting when she did. Men came and went, but friendship was for life.
So this was fine.
It would be fine.
He was just one guy in a sea of guys…
Chapter Three
A month or so had gone by and waking up to find Damen semi-naked walking around the apartment, or lounging on our sofa, was becoming commonplace. I hated every moment of it. Every flirty little look they gave one another in the kitchen. Every giggle that was elicited from Louise’s bedroom right before the moans and groans. Every extra dirty dish that was left in the sink.
I hated it all!
And what was worse was no one seemed to care.
They didn’t care
