I should have seen the signs with Chris. He had always been so distant and it was weird that he never wanted to have sex and he just wanted to party. I should have known. The only thing that came as a true shock was Chelsea, I was still dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe it, if it hadn’t been for the proof, I would have thought it was impossible and that she would never betray me, much less do something this horrible. But I knew that bra and had washed it for her when we were in Munich. We had been laughing and drinking a bottle of red wine late one night in our room, when Chelsea had drunkenly spilled the glass down her shirt, soaking straight through. I tried to save her white bra but it had been futile.
How could she? It was the fact that she betrayed me that hurt the most. We had been best friends since middle school. I was always there for her and I thought she was there for me. I was clearly mistaken. Yeah, there were times we weren’t on the best of terms but this was unimaginable. I sank into my bed and finally let myself cry it all out.
The next day, I left my bed only to grab food and to use the bathroom. I turned off my phone so I wouldn’t have to see all the messages from both Chelsea and Chris. I’d gone through the stages of grief and was now at rage. They had both played me. I’d had no idea; I’d been clueless. The more I thought about it, the more signs I saw that I had overlooked, like Chelsea acting weird about her latest lay and her clear disapproval of Chris. Even with all the signs in front of me, I never would have seen it. I had trusted them both completely. I knew better now than to trust anybody again. I had wasted over a year of my life with that cheating bastard and seven years of my friendship with Chelsea was now down the drain. There was no coming back from something like that. I lay in my bed no longer crying, just feeling numb now. There was a loud banging coming from my door, I ignored it but it only grew louder. Finally, when I thought the assailant would break my door down if they continued with such force, I get up to open it.
“What do you want?” I asked icily, as Chelsea stood on the other side of my door looking like a mess. She actually looked worse than me in this moment, which came as a surprise in itself. Her usually coiffed blonde hair wasn’t done up and was a frizzy ball, her makeup had been cried off and mascara ran down her cheek. It had smeared all over and dried like that. She looked truly horrific and I took some small amount of comfort in that. She cried hysterically, almost hyperventilating.
“I’m so sorry,” she stuttered through her gasps of air. I stood with my arms crossed over my chest in front of the door, not moving to comfort her or to let her in.
“When did it start?” I asked, needing to know.
“A few weeks before Germany,” she said, crying even harder now. This had been going on for almost five months! I couldn’t believe it. That was when she had first started acting differently. Well, I guess I knew why now. I felt my teeth clench in anger but had no words, I was too enraged.
“I’m sorry!” she repeated. “It just happened,” she continued. “I found out he had cheated on you a bunch of times and went to confront him and things just happened between us instead. It happened once before Germany and then I told him he had to break up with you or I would tell you what had happened,” she informed me. “But he asked you for a break instead, when he promised me, you’d break up. I thought when you saw the pictures that I had asked my friends to take it would be over for sure but the two of you got back together anyways,” she rambled on, only making my blood boil even more.
Not only did she know he’d been cheating on me for months but she had secretly orchestrated a way for not only me but the whole world to see it, instead of just telling me honestly. “We only slept together two more times, the last being Friday night after you left Duke’s, he came and took me to his place. I left my bra hoping you’d find it and finally know the truth about him!” she exclaimed. “I never thought you would know it was mine,” she admitted guiltily. Everything she said only made it that much worse. I knew she wasn’t stupid but this was really stupid of her.
“Do you love him?” I asked, my voice tight with all the emotions I held down.
“No, I don’t!” she said through a whole new wave of tears. “I love you!” she wailed. “I’m so sorry,” she said again. No amounts of ‘I’m sorry’ could change this.
“You should be. You just threw away over seven years of friendship for a few fucks,” I told her venomously. She wailed louder, getting the attention of a few girls passing by.
“I never want to see you again, hear from you, anything. We are over.” I told her. “From this day forward, you and Chris are dead to me,” I articulated slowly for her.
“No Leah. Please let me make it up to you!” she begged looking half crazy. “I’m sorry! We
