My Brother’s Best Friend

Secrets

ARELLA

I COULDN’T believe this was happening. From Skip leaving, Brett being mad at me, and the one thing I hid from them was finally out of my chest. And to worsen the scenario, I just broke their trust. I lost Skip, and there was no way he was going to forgive me after what he just found out. Well, he didn’t get to hear the full story.

“And you didn’t even try telling us after all these years?” Brett’s vein bulged against his neck. His face was red with rage. And it didn’t end there. “I can’t believe you were keeping this from Nana. You were always honest to her and to us for fuck’s sake, Arella!” He walked out of the kitchen, leaving me with Mom, Dad, and Lorcan.

“Here, sweetheart.” Mom offered me a mug of hot chocolate sprinkled with hazelnuts. My hands were trembling as I wrapped around the mug. The thought of how I was going to start was nerve-racking.

“Don’t you think you should start telling us when Skip is around?” Lorcan’s calm and shrink tone made me shrug.

“He hates me. I don’t think he’s willing to hear it anyway,” I mumbled, not meeting their gazes.

“I think he has the right to know, honey.” Mom squeezed my shoulder. “I’m so sorry if I wasn’t there for you. How didn’t I even know that my baby girl was already suffering? I’m not here to judge you, Are. And you were barely an adult.”

It scared the hell out of me waking up bleeding. It happened after my eighteen birthday. Alys threw a party for me at her home. Just a week earlier, I found out I was pregnant, and I was so sad and lost at that age, and I was going to have a baby alone.

I closed my eyes as the tears formed at the back of my lids. “I’m so sorry, Mom, Dad. I was so afraid, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even know how to hold a child.” I brushed off my tears. My shoulders began to shake as I sobbed harder.

“Dominic did hurt you before the divorce, didn’t he?” Dad’s angry voice startled me.

I nodded. “Attorney-client privilege, Dad. That’s why I decided the divorce hearing would be just between us and our lawyers. It still hurt because I always wanted a child, but he didn’t like the idea.”

“That asshole! I wish I was with Skip so I could pull his sac out of his good-for-nothing body.” Brett came back, slowly walking toward me. “Arella, I might not be the best brother you ever have, that I’ve always been an overprotective jerk, and a pain in the ass, but I just want you to know that I love you so much. You never complained, and I thought I was doing the right thing. These things between you and Skip, just caught me off guard. I’m sorry. We may not have the same blood running in our veins, but I care about that guy. He is a good person, and if I want you to date, someone, he can be-” He raked his fingers through his hair, then shook his head. “Fuck!”

“Bretton!” Dad chided.

“How did I become so dumb?”

“About what?” I lifted my gaze to met his-they glittered with pain.

“Stand up and we have somewhere else to go,” Brett said quickly.

“Where?” My brows furrowed.

“Just hurry up, Are. Trust me on this.”

I looked at Mom, Dad, and Lorcan. They nodded and smiled at me.

“Go ahead, sweetheart,” Dad agreed. “We’ll see you tomorrow at dinner.”

I hurriedly stood up and kissed Mom, then Dad and Lorcan.

Brett gripped my hand as we walked to his car.

“Where exactly are we going?”

“Just get inside the car and buckle up.”

He revved the engine and drove off. “I deactivated your account at HeartRated.”

“And I can’t believe you co-owned a dating app, Brett. You keep secrets from me too.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I know. We have a geek friend back in college. Now he is a web designer, so we contacted him, and he will only agree to do one for us if he got to have a selfie with Messi. So, Skip was able to pull some strings. He gave him a VIP ticket to the game. When the subscribers boosted up, his company finally designed an app for us.”

He breathed deeply. “Are, forgive me for being an ass. I’m sorry if I judged you, sis. Just so you know, all I want from you is to see you happy. Believe me, it hurts finding out what you’ve been through in the hand of that asshole.” His words were sincere that touched the center of my heart.

“I don’t think I would be happy again if Skip won’t forgive me.”

He tsked, “How did I miss the clue?”

“What clue?” My curiosity spiked, eyes pinning at him.

“He talked about a girl when he broke up with his ex. It didn’t seem to match the description of Audrey. I thought he was just drunk, then, he didn’t date anyone after that if we won’t count the… you know. He said he was waiting for his girl, but I didn’t pry though. When we played pool, he asked me not to kick his ass because he had unfinished business with someone. How did you two meet?” He stole glances at me.

“At the concert,” I mumbled, feeling my face flushed. “I thought he was just trying to catch a girl’s attention by using Linton. Then he suddenly left after that. I never saw him again. It was my fault because I lied, Brett.” I breathed deeply. “I almost ruined his life.”

“But you didn’t, Are. Don’t beat yourself up. You both suffered the consequences of your actions.” He stopped in front of the gate, then it slid open when the guard recognized him. “So, how did he find out?”

“He found my ID, and he just returned it to me last week. That’s how he knew that I’m a Rogue, and his best friend’s sister.” My shoulders sagged. This thing between me and Skip was more complicated than I thought.

“He was keeping it all this time, huh?” He looked amused. “Let’s go.” Then he quickly climbed out of the car.

“Oh, wow!” I stared at the cream house in front of us. It was bigger than my parents’.

I wandered my eyes around while Brett was ringing the doorbell. To my surprise, there was nothing much to see other than the concrete driveway. The door swung open like they were expecting us to be here. A woman around her thirties smiled at Brett.

“Whose home is this, Brett?”

“Skip’s mom.”

My eyes widened. “And why are we exactly here?”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“To explain to your boyfriend.” He rolled his eyes that I’d never seen him did that before.

“Ex-boyfriend. We broke up, remember? And he called me a killer.” My heart just stabbed a thousand times. I even winced.

“Because he doesn’t know the truth.” Brett gritted his teeth, glaring at me.

“I-I don’t think I’m ready to face him right now. Maybe some other time.” I walked back to the car.

“Arella, if you will not going to talk to him right now, you won’t get another chance. He’s leaving for London tonight!”

And that made me stop.

***

THE DAYS went along like any other day. He wasn’t at his Mom’s house. We found out he took an emergency flight back to London. I was convinced by the end of the day that we were truly over.

It had been a week, and I hadn’t heard from him since then. I called him, Brett tried too, and of course, it went directly to his voicemail. I tried e-mailing him, but something was stopping me. So, I followed my guts.

Dominic was back in prison. Two months after the nasty divorce, he visited me to take his money back. He’d gone physical and that was how he went to jail.

The alarm was still shrieking at Kat’s room, and it repeated five times. “What the hell, Kat? Turn that damn thing off!”

Lying on my bed and not thinking of my life out of my bedroom was on my agenda for today. The alarm was finally off, then Kat’s head peeked through the door.

“Don’t and I don’t.” I covered my face with my pillow.

Soft footsteps approached, then my mattress dipped down, and I knew Kat sat on my bed. She was silent for a few seconds, then my pillow was pulled away from my face. “Are you just going to lie down here for the rest of the weekend?”

“Yes. And thank you very much for asking.”

“How about your family dinner?”

“I’m not going,” I answered pretty quick.

“You can’t just mope here, Are. That’s not healthy.”

“You sound just like my brother.”

“Because we are best friends. We barely talked for the whole week. I know it’s hard, but you just have to give yourself some time to process the things that happened in your life.”

“Now you sound like my shrink.”

She ran her fingers through my hair. “Then it’s time for you to see her again since you don’t wanna open up to your roommate slash best friend.”

“I’m not ready yet, Kat.”

“Not ready to tell me or to see your shrink?”

I grimaced at her words.

“To all.” My voice cracked. I just missed that bloody brit. He was an asshole for not giving me a chance to explain, and he just ran away again. We confessed our feelings. We just became a thing and turned out that thing we had was a just thing and nothing more.

It hurt like hell-so hurt that it crumbled my world down. Why could I not just live like a normal woman? Why did it hurt like this?

I missed him every single day. This apartment, my bed reminded me of how he looked at me that day. I couldn’t even look at the scrambled eggs and toast. Everything is about him.

I wiped my tears. “I’m gonna be fine, Kat.”

“Well, you won’t be if you’ll just stay in your bed all day.”

“It’s only been a week, Kat. Jeez, you are so pushy.”

“And a pussycat.”

I burst out laughing, and she threw herself at me, hugging me tightly. “I missed your smile and laugh, Are. I missed my roommate.”

I pulled away. “Go and get ready for your work.”

“And you badly need a shower and a change of your sheet, dear. You and your bed stink.”

“I don’t! You are just a neat freak, Katrya Jane Park.” I smelled my underarm and my pillow. When I lifted my gaze, Kat was wrinkling her nose.

“I’m your best friend, but I have to be honest because your room smells like a rotten egg.”

I picked up my pillow and threw it at her. “You’re lying!”

She laughed. “But you have to get up and have dinner with your family, Are. Brett actually called me twice today, asking if you’re okay.”

I suddenly felt guilty about my family. I’d caused a lot of trouble to them, yet they still loved me unconditionally. I had to put myself together and be a good person like they believed I was.