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“Open up! This bitch needs to take a leak! Come on, come on, come on!”
That voice sounded like a screeching cat. Like nails ripping through the ridges and wrinkles of my brain.
Kai pulled away and reached for the silver handle. She pushed it down to click the lock and swung the door open. And there before me, Caroline stood.
Her curly, brown hair hadn’t changed. The gold ring that sat in the middle of her nose hadn’t either. She was…the same. The expression on her face went solid as she surveyed me. Her arms crossed over her white T-shirt, and she sank into one hip, realizing who Kai was. The two had never met, but Caroline was not shy during our relationship about expressing that Kai seemed full of herself. It was her way of letting me know she felt threatened by her beauty. I couldn’t blame her, really.
“Kai!” she said incredibly nicely. “Well, I just can’t believe it. After all these years, we finally get to meet!” My ex uncrossed her arms and threw them around my beautiful girl, who returned the gesture half-hesitantly.
Fake. Fake, fake, fake. It was the same counterfeit friendliness that lured me in in the first place, that made me feel like perhaps someone could actually be interested enough to keep me company in my lonely hole. Someone who was on the same continent as I was. But it quickly soured, just as Caroline’s eyes did when they dragged back to me. She did not drop her smile.
“Caroline,” Kai said. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’d recognize you anywhe—” Caroline’s hand lifted to shut Kai up.
There it was. The first glimpse of that horrible, pretentious attitude. Caroline was done interacting with Kai, and she made it known. She stalked toward me, and the hand that had shushed my best friend landed on my shoulder. “You look good.” Her other hand rose to mimic the action on my other side. “You’ve changed.”
A power play I’d seen many times before. Kai was in the room, and Caroline wanted to mark territory that wasn’t hers. She wasn’t stupid enough to think that Kai and I had actually started dating, and I wasn’t sober enough to care. I lifted my fingers between Caroline’s arms and wiped them both off me as if they were the greasiest slime. Frankly, they were.
“Not gonna talk to me or what?” she asked.
“I’ve wasted many words on you already,” I answered quietly.
She squinted, pursing her lips in challenge. “Excuses. Excuses so you don’t need to make an effort.”
“I make efforts where I’m able and willing.”
“Which is nowhere.”
“Which is not with you, and you know why.” I pinned Caroline with a look before glancing at Kai, who stood by the closed door. I winked at her far more coolly than sober Jonah would’ve ever been able to, silently letting her know she didn’t need to intervene.
Caroline lifted a finger, beckoning my attention back to her. “I loved him, Jonah, and you destroyed us.”
“You were supposed to love me,” I said. I hardly cared for the words leaving my mouth, nor did I care for any part of this interaction, save the end of it.
“As were you.”
I shrugged thoughtfully. It was a fair point.
“I loved both of you.” Caroline’s voice softened, and her eyes shimmered, making her look almost human.
She really wasn’t stupid, which made her behavior even more irritating. She was aware of the things she did, of the choices she made. “That means nothing when you forgo consent, Caroline. Which you did for both of us. I did not consent to an open relationship, and he was only—”
“It’s pathetic you’re still pining after Kai,” she said quickly, crossing her arms as all traces of humanity evaporated from her presence.
I almost laughed. She wanted to ruin my friendship by bringing that up? It would never work. Kai knew a snake from a garden hose. I said nothing in response.
“Fuck you, Jonah.” Caroline stood strong, waiting for me to answer, craning her neck to size me up.
Still, I said nothing. It’s not that I was trying to be a dick by ignoring her or anything, it’s just that there was really nothing to say. Talking to Caroline was like asking a ticking time bomb to kindly stop counting down to zero. Though, my silence wasn’t much better. She never liked it.
Her palms fell to my chest, and she shoved me. I stumbled back only a step, lifting my hands in the air in surrender as Kai stormed between us.
“There’s absolutely no need to get physical, Caroline,” she said sternly, the tenseness in her body creating a wall in front of me. She looked so beautiful, standing her ground like some kind of love-warrior. I looked at her over her shoulder, watching the way her temple flexed with irritation, how her fists curled at her sides.
Magnificent.
“Look at him,” Caroline said, flicking her chin to me. Kai peeked behind herself and caught me taking her in. “Look how he’s staring at you. You think you’ve had a friend this whole time? You’ve had nothing. Just another guy who wants to fuck you. The only reason he isn’t gone is because you haven’t given it to him yet.”
Kai’s stare halted on me for a moment, and I let my eyes catch hers. She blinked a few times, wiping away that claim perhaps, before her grin went feral. She turned back to Caroline. “Who says I haven’t given it to him?”
