Page 148 of I Choose You

“Oh.” She narrowed her eyes. “Is that all?” She slid her bowl closer. “You were freaking me out that it was something bad.”

“A disagreement about you.”

She slid the bowl back away. “Okay.”

“Kody was the one who asked you to prom. Not me.”

She furrowed her brow.

“I sat in the back of chemistry that day, catching up on my sleep.” I shrugged. “If you sat in that second seat from the wall in the last row, the teacher could never see. I saw Kody walk up to you and ask you to the dance. I heard it all. Then the night of the dance, that other girl was at the house getting pictures with him and stuff. I asked him what happened, that he was supposed to be taking you. He said it was a joke.”

She huffed out a hard breath. Her lips remained in a firm line.

“He never intended to take you. I felt bad, thinking you’d be sitting around all night and be stood up. So I drove to the school and pretended—”

She jabbed a finger at me. “That was you!”

“I pretended to be Kody and said I was bailing.” I frowned. “You knew it was me?”

“No. Not until just now. Kody did his annoying little hair flip thing.” She did it. “But now that I’m thinking about it I’m positive that you did it toward the wrong side. I could have sworn something felt off about that.” She sighed. “But I was kind of…”

“Humiliated. I hated what he was doing, but I didn’t want you to sit and wonder and hope.”

“I was going to end up in a shitty mood either way.” She shoved her spoon into her ice cream, stabbing it as she nodded. “That makes sense. Kody would do that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You know, you really need to get a tat. Or one of you needs to walk into a wall and earn a little scar. Something to tell you apart. I mean, not now. I can tell the difference, but still.” She shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past him to frame you for a murder he did.”

I scoffed.

“So it was him.”

I nodded.

“He asked me to prom with no intention to take me.”

Again, I nodded.

“Not you.”

“Nope.”

“That does make sense. You weren’t interested in those things. You didn’t go to any dances. Or any social things.”

I shrugged. “It wasn’t really my scene. And I did go to the junior prom. Once was enough.”

She gagged. “Junior prom? You mean when half of us got food poisoning from the appetizers? Ugh.”

I smiled. This was Brooke. Resilient, strong, stubborn Brooke. She could handle the truth, but she sure was taking this much better than I thought she might.

She frowned, making me think she might not be okay with this revelation after all. “How come you waited so long to tell me? After we started seeing each other.”

“I didn’t know how.” I took her hand and rubbed my thumb over her palm the way she liked. “Here I am, starting a relationship with you. We are good with each other. I’m optimistic about us. But he’s my brother. I can’t avoid him. He’s in my life and always will be. So it would have been awkward for me to tell you this and you’d hate him.”

She shook her head. “I guess I understand. That’s a tough situation.”

“That’s what happened at the lake house. I confronted him. I wanted him to come clean and apologize.”