Chapter
14
The doorbell rang. Brian got up to answer it. There stood Krista.
"You here to see Angela?"
"Yeah. How'd you guess?" her
ever-so-familiar sarcasm greeted him.
"Yeah, nice to see you too. She's
in my room."
"Thanks Bri," she said.
He smiled and gave her a nod.
Then he plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. Krista
turned into Brian's room to see Angela laying back on the bed, deep in thought.
She walked over and sat on the bed. Angela just turned her head
towards Krista. "Hello."
"Hi."
Then there was an awkward silence.
They just studied each other, waiting for the other one to start.
More times than not, the girls would put off their fights. Usually
it would be Angela who had to tell Krista something and that broke the silence.
Then Krista would ask of they were still fighting and Angela would say that
they would deal with it later.
That's how their fights always ended.
But not this one. They both knew it was serious when Angela decided to
spend the night at Brian's.
"Alright," Angela said, breaking the
silence. "I guess I'll start." She got up and got comfortable
because she knew they both had alot to say.
"Krista, I don't know how many times I
have to tell you that no matter what happens, I'll always be your best friend,
boyfriend or not. The only reason I've been spending so much time with
Brian is because it's like I have to get to know him all over again. We
haven't seen each other in a while remember? I still share every detail
with you and you still come before him.
But when you said that you forgot what
I looked like and that you don't even exist to me anymore, I was crushed.
I never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth."
Krista sat for a minute, letting
Angela's words sink in before taking her turn. "I know, I know.
It's just that I'm so afraid of losing you. You mean so much to
me. I can remember back in high school when I did this once and almost
lost you. But somehow you managed to keep everything together when you
and Brian got together. I just want us to always be best friends, that's
all. I feel like I'm all by myself when you and Brian go out. Like
I'm excluded from everything."
"Which you know isn't true at
all. But I have an idea though that might ease this situation a bit.
What if I got Brian to hook you up with Nick? I mean you guys would
be perfect. He has the exact same sense of humor that you do. Then
we can all go clubbing tomorrow night and do some double dating. How does
that sound?" Angela asked.
"Not a bad idea," Krista
replied. "Look, I'm sorry for doing this to you, but....."
"Don't be. It's all my
fault," Angela interrupted. "I should have made more time for
you. It wasn't fair what I did to you. I'm the one who should be
apologizing for blowing up at you and leaving you the way I did."
"But some of this is my fault...."
Krista trailed off.
"No. It's not yours at all.
It's all mine. I'm so sorry."
The girls embraced each other
for what seemed like forever. When they did pull apart Angela said, "Let's
go tell Brian to call Nick now. OK?"
"Yeah," Krista said
nervously.
They walked back out to the living
room where Brian was sitting. He could tell by the looks on their faces
that everything had been resolved.
"Are we OK now?" he asked.
The best friends nodded in return.
"Hey Bri? Do you think Nick
would want a girlfriend?" Angela asked.
"I don't know.
Why?" Brian was confused. But then he quickly caught on
and got one of those mischievous grins on his face. "I bet he does.
Let me give him a call."
"Tell him that we wanna go
clubbing tomorrow night."
"Alright."
Krista could feel the butterflies in
her stomach already. "What if he doesn't wanna go? What if he
stands me up? What if he doesn't like me?" She winced at that last
thought.
Angela noticed her best friend's weird
faces. "You analyzing this situation already? Brian's not even
off the phone with him yet."
"You know me way too well,"
she laughed nervously.
A few more minutes went by before
Brian took his place back on the couch. "Well?" Krista
asked, not being able to hold out any longer.
"He said he'll go."
Krista let out a sigh of relief and
stood up to go home. "See you tomorrow then Brian." She
started to head towards the door. But when she noticed that Angela wasn't
following her, she stopped. "Aren't you coming?"
"I'll be there in a minute."
Krista interpreted that as 'go outside, I need a minute' and left to sit
on the porch.
As soon as Krista was out the door,
Angela sat down on Brian's lap. "And what may I do for you?" he
asked.
"This." And she
gave him an emotional kiss.
Brian felt himself returning it.
He wasn't about to stop himself though; he knew that he was falling more
and more for Angela.
"What was that for?" he
wondered.
"Just for being you," she
whispered. "And butting in to help fix my problems. Thank
you." With that, she got up and left him sitting there.
But in that very moment, Brian came to
a big decision. As much as he liked Leighanne and as much as he didn't
want to hurt her, he knew he had to let her go. Angela had caught his
heart and run away with it.
***
