Best Friends Don't Sleep Together - A.H. Series #1

Chapter 13

"Holding on is believing that there's only a past; letting go is knowing that there's also a future." - Daphne Rose Kingma

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"Thank you." I murmured, still too shaken up to say more than that. I was eventually able to move, but only by using my keys to scratch my leg. I don't know whether it was a panic or an anxiety attack, or quite simply coming face first with the fact that even all hope is gone.

"No problem." Sebastian smiled gently, turning to me for a moment before focusing back on the road.

Yeah, I called him. I didn't know what else to do, I had to get out of there, and he was the only one I could see without getting an endless rant about the whole situation. I didn't even need to explain anything, when I asked Sebastian whether he could come get me, he didn't ask, he just came. Even pretty fast, thank God.

The car ride was silent. I'd been standing outside my building for about 10 minutes when Sebastian arrived, but it took us 30 to get to his place again, so I have to guess that he broke quite a few rules to come to me as fast as possible. I couldn't help but appreciate that.

I felt numb, pretty much dead inside. I'm not that blind, I've always been painfully aware of how Chris could and would eventually find someone, and believe it or not, I never thought he didn't have a sex life, I always knew he did, way too well. But Karen ... of all the women possible, why Karen? Why fall back into the clutches of the one woman that's made his life a pure nightmare? Of all the girlfriends he's had, she was the worst.

Chris wasn't happy with Karen. He was just lost, completely captured by her, blind to her flaws, ignorant to her worst sides. Yet it lasted the longest. I may be biased, but I wasn't the only one that considered Karen an absolutely terrible fit for Chris. All our friends agreed, none of them could understand what he saw in her. Even Nick, the one that, other than me, is the closest to Chris, went out of his way to warn his friend, make him understand that Karen was sucking the life out of him.

But no, Chris never listened. Luckily, she decided to break up with him, because of me. According to her, the kind of bond we have is toxic, it prevented them from bringing their relationship to the next level. It wasn't the fact that she was insufferable and bossed him around like a puppet, it was the fact that he spent a lot of time with me.

Sure, I am well aware that our bond has made relationships really complicated, we've already discussed that topic. But Karen? No, Karen simply could not bear that there was someone that could open his eyes, someone that, for every bad decision she pushed him into making, would veer him onto better ones. Someone that, basically, could counter the powers of persuasion she wielded.

Yet he went back for more. I don't know what's worse, slamming my face against the hard truth, finally feeling the heartbreak I knew was coming, or the awareness that spending the night at Sebastian's won't save me from having to face Chris at some point. It doesn't matter what happened, be it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, or even next week, I will have to see Chris again and act like nothing. The sole idea of having to restart smiling and nodding, putting on a deadpan mask while inside I'm dying as he tells me about Karen makes my heart tremble.

I could feel Sebastian's eyes on me as we walked into his building, all the way up to his apartment – well, pretty much a penthouse –, but he didn't say a word. "Would you like to freshen up?" Sebastian wondered, eyeing me carefully, once we got inside. I nodded, without speaking, and he guided me to the bathroom. "I can give you a shirt, if you like," he half chuckled, "but I'm afraid that's about the only thing here that will fit you."

I gave him a grateful smile. "I'll be fine, thank you." Will I, though?

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