𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐄 ( 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐎 )

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐍𝐄

- CHRIS

"so what are you doing after high school?" i asked brielle as i took a sip of my root beer float. i was too lazy to scoop ice cream so i thought it was the best option.

"i'm going to UCLA to major in business. i don't know what my minor is gonna be yet but i'm excited to live in a city other than boston. my whole family is moving down there too. to help with my brother's music," brielle responded as she took a bite of her ice cream. la huh. i was going to be there a lot next year too. maybe we'd still be friends. "you?"

"i'm not going to college. my brothers & i are gonna see how far we can take our youtube thing. we're growing faster than ever right now," i told her. brielle nodded and took a bite of her ice cream.

"yeah i saw you just hit 40K," brielle smiled at me and laughed. "don't go hollywood on me."

i shook my head and laughed as i looked at my shoes. "we would never." i looked back up at brielle and she was still staring at me. when she realized i noticed, she looked away. weird.

"not to change the subject but what's going on with matt and delilah?" brielle questioned as she smirked and nudged my shoulder. i gave her a look.

"your best friend is delilah. i know she's already told you everything." brielle rolled her eyes and titled her head back while she groaned.

"i know but your brother is matt! give me his point of view on the whole thing," brielle urged as she pointed at me with her spoon. i side-eyed her jokingly and she hit me. i almost fell off the bench we were sitting on. "chris!"

i laughed and took another sip of my rootbeer float. "neither of them has said they like each other!"

"oh come on chris! you know that delilah has always thought matt was cute!" brielle said as she turned to face me on the bench. i shrugged.

"all i know is he called her cute after the grocery store debacle. he said he'd look into the situation more. that's all i know," i responded truthfully.

"i see," brielle said simply as she took a bite of her ice cream. i didn't really have an answer to that so i decided to talk about the more pressing matter at hand.

"why didn't you tell me about reece?" i suddenly asked. brielle had a bite of ice cream in her mouth and she choked on it a bit. i tapped on her back for a few moments as she coughed.

"what do you mean? you knew we broke up," brielle answered as she looked at her cup of ice cream. i narrowed my eyes at her. she knew that was not what i meant.

"yeah but you didn't even tell me that. i found out from reece's instagram story and i didn't know why. i wasn't gonna ask him either." why couldn't she answer the question? it was not that deep

"well now you know he cheated on me so i broke up with him," brielle told me. "why do you care so much anyway? you didn't like the guy and he didn't like you."

her words took me aback a bit. i know i was pressing but i thought we were good enough friends that she would tell me about it. brielle finally looked back up at me but this time i was the one looking away.

"yeah but i like you. as a friend i mean. i thought we were close enough that you would tell me something major like that happened." real smooth chris. almost telling brielle you almost liked her.

i looked back at brielle and she was looking at me with this look. it wasn't her normal stares and i didn't like it. it was intimidating. "what if i told you that reece blamed you him cheating?"

"what?" i furrowed my brows. reece blamed me? what did i do?

"yeah," brielle laughed sarcastically and shook her head. "some bullshit about me doing stuff with you while reece and i were still together. he said you were doing it for the wrong reasons. some more bullshit about you liking me since we were kids. apparently, everyone but me knows about it."

oh shit. i was doing so well. she really didn't know this whole time but reece evans had to blow my cover. my jaw dropped and i looked away.

she furrowed her brow at me and titled her head. "that's not true, right?" 

i opened my mouth to respond but nothing came out. i thought of myself as a good liar, but brielle's gaze made me forget the english language. alex could not find out about this.

"chris, tell me that's not true." brielle moved closer to me and tried to catch my eye. "tell me he's lying."

i looked back up at brielle and i didn't need to say anything else. brielle's face softned. "i had no idea." 

i wanted to scream. all this time how could she not know? staring at her throughout our entire time in school. sending her valentine candies in elementary school. doing stupid things to impress her in middle school. fixing my hair whenever i came over to hang with declan in high school. all this time.

i wanted to sink through the bench, the concrete, the earth's core, and never come back. i didn't care that she didn't like me back. i cared about the fact that she didn't know. she genuinely had no idea. that meant i wasted all this time trying to subtly get her to notice but she never did. i was upset and i didn't know why i was getting so worked up. 

"i have to go," i said as i looked away from brielle. i stood up and brielle stood up with me.

"you can't just say something like that and walk away," brielle told me as she pointed at me. i shook my head and turned around. i started walking and brielle kept following me until she was in front of me again. "chris!"

"brielle, i didn't say anything." i gently pushed past her and i kept walking. i could sense brielle staring into the back of my head. i didn't want to turn back around because i didn't want to see her looking at me. i didn't want to do something i'd regret.

"i wish i knew," i heard brielle said from behind me. i stopped in my tracks without turning around. my heart was beating out of my chest. that was everything i've wanted to hear since the beginning of the year. now that i heard it, i wish i hadn't.

"me too," i turned around to look at brielle and i sighed. "but it's too late."

i stared at brielle for a few more moments before i turned back around. i started walking. one foot in front of the other. my head was screaming turn around but my heart said no. i chose my heart even though it was hurting. i walked all the way home with brielle on my mind.

it's too late.

VAL SPEAKS

wellllllllll, angst begins ig 😅

also,

i think i should mention that the triplets aren't at their 2 million subscriber count yet in this. it's basically 2021 with 2022 emojis. i did this for the high school storyline but i will be incorporating social media more in the future dw.. still a long way to go here