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

Chapter 35

"I would have pressed charges." Laura scoffed, throwing a pebble into the lake for the third time since we sat down on the bench that faced it. The swans swimming around didn't appreciate it and kept sending her dirty looks. 

Laura was the first person I called after the whole Chris drama, and because now we were sure we could keep direct contact, she didn't even think twice about taking her maternity leave early to come here and stay with me. She's due in 3 months, so, her fiancé was utterly against her travelling on her own in her conditions, and so was I, hence ... she had them all come over.

I didn't have it in me to tell everyone about what happened, though. I only told her once everyone went back to New York. Seeing my friends again after months was refreshing, but there was a clear elephant in the room. Or rather, there wasn't, given Chris' absence. "Adam said Meredith had Chris admitted to her hospital."

"He's not sick, he's just a psycho." Laura huffed. "He needs a slap in the face, with a chair, thrown by me."

"Lala ..."

"He tried to kill you, Viv." She pointed out for the umpteenth time. "I always knew he was a needy bitch, I just didn't imagine he was also a psychotic bitch."

"I really don't know what ... triggered this." I shook my head, unable to believe he'd always been like that. As blind as I was, due to my feelings, I couldn't have possibly missed all the signs in so many years. And even if I did, how couldn't everybody else see them?

"Well, what triggers a soccer mom when she kills her kids? What triggers that nice and quiet man to slaughter his entire family?" Laura shrugged. "You never really know the people that are closest to you, Viv, it's about time you realize that."

"By that way of thinking, I shouldn't trust you either." I joked.

"I mean, I've lied to you before." She winked, especially when I feigned a gasp. "Innocent lies ... like when I started dating Nick, I never told you I was sleeping with Shane."

"Wait, our Shane?"

She bit her lips. "He was and still is a manwhore, but ... God, one hell of a good manwhore, if you get what I mean ..."

"I can't believe this ..." I was truly shocked. Given how different Nick and Shane are, I'd have never thought Laura would be interested in our friend.

"Oh, please, it was something totally different from what I have with Nick." Laura laughed. "Just ... every now and then we hooked up, no biggie. It was a really straightforward friends with benefits thing, no strings attached. It never got deep and it didn't ruin our friendship."

"Does Nick know?" I arched an eyebrow at her.

"It was 5 years ago, but ... yeah, he knows. He also knows I stopped the moment we got serious, which was after the first 3 dates."

"You should have told me." I glared at her, but grateful for her effort at changing the subject. With everyone else around me worried about how I felt, Laura being ... well, Laura was truly what I needed.

She scoffed. "Oh, please, at the time we all had a crush on Shay." She laughed. "I mean, handsome, hard-working, super smart ... if he wasn't such a manwhore, he'd be the perfect man."

I chuckled. "That's true." In college Shane was always surrounded by girls. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, even some TAs ... all drooling over him. Of course, he took advantage of that and not always in a ... chivalrous way. Shane is a great guy, he has a kind heart and he'll be an awesome doctor, but ... when it comes to women he can be quite shallow.

"Did you know he punched the little bitch?"

"Yeah ..." I sighed, "yeah, Chris told me Shay punched him when he heard about what happened months ago."