Shadow [My Best Friend's Boyfriend] LRH

1 the first tea spilled

"So Amber." My aunt Rebecca turns her wrinkly face to me. "I heard you are going to take a gap year, how so?"

"I wanted to focus on traveling, mostly. Taking pictures, but I also want to get some rest, school is very exhausting lately." I say with a fake smile on my face. My mother is throwing a tea party and forced me to sit with her and her sisters. I almost never see them, so it feels kind of awkward being here, with a cup of steaming hot cucumber tea in my hand. I actually hoped they wouldn't even notice me sitting here and it would have worked, since they don't seem to stop talking about how my little sister's ballet classes are going.

Rebecca also forces a smile on her painted red lips and sips from her tea. "Interesting, but, don't you think it is kind of a waste? You know how important school is."
My other aunts nod their heads and turn their chairs so they can look at me more easily.
Great, all the attention is directed towards me and I know this is not going to end well. I don't know much about these women, but what I do know is that they don't care if they hurt you by saying what they think. They are super direct.

"I don't think so," I say, "you see, I'm still rather young and I think that the best way to learn things is to experience these things, after this year I will just be continuing school, I'm just pausing it for now."

I hear the women mumble and taking loud sips from their tea. They clearly don't agree with me, but I don't care, because this is what I want and this is the first time actually protecting my wants and needs.

"Well, I still think it is a very bad idea, I will have a talk with your mother later. Now, how's your friend doing, what's her name?"

"Roxanne, and she is doing fine, I am meeting her today." I say, happy to change the subject.

Rebecca's smile grows a little as she thinks, "Roxanne, right, wasn't she the one dating that famous boy."
My other aunts make a shocked sound as they hear this. Of course, you don't meet a lot of people dating celebrities.

"Yeah, she's dating Luke Hemmings, you probably don't know him, but I have a picture of them together." I say as I take my phone out of my back pocket.

"Oh dear, you have to watch out with these devices, they are always listening, and I heard they can cause cancer." Another one of my aunts says as she sees my phone. "This is the reason I still stick with my Nokia, my daughter thinks it is stupid, but I really don't need anything more."

Soon the subject changed to the dangers of smartphones and I can happily leave the room unnoticed.
I am never the one who likes joining these conversations, I'd rather sit in my room and watch a movie, or just take a walk with Roxanne. But lately I have seen every movie I am interested in and Roxanne is spending a lot of time with Luke. Which I think is okay, he's not going to be in town for long. Soon he is starting his tour and won't be able to see Roxy for a very long time.

I feel kind of sad for my best friend, long distance relationships never end well and lately she's been getting a lot of hate. She does get the fame she desired and I feel like that matters the most to her.
I sit in my room for about five minutes when my door opens and a sighing Roxy drops herself on my bed.

"I'm tired." She huffs, I can barely make out what she's saying, because she lays face first into one of my pillows. "I didn't sleep at all last night."

"Oh, what'd you do?"

Roxy looks up to me again and wiggled her eyebrows as a huge smile creeps on her face. "Luke and I had sex all night long, it was great."
To me it is weird talking about sex, I have only had two boyfriends who I never did anything more with than kissing. I remember I was the first one of us to get a boyfriend and Roxy being jealous. When she got a boyfriend, she immediately wanted to go further. And I didn't, because I was ashamed of my body and I didn't know if it was supposed to look the way it looks down there. Also, I couldn't find a boy I actually liked.
But I didn't mind being single.

"Oh, cool." I just say as a take place next to her. "Is he... big?" I don't know if this is what people talk about In their friendships, but it seems like Roxy wants to talk about it, so I go along with it.

Her smile grows and she nods, "huge, I was his first time."

"Oh." I have absolutely no idea how I should react to this. Should I praise her, or what?

"Yeah, but he was great though, he was so gentle, but at the same time he was taking the lead. And I came so fas-"

"Why don't you get yourself something to drink huh." I quickly change the subject. I really didn't feel like talking about sex, I'm not grossed out or something. But it kinda makes me feel like Roxy is way more experienced and likeable, almost as if she wants to brag and I hate it when she does that.
She does it a lot. She brags about the fact that paps follow her, she brags about the amount of likes on her pictures, about being together with Luke. Sometimes she also seems to try to make me jealous by saying she's hanging out with other friends.

Of course I'm the one who gets jealous about these things. Not the paps, or Luke, but the friends part.
She's my only friend and I only hang out with her. But she has a lot of friends, ones who are more like her, beautiful, popular and experienced. Sometimes it just feels like she could just leave me for her other friends and she would live a happier life.

But I'm not going to talk to her about this. She would say it is all in my head and she would laugh at me for being jealous and make me feel small. And I really don't want to look vulnerable, because she isn't, so why should I be.

She's is my best friend, but sometimes she feels more like an oil painting to me. She is the one people come for and I am the person who tells these people not to touch her.

A/N: hey guys!! I hope you like this book, please like and comment.