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“She told me.”
I shook my head, incredulous. “Told you what? That I drank too much? We all did. So much so, we didn’t even make it to that stupid party.”
“Not until later, right? After midnight? Must have been one hell of a party.” I was so confused I opened my mouth to respond, and nothing came out. I was like a cartoon character, mouth gaping miles wide. “You’re not even going to deny it?”
“Deny what?” I barked. “I have no idea what you’re even saying. We didn’t go to the party at all. We got too drunk and stayed at Mariah’s. Sabrina left around midnight, and the rest of us fell asleep a few hours later.
“Stop lying. Mariah told me you all went to the party once Sabrina left. She told me she saw you making out with some guy and that you didn’t make it back to her place to crash. Where were you, Brooke? Who the fuck were you with?”
It was as if the air was sucked out of the room. I stared at the photos in Alex’s hand, playing connect-the-dots in my mind. Mariah had done this. She’d lied to Alex about where I was. She’d wanted him the entire time I had been with him, and she’d finally found her opportunity. Right as Alex and I were about to finally get some distance from her.
Rage bubbled up inside me, and I spoke through gritted teeth. “Did you have sex with her?”
His face morphed from steel to confusion before hardening again. “Don’t change the subject. Answer my questions.”
“You answer mine,” I ground out. “Did. You. Have. Sex. With. Mariah?” Every word was like a knife to my stomach, sickened that I even had to ask.
“So what if I did?” he shouted. “It was years ago. Our first year of college. We got drunk one night, and she said she wanted to have a little meaningless fun.”
Fire flared in the pit of my stomach. “And those photos? Were those from your first year of college? Because those bangs look exactly like the ones she has now.”
Tell me the photos are old. Tell me I’m wrong about her hair. Tell me I’m wrong about all of it.
His jaw clenched so tightly I could practically hear his teeth grind. “She gave me the photos a couple of weeks ago. She said we should end college the same way we started it. You know she’s always been a little more… adventurous with this kind of stuff.” He held up the photos to illustrate his point, and bile teased the back of my throat.
“Oh my god. Alex. Please tell me you didn’t—”
“I haven’t done anything,” he snapped. “You’re the one who cheated on me.”
My head was spinning. This couldn’t be happening. He had to know she’d set me up.
“Alex, I didn’t cheat on you. I swear. She’s lying.” I took a step towards him and shouted, unable to stop myself. “Think about it! She gives you these photos and plants this suggestion in your mind just before your girlfriend, who was planninga lifewith you, decides to go have sex with someone else?” I reached out to put my hand on his arm, but he pulled away. “Alex, please. You know me. You know I would never do something like this.”
He stared at me long and hard, and each beat that passed was another twist of the knife in my gut. Tears ripped down my face, and the room still spun in circles around me, but I didn’t know what else to say. I wanted to scream at him for being so stupid. And for sleeping with his best friend even once, knowing how she felt about him.
But right now, the most important thing was for him to understand that I didn’t cheat on him.
“I thought I knew you,” he finally said. “But I’ve known Mariah almost my entire life, and I don’t know why she’d lie about this.”
He backed into the hallway, and I followed him until he came to an abrupt halt by the front door. “I need to get out of here. Don’t follow me.”
He tossed the photos onto the floor, grabbed his jacket off the back of the kitchen chair, and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
Tears still streaming down my face, I tore back into the bedroom and fished my cellphone out of my purse, finding and calling Mariah’s number. No answer. Big fucking shock.
I called again, and then again, and then resorted to texting.
Brooke:I know what you did, and you won’t get away with it.
I threw the phone onto the bed and fell into a heap on the floor, sobbing. My phone dinged a minute later, and I leaped for it.
Mariah:Time’s up, sweetie. I had to tell him the truth.
I screamed, releasing the fury squeezing my chest. She was pathological. Of course, she’d keep up the ruse. She probably planned to show Alex her phone to back up her own stupid story. I had to do something. I had to figure out a way to rein this in, to make him see reason.
I stared at my phone, trying to think of the answer. I could have asked Sabrina to vouch for me, but I had no idea what good that would do since she’d left before we’d supposedly gone to this party. I thought about tracking down Mariah’s friends but dismissed that option, too, confident Mariah would have told them to back her up.
What the hell was left? Finding someone else at that stupid party who could confirm they never saw me, Mariah, or her friends?
