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Haley knew that look, too. I could tell by the way her hand squeezed mine even tighter.
I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until it came out in a whoosh when Tess met our eyes on the screen, still silent.
“Tess, please say something,” Haley pleaded.
Tess shook her head, her jaw set.
“How could you?”
Haley
Even though I expected this, the look of betrayal on Tess's face still felt like a punch to the gut.
"Tess," Cooper started, but she interrupted.
"No Cooper, this isn’t the part where you big brother me and attempt to tell me why I should be okay with this. Sure, it's weird to think about you two together, but you could've given me the chance to wrap my head around it. Instead, you kept it from me for how long?"
Cooper and I were quiet.
Tess persisted. "No, seriously, when did this happen?"
I froze beneath her disapproving stare and Cooper admitted, "It was the summer before Haley was a sophomore in college, and I was a senior."
Tess shook her head in disbelief. "So this happened when I spent the summer abroad in Europe?"
"Yes," Cooper conceded.
"How long did this go on?" She asked. She was calm, but I could see the anger simmering in her eyes. "A few months," I admitted.
"I see," she said. "So let me get this straight. You two had a relationship behind my back ten years ago and it was serious enough that you both fell in love, but it never occurred to you to tell me."
"We were going to tell you, Tess, we just wanted to make sure it was the real deal first, but then we broke up so there didn't seem to be any point in making a big deal of it," Cooper explained.
"I see, so you kept your dirty little secret for ten years," she said, her voice rising with the last two words, and they felt like gunshots.
The betrayal in Tess's eyes was killing me, and I finally opened my mouth to speak. "Tess, please understand this is not something either of us is proud of. We thought it was in the past, but..." I paused, looking at Cooper. "Well, it turns out those feelings are still there."
"How nice. I am so freaking happy for you both, really," she said sarcastically. "How could you keep this from me? How is it possible it’s never come up in conversation? You’re my best friend. We talk about everything—this feels so evasive."
Cooper and I both shook our heads. "Tess, we know this is hard to wrap your head around, but I think with time..."
She put up her hand, interrupting her brother. "Don't give me that big brother schtick, Coop. I'm not in the mood. You're right about one thing... in time I would've gotten used to you being together, but I can't get used to the idea that you both lied to me. I mean, you’re my big brother, my protector. And Haley, after everything we've been through together. I've had your back every step of the way, and you didn’t respect me enough to tellme the truth," she said, fighting back tears. I could feel my own tears rolling down my cheeks as I tried to contain my emotions.
"Tess..."
"No. You know what? I can’t do this with you two right now... I gotta go," and before either Cooper or I could say anything, she hung up the FaceTime call.
I stood there stunned with my mouth open as Cooper watched me carefully. "Haley?"
Cooper wanted to comfort me, but he didn’t know how. So he took me into his arms and held me. I cried on his shoulder as rocked me back-and-forth in the middle of the living room.
I cried until I could barely keep my eyelids open. It had been such a long day...
Exhausted, Cooper and I broke apart and set about cleaning up the glass inside the house and putting a tarp up over the window. We left the rest of it for the morning. In the span of twenty-four hours, we survived a hurricane, officially reunited as a couple, and revealed a long-held betrayal to the person who meant most to us.
"Haley," he whispered, "it's time to go to bed."
I couldn’t argue with him. I could barely see straight, and despite how tired my body was, I couldn't get my brain to shut down. "I don't know," I said, even as I let him lead me back to my bedroom. "I can't stop thinking about Tess and how to make this right. Then there’s the community center and we need to check in on everybody again tomorrow to make sure they're all okay, " I rambled, as he plopped me down on the bed and helped me undress.
