My Brother's Best Friend(61)

Sent from the iPhone of Megan Walsh



Come home when you’re ready. Everyone is asleep,

I’m heading to bed. I love you, Chris.

Just be safe and come home soon.

—————————————————-

Sent from the iPhone of Mitchell Walsh



The rest were from Devin and Emily. I deleted them without even looking. Two were from Emily and the other five from Devin. I didn’t care what either of them had to say to me. I didn’t want to read their lies.

I walked in the door and managed to walk up the petal-free stairs, but the moment I stood outside of my door, images of Devin and my sister rolling around on the bed made my stomach churn and I couldn’t even bring myself to open the door. That’s when I walked back out to my car.

I sent a text to both Megan and Mitch that said I was safe, nothing more.

I drove around a few more hours, then went straight to work, wanting to forget everything that happened. I took one look at my desk and willed the tears not to come, then grabbed the flowers and poured out the water. Then I threw both the flowers and the vases away. Megan and Mitchell showed up about that time. I didn’t even acknowledge their presence. I’m sure Megan fished out the vases, but she didn’t say anything. Neither of them said anything to me.

I sat back down at my desk and turned off the forwarding system that we turn on at night. And immediately it showed I had thirteen missed calls and three messages on my personal line. I punched in the password and waited for them to play.

Devin’s voice came on. “Christy—”

Delete.

Again it was Devin. “Don’t delete this—”

Delete.

Finally the last message, “It was all a setup. Emily did it to get back at you. She admitted to—” I deleted the message that Megan had left. I didn’t want to hear anything. It didn’t matter, I decided. I started out with nothing, it was only fitting I end with nothing. It was all a lie anyway.

The phone rang about that time and I picked it up.

“Chris, don’t hang up—” Devin began.

I hung up. I didn’t want to hear his voice. I didn’t want to hear any explanation.

He called again. “Just let me—”

Explain? No.

I didn’t pick up the phone when it rang again. Instead I called back to Shelly and asked her to cover for me. I grabbed my bag and told her I wasn’t feeling well. She nodded and wished I would feel better.

“Oh and if anyone calls on my personal line, just let it go.”

“Sure. Hey, what happened to your flowers?”

I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders. “They died. It was time to put them out of their misery.”

She waved and I left. Instead of going home, I went to school and sat in the student lounge, watching all the students walk by, laughing and smiling.

I want to say I got a lot of my schoolwork done, but I think I was mostly lost in my surroundings. I can’t even remember if I ate lunch. I managed to keep the time, though, and make it to my appointment with Dr. Stone.

Dr. Stone took one look at me and asked, “What happened?”

I collapsed on the couch and immediately grabbed the tissues. I wiped the tears away and tried my best to tell him the story. After a few failed attempts, Dr. Stone offered his thoughts.

“Does this have to do with your hypothetical situation you asked about last session?”

I nodded my head and continued to wipe away the flowing tears.

“Did something happen between you and Devin?”

I nodded again, trying to slow my breathing.

“What happened, Christy? I can’t help you unless you tell me what happened.”

I sniffed and said rather pathetically, “Okay.”

I started at the beginning and even told him about my feelings for Devin. “I never stopped loving him, Dr. Stone. I see that now. I only used my anger to mask what I was really feeling.” I then continued to tell him everything that led to last night, sparing no details.

His eyes widened when I told him about sleeping with Devin. Then when I told him we hadn’t talked about ending what we started, he pursed his lips and began to scribble notes.

“Then yesterday we were supposed to meet at my house. Megan told me to tell Devin the truth and I was going to tell him, but I—I found him upstairs with my sister.” I was tearing up again but managed to tell him every detail I remembered.

When I was finished, Dr. Stone sat silent, looking down at his notepad then finally after an excruciating silence he spoke. “Hmm. Have you considered that your feelings may actually be reciprocated?”

“I found him about to have sex with my little sister!”