Because Of You. Kristina O'Grady

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      Beth tossed her hair over her shoulder in a move he’s never seen her do before. The fight went out of her and she deflated before him. ‘She knows you went home with someone,’ she whispered. ‘How am I going to tell her that it was me? She’ll be heartbroken.’ She started walking down the hall toward the door. In a moment she’d be gone.

      ‘How is she going to know it was you?’ he called after her but she’d already gone out the door. His feet wouldn’t listen as his mind screamed at him to chase after her and he stood there rooted to the hardwood floor as she walked out of his life.

      This morning he’d thought all his Christmases had come at once, but now he knew he had an even harder battle to convince her that they belonged together. And how the hell was he going to do that?

      ***

      Beth pulled her truck up in front of Kelsey’s small house. She could have walked from Mark’s; it was just around the corner, but she had the feeling she might need to have a quick get-away so she went over to The Jackson to pick up her truck first, digging her spare keys out of the junk…glove box. She sat in her truck for a moment trying to gather her courage for what she knew she must say.

      Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, knowing if she was going to do this, she had to do it now. Not wanting to put off the inevitable any longer, Beth ran up the steps and knocked on her friend’s front door.

      Beth had always liked Kelsey’s house. The dark-green front door welcomed you up onto her tiny porch and the butter-yellow siding made the white trim of her windows pop. The rustic WELCOME sign on the door above the brass knocker and the two wicker chairs on the porch completed the look.

      Beth only had to wait a moment on the front step before Kelsey opened the door. Beth took a step back in shock. Not even when Kelsey and Mark broke up, did she look this bad. Her face was puffy and pale from crying. Tear tracks stained her cheeks and her eyes were red and almost swollen shut. She clutched bunched-up tissues in both of her hands. Her nose was red and raw looking.

      ‘Can I come in?’ Beth asked hesitantly.

      Kelsey didn’t reply but opened the door wider before turning and walking away from her back down the hall towards the kitchen.

      The inside of the house was just as pretty as the outside. The cream-coloured walls of the hall showed off the pictures Kelsey had hung. Each room off the hallway had different tones of yellow on the walls, making each one unique but still connected with the rest of the house.

      Beth followed Kelsey into the kitchen and cautiously sat down at the table.

      ‘Want some coffee?’ Kelsey asked. Her voice was flat and defeated, like she’d given up on life. It scared Beth and made her feel even worse than she already did.

      ‘Look, Kelsey, there’s something I need to tell you,’ she began, ‘It’s about last night.’

      ‘I already know.’ Kelsey’s tonelessly replied. ‘Mark went home with that bitch Helga Hansen. Don’t think that I don’t know you tried to hide her identity from everyone. People are so dumb in this town. I can’t believe they fell for your lies about her name being Jane Whatever. So what if her hair was in those stupid little ponytails and her eyes were overly enlarged by makeup. I knew it was her as soon as you two walked in together…But I got my own back, don’t you worry.’

      ‘Um, Kelsey, that’s not why I’m here. It’s about Mark, not some movie star that may or may not be in town.’ Inside Beth was trying to stay calm. The mention of Helga had thrown her and she would love to tell Kelsey how lovely her new room-mate was but that wasn’t why she was here and Helga’s one stipulation to staying at Beth’s Country Home was that no one was to know where she was staying.

      ‘I went home with Mark.’ Shit. She didn’t mean to blurt it out quite like that.

      Kelsey’s face froze in a look of disgust and shock. ‘You?!’

      ‘The girls I came with left without me and I had no way of getting home and I couldn’t drive, could I? I drank way too much. A lot of the night, I can only vaguely recall. Mark took me to his house and looked after me. I was pretty sick this morning,’ Beth continued with a blush as she remembered the state she was in when she woke up. There was no way she was telling Kelsey she was naked in Mark’s bed. ‘I’ve been there all morning.

      ‘I know how you feel about him, Kelsey, and I’m really sorry but I had nowhere else to go…and he is still a friend of mine, not to mention Ben’s best friend.’

      ‘It was you? Not Helga?’ Kelsey still looked at Beth with shock, but the disgust on her face was now gone.

      ‘It was me.’

      Beth looked down at her hands while Kelsey poured them both some fresh coffee. The look on Kelsey’s face had changed to joy. Beth couldn’t bring herself to look at.

      ‘I’m so happy you came over,’ Kelsey said, handing her a steaming cup. ‘I was up all night thinking that he’d taken that…girl home with him and had sex with her. I couldn’t handle it, you know? Imagining him entwined with someone else was torture but now that I know it was only you, well, it’s all okay. I think we could get back together, you know? If I could just find out what the problem was, I could change. I could do that, you know? It wouldn’t be too hard. I just don’t know what went wrong. Do you think that he doesn’t like brunettes? Maybe I could dye my hair. He always said yours caught the sunlight so nicely. What do you think? Could I pull off a blonde?’

      Kelsey plopped herself in the chair opposite Beth and tossed her brown hair over her shoulder.

      The breath seemed to be stuck in Beth’s throat. How was she going to tell Kelsey what really happened this morning now? Her heart had leapt with joy when Kelsey mentioned Mark noticed her hair. How could she feel this elated about something like that while sitting across from his ex-girlfriend who was clearly still in love with him? What horrible kind of friend did that make her?

      ‘I…um…don’t think your hair colour is the problem, Kels, Mark’s not that shallow. And I’m not sure you should change, just to make him happy. You wouldn’t be happy then. I think the best thing to do is to let him go.’ Beth inwardly cringed as Kelsey’s smile fell from her face. ‘I want you to be happy. Show him how wonderful you are. Stop trying to please him. He’s a man. He’ll only take advantage of that.’

      Fat tears escaped Kelsey’s eyes and tumbled down her pale cheeks. ‘But how am I supposed to live without him, Beth? It feels like my heart has been ripped from my chest. I can’t carry on like this. It’s too painful.’

      ‘Oh, Kelsey,’ Beth reached across the table and squeezed Kelsey’s hand, hating herself more every second. ‘Don’t do anything rash, please. He’s not worth it.’

      ‘I’m not going to kill myself if that’s what you mean.’ Kelsey snapped back at her. ‘I wouldn’t do that to everyone.’ Kelsey’s shoulders drooped again and she swiped her arm across her face, smearing snot and tears on her cheek. ‘I thought we were going to get married. When Mark said he wanted to talk to me about something, never in my wildest nightmares did I think he was going to break up with me. I even went out and bought myself a new dress. I thought he was going to pop the question. How pathetic am I?’

      ‘Oh God,’ Beth moaned, putting her face in her hands. This couldn’t be happening. ‘I’m so sorry, Kelsey. СКАЧАТЬ