Read Online Blurred Lines by Tamsyn Bester - Free Book Online Page B

nightmare had been about? Me leaving her?
    “No, I won’t. You’re my best friend.”
    Her mouth lifted up at the side, and something strange happened inside my chest. I felt hot, and my body tingled.
    “Promise?”
    I replied without hesitation. “I promise.”
    I was too young, and naïve to realize how hard it was to keep such a promise, and I didn’t understand that breaking it would have devastating consequences our friendship wouldn’t survive.
    I watched Jade sleep until the early hours of the morning, and snuck back into the guest bedroom before Jade woke up.
    That was the first time I realized my feelings for Jade were changing. I might not have understood it then, but looking back on it now I see it for what it was – the defining moment, the moment my young heart fell in love with the girl next door before knowing what it meant. 
    THE LIGHTS were off in our apartment when I walked in, and Dane’s bedroom door was open, but he wasn’t there. I expelled a heavy breath, and trudged into my own room feeling exhausted and strung out. I switched on the bedroom light, and stopped in my tracks when I saw Stella sitting on my bed wearing one of my shirts and nothing else.
    “Stella,” I greeted. “What are you doing here?”
    Her eyes were red, and I could see she’d been crying. It was time for me to end things with her, but I was hoping I’d at least have until morning before I got into it. I didn’t have the energy to fight, especially not with her.
    “What,” she sniffled, “Am I not allowed to come see my boyfriend?”
    I removed my jacket, chucked it over my desk chair, and started taking off my shoes. “I thought we agreed we were going to stay apart tonight?”
    “I thought so too,” she replied, “until I realized that the only reason you wanted to do that was so you could go see Jade.”
    Feeling suspicion unfurling in my stomach, I tilted my head to the side, and pursed my lips. “How do you know that’s where I went?”
    I wouldn’t have put it past her to have someone follow me. She was possessive by nature, and her dislike of Jade seemed to exacerbate her jealous streak.
    “You’ve been gone for almost three hours,” replied Stella. “And I can smell her perfume on you. It’s not hard to connect the dots.”
    I sighed, and pinched my eyes closed, before turning to face her. Her blonde hair was a little untidy, and unkempt, and that in itself should have been a warning. Stella never went anywhere without having her hair done, not even to bed.
    “I needed to talk to her,” I said, agitated that I felt the need to explain my whereabouts. “I still care about her.”
    That was obviously the wrong thing to say because in a flash Stella flew off my bed, and came to stand in front of me. She glared up at me with hateful, narrowed eyes.
    “It’s more than that,” she snapped. “I had a feeling something was wrong with you after she left Cabo early and then it clicked. You’re in love with her.”
    “How I feel about her has nothing to with us,” I said, brushing past her to walk into the bathroom. I had to get away from her before she saw the truth written across my face. I wouldn’t be able to hide it, in spite of my desperation to do just that.
    “So she isn’t the reason you’re going to break up with me?”
    With a frown, I replied, “No she isn’t, but how’d you -”
    “Please,” she interrupted, her voice sharp and venomous. “I knew the moment we landed you were going to end things, and I knew it was because of her . I’m not stupid.”
    “Look, Stella, you and I both know this hasn’t been working for a while. We haven’t even had sex yet, for God’s sake. I’ve tried to make it work, but it’s not, and I think it would be so better for us to go back to being friends.”
    ‘Friends’ was a term I used loosely when it came to Stella. We only knew each other because she was on the dance team, and I was on the football team. We’d hung out a couple of