The Worst Friend Then You Can All Lose My Number novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Twelve Years

Dolan's was a brick bar with a long back room, and fourteen people from our old college crowd sat around a table made of three tables pushed together.

I came in behind Megan at eight, in my work clothes, with my coat still on.

Nobody saw us at first.

Jared stood at the head of the table with a beer he wasn't drinking.

"I want to say this to everybody who knew us," he said. "I was lied to for three years."

I stopped in the doorway.

"I was manipulated," Jared said. "Joss fed me photos and stories. I trusted her. I'm the first person she hurt, and I'm not going to stand here and pretend I'm not."

"First?" Megan said, loudly, from just inside the room.

Heads turned.

A woman from the brunch put her hand over her mouth.

"Carys," she said. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know you'd be here."

"I wasn't invited," I said. "But I'm sorry too. Keep going, Jared. This is a good part."

Jared's face went red.

"I'm trying to apologize."

"You are trying to be the victim," I said. "Those are different."

A man at the table laughed, and then covered it.

Jared looked around for help.

He found Caleb, at the far end of the table, with his hands flat on the wood.

"Tell them," Jared said. "Caleb. Twelve years. You know me. You know I'm not the villain here."

Caleb didn't answer.

Jared pushed on.

"We were roommates for four years. You were my best friend. Tell these people I didn't know what Joss was doing."

Caleb stood up slowly.

He pushed his chair in, and the whole room watched him do it.

"You knew," he said.

"I didn't."

"You knew she was stalling your hotel bills. You knew you hadn't checked one photo in three years. You never asked Carys a single question about a room."

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