At first I thought I was just imagining her, like I had last night. I even blinked a couple of times but she was still there, with the same expression of heartbreak and betrayal that she had last night in my imagination.
It was Heather.
I tried to say something but no sound came from my mouth. She was furious and her eyes were quickly welling up with tears.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked, caressing my cheek. I didn’t answer him and he followed my line of sight.
“H-Heather,” he stuttered. “What’re you doing here?”
Her lower lip trembled. “How could you?”
I didn’t know to whom the question was directed to because she kept flitting her gaze from him to me.
“You’re my best friend,” she whispered and then the tears began to fall from her eyes. “How could you do this to me? How could you so easily betray me?”
Ethan strode towards her and grabbed her arm. “Calm down.”
She pushed him away roughly. “I won’t calm down! Do you have anything to say to explain yourself?!” She was yelling and it was scaring me because I was sure she was going to wake up everybody.
I could feel it. This was it. This was the end of my stay here. My secret was going to be out for everyone to know and then I’d be kicked out of here. Ethan would never like me again.
“I-I’m so sorry, Heather. Please, I’m sorry.” I whispered, teary eyed myself because I was afraid of what she was going to do next.
“Sorry? Is that all you got to say? Did you even consider me a friend? I don’t think so because a friend doesn’t go after your boyfriend behind your back! How long has this been going on?”
“It’s not what you think. We aren’t together,” I said, panic evident in my tone. My legs were trembling and I was suddenly feeling weak.
“Then what did I just see? Do you normally just kiss people like that? Do I look stupid to you? I’m asking you for how long have you been together behind my back?! Answer me.”
Ethan put his hands on her shoulders. “Heather, stop it. That’s enough.”
She shoved him back with so much force that he banged against the counter.
“Ow,” he hissed, grabbing his leg.
She placed her palm over her forehead, covering her eyes and I could hear her cry silently into it. I could do nothing but look down, ashamed and guilty as I awaited my doom. She ran a hand through her hair and I saw how red her eyes had become from crying and her nose was turning red too. Tears were continuously streaming down her cheeks and she looked so hurt and broken. I hated myself for doing this to her. She didn’t deserve it.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated again with my eyes cast down, because what else could I say. I couldn’t say that it was a mistake because although it was, I did nothing to stop it. “I did not mean to hurt you. I didn’t want to do this. Please, you have to believe me. I’m so sorry.”
She didn’t say anything to me.
“Heather, stop it. I said its enough.” Ethan said firmly. “You’re going to wake everyone up.”
When I looked up, I took a few steps back seeing the expression on her face. She was rushing towards me impetuously.
Once she was right in front of me, she gave me a nasty sneer. “I never knew you were such a bitch.”
She raised her hand and the next thing I saw was her hand hurtling towards me with great force. I tightly squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the pain of the impact.
But it never came although I did feel a rush of air towards my cheek which usually accompanied a fast moving hand.
When I slowly opened my eyes a few seconds later, I saw that her hand was mere inches from my face. She moved it away from me and proceeded to cup her mouth and then she was loudly exhaling a lot of air from her nose which took me a few seconds to realize that she was actually… laughing.
I was confused. I looked towards Ethan but he just rolled his eyes at her with my half eaten sandwich in his hand. I would’ve scolded him for eating? my? sandwich that I made for myself but I was more concerned about what was happening right now.
Heather was full on roaring with laughter by now with her hands clutching her stomach. “Oh… my… God, did you see her face?” Then she laughed some more. “I didn’t know I was such a good actor. Where’s my Oscar?”
Then she continued cachinnating while I just stood there staring at her. She dabbed at her eyes to wipe away the tears.
I took a seat because I was sure her cackling wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.
“So you guys aren’t actually dating.” I stated, munching on my other sandwich.
Ethan nodded and Heather sat next to me, bouts of laughter still escaping her. Now although her tears of sadness were wiped away, she still had tears in her eyes but this was because of all the laughing she was still doing.
She put an arm around my shoulders.? “Ew no, we aren’t. But… but your face when you saw me.” And then she was chortling again.
“Explain.” I ordered Ethan because it looked like Heather wasn’t going to do that anytime soon.
“We are fake dating,” he said simply as if that was going to explain everything.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I figured that much. But why?”
“Well, you know how Heather was such a playgirl two years ago and her adoptive mother didn’t like that. She threatened to marry her off to a guy she considered suitable if she didn’t change her ways so this was all a show to make her mother think that she’s changed and in a serious relationship with me. I offered to help her. She didn’t want anyone knowing about the plan so we didn’t tell anyone, not even you and Amelia. So apart from us three, no one knows the truth.”
Heather beckoned me forward. “That’s what he thinks but I told the truth to Juliet and Amelia when I was drunk one night with them so they know but he doesn’t know that they know. It doesn’t matter anyway,” she whispered in my ear.
“What did you say?” Ethan asked her and she just shook her head.
“So you weren’t planning on getting married?” I questioned.
Heather made a sound of throwing up. “Ew ew, no. It was just to keep the media occupied with our news because I knew my? mother? was going to check on how our relationship was going and I knew she would never ask me directly.”
“But you guys kissed… on several occasions.” I pointed out because no matter how much I denied it, it still bothered me.
“Juliet, how were we supposed to convince the media that we are indeed dating if we didn’t even kiss? So of course we had to and every time it happened I just wanted it to end as soon as possible. Not that Ethan is a bad kisser or anything but it’s just that all my life I had thought of him as my brother and doing all these things disgusted me.”
“So how long are you going to be in a fake relationship?” I asked casually.
Heather bumped her shoulder to mine. “Wow, you’re jealous already.”
“I’m not! There’s nothing going on between us,” I said waving my hand between Ethan and I. “Its impossible. Its never going to happen.”
“She’s in denial. She likes me too.” He told her.
I scoffed and hit his chest. “No I don’t.”
“See… that’s denial right there.” He said, pointing a finger at me.
“Oh whatever, you guys go do whatever you want. I’m going home. I’m so tired.” Heather stood up and stretched her arms.
“By the way, why are you here so early in the morning? It’s just five.” The thought didn’t cross my mind until Ethan asked her.
It was pretty weird for her to come at this hour. It was still dark outside.
Heather suddenly dropped her arms at her sides. “I just wanted to go for an early morning drive. And… and Olivia asked me to drop her off on the way.”
“Wait, Olivia didn’t come home last night?” I asked.
“We had a sleepover. Just us two. I told Amelia, didn’t she tell you?”
“Ah, right. I forgot.” I did remember now that Amelia mentioned their sleepover to me over the phone late at night. “I’m going to go see her.” I stood up from my chair too and was about to make my way around Heather and towards the door when she grabbed my arm to stop me.
“No, don’t!” I was a little startled by her outburst. She looked panicked in a way I’d never seen before.