My Best Friend's Brother Who Is A Hockey Star Is In Love With Me

Kelly's POV My roommate has always claimed that I was her best friend, so someone please explain to me why she always ended up sleeping with every single guy I showed the slightest interest in. "Oh Kelly, I know you had a crush on him, but he asked me out and you know how much of a people pleaser I am, I just couldn't say no." That was always her excuse. Always her answer. Then she would smile at me with those fake innocent eyes and add, "But if you really want me to end things with him, I'll go talk to him right now and explain everything." Just like that, she somehow managed to make me look like the bad person no matter what I said. If I told her to break things off with him, I became the selfish friend who couldn't stand seeing her happy. If I said it was fine, then I looked like a complete pushover who never stood up for herself. The sad part was that she wasn't wrong. I had spent years being exactly that. A pushover. Every single time I got excited about a guy, I would tell Maddie everything because that was what best friends were supposed to do, right? We shared secrets, laughed together, cried together, or at least that was what I had convinced myself our friendship was, but every single time I let her into my happiness she somehow found a way to make it hers instead. Jason was only the latest example. We had spent almost the entire semester talking after classes, studying together at the library, grabbing coffee between lectures, and for the first time in my life I genuinely believed someone liked me for me instead of simply tolerating my existence because I happened to be nearby. I was so excited that I had gone straight home and told Maddie everything. She had hugged me, squealed louder than I did, and told me she was so happy that I was finally putting myself out there because according to her I deserved someone amazing. A week later... Jason was dating Maddie. I still had no idea how it happened. Maybe I never would. Tonight he was in our apartment. Our apartment. The walls separating our bedrooms were ridiculously thin, which meant every laugh, every whisper and every exaggerated moan drifted straight into my room until I felt like I was trapped inside their bedroom with them. I doubted he was even that good. She was probably putting on a performance because she knew I could hear every second of it. She always knew exactly how to twist the knife before pushing it deeper. If they wanted to sleep together, they could have gone to his place. He had his own apartment. Instead, she insisted on bringing every guy home, forcing me to listen while pretending she wasn't doing it on purpose. I lay in bed with a pillow pressed over my ears, but it did absolutely nothing to drown out the sounds coming from the other side of the wall, and the pounding in my head had grown into a migraine that made it impossible to think about anything except getting out of that apartment. I had worked countless part time jobs just to scrape together enough money to afford my half of the rent, telling myself it was worth it because having somewhere to live was better than having nowhere at all, but there was only so much humiliation one person could survive before something inside them finally snapped. Tonight I reached my limit. I threw the blanket aside, climbed out of bed and started packing every single thing I owned into the two worn suitcases sitting in the corner of my room. By the time I zipped the second suitcase shut, the noises coming from Maddie's room had stopped and were replaced by soft laughter followed by whispered conversations that somehow hurt even more than everything I had heard before. I stood there staring at my tiny bedroom, wondering how I had convinced myself to keep living like this for years. Maybe because I had nowhere else to go. Maybe because leaving had always seemed scarier than staying. Not anymore. I dragged my suitcases into the living room just as Maddie's bedroom door swung open. She walked out laughing while Jason stood behind her with one arm wrapped around her waist, his lips close to her ear as he whispered something that made her giggle even harder, but the moment they noticed me standing there beside my luggage they both froze. Jason's face instantly drained of color. His eyes darted from Maddie to me before settling back on Maddie again as though he couldn't understand what he was seeing. Apparently, he had no idea we lived together. Then again, when a gorgeous rich girl like Maddie paid attention to a guy, asking questions probably wasn't his highest priority. "You were home, Kelly?" Maddie asked with fake surprise even though she knew my schedule better than anyone else. The humiliation settled heavily inside my chest. Jason looked like he wanted to say something, but whatever words had been forming disappeared before they ever reached his mouth. Maddie's gaze slowly drifted toward my suitcases. "Going somewhere?" she asked with a smug little smile. I looked directly at Jason before turning back to her. "I'm moving out." For the first time since I had met her, Maddie actually looked shocked. "I don't understand. What do you mean you're moving out?" "It means exactly what I said." Having this conversation in front of Jason made my skin crawl, but at that moment I honestly didn't care anymore. He had spent months making me believe we were building something real only to abandon me the second Maddie showed the slightest bit of interest. He was just as guilty as she was. "I'm leaving for my own mental health." "Oh, don't be ridiculous," Maddie said as she walked closer and reached for my hair the way she always did whenever she wanted to pretend everything was fine. I slapped her hand away before she could touch me. "Stay the f**k away from me." Jason flinched. Without saying a single word, he muttered a quick excuse before hurrying toward the door like the coward he was. I watched him disappear and shook my head. Thank God I never ended up with someone like him. "You are seriously being dramatic right now," Maddie snapped once he was gone. "No. I'm finally starting to use my brain." She folded her arms across her chest and laughed. "Kelly, please, where exactly are you going to go because we both know you don't have anywhere else." I let out a bitter laugh. "What is it, Maddie? Are you scared you won't have me around anymore to make yourself feel better?" Her expression instantly hardened. "Oh please, boost my ego? I make your life better just by letting you stay close to me, you ungrateful slut." "Keep telling yourself that." I reached for my suitcase. "Move." "You should actually be thanking me because I saved you from dating those terrible men." "I never mentioned the men, Maddie. The fact that you immediately brought them up says a lot more about your guilty conscience than it does about me." She rolled her eyes. "It isn't my fault I'm prettier than you." For a moment I simply stared at her. Maybe there had been a time when those words would have broken me. Tonight they barely made me feel anything at all. "Then you can enjoy being prettier all by yourself because I'm done." I pushed past her, opened the apartment door and stepped into the freezing night with absolutely no idea where I was going. The only real friend I had lived on the other side of the country at a completely different university, and for a brief moment I wondered if I had made the biggest mistake of my life. Eventually my legs carried me to the nearest bus stop where I dropped both suitcases beside the bench before sinking onto it, and the moment I finally stopped moving every emotion I had spent years swallowing crashed into me all at once. The tears refused to stop. I cried until my chest hurt. I cried until breathing became easier. I cried until there was nothing left inside me except exhaustion. When I finally managed to calm down, I pulled my phone from my pocket and called the only person who had never once made me question whether she truly cared about me. Emily. She answered before the second ring. "Hi, Ems." "Oh my God, Kels, what's wrong?" That was Emily. She only needed to hear my voice to know something was terribly wrong. The concern in her voice shattered whatever composure I had managed to rebuild, and fresh tears spilled down my cheeks. "My love, what happened?" she asked, her own voice beginning to c***k. I told her everything. About Jason. About Maddie. About finally leaving. By the time I finished, Emily sounded even angrier than I was. "If you need somewhere to stay until graduation, I've got you." I blinked. "Really?" "My brother plays for a club near your university and he owns this ridiculously huge house that he barely spends any time in because he's always training or traveling, so I'll call him right now and tell him to come pick you up." I swallowed hard. "Ems... I don't want to be a burden." "You could never be a burden, Kelly. You're family to us. Stay where you are and let me handle everything." She hung up before I could protest again. I waited for her to call back. Instead, only a few minutes later, a dark green Jeep slowly pulled up beside the bus stop. The driver's door opened. A man stepped out. He was easily the most breathtaking man I had ever seen. Tall, broad shouldered and impossibly handsome, he walked toward me with urgency written across his face, and for the first time that night, I felt like maybe I wasn't completely alone anymore. My knight in shining armor.