The Player novel Chapter 25

Brielle

8:43 PM

I couldn't believe it. He wouldn't do that. He couldn't do that. The whole world around me seemed to blur as all I could fixate on was this. This awful thing that the man I once thought I loved did to me.

There was no way that I could recover from this, that I could somehow forget that this had happened. It would follow me around for the rest of my life.

Once it's there, online, it can never go away. What would my brother think when he saw it? My parents?

My hand covered my mouth as I choked back a sob.

My life is over.

And just like that my world crumbled.

"Oh my God, Brielle," Nicole said, at a loss for words. "I'm so sorry."

I tried to say something, but I couldn't. I nodded my head instead, or at least I think I did. The world around me was numb, and I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

"Why did he do this to you?"

I furiously nodded my head. I couldn't talk about this, not now.

"I- I can't," I choked out.

With those words, my resolve collapsed, and the floodgates opened. Tears streamed down my face as I was overcome with sobs, no longer able to hold them back.

"Oh, Brielle," Nicole murmured sympathetically, pulling me into her arms. I cried into her shoulder as all the day's events piled on top of one another and hit me at once. This was the worst day ever.

After I had made a significantly sized wet spot on her shirt, I pulled away, wiping my nose with the back of my hands. "I think that I need to be alone," I sobbed laying down on my bed.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded my head, and she gave me an empathetic smile before rising off my bed. "If you need someone to talk to, call me," she said, before closing the door behind her.

Once I was safely alone, I buried my face into my pillow, letting my tears fall once more. I counted all the terrible things that had happened today. My brother betrayed me, Sam lied to me, Christopher was using me, and now Derrick did...this.

I slowly dozed off, the lightheadedness from hours of crying carrying me to sleep. I prayed that when I woke up, this whole day would just be a dream. Christopher wasn't using me, and we would still be together. I would wake up and Derrick would have never posted it.

But when I woke up in my dark bedroom with a head splitting migraine hours later, all of my fears were confirmed. It was all real, and no matter how much praying or dreaming I did, that wouldn't change.

A sliver of light creeped into my room as my door creaked open.

"Go away!" I groaned, using all my energy to throw a pillow at the door. I winced as I did so, my headache causing all movement to become painful.

"What kind of friend would I be if I did that?" I looked up to see Sam cautiously walking into my room. I turned away.

"Considering what you did to me, I don't think that you're much of a friend at all."

I felt the bed dip beside me as she sat. "I know, and I'm really sorry. But I promise that I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

"Well I did." I clipped.

Her tone grew soft. "I know, and that's what I regret the most. But I promise that I was going to tell you."

I sat up, anger overtaking me. "Then why didn't you?" I said venomously. A look of hurt flashed over her eyes before she quickly recovered.

"I just figured out yesterday and I knew that it would hurt you more if I was the one who told you instead of Christopher. I told him that if he didn't tell you by the end of today that I would."

I rolled my eyes. "Well thanks to you, I heard the news from Melanie, who was all too happy to share it with me."

She averted my gaze. "I know and I'm sorry." The sincerity in her voice caused my resolve to crack, and all I could reveal was the hurt that she caused me.

My voice cracked. "What hurts me the most was that you didn't tell me right away. You gave Melanie the opportunity to tell me. I would never do that to you."

She held my gaze. "I was wrong. There's nothing I can say to defend myself." Her breathing began ragged as she began to cry. "It hurts me so much to see you like this, and it's even worse because I helped cause it.

But please, believe me, I will never let it happen again."

I took a second to ponder over what she said. While I was mad, and frustrated with her, I was mostly just disappointed. Disappointed because as my best friend she was supposed to protect me from harm, not cause it.

But looking at her now, in front of me, I knew that there was no way that Sam wanted this to happen. She had good intentions, and while it didn't go as planned, in the end all she wanted to do was save me from the hurt that I was feeling now.