My Best Friend Stole Him. So I Stole Better. Chapter 01
I chased Julian Reid for three years. He stood me up, and then I stumbled across a post on Reddit.
“I’m dating the guy my best friend is in love with. Should I tell her?”
“My best friend has been chasing him for three years. His buddy has been chasing me for three years. But he and I got together.”
“You know what, I don’t think I’ll tell her. It’s kind of fun watching them fuss over us.”
The image link redirected to the poster’s Instagram—the side profiles of a beautiful couple. The girl smiled mischievously at the camera; the man gazed at her with unmistakable tenderness. Clean-cut, handsome. Familiar.
My eyes stung, red before I could stop them. Then Ethan Beaumont came rushing over and pulled me aside.
He ground the words out through his teeth. “They’re playing us like this. Can you actually take it?”
“You’re gorgeous, I’m not bad myself. Let’s get together. Let’s smack them in the face so hard they’ll never forget it.”
Later, on the day the two of them made things public, giddy with their own little game, Ethan and I announced our engagement.
But the ever-cold Julian Reid blocked my path, his eyes red.
“You bitch! How could you stop loving me?!”
…
The comments beneath the top-voted reply exploded.
“Fun??? Is the OP mentally ill? Stomping on someone’s feelings like that—aren’t you afraid of karma?”
“Maybe it’s a regional thing. Where I’m from, we don’t call people like this ‘best friends’ and ‘bros’—we call them vipers in Sunday dress.”
“OP’s Instagram is geotagged in Manhattan. Everyone go check her out. Having friends like this is like having eight generations of bad luck. Two-for-one betrayal, honestly. If you ask me, the ‘best friend’ and the ‘bro’ deserve each other.”
“Feel bad for those two. Like a matched pair of aces, being played as throwaways.”
The OP fired back fast.
“Friends joke around. So what? Real friends want you to be happy, they root for you. If she can’t even offer congratulations, she doesn’t deserve to be my friend!”
“She spent three years and couldn’t land him. I landed him for her. Shouldn’t she be thanking me?”
“Besides, what would a rich girl like her know about real love? If she’d gotten him, she’d have just tossed him aside.”
I stood outside the theater, the two Broadway tickets crumpled in my fist. My eyes were locked on the comments and the photo.
The girl looked bright, playful, mischievous. In her hair was the Chanel pearl clip I’d given her.
My best friend, Sienna Hayes. Beside her, the man I’d chased for three years.
Just this morning, on my way out, Sienna had done my makeup, picked the dress for me, sent me out the door with a smile.
“If I were Julian, I’d be crazy about you. A girl this pretty chasing him? He should be honored!”
I’d flushed, embarrassed, but couldn’t help grinning.
“He must like me a little, right? Otherwise, how could he go three years without giving me a clear no? He said yes to Broadway tonight. I’m going to lock this down!”
“Speaking of which—Ethan’s been after you forever. When are you finally going to say yes?”
Sienna had propped her chin on her hands, watching me with a half-smile.
“I don’t know. We’ll see.”
So when exactly had they gotten together?
My eyes stung. The humiliation and fury of betrayal drowned out whatever grief had come first.
Then Ethan reached me and grabbed my arm just before I broke.
“You saw it too? They’re playing us. Are you really going to take it?”
I bit my lip. Tears spilled over.
If it had been anyone else, I’d have called Sienna by now to trash-talk Julian together.
But it was her.
“Why?”
Ethan looked at me for a long moment. His voice softened, though the sarcasm didn’t leave it.
“Didn’t you see? Because it’s fun.”
“Summer, you’re beautiful. I’m not bad either. Let’s be together. Let’s smack them across the face.”
“They want to play? Then we’ll play with them, all the way to the end.”
I couldn’t speak. Then my phone chimed.
I looked down. A message from Sienna.
“Having fun with Julian? You looked so gorgeous today, he must be over the moon!”
Sienna suddenly felt like a stranger.
Sienna and I had been inseparable since high school. I’d known her longer than I’d known Julian.
She knew how much I loved him. She knew how much this date had meant to me.
Every time before I went out, she helped me plan the outfit, urged me to confess.
Julian ditched me constantly, but the moment I was about to give up, he’d toss me a scrap of concern that kept me hanging.
I used to think that was just his personality. Now I finally understood.
His heart had belonged to my best friend the whole time.
To them, I was a clown. Something to laugh at.
I looked up at Ethan. My voice came out hoarse.
“Okay.”
Ethan’s eyes darkened. His fist clenched.
“Deal. We wait until they go public. Then we hit them where it hurts.”
“People who betray their friends deserve to be punished.”