In the lively city of Sydney, Australia, lives Cassalia Elle Anderson, an eighteen-year-old high school student who has always been wary of boys and avoided the idea of dating. But everything changed two years back when she crossed paths with Ben Mi...
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Eve and I are at the top of the mountain, staring down at the surprise formal proposal picnic that she helped me set up for Blake. It's nothing fancy but it's beautiful. A helium balloon that's written will you go to the formal with me? floating in the air. White picnic blanket with three cushions. A picnic basket for two with all sorts of food, non-alcoholic champagne, and two champagne glasses.
"If I didn't hate hiking so much, I would do something like this for Jake" she grabs the bottle of champagne and places it back on the blanket properly so that it's not tilted.
I face her "I still can't believe that you kept your relationship a secret"
"Babe, I already told you that we only started dating last week. Before, we were just fuck buddies" she sits on the blanket and I join her.
On the night of Blake and Jake's birthday dinner, Eve slept over at my place. I had so many questions for her. I couldn't understand how she was able to sneak around with Jake without me noticing a single thing. I mean the fact that Paul had a surmise and I didn't should say a lot.
I'm her best friend, I was supposed to have suspected it from the early days. But I didn't, I was too employed in sorting out my feelings for Blake to even pay attention to what was happening around me.
"Are you happy?" I ask concerningly and place my hand over hers "be honest" I examine her face, searching her eyes.
One thing about Eve...she's good at concealing her pain with a smile.
Her previous relationship was unhealthy and I had no idea because she always hid everything from me and made it appear as if she was happy. She made me believe that Damon was an amazing guy instead of telling me the truth. Even today, I still feel terrible that I wasn't there for her. She went through all those heartaches alone. And what hurts the most is that she didn't feel like she could confide in me.
I will never forgive myself for not being there for her. I'm her best friend, I was supposed to have seen the pain behind her smile. But I didn't...I failed her as a friend.
"Please be honest with me. I don't want history to repeat itself" her eyes search mine and realization masks her features.
"Babe," she says softly "I know I was secretive about my relationship with Damon, and I promise that this time around I'll be honest with you so that you don't have to be concerned"
"I'm happy, babe" her smile reaches her eyes "he makes me happy" I watch as she sinks into her thoughts "after my relationship with Damon I was despondent. I vowed to not fall in love again. I didn't want to go through what Damon put me through" her eyes fill up with tears "I'm such a sucker for love. That's why it was so easy for Damon to take advantage of me. He knew I was desperate for him to love me back so he always said everything I needed to hear, feeding my desperation for love" she squeezes my hand lightly and our eyes lock.
"You may think that I didn't know what you were going through after your relationship with Ben, but I understood why you acted the way you did. It's not easy to allow yourself to be vulnerable after you've been hurt so many times" her puffy eyes stare away for a moment before returning to me "it also took a while for me to trust Jake. And I think the reason why he was so understanding about me wanting to keep us a secret is that he went through what I went through"
