It Wasn't Meant to Be Like This

“Dude! Why do I have to put decent clothes on!” I whine like a some teenage kid that complains at his mother for making him wear a suit.

“Because I don’t want Lizzie thinking you’re some tramp.” replies Jack smartly as he was chopping the ingredients of tonight’s dinner.

“Ugh, I don’t even want to meet her!” I snap, already hating her as this girl had stole my best friend. Brainwashed him into a untidy, too happy, sarcastic prick.

“You’re meant to be supportive” Jack replies as he puts something in a pan. I roll my eyes as I leaned against the counter. Whatever he was cooking smelled good.

“I am! I support that you should dump her and come back to earth” I reply, swigging at my half empty beer that Jack opened for me.

“You’re just jealous because she’s insanely hot” Jack scoffs and adds spices or something. I don’t even remember buying this shit.

“Go brush your hair or something. You’re irritating me” Jack sighs, and stirs the mystery dinner. I huff and walk out, into the bathroom checking my appearance.

I had showered, shaved, put fresh, even ironed clothes on and I had brushed my hair and even styled it slightly. I put a bit of cologne on and stared in the mirror.

I was jealous. I realized.

I was incredibly jealous that Jack actually had a girlfriend and I didn’t. It wouldn’t help if this girl was hot and smart. That’s just too cruel to me, that’s God’s way of saying “Finn, you will never have a relationship!”

I sighed heavily, sulkily going back into the living room. The TV off, the ipod was playing some background music and the whole place was tidy, cushions were put out too. Why did we need cushions. What the hell was this blanket thing?

As I was about to set my ass on the couch, there was knocking at the door.

“YO! Finny! Answer the door!” Jack shouts from the kitchen. Sighing dramatically…I get up and mumble insults as greetings to the door. I unclick the chain and open the door….

And stare in complete and utter shock.

As Elizabeth Carlton was standing at my door, looking absolutely stunningly breath-taking with a bottle of red wine in her hand, and a smile on her face with confusion.

Perfect.

---

I’m dreaming.
I had to be.

Jack couldn’t possibly be dating this stunning creature.

Please. God.
Don’t
Be
So
Unfair.

“Hey! I know you” she suddenly says in that bright tone of hers. I couldn’t help but just stare in awe as she stood before me, she had a careless smile on her face, bright pearly whites, her lips looked amazing…oh my god.

Finn. Shut the hell up, this is your BEST FRIEND’S girlfriend.

“Um-” I say stupidly, I tried to conjure up some words, anything to make a sentence but my mind was completely thrown.

“Babe! You’re here” I hear Jack say behind me, then I’m physically moved aside while Jack hugs her and kisses her quickly. I blinked, staring.

My mouth dropped still.

“Dude, you’ll catch flies!” Jack laughs and I feel myself blushing slightly. Damn it.

“”Liz, this is my douche of a friend Finn Donnell. Finn, this is the amazing Liz” Jack introduces, happily.

I stare and give a polite smile, unsure how to act. Should I pretend I don’t know her…

“Hi, nice to meet you” I suddenly blurt out. Liz, I mean Beth looked at me confused but gave a smile.

“Nice to meet you too Finn” she says calmly. Jack ushered her in and closed the door behind her, taking her gift from her and handing to me.
“Thanks for the wine” he tells her, smiling at her as if she was the only girl in the world.

“No problem, thanks for having me over” Beth says happily. I nod stupidly, and look at Jack, then back at Beth.

“C’mon in then, come see the place. It’s not much but it’s home” Jack says and takes Beth into the kitchen.

I stared after them, still in mind-numbing shock.

Elizabeth Carlton was in my house.
Dating my best friend.

Not good.

---

I couldn’t help it, I felt hatred towards her as I sat opposite her, eating the delicious meal that Jack had so kindly slaved over. Thing is though, I couldn’t enjoy it properly as it felt bitter, sour almost as I watched her laugh happily with Jack as he teased her, flirting with her.

My stomach in knots, I felt sick physically sick.

It dawned on my, that I was in serious trouble. I was jealous of Jack because he was dating Beth. Or Liz as he called her, but I know she doesn’t like it. She looks slightly annoyed, her nose twitches with distaste whenever he calls her it.

I felt stupid, that I was feeling like this but I couldn’t help it. Jack was having the time of his life, almost mocking me that he had a beautiful girlfriend.

“So what do you do Finn?” Beth suddenly asks me. I stopped staring into space and shook my head slightly and refocused on the couple in front of me.

“Um, I work at a photography place” I say nervously, and Jack was giving me a strange look and looked at Beth who smiled at me as if she enjoyed my discomfort.

“Do you actually do some photography or is it just for money type of thing?” Beth asks as if she was actually interested in my life. Jack smirked at me and unfortunately opened his mouth to answer.

“You kidding? Jack loves it, he constantly takes pictures. You should see some of his work. It’s amazing. Remember that modelling session with your sister in the rain?” Jack says, looking at me with hope in his eyes.

“Um, yeah.” I say, not wanting to brag about it. They weren’t that good. Sure, April looked stunning in them. But still, that wasn’t down to me.

“Aw, you have you show me sometime, we could compare work” Beth says excitedly. I suddenly bit my tongue, not making a sound as the painful sensation went through my nerves.

“Maybe” I say quietly, looking down at my plate, only halt empty. I was really out of it.

“Lizzie loves taking pictures…I forgot to tell you how we met. It was mostly my fault-”

“You ran right into me you douche!” Beth retaliates and instantly my head shot up with shock.
Jack was the douche that ran into her and broke her camera.

She had a date with Jack the day my hopes of dating her vanished. Jack had beat me by a millisecond.

“What happened?” I felt forced to ask and Jack looked at me, pleased and they dove into the long, torturous story of how Jack and Beth met.

To others, it would seem stupidly, clumsily romantic that they met by literally running into each other. But, I couldn’t be happy. My hormones were taking control and I felt hate, anger and jealousy.

It was sickening.

“Dude! Snap out of it! Lizzie was talking to you-” Jack says and I look at him, giving a reassuring smile but it was false.

This was going to be hard as I realized, I liked as in ‘like, like’ my best friend’s girlfriend.