Betrayal

"Shannon, all I want to do is tell him. I think if I'm honest with him, he'll understand!" Jimmy would be here any minute now.

"Are you crazy! You tell him, you'll get in a fight, again! Just let this one be, Rose. I understand you want to be truthful with him, but if you guys keep arguing, you'll be done for sure!"

"But if I were to tell him, then I could tell him of Alexa's plan!"

"Rosie," Shannon knelt before me, looking me in the eye, a look of compassion flooded her features. "If you want to keep Jimmy, then you'll need to be the best, most caring, most trustworthy girlfriend you can be. And telling Jimmy about tonight will not make you any of those things. I talked you into it, now, let me talk you out of telling him, alright?"

I was apprehensive, but decided to agree with her. She was always right. Shannon has always been the one to know what to do and what not to do. I nodded my head.

"Good. Now, it is quite late, and I'm sure you and Jimmy are going to talk as soon as he gets back. So, I'll go to bed now." She spoke, standing. "Goodnight, Rosie!"

"Night, Shannon." I replied.

I sat on the couch for a few minutes, silence filling the room. I looked down to my freshly painted nails, examining the flawless sheen of color.

"Hey," A voice broke the quiet. I looked up to see Alex standing in the doorway to the bedrooms. I was a little shocked to hear her voice, having not spoken more than few words in the past weeks with her.

"Hi." I replied, not exactly sure what to say.

She nodded towards me, then crossed the room to the kitchen area. She looked through the cabinets, obviously looking for some type of food to ease her hunger. I remained silent, keeping my head down while she was in the room.

"Damnit." I heard her mutter.

I looked up to see her now turned to me, looking frustrated.

"I'm fucking tired of this shit. You're one of my best friends, Rose. I don't like having you mad at me. I fucked up majorly, I know, and I'm sorry. But will you please accept my apology?" She spoke, exasperated.

"Yes."

"Why no- wait. You said yes?" She seemed to have already planned this conversation in her head.

I nodded. "I forgive you."

"Why now? I mean, not that I'm not happy that you did, but just, why? I probably wouldn't forgive me so easily if I were you."

"Now because it's the first time you actually asked for forgiveness." She opened her mouth to protest, but I cut her off. "You've apologized, yes, but you never asked for forgiveness. I can see that you're truly sincere now. And I'm forgiving you because you're one of my best friends. You had a temporary lapse of judgment, and I can forgive that. I forgave Jimmy, and now that I've had time to cool off, I can forgive you too."

A brilliant smile spread across her face. She ran to the couch and embraced me in a hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Her childish mood made me laugh with joy. She pulled away and looked me in the eyes. "I promise you, Rose. I won't ever do that to you ever again."

"You shouldn't have done it the first time." I spoke truthfully.

"You're right." Her head hung low at this.

"But, it's all in the past now. We can finally move on from this completely and let life turn normal once again." I spoke.

"Yeah! Well, as normal as it can get, considering Alexa and all." Alex spoke.

"I know. It's all so surreal. Alexa, pregnant with Jimmy's child. She doesn't even want that baby." I was so disgusted with Alexa at this point.

"I know what you mean." Alex agreed.

"Alex, how did you know about Alexa being pregnant? And the supposed abortion? How did you know all about that?"

"Well, before Alexa saw you and, uh 'visited' Jimmy, we talked. At the time she seemed like a nice girl, so we exchanged numbers and texted and stuff. Later, she called me, crying and talking about how she had gotten pregnant. I immediately went to Jimmy, and he told me about her having an abortion."

"So, you're friends with Alexa?" I was a little hurt by that realization.

"What? No! Oh god no! I could never do that to you. Well, once I found out the whole story about Jimmy being the father I hung up and refuse to talk to her since. If I had known at the time we first talked what a bitch she was, I wouldn't have texted her and shit. I'm sorry, Rose."

I sighed, knowing she was being honest. "I understand, Alex. You didn't know, and that's okay."

She smiled softly. "Hey, where's Jimmy now?"

I paled at her question.

"What's wrong, Rosie?" She asked, concerned.

"Well, he's with Alexa right now. Talking about the baby at her hotel." I chose to leave out the part of me and Shannon spying on the two of them at dinner.

"At her hotel? And you're letting him be there with her?"

"Well, I have to. He has to straighten things out with her. Besides, I trust him." Lately, I'm not so sure I should.

"Yeah, but, really? You're not gonna go spy on him or demand that you go along?" I feel so guilty for spying on him. I know I'll never do it again.

"No. I've got to let him do this on his own." I'm a terrible, terrible girlfriend.