Page 28 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend (Port Lane Romances #3)

twenty

My room was always my solace when I was depressed.

I was back home, and I curled up in my blanket.

I put on a sad movie on my laptop so I cry out my feelings well.

I was lost in thought. All my attempts to get through r had failed.

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what else to do.

I felt he probably hated me. I don’t know if there was still a chance to fix things.

I heard a knock on the door. Probably my mom who wanted to bother me.

“Go away!” I yelled. “I want to be alone.”

“Penny, it’s me,” a quiet voice called back. I frowned. If I didn’t know better, I would have said that was Nikki. But why would she be at my house? She hated me now.

Curiosity got the better of me and I forced myself out of my bed.

I wrapped my blanket around my shoulders, wiped the tears off my face, and opened the door.

Nikki was on the other side, looking just as rough as me.

Her eyes were bloodshot, she was still dressed in her pyjamas, and she looked upset.

“Come to fix your boyfriend’s mess?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Nikki said. She held up a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream — my favourite. “And I came here to apologize.”

I was so upset by everything that had happened over the past day that I was tempted to say screw her apology and just slam the door in her face.

But then I remembered that this was the moment I had been waiting for over the past couple of months and I wasn’t going to spit in its face.

At the very least, I wanted to hear her out.

It was brave of her to come and face me after everything that happened between us.

I took a deep breath. In. Out. Let it go.

“You have five minutes,” I said calmly. I swept my arm to the side, indicating for her to come in.

Once she did, I closed the door behind her and kicked a towel across the bottom of the door to help block sound from coming through.

My family already knew too much about my recent personal life, I wasn’t adding this to the list.

“I want to apologize for everything I’ve done to hurt you over the past couple of months,” Nikki said.

She was wringing her hands and avoiding my gaze.

She obviously had a speech planned, so I stayed quiet and heard her out.

“I’m sorry about kissing your boyfriend and trying to convince you that you shouldn’t have been upset about it.

You and I were like sisters, and I always thought you would be in my life forever.

Everything happened so suddenly, and I got lost in it.

I lost myself in my relationship with him.

I know that I can’t turn back time or take back what I did, and I know there’s nothing I can say that will ever make up for all of it, but I’m still going to say it: I’m sorry I hurt you.

I was your best friend and I know I betrayed you.

I made an awful mistake and I will spend the rest of our lives trying to make up for that. ”

“Wow,” I said. I took a couple of deep breaths to hold back tears. As much as I’d hoped this day would come, I also thought it never would.

“Penny?” She prompted.

“Do you have any idea what you put me through?” I shook my head, tears burning behind my eyes. “The way you ruined me? Joseph may have been my boyfriend, but you are the one who really broke my heart.”

“Penny!” She cried. “I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted to be with him and I didn’t care what happened to you. But I promise, from now on everything will be different. I won’t even think about Joseph anymore.”

“But how can I trust that?” I asked. “How can I ever trust you again, Nikki?”

“I don't know,” she said honestly. “But I promise that I will do whatever it takes to make it up to you. I'll do anything. I promise.”

Without a word, I pulled her into a tight hug. The familiar scent of the perfume I bought her for her birthday overwhelmed me and I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer. Nikki hugged me back just as tightly, almost preventing me from breathing in the best way possible.

“I always hoped that you would realize this one day,” I whispered.

“I’m just sorry it took so long,” she whispered back.

“I still feel really guilty. And I hate that I only realized it once the relationship wasn’t working out.

You were right that he was just using me to make you jealous.

Seeing how he acted at the formal last night is what made me finally snap out of it and realize I was being an awful best friend. That’s why I broke up with him.”

Wait, what? I thought Joseph was the one who broke up with Nikki. He said he did it for me. I guess nothing Joseph ever said was the truth. That big gesture he made at my house last night was just his newest lie yet. And all it did was make Alexander upset. I was livid.

“Wait, you broke up with him?” I asked. “Joseph told me he broke up with you because he was still in love with me.”

She shook her head. “Trust me, at this point, I have no reason to lie. I dumped him because he wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted both of us at the same time, which obviously isn’t possible.”

“Yeah, he’s an awful person. Never changed his character. Seems like we both dodged a bullet.”

“Not so much that we dodged it, but rather that we were both hit and now have to recover,” Nikki said. She looked at me seriously. “I know it sounds ridiculous and selfish, but is there any way you could find it in your heart to forgive me for everything I did?”

I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Alexander about forgiveness, and how Nikki was my best friend and I would be willing to forgive her for doing almost anything.

My heart had been heavy for a while because of her, but holding on to this grudge wouldn’t help either of us.

I wouldn’t be able to just forget about all of this or pretend it didn’t happen, but I was willing to at least start the process of forgiving her.

“I can’t just move on,” I said. “And not everything can be solved with one apology. But yes… I forgive you.”

Nikki smiled and rubbed my shoulder. “I know it’s going to take some time, but I’m ready to wait as long as it takes and go through this together.”

It was definitely going to take some time for everything for us to get back to where we were, but honestly I was glad to get my best friend back.

Losing her hurt me more than losing Joseph.

I never let myself imagine that this would actually happen.

But now she was here, and though we had a long way to go, I was confident that one day, we would be able to build our friendship up again.

“Now,” Nikki said, “I want to burn all of Joseph’s things. Want to join in?”

I shook my head. “Oh, trust me, I burned all his stuff the day I found out about the two of you.”

Nikki snorted. “Yeah, I guess I should have guessed.”

“Wait,” I said. I sat up straighter. “Actually… there’s one thing.”