All Chapters of My Bestfriend's Boy: Chapter 11 - Chapter 15

AvaThree months into our relationship, I learned that Ethan Blake had a voice that could undo me.It wasn't something I noticed at first. In class, in the cafeteria, even on our first few dates, he spoke the way most people did—normal volume, normal tone, nothing that would make you stop and listen. But alone, when it was just the two of us, his voice changed.It dropped lower. Slower. Like he was savoring every word."Come here," he said one night, his back against the headboard of his bed, his hand reaching for mine.We were in his room—his aunt was out of town for the weekend, and we'd claimed the house as our own. The lights were dim, the windows open, the summer air thick and warm. I'd been here a dozen times before, but never like this. Never with the tension stretched so tight between us that I could feel it humming in my skin.I took his hand, and he pulled me onto the bed beside him. His fingers traced the curve of my jaw, tilting my face toward his."You're nervous," he obs

AvaThe first real fight happened in late July.It started over something stupid—I can't even remember what anymore. Something about plans, about canceled dinner, about the way he'd been distant all week. But stupid fights are never really about the thing they're about. They're about everything underneath."You're pulling away," I said, my voice sharper than I intended. We were in his car, parked outside my house, the engine still running. "You've been pulling away for weeks, and I don't know why.""I'm not pulling away.""Then what are you doing?"He ran a hand through his hair—his tell, the gesture he made when he was stressed or upset. "I'm trying to figure things out, okay? I'm leaving in a month, and I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be with you and leave you at the same time.""Then don't leave.""Ava—""I know," I said, cutting him off. "I know you have to go. I know it's not your fault. But I need you to be here now. Really here. Not halfway."He was quiet for a

MiaI watched her fall apart, and I was the reason.That's the thing about guilt—it doesn't hit you all at once. It creeps in, slowly, like water seeping through cracks in a dam. At first, you can ignore it. Patch it up. Tell yourself it's nothing.But eventually, the cracks get bigger and farther till the dam breaks.The night Ava came to my house, her eyes red, her voice shaking, asking me if I knew why Ethan had been so distant—that was the night the cracks became canyons."I don't know," I lied. "Maybe he's just stressed about school."She nodded, accepting my lie because she trusted me. Because she had no reason not to.I went to bed that night and stared at the ceiling for hours. My phone buzzed—Ethan, asking if I was awake. I didn't answer. For the first time, I didn't want to talk to him.This is wrong, I thought. This is so, so wrong.But I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. Because stopping meant admitting what I'd done. And admitting what I'd done meant losing everything.---Th