Curvy Girls Can’t Date Best Friends by Kelsie Stelting

Ten

CARSON

Callie picked the movie, and yeah, I actually liked it. But I couldn’t focus on any of it with her question ringing through my ears and Nick sitting feet away from me. From her.

I didn’t have a problem with Nick, per se. He was nice enough. Played video games. But he wrote poetry. And he was so pretentious about it. Like stringing a few words together that didn’t even rhyme all the time somehow made him an artist. And what did he think he was going to do after he graduated college? I hope he had luck rhyming with “do you want fries with that?”

Okay, maybe I was being rude, but seriously. Callie deserved so much better. Someone strong, who could protect her when people said mean things, who’d stick with her no matter what, not just write her a few sappy poems and move on.

But she kept glancing over at him like he’d personally discovered love rhymes with dove. And the worst thing was, it didn’t seem like he cared. Didn’t he realize what a gem he had sitting across from him? Sure, Joe was his friend, but Joe was the most laid-back guy I’d ever met. He probably wouldn’t flip about it.

Definitely not like I was right now.

Callie wasn’t the kind of girl who gave up on what she wanted. Not when she wanted to start fostering dogs, not when she wanted to learn the piccolo after quitting sports, and she wouldn’t break that pattern now.

The problem was, we were about to go to Stanford together, and part of me had always dreamed we’d leave for college as a couple. The timing had always been off before. I’d been too afraid or dating Sarah, but now was the time, and she wanted me to seal my own demise?

Callie didn’t know what she was asking me to do, not really. Still, if I said no, it would break her heart. But if I said yes? I might just break my own.

“I need to get something at my house,” I announced and got off the couch.

“Hurry up,” Callie said. “You don’t want to miss their last first kiss.”

I chuckled. That was her favorite part. “I’ll be back soon.”

I walked through the sliding doors and crossed their backyard to the other side of the privacy fence. As I walked toward the park closest to our houses, my fingers hovered over my phone.

One by one, I’d watched my sisters leave—go to college, get married, have children, and start lives of their own as far away from our parents as possible. As far away from me as possible. Clary was busy looking after her three kids, Gemma had a big job in New York, and Sierra had just started backpacking Europe with her husband to get inspiration for her next art installation. I couldn’t even get ahold of her if I tried.

It was hard not to feel sorry for myself as I called my friend Beckett’s number and hoped he wasn’t too busy with his new girlfriend, Rory, to answer.

It went to voicemail, and I sent him a text.

Carson: I’m desperate. Pick up?

I dropped into the swing like I had all those years ago, not knowing the girl in the swing next to mine would become the center of my universe. Within a few seconds, a call came in from him.

“Sorry, Cars, I was in Spike. Hold on,” Beckett said. The club’s music quieted on the phone like he’d stepped outside or something.

Suddenly, I felt like crap for taking him away from his night when I was the one who’d put myself in this situation. If I’d just been brave enough, spelled out for Callie exactly how much she meant to me, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position right now.

Maybe I did need to study poetry.

“What’s up?” Beckett asked, in a quieter spot now.

“I’m screwed,” I said, bending over in the swing and dragging my fingers through my hair.

“What happened?” He sounded concerned—but not panicked like I was.

“Callie wants me to help her brother’s best friend fall in love with her, and I’m losing it. I can’t do that. It would mess everything up! This was supposed to be our summer, and now I’m gonna watch her fall in love with some other guy? And not only fall in love, but orchestrate the whole thing? It’s sick.”

“Whoa, breathe,” Beckett said. “That’s a lot.”

“You’re telling me.” I straightened and kicked my feet over the worn-down gravel, even though it felt like my rib cage was splitting in half. “I don’t know what to do.”

Beckett swore low. “Can’t she see she’s in love with you?”

I snorted. “That’s a funny thing to say considering she just asked me to help her land someone else.”

“Don’t ask me to read her mind. I barely know what Rory’s thinking half the time.”

“Well, thanks for the help, Becks.” I wasn’t mad at him, not really, but the hopelessness inside me was growing, and I didn’t know what else there was left to hang on to once my hope was gone.

“Do you want me to ask Rory for help?” he offered.

“No, she’ll just tell Callie, and then I’d look even more pathetic than I do now.”

“And you can’t just tell her how you feel?”

I squinted my eyes against the sunset and shook my head. “She likes him.”

“Then I don’t see any other option,” Beckett said.

I hung on to one of swing chains and leaned my head against the cool metal. “What is it?”

“You have to help her,” he said gently, but his words hit me like daggers.

“What do you mean?”

“When you love someone, you’ll do whatever it takes for them to be happy, even if it means breaking yourself in the process.”

My eyes stung and my throat felt thick, and God, I just wished hearing the truth didn’t feel like this. “Thanks, Becks,” I choked out, not sure if I could follow through on this.

“Call me if you need me,” he said.

“I will,” I promised, even though he’d already done more than enough by being honest with me.

“Don’t give up,” he said. “If there’s one thing I learned from Rory, it’s that love is messy, and sometimes you think it’s all going to hell, but then you figure out it was just a part of your story. Someday, it will all make sense.”

There it was, that little spark of hope I needed to hold my head up high and walk into the Copelands’ house to see the girl I loved in love with someone else.