My Best Friend Stole My Boyfriend, My Brother, and My Entire Life

My boyfriend kissed another girl in Cancún, and I found out from an Instagram Story set to Close Friends with me as the only name on the list. But that part comes later. It's spring break. The five of us flew down together. Me, my boyfriend Jax, my brother Caleb, my childhood friend Miles, and my so-called best friend Sienna. At check-in, their bags are all overweight. Guess whose suitcase gets emptied into mine. "Yours is basically empty, babe. Just throw it in." "Wren, come on. Don't make it a thing." "It's literally two shirts." By the time it's my turn at the counter, I'm two hundred bucks lighter. Nobody offers to split it. Nobody even looks up from their phones. That night at a beachfront taquería, our table has four chairs. Four. "You could use the exercise anyway," Sienna says, flipping her hair. "Standing's good for you." Everyone laughs. I laugh too, because what else am I supposed to do. I'm balancing a paper tray of grilled shrimp in one hand when my wrist gives out. The whole thing flips. Right into my face. I run to the bathroom to wash the sauce out of my hair. When I come back, the table's empty. Just four greasy plates and a tip left on a napkin. They Ubered back without me. It's almost midnight when I drag myself into the villa lobby. And there they are. All four of them. Dressed up, done up, perfumed, laughing, on their way back out. Jax ruffles my hair like I'm five. "Attagirl. Where we're going isn't really your scene." Caleb steers me toward my room with a hand on my shoulder. "Just stay in tonight, okay? Lock the door." He talks to me like I'm twelve. I'm twenty-four. Miles leans against the wall, smirking at nothing. I point at Sienna. "She's a girl." Sienna freezes. Jax jumps in before she has to answer. "Sen's like our little sister. It's different." "But I'm your girlfriend. Isn't that different?" I can't think of a single thing to say. Thirty minutes later, my phone buzzes. It's Sienna's Instagram Story. They went to an 18+ cabaret show. And there's Sienna, on stage, legs wrapped around Jax's waist, arms around his neck. Caleb and Miles are in the front row, cupping their mouths, chanting, "Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!" And Jax tilts his head down and kisses her. The caption: "Turns out we have WAY more fun without a certain someone 😘🍹" I open my laptop and book the next flight home. If they have more fun without me, fine. I'm done trying to squeeze into a group that keeps shoving me out. One-thirty in the morning. The door bursts open. Jax has his arm around Sienna's waist, half-holding her up. She's wearing Caleb's new flip-flops. Miles's jacket is draped over her shoulders. Her cheeks are pink from drinking, and she's laughing like the whole world owes her a good time. She spots me on the edge of the bed and waves her ticket stub at me. "Little Mouse! You're still up?" My name is Wren. I don't even remember when she started calling me Little Mouse. Something small. Something that belongs in a corner. Something you don't have to look at. I pushed back on it, in the beginning. They all said the same thing. She doesn't mean anything by it. Don't be sensitive. So eventually I stopped. Jax doesn't even say hi. He walks straight past me and starts digging through my bag. "Where's your first-aid kit? Sen's heels are shredded. Can you clean her up and put a Band-Aid on? She's a baby about the sting." My knee is still bleeding. The street was packed. After I washed my face, I was running to catch up with them and someone shoulder-checked me into the pavement. Nobody noticed. I look up at him. "What about mine?" Jax blinks. Then he laughs, soft, like I'm being adorable, and crouches down to pinch my cheek. "Baby, she's a mess right now. Just help her out, yeah? I'll take care of yours after. Promise." I don't get it. In the lobby, Sienna was "like our little sister." Now suddenly she's too fragile for her own feet and I'm the one who should know better. I open my mouth. I close it. Because this is how it's always been. I was eight. I wiped out on my bike in the driveway and took a chunk of skin off my knee. Caleb glanced down and said, "That's what you get for showing off. Walk it off." Thirty seconds later, Sienna jumped off a wall and scraped her palm. All three of them swarmed her like she was dying. She waved them off, giggling. "Guys, stop. I'm not some baby." Caleb still took my Band-Aids out of my backpack and put one on her. Miles blew on the scrape, grinning. "Don't act so tough, Sen. You're still a girl." Jax handed her the popsicle he'd just bought for me. "Sugar helps. Trust me." And I stood there with my knee bleeding into my sock, hands shaking, and heard my brother call over his shoulder. "Wren. Why are you just standing there? Grab some napkins. Sen's covered in dirt." It took me until tonight to finally get it. Sienna is their buddy. And their princess. And I'm the one who doesn't get to bleed. Who doesn't get to cry. Who hands them the napkins. I turn my face away. "I'm not doing it." The room goes dead quiet. Sienna tucks her foot back under herself. Her smile stiffens. "It's fine. I'll do it myself. Mouse, what's with you tonight?" Jax finally turns and looks at me. Really looks. "Wait. Is this because we didn't take you out?" He laughs. A soft, warm, you're being so cute right now laugh. Reaches out to ruffle my hair again. "Baby. Come on. You would've hated it, I swear. It was wild." Then he picks up my white first-aid kit. Antiseptic, gauze, Band-Aids, my emergency EpiPen, all of it. I hold out my hand. "Give it back." He's already walking toward Sienna. "Okay, okay. You don't want to help? I'll do it myself. Happy?" I watch him follow her into the other room and shut the door. My throat feels like it's packed full of cotton. He never comes back. Not that night. Not to check on my knee. Not once. I flip my phone over in my palm. The screen glows up at me. Flight to LAX. Departs in 36 hours.

The next morning, I don't want to leave my room. But before eight, the pounding starts. "Birdie! Get up, we're going snorkeling!" Sienna's voice sings through the door. I don't answer. A second later, the key card beeps and the lock clicks open. All four of them come crashing in. Caleb yanks the comforter off my bed and hauls me up by the arm. "Let's go, Birdie. Boat leaves in an hour." I look down at my knee. The cut from last night has crusted over, blood and grit dried into the fabric of my sweats. When I shift my leg, the material peels off the scab and I suck in a breath. "I'm not going." The room goes quiet. Miles leans against the wall, keeping it light. "Oh come on. Who's gonna take our pictures?" Jax walks over and crouches down. He glances at my knee for maybe half a second. "Babe. It's a scrape. You can walk." Then he finally pulls a Band-Aid out of his pocket and sticks it over the whole mess like that fixes anything. Ruffles my hair. "Don't do this to me. If you stay back, the whole trip's ruined." Something in my chest caves in. I go. At the marina, the guide passes out the snorkel wristbands. Four of them. Sienna grabs the first one and slides it onto her wrist, waving it in the sun. "God, this color is so ugly." She doesn't take it off. I ask the guide why there are only four. In broken English, he shrugs. "You book four-person package." Jax jumps in first. "Wren, with your knee, we didn't think you should be in saltwater. So we didn't add you." Caleb nods like it's settled. "Saltwater on an open cut? You'd get infected in a second. Just hang out on the beach. Watch our stuff." Miles pushes the GoPro into my hands with a lazy grin. "You take the best photos anyway, Birdie. Can't wait to see what you get." They start suiting up. Jax holds Sienna's shoulder steady while she steps into her fins. Caleb tightens the straps on her vest. Miles films the whole thing on his phone, hyping her up like she's about to walk a runway. I stand there frozen, their beach bags, the GoPro, four pairs of flip-flops, and a bottle of SPF stacked in my arms. Sienna, fully geared up, runs down to the water and spins around. "Birdie! Film me! I want that wild windswept girl vibe!" I lift the camera. Through the lens, she's laughing like the day was made for her. A second later, the other three crowd into frame. "Group shot! First-ever snorkel squad!" I press record. Maybe it's just the sea wind. My eyes burn. At the restaurant on the island, I sit at a chair pulled up to the corner of their table for four, listening to them talk over each other about everything they saw underwater. The server brings out a few small plates. Shrimp tacos. Rice. And a dish of chicken skewers in a thick, dark peanut mole, with crushed peanuts sprinkled on top. Sienna picks up a dripping skewer and holds it right up to my mouth. "Birdie, you have to try this, it's insane." I jerk back. "I have a nut allergy." Her hand stops. Her smile thins. "Wait, what? Since when? I had no idea." I look at her. "You know." I was fifteen. Nurse's office. She was sitting right outside the door, swinging her legs and crunching into an apple. She'd laughed when she heard. "Aw. You're already a little birdie, and now you can't even eat nuts?" Now she tilts her head, playing dumb. "I honestly don't remember." Jax finally frowns. At me. "Babe. That was forever ago. Nobody's gonna remember something that specific." Caleb picks up the skewer and sets it back on Sienna's plate. "She's being dramatic. Ignore it." Miles grins at me like I'm five. "Birdie. You're just pouting 'cause you didn't get to swim, huh?" I don't bother explaining. In the car on the way back, Sienna falls asleep on Jax's shoulder. My white first-aid kit is tucked inside the beach bag on her lap. The zipper is open just enough that I can see the corner of it. I reach for it. Her eyes are closed. But somehow her fingers tighten around the strap the second my hand gets close. Jax murmurs, "Don't wake her up." I pull my hand back. Outside the window, the ocean lights up flat and still, cold as a sheet of glass.

My phone buzzes. It's a company-wide email. HR is looking for someone to transfer to the Seattle office. Three-year contract. I reply. I fill out the form. I hit send. Then I go back to packing. I've barely unzipped my suitcase when the door swings open. Caleb is standing there. His eyes drop straight to the open bag. "What are you doing?" Jax walks in behind him. Whatever softness was on his face a minute ago is gone. "Where are you going?" I keep folding. "Home." Sienna hovers behind both of them. Her voice goes soft and small. "Birdie, you're not leaving because of me, are you?" My fingers pause on a shirt. She always does this. One sentence, and suddenly every eye in the room is on me, waiting to see if I'll be the villain. Sure enough, Jax looks at me like he's waiting for me to make it right. I give her a thin smile. "Don't flatter yourself." Caleb steps forward and grabs the pouch on my nightstand. Passport. Boarding pass. Everything. "I canceled the flight. You're not going." I stare at him. "On whose authority?" "On mine. I'm your big brother." His voice drops. "I'm not letting you run around a foreign country by yourself." Oh. So now he remembers he's my brother. Jax sighs and walks over to pet my hair. "Baby. Stop pouting. We booked a sunset dinner cruise for tonight. You're always saying we leave you out, right? This time you're in." I look at the pouch in Caleb's hand. My passport. My cards. The last little bit of leverage I had to walk out that door. All of it, in his fist. Caleb gives the pouch a little shake. "Enough. I'll give it back tomorrow. We already paid for tonight. We're not throwing that money away." I grit my teeth. Before I can get a word out, Jax's arm is around my waist, steering me toward the door. On the boat, Jax pulls out the chair by the window for me and leans in close. "There we go. My princess." I sit. Caleb starts ordering. For every single dish he asks the server, slow and careful, whether anything on it contains nuts. My head dips. My stupid, soft, pathetic heart dips with it. Halfway through dinner, the boat drifts into open water and a host picks up a microphone. First round. Couples game. He walks right up to our table, grins, and asks in English, "Couple?" I open my mouth. Sienna is already on her feet, arm hooked through Jax's. "Me! I'm so good at these!" Jax glances back at me. Just once. I look back. One sentence. All he has to say is "My girlfriend is right here." And this whole thing stops. Instead he says, "Don't be mad, baby. If I win, the prize is yours." Three couples line up on the little stage. The challenge is squats, girlfriend in your arms. Jax's hand lands on Sienna's waist, and she bursts out laughing. "Jaxie, stop! Not my ticklish spot!" He's laughing too. He hoists her up and starts pumping out squats like a man possessed. Like winning this matters. The whole deck is clapping. Caleb and Miles are the loudest ones in the room. Jax lives at the gym. Of course he wins. Sienna comes bouncing back with the prize. A pair of matching friendship bracelets, dinner-cruise exclusive. She slides one onto her own wrist and holds the other one out to me. "Here, Birdie. BFF bracelets!" I don't move. Her hand hangs there. The air goes still. Jax takes it instead and slides it onto his own wrist. "I'll hold onto hers for now." Caleb pinches the bridge of his nose. "Wren. It's a bracelet." Right. It's a bracelet. It's a snorkel spot. It's a chair. It's a first-aid kit. They can turn every single time they chose her over me into it's just a thing. But all those little just a things, stacked on top of each other, are starting to crush me.