My Birthday Night Turned To Hell

I never saw the screen.

Kiara's hand shot out and shoved Ethan's phone down against his thigh before I could make out a single pixel.

"No," she said. "Ethan, no. Not like this."

He frowned at her. She didn't look at him. She looked at me, and her face crumpled all at once, like someone had pulled a thread.

"Nora Elowen Quill."

My full name. She only ever used my full name when she was about to cry, or when she wanted me to forgive her for something.

Tonight it was both.

"It's not what you think." Tears spilled over her lashes and cut two clean lines through the frosting on her cheeks. "I swear to God, it's not what you think. You've got it all wrong."

"I've got it wrong?"

I kept the phone up. My arm was starting to ache, but I didn't lower it an inch.

"I walked in and saw you kissing him. My birthday cake was sitting right there on the table." I nodded at the ruined board, the smear of pink across the tablecloth. "So go ahead. Tell me which part I got wrong."

"All of it. The way it looks..."

"Is exactly how it is."

Ethan moved before she could answer. His hand came up fast, palm flat, straight at the lens.

I twisted my shoulder away. His fingers grazed the edge of my phone case and caught nothing but air.

"Touch it again," I said, "and that goes in the video too."

He stopped. His hand hung there for a second before he dropped it and dragged it across his jaw instead, wiping off a streak of cream. He flicked it onto the carpet like it had personally insulted him.

When he spoke again, his voice was low and smooth. It was the voice he used on waiters who got his order wrong.

"Nora. Come on. Turn it off."

"No."

"This is between us. The three of us." He stepped closer, slow, like I was a dog that might bite. "We can sit down somewhere quiet and talk about it like adults. There's no reason to make this ugly."

I stared at him.

Pink frosting was still caked in his eyebrow. A crushed sugar rose clung to his lapel. The navy suit I'd picked out for him was ruined, and he was standing there telling me not to make things ugly.

"Ugly," I said.

"Yes. Ugly. Embarrassing. For everyone."

"Where was all that worry ten minutes ago?" My voice climbed, and I let it. "When you had your hand on her face and your tongue in her mouth? Did you stop and think, *wow, this might get embarrassing*?"

His jaw ticked. He didn't answer.

Behind him, Kiara sank into her chair like her legs had given out. She covered her face with both hands. Her shoulders heaved.

"I didn't want this," she sobbed into her palms. "I never wanted any of this."

"Then what did you want?"

She lowered her hands. Her mascara had started to run.

"You want the truth? Fine. Here's the truth." She sucked in a shaky breath. "Ethan and I... we've had feelings for each other. For a long time."

The room went very still.

"A long time," I repeated.

"I tried to ignore it. I swear I tried." She pressed her fist against her chest. "Every time I saw you two together, it was like being ripped in half. You're my best friend, Nora. And he's... he's..."

She glanced up at Ethan. He reached down and squeezed her shoulder.

I watched his thumb move. Small circles. The same thing he used to do to me in movie theaters.

"I've been stuck in the middle this whole time," Kiara went on. "Do you know what that's like? Lying awake every night, hating myself?"

"No," I said. "I've been busy being lied to."

She flinched. Then she kept going, faster now, like she'd rehearsed it.

"Tonight was supposed to be the end. We came here to say goodbye. To cut it off, for good, so you two could be happy. And then we got emotional, and it just..." Her voice broke. "We lost control. One time. That's all."

I didn't say anything.

Something strange was happening in my chest. I'd expected it to hurt more. Instead it felt like ice water creeping up from my fingertips, past my wrists, into my elbows.

"Two minutes ago," I said slowly, "you told me Ethan called you last week. That you were helping him plan my surprise. That it happened once, two seconds before I walked in."

Kiara opened her mouth. Closed it.

"Now it's been a long time," I said. "Now you've been lying awake at night. Which story am I supposed to record, Kiara? I've got room for both."

"She's upset," Ethan cut in. "She's not thinking straight. Neither of us is."

"You seem fine."

He let out a breath through his nose. Then he put on a face I'd never seen before. Solemn. Almost noble.

"Look. She's telling you the truth now. I was going to tell you myself." He met my eyes and held them. "Tonight. I planned to sit you down after your stream and be honest. I just didn't think you'd find out like this."

For a second, I couldn't speak.

Then I laughed.

It burst out of me, loud and ugly, bouncing off the frosted glass door. Kiara's head jerked up. Ethan took half a step back, like I'd swung at him.

"You were going to tell me," I said, still laughing, "on my *birthday*."

"Nora..."

"Out of three hundred and sixty-five days, you picked that one. To sit me down and say, *happy birthday, babe, I've been sleeping with your best friend*." I pointed the camera at the wrecked cake board. "And what's this? Party favors? You got my cake so you could celebrate your affair over it?"

"That's not fair," Kiara whispered.

"Then explain it."

She wiped her nose with the back of her wrist. The gold bracelet I'd bought her slid down and caught the candlelight.

"I ordered the cake," she said. "Me. Not him."

"Why?"

"Because you showed me that picture. Remember? You said it was your dream cake." Her chin trembled. "I thought... even if I couldn't have him, even if everything fell apart, I still wanted you to have a happy birthday. I wanted *something* to be perfect for you."

She looked up at me through wet lashes, so sad, so sincere.

If I hadn't seen her kiss him, I would have hugged her.

That was the part that froze me all the way through. Not the kiss. Not the lies. It was how *good* she was at this. Every tear landed exactly where she needed it. Every crack in her voice came right on time.

Four years. I'd watched her do this to sponsors, to exes, to angry commenters.

I'd never once thought she would do it to me.

"Wow," I said quietly.

Kiara blinked. "What?"

"You almost had me."

Ethan's grip on her shoulder tightened. Kiara's tears stopped. Not slowly. All at once, like a faucet turning off.

She stood up. Smoothed her ruined dress. And when she spoke again, her voice was completely steady.

"Okay, Nora," she said. "Then I guess you'd better see what's on Ethan's phone."