Part 12
"I can't believe you are doing this" Rhys said confused. "After what he did to you, how can you be friends again?"
Sarah didn't know either. Technically they weren't friends, at least not yet, but when she found him crying and in a bad state, she had decided she was at least going to let him be. And when she found out what had happened, she had felt so sorry for him that she had forgotten, momentarily, why they were no longer friends.
Now, she was torn. She had always liked John Paul (she had even wished more than once that he was straight and into her) and she could see he really needed someone to be there for him, but at the same time, the anger and hurt inside of her was screaming at her. Telling her to make him suffer, make him pay for what he did to her.
"I don't know" she honestly answered.
"I don't think I could. I mean, how can you go back to trust someone after something like that. He was sleeping with your boyfriend!", Rhys kept talking, not seeing he was making her uncomfortable.
Once, she had been smitten by Rhys Ashworth, handsome, charming and funny, but not anymore. Finding out he was cheating on you with your own mother was a good way to make all of the appeal disappear. And then finding out he was sleeping with his sister ended up destroyed that small thing inside of you that stays after breaking up with someone, that small flame waiting to be reignited.
"He was your friend while he was making your boyfriend gay" Rhys just kept going on and on about it.
And, when Sarah couldn't take it anymore, she found herself saying:
"You and Gilly are friends again. You were sleeping with his fiancé who happened to be your own sister, which is even worse than what John Paul did to me. So please, explain how you two can be friends again and why we can't?"
It wasn't usual for Sarah to be able to shut someone without yelling and she felt a little good looking at Rhys' expression.
John Paul and Craig had been cruel with her and she knew that, even if she managed to fix her friendship with John Paul, things will never be the same as before (like Hannah's friendship with him was different than what they had before the whole gay/anorexia thing). But how Gilly could forgive Rhys after what he did, she really just couldn't understand it.
Rhys looked like he was going to say something but ended up just shaking his head and running away from her.
Sarah sighed and kept waiting for John Paul, who was currently talking and hugging, Frankie Osborne. She, like her, had managed to forget their problems with the poor boy. At least for now.
She knew they needed to talk. That the only way they could get through this and maybe even be friends again, was having to talk honestly about what had happened last summer.
But, as John Paul walked towards her and weakly gave her a sad smile while his deep blue eyes were full of tears, she also knew they could wait. For now, John Paul needed someone being there for him.
And that's what she was going to do for him.
