THE BETRAYAL

     Jenna paced back and forth across the small room.  She glanced at the clock for maybe the hundredth time in the last forty-seven and a half minutes. He was late. Very late. She moved over to the window and looked up and down the street. Nothing moved. Not a car was in sight, not a person, not a cat or a dog, not even a bird flew by the window, not even a leaf fluttered in the breeze. Nothing, Nada. Zilch. Zip. 

  “He’s not coming. I knew he’d bail on me. I just knew it.” Tears trickled slowly down her carefully made-up cheek.

“How can you say that?” asked Kara. “You know he’ll be here. He is just running late. Maybe he lost his keys, or he got a flat tire.”

“He would have called if it was just something like that. I know he’s not coming. I can FEEL it. My heart is racing, I feel like I’m going to throw up and I'm sweating bullets.” She turned from the window and resumed her pacing. “How could he do this to me? How could he betray me like this? I trusted him.”

“He’ll be here, why would you even think he wouldn’t? Kyle isn’t like that.”

Jenna bit her lip. “Well, we…” she broke off abruptly.

“We what?” said Kara, suddenly suspicious.

“We had a little… misunderstanding last night.”

“You had a fight?”

“Yes. No! It wasn’t … It wasn’t exactly a fight.”

“What was it? What happened? When did this happen? You both seemed fine at the party last night.”

“It was after the party.”

“What happened?”

Jenna took a deep breath.

“You know that Kyle’s ex, Cassie, showed up at the party last night. Well, we had a fight about that. I mean there was a misunderstanding.”

“Well, I would like to know who invited her to the party, anyway?” asked Kara. “It certainly wasn’t one of us.” She looked around the room at the three other girls cowering on a nearby couch. They all shook their heads vehemently.

“See I told you. It wasn’t one of us.”

One girl tentatively raised her hand.

“What is it, Kim?” Kara put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “You don’t have to put up your hand, this isn’t high school.”

Kim quickly lowered her hand and flushed a deep red.

“I overheard Cassie talking to Kyle’s Mum,” she paused.

“AND?” demanded Kara.

“Cassie thanked her for asking her to the party, even though it was on short notice.  Then Kyle’s mum said something about how she had heard that Cassie had moved back here after living in London, England for the past few years and she just knew that Kyle would want to see her again. She said that they had always been so close even though they had broken up when Cassie had decided to take the career path to move away for the sake of her career. So it was definitely Kyle's mum who invited Cassie to the party.”

“Why would she do that?” cried Jenna.” I thought she liked me.”

 Kara interrupted, “ Getting back to the figh…misunderstanding. What happened?”

 Jenna gave a large sigh, “I was coming back to the party from the ladies' room and ran into Cassie and Kyle. She was all over him. I asked Kyle what she was doing at the party.”

The girls nodded, waiting for Jenna to continue.

“Kyle and Cassie were making out! “

“No!” They chorused.

Jenna nodded sadly, “According to Kyle since I told him I was headed to the restroom, he decided to use the men’s room so we could spend the rest of the time at the party together. He told me that Cassie waylaid him as he was coming out of the john and just threw her arms around him and kissed him. Kyle said he didn't kiss her back and that it just took him completely by surprise.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know. I thought about the way they were standing, I could see her kissing him and holding him but I couldn't see if he was returning the kiss. He was holding her arms, but he said he just grabbed them to push her back, and then I walked in.”

“Oh My Gosh!” said  Kim. “This is like one of those cheap dollar-store romance books.” 

“Kim, if you can't say anything useful don't say anything at all,” scolded Kara.

“So now I'm thinking that maybe Kyle is with Cassie and that's why he didn't show up.”

“ That Cassie is such a sneak, I wouldn't put it past her,” muttered Kim.

“Kim… again…not helpful.” Kara looked daggers at Kim.

 Kim put her hand across her mouth and held it there.

“I just know he's going to be a no-show. How could he do this to me?” wailed Jenna. “How could he betray me like this? Why? I just don’t understand why.”

 A sudden squeal of brakes on the road outside had everyone running to the window. A tall blond man raced out of the taxi and up the stone walkway. It was Mark, Kyle's best friend. 

He was looking a little worse for wear. He staggered into the room. He wore a black suit but his tie was askew and his shirt untucked.

 Kara crossed the room and closed the open door. He rushed into the room. His eyes sought Jenna and he quickly crossed to her. 

“Where is he, where’s Kyle?  Is he with Cassie?” Jenna stepped back and looked at Mark. “Look at you,  you are a wreck, are you drunk?” demanded Jenna.

 “Jenna,” he said softly, taking in her pale face and tear-streaked cheeks.  He reached out and held her hands in his. “There’s been an accident.”

Jenna swayed and  Mark backed her up a few steps and into a nearby chair, holding her lest she fall.

“ An accident?” she repeated. “Kyle?” She managed to whisper.

“We were on our way here. A delivery truck went through a red light, it hit Kyle's side of the car.” Marks Adam’s apple worked wildly in his throat.

Jenna looked into his face, she now noticed the blood running down behind his ear from a nasty gash on his head. She noticed a bruise that was forming on his forehead. Noticed the small scar that he had on his cheek, looking white against his cheek, a mark he had carried since childhood after an altercation with a see-saw in a schoolyard playground. She noticed the stillness in the room, her friends frozen as if encased in ice. The smell of flowers, suddenly cloying and overpowering.  She heard the clock on the wall,  the tick-tock, tick-tock sounding strangely loud and jarring. She turned and watched the hand of the clock as it moved with a short jerking motion around the face of the clock. Time seemed to move so slowly in what in reality, was only a flash of an instant. Finally, through a thick fog, she turned and faced Mark.

“Kyle?” She whispered again.

“I'm sorry,” he said, his Adam's apple working up and down his throat, he shook his head slowly.

“Kyle!” she whispered 

“He was,” his sob shattered the room, “pronounced dead at the scene. They wanted me to go to the hospital to get stitched up but I had to come and tell you. In person. His last words were of you. How much he loved you.”

“Kyle,” she whispered, and then her body slipped from her chair in a cascade of white satin and Venetian lace, encrusted with pearls. Her bridal veil slid down over her face forming a puddle of tulle while the church organ played quietly in the background.