Brian was one of those college guys most guys secretly envied. He always had the "perfect" girlfriend proudly on display wherever he went. Everyone knew him for one reason or another and they loved him. All the girls wanted to be his girl but none really understood what it meant to be his. To him, women were just trophies to be shown off and discarded once they became useless to inspire awe and jealousy. He would never let a woman tarnish his image.
Jesse had known Brian for most of their lives. They had been like brothers for years despite the large amount of differences between the two. Jesse was more of a romantic. He saw women as special creatures put on this earth to be pampered and cherished, not collected and tossed aside. He despised the way Brian would treat women but never brought it up to him for fear of losing a good friend. One thing became clear. Despite their differences, the two had two things in common. They would kill for each other and both were in love with Kailyn.
Kailyn was not like most of the girls Brian went out with. She wasn't shallow or into showing off her beauty. The two had been dating for a little over a year when Jesse realized something that he never wanted to admit. He had secretly fallen in love with his best friend's girl. They all spent a lot of time together on weekends. Since they shared the same group of friends, they always were running into each other.
Kailyn was so in love with Brian she could not see what was so blatantly clear to everyone else. He cheated on her and everyone knew it. He slowly changed from Mr. Perfect to a man who belittled her in front of others and treated her more like a servant than his lover. This tore Jesse up inside. Whenever Kailyn had something on her mind, she would always go to Jesse. The two of them had become very close over the last few months. She never really saw how he felt about her because she was still too caught up in her feelings for Brian.
All of it started to unravel the night of Kelly Bixby's party. Brian picked Kailyn up as usual and drove to the party. He was unusually quiet in the car and she couldn't figure out what was bothering him. Several times, she had tried pleading with him to tell her what was on his mind but he never would say.
Once they arrived at the party, he kept ditching Kailyn, leaving her to talk to the few females who weren't jealous of her relationship. The only guy she was allowed to speak to was Jesse and he still hadn't arrived yet. Brian made sure to keep his woman isolated from other guys. He figured they would betray him or steal his girl away, unlike the girls. They would smile sweetly to each other's faces then slip out the door and screw the other's boyfriend without even as much as a second thought. The next day they would pretend to be a sympathetic shoulder to cry on knowing full well how horrible their actions were the night before.
It had been almost an hour he had been gone when Kailyn decided to look for Brian. She wandered through the throng of guests as she searched for him. The men just shook their head and the women whispered and faked halfhearted smiles. She slowly made her way upstairs, figuring he was in line for the bathroom or some other simple explanation. She stopped briefly to ask a few people in line then proceeded to check the bedrooms.
"Oh yeah that's it ride my cock bitch" he groaned as Kelly bounced up and down on his lap.
The voice was his. Kailyn just stood there for a moment completely shocked. She felt for the light switch by the door. She had to see it for herself. She had to see him. The light clicked on and there was Brian lying naked on Kelly's bed with her on top of him. She stood there for a moment while it all sunk in.
"How could you do this Brian...." her words trailed off shook her head.
Kelly reached for the blanket to wrap around her naked body while Brian just stared at Kailyn. She broke into tears and slammed the door shut. Kelly was ashamed of herself for being caught. When she started to get off of him, Brian reached up and slapped her hard across the face.
"I'm not finished with you yet. Don't fucking worry about her" he angrily spat.
Kailyn ran down the stairs past the murmuring crowd. Jesse had just pulled into the driveway when she went running across the yard. He quickly got out of the car and went running after her. She kept running, down the center of the street and away from the party. It wasn't until she stumbled that he caught up with her. She quickly turned away from him. Not wanting him to see her cry like this.
"Kay... what's going on?" he inquired.
"B...Brian...." she stammered between sobs. “Kelly..."
"Kay" he put his hand on her shoulder. "Talk to me. What happened?"
She turned toward him and looked pitifully up into his soft hazel eyes. Her arms flew around him as she buried her face against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and just stood there holding her for a moment. He knew Kelly had been after Brian for some time but he never suspected he would be low enough to do this to Kailyn. Not like this at least. He stroked her hair as he comforted her.
"Shhhh it will be ok. I promise. It will be ok."
"He... he was fucking her." She looked up at him. "Did you know he liked her?"
Jesse stared down into her deep brown eyes and shook his head. He wanted so badly to tell her how he felt about her right then and there but he couldn't, not now. His palm gently cupped her jaw as he tilted her face up toward his. He fought his urge to kiss her as he looked at her beautiful tearstained face. It was almost too much to take.
"Listen, let's go back and get my car and we can get out of here. I'll take you home or something and it will all be alright."
"I don't want to go back there. I can't see him Jesse. I can't do it," she sobbed.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of everything. I just don't want to leave you here alone. Come on," he took her hand in his.
The two slowly walked back together, hand in hand. The people who had seen the whole ordeal whispered. Everyone knew. There was no denying that. Jesse opened the passenger side door for her. He glared at the others who watched, making them turn away quickly. Suddenly, Brian came from inside the house as Jesse shut the car door.
