Beautiful Mess by Jennifer Preston

and I left.”
    Cole
smiled his approval.  “Good for you.”
    “Yeah,
well, walking out was the easy part.  The aftermath was a little
harder.  Finding out the guy you thought you thought you were in love with
couldn’t care less about you and only wanted to get in your pants, was kind of
an ego killer,” she smiled humorlessly.  “After that, I swore off dating
football players.  Well, I guess I swore off dating, period.  Not
that I had much opportunity.  Jeremy spread enough rumors about me that no
one would come near me.  I guess he decided that if he wasn’t getting any
from me, no one else would, either.  Did I mention he was a bit
territorial?”
    “Ambria,
I’m so sorry,” Cole said sadly.  “That guy is a complete and total
dickhead.  He didn’t deserve you.”
    “Thanks,”
Bri shrugged.  “What about you?  Did your ex break your heart?” 
Cole shook his head.  “Oh, no, you’re not getting out of this!  I
spilled my guts, and now it’s your turn.  That’s how this works.” 
She eyed him challengingly.  “Come on.  Or I won’t tell you anything
else.”
    “Alright,
fine,” he sighed.  “To answer your question, no, she didn’t break my
heart.  But I think I broke hers.”  He looked down.
    “What
happened?”
    “I
told you I don’t have many close friends, right?”  Bri nodded. 
“Well, the girls I dated were just that, dates.  I didn’t get
attached.  We’d go out, have a good time, things would run their course
and I’d move on.  Nothing serious.  That was how I wanted it.
 But, I was lonely, though I hated admitting it to myself.  I was
dating this girl at the time, and I liked her.  She was pushing for more
commitment, so I thought what the hell.  I’d give it a try.
    “So,
we got serious.  I stopped dating other girls and she became my
girlfriend.  After a couple of months, though, things began to change, and
I think she fell in love with me.  At least as much as she was capable
of.  When I realized this, I looked at my own feelings for her, and I
found that I didn’t really have any.  Don’t get me wrong, I was definitely
attracted to her.  And I enjoyed all the benefits of being a couple.”
    He
grinned brazenly at her, and Bri rolled her eyes at his innuendo.
    “But
there wasn’t anything more than that.  Nothing deeper.  I kept going,
hoping that I would eventually develop some sort of feelings for her, but I
didn’t.  Then one day, she told me she loved me.  I knew I’d never be
able to reciprocate her feelings, or give her what she needed emotionally. 
So I did the only thing I could.  I broke up with her.”  Cole hung
his head in shame.  “I know this sounds awful, and I sound like a total
ass.  But I had to be fair to her.  I couldn’t keep stringing her
along in the hope that one day something would change.  I did what I
thought was right.”
    Bri
nodded.  “And how did she take it?”
    “Not
well,” he smirked.  “She had a few choice expletives for me.  But
eventually she realized it was for the best, and stopped loathing me with a
vengeance.  Now we’re kind of  friends again.”
    “Really?”
Bri was skeptical.  “Can you do that?  Just go back to being friends
after all that?  I didn’t think that worked out very well.”
    Cole
shrugged.  “Maybe not for most people.  But I’m still friends with
some of the girls I’ve dated.”
    That
sounded odd to Bri, but she didn’t want to push it.
    “And
you haven’t had any other girlfriends?”
    “Nope. 
I kind of swore off relationships.”
    “Oh.” 
Bri found she was disappointed to hear that.
    “At
least, until I met you,” Cole grabbed her hand, and she looked up at him. 
“You give me hope.”
    She
smiled.  “You give me hope, too,” she said truthfully.  “Cole, when
school starts a lot of things are going to change.”  Bri gave voice to the
nagging worries she’d had all week.  Change was coming, she could feel
it.