Free My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson

jolted her; the fact that he knew she wouldn’t ever say anything nice about him, even though she liked him, had thrown her. He smiled at her with deep affection but in response she glanced away.
    “Come on, I think it’s bedtime,” he said.
    “No!” I squealed. “We can’t have a threesome!”
    “No, darling, I mean, you can sleep in one of my housemates’ beds. They’re all away. Come on.”
    They took an arm each and hoisted me up, then helped me up the stairs because I still had legs of rubber. I was deposited on the double bed of a room that smelled of boys but was very tidy. I turned over, kicked my shoes off, then snuggled down into the soft duvet.
    “Are you all right there, Del?” Nate asked.
    “Yup, am right. Just sleep here. On nice bed. No be sick or nothing.”
    “OK. If you need anything, Kam and I will be in my room, right next door,” Nate said.
    “Actually, I think I’ll stay here,” Kam stated, every word coated with ice. Anyone would have thought he’d suggested she shave her head, not go sleep with a man she was falling in love with.
    Nate, who’d obviously heard it all before, said, “Fair enough. Like I said, I’m next door if you need anything. See you in the morning.”
    Kam sat down beside me after he shut the door behind him, then lay down with her back to me.
    “Stop being such a hard-faced bitch,” I mumbled.
    “Shut up and go to sleep.”
    “Only if you’re nice to Nate. He’s lovely. He loves you.”
    “You know nothing about it.”
    “He loves you. I love you. You don’t need to be a bitch no more.”
    I fell asleep before she replied and the next thing I knew, the covers were pulled off me and I was being shaken. “Come on, you silly tart, it’s morning, we’re off,” Kamryn said, shaking and shaking me.
    “No, wanna sleep,” I replied, trying to shrug her off.
    “Too fucking bad. We’re leaving.” She pulled me out of bed. I sat up slowly, every movement making pain shoot through my head. I wanted water and more sleep, but if Kam wanted to leave, then we had to leave. I only realized how grim things were when I saw my shoes. They’d been transformed overnight from sexy fashion pieces I’d spent a month’s wages on to denim instruments of torture.
    “Yeah,” Kam said, indicating the shoes she had on her feet,
    “it’s a bitch walking in them in the morning.”
    We tottered along the brightening streets, huddled inside our lightweight jackets, looking every inch a pair of hookers who’d been working all night. Every step was agony and I often wore heels, so Kamryn, who lived in trainers, must’ve been going through hell. I took a sidelong glance at her, expecting her to be highly pissed off as well as pained. She was disheveled, tired and her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep but she wasn’t cross. In fact, a slight, self-satisfied smile was playing on her lips. It could mean only one thing.
    “Did you give him the good stuff?” I asked her.
    “Oh yes,” she said with a smug sniff. “He won’t be walking straight for a week.”
             
    Since I’ve been in the hospital I’ve had a lot of time to replay bits of my life. That night is often dusted off and played. Especially the bit where she says, “I think I might like him.” She’d told me first that she loved him—she didn’t even say it to Nate until months later. I was so honored she’d told me first that she was in love, it showed how much she thought of me.
    I still hate myself for ruining what they had.

chapter 8
    D uped.
    Hoodwinked. Conned. Duped. Whatever you called it, it had been done to me. I hadn’t realized it, it didn’t even occur to me that it was possible until this morning when Tegan and I had shown up at the hospital.
    I’d opened the door to Del’s hospital room and as Tegan ran in and scrambled up onto the bed, Del smiled at me in a way that said she knew my answer was yes. That I was going to take on her child.
    But, apparently, Del had