15. Bernadette

As soon as I got out of the restroom I was cornered by a sweet-looking girl with long brown hair and a smile that almost seemed too wide.

"Hi, I'm Camellia," she said, reaching out her hand. Hesitantly I took it, remembering that the whole reason we were throwing this party was so that I could make friends.

"I'm Bernadette," I said, shaking her hand. She smiled at me, then tilted her head to the side.

"That's a pretty name. You're Lucas's new girl, right?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

She giggled. "I mean, you guys are matching. How much more obvious could you be?"

"I guess we are," I said, remembering the blue suit that he was wearing. It did complement my dress quite nicely. I didn't think that we had been that obvious though. I guessed I was wrong.

"Good." She dropped my hand then turned to leave, turning once more to look over her shoulder with a curious expression. "Are you coming or not?"

"Oh, I guess I am." I had planned on going straight back to Lucas, but he should be fine without me for a few more minutes. And this girl clearly wanted to take the initiative to be friends, which was something I was very interested in.

I followed her through the house to one of the guest bedrooms where she sat down on the bed and then patted the seat next to her.

Hesitantly, I sat, feeling like things were just a bit off. It seemed odd that she would go through so much trouble to get me alone, but maybe she just didn't like how loud the party was.

"Here's a bit quieter, and we won't be interrupted," she said with another smile that seemed too large for her face. "I really would love to get to know you."

"Uh, what do you want to know about me?" I asked, feeling quite awkward.

"Oh, anything really. How you and Lucas met might be a start? I've never heard of you before and I've been friends with him for quite a while."

"You haven't?" That was strange. Though I didn't really know his close friends that well I considered myself one his best, if not his best, friend. Though I didn't know if I should take anything she said seriously, it started a spot of doubt in my mind.

"No, I really haven't. Should I have?" she asked, her eyebrows coming together on her forehead.

"I don't know, I just find it strange that he wouldn't have talked about me. The two of us are childhood friends, but we just started dating recently. He's actually my best friend, and I'm pretty sure he considers me his too."

"Awww, isn't that cute." Camellia pursed her lips and looked at me with an expression that I could only describe as demeaning. "It is strange that he wouldn't mention you then, especially if you are that important to him. Did you start dating recently?"

I nodded. "It was quite recently. Only a few days ago actually."

She raised her eyebrows. "And he's already throwing a party for you? That's quite fast."

"He wanted me to meet some new friends. My ones from college are kind of bad news," I said. "I'm trying to meet new people and start anew."

"Well, I can be your first one," she said, putting her arm around my shoulders and squeezing me tight to her side. "How does that sound?"

"That sounds fine," I said, unsure how else I was meant to respond.

"Fantastic!" She released me and clasped her hands together. "You want to start by telling me why your friends from college were so bad? I definitely want to make sure I don't do anything that they did. That would be terrible."

She laughed, and I joined her, but I still felt incredibly uncomfortable. I was wishing that Lucas would come to rescue me from this situation. I didn't want to be rude, but something about this girl just felt incredibly off.

"Well, for starters they were very superficial. They just didn't care about me for who I was, you know?"

"Well, I can promise you I'm not like that," she said, grabbing my hand and squeezing it. "Really, you can tell me anything. I already care about you."

"But we've just met."

"But you're also a good friend of Lucas's. And any friend of his is a friend of mine." Her eyes drifted down to my stomach. Despite the dress's forgiving waistline, now that I was sitting down a little bit of my belly was showing. It seemed she noticed this and immediately jumped to conclusions, despite how rude it was to do so.

"Oh my, has he gotten you pregnant already?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in a way that I'm sure she thought looked conspiratorial.

"He didn't," I said, looking away.

"Does he know?" she asked, leaning forward excitedly.

I nodded. "He does."

"Well, does he know the father?"

I shook my head. I really didn't want to talk about this with her, but I just felt trapped. There was nowhere for me to go without seeming rude. "No, I don't even know the father really."

She sighed, looking me up and down again. Suddenly, her demeanor completely changed, as if she had just been waiting for some piece of information like this to drag me down with.

"Well, you're just a little slut, aren't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, you don't even know the father, and now you have the audacity to hook up with Lucas, to put that responsibility on him? I would say that's a slut if I ever heard of one."

"Who are you to call me that?" I asked, feeling the tears come to my eyes.

"Oh, don't cry. It'll only make things worse when he leaves you, you know?"

"No, I don't. I have no idea what you're talking about, and I think you need to get out of here," I said, trying to stand. But she grabbed my wrist and yanked me sharply back down.

"Not yet you little bitch," she hissed. "I still have some things to say to you. You see, I used to be Lucas's woman too, so I know him better than anyone else. And let me tell you this, he'll get tired of you eventually. Maybe not as quickly with a baby on the way and the whole ‘childhood friend' thing you guys have going on. But he will, because relationships are nothing more than a game to him. I can promise you that."

I shook my head. "No, you have no idea what you're talking about. He's not like that."

"Oh really? Then why don't you ask him? Ask him about Camellia and what she was to him and why he left her. Or are you too scared, you little bitch?"

I was crying now, ugly tears running down my face. I was trying to keep myself together, but it was too difficult, especially with everything that she was saying. I just wanted Lucas to be there, to tell me that it all was a lie, that it wasn't a game to him.

I knew there was no way that it was, but that didn't stop the doubt from planting itself in my head.

"No, stop," I cried.

"You want to explain yourself Camellia?"

I turned and saw that Lucas was standing there in the doorway, his face an expression of anger and disgust, directed at the woman who was sitting on the bed and making me cry.

"Tell her Lucas, tell her what I was to you, why you left me."

"Bella," he turned to me. "Please don't pay attention to anything that she says. I left her because I found out how manipulative and terrible, she was. But she wasn't like that when I met her."

Camellia stood, stalking over to where Lucas stood and laughing.

"Oh? Is that your excuse now? You left me because you got tired of playing with me, and that's the truth. Have fun with your new toy, you bastard. I'm out of here."

Lucas and I both watched as she left, then he immediately rushed over to me, pulling me into his arms.

"I'm so sorry Bella, I had no idea that she was here, or that she would corner you like that. Please don't pay attention to anything she said, she likes to play with people."

I could tell that was true, but that didn't mean that I could just wipe everything that she had said from my mind. The fact was that it was going to affect me and there wasn't much that I could do about that.

"Is there anything I can do for you? How can I make it better?" Lucas asked, pulling back to look at me for a second.

I shook my head. "Let's just get back to the party. I don't want to think about what just happened."

He nodded. "Of course, of course, I understand completely. Come on, let's go. There are some people who want to meet you."

I followed him back down to the party, patiently trailing behind him as he gathered up his friends, who had apparently been looking for me too.

Then he introduced me to Vanessa, Rachel, Samuel, Howard, and Howard's wife Ana. They all seemed quite nice, but I was still shaken up by what had happened with Camellia and I was unsure how much I was willing to trust someone else again.

Every part of my mind seemed to be screaming. About doubt. About what Camellia had said to me. About what had happened at that party over three months ago. About Lucas and if he really did love me.

"We've heard a lot about you," Rachel said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, you have?" I asked, feeling a bit light-headed. I knew that they could probably tell that I wasn't quite all there at the moment. They were all smiling at me too and all I could think of was Camellia's smile when she first cornered me.

"Of course!" Rachel gave me a kind smile and squeezed my hand in her own.

"He talked about you. A whole lot," Vanessa said, putting her arm around Rachel. "Like a little kid with a crush.

Both Rachel and Lucas blushed. I wondered then if Vanessa and Rachel were a thing or if they were just flirting.

"Don't listen to them," Lucas said.

"Oh no, listen to us." Samuel had a playful smile on his face. "We can tell you all the dirt on this guy. He came to us the moment he started crushing on you. And, let me tell you, it was pretty cute. He could probably talk about you for hours."

"Is that true?" I asked, turning to Lucas.

He blushed and looked down at his feet. "Maybe. I did talk about you quite a lot. But what else was I supposed to do? I liked you a lot, but I didn't want to ruin our friendship."

"I liked you a lot too," I said, reaching across to grab his hand. He looked up at me with an encouraging smile. "For a long time. I was also worried."

"See, you little lovebirds really had nothing to worry about," Samuel said, putting his arms around both of us and squeezing us together. "You were scared for no reason."

"I think we were scared for quite a good reason," Lucas said. "She was such a good friend and still is. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose that. But thankfully she did tell me eventually."

"That she did," Vanessa gave me a wink. "We were wondering how Lucas worked up the courage to tell you that he liked you. But it turns out he didn't work it up at all, because you told him first." She threw her head back in a laugh. "It's precious, really."

"I think it's sweet," Ana said, giving me an encouraging smile. "I never would have had the courage to tell my Howard that I liked him. So thankfully he did it." She squeezed his hand and looked up at him with such an adoring and trusting expression.

I found myself wishing then that I had that kind of trust for Lucas. Because while I knew better than to believe her, I couldn't deny the fact that Camellia's words had put doubts in my mind.

Was it really right to go into a relationship with Lucas when I was about to have a child? Was it right to give him that responsibility?

And, more than anything else, would we last?