I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 12
Brent positioned himself between Cole and Kaitlyn as though two years of betrayal still granted him authority over her. He claimed he had wasted years on a woman who refused to satisfy him. The contempt in his voice made Kaitlyn wonder how she had once mistaken possession for love.
Cole answered with a humorless laugh. He remembered perfectly who Brent was: the man who cheated on Kaitlyn, drugged her, and tried to exploit her helplessness. Each accusation stripped color from Brent’s face while the watching students drew closer.
Cole stepped into his space and warned him never to approach Kaitlyn again. If Brent ignored that warning, Cole promised to break his face. He repeated the question until Brent muttered that he understood.
Kaitlyn watched with conflicting emotions. Cole’s protection made her feel safer than she wanted to admit, but safety was not the same as clarity. He could threaten anyone who hurt her, then retreat behind Ryan’s name the moment she asked what she meant to him.
Maddy tried to pull attention back to herself. She reminded Cole that she needed Business Ethics to graduate and demanded he stop taking Kaitlyn’s side. Cole turned toward her with the cool authority of a teaching assistant.
He told Maddy that she had just earned the first grade on her record: an F. Her confidence crumpled. When she protested that failing would threaten her graduation, Cole suggested she behave very carefully for the remainder of the semester.
The public rebuke humiliated Maddy more effectively than any insult. Students who once deferred to the Theta Gamma president now watched her lose control. She glared at Kaitlyn as if the consequences of her own cruelty were somehow another theft.
After Brent and Maddy retreated, Sammy appeared at Kaitlyn’s side. She observed that the teaching assistant did not exactly seem indifferent to her. Kaitlyn denied knowing what Cole wanted, which was the most honest answer she possessed.
Before she could leave, Maddy doubled back and confronted Cole privately enough to imagine Kaitlyn could not hear. She called Kaitlyn unwanted trash and asked why someone like him would defend her. The insult made Cole’s expression harden.
Sammy murmured that Maddy sounded jealous. Cole said he was not interested in her and already had his eyes set elsewhere. His gaze found Kaitlyn at the end of the sentence, and the crowded hallway seemed to narrow around them.
Maddy saw where he looked. Her jealousy changed from suspicion to certainty. If Kaitlyn had merely been another freshman, she could have dismissed her; Cole’s attention transformed her into a rival.
Cole approached Kaitlyn while Brent watched from farther down the hall. He asked whether she was all right. Kaitlyn said she could handle Maddy and Brent, but his eyes remained fixed on the tension she tried to hide.
He apologized for the classroom embarrassment without quite admitting fault. Kaitlyn accused him of creating confusion everywhere he went. One moment he denied her; the next he announced in public that he wanted her attention.
Cole knew she deserved an explanation, yet Ryan’s trust rose between them again. Words would require him to define feelings he had barely admitted to himself. Action seemed simpler, though infinitely more reckless.
He lifted a hand to her face. Kaitlyn stopped speaking. The hallway, the watching students, and the threat of gossip all faded beneath the tenderness of his touch.
“Someone seems jealous,” Cole said, glancing toward Maddy before returning his attention to Kaitlyn. The excuse was transparent. He was not merely staging a defense; desire had already erased the careful distance he maintained in class.
He kissed Kaitlyn in full view of everyone. Shock silenced the corridor before whispers erupted. Kaitlyn responded instinctively, caught between triumph, longing, and the certainty that Cole would regret this too.
For a few breathless seconds, the kiss answered every question he refused to discuss. Cole wanted her. Whatever boundaries he invoked later, his body told the truth whenever restraint failed.
Then he pulled away. Fear returned to his face as quickly as desire had appeared. Without explaining himself, he turned and walked down the corridor, leaving Kaitlyn surrounded by staring students.
Maddy looked ready to explode, while Brent’s hands curled into fists. Kaitlyn touched her lips, unable to believe Cole had kissed her and abandoned her again. This time, however, their secret belonged to the entire campus.