The Unwritten Rule
By:Elizabeth Scott
Almost everyone has a best friend, right? Sarah and Brianna are the best of best friends. They have known each other for years and are practically inseparable, but there is one problem. Brianna is dating Ryan. Sarah has been in love with Ryan for a long time, and she is stunned at the fact that Brianna has a sudden interest in him. Brianna has always been the pretty, popular one that could get any guy she wanted in a blink of an eye, and Sarah has always been so quiet and shy. Sarah always thought Ryan was amazing the way he was, while Brianna never even noticed him until this summer. For years he was a skinny, short boy but then the summer changed him. He completely matured into this gorgeous, tall, toned guy. At the end-of-the-summer party Sarah saw how much Ryan changed and thought he could not get any more perfect. Just when she was feeling some chemistry with Ryan, Brianna snatched him.
Sarah feels like she is spending every living minute with Brianna and Ryan which is killing her. Brianna has no clue that Sarah is in love with him so she is unaware of how uncomfortable Sarah feels. Spending all this time with Ryan makes her insane and she cannot help but to sit there and imagine what it would be like to be in Brianna’s place. Sarah creates this fantasy about Ryan and her being together and struggles to believe it can not work out. She absolutely loves her best friend and has no desire to hurt her but while Sarah feels that she should be the one with Ryan, she also starts to beat herself up for being such a bad friend to Brianna. All she wants is to be Ryan’s girlfriend but also have Brianna standing by her side.
Sarah starts to force herself to stop liking Ryan. She is convinced that it is wrong to still like him, and she doesn't want to even think about hurting Brianna. Just when Sarah begins trying to stop crushing on Ryan, Sarah takes a surprising turn with him. Ryan took home Sarah without Brianna one night, and they kissed. Sarah knew it was the worst thing she could ever do to Brianna, but she also felt amazing about it. It was everything she wanted, and everything she didn't. She was so ashamed of herself that she tried to stay clear of Brianna for a while. Sarah didn’t want to face her after what had happened with Ryan that night. Even though she felt all this guilt about the kiss, that didn’t stop her from being in love with Ryan.
When Brianna would leave the room for a few minutes it would just be Sarah and Ryan. Alone. At first Sarah hated the awkward moments that would pass between them, but she started to realize that Ryan had feelings for her too. Their relationship grew more and more each time they got a chance to be alone. Sarah couldn’t believe what had happened. She knew what she was doing was completely wrong of her, but when she is with Ryan she is in a dream. Not saying a word to Brianna only made it worse. Sarah could start to see the feelings that Brianna had for Ryan, and those feelings scared her. All of these years being best friends with Brianna, she had never seen her care so much for a guy before. Ryan told Sarah that he was going to break up with Brianna as soon as he could, but he needed to wait for the right time. Sarah knew Ryan wanted her, but she was scared because she knew things wouldn't end up how she wanted them to.
Brianna and Ryan were going bowling with some friends one night, and of course Brianna invited Sarah. She knew she really didn’t have a choice because Brianna loved dragging her around everywhere she went. When Sarah was at the bowling alley, she watched Brianna and noticed how much she was flirting with all these other boys. All Sarah could think about was how could Brianna flirt with other guys when she had Ryan. He was planning to break up with Brianna any day, but the break up didn't end up going the way he planned. Brianna wanted to hang with other guys that night so she broke up with him. Brianna's decision to let go of the relationship shocked both Ryan and Sarah, but that is what each other wanted, right? The next day Ryan visited Sarah’s house and they were as happy as they could ever be. Every second spent with him was another world. She absolutely loved him, and he loved her back, but when Brianna walked into Sarah’s house to find that he was there, she was extremely upset. For weeks Sarah tried to fix their broken friendship, but Brianna never forgave her. Sarah struggled to let go of Brianna but knew that having Ryan as her boyfriend and having Brianna as her best friend wasn't an option: it was just a dream.
