Relationship Rehearsal

By Edith Russo

Celeste and Ryan have always been best friends. That's all. Why would it ever be more than that? She's shy and has never had a boyfriend and he's a charismatic ladies man, after all. But when Celeste agrees to a "relationship rehearsal" with Ryan to help her gain the confidence she needs to ask out Blake, everything starts to change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Shorts
• Release date: Jun 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094420646

Book preview

Chapter One

Ryan is an asshole is the first thing Vanessa says when Celeste Delgado enters their apartment. She can’t say she’s surprised to hear Vanessa say that, either; she knew exactly what would happen from the moment her lifelong best friend set his sights on her current roommate, and the moment Vanessa fell for his charms.

I’m pretty sure I warned you about that, she replies, and Vanessa sighs.

You did, you did. I don’t know why I didn’t listen to you, she says. "Well, except for the part where you claim he’s your best friend and I kind of figured anyone who was best friends with you couldn’t be all bad."

"Ryan isn’t all bad, he’s just an asshole, Celeste corrects her. To be fair, didn’t he make his intentions clear from the start?"

Vanessa has nothing to say to that, which pretty much confirms it all. Celeste has no doubt Ryan told her from the beginning that he was not interested in anything serious with her, and that it would probably be one and done. It’s always that probably that gives the people he hooks up with false hope. They all think they might be different, the one to change him. As far as Celeste can tell, Ryan is never going to change.

Still, how are you friends with him? Doesn’t the whole player thing bother you? Vanessa asks after a moment, and Celeste shakes her head.

Not really. I mean, yeah, he’s a little selfish, but he never strings anyone along, and that’s just how he’s always been. He was a flirt in middle school, and he’ll probably be a flirt until the day he dies. I can’t imagine him ever getting tied down, but… yeah, that’s just how he is, she says, finishing with a shrug.

I know you’re right, but still.

"If you knew he was a player, which I warned you about, and if you knew he wasn’t interested in a relationship, which he warned you about, then why did you even sleep with him?" Celeste asks, but she already knows the answer. It is always the same, yet another thing about the situation that is never going to change.

"Because he’s hot, Celeste. Honestly, you have to realize that. Best friend or not, there are some things you can’t ignore!" Vanessa insists, getting only a shrug in response.

Celeste knows Ryan is hot, another thing she has known from the start. He was hot in middle school, hot in high school, and now that they are studying at an art university, he is still hot, so much so that he turns heads wherever he goes and never has to look far to find someone willing to fall into bed with him. She is painfully aware of how good-looking he is, but for the most part, she has gotten used to it, at least enough so that her chest does not ache every single time he flashes her a smirk.

Now, when she was twelve, it was a different story….

I’ve just never seen him that way, she says at last, stretching the truth a little bit. Ryan is Ryan. I’ve known him since seventh grade, so things are different for us.

That excuse always works well, even for people like Vanessa who insist that it doesn’t matter how long they might have known him, that they would always notice his looks. It works for her, making her come across as different from them, never talking about relationships or hookups or anything to that degree, giving her the appearance of someone who is completely uninterested in such matters.

That, of course, is not true at all.

Section Break

Celeste’s first crush happened when she was five years old. She locked eyes with a boy in her kindergarten class and was blown away by how blue his were. Before then, she had never known that eyes could be so blue. She spent the rest of the year making awkward conversation with him whenever she had the chance, only for him to tell her she was annoying and to go away. Naturally, she never confessed to what she believed to be undying love for him. He went to a different elementary school and they never saw each other again.

It always happened like that. She would find something attractive about someone, fixate on them, and never manage to tell them, retreating more and more into herself with every crush she had. After being told how annoying she was the first time, she stopped trying to talk so much, until she often made it months without speaking a single word to the object of her affection.

It wasn’t just crushes, either; Celeste was shy in general and frequently found it hard to talk to others. She kept her head buried in her sketchbook, drawing anything and everything that caught her attention. As she grew, she started to take a particular interest in drawing people, especially their outfits, until she started creating outfits herself, her imagination running wild with all sorts of clothes. It was only natural that she decided to become a fashion designer and stuck to that dream, practicing her skills over the years.

Though she has always had a rather plain appearance, with dark brown hair in her youth that she started dyeing blonde a couple years ago and brown eyes that she thinks are boring, her designs have always been bright. Her personal fashion is simple, and has been all her life, but even as a child, she was drawing bold and exciting outfits, meant for much less shy people than herself.

Ryan Easton was new to her middle school, starting in the seventh grade. On the first day of school, he introduced himself in her homeroom class, and even from her seat, she could tell he had the bluest eyes she had ever seen, bluer than those of her first kindergarten crush, standing out against his brown skin. His bright smile stood out as well, and Celeste felt her heart skip a beat and knew exactly what this meant. The new boy would be her latest disaster crush and she would spend the year trying to find a way to talk to him, fail, and then wait for it to fade, starting eighth grade completely over him and probably caught up in someone else.

At least, that was how it normally would have gone. Instead, Ryan latched on to her a few days later, coming up to her empty table at lunch to ask what she was drawing. He had circulated between different tables each day, instantly popular due to his charismatic personality, but today, he wanted to sit with her for some reason, and Celeste, with no idea how to talk to him, just started showing him her art.

From that day on, they were inseparable.

Section Break

Ryan is a painter, and Celeste is studying fashion design, like she always knew she would. They’ve remained close through the years, bonded first by their interest in art, then by all of their shared experiences. She considers herself lucky to still go to school with him, even if they are separated by discipline, and even if he is busy with his primary hobby, which has led to him having a one-night stand with her roommate.

Celeste doesn’t have a crush on him anymore, of course. Once they started spending time together as friends, she had to fight against how flustered he made her. Talking about art made that a lot easier for her, and eventually, she got used to being around him and stopped thinking of him as a potential boyfriend, content to just be friends. Though he has brought plenty of people into her life, sociable as he is, he remains her closest friend, and she is happy just to know him.

The most important thing about Ryan is the way he understands her, right from the start. He doesn’t see her shyness as a hurdle when it comes to getting to know her, and has always been patient with her whenever she finds it hard to express herself. Her drops in mood, which can come out of nowhere, no matter how good she feels, have never been a problem to him. And he has never minded when she needed space from him to feel better. If she just wants to stay in, but doesn’t want to be alone, he makes the time to be there by her side. Ultimately, she knows it’s a good thing she pushed aside her crush so the two of them could become such good friends.

Since getting over her crush on Ryan, Celeste has had plenty more disaster crushes. Middle school held several for her; high school was even worse. Up until recently, Ryan was the only person she ever confided in. That part is not by choice; she likes to keep to herself, after all, but he knows her better than anyone and can tell right away when something is different about her. Namely, he can tell when a fresh infatuation has taken hold of her. Vanessa knows about her latest crush, but beyond that, Ryan has always been the only one in the know.

Most of the time he tries to help her in whatever way he can, but it’s hard for someone so charismatic and popular to relate