Oh Brother, Part 2

I felt like a chump. After every single one of my friends knowingly said to me, "he met someone else, " I had staunchly defended my brother's honor by telling everyone "NO. He told me he didn't. AND I believe him." When he confessed otherwise, my first question wasn't "who is she?" it was a plaintive, "why did you lie to me?"

"I wasn't ready to tell anybody. I wanted to keep it separate from the breakup," he explained. "It's like you said. She wasn't the reason, just the catalyst. I had been thinking about this before business school."

Now I felt like a manipulated chump.

"I didn't want you to have a bad impression of her."

Silence.

"You have a bad impression already, don't you."

"I don't know! I'm still digesting."

"You do! You have a bad impression now!"

"Dude, I don't even know her! I'm going to sleep and digesting overnight!"