I Can Taste The Failure On Your Lips

I cleared my throat and looked at them, he had that ‘dear in the headlights’ look on his face, and she just played a smirk. This was what she wanted. This was exactly what she wanted, that backstabbing bitch.

“Delia.” Curtis breathed out. They had obviously bee going at it for a while, he was out of breath.

“I can’t believe you would do this.” I said.

“I’m sorry, I just, I-”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” I told Curtis. “How could you do this Katie?”

She smiled at me. “Yeh were cheatin’ on ‘im anyways.”

Curtis’ face went pale, and he looked at me with his eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“Yeah,” Kaite started. “With Oliver fuckin’ Sykes, your best friend.” Curtis pushed Kaite off of him and stood up. “So, don’t let her fool yeh. She doesn’t care that yeh goin’ to break up with her. This is what she wants, so she can go off and be happy with Oliver.”

I wanted to hit her so bad, right now. I did care, because not only was I losing Curtis, I was losing Oliver, and I was losing a ‘friend’ that I thought I could count on. Obviously, I couldn’t count on Kaite, seeing as she had just stabbed me in the back in attempt to win back her former love. “Curtis, please.” I said as he slid past me. He stopped in the threshold and turned his head back to me. “Can we just talk?”

He shook his head and frowned. “Yeh talked enough.”

When Curtis left, Kaite started laughing. “Now yeh can be with Oliver.” She said. “Curtis doesn’t want a slut.” She clutched her stomach in laughter.

I squinted my eyes at her, and walked over to where she was. She automatically stopped laughing and stood up, so that we could see eye to eye. She was taller than me, but that didn’t really matter. “No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t was an alcoholic angry sex addict either. Why don’t you go cry about it to your counselor, I’m sure they’d love to hear what you have to say, because no one else wants to.”

Her mouth popped open as if to say ‘I can’t believe you just said that to me’. When she was about to say something else, I just turned on my heal, and walked out of the bedroom, and down the stairs to the den. When I got there, Curtis was just leaving, and Oliver was standing there looking at me. I couldn’t register the look her had on his face. I couldn’t tell if he was angry, happy, sad, pissed, or annoyed. He just stood there, staring, before the girl he was with grabbed his hand and pulled him back down to the couch, and they began making out again. I marched over to Anna and tapped her shoulder.

“Dee! What’s up?” She yelled over the music.

“I want to go home.” I said, crossing my arms.

“You don’t want to party longer?” She asked.

I just shook my head and tapped my foot on the ground. “No, I want to go.”

She took in my expression and just nodded. “Okay, we’ll go.”

Anna said goodbye to Matt and the rest of the people that she knew there before we left. I knew I wouldn’t escape an interrogation from Anna before we got to my house; I was practicing my speech pretty much the entire time we were in the car.

“What was that?” She asked, as we stopped at a red light.

“Curtis and I broke up.” I said.

“What!? Why!?” She asked

“Because I cheated on him with Oliver.” I answered.

“Why did yeh do that?”

“Because, I am a bad person.”

“Nah, yeh liked Oli is all.” She said.

“How’d yeh know?”

“Won’t hard to tell.” She shrugged.

The light turned green and she began down the road. It wasn’t hard to tell that I liked him?

“Curtis knew yeh liked ‘im, Delia.” She then said.

“What?”

“Yeah, he said to Matt one day that he wouldn’t be able to keep yeh apart for too much longer.”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Mhmm, Curtis is probably just mad that Oliver couldn’t wait until he ended things with yeh ‘imself, or until yeh broke up with ‘im.” We pulled up at my house moments later and Anna parked the car. I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed out. Anna rolled down the window and stuck her head out. “Just give Curtis time, don’t let this come between yeh, and don’t let it come between yeh and Oli, either.”

===

I plopped myself down on the couch the following Thursday in a pair of sweats and baggy t-shirt. I couldn't help but let this whole thing come between my relationship with anyone that has to do with Oliver and Curtis. Tom was an exception, because Tom came over the morning after the party to ask me if I was okay, and if I needed anything. I was being stupid, yes, by not going anywhere, not coming out of my room, and only leaving my porch to get the mail. Tom pretty much told me the same thing that Anna did.

Curtis knew that I liked Oliver, and I pretty much thought that it was the biggest lie I had ever heard in my entire life. I didn't even know that I liked Oliver. Sure, I thought he was very attractive, and I thought about him much more than I should have, but I didn't like him. When I told Tom this, he just shook his head and told me that I was wrong. How is Tom supposed to know my feelings, he isn't me, so therefore, he can't tell me that I am wrong.

I quit my job at the library, not that I minded, I wasn’t getting paid anyways, and joined Anna at her job at the 'Lung Wa Chinese Restaurant' twenty minuets away from my house. I was actually getting paid there, and I didn't mind working with Anna, she was in fact the only friend I had right now, beside Tom.

In the past week, I hadn't heard anything from Oliver. He hasn't called and he hasn't come by my house. I wasn't mad at him. The last I had heard the girl that he was with at the party was his new girlfriend. He didn't need to be calling me or coming over to my place if he had a girlfriend. I was over the whole cheating thing, I took it for a test drive, and it had obviously gotten me into a huge pile up.

I did miss him though, I did want him to be calling me and coming over. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want to see him. So on Friday after work with Anna, we headed straight to the Sykes’ house to watch band practice and hang out a little bit. The second I stepped through the garage door, everyone’s jaw dropped to the floor, and it was basically the most awkward moment I had ever endured in Sheffield.

Tom stood up, walking over to me and slung his arm around my shoulder, then led me to the couch where he and a strawberry blonde girl were sitting. I recognized her to be the girl that was latched on to Matt Kean’s arm the night of the big blowout.

She was very cute, the kind of girl that is just naturally pretty, and doesn’t have to do anything to enhance her looks. She made me jealous in a way. But, so did every other girl that had zero fat and a clear face. Her name was Chelsea, and she was very nice. Getting to know her took my attention off of Curtis and Oliver. Though, it wasn’t long before she came and tried to acquaint herself with me, Chelsea, and Anna.

“Hi, I’m Brittany.” She said, sitting on the couch next to me, after Oli had gotten up to start off the next song. I looked at her and gave her the brightest fake smile I could muster. She smiled back like a true idiot. Chelsea giggled; she knew that I hated this girl. Matt K. had already given her the whole story.

“Hi, I’m Delia.” I replied, shaking her hand. She was extremely thin, and not the good kind either. This girl was borderline anorexic. It actually felt kind of bad for her. Sure, she was gorgeous, but there was just something off putting about her.

“Can I call yeh Dee?” She beamed.

“No.” I said, and she frowned.

“That’s okay, nicknames aren’t for everyone.” She then turned her attention to the group of guys in the middle of the floor. She had that ‘awe’ look on her face whenever she looked at him. “So how do yeh know ‘em?” She asked, turning her attention back to me. God, couldn’t this girl take a hint?

Well, let’s see… I dated Curtis for a while, then I cheated on him with your current boyfriend, we had amazing sex, and I’m pretty sure that he only wants you for the same reason. “I live down the street.”

“Oh, tha’s cool.” She said.

I just nodded and ignored her the rest of the night. Soon, the band grew tired of singing, Oliver took Brittany home, Anna and Matt N. left, and Curtis left. Lee, Matt Kean, Chelsea, Tom and I were all sitting around talking about random things. Well, they did, I just sort of sat there, hoping that Oliver would come back. I wanted to see him one more time tonight, without Brittany. I just wanted to see him, like before she came along.

Tom sat down on the couch next to me and smiled. “Yeh know, he really doesn’t like her.”
I looked up at Tom and sighed. “I’m sure.”

“He don’t, yeh think he would actually date that?” He asked.

I laughed lightly and shrugged. “No, I didn’t think he actually would, but he is.”

“Yeah, ‘cause he knows yeh probably don’ want ‘im after everythin’ tha’s ‘appened.”

“If that’s his only reason for dating that slut, then he is absolutely mad!” I yelled, standing up. “Why wouldn’t I want to be with him? I mean, I ruined a great relationship with someone that actually really liked me, because I couldn’t stay away from him. And now he thinks that I don’t want him?”

Everyone was quiet when I finished my little tantrum. I looked at them all to see that they weren’t looking at me, they were looking past me. I turned only to see Oliver standing in the doorway. He had on a sullen expression and he stuck his hands in his pockets. “Can we talk?”