Could Tell a Love

My phone vibrated in my butt pocket. I opened it and saw that Miranda texted me.

Where are you? We’ve been waiting here for a half hour.

I’ve been standing here for a half hour? I texted her back saying that I was on my way. I grabbed my car keys and took off. I would’ve preferred staying home today of all days, but we couldn’t miss anymore practice. We needed to start recording for the new record soon, and I only have three songs written.

Surprisingly I made it to the studio in one piece. No pit stops, no angry attacks to the steering wheel. I was proud of myself. The hardest part was coming. Facing Eric.

"Well look who decided to show up." Matt said, shoving his drumsticks in his back pocket.

I barely acknowledged that Matt was there and walked straight to the practice room, where everyone else was sitting, including Eric. The tension rose ten fold. Everyone felt it.

"Hey Beau, what took you so long?" Eric asked, like it was a normal day. Like nothing had gone on this morning. I let it slip and threw my keys on the table, taking off my sweatshirt.

Jared looked the most worried of everyone in the room. Did he know?

"What’s going on?" He mouthed.

"I’ll tell you later." I said back, sighing. "So we gonna practice or what?"

"Lets do it." Mike said, standing up and doing some last minute tune-ups. Eric did the same. Something was pained in his expression. So he was hurting after this morning.

He looked at me, looking apologetic.

I turned away before his eyes burned at my heart anymore.

We started playing some old material from when Craig was still in the band and made our way to some new stuff, fixing the small mistakes.

After a 5 hour practice, I realized Miranda and Sarah were still there. No wonder I heard random fits of giggling during our breaks between songs.

"Dude, I am starved. Lets get some food." Matt said, stretching.

"I’ll order something. Pizza or Chinese?" Mike asked.

"Pizza, please." Eric said.

We all agreed and Mike went out of the room to order.

"Alright, I have to piss. I’ll be back." Jared said. He then looked at me and that was my cue to follow.

"Me too." I got up and followed. We ended up sitting at a table outside the bathrooms.

"So what’s going on with you and Eric?" He asked quietly.

Emotions rushed at me like a tidal wave. My eyes welled up with tears. "Eric and I broke up. This morning. I caught him sleeping with Miranda’s friend in there and he was also cheating on me with Miranda. He’s got a whole list of girls in his phone, too. I just..." I sniffed, almost losing my composure. Jared grabbed my hand and massaged it, comforting me.

I breathed and continued. "I just had enough of it, I guess. I felt like after I figured this all out, he didn’t love me and care for me the same way I thought he did."

"Oh, Beau, I’m sorry." Jared said, hugging me. "Is there anything I can do?"

I shook my head. "This is between me and Eric and Miranda. I don’t want you to get involved."

After almost a year of being together and he should’ve known better. I don’t like getting people involved with my problems.

We probably could’ve lasted so much longer, but I slowly fell more and more for Eric...

Our lips met passionately as we hit the bed, practically naked. My fingers got tangled in his long brown hair as he got tangled up in mine. We were already sweaty and hot and full of compassion. No matter how many times we did this, it still felt like the first time.

"I love you Beau." Jared said breathlessly.

I looked at him and smiled. "I love you too."

I suddenly had Eric on my mind. It’s been a month since his party and nothing’s changed in our relationship. I’m still madly in love with Jared, and vise versa, and Eric and I are still just best friends. I don’t even think he swings that way.

I rested my head on Jared’s chest, feeling my head elevate up and down with his every breath. I cuddled with him and we slept until about one in the afternoon.

I woke up, vision still full of sleep. Jared yawned and pushed the hair out of my face, caressing my cheek in the process. "Good morning." He said, smiling.

I stretched, leaning up to kiss him. "Morning." I yawned. "Did you sleep well last night?" I sat up and stretched some more.

"Mhm, only because you were in my dreams." He grabbed my waist and pulled me down beside him again.

Our lips met again, this time as more than just a good morning kiss.

I smiled mid kiss and we parted.

Jared looked at me funny. "What? What’s so funny?"

"It’s nothing. I’m just so happy to be with you. You’re perfect."

He laughed, blushing. "Well, nobody’s perfect." He objected, playing with my hair. "That is, nobody but you."

I giggled and blushed as I decided to get out of bed and make some coffee. I grabbed my phone and put it in the pocket of some of Jared’s pajama pants.

It vibrated as I pushed the "brew" button.

It was from Eric.

Hey, come over today. I need to talk to you, kay?

I responded:

Sure, I’ll be over there in an hour or so. I’m over at Jared’s.

He texted back saying:

Why am I not surprised.

I smiled and giggled. Shut up. I’ll see you soon.

I shut my phone and shoved it in my pocket.

"Who were you talking to?" Jared asked, standing in the doorway.

"Eric. He wants to hang out today. I said I would. It’s been a while, and I think we need to catch up, just the two of us. Is that okay? Were you planning anything today?" I asked, grabbing the half filled pot of coffee and pouring myself a steamy cup of energy. I heard drops sizzle as they dropped where the coffee pot was supposed to be. I placed the pot back and went over by Jared with my cup. "You hungry?"

"Starving. What do you want?" Jared asked, opening the fridge. It was stocked to the max: half energy drinks, half food.

I laughed at it and pulled out some eggs and cheese. I opened the cupboard above the stove, pulling out a frying pan.

The pan got yanked out of my hand by Jared. "What do you think you’re doing?"

"I’m making breakfast." I said simply, grabbing the pan back, setting it on the stove, turning on the burner to heat it up. "What kind of eggs do you want?"

"It’s my house, I should make breakfast." He argued, grabbing me around my hips, getting right up against me.

"Well, you always cook, so now it’s my turn."

Jared rested his head on my shoulder. "We sound like two teenage girls, you know that?" He looked up at me, giving me puppy eyes.

I smiled and laughed, looking down at him. "Yeah, I guess we do." I turned to face him, now less than an inch from his face. I stared into his amazing eyes, imagined the feeling of his lips against mine. "How about we both make breakfast. Then we’re even." I gave him a peck on the lips to help him agree with me, even though I longed for more.

He smirked. "Alright, I guess I can do that." He leaned in for another kiss and I gladly took it, until it started getting really warm in the kitchen. I looked towards the stove and saw smoke coming from the burner.

"Oh shit!" I ran to the stove and turned off the burner, grabbing the smoking pot and dropping it in the sink, not realizing that the handle would be so hot.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I am, yeah, but your pan, not so much. Sss..." I looked at my hand. There was some damage done. "Remind me never to grab smoking hot pans off stoves with my bear hands next time, kay?" I said, trying to bring some humor into the situation.

It worked, amazingly. He laughed and led me to the bathroom so he could run my hand under cold water and wrap it for me.

"Wow, this is actually pretty bad. Are you sure you don’t wanna go to the hospital?" Jared asked, concern flooding his voice as he was putting antibacterial shit on my burn. It burned like a bitch.

"No!" I said as a spasm of pain went into my hand as he put more of that stuff on it. "No, it’s fine. I just need to keep it from getting infected." I laughed before another shot of pain hit me. "You worry about me too much."

"There’s no such thing as worrying too much, only not worrying enough." He said, concentrating on my hand.

"Are you like secretly a ER dude or something? This is like, professional." I looked at it as he was finishing up.

I saw his cheeks flush a slight shade of red. "I went to school for a few months before dropping out. I guess I just really liked the fact that I’d be around blood and guts and gore, as well as making it better. Ever since I was in third grade I always had a passion for this kinda stuff, I guess. I mean, I’m no miracle worker, but I hope to be to at least a few people."

I smiled at the compassion in his voice. "You are so sweet."

"Stop it, I hate it when people compliment me like that." His cheeks got slightly darker as he was putting the stuff away in his first aid kit.

"No, I mean it, though. I don’t know anyone who feels like that towards people that they don’t even know. That’s just sweet and thoughtful. Maybe that’s why I love you." I gave him a small crooked smile as he looked up at me, smiling as well. I honestly don’t think I could be with anyone else in the world right now except him. It wouldn’t feel right. The feelings wouldn’t be the same.

Jared finally spoke up. "Wanna get some McDonald’s? Since the homemade breakfast plan kinda failed?"

I laughed and got up. "Yeah, that sounds great."

Jared followed me out of the bathroom, staying less than a foot away from me. I went into his room and stole some of his clothes and slipped on my flip flops. Jared grabbed his car keys and we went to McDonald’s. All the employees looked at us weird because Jared wouldn’t stop biting and kissing my neck as I was ordering. I didn’t even pay attention to the total amount. I just handed him a 20 and accepted my change. We grabbed the bags of food and left, laughing to ourselves at the looks on the people’s faces. We ate in the parking lot and then Jared just dropped me off at Eric’s house.

After a long kiss goodbye, we parted and I ran up to the front door and knocked.

He came after the third knock. "Hey, you should know you don’t have to knock when you come over by now." He moved out of the way and let me in.

The house was so much cleaner since the last time I was in it, which was about a week ago. Did Eric clean this all for me?

I sat down on the couch and Eric brought me a Coke. "So what did you wanna talk about?" I asked, opening it up and taking a huge gulp out of it. I didn’t have anything to drink with breakfast (well, technically lunch). I looked at Eric when he wasn’t saying anything and he was just running his finger around the rim of the can, concentrating on it immensely.

"Hey, Eric? What’s up?" I asked, waving my hand in front of his face. He looked at me and smiled a little, but it wasn’t a happy smile. He was nervous. "Why are you—"

He suddenly started kissing me, cutting me off mid-sentence. I pulled away in shock. "Eric, what are you doing?" It came out more harshly than I intended.

"I’m tired of hiding it. I’ve been keeping it from you, from everyone, for a long time. I really like you, Beau. A lot." He said, sounding more confident then he looked, still not making eye contact with me. We sat a little closer to each other now.

"But Eric. I’m with Jared. I love him. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I’m not gonna leave him for you, it’s just not gonna happen. We have it too good with each other to ruin it." I explained in a softer tone.

"I know, and I understand that. But maybe—"

I finally realized what he was getting at. "I’m not cheating on him either. I could never do that. I’d feel terrible."

"So that little kiss on the cheek at my party was nothing? And all those looks?" He jumped to conclusions.

I sighed, knowing that I sounded like a horrible person, making him think that I don’t like him the slightest bit. I looked at him and he was still looking at the ground. I lifted his chin with my finger to face me. "I never said I didn’t like you, okay? I’m just saying that I don’t want to betray Jared. He loves me so much, and I love him just the same. He cares too much about me...I can’t leave him. Do you get what I’m saying?" I asked him, looking at him, giving him a little crooked smile, removing my finger from underneath his chin.

He smiled a little back. "Yeah, I understand. I would feel terrible for breaking you guys up, too. You guys are practically made for each other."

My smile widened and I felt my cheeks getting warm. "Thanks, Eric. I’m glad you understand where I’m coming from." I sighed, tipping my Coke can to my mouth once again. "So, do you wanna do anything today?"...