Could Tell a Love 2

"Beau, what are you...oh god, not again." Jared said, pulling my arm away from my ankle.

I fought with him "Just once more...the pain makes it all go away." I said softly. My hand was covered in blood, as was the razorblade. I was thinking that I was starting to go insane, with the way I was talking and acting, but it was true.

"Beau, give it to me, cutting yourself doesn’t help anything. If anything, it makes it worse. Please, stop." Jared’s words became less audible as he spoke, trying to reach for the blade in my hand. I felt the edge start digging into my fingers. After hearing how heartbroken and sad he sounded, reality started hitting me. Soon the pain wasn’t as pleasurable as it was making itself out to be. Causing myself pain was causing everyone else pain, and I didn’t want that. I dropped the razor to the ground and started balling my eyes out, covering my face with my clean hand as well as my bloody hand.

"Oh, Beau, no, don’t do that. Here," Jared grabbed my bloody hand and started wiping it off gently. I pulled away slightly when he got to the cuts on my fingers. "Oh, sorry." He said, next wiping off my face. "We’ll deal with that mess when we get home, and this one." He said, pointing to my head, smiling a little bit.

I should’ve smiled at that, but I couldn’t. My mouth still wasn’t working. I just looked at the floor again, seeing the shiny glint of the blade on the floor. I didn’t bother picking it up again. It didn’t appeal to me the same way it did just minutes ago. If it meant causing everyone else pain, then why bother?

"It wouldn’t kill you to smile, Beau." Eric said in the front seat, looking back, wiping his puffy bloodshot eyes.

"What is there to smile about? I’m putting you guys through a living hell. I’m surprised you stuck with me this long." I said quietly, still looking at the floor.

"Beau, just because you’re a pain in the ass sometimes doesn’t mean we’re gonna abandon you. That’s not how this whole thing works." Jared said, putting his arm around my shoulder again, hugging me close, looking me straight in the eye.

"And most of this is my fault, I take full blame." Eric added on.

"Thank you." Casey and I said in unison.

"I’m really sorry for being such a dumbass. If I knew you were doing this to yourself.." Eric started.

"Even if he wasn’t doing this to himself, you shouldn’t have done that." Jared interrupted.

"I know, Jared. My point is, I’m done. I’m not gonna stress you out anymore with any of my bullshit. After you yelled at me and basically gave up on me, I realized how horrible I’ve been, it was kinda like a wake up call." Eric explained as we turned into my driveway. We all got out and I was careful not to bump my ankle into anything. I felt slightly lightheaded and Jared helped me inside. I sat on the couch while Jared cleaned all my cuts out with peroxide and put bandages over them.

"I’m sorry for putting you guys through all this." I said after Jared and Eric joined me on the couch, Casey standing in the doorway.

"Don’t worry about us, Beau. We’re all fine. Well, almost all fine." Casey said, looking directly at Eric now. "You know you’re gonna have to tell her, or I will. And don’t say that Daniel forced you into it."

Eric sighed, rubbing his face with both his hands. "I know. I’ll tell her to come over now." He pulled out his phone and went through his contacts to find her number.

"Tell her to pick us up and take us to her apartment. I think we should give these two some time alone."

"Thank you." Jared whispered as Miranda answered on the other end.

"Hey Miranda, it’s Eric...it’s nothing, I’m fine. Can you come get Casey and I and bring us to your house? We need to talk...yeah, we’re at Beau’s. Alright, see you soon. Love you, too. Bye." He hung up and sighed, not looking stoked about this. "The wedding’s in a week. We have everything planned out and all the invitations sent out. I really hope everything doesn’t go down the tubes. I really want to marry her."

"We’ll just have to see how everything goes. Lets go wait outside." Casey pulled Eric off the couch, but Eric pulled away for a second. He got up and came over to hug me. "I’m so sorry, Beau. Please get better."

I hugged him tightly, feeling a slight pain in the cuts on my arm. I didn’t want to tell him to not be sorry, because it really was his fault. I kept my mouth shut and he let go, following Casey outside.

There was an awkward silence between Jared and I, like neither of us knew what to say. I hugged him. "I’m really sorry." I whispered.

Jared pulled me away from him, but only just enough to let his lips meet mine. I grabbed his cheeks gently, wiping away any tears that fell from his eyes. Jared wrapped his arms around my waist tightly.

We parted and Jared sniffled. "Don’t be sorry, Beau. It’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. You don’t need to go around saying sorry about this. That’s Eric’s job this time." Jared said softly, resting his head on my shoulder, slightly rocking back and forth. I nuzzled my face into the crevice between Jared’s neck and shoulder blade. I felt the corners of my mouth lift a little bit, then more to form a smile. It felt so good. "Thank you, Jared. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you so much."

I heard Jared laugh a little, sniffling some more. "I love you, too. More than you could ever know."

"You’re really the only person that’s keeping me sane right now." I said, then I heard car doors slam. "I wonder who that could be." I said. I was hoping that it was just Casey and Eric, coming to tell us that the wedding was still on, but it could also be Matt, Mike, and Daniel. I was really hoping it wasn’t the latter. I don’t know how well I could manage with Daniel. I heard Matt’s voice coming up the sidewalk towards the back door, and I put my face in my hands. I heard three sets of feet, but only two voices. I looked up and Daniel kept his eyes on the floor. I needed to talk with him. Alone. I got off the couch without saying hi to anyone, grabbed Daniel’s arm, and pulled him into my room with me, closing the door. I felt the rage building up inside me, but I could already tell he was down, and I really didn’t have the energy to tell him off anymore. We stood two feet from each other. I stared at him and he diverted his eyes elsewhere, anywhere that wasn’t me.

"Look, Daniel. I’m not gonna tell you off or anything. I’ve done enough of that today. I just wanna talk, okay?" I asked, grabbing his shoulder, making him look at me. "Okay?"

"Okay." He said in a small voice.

"Why did you do that to Eric when you knew he was engaged?" I asked calmly.

"I don’t know what came over me, honestly. I was telling myself not to, but things just happened, I guess. And it wasn’t all me, it was him, too." He explained.

"I know, I believe you." I let out a short laugh of frustration. "Eric’s just such a dumbass sometimes.."

"Everyone can be, though. We all make mistakes." Daniel pointed out.

"Yeah, I know." I said, sighing.

Daniel hugged me. "Thanks for not bitching at me and telling me off."

I hugged him back, smiling. "I’m too exhausted to yell anymore."

We stayed like that, until Daniel started feeling me up.

I pulled out of the hug. "Whoa, what are you doing?"

He half laughed. "Do you think just because I went after Eric I’m not attracted to you anymore?"

"Um, even if you still are, you know I’m with Jared."

"But Jared doesn’t have to know, does he?" Daniel said, playing with my hair.

"Uh, yeah, he kinda does. I don’t like keeping things from him."

"Come on, Beau. I can hardly keep myself away from you, you’re so gorgeous." He said, placing his hands lightly on the sides of my neck, leaning in closer to my face. I could smell the mint from his gum. "Just a few minutes. He would never know." He said quietly, stroking my cheek.

He was getting harder and harder to resist. Our lips met suddenly and my hands went around his hips.

The feeling of his lips against mine, slow and seductive, made me almost forget that what we were doing was wrong.

"Oh, Daniel," I moaned. "we really shouldn’t be doing this."

He put his finger against my lips, breathing heavily. "Shhh. Don’t think. Just kiss me." Our lips met and our hands roamed freely on each others’ bodies.

Daniel then grabbed my belt and pulled me against him. His tongue explored my mouth while I explored his. His fingers played with my buckle, and then unbuckled it.

I pulled away for a small second. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Daniel gave me his most seductive face, feeling up and down my sweaty chest. I suppressed the moan that came with it.

"Positive." He whispered, then pushed me down into bed. He fell on top of me and started kissing me everywhere, eventually making up to my lips again. He was really good at this kind of thing, I wasn’t gonna lie. Daniel sat up and straddled me, starting to undo my pants.

And that was where I drew the line. I pushed him off me and sat up. "Alright, we’re done. You’re amazing, but I can’t go that far." I started walking around, closing my fly and buckling my belt. I found my shirt amongst a pile of other shirts.

"Alright, maybe next time." Daniel said.

"There won’t be a ‘next time’." I said flatly, putting my shirt on, even though it felt gross because I was still sweaty and sticky.

"That’s what you said before."

"There was never a ‘before’ either! If you think that kiss meant anything, then you’re dead wrong." I fixed my hair in the mirror and cooled down a little bit before I opened the door and walked back into the living room, where Matt, Jared, and Mike were now joined by Casey, Eric, and Miranda. She did not look happy, and Eric’s felt her rage already.

The quiet conversation stopped once Daniel and I came into the room, and the rage towards Eric went directly to Daniel. Miranda glared daggers at Daniel as he avoided eye contact at all cost. Miranda got up and stood right in front of him, while I backed away. Jared got off the couch and hugged me, rubbing my back, comforting me. I didn’t want this to get ugly.

"You son of a bitch. Why would you do that, huh? After you knew Eric and I were together. I should stab you and beat you beyond recognition for what you did..." Miranda said. Before she could follow through with what she said, Eric held her arms back. She fought back with pretty impressive strength, but lost.

"Fucker. God damn you, get out of my sight..." Miranda just kept going, slowly breaking down into tears. She fell onto her knees and Eric picked her back up and hugged her. She pushed him away. "NO! I don’t need any sympathy from you. You’re a part of this, too." She wiped her eyes viciously. "I don’t know why I’ve given you so many chances. You’re obviously not decent enough to stay loyal, and you obviously don’t know the meaning of engagement." She said, voice pure acid. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that much hatred come out of one person, not even me.

"Miranda, lets just talk. Please." Eric said, grabbing her hand.

She shook it off. "No! We’ve talked too much!" She yelled, starting to take off her ring.

Eric grabbed her hand again, keeping the ring there. "Please."

She sighed and pulled her hand away. "4 months. I’ll give you 4 months to clean up your act. If you fuck up once more with me, that’s it. We’re done. I’ve given you too many chances and forgiven you one too many times. This is it, Eric. I’ll call everyone and tell them that the wedding’s being postponed. Bye Eric." She said. Eric leaned in, expecting a kiss, but she walked right past him and out the door, slamming it.

Once the door was closed, Eric fell to onto the floor and started sobbing. Daniel just stood there, looking at the floor, like he usually did when he knew he did something wrong.