Cheaters Never Prosper

The sun set over eighty one twenty three was amazing. It was always a token first day stop. It was where they’d go just at sunset to ask a girl to be their girlfriend. It was where Marley and I had first met. Where her boyfriend broke her heart and where I picked up the pieces. It was where we’d first kissed where she’d gotten me so horny I couldn’t breathe and where we’d hurried to my car for the first time of us. It was where things had gone down and things had gone up. It was where I first learned she was cheating on me and where she first asked for forgiveness. It was where I realized I loved her and it was also where I realized that as much as I loved her she would never love me the same way. It was where my heart split in the process of accepting that. It was also the place Mariza and I were sitting our legs draped lazily over the edge.

“This is breath taking,” she said.

“Just an old place we all hang out at,” I said. It wasn’t that big of a deal for me. It wasn’t something spectacular and it wasn’t anything new. I just liked being up here, I could think. “Did you have a good day of hanging out, I mean after John Oh ditched us?”

“I had a great time,” she told him. “So, what do you like to do, I mean when you’re not toting me around like a lost puppy to show me the sites?”

“I don’t think I toted you anywhere you didn’t want to go,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t know. I like to play video games, but I don’t do that as much as I used to. I love playing guitar but mostly I just like hanging out with friends. I’m a home dog if there ever was a name for it,” I said with a goofy grin. I watched her nod before she started to turn and face me. I gently rested my hand against her arm in case I needed to grab her lest she fall.

“If I told you something that I’d never told anyone else besides my older brother will you promise to keep it a secret?”

“You’re going to trust me with a secret? We’ve hung out twice, and one of those times was when Kennedy and John were planning how to fake Marley out on “cheating” and stuff like that.”

“Jared,” she said sighing softly. “You bought me breakfast, you offered to buy me your CDs which I wouldn’t have let you do anyways. You’ve done so much for me, why wouldn’t I trust you?” I didn’t have much else to say to that so I sat at waited. “Okay, the reason I won’t help you cheat on Marley isn’t just that I was cheated on, it was that I was cheated on and the girl was my best friend. It was devastating to find them making out in his room. I made a vow that I would never let another girl hurt that way with me as the cause. I don’t want her to get hurt, as much as she’s ever hurt you, I just can’t do it,” she said.

“Mariza, I don’t want to hurt her, and I don’t want to use you. I just…I don’t even know.”

She shook her head a smile crossing her face. I didn’t even know what she was thinking but it didn’t matter, I was distracted by her smile enough to enjoy that she was smiling. It seemed to only light her face up as she showed off her white teeth. It was like she had a glow to her as she smiled, like she knew she looked good, no, she looked great.

“You’ll figure it out eventually, trust me. And if you don’t, John will make you. I think he thinks he has to protect you or something,” she said with a shrug.

“That’s just John Oh, he’s very protective of his friends. And, it’s part of being in the band we all look out for each other. I think that’s why they feel so bad, because they didn’t know about it so they couldn’t have done anything about it and they think they should have.”

“Yea, probably.”

“Are your parents going to be worried? It is getting late,” I said bringing it up slowly. It wasn’t that I wanted the night to end, oh no of course not. But, her dad was in the military and I didn’t want to die.

“Yea, they probably will be. But, I don’t really want to leave. This place is just so beautiful,” she said.

“I can bring you up here more if you wanted, I come up here a lot when I need to think anyways,” I said shrugging lightly. It wasn’t like I was lying. Whenever this happened with Marley I always ended up here to think of what I could’ve done differently or what I could’ve done better. It was a bad cycle, but it was my cycle nonetheless.

“I’d like that a lot,” she said.

I turned and hopped off the ledge before helping her down. She wobbled at the change and fell into my arms for support. I giggle left her lips as her face blushed a soft red before nervously stepping from my embrace. As she walked towards the car I could only shake my head lightly. I didn’t want to admit what I was thinking so I relented to dragging it to the back of my mind and leaving it there. I followed her unlocking the car so she could get in.

“May I pick a CD?”

“Yea, sure,” I said. I ejected the mix I had in the player as she slid one of her new CDs in. I let the music fade into the background as I concentrated on not doing what I thought I would do. By the time we got home it was dark but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the scenery around. I pulled up next to her house letting her get out before I made my way to my house. The last thing I saw from her was her grin as she waved that same grin that made her light up so happily earlier.

“Jay Jay!” I was greeted when I came home by a streak of strawberry blond hair as Tabby wrapped her arms around my leg. It was like she was my kid and not my sister, oh the crazy things kids did these days. “Jay, Marley is upstairs,” she said softly like she was telling me a secret.

“In my room?”

“Yea, she’s mad,” she stated.

“How could you tell?”

“It’s a girl thing Jay Jay,” she said rolling her eyes as she scurried off, probably to get ready for bed or something like that.

My hand rubbed the back of my neck as I thought about what Marley was here about. I didn’t want to end the night in an argument considering the day I was having. I didn’t want to ruin my happiness just because Marley was pissed at me. Then again, I also didn’t want Marley to be pissed at me. It was a lose lose situation I’d put myself in if there ever was one. Either way, I walked towards the stairs climbing them quickly as I made my way to what would end up ruining my night.

She was sitting there, waiting for me. Her arms were crossed as she sat impatiently looking around the room. Her head whipped towards me as she heard the floor creak. Her eyes were red like she’d been crying and I could see the tear stains down her face. Something was wrong.

“Babe, what’s wrong?” I asked walking towards her. She shifted away as I tried to put my arm around her. “Marley?”

“Are you cheating on me Jared?”

“What? No, Marley I would never cheat on you,” I assured her. “Where did you get the idea that I’m going to cheat on you?”

“You said you were hanging out with the band today but I saw the entire band without you at Jamba Juice. Why would you lie?”

“Babe, I was hanging out with the band. I just had something to do while they went to Jamba. Sucks too, I told them to get me something and they forgot,” I said. I had to admit, I was getting better at lying. A year ago I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off. I supposed it was all the lying about Marley and what she was up to that helped me a great deal. I really hated that I was lying to her though. At the same time I felt it was for her best interest that she didn’t find out about Mariza just yet, or really the plan, just yet anyway. I wasn’t even sure how things would go when she did find out.

“Promise?”

“I promise. Come here,” I said pulled her closer to me. She leaned into my chest like she used to when she was upset. Her breathing evened out as she relaxed into the gentle breathing that she often attributed to feeling safe. My hand rubbed her back as she sniffled the last of her cries out. Whether they were fake or not I wouldn’t ever know but it didn’t matter, to me they were always real.

We sat there for hours her snuggled into my chest as I thought about all the shit I was going to put her through. It never seemed to cross my mind that she had put me through the same shit and it wasn’t fair to either of us this dumb plot of revenge. She stayed the night her arms wrapped around me like I was going to disappear. I didn’t mind though. The fact that she was staying and not getting up to leave made me feel wanted. The fact that she hadn’t gone out when I told her I was hanging with the band relaxed my muscles that only ever seemed to show me the worst of her. It was like this moment of her caring that I wasn’t cheating reassured me that she cared about me and wanted me.

I stayed up most of the night thinking about exactly what I wanted from this relationship. I thought about what I wanted to happen in it and what I wanted to change. I thought about the people and places I wanted to visit and if I wanted to visit them with her. I thought about our future and if it was a strong one and then, I thought about Mariza and what I was doing to her.

I listened to Marley’s soft breathing as the night passed until somewhere near three in the morning I feel asleep my head leaning against the head board too tired to scoot down in the bed. I had pulled the blanket over Marley and I not that we really needed it in the Arizona heat. I tried to ignore the pang of guilt I felt but I knew as soon as I woke up it would return. But, that didn’t matter much. What mattered to me was that Marley was sitting, sleeping, in my arms and not some other idiots arms. Tonight she was mine, if just for the night, and tonight we were like we used to be. We were kids in love without a care to the world.