She Will Be Loved

She watched as the tears slid down Eli's cheek. This hurt her more than anything, watching the boy she loved crying. He sobbed into his free hand while the other lay in a cast beside him. Sam laid a shaking hand on his stomach and kissed his cheek, the tears stuck to her insanely dry lips as she picked her head back up to looke at his face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered softly into his ear. "I'm a horrible girlfriend."

Eli shook his head and removed his hand. "No, you aren't. I'm a horrible boyfriend."

Sam let her tears fall as well. A few got stuck in her unclean hair that fell over her face. She knew she had to smell, it had been a while since she last took a shower. But at this point, she didn't care.

There was a noise coming from her shorts pocket, letting her know that she was getting a call. Picking her pocket and holding the phone close to her face, she saw Alli was calling.

"Hello?" She answered, making sure you couldn't hear the crying in her voice.

Alli took a breath before saying, "are you okay?!"

"Yes, Alli. I'm fine. I'm just sitting in the hospit--"

"You are in the hospital!?"

"--because Eli is in here." She finished.

"Wait, what's wrong with Eli?"

"I'm not sure yet." Sam looked over at the boy. He tried to sit up, groaned loudly, and then fell back in place. She rolled her eyes, making sure he were looking right at her.

"Well, call me later, okay?" And then she hung up without another word.

Eli stared down at his hand, pain all over his face. "I guess you want to know what happened." He muttered.

"I would like to, yes." Sam crossed her arms and legs, looking at him.

Eli took a deep breath, let it out and closed his eyes. Only to open them again and slowly turn his head towards her. "I.. I-- when you hung up-- I didn't know what to think. I thought it was Adam, so I got mad. When I heard your voice, I only missed you more. I hated hearing it because it reminded me that you couldn't be mine. I wanted to protect you, but I couldn't. So when you hung up and.. and I just thought it was all a prank. I thought maybe they put you up to it and that you wouldn't go through with it. So I found my pocket knife and-- and I cut my arm. So then I thought it was too messy and I-I kinda.." He made a noise in the back of his throat. Trying to clear it before continuing. "I took my lighter and burnt the rest." He murmured quickly, without pause.

Sam looked at him, not believing her ears. Did he really?