Been To Hell

I woke up to so many different sounds all at once that I thought I was still dreaming. There was a baby crying, a group of people whispering and above all a couple having a screaming match downstairs. I groaned and tried to go back to sleep again but then someone knocked on my door.

“Whoever the fuck you are… do you have a deathwish?”

My door swung open slowly and I glanced over to see everybody except Amy and Aaron… they must be the screaming couple downstairs.

“What do you guys want?” I mumbled.

Dillon grinned and came and sat down next to me on my bed, Reagan sitting on his lap and then the others followed suit.

“Jorel and Bianca, I love the two of you SO much but could you please get the crying baby OUT OF MY ROOM.”

Bianca glared at me but walked away with Jake in her arms anyway. I had noticed that over the past few months the girls and I had drifted apart again, except for Scarlett who would always be my number one person on the planet.

“What are they arguing about?”
“About you and about how Amy’s having an affair.”

I sat straight up at those words and the events of last night came flooding back to me. Oops.

“Ah, this might be my fault.”
“Yeah, we gathered as much.” Lucy spat at me before walking off, Jordan in tow.

He sent me a look of apology and I nodded. She was the worst out of all the girls. I folded my legs so that I was sitting Indian style and pulled my hair into a loose ponytail.

“So, how does Aaron know about Amy?” Jorel asked me, staring me down.
“I may have caught her with her tongue down someone else’s throat while I was out with Tony so I showed Aaron because nobody deserves to be played like that.”
“Andy, is that the ONLY reason?”

I was officially confused. Why else would I… Then it sunk in. They thought that I was TRYING to be a home wrecker to get back with Aaron.

“No. That’s not fair Jay. What did I do to deserve that? I’m not trying to push Amy out of the way. I’ve been AVOIDING BOTH of them for the past few weeks. I just don’t want to see Aaron get hurt like I’ve been in the past. Believe me when I say that it’s not a fun place to be. I can’t BELIEVE you guys. You’re meant to be my FRIENDS. Ugh!”

I grabbed some blue denim shorts, a black tank top and some red Chucks and got dressed quickly, washed my hands and face, brushed my teeth and left my hair in it’s loose ponytail.

“Where are you going?”
“Out Jay. I’m not staying in this damn house where I’m being watched every damn second.”

At least, I thought that I would be going out.

“ANDY!”

I cringed at the level of Amy’s voice and then slowly made my way downstairs.

Aaron was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, his jaw clenched and Amy was standing in the middle of the room, absolutely livid and the tears were streaming down her face.

“Andy, what makes you think that you saw me last night? Cheating on Aaron.”
“Well, it was definitely YOU and I’ve got proof.”

I pulled out my phone and showed her exactly what I showed Aaron, watching her reaction carefully. She flinched each time I changed the picture and that was it. I knew the truth and so did Aaron. Amy had cheated.

“Amy, you need to get your stuff now and leave. Don’t ever come back here.” Aaron told her calmly, shielding his anger and hurt.

She nodded and slid the ring off of her finger, handing it back to him.

“Thanks Andy. Thanks a lot.” She growled at me.

She stalked off and as soon as Aaron put the ring back in his pocket he looked up at me and gave me a weak smile but because I’ve known him for years and he’s been my best friend for that long I saw right through it and stepped forward, wrapping my arms around him and rubbing his back.

“I’m sorry Aaron. I’m so sorry.”

He pulled away from me and frowned.

“What do you mean you’re sorry? What for? She was a bitch, nothing more.”
“Wait… what? Then why did you propose to her?”
“Because of that conversation we had just after I beat the crap out of Danny. I realized that you’d given up on us… so I did too.”

I bit down on my lower lip. How did I NOT see it? Thinking back now, there were so many hints that he’d dropped but I’d chosen to ignore. Stiupid, stupid, stupid me.

“Aaron, I never gave up on us. I just wanted to see you fight for it, show me how much you still wanted it. Oh, Aaron.”

He swallowed and smiled at me, chuckling to himself.

“What?”
“We’ve both been idiots. I thought that you’d given up on us and then you didn’t respond to any of the hints I was dropping and you thought that I’d given up on us…”

For a few minutes we just stood there staring at each other, smiling every time our eyes met.

“OH FOR GOD’S SAKE JUST FUCKING KISS ALREADY!”

Our heads snapped up at the sound of Scarlett and Johnny’s voices. It was then that we noticed we’d attracted an audience. I saw Amy storm out of the house for the last time and I smiled, looking back at Aaron.

“Third time lucky?” he asked.
“Go for it.”

I stepped closer to him and stood on my tiptoes, bringing his face closer to mine until our lips met.

“Finally!”

I smiled into the kiss when I heard someone smack Johnny around the head and him hiss in pain.

We both pulled out of the kiss but remained grinning at each other. This is how it was meant to be. Me and Aaron together, I realized that now. I should have never let college separate us but it happened and it had consequences. That was all in the past now though. It was time to look to our future. Together. For good.