The Beating of Our Hearts

“FUCK!” Was screamed right in my face as soon as the door opened.
“Hey Jared.” I greeted in a small voice, anxious of how he was going to react.
“Where the fuck have you been Riley? I’ve been going out of my mind! I thought you were dead! I was going to call the police!” He yelled at me from the doorway.

“I’m sorry.” I said, refusing to meet his eyes.
“Where have you been? I’ve been calling and no one has answered, I went round to your apartment and no one was there. I’ve been so worried!” He said, his voice lowering slightly.
“Calm down Jared, give her a second to talk and then she could actually explain what’s been going on.” Shannon entered the scene, thankfully getting me out of the awkward situation and pulling me into the living room before giving me a giant hug.

“You had us really worried doll, please don’t run off again.” He said quietly in my ear.
“I won’t.” I agreed.
“Now please, please, tell me what happened.” Jared asked, pulling me down onto the sofa and forcing me to look at him.
“It’s kind of a long story.” I hedged, wanting to procrastinate as long as possible until they forced me to tell them about my parents, my past.

“We’ve got all day.” Shannon urged gently, sitting on my other side.
I leaned back on the sofa, rolling my head to look at the ceiling and gather my thoughts. I had never really talked about this; there wasn’t anyone to talk about it to. I didn’t have close friends back in North Carolina, my family knew what happened and didn’t like to speak about it; this would be the first time I told the whole story out loud.

Pulling my head back up, I looked into Jared’s still frantic eyes and took a deep breath, preparing myself.
Before I could chicken out, I launched into it, telling them about my parents and how close we used to be after my grandfather died, their accident, and the days they spent in a coma, their deaths within minutes of each other. The funeral was the hardest part to talk about, because that was the time when I properly realised they were gone forever. And then how every year on the date they died, I go and be with them, to feel closer to them. And that’s where I was.
After twenty minutes of me talking, I finally took a deep shuddering breath and let it out slowly. I rested my head on Jared’s shoulder, showing that I was done talking and didn’t want to think about it anymore.

“Sweetie, I’m so sorry.” Jared ran his hand over my hair.
“I don’t want you to be sorry.” I told him. “My parents were good people who were very unfortunate. But it was a long time ago and even though it will always hurt, I know that they’re still with me. I don’t want pity or sympathy. That’s why I didn’t tell you where I was going.”

“OK.” He nodded in understanding.
“How about some popcorn and a movie then.” Shannon suggested, so as not to dwell on the subject.
We ended up in the living room with three mugs of hot chocolate, a huge bowl of popcorn and Evolution playing on the TV. Twenty minutes into the movie, Shannon got up, saying he needed the bathroom.
“You want us to pause the movie?” I offered.
“Nah, I’ve seen it a hundred times.” Shannon smiled, walking out of the room.

I settled in next to Jared and pulled the popcorn closer with my eyes glued to the screen. I was so engrossed with the film that I didn’t notice that Shannon still hadn’t returned by the end of it.
“Where’d Shannon go?” I turned toward Jared.
“Dunno, probably to sleep, the lazy bastard.” Jared joked.
“Cool.” I replied, standing up and cracking my bones.
“Where you going?” Jared suddenly asked, standing up next to me.
“Well I should probably head home, it’s late.”
“No, please stay. I’ve missed you like crazy this week. It’s been weird not talking to you every day. Please, come on, stay a little longer. One more movie.” He persuaded.
“OK, OK. But I get to pick the movie.”
“Deal. And I’ll get the Oreo’s and milk.” He said, dashing off into the kitchen.

I rummaged through Jared’s DVD collection before coming across one that I hadn’t seen for years. I instantly knew this was the one we were going to watch.
“You chosen?” Jared came back through with a box of Oreo’s and two big glasses of milk.
“Oh yeah.” I said with a big smile on my face.
“What is it?”
“You’ll see.” I laughed, pushing the disc into the player.
Moments later the opening song came on.

George, George, George of the Jungle, Strong as he can be. AAaaaaAAAaaaAAhhhhh, watch out for that tree, watch out for that *bang!* *oooh* tree...
“Ahhh, classic movie!” Jared laughed.
“I thought so too. Plus you get to see young Brendan Fraser half-naked!” I smiled.
“Ooooh, you gotta thing for Brendan Fraser?” Jared nudged me.
“No, only when he’s George of the Jungle.” I laughed.
We broke open the box of Oreo’s and began to work our way through them, they were gone before Ursula took George back to San Francisco.

Half way through, tiredness hit me. My eyes were sliding shut of their own accord and I was swaying slightly. Jared must have noticed, because his arm wound around my shoulder and pulled me gently toward him.

“C’mon, lie down.” He whispered.
Before I knew it, I was using his chest as a pillow and the TV screen became more dark and fuzzy. Pretty soon it faded away and I was swept away into oblivion.

*Jared’s P.O.V.*
It felt so good to have her back. I hadn’t realised how frantic I had been until I saw her again, standing in the doorway. But she was here, safe in my arms where I knew she wouldn’t be hurt. I gently pushed some of her dark hair away from her closed eyes. She was sleeping so peacefully; such an emotional trip must have taken a lot out of her.

I looked up to the TV just in time to see Ursula telling George she loved him.
Ursula love George?
So much.
George love Ursula too.

I frowned slightly, thinking how easy it was for characters to just spill their feelings. It was so much harder in real life. In a movie it’s all written out, you know what’s going to happen; but you can never know the outcome when it happens for real. You can’t just tell someone your feelings, what if it didn’t work out, what if they didn’t feel the same? Then everything would go to shit and your friendship would never be the same. I hated getting stuck in the friendship boat; it was a weird feeling. Usually with women I made my move as soon as I met them, there was no chance to get into that situation; it was always just a casual fling. But now, now I had someone that I was pretty sure I wanted more with, except I had gotten caught in position. It was completely messed up.

I looked down at Riley’s sleeping form again and wished that this moment would never end. I could happily stay here and watch her sleep forever, and I don’t care how creepy that sounds.