Forever's Not Supposed to End

Nathan's point of view

I opened my eyes slowly.

"Hey," said Jenna softly, she was sitting next to me.

I blinked and looked around.

I was in a hospital bed, wrapped in more blankets than I'd ever seen in my life.

Looking around, I noticed Matthew curled up in another chair in the corner, Hayley sitting next to him. He looked asleep, but he had one hand holding an ice pack to his head. Hayley had her hand on top of his, her eyes on him as he slept curled awkwardly in the chair.

I vaguely remembered him hitting his head when he grabbed me, but then I passed out not long after him.

I looked at Jenna, her brown eyes full of tears and I felt myself tear up.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered.

"It's OK. I was just scared," she whispered back, squeezing my hand.

We just looked at each other for a moment before she leaned down and hugged me tightly.

I hugged her back. I could still feel my body shaking from the cold, and my fingers were still completely numb. I was grateful for her warmth.

"Never scare me like that again, I could never lose you," she mumbled in my ear, then kissed my cheek.

"I won't, I promise, I just need to tell Matthew and just... hopefully shift some of this guilt," I sighed.

"We should tell him all together, seeing as we all know apart from him," added Hayley from her place sitting by Matthew's side.

I nodded slightly and watched him carefully as he slept.

"It's going to break his heart," I choked out, trying to stop myself from crying again.

"Maybe," said Jenna.

"But, he might be surprisingly OK with it, I mean, it's Matthew, you can never really tell what he's thinking," added Hayley and Matthew stirred.

"Guys, quit talking about me, I'm right here," he mumbled, still half asleep.

He sat up slowly, shifting the ice pack pressed against his head. It was melting and his wet hair was stuck to his head on the one side.

"I'm going to kick your ass," he half laughed at me, shaking his head.

"I'm so sorry," I mumbled.

"If you ever, ever try anything like that again... I seriously will beat the shit out of you, understand me?" he said, standing up and coming to hug me tightly.

"I won't."

"But. And I know this has got to be something bad, but seriously. What was this all about?" he asked, rubbing the left side of his face and grimacing.

"Can we do this back at the apartment maybe?" I asked quickly, guessing that it would probably become a pretty emotional conversation.

Matthew nodded and I noticed Hayley look at him nervously.

Knowing that prolonging it would only make it worse, we left as quickly as we could, once the doctors were satisfied that I was warm enough and no longer a danger to myself, but Matthew managed to convince them of that.

Once we got back to mine and Jenna's apartment, Jenna made me some hot soup and forced me to drink it whilst she supervised closely, and Matthew got all the blankets in the apartment and wrapped me up in them.

Hayley sat awkwardly on the other couch, looking nervous as Matthew sat next to her.

He put his arm around her and she let her head fall onto his shoulder.

"So, spill it," he said, looking at me carefully as Jenna forced me to drink more of the hot soup.

"I... I did something really bad," I mumbled and my eyes lowered so I was staring at the floor.

"Other than trying to jump off a building?" he said sarcastically.

"Matthew be serious," warned Hayley and I noticed him tense up a little.

"This is to do with you too?" he asked her slowly.

She nodded slightly and I noticed her eyes fill with tears.

"Matthew... I. I have to tell you something, I really don't know how to. The guilt is more than I can live with though. I.. Hayley and I, we.. " I stammered to a stop.

We just stared into each others identical eyes for a few seconds, Hayley had her face buried in his shoulder but he was tense, like he wanted to push her away.

"We... we slept together. I'm so sorry we never told you," I said quietly.

Jenna took my hand and I was grateful for her support.

"You... what?" Matthew choked out, looking down at Hayley and then back to me.

"When?" he asked quietly, shifting away from Hayley slightly.

"Before you were together. It happened on Halloween. We got really, really messed up and somebody spiked our drinks and we didn't remember and then-"

"That's no excuse Nathan. You told me you'd take care of her at that party, you promised me you wouldn't get out of control," he said sadly.

I wished he was angry. Seeing him angry would have been easier to take than seeing him sad. It was like watching his heart breaking in front of our eyes.

"So why are you only telling me this now?" he sighed, resting his head in his hands.

Hayley tried to put her arm around him and he froze.

"Don't," he said sadly, shrugging her off.

She removed her arm and I saw a single tear roll down her pale face.

My heart was pounding in my chest.

I took a deep breath and threw all the blankets off, going over and sitting on Matthew's other side.

Jenna came over too and sat next to me, the four of us squeezed onto one couch.

"We're telling you this because... because the baby is Nathan's," choked out Hayley, trying so hard to hold back her tears.

Matthew didn't move or visibly react.

I help my breath as I waited for him to say or do something.

A few long minutes of stunned silence went by, Hayley started crying, I started crying.

I couldn't help it. I felt too guilty. It was unbearable.

"I.. I don't even know what to say," Matthew whispered, still staring at the floor. I could tell he was trying so hard to keep his emotions under control.

"You don't have to say anything. You can me. You can punch me in the face, you can do whatever you want. But just please know that nothing is going on between us, it was that one crazy night, and I don't want to take this from you, it's still your baby, you two love eachother and you're going to have a family. Please don't be mad at Hayley, this was a hundred percent my fault, I just really hope that one day you can forgive me," I said, watching him carefully for a reaction, anything to give us some kind of indication as to how he was feeling.

"I don't have anything to say to you Nathan," he said, the first few tears escaping his eyes and rolling down his face as he stood up.

"Wait-" I started, getting up to follow him to the door.

"Keep away from me," he said, wiping his face with the back of his hand.

"Please don't go," I said, but I didn't keep following him to the door.

"I can't even look at you right now," he muttered, pulling his coat on.

"Matthew, please don't walk out right now," said Hayley weakly.

"You think I want to talk to you any more than I want to talk to him right now?" he half yelled at her, pointing at me.

"Hey don't yell at her, jerk!" yelled Jenna, joining the argument.

"Don't even.. Just... Don't follow me," he sighed, more tears escaping his eyes as he opened the door to let himself out. Our eyes met one final time and I saw hatred there I'd never seen directed at me before.

"I wish I never fucking stopped you today," he muttered, then slammed the door with so much force the apartment shook.

I couldn't hide how much those words hurt.

"Well, that went as good as expected," I sighed, sitting back down on the couch between Jenna and Hayley.

"He's never going to speak to me again. I love him so much Nathan, I don't know what I'll do if he doesn't come back," sobbed Hayley, burying her face in my shoulder.

"He'll come around. It's just going to take him some time to get his head around it, but I'm sure he'll come around. Let's just give him a few days, you can stay here if you want to, but I doubt he'll be at the apartment anyway," I said, hugging her and trying to calm her down.

"I can't beleive he yelled at you Hayley. I seriously wanted to kick him in the crotch right then," sighed Jenna and I wrapped my other arm around her.

"Hey, it'll be OK," I said to Hayley as she started to cry harder into my shoulder.

"I can't believe he said what he said to you," said Jenna softly, rubbing my back.

"He's just mad, I like to think he didn't mean it. Let's just give him time and space, he'll cool off in a few days," I said sadly.

I didn't know what Matthew would actually do now.

I didn't know for sure he'd be back in a few days. I didn't know if he'd be back at all. I didn't know if he'd left Hayley by walking out, or if he still wanted to marry her, I didn't know anything and I wished he'd stayed to talk it out.

"I'll stand by you and the baby, if he doesn't come back around, I'll always be here," I told Hayley quietly.

"We both will," added Jenna and Hayley smiled faintly.

"Thanks you guys. I really appreciate it. I just hope it doesn't come to that," she said, twisting the engagement ring on her finger.

I hoped too, more than anything, that Matthew would be back soon.