Forever's Not Supposed to End

Hayley's point of view

*Two weeks later*

I glared at him across the table, my cup of coffee untouched, my fingers tapping on the shiny surface.

"Thanks for meeting me," he said quietly.

"Oliver. I just want my stuff back," I said angrily.

"I'm so sorry Hayley, I'm so ashamed of what I've done," he reached for my hand across the table.

I pulled it away before he could grab it.

"I can never trust you again," I said firmly.

"Please?" he said quietly, dark brown eyes filling with tears.

"No."

He was silent, just staring at the table with glazed eyes. The coffee shop continued to buzz with conversation and movement around us, but we were both silent, frozen, like we were in our own world.

"I'm going to come to the apartment in the morning and get the rest of my stuff. I'm bringing a friend with me, because I don't feel safe," I explained clearly.

I glanced over my shoulder. Nathan was sitting a few tables away, pretending to read a book but really he was watching our conversation carefully.

Matthew had forced him to come along. To make sure I was safe.

"Everything got so out of control..." said Oliver slowly, his voice sad, but his eyes starting to show flickers of anger.

"That's not an excuse. You put me in the hospital. You made me too afraid to come home. I'm done. I can't trust you again."

"Give me chance."

"Oliver. No. I'm leaving now," I said, standing up to leave. He lunged and grabbed my arm.

I heard a chair scrape across the floor behind me as Nathan also got to his feet.

"Hayley, don't do this, we can work this out," he hissed.

"You're hurting me," I said loudly, trying to wrench my arm out of his tight grip.

"Hey man, I think you should let her go," said Nathan tentatively, walking over.

"It's none of you business, pipsqueak," sneered Oliver at the much smaller man.

"It is, actually. Pieces of shit like you aren't worthy of a woman like this. Look at her, she's beautiful." He paused, swallowing hard.

"And you pushed her around, beat her up, she's a woman, and she's half your size. You're a coward."

"Would you look at this guy!" laughed Oliver, dropping my arm and taking a step towards Nathan, who didn't back away.

"You might want to stay the hell away from my girl, or I'll re-arrange that pretty face of yours," he said threateningly, taking another step towards Nathan, who still didn't back down.

This was going all wrong. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. It wasn't supposed to escalate.

"You go right ahead, see if I care," growled Nathan.

I stepped between them, both my hands on Oliver's chest, pushing him backwards as hard as I could but not moving him an inch.

"Cool it. Both of you. Oliver, don't follow us, and don't be in the apartment in the morning. Nathan let's go," I said, shooting Oliver a final filthy look and then turning to walk away with Nathan.

The eyes of everyone in the coffee shop were on us as we walked away.

"You know this guy? He your new boyfriend huh? You slut!" yelled Oliver as we walked away. Nathan turned around and lunged at Oliver, face contorted with rage.

"Yeah. She knows me, she knows my brother too. He almost died, saving a woman from being beaten up by a piece of scum like you. Hayley's been helping me take care of him. She's been doing a great job, no thanks to you breaking her ribs. Stay the fuck away from her, or you can deal with me," he spat, face barely a few inches from Oliver's.

My heart was pounding in my chest. This had potential to end badly.

I held my breath, waiting for the reaction.

Oliver cried out in rage and pushed Nathan full force into a table. He crashed over it in an awkward kind of back-flip, and landed crumpled on the ground.

"Slut," breathed Oliver as he pushed past me, out of the door and into the evening air.

I rushed to Nathan, two people were already helping him up.

"I'm good. I'm OK," he was saying over and over again. He was unhurt, but clearly shaken.

"What part of 'don't provoke him' did you not get?" I laughed nervously, helping him straighten his clothes.

"Guys an asshole. Got me all worked up. Let's go back to the apartment," he said, looking around, embarrassed at all the people staring at him.

"Wait!" said a woman, rushing over as we went for the door.

"Yeah?" asked Nathan, trying to fix his hair.

"Did you say... the man who got beat, the guy from the news is your brother?" she asked quietly.

Nathan looked at the ground.

"Yeah. My twin. Matthew."

"He's a hero, tell him I hope he feels better soon," she said nervously.

"I will do," said Nathan, looking at the woman, a look of shock on his face.

"That was pretty amazing," I said quietly to Nathan as we walked back to the apartment.

He shook his head.

"Matthew's so embarrassed, he says he's famous for getting his ass kicked," he said with a small smile.

"He's a hero."

We both fell silent as we walked through the Chicago streets on the warm summers evening. The sun had fully set now, and the heat of the day was vanishing with it. My heart was still pounding with nerves, and I found myself looking over my shoulder to check Oliver wasn't following us.

I was extremely grateful when we reached Nathan's building.

"You gonna come in?" he asked as I hovered in the doorway behind him.

"Uh... I don't know. I might just go back to Matthew's place. I feel a little... weird," I admitted.

"Hey, don't let that asshole scare you. We'll go and get your stuff in the morning, and then you'll never have to talk to him again, now come here," he said, pulling me into an awkward but friendly hug.

I hugged him back gratefully, my smile slowly returning as he let me go.

"Come and see Matthew, he's doing awesome today," he grinned, pressing the button for the elevator.

We reached Nathan's apartment and he opened the door slowly. Matthew was sat on the couch, wearing only a pair of black pyjama pants, X-box controller gripped tightly in his hands, yelling at the TV screen.

"Look alive, female company," laughed Nathan. Matthew pulled a blanket over himself, continuing to play his game.

"Mario Kart Matthew?" I grinned, sinking onto the couch next to him. He looked a million times better than the last time I saw him only two days ago when he finally left the hospital after his surgery.

"Yep," he grinned, continuing to play until Nathan crossed the room and shut off the TV.

"HEY! I WAS ABOUT TO WIN!" cried Matthew indignantly. He wasn't. He was trailing in last place, but still enjoying himself.

"Hayley's talking to you, don't be rude," he said, sitting down on the other side of his brother.

"How are you feeling today?" I asked him.

"Kind of like a human again," he said with a smile. He was always smiling, it made me want to smile.

"Can I take a look at your head?" I asked.

"Urgh. If you have to," he sighed, slumping back into the couch.

"Aw, don't be like that, I need to check how its healing under there," I explained, starting to slowly peel off his bandages.

"Hmm," I said, looking at the incision closely.

"These stitches need to come out soon," I told him, starting to put the bandages back around his head.

"Really?"

"Really really. And after that, there's no more taking it easy, its gonna be all rehab."

"Sounds awesome," he sighed, self-consciously pulling the blanket up to try and hide his bare chest.

"How are you feeling in yourself?"

"Well. I'm still dizzy, I'm still exhausted, I still can't remember some things, I still feel nauseous, I think I have the pain under control with my billion pills a day, and I think I'm talking better. Still can't walk too far by myself though," he said, blue eyes staring into my green ones, almost accusingly.

"What happened at the coffee house?" he asked, like he knew something had happened.

"Oh," I quickly looked away.

"Nothing, just... you know.. It went as I expected it to go," I said, looking at the ground.

He gently took my hand and looked at the angry red mark on my arm from where Oliver had grabbed me. I felt my eyes filling with tears.

"It got a little physical," explained Nathan.

"But I'm OK," I squeaked.

"You aren't, you're crying."

"I'm not," I said, quickly wiping away my tears with the back of my other hand.

"You are. Don't cry Hayley, it'll be alright."

Matthew opened his arms and I curled in close to him on the couch, resting my face against his shoulder. He wrapped one arm around my shoulders, the other resting on the side of my head, gently stroking my hair.

"You'll be OK," he said softly, resting his chin on the top of my head.

"Aww that's cute," smirked Nathan, getting up off the couch and walking into the kitchen.

"Stop crying Hayley," whispered Matthew as my tears dripped onto his bare chest.

"I'm trying," I whimpered.

Seeing Oliver had brought back all the old feelings, the worthlessness, the self-hatred, the countless hours of misery.

"Forget about him now, he's gone from your life. Today is in front of us, leave him behind."

I smirked.

"You're so wise," I said, poking him in the chest gently.

He laughed quietly and did something I was not expecting. He planted a gentle kiss on the top of my head. I felt an excited jolt in my stomach.

"I.. I don't know why I did that, please don't run away," he said nervously.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said, gently kissing his shoulder and curling in closer to him.

After around twenty minutes of sitting like that it appeared that Matthew had fallen asleep. Nathan smirked at me from the kitchen doorway.

"You're stuck now," he said quietly so he didn't wake his twin.

"That's OK, this is pretty comfortable," I said, kicking off my shoes and cuddling up closer to Matthew who immediately tensed.

"You're not asleep," I laughed, poking Matthew in the side. He squirmed away from me and giggled.

"I was, then you wriggled and woke me up."

"Well. I'll try to keep still," I said, pulling some of the blanket off him and over myself.

"You're gonna sleep here? With.. with me?"

"You have a problem with that? 'Cause if you do, I can go," I said, starting to untangle his arm from my shoulders.

"No... you can stay, if you like, but, I need to lay down, this is not comfortable," he said, screwing up his face and shifting around as he tried to get comfortable. The colour was draining from his face rapidly and I could tell that Matthew had pushed himself too hard today by playing video games.

"You wanna go in the other room?" asked Nathan, sensing his brother's discomfort. Matthew closed his eyes and nodded, allowing Nathan and I to pull him into a standing position, then help him walk slowly to the bedroom, one of us holding each of his hands. He was still very unsteady on his feet.

Without opening his eyes he slowly curled into the bed, laying on his right side, so his 'bad' side was facing up, then patting the spot next to him on the double bed.

"That for me or Nathan?" I smirked.

"Both," he mumbled.

I laughed and climbed into the bed, pulling the blankets over both of us and laying with my back facing Matthew. He snaked his arm around my waist. It felt... nice. Comforting. Safe. Innocent.

I knew Matthew hated sleeping alone, I'd often find him and Nathan cuddled together. They made me swear I hadn't seen it though.

"Comfy?" I giggled, pulling on his hand.

"Mhm. Need to cuddle," he said weakly.

"I feel so unloved," pouted Nathan.

"Get in here you big idiot," I told him, scooting closer to Matthew to make room.

Nathan climbed into the bed and I draped my arm across his chest.

"Well.. this is snug," I grinned.

"This is awesome," mumbled Matthew, half asleep.

Nathan reached over and shut off the lamp at the side of the bed, plunging the room into darkness.

Matthew fell asleep first. His breathing was slow and deep, and very relaxing to listen to. After what I guessed was around half an hour Nathan must have presumed I was asleep because he gently peeled himself out of the bed and disappeared from the room.

I stayed awake until he came back a few minutes later and curled back into the bed with Matthew and I.

I could smell alcohol on his breath. I knew he had been drinking to cope with seeing his brother in this state. I was hoping it would stop as Matthew improved.

I put my arm back around his chest and pulled him close to me, hoping to comfort him.

He rolled over so he was facing me and curled into a ball, his face squished against my shoulder, my hand resting on his back.

Matthew gripped my waist tighter, pulling me closer to him so our bodies were touching completely. I felt completely at ease with the contact.

He mumbled something in his sleep that I couldn't understand. I smiled to myself, finally closing my eyes and allowing sleep to take me away.