Am I the Last to Know?

'Sticks and stones give broken bones, but words will never hurt me'. The words didn't hurt me. It was the words I wasn't told that had.

I feel slightly stupid, for just now realizing what had happened. Once the words had slipped from the lips of Jason, my boyfriend of two year's best friend, everything had immediately clicked. Here I was, being the fool I was, thinking that everything was fine after I had accidentally cheated on Brilee, my boyfriend.

I had gone to a stupid party that my friend had thrown, after getting the okay from Bri. I didn't want to get drunk, a little buzzed at the most. But apparently Rodge, the dumbass who threw the party, thought it would be funny to slip something into my drink. I don't know what, he still wouldn't own up to it. All I knew was that when I woke up, I was as naked as the day I was born with some blonde boy sprawled across the sheets next to me.

I had cried for so long once I had told Brilee. I felt absolutely atrocious. I clutched his small frame close to me, cries spewing from between my teeth, begging him to leave me. He deserved better than me- he always had. But he had just shook his head and wrapped his lanky arms around my shoulders. He has shushed me, and told me that he'd love me forever, and like me for always. And that as long as we're living, my baby he'd be.

But Bri had started acting differently. He seemed really drawn away for weeks after I told him. He was fidgety, and barely let me touch him. He shied away from my touch, and turned his head from my kisses. I couldn't figure out why he was acting so different.

I finally couldn't take it any longer. I had run into Jason one day at the supermarket while I was shopping, and I confronted him about it. He looked nervous, like he wasn't willing to tell me something. But as I opened my mouth to demand an answer, the words slipped from his mouth.

"Brilee cheated on you," It was rushed, and slurred, but it was there. Clear as day, echoing around my head in a never-ending cycle.

"He what?" I choked out. I couldn't believe that he would ever do something like that to me. That may have sounded hypocritical, but I had cried for hours about it, and I didn't even conciously do it.

"He's been cheating on you. He has been since you cheated on him with that Tyler kid. He got jealous, and he did it once, and he hasn't stopped. He told us... He told us not to tell you," he said guiltily. My jaw was slack, and my eyes stung. I turned on my heels and left the store, leaving a half full cart just sitting in the middle of the isle, and with Jason alone, with a guilty expression fresh on his face.

I walked home quickly, not wanting to be left to my thoughts any longer than nessisary. But, alas, thoughts surrounded me anyways. I couldn't believe that Bri had cheated on me, really cheated on me. He was so wholesome, it just didn't seem like him.

I unlocked the front door to our apartment, shuffling in quietly.

"Babe? Is that you?" a soft shout came from our kitchen. I shook off my shoes and slipped my jacket off my shoulders and over a hanger.

"Yeah, Brilee. It's... It's me," I managed in a somewhat upbeat tone. He walked out of the kitchen with a frown imprinted on his pretty face, a towel mopping at his hands.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his arms looping around my neck. I frowned, but wrapped my arms around his petite waist.

"Nothing," I lied. I pressed my lips to his softly, but deepened it quickly. Brilee whimpered softly against my lips, before kissing back. I ran my hands down to the back of his thighs, and hiked him up on to my waist. He squeaked, and then giggled. I carried him quickly back into our bedroom, and tossed him onto the edge of the bed. He wrapped his legs around my hips, laying back on the bed. I gripped the hem of his shirt and lifted it up from his chest. After taking it off his torso, I let my eyes roam his upper body.

My eyes came in contact with bruises, littering his hips. The more I looked at them, the more they stood out to me as finger marks. I stepped backwards from his body, my eyes still trained to the small blotches. He sat up quickly.

"What is it? What's wrong?" He asked. I turned away from him, my eyes looking towards the light switch on the wall.

"How long?" I asked, whipping around to look at him. His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to interject, but I cut him off, "I heard it from Jason already. But I want to hear it from you. I want to hear it pour from your lips. I want to see your eyes react, darken as you spew your secret. I want you to tell me how long."

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly, before whispering, "Eleven weeks."

"Oh, eleven weeks? Hasn't it been eleven weeks since I cheated on you?" He flinched harshly, but I continued, "What did you do, Brilee? Where did you get those bruises?"

His head ducked down, his eyes meeting the black marks at his waist, "I fell down."

"On your waist?" I chuckled, "Really. Because, I thought they looked strangely like grip marks. From fingers." I looked at him, my eyes searching his face, looking for any trace that Jason had been lying to me. There was none, "Please, Bri. Please tell me that what Jason said isn't true, that this is a sick, twisted joke."

A tear slipped out of his eye as he shook his head. My resolve crumbled, and my head sank to the wall. "Why, Brilee? Am I not good enough?" Tears pooled in my own golden orbs, mirroring the ones of the boy behind me.

A sob ripped through the room, "Never think that, Tello. Never. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to, Donatello! I love you! But when you shacked up with that pig a few months ago, I felt so broken. I felt like I had to get you back."

"You had to get me back? Do you think the guilt eating away at my soul wasn't enough punishment?! I didn't mean to, Rodger slipped something in my booze. But you... You cheated on me in cold blood. Why?"

Cries echoed out of his throat. "I was jealous! I was so jealous that you couldn't save all your love for me. I felt that if I hurt you back, I would feel whole. But I couldn't stop! I started sleeping with other guys, and I couldn't stop."

"Why not?" I whispered. Our eyes met, my own pain mirrored in his. There was a moment of dead silence, and then hysteric sobs began to roll of his tongue. "I begged you to leave me, to make me feel more guilty than I already did. But instead, you do this. How could you?"

I stared deeply into his eyes, "I love you. But your spite, your greed, your fucking envy ripped us apart," Blankly staring at his eyes, his face, I said, "Am I the last to know?"

His face was covered in tears, his porclain cheeks flushed. Sobs broke from his throat in waves, growing in volume. I turned around, and as I walked out of the room, a single tear rolled down my cheek.

I will still love him forever. I will still like him for always. And as long as we're living, my baby he will continue to be. I won't be his, because he ruined us.