I'll Be Right Beside You

“JESUS CHRIST MAN! GET YOUR FUCKING ACT TOGETHER!” I shouted as soon as he finally answered the phone. I’d only been calling Jordan all goddamn day, and I knew he was avoiding my calls on purpose because Marc had talked to him this morning.

“If you’re gonna bitch at me I’ll hang up,” he shot back, and I let out a growl.

“Listen to me – if you aren’t going to try and make this right just fucking end it. Stop breaking her heart already, she doesn’t deserve what you’re putting her through,” I told him, and heard dead silence on the other side of the line.

“What the fuck are you talking about Jared?”

“You know Jordan! All of this shit about stepping in on her fights or trying to keep guys from hitting her isn’t just ‘keeping her safe’, you’re really messing with her! And you don’t even understand what you’re doing, you dumbass! You’re making her feel like she isn’t good enough the way she is and that you don’t want her the way she is, which is killing her. So either make up your damn mind and do something about it or end it so she can try to move on and feel better!” I informed him, and then abruptly hung up, not wanting to hear his excuse for not having spoken to her since their fight. I loved Cam, I did, and I hated to have to see her like this. We’d started talking on Skype every night, and more often than not she ended up in tears because of my idiotic older brother.

So if I had to play big brother for her, I would. Even if it meant beating the shit out of my own brother, because he was definitely the one who was in the wrong here. Cam didn't have a brother to do this for her, so I would take it upon myself to be that person for her. Somebody had to tell my brother he was out of line.

“Jared?” I looked up from my video game as Eric let himself into my apartment later that night. He looked awkward, like he felt out of place, which was unusual for my oldest brother. Usually he waltzed in like he owned the place.

“What?”

“Um, did you by chance call Jordan?” he asked, and I nodded, turning back to my game and resuming play. I didn’t want to talk to or about him right now, not after the blow up I’d had at him just an hour ago.

“Yeah, I did. Somebody had to tell him to stop screwing around with her head,” I growled, and Eric hovered between the kitchen and living room, which sent off red flags that something was wrong.

“Well, um, mom called, and she’s really worried about him,” I paused the game again, a sense of dread in my stomach. Maybe I’d been way too hard on him.

“Why?”

“Because he called her and ended up bawling on the phone,” he replied, and I swallowed hard.

“Shit, maybe I was too hard on him… I kind of lost it on him,” I admitted, and Eric sighed, sitting down across from me and running a hand through his hair.

“We’re all pissed at him Jared, and he knows it. But I feel awful that he feels like nobody understands where he’s coming from and that we’re all taking her side,”

“I do too, but if he’s wrong then why wouldn’t we take her side? She’s like family to me Eric, I don’t want to see her hurting anymore than I want to see him hurting,” I explained, and he nodded.

“I’m in the same boat kiddo – and Tanya talked to her the other day, wanting to see where things were in that whole mess, and I came home to find them both crying hysterically over Skype.”

“I know, we talk just about every night, and most of them she ends up crying if something even makes her think about him,” I agreed, and he let out a long breath.

“I just don’t know what to do Eric – I want to see them together, because they’re so stupidly perfect for each other it’s sickening, but I want to see her happy, because she doesn’t deserve the shit he’s putting her through right now,” I whispered, and he gave me a scrutinizing look.

“Jared, be totally honest with me, okay?”

“Yeah,”

“Do you have feelings for her?” he asked, and I was taken aback by the question.

“I… no. No I don’t think so,” I shook my head, but somewhere deep down I wondered if I was lying. Cam was my best friend, my brother’s girlfriend, and in an oddball way part of my family, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about her in that sense because I’d never taken the time to think about it. I mean yeah, she was gorgeous, and smart, and funny, but I was pretty sure I didn’t like her that way.

“You don’t think so? You aren’t sure?” Eric asked, and I shrugged.

“I’m pretty sure, I mean, she’s like my best friend, and she’s kind of family, you know? I mean sure, she’s beautiful and all, but… I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it,” I explained, and he let out a long breath.

“Jordan thinks that you’re always hitting on her, and I guess that came out in his talk with mom,”

“WHAT?” I demanded, and he nodded. “How the hell am I always hitting on her?”

“Look at how close you two are Jared, like Marc said at Christmas, if someone didn’t know and saw the three of you together it’d be hard to guess which one of you she was dating,” he told me, and I let out a huff.

“That’s bullshit – we’re just close,”

“You talk every single day, and have inside jokes and stuff, are you like that with Tanya or Lindsay? Jordan has a reason to be upset about it Jared,” he gently explained.

“But that doesn’t mean I’m just going to stop being friends with her Eric! Tanya and Lindsay were always you and Marc’s girlfriends first, whereas Cam became my friend first, and she’s never treated me as just her boyfriend’s little brother, you know? It’s different, and I don’t know how to explain it but it is, okay? It doesn’t mean I’m hitting on her,” I told him, and he raised his hands.

“Okay, okay. I just had to ask about it. And um, does she ever talk about James?”

“Well, a little. I think they’ve got really close since she stayed with him,” I answered, and his eyes widened.

“Since she what?” maybe he hadn’t known about that part.

“Well, uh, after they got into that fight she didn’t want to go home with Jordan - understandable, right?” Eric nodded, thankfully. “So James offered the spare room in his house to her so that they could both cool down and have a civil conversation about it without getting under each others' skin in the process.”

“Jesus, no wonder Jordan’s a total and complete fucking mess. He’s probably been worried since day one that either of you two were going to steal her away, and now that he actually has a reason to worry about losing her he’s freaking out,” he groaned, and I snorted.

“Really?”

“You know how he is Jared! You know better than I do how he pretends to be tough shit when he worries about things. He loves her, and he’s scared shitless because he’s never been like this before, and he’s insecure about that, let alone her being so close with two other guys that he easily sees as competition,” he snapped at me a little bit, and I nodded, understanding, but still thinking Jordan was being ridiculous.

“We need to step in or something Rick, they need help. Whether they end up together or not is a different thing, but they have to at least talk about it and start to get over it one way or another,” I stated, and Eric nodded.

“I know. I hate to do this, because I feel like I’m meddling where I shouldn’t be, but you’re definitely right bro; we need to do something,” he agreed, and we shared a look before I picked up the phone to call Marc and Lindsay, hoping they’d have an idea we could start with.