Like Lovers Do

Guinevere never thought love existed.

She never experienced it so why believe in it? Why think that something like love existed if she herself had never been in love? It was like a rumor - everybody hears about it, but no one actually knows if it's true. She never thought about falling in love, she never even thought it was true. She constantly questioned the mere existence of the word

Ryan Jackson was the first man to make her feel as if she was in love. Heart thumping. Hands clammy. Heat rising. All the effects of love. The side effects, she called it. All her life she had waited for her own experimental trial and here it was: in the body of a twenty-three year old.

Love had a funny way of making people feel special.

"Don't cry, babe," Dave whispered, tone adjusting to the atmosphere, his fingers running gently down her back as sobs wrecked her body. The only reply was her hiccups and the hyperventilation. With his lips twitching down, he watched Amy pacing around the area in front of the bed, while her best friend clutched onto the pilliw in her lap for dear life. "Amy, be a friend and try to comfort her," he hissed out as Gwen continued to sob.

Amelia whipped her head around. "Dave, hush up," she retorted, hazel eyes narrowed with danger. Casting another glance towards her blonde friend, her eyes softened before she joined the both of them on the bed. "Gwen, honey, it's alright. At least he told you, I mean, wouldn't it be better than having to find out on your own?"

"Amy, what the fuck!" Dave shot sharply. She bit her lip.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sensitivity, but I'm not good at this!"

"You don't need to be good, you just need to be there!"

"Well I'm here, aren't I?"

"Guys, just stop," Gwen choked out, rubbing her puffy eyes. "I-I just need some time by myself, okay?" she managed to say. Her best guy friend's fingers lingered on her back.

"No. You are staying here for the night. You're not going back to that apartment if it's the last thing you do," Amy declared. The blonde looked up at her, gaping.

"B-But Amy, I have t-to—"

"No. Ryan is going to be there apologizing and because you love him," the words made Gwen flinch, "you're going to forgive him, which is the last thing you want to do!" she lectured. Amelia stood her ground, not going to surrender so easily.

After knowing her for ten years, Guinevere knew that her best friend's stubbornness was going to be of some use tonight.

"But I'm still e-engaged—" she showed them the glistening ring.

Dave, wanting to do this for some time now, grabbed it and slid it off quickly and with vigor. "Not for tonight," he added with a grin, tossing the band of engagement in the air and catching it before she could. A smile, small and feeble, painted her lips and they both knew that she had given in.

"Thank you, guys."

Guinevere had never known love to be so dangerous, so risky to tread upon. She had never known what love was to be like and never relished in it.

She had never known that the love she received from her friends was enough.