She Will Love You Through All The Lies

She pulled into the third driveway and pulled the keys out of the car’s ignition. She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she leaned back in her seat. She stared at the ceiling of her car, with her head resting against the gray headrest. She blinked back tears that were threatening to tear her down.

Grabbing her bag, she opened the car door and stepped out before locking the door and walking up to yet another front door. She shook her head the entire way and then rolled her eyes in shame before she threw her arm out in front of her and knocked three times on the wooden door.

The door opened seconds after her arm was back at her side. She looked up from staring at her shoes and into the curious eyes of one of her best-friends, someone who would tell her anything, straight-up, no matter what the consequences would be.

"What's up, Kate?"

She smiled a sarcastic smile and shook her head, "I really need to talk to you Jimmy."

He stepped aside and ushered her through the front door of his house and into the living room. He plopped down on the couch and patted the seat next to him.

Kate fell down onto the couch, feeling more at home in his house then she did in her own. There was so much life in his house. There was so much life in Jimmy. Kate envied him for everything he was and his ability to just take life as it came. No one ever gave him the credit he ever deserved and that was something that had always bothered her. He was just someone that everyone should know- a rare human being, in the best way.

"What's going on?" he asked, cutting straight to the point. Jimmy could tell that Kate was distressed and that he had to make the first move or it would take a long while for her to form her words. She always thought about what she was going to say before she would open her mouth- he was the opposite. Speak first, think later.

"I don't know what to do," she mumbled as she chucked her bag on the floor and turned her head to the left and looked at Jimmy. She was more puzzled then she had ever been.

He nodded his head, "did you find Brian?"

Kate creased her eyebrows together, "yes, and I fucking wish I didn't." She was far beyond infuriated.

Jimmy pursed his lips before furrowing his own eyebrows. "Where was he? I haven't heard from him in fucking days, and last time he was a dick." Brian was Jimmy's best-friend, which made it easier for Kate to talk to him. He knew exactly how she felt, or at least very close to it.

"Heather's," Kate replied, looking Jimmy square in the eyes.

Jimmy's entire body began to look as if he was going to collapse over. He leaned over the middle cushion of the couch and pulled her into a hug, rubbing his hand up and down her back. "Kate-"

"Please, Jimmy, don't." She pulled away and her eyes fell to her lap. "I don't want to hear that you're sorry, because then it just makes it hurt so much more. We don't even know if... if that's what was going on, okay?"

Jimmy nodded his head solemnly. He was going to kill Brian for this. Jimmy always had feelings for Kate, but he was never sure just how deep those feelings were. He just knew that he was always protective of her and thought she was the most amazing person in the world. Whenever she was in the room, he was happy and content with life. But Brian had been the first one to act on his feelings back in high school and Jimmy had just always left it at that. He was happy being her best-friend because Kate would confide in him of things she wouldn't talk to Brian about. He was happy just being able to be the one who was always there for her in need instead of the one hurting her.

"You're not going back to him, are you Kate?"

Her head shot up, her eyes were wide and much darker. "What!?" She shook her head and sighed, "I'm not going to put myself through that again Jimmy. I know that I'm a good person and I don't deserve to be walked over and hurt all the time by him."

Jimmy kept his gaze on her for a few moments as he watched her play with the hem on her pant leg. She was lost in thought, which was his favorite time to admire her. "What're you going to do?"

She raised her head and shrugged her shoulders before leaning back and resting against the arm of the couch. "I don't know, get out of Huntington."

Jimmy abruptly stood up from the couch and walked out of the living room, leaving Kate sitting on the couch dumbfounded. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to follow him or just continue to sit there and figure out what the hell he was doing. Jimmy had always been the one to do something out of nowhere and leave the people around him at a loss of what to do.

Kate began to sit up to go and find him when Jimmy walked back into the living room and plopped down on the couch with a long sigh before handing her a beer, "figured you'd need a drink right about now."

Kate let out a chuckle and watched as Jimmy tipped back his bottle and downed half of his beer. She realized that her friends were going to take her absence a lot harder then she would've ever figured. "When I get back up on my feet, will you come and visit me?"

Jimmy didn't answer for a few moments but to Kate it felt like those minutes were hours. She didn't feel herself growing impatient, but more depressed at the thought that she was the one that had to leave everything she had ever known behind.

"I can do that," he replied simply, not looking at Kate at all. He kept his gaze on his knees that were almost pulled all the way up to his chest. He was picking at a loose thread in the tear of his black jeans on his left knee. He was trying to not say anything that he would regret, like telling Kate that he didn't think he'd be able to go and visit her as much as he'd want too, or perhaps that she shouldn't have to be the one that had to leave and if she needed a place to crash then she should just stay with him and they could work on getting her back up on her feet. He wanted to think of anything else but her leaving Huntington.

Kate was silent for even longer then what Jimmy had been. But when she spoke up, her voice was a lot quieter then she intended. "What's on your mind James?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "don't worry about that. You just think of what you're going to do."

"I want to know what you're thinking," she insisted.

He sighed, "I want you to leave Brian, not Huntington."

Her stomach fell as his voice cracked on his last word. "I- I have to Jimmy."

He shook his head, "no, you don't. But you just want to run away from him and from us because we're still his friends. You're going to leave us all behind in your dust." He looked up at her and met her eyes, "then when you get back up on your feet you want us to come and visit you? Do you know how much it’s going to hurt everyone that you're just going to leave in the first place? I bet you weren't even going to tell anyone else either, were you Kate?"

She stared at him in shock. Never had Jimmy ever used that tone or bitterness towards her. He was always the goofy one of the group, a guy that you just had to love. He was always there to cheer you up, not make you feel even worse and make you look like a bad person. He wasn't supposed to point out the obvious, because then you knew you really were doing something wrong.

"I just don't know what else to do Jimmy," she whispered. Her eyes began to fill with tears. "All I know is that I can't live in that house with him anymore. I've lost all of the love for life I used to have the past two years and I just can't lose anything else." She whipped at the tears that began to slip down her cheeks, "I never wanted to be someone who failed at marriage because love wasn't enough to keep us together, and yet here I am."

He watched her as she swallowed the last half of her beer before setting the bottle on the coffee table. She shook her head, took a deep breath and whipped away the last of her tears. She gave him a quick smile and then leaned back and rested against the arm of the couch again. Kate never let herself cry for a long time, because she hated to look and feel weak. Jimmy of all people knew that about her.

"You wouldn't stay here, would you?" he finally asked.

She bit her lip as she thought about his question, "for how long?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "for however long you wanted or needed."

"Is this your way of trying to get me to stay in Huntington Jimmy Sullivan?" she let out a light laugh.

"No, it's my way of trying to be a good friend and helping you out. So answer my question Kate Haner."

The seriousness in his voice made Kate's smile disappear. "You're serious, aren't you?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes, "yea, I am. So I want a serious answer."

The room stayed silent as she thought things over. She refused to meet his eyes as and kept her gaze cast down to her feet in front of her. She studied her white socks against the brown colour of the leather couch cushion.

"Okay."

"What? Look at me," Jimmy replied, furrowing his eyebrows.

She raised her head and allowed her eyes to meet his, "yes, I'll stay with you until I get everything sorted out.” She paused, “I won't leave Huntington."

Jimmy nodded his head, "you would have never left."

She narrowed her eyes, "yes I would have."

He shook his head, "no. I wouldn't have let you out my front door. Now what do you want for dinner because I'm fucking starving?"

Kate stared at Jimmy, lost again. He always made her feel like she was a step behind, but that's what she admired about him. "God, you are sure something else."

"Pizza then?" he asked, grabbing the phone from the coffee table and dialling a number for a pizza restaurant.