Corey
I shoved my hands in my pockets and waded through the shallow waters, looking only at the sorry specimen that stared back at me from the water surface. I'd clearly blown it with Phoebe. No chance there. She didn't believe me, I wouldn't have either, my heart seemed to be on a wire between them, sliding backwards and forwards, pulled by the magnetism of their incredible, blazing energy.
I wondered if I went back to Olivia now, whether with time to think it over she'd have changed her mind. Unlikely, but then again, I had nothing else. At the very least I could tell her that right now, I knew that love happened later, it didn't matter now.
I had walked for a little bit before I realised I was walking, but before I knew it I was at the spot where earlier this evening I'd been so close to getting everything I wanted, but I'd turned her away. Idiot. The trees curled inwards, wrapping the river in a warped, gnarled tunnel with leaves everywhere including gathered on the surface of the water, dancing back and forth with every ebb and flow.
I frowned and then looked back behind me, I couldn't see anything round the bend, but just before the turning I noticed some beers lying untaken, two which had been barely drunk, lying next to a case of six more. I picked up an unopened beer. Olivia was nowhere to be seen. It looked like there'd be nothing to salvage tonight, but at least I could have another drink. I chugged deeply; I wasn't sad, but I wasn't happy either. I felt…meh. Numb, I guess. Increasingly.
In the trees I could hear rustling; as drunken curiosity got the better of me I stepped through the well-tread path. I heard another noise, one I vaguely recognised but couldn't place, it was darker through here; I could still hear the rustling, unceasing. I wasn't sure why I followed the noise like a bloodhound, but I did, I moved further in, the rustling was close, I turned right, almost upon it. Taking another deep swig of my beer I stood behind a tree and looked round it.
It was then that I heard the ragged breathing, I turned away, repulsed and drank again. But then something clicked as I heard a slight gasp that I recognised, I turned back, unable to help myself. I saw some wet blonde curls, illuminated by the moonlight that seeped through the trees. Olivia.
My heart dropped to the floor and with each ragged breath it contracted and spasmed. There she was, with another guy because I had walked away. But who was it? Please not Lawrence. Another click. Who else at this party had an eight pack of beer with them? My heart pulsed again and then ceased beating altogether.
***
I pushed away from the tree, and stepped silently back through the grass, almost falling out of the trees as I fled from the scene, unable to look anymore. Wanting to be sick, wanting to punch something and wanting to scream at the same time, but all these manifested themselves in a wave of heaviness that made my chest swell and implode simultaneously. I could've shouted, and I could have made it stop, but then someone would know that I was there, and then I'd have to acknowledge what had happened.
I walked fast, back up the river, shell-shocked and silent, my anger building as I walked. So because I wanted to wait until she felt something serious, she took that to mean "No thanks, Liv, but here's my brother. Enjoy." I gritted my teeth.
The nice guy never gets the girl, we're too respectful. I'd tried so hard to be someone she would or could want and it wasn't worth a damn to her.
It was always this way with Jack, whatever he wanted, he'd take it. I thought things would be different when he went to college, that I might finally my own person and get what I want, but no, he's home one day and gets the girl I'd been trying to get with for two years.
In a sudden swell of anger I lashed out and slammed my fist into the gnarled trunk of a willow tree; I felt the bark give slightly beneath my fist, it felt good to know that I could still affect something. I slammed it in again and again, I could see my fist becoming bloodied with scars from the bark and drew away. "Dammit." I muttered.
I needed to punch something else, to throw something else, to get this anger out before I got so heavy I sank into the earth. A nearby deckchair sat empty, a willing victim. I kicked it hard, sending it flying through the air, breaking the surface of the water, and smashing it, sending water flying over people on the other side of the river, it caught their attention.
"Hey!" They exclaimed and shrieked, looking on with annoyance at the strange, shirtless boy who liked to kick deckchairs. My chest heaved from the effort and from the ragged angry breathing.
"WHAT?!" I shouted at them, they all rolled their eyes and turned away. How the mighty have fallen. I continued up the river, intending to cross at a shallower part of the river and make my way back to my car and drive home. Regardless of how much beer I'd had. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" I looking at the floor, trying to get the noises out of my head, the heavy breathing, the grunting. The soundtrack of my broken heart. I felt hands secure of my shoulders from in front of me. I looked up angrily at Campbell.
"What the hell was that?" He asked, irritated.
"What do you think? I'm pissed off." I glared, pushing his hands off me and shoving past him.
"Well don't be a douche about it. You'll ruin the party." He said.
"You and your fucking parties." It was his party, his fault, he was responsible. I shoved him. "You screwed me over, man!"
"I didn't do shit!" He shouted, shoving me back.
"You did enough." I growled.
"Stop being a dick, okay? Just because you're not getting laid, doesn't mean you can take it out on the rest of us!" Campbell jibed. Of course he didn't know the relevance that this had to this evening, but I wasn't thinking about that. At the time, it was too far.
I drew my fist back before slamming it into his jaw, knocking him off balance and almost to the floor before he caught himself. He bent double, holding his jaw and looked up at me with eyes white with rage. My rage was somehow alleviated in favour of guilt. "Look, I'm sor-" But before I could finish my apology he'd launched himself at me, tackling me to the ground, punching me also in the jaw, I winced as I felt my lip burst. As we tussled on the itchy, dry grass, swearing and punching, taking out every bad feeling we had within us.
After a few more punches we both separated on the ground, collapsed, crippled by pain of all kinds. I tried to steady my breath. "She's fucking Jack. I saw." I muttered feeling my stomach bend double, and before I knew it I had let out a sob, I tried to take it back, but this only caused more to follow, like a sick conga line of misery. Campbell got to his knees.
"Shit."