As he sat in the Caf with a gently sobbing Clare Edwards at his side, Adam Torres found himself wondering how the hell things had spiraled to the point that they'd reached. Yesterday, he had been in a calm (if a bit alcoholic) relationship-type-thing with Fiona Coyne, and Clare had been in a somewhat happy relationship with Eli Goldsworthy.
But somehow in a period of less than twenty-four hours, everything had turned upside down.
"Clare..." Adam whispered, watching the small girl softly cry tears that were his fault. He wanted nothing more than to make things better for Clare. He loved her more than he could put into words. He always had, but she was Eli's, and bros don't mess with other bro's girls.
He knew that he was twenty times better for Clare than Eli could ever be, but he couldn't tell her that. For all he knew, Clare thought of Adam as purely a friend, and would never see him as anything more than that.
But she broke up with Eli for him... he couldn't help thinking that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for the two of them. He wanted nothing more than to be Clare's savior, her knight in shining armor, but he felt like he was thoroughly failing at it. Watching Clare cry herself dry hurt him more than seeing Clare and Eli together ever did.
Unsure what to do, but hating himself for not helping poor Clare, he did the first thing that crossed his mind and threw his arms around her and held her tight, hoping that it would make her feel safer, make the tears rolling down her face like a waterfall stop.
She stiffened immediately, unsure what the embrace would mean, but slowly became calmer and calmer. Her tears began to lighten and she almost melted into Adam's embrace, holding onto him like a life vest.
He didn't say a word, just held her tightly, hoping that the hug would say all of the things he wasn't sure how to put into words. Her tears slowed until they were no longer falling, and her breathing began to even out, but still, she didn't pull away. If anything, she held on tighter.
After a few minutes that felt like a lifetime to Adam, Clare pulled herself slightly away from Adam and looked into his eyes. Her face was covered in tear tracks and her voice shook as she whispered out, "Thank you, Adam. Just... thank you."
"Clare, you don't have to thank me. That's what Adams do. We take care of cute girls who need someone to hold them while they cry." He paused for a moment before he decided to continue on with what he'd been meaning to say since he saw her.
"I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you, Clare. You're in so much pain and I hate that I caused it. If there's anything I can do to fix things for you and Eli, please tell me. I just want to see you happy again. I'm willing to leave you alone for as long as you need if it'll make you happy. It kills me to see you in such pain. Clare, I love you, and if leaving you alone is what it takes to make you happy again, I'll leave right now."
Clare looked shocked for a moment, and shouted suddenly, "Adam Torres, don't you dare leave me! I already lost Eli today, I refuse to lose you too! You and Ali are my only friends in the world, and I refuse to become any lonelier than I am. But I do have one request."
A little confused, Adam nodded and said, "Okay, Clare, anything you'd like."
"You need to talk to Eli. I mean, I do too, but you two really need to talk. And I need you to be the man about it, because I know Eli well enough to know he'll be a child. You two need to talk some time today. I know it'll be messy, but you've got to get it over with."
Adam's jaw dropped. "Clare... isn't it a little early for me to talk to Eli? He's probably still steaming..."
"Yeah, he must be steaming, but you two need to work it out before he does something stupid. He'll be irrational and mad and if you don't talk today, things will only be worse when you two actually do talk," Clare reasoned rationally, simply explaining the facts that they both knew about the oh-so-stubborn Eli Goldsworthy.
Adam nodded, resigned to his fate. "Okay, Clare, I'll do it. If I can see you at lunch? Maybe just us? We can go to the place we had that party for Fi..."
"I think that's fair," she agreed. "But I'm going to go find Ali, I need some serious girl talk. Talk to Eli, seriously. I'll see you at lunch." Standing up straight, Clare wiped the tear tracks off of her face and walked into the bathroom, pulling out her phone as she left. Adam watched her leave, wondering what the hell was going to happen next... and was filled with an unnamable dread at confronting Eli.
God, if you had told him that this ridiculous situation would happen two days ago, Adam Torres would have told you that you were nuts. But hey, stranger things could happen.
A/N: Okay, here's your chapter three. Enjoy! So... what do you want next? (I'm thinking there may be a suicide attempt for one of our characters... :O) If there's interest, I can have a new chapter up soon... In fact, I might write it right now :D Enjoy!