Page 57 of Fall of Us
I immediately shot up to grab my jacket.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Nathan asked as he took it back out of my hands.
“I have to go see him. We need to talk. He’ll forgive me if I just get the chance to explain.”
Chase grabbed my shoulders and shoved me back to the bed. I sat down and stared at my friends as they barricaded my bedroom door. Shawn and Daniel had left, but Chase and Nathan had stayed to make sure that I was okay.
“What you need to do is give him some time and space.” Nathan moved away from the door first, sitting next to me.
Everything ached. Andrew had every right to be mad, but space was the last thing I wanted at the moment. I wanted his comfort, to feel his arms around me, and for him to tell me that this was allgoing to work out in the end. He needed to tell me I hadn’t fucked us over before we even truly began.
You set us up.
My eyes slammed closed against an onslaught of fresh tears. They stung, and as much as they watered, it didn’t feel like actual tears would fall. Maybe I’d cried them all out earlier. I’d never fucked something up so badly.
“I just want... him.” I still choked on the words. Everything in me screamed to get up, shove past my two friends, and go seek the man I loved. And what a way to have him tell me he loved me. But I’d done that. I’d taken away his ability to tell me in a more romantic way. He’d used the words against me to make me feel bad about what I’d done, and I didn’t fault him for it.
“I know you do. But you need to let him calm down. You both need to calm down.”
It was almost strange to have Nathan be the voice of reason. He wasn’t a bad guy, but Chase had definitely tamed him. He was a lot sweeter than before.
“Do you need help getting ready for bed?”
I sniffled and blinked at Nathan. Was I that pathetic that I needed my friends to get me ready to sleep?
“Don’t let me be alone...”
Nathan gave me a sad smile, looking over at Chase and giving him a shrug. Chase rolled his eyes and pulled his sweater over his head. He had a white t-shirt underneath, but what had me turningaway and blushing was when he started undoing his pants and pushing them down his legs.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Not leaving you alone. Hope this bed can handle three people.”
It was enough to make me laugh a little. “You guys don’t have to stay with me.”
Chase shrugged as he sat on my other side. “It’s what friends do. When you’re hurting, we’re here for you.”
The idea of sharing a bed with one of my friends and his boyfriend should have been more strange, but at least it meant I wasn’t sleeping by myself. Just thinking about not having another body next to me was enough to have my heart racing all over again. I’d gotten so used to always having someone around. When I was dating someone, they were there, and when they weren’t, it was Andrew.
I crawled up the bed and under the blankets. I wasn’t as brazen as Chase and Nathan, who got undressed right in front of me. Taking my jeans off under the sheets was difficult, but I threw them across the room once my legs were free of them.
Instead of them climbing into bed next to each other, they were on either side of me. That overwhelming, suffocating feeling was back, but this time it was because I was emotional about my friends caring about me so much. They linked their hands over my waist, and I fell into a restless sleep, dreaming of Andrew never coming back.
Chapter 35
Andrew
“Idon’t know what he gets up to down there. He keeps the door closed and I tell McKenzie not to bother him. It’s his space, and she’s pretty good about leaving him alone.”
I nodded as Teresa kept talking while she led me through the house. When I’d run out of the apartment, I didn’t know where the hell to go, but seeing as almost everyone was at our place, that left Joe. He’d said he was busy today, but Teresa said he hadn’t left his room.
“Joseph, you’ve got company,” she yelled as she pounded on the door.
It took a few minutes, but we finally heard the telltale sounds of feet climbing the stairs from the basement. The door creaked open, and Joe blinked at us like he was adjusting from being in the dark.
“Andrew? What’re you doing here? Weren’t you moving in with lover-boy?”
I glared at him, and Teresa walked away, leaving us to talk. Joe slid from behind the door. He was in a loose pair of basketball shorts and a tank top. It wasn’t quite weather appropriate, but forall I knew, it might have been warm down in the basement. I’d never actually seen his space.
