I can't Hurt You - Marcus Lopez Arguello

39

After we killed Chico in that alley we all ran back to the hotel room. Marcus and Billy were badly hurt and we couldn't take them to the hospital. They would surely ask for an explanation on everything which we couldn't give. Instead of the hospital we settled for the next best thing, Saya's mediocre skills in medicine. She could fix them up in no time like she'd done countless times with her friends before.

I'm sure someone found Chico's body, but we didn't care. We'd be out of Vegas by tomorrow morning and no one would suspect that a group of teenagers from San Francisco killed someone in Vegas. That was the beauty of it.

We also agreed to leave Vegas tomorrow morning since apparently Lin showed up and caught us all high and sexed up which he did not like. I hoped he wouldn't give us another detention though.

As of now, it was around 2 am and everyone had gone to bed. That is, everyone but me. I couldn't sleep, so I figured out a way to get to the roof of the hotel. I figured it would be a good view so I brought my cigarettes and lighter with me, too. Always come prepared.

It'd been about thirty minutes and I was sitting on the edge of the roof with my feet dangling off. I was in the middle of smoking my last cigarette when I heard footsteps coming from behind me. I turned around quickly to be met with a limping Marcus. I then turned back around to look at the city.

"You're injured and high. What are you doing here?"  I asked.

"Correction: I'm injured and hung over." He said coming up and sitting next to me closely.

"Good to know. Those hallucinations weren't doing you any good." I said before I took another puff.

"Tell me about it. I'm never taking acid again." He half laughed.

"Don't know about that, acid king." I teased exhaling the grey smoke.

He chuckled before holding his hand out, signaling that he wanted some of my cigarette.

"Didn't Saya say to wait a bit before smoking again?" I asked.

"Saya isn't my mom." He justified.

"Good point." I said passing him the cigarette.

He took a puff as we both looked out onto the bright city. It was amazing how it stayed lit like this every hour of the day. It was beautiful.

"So are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?" He asked as he flicked some ash of the cigarette and passed it to me again.

"What elephant?" I asked before I took a puff.

"I remember everything that happened while I was high, Em." He said nonchalantly.

At that moment my heart beat out of my chest. How could it not? Everything means that conversation we had in the hotel room. Everything means how he was almost raped. I didn't let my reaction display itself on my face. Instead, I looked out onto the city and took the last puff my cigarette had left.

"Don't know what you mean." I lied as I threw my cigarette off the tall building.

"Yeah you do." He pointed out.

"You might wanna remind me then." I teased.

A long pause took place which I thought meant I had won. I thought it meant we didn't have to talk about this because it would be awkward as hell if we did. News flash, I was wrong.

"I told you I was in love with you." He reminded me.

Butterflies erupted in my stomach and I let out a slight smile, refusing to look at him with it and let him know he was the cause.

"Oh." I said with that slight smile still there.

"Yeah, and you told me you were in love with me." He finished.

My smile then left almost as quickly as it appeared.

"You were high, Marcus. So was I, somewhat. We didn't mean it. We're best friends." I reasoned with him so I could be done with this embarrassment.

"Em." He said as he interlaced his fingers with mine.

I looked at him unsurely. This could go absolutely any way right now. I had no idea where it was going.

"I meant it. I'm in love with you." He assured me.

I finally let myself have a reaction, my eyes widening a bit. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.

"Please say something." He said, almost begging.

"Um- are you- are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." He laughed.

"O- oh. Um- I- I don't really know-" I stuttered.

Jesus, how much was I embarrassing myself right now?

"Stop being nervous. It's just me." He reassured me with a smile.

I returned a smile and looked down, making sure not to let him see me blush.

"Did you mean it?" He asked making me look up.

"Did I mean it when I said I was in love with you?" I asked.

"Yeah." He said embarrassingly.

I smiled at him for a few seconds before replying.

"Yeah. Yeah I meant it. I didn't know how to tell you but I've known that I'm in love with you for a week or two now." I explained.

"Yeah- yeah me too." He agreed.

We both smiled at each other before it turned into embarrassed laughing. Anything to fill the awkward silence, right?

"Can I ask you something?" He asked.

"No one's stopping you, Arguello." I replied.

"When we had that conversation and I was high I asked you to go out with me. You said if I really wanted to, I could ask you when I was sober." He reminded me.

"How could I forget." I half laughed.

"Right. Well, I'm sober, and I still want to go out with you." He went around the actual main point looking down in embarrassment.

"Arguello, are you trying to ask me out?" I asked.

"Um, yeah, maybe." He said shyly.

Here sat the boy of my dreams asking me out. Here sat the only thing I cared to have in my future telling me he wanted me. The person I loved more than myself finally admitted to me that he loved me just as much and I couldn't have been happier. I was more ecstatic now than I'd ever been before.

"I've never really done this before, so I don't-" He said before I cut him off with a passionate kiss.

We let go of each other's hands. I cupped his cheek with one hand and put my other hand on his chest. He put both hands on my waist, exactly where I'd wanted them since I fell for him. We'd kissed before but this one felt different. This one felt right, like everything was right where it was supposed to be. I pulled away slightly. Our faces still as close as ever as we stared at each other with love in our eyes.

"Does that answer your question?" I asked.

"I don't know. I think you should answer it again." He replied with a smile.

I let out a little laugh and went in for another kiss.

Nothing could be more perfect than this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Besties, they're finally together! I'm so so excited and happy that I could get Emma and Marcus to this point in the book! I'm so grateful to have all of you still reading and new people to continuing to find and read my book! Thank you all so much, you keep my motivation going tons! I just wanted to say that I've seen many posts on tiktok about different wattpad books and if anyone does make posts on tiktok about this book in specific I'd love if you guys could use #ICANTHURTYOU in the caption so I can find them all. I love interacting with you guys and seeing you guys interact with my book. That'll be all, loves. The story is very far from finished but I hope you like it so far!