The Word Love

XX

"When I first talked to her, I thought she was the most annoying person in the world," he chuckled, "She was so enthusiastic and it irritated the crap out of me."

I smiled as he said that.

"I tried to ignore her at the party, but as she kept on talking to me, I found myself listening to herfinally . Later, I was able to get away from her, and then I forgot about her," His voice became tight and his gaze hardened, "Then I walked into the bathroom and I saw a guy forcing himself onto her. I don't really remember what happened after that. The only thing I remembered was seeing the guy unconscious on the floor and Rose crying a lot. She was crying."

He swallowed hard and looked down at his lap. My heart clenched at the sight of him almost crying. I've never seen him crying except for the time his dad died.

"And then I left her by herself. I thought she was going to call someone to pick her up, but she went back to the party and consumed so much alcohol, more than me. I didn't know what to do so I called you."

I remembered back to the night when I picked up Rose from the party. She was so drunk she couldn't even tell me where she lived.

Then a small smile appeared on Eric's face, "She thanked me the next day and we started to hang out after that. I realized that I was developing feelings for her, but I don't think she felt the same way."

"Why do you think that?" I asked him for the first time since he began.

"After we slept together, I was afraid that it brought up back up bad memories from the party so I tried to apologize. She got really angry at me for thinking she was so fragile, and then she told me that what we did was a mistake that she instantly regretted," he answered sadly, "And then at your house, she told me to forget about it."

"Well, she likes you," I told him, "She was just afraid of being hurt again, physically."

He frowned, "I would never hurt her."

"That's what I told her, but she still hasn't talked to you yet."

He looked at me quizzically, "Why would you try to help me?"

I scoffed, "I wasn't helping you. I was helping Rose."

A small smile appeared on his face.

"You want my advice?" I asked him.

He nodded.

"Wait for her. Don't force her to talk, and if you really like her, don't sleep with anyone else, or kiss anyone else. She's been hurt once and she's afraid. If you give her time, she'll eventually talk to you."

"I really like her," he declared in a strong voice.

I nodded with a satisfied smile on my face.

"What about you?" he asked, "You look like you need to vent too."

"I don't know..." I hesitated.

He rolled his eyes, "Come on, Evans. I know you need to talk to someone or else you're going to explode and you know it too.

"Fine," I grumbled and he smirked.

"I like someone," I told him.

"This isn't middle school," he chuckled, "I know you like Douglas."

I shot him a glare and continued, "But I pushed him away because I was afraid, and now he's dating some bimbo who's cheating on him. I tried to tell him, but he didn't believe me. He thinks I'm trying to sabotage his relationship, which I'm not."

"He's obviously hurt, and I guess why he doesn't believe you is because he doesn't want to be hurt again, or be alone," Eric shrugged.

"I don't know what to do," I groaned.

"Tell him the truth," he suggested.

I rolled my eyes, "I told you that I al-"

"Not about the cheating scandal," he intervened, "But about why you pushed him away. Right now, he's mad at you because he doesn't understand why you did what you did."

I looked at him in thought and he raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"When did you become so wise?" I asked him.

"Babe, I've always been wise," he scoffed.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

"Aimee!" Rose's scream nearly damaged my ear.

Eric's back straightened up when he heard her voice. That's how loud her scream was.

"Rose, are you tryin-"

She interrupted, "Zayn left! He left the group!"

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and looked over at Eric for help, but he was staring at his hands.

"Wh-"

"And they just posted it on Facebook! Fucking, stupid Facebook! Don't they understand how much of a big deal this is?"

I tried to calm her down but to no avail.

"Zayn is leaving and One Direction is never going to be the same! It will never be One Direction again!"

Oh, so this is about One Direction. I've heard about the boy band.

Then she started sobbing, literally. I was bewildered at her reaction to this guy leaving the band. Seriously, she was crying over him leaving.

"I'm with Eric right now," I told her as an attempt to get her to stop crying and it worked.

Eric looked up at me.

"What?" Rose stopped sobbing.

"Eric and I were talking," I explained.

"Oh."

I glanced over at Eric, who was staring at the phone to my ears.

"Do you want to talk to him?" I asked her.

Eric's eyes filled with hope as we both waited for her answer.

"I have to go walk my dog," she quickly lied.

"But you d-"

She ended the call before I could finish my sentence. The hope in his eyes died and he slumped down.

"Patience is a virtue," I quoted.

"I just miss talking to her, and holding her, and looking into her beautiful eyes, and kis-"

"You can stop now," I stopped him.

He chuckled.

We sat there in a comfortable silence, watching the other people walking by. Not once did anyone tell us that we had to move, which was a good thing.

"I was here to see your brother," Eric revealed.

I hid the surprise that I was feeling at this moment.

"Why?" I asked him quietly.

"I don't know," he shrugged, "Maybe it was so that I could finally come to terms with what happen and realize that it wasn't really anyone's fault, or so that I could stop feeling so angry all the time."

"He never liked you," I said randomly.

"I know," Eric replied, "He was always giving me a death glare whenever I came over."

I laughed, "Yeah, he was really protective."

"All great brothers are."

"Well, they don't usually end up in a coma for two years."

Eric scratched his chin, "I have a feeling that he's going to wake up soon."

I gave him a look, "Okay psychic, whatever you say."

"I don't know," he furrowed his eyebrows, "I just have a feeling."