Battle Scars

Chapter 51: Three kinds of Love

Chapter fifty one: Three Kinds of Love
Of course Mitch told me. In fact, if you hadn't told Mitch that yourself, Vikk, you might have saved yourself a lot of trouble. If you didn't like me, Mitch would not be jealous of you. He might be a little upset about what happened in the arena, but nothing like he is now.
That's what I wanted to say to him. But instead, I asked if it was still true.
"It is still true," he confirmed, sighing. "Unfortunately." I sighed.
"Vikk can I tell you what I'm feeling right now?" I asked. He nodded, wordlessly. "Well, I think you know I love Mitch. I probably always will. I definitely feel a connection with you, and I care about you a lot. That's what made me come looking for you, and that's what made me get them to ask the spies in the soviet to check if you were still alive. Mitch didn't want me to go, but I went anyway, because I needed to get you out of there. Needed to know that you were safe. But I don't love you the way I love Mitch. That's a different kind of love."
"What sort of love is it?" He asked.
"Well, I guess there's three kinds of love in this world. I love Mitch because we're not only best friends, but there's something special I feel with him that I don't get with anyone else. I love my mother, my sister, my dad, when he was around, and I guess even Jerome because they're people that are always there for me, and I'll always be there for them. We share memories together. We didn't get the choice to be friends or not, we were thrown together as family, but we made it work. And I love you in a different way to that. I love you like a best friend, only better. You're the one I feel like I could take on the world with. Friends are people you pick to spend every day with because the best times you have are when you're together. For us, it's weird because it started when we were both out to kill each other. But I think we both kind of knew that there were feelings that we had to get past because sooner or later one or both would be dead. And now that that's not there, we can spend time together, and actually enjoy it." I looked at him. "I know this is hard for you, but can we just be friends? And maybe eventually we can convince Mitch that you're not the worst person to ever be born." This brought a slight smile to his face, but with it came the inevitable pain of rejection. He sighed, and pulled me into a hug. I returned it, relieved knowing that he couldn't read anything else into it after what I'd just told him.
"I'm sorry for putting you in this position," he whispered.
"Hey, I'm not blaming you for something you can't control," I replied. I looked up at him.
"Best friends, yeah?"
"Yeah," he smiled. "And that's all it's gonna be. I'd never forgive myself if I destroyed your relationship with Mitch."
"Thanks Vikk," I smiled. At this moment, there was a knock on my bedroom door.
"Can I come in, Abby?" Asked Jerome's voice.
"Yeah, what's up?" I asked. The door knob turned, and Jerome's head appeared.
"Oh, hey Vikk," he smiled. "And I kinda wanted to talk to you about something important, so I'll come back in a while, ok?"
"Yeah, that's fine," I nodded, wondering what on earth he had to tell me that was so secretive. His head disappeared, and the door closed again. Vikk and I looked at each other.
"Well I should really leave you to sleep, or Mitch actually will think I'm the worst person ever." We laughed together, and I nodded.
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow," I smiled.
"Sleep well," he nodded. He made his way over to the door, and let himself out. A few moments later, Jerome reappeared. He came in, closing the door behind him.
"What is it Jerome?" I asked, feeling concerned.
"It's nothing, really," he said. "I'm just wondering what's going on between you, Vikk, and Mitch. Mitch hates him, what did he do that's so wrong in Mitch's eyes?"
"Well you know they spent their time in the arena trying to kill each other," I said, avoiding the real reason. However, Jerome wasn't letting me get out of it.
"Come on Abby, you know that's not the real reason. Mitch would have forgiven him if it was just that." I sighed.
"Well, I guess it's not so much what he's done as to what he could potentially do." Jerome raised an eyebrow.
"What could he do?"
"Before the arena, he admitted to Mitch that he liked me, because Mitch asked why he was so eager to kill me. Vikk told him he was trying to drown the feelings because he knew he'd have to kill me. And when I killed Vikk, we found out he'd been telling the truth. So you can see where I'm going with this?"
"Yeah, I see exactly where you're going," he said, smiling ruefully. "I had a sort of idea it was something like this, but I didn't know the details. Be careful, Abby, won't you."
"That's what Preston said to me," I sighed.
"Well, maybe we can see something you can't," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning. I stifled a yawn.
"Don't worry about that now," he said. "You're supposed to be resting, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember," I sighed. "My brain's in sixty different places at the moment. Kinda makes it impossible to sleep."
"But you can try," he laughed. "Goodnight. I'll see you later." I laughed with him.
"Thanks Jerome. Goodnight." He let himself out of the room again, leaving me to try and sort out my jumble of thoughts so I could sleep. Overriding everything was that haunting statement of Jerome's. 'Maybe we can see something you can't.' I groaned. Why do relationships have to be so complicated?