Big Time Hangout

Part 18

"You guys have to back off and let this work itself out!" James was shouting.

Kendall yelled back, "He raped her bro. How in the hell am I supposed to just let that go?" with Carlos adding, "He knew exactly what he was doing when he did it!"

James shouted back, "It was NOT rape. Why can't you two see that? Why can't you understand that all you're going to do acting like this is push her away? She isn't going to want to be with any of you ever if you keep acting like this."

Carlos yelled back, "What am I supposed to do? I love her." and Kendall added, "And I'm in love with her!"

I heard something crash up against the wall, "Yeah well how in the hell do you think I feel?" James asked and then I heard him say something that almost brought me to my knees, "I am in love with her! Have been from the beginning. Can't you see what you are doing to her though? If you really loved her like I do then you would back off and stop pushing! Give the girl some room to breathe! Let her deal with her feelings and make her own decisions! All of you, including Logan, keep pushing and pushing and she won't have anything to do with any of us ever again!" I could hear him getting ice out of the ice machine and assumed it was the ice bucket that hit the wall, and he said, "I swear if I lose her because of the three of you I will NEVER forgive any of you!"

My first thought was to just sneak out and run away. There was no way I could get out and past them without them noticing. I turned my attention back to Logan, trying to wipe the dried blood from his face. He winced slightly from the pain and slowly opened his eyes, "Well hello there beautiful. Aren't you a sight for sore eyes." he tried to smile but the pain was a reminder not to.

I helped him sit up and smiling I asked, "So how do you think they took it?"

He laughed slightly, the pain clearly visible in his eyes, "A lot better than I thought they would. I just knew they were going to kill me."

My smile disappeared, "They would have if James hadn't pulled them off of you." I stated.

He hung his head slightly, "I would have killed me to. I'm so..."

He immediately fell silent when James walked back in the door. James walked over to the bed and sat next to me. Logan carefully reached his hand out, "I'm sorry and thank you bro. You saved my life."

James mumbled, "Yeah literally." and said, "It's far from over." and quickly added, "And I'm still pissed to I just know it won't undo what has been done."

Logan smiled slightly, "See you did learn something after Ariana."

There is that name again. I turned to James, "Are you guys going to tell me who Ariana is?"

James looked up at me with tears streaming down his face and Logan said, "I got it bro." and turned back to me, "Ariana was the one and only love of James' life. They were high school sweethearts and none of us thought they would EVER break up. Well, they did, and it all went downhill from there. After they split, Ariana called James one night to tell him she had a guy stalking her and wouldn't leave her alone. She and James had decided they had too much invested to never speak again so they were trying to be friends. Anyway, James met up with her and the guy was brazen enough to show up too. He was approaching Ariana, and she said as long as James was there she could handle it by herself and not to step in unless she told him to."

James smiled through the tears, "She was always a tough one."

Logan continued, "The guy was just talking at first and then he put his hands on her, pushing her. James started to do something about it, but Ariana made sure he knew she could handle it, so he just stood by and watched."