Dripping Gold [boyxboy]

Dripping Gold {17}

                "Tell me when you found out," I said.

                I was sitting on Josh's couch, curled up on one end. Josh was sitting on the other end, keeping his distance after I kept glaring at him.

                "I thought he was acting weird around you. I went to the art room to talk to him about it," Josh said, not meeting my eyes. His gaze stayed fixed on the pillow in his lap. "That's when I found out. Wally got mad and told me you'd never believe me about it. I knew he was right. I knew that damn liar would just deny it if I told you."

                "So you knew Five and Wally were just pretending to date," I said.

                Josh nodded. "As soon as it happened I figured he was just covering up his crush on you. But what was I supposed to do? You weren't going to believe me. So I tried to find the signs that they were just pretending and point them out to you." He got a bitter smile on his face. "But, dammit Robin, you trusted them so much."

                I winced and glared down at the floor, hating that he was right. Trusting my friends was what let them pull this off.

                "He wanted us to breakup. He was trying to drive us apart. I told you we could fix it, but Wally kept getting in your head that we couldn't. He didn't want us to fix it," Josh said, angry now.

                I closed my eyes, trying to picture a time when Wally had acted like this. But I just couldn't. He'd never done anything like this, not that I was aware of.

                "He's a snake," Josh said, and when I opened my eyes, he was watching me. "He's got this whole innocent act down, but he's selfish. Five agreed along with his plan. And you think Piers didn't know what was going on?"

                I stood up, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. "I'm leaving."

                Josh got off the couch and came over to me. "Please, don't leave, Robin."

                "This doesn't change the fact that we weren't working as a couple," I said.

                "We could fix things. Without Wally and the others there putting these ideas in your head, we could fix things," he said quietly.

                "Josh, we can't. We're not dating again. I'm sorry." I reached out and took his hand in mine. "We just don't work as a couple."

                "I hate Wally," he said, squeezing my hand. "I hate him."

                "He gave you every reason to." I released Josh's hand and he silently followed me to the front door. I left, neither of us saying anything, the truth coming too late to change anything.

                Josh was right, though. Even if he'd told me, I wouldn't have believed him. It was best that things happened like this. Things between us weren't permanently destroyed. Maybe someday we'd be friends again, at least.

                I got in my car and took off, making my way to Rhys' house. I parked and got out of the car, heading up and knocking on the door.

                Rhys pulled the door opened and frowned. "Hey, what's wrong?"

                I stepped into the house. "Are you free?"

                "Yea, my friend left about ten minutes ago. What happened?" he asked, leading me up to his bedroom, Hyde eagerly running out to greet me and follow us.