The curtain rose with my movements as I glance outside my window, watching the couple below me talk. I couldn't think of anything positive as I watched them, wondering what they were talking about. The couple sat hand in hand on my swing set, chatting and smile through the night.
"Why is she here so late?" I grumble, shuffling to get in a better position on my window seat. But the more they kicked at the ground, swinging themselves carelessly, the more I struggled to see them. Realizing I was desperately trying to watch my best friend and his girl, I let go of the curtain.
I'm a stalker.
I shook my head at the absurd thought. This was my home after all. He was paying rent to me! I'm not stalker someone who lives in my own home.
Peeping tom.
Fighting my own thoughts, I remove the curtain away again and gazed at the love birds. A feeling of envy weight heavy in my heart. And as I go to turn away the last time for the night, I noticed the sudden atmosphere change.
She had stopped their swaying, putting her small hand over his. Her eyes had changed from adoration to something much colder, making me rush to open my window to hear it. Even her voice was so quickly turned cruel.
"This needs to stop," she says, retracting her hand. "I can't fake a smile for you anymore."
My eyebrows furrowed at her words, wondering why she was being this way. My friend had also felt the same as he questioned her motives. Saying things like, "Baby what's wrong? Is something bothering you?"
"Yuto, you are just a toy for me," she says flatly and goes to stand. "A used up and broken down toy that revolves around that tramp upstairs!"
"She isn't a tramp, baby. Don't say these harsh things, it isn't like you." Yuto rushed to slow her anger, and it seemed like she considered taking it all back for a second.
But then she shook her head. "I don't want someone like you. Talentless, moneyless bum who pays rent to his friend. Your pathetic!"
A dagger went through my heart as I watched his face drop. All emotion had left Yuto's system and I immediately recognized it. A self defense mechanism that he had suffered years to over come. Those painstaking years were thrown down the drain in an instant.
She kept spewing out words. Utter nonsense. And when I finally manage to move my body to go protect him, the sadness evident, she spat her final words before turning and leaving the garden.
"I hate you."
I bit my lip, my feelings in itself conflicted on what to do. But I had no other choice than to go down there, knowing this boy was going to need me. The pain of just hearing those god awful words was bad enough for me, let alone the victim who was being told them. I quickly shuffled to close the window before tripping over my clothes on the floor to get to him.
My hand touched the front door handle the same time it was gently pushed from the other side. I took a step back to watch Yuto solemnly enter the house, his eyes never meeting mine as he slowly kicked off his shoes and closed the door behind him.
"Big bear?" I questioned softly, his nickname just rolling off my tongue. His head lifted ever so slightly, showing me the sadness within his eyes.
She hurt him.
The bitterness I had been feeling sunk deep in my stomach. Bile rose in my throat, constricting further words from leaving my mouth. But I had to do something, anything for him. He needed me now more than ever if I left him alone her words would tear him apart.
Without thoroughly thinking it through, I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hold, my need to protect him causing me to pull him closer. I felt his body rack with unspoken sobs, the pain rising uo in his chest but refusing to leave. His arms laid limp beside me as his head buried into my shoulder much shorter than he usually could reach.
