Why Don't We One Shots

Jealous Lies - Dorbyn & Donah

"Corbs?" Daniel pokes his head into the kitchen. "Oh, hey Jonah. Have you seen Corbyn?"

"Nope," Jonah says, lifting his coffee cup to his lips. "I did hear him earlier though. Talking to someone on the phone. And Daniel...I think he was talking to a girl. A girl that he's seeing behind your back."

This, of course, was a lie. Jonah was too afraid to tell Daniel how he felt about him, and when Corbyn and Daniel started dating, it was far too late. But now, he was making his move - regardless of anyone else's feelings.

Daniel's eyes go wide. "What? Who?"

"Tayler," Jonah answers, scrolling through his phone carelessly. Inside, his heart was pounding and his conscience was screaming at him to stop. But he wouldn't. He wanted Daniel, and would take him at any cost.

Daniel, saying nothing else, runs out of the kitchen, sniffling. He ignores Corbyn, who is in the living room, when he asks, "Baby, what's wrong?" Daniel pushes up the stairs and, a few seconds later, a door slams harshly.

"Jonah," Corbyn asks, staring up at the stairs where Daniel had run past him as the older boy walks into the living room, still scrolling through his phone. "Any idea what's gotten into Daniel?"

"Not a clue," Jonah says boredly. He meets Corbyn's eyes. "He seemed happy when he told me Tony finally kissed him at that party last week."

Corbyn blinks, panic setting in behind his normally calm green eyes. "What?"

"You didn't know?" Jonah widens his eyes and looks back down at his phone, faking a secret being let out.

Corbyn, now angry and hurt instead of worried and sad, begins marching up the stairs. "Daniel James Seavey, open this door!"

"No!" Daniel yells back.

They argue back and forth - Jonah's heart beating the entire time for fear of his lies being exposed - until Corbyn gives up. He grabs his jacket and says to Jonah, "I'm going to Christina's. And I'm not coming back!" He yells the last part so that Daniel can hear him up the stairs, tears pouring down his face as he slams the door, almost shattering the glass front of it.

Jonah sits back on the couch, stunned at what he'd done. He had caused two of his best friends so much pain, and he had broken up an otherwise beautiful relationship. His heart was hurting but his head felt powerful.

It wasn't until a moment later that the head began to feel as the heart did.

A moment later, Daniel opens the door a crack and calls, "Jonah?"

Jonah went up the stairs to the now partially open door. "Yeah Dani?"

And this was when the power evaporated out of him. In the room that used to belong to Daniel and Corbyn, there was now only Daniel, a broken boy with a broken heart. Glass frames that used to hold pictures were smashed and shattered, the pictures ripped to shreds on the floor. "I can't believe he would lie to me," Daniel says, sliding down the wall slowly, sobbing. Jonah catches him in his arms, Daniel almost drunk with sadness and grief. "I can't believe he would just throw it all away."

Jonah's heart: Tell him the truth!

Jonah's head: You got what you wanted - don't screw it up now.

In this case, head won over the heart. "He isn't worth it Daniel. Don't worry your pretty little head about someone who couldn't love you enough to tell you the truth."

How ironic.

"Almost two years," Daniel whispers, seeming to not hear Jonah. "Two years in July I loved him. Was it all a waste, of my time and his?"

Jonah held the crying boy to his chest, and in the back of his mind all he could think was, I caused this. I did this. But did he change anything? No. "Daniel, shh. It's going to be okay, I promise. I'm always going to be here for you, and I won't ever walk away."

"I love you Jonah," Daniel whispers. And he didn't know if it was the moment, the sadness over the loss of Corbyn, or what it was, but he kissed Jonah right then and there. And in Daniel's mind, there was absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Jonah? He was just happy that he had gotten what he wanted.

A month later, Jonah and Daniel began dating. Six months later, Corbyn was still broken. A year later, Daniel and Jonah had gotten a call from Christina, saying that Corbyn had gone unconscious from the amount of alcohol he had consumed - a problem that had began years before he had met Daniel and had now flared up again without him - and that he was being rushed to the hospital.

"We need to go see him," Daniel told Jonah. They called Zach and Jack, who lived on the other side of Los Angeles, and met the couple at the hospital.

"He's awake and responding," Christina says after hugging each boy hello. "I went back and saw him already, so you guys can go ahead."

Jack nods his head at Daniel, telling him silently to go first. Daniel, taking Jonah's hand, walks back to see the blonde boy whom he used to love so much. The boy he hadn't spoken to in over a year.

"Corbs?"

"Dani," Corbyn says, his eyes welling with tears as he sees the blue-eyed boy. Daniel lets go of Jonah's hand and runs to Corbyn, hugging him tightly, also crying.

"Corbyn Matthew, don't you ever do that to me again," Daniel whispers against his chest. Jonah takes a seat in a nearby chair. "What happened, Bean?" Daniel asks softly.

Corbyn draws in a shuddering breath. "I don't know," he admits. "It was like I was falling down a hole and I couldn't catch myself."

"Oh Corbs," Daniel says, taking his hand. "Why didn't you call me? You could've; I would've answered."

"I couldn't," Corbyn whispers, his voice cracking. "Not after I found out about you and Tony. I wanted you to be happy, but I just wish that your happiness had included me."

"Wait," Daniel says, raising an eyebrow. "Tony? I haven't talked to him since high school. Who told you I was seeing him?"

"Jonah," Corbyn answers slowly. Jonah's eyes fall to his shoes and stay there.

"Jonah told me that you were seeing Tayler behind my back."

"Tayler?" Corbyn's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "She invited me to her wedding that's happening in August. Remember Wyatt? He finally proposed to her back in January."

Daniel slowly begins to understand what had happened. As he pieces everything together, he stands and confronts Jonah. "You lied to us! Jonah, how could you?"

Jonah's mouth fell open, then closed, then opened again. "I-"

Before Jonah could explain himself, Daniel slaps him swiftly across the face, leaving Jonah's cheek stinging and his heart hurt.

"Get. Out." Daniel's voice was soft and terrifying, powerful and broken all at the same time. "Get out of here! I hate you! I can't believe you ever did this to your two best friends!"

Jonah turns his eyes to Corbyn, who was silently crying in his hospital bed. "Corbyn..."

"I trusted you Jonah," the blonde answers brokenly. "And you broke that trust. So just go. And don't ever come back."

Jonah left in a daze, ignoring Zach, Jack, and Christina, and disappearing from their lives forever. Not even five years later when Corbyn and Daniel forgave him and invited him to their wedding could they find him.

It was like he was falling down a hole and he couldn't catch himself. And there was no one there to save him this time...

~