Not Good Enough For Truth In Cliche

I Can't Take This (Take) Any More (Part 2)

*trigger warning, mentions of suicide and abuse*

"Congrats." Monte nodded.
"Finally." Max said, looking at us. "I wish I could say we didn't bet on it, but..."
Robert handed over twenty bucks. "We did."
I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Assholes."
"Do you think Craig knows?" Max asked.
"Do you think Craig knows what?" He walked out, a blonde girl hanging on his arm. "You guys know Bella. Except for... Woah, it's Ash! Hey, Ash. Hey, Ronnie."
"Mabbitt." Ronnie nodded.
"So. What do you guys think I know?"
"Oh. That Ronnie and I are together." I said.
"You are." He stated. "Huh. That's a new one. You know, Radke, I didn't think you dated the broken girls, just fucked them."
"I didn't know you were so insecure about yourself that you cheated on your girlfriend who trusted you, loved you." Ronnie said.
Craig turned to the girl. "Bella, babe, meet me outside?"
"Yeah, sure." She kissed his cheek, then walked out of the apartment.
"I can't fucking believe you, Radke." Craig walked up towards us. "You just go ahead, pick off my girlfriend, make her fall in love with you."
"I believe you were cheating on her before I was even in the picture. I'm not the heartbreaker here. That's you, Mabbitt."
"She was perfectly fine before-"
"Before what?" Ronnie laughed. "Before I came into her life? Newsflash, we grew up together. She's been my best friend for twenty five years, the moment she was born. I was the one there when she found her dad, dead. I was there to hold her."

"Got any homework, pipsqueak?" Ronnie asked me as we walked into my house.
"Don't call me pipsqueak, you're like, thirteen."
"I'm also stuck with you, and you have no food here."
"Yeah, I know."
"Raid Anthony's stash when we get back to your place?"
"Maybe. Dad! Ronnie and I are home!"
No answer. "That's weird." He said.
"Maybe he's upstairs."
"Do you want me to check?"
"Nah, I'll do it."
I ran upstairs. My dad's door was closed. I knocked on it. "Dad?" No answer. I slowly opened the door. "Dad." Nothing. I went in. My dad was laying on his bed. I went over. "Hey, Dad." I shook him. I felt his skin. It was cold. Then I noticed the empty bottle of sleeping pills and the Jack Daniels on the nightstand. "Dad! Dad? Dad, no!" I screamed an ear-piercing scream.
Immediately, the pounds of someone running up the stairs came to me. "Ash, what's the matter?"
I raced over to Ronnie's side and buried my face in his side. "Dad's dead."
"No, that's not possible."
"Ronnie, he's dead, I'd know if my own dad is dead!" I sobbed.
He peeled me off and felt my dad's skin. He then noticed the pills and alcohol. "Shit." That was the first time I had ever heard Ronnie swear. "Shit, let's get you out of here, call 911."
"Ronnie, he's all I have."
Ronnie came back to my side. "It's okay. I've got you. I'm here for you."

"So?" Craig countered. "That doesn't give you any right to her." By this time, Robert and Monte had left the room. Max had only stayed as a witness.
"You're right. You know what does? What she says."
"What the hell do you know about her? You were in prison for two and a half years."
"She trusted you and you just destroyed her heart."
Craig stared at me. "Don't make Ronnie fight your own battles, Ash."
"I'm not." I hugged myself, feeling anxious. "I don't control Ronnie."
"Craig, just man up to your mistakes and fucking apologize to my girlfriend."
"Fine. I'm sorry, Ash." He said, sarcastically, and then did something no one expected: he slapped me.
No, it wasn't a slap. He punched me in the fucking face. No one said anything for a second, and then Max was holding Ronnie back. I crawled out of the way of their fight into Monte's arms. "What the fuck?" He whispered. "We heard a noise, and..."
I started sobbing. "Craig just... He fucking... Just..."
Monte touched the side of my face. "Oh God, did he hit you?" I nodded. "I'll get you some ice, give me a second."
"What the fuck is your problem?" Max yelled at Craig, taking my side. He was struggling at holding Ronnie back.
"Let me get him!" Ronnie was screaming, fighting against his friend.
Monte grabbed my arm and brought me into the kitchen. I was actively sobbing. "Fuck, fuck, it's bad, Ash, but it's okay."
"She's bleeding." Robert said.
"Yeah, dipshit! Get me some towels!"
Robert came back with a roll of paper towels. "The fuck happened?"
"Craig hit her." Monte dabbed the paper towel on my wound. "Asshole."
We could still hear Ronnie and Craig yelling in the other room. "I just..." I sniffed. "I wanted to come talk to you guys. I didn't think Craig would be here, I just... I wanted to hang with you guys."
"I know." Monte hugged me. "Ash, it's okay, it's not your fault."
"It is." I bit my lip. "It is."
"No, it's not."
"I can't do this. I can't stay at Ronnie's apartment, I can't stay at mine, I can't stay here. I can't even go to his dad's or to Anthony's."
"I have a friend. His name is TJ Bell, you could stay there."
"I don't want to inconvenience him."
Monte put the ice on my face and held it there. "This wasn't your fault."
"It is. If I didn't choose Ronnie-"
"You chose Ronnie because Craig was cheating on you. He didn't deserve you. Not one bit."
We kept hearing Ronnie and Craig scream at each other. Max came in. "They're kinda..."
"I got you." Robert said, dragging Monte out.
Max touched my face. "Fuck, are you okay?"
"Yeah. Where's the bruising?"
He traced the bone outside of my eye, by my eyebrow. "There."
"Oh."
"They're trying to kill each other. Ronnie's understandably pissed, and Craig is pissed that he's pissed."
"Yeah." I bit my lip.
"Do you wanna stay here tonight? Craig will probably be staying at Bella's."
"I dunno. If Ronnie is cool, then I'll stay there, but if he's pissed..."
"Okay."
"I should've known he'd do something like this. At the beginning, he was..."
"Rough? Abusive?"
"Yeah."
"It's not your fault." Max kissed my hair and embraced me in a hug. "They need to push aside their grudges against each other."
"Yeah." I took a shuddery breath. Max's presence was comforting.
"Especially Ronnie. He's been your best friend your whole life, and he needs to get it together. Craig needs to grow up."
"Yeah."
"Come on, let's go see what they're up to." He helped me up, and we walked to the living room.
"Craig, grow the hell up!" Ronnie screamed, being held back by Monte. "I don't give a fuck that you dated her, you broke her heart, and that's all that mattered! You didn't even have the decency to tell her yourself, instead you cheat on her for six whole fucking months! You're the scum of this earth and I hope you never get the chance to get any girl like Ash, because no one deserves a piece of shit like you!"
"Ronnie's still fucking pissed his band abandoned him, how cute." Craig seethed.
"I'm not pissed. You're the one mentioning it. Maybe you're just jealous!"
"I need a blunt." I sighed.
Max handed me one. "Light away."
I inhaled the sickly smoke and relaxed the tiniest bit. Robert was struggling at holding back Craig. "You fucking hit my girlfriend!" Ronnie yelled. "I can't believe you did that! What the fuck is your problem? I don't give a shit that you have a vendetta against me, but you hit my girlfriend? You're messed up!"
"I don't give a damn that you're pissed I hit your girlfriend. She was mine, first, and you just come in and swoop her out of my arms."
"You fucking hit her."
"So?"
Ronnie stared at him. "So? What the hell does that mean?"
"It means what it means."
Ronnie broke free from Monte's grasp and got a few good punches in on Craig before Monte and Max pulled him back. "You bastard!" Ronnie yelled.
Craig stood up and wiped blood from under his eye. "I hope you and your slut girlfriend are happy together."
"Why's she a slut?"
"She only fucks rockstars, Ronnie. You, me, Max."
"How the fuck do you know that?" I looked up at him. "I didn't tell you shit, and I know Max didn't."
"I'm smart enough to figure stuff out." He said, walking past me. "Anything else you want to tell me, Ronnie?"
"The first time you two fucked, you got her pregnant. She aborted it." Ronnie sneered.
"Heroin Night?" He stopped and looked at me.
"Why do you care? It was two years ago."
He pinned me up against the wall by my wrists. "You should've fucking told me."
"I wasn't keeping it." I spat. "You have no right to own me or control what I do."
"I do when you're harboring my child."
"No, you don't."
"You've just a worthless slut. I wish I knew what you were good for." He punched me in the stomach and walked off.
I collapsed onto the ground, unable to breathe. Ronnie rushed to my side. "Babe, fuck, are you okay?"
Silent tears were streaming down my face. It was a struggle just to sit up. "Fuck..." I whispered.
His hands were on my cheeks, wet from the tears. "Babe, no, you're gonna be okay."
Max handed me a glass of water. "He's an asshole."
"We need to talk about him." Robert said. "Maybe kick him out."
"Later." Max waved him off. "Ash, do you need to go to the hospital?"
"No." I managed. "I just... I wanna go home."
"Okay." Ronnie said, helping me stand up. "Here, jump on my back."
I did. "You gonna be okay?" Monte asked, looking up at me.
I nodded. "Y-Yeah."
"I'm pissed you guys held me back, but if you didn't, he'd be dead. So, I guess thanks for saving me from prison again." Ronnie said. "And thanks for helping Ash. It means a lot."
"Of course." Max said. "I'll talk to you later?"
"Yeah."
"Bye, Ash."
Ronnie silently carried me back to our apartment. He laid me on the bed and went to the kitchen. He returned with bandages, water, ibuprofen, and a sweatshirt of his. "You were shivering." He explained, wrapping the sweatshirt around my shoulders.
"I just..."
"I know. I gotta bandage you up, though." He tenderly wiped the dried blood off of my face, careful to avoid pressing on the bruises, and applied a bandage. He handed me the glass of water and two ibuprofen tablets. "Take these."
I drank the water and swallowed the pills. "Okay."
Ronnie got up. "I have-"
"Please, don't leave me." I don't think I'd ever desperately begged Ronnie for anything before. Jokingly, sure. But seriously? Never. "Please, Ronnie."
He looked at me. God, I must've been pitiful. Hair messed up, bruising on my face (and probably my stomach, too), tear stained cheeks, and smeared lipstick. "I'm just grabbing a washcloth." He went to the bathroom and came back. He wiped the tears off of my face and took the lipstick off. "Babe, it's okay. You're okay. I'm not leaving, I swear."
"Even if you have band practice?"
He chuckled. "No, not even then. I'll just invite them over, you can get to know them."
"How'd Craig know that Max and I slept together?"
"I don't know. Him, you, and me were the only ones who knew. I didn't tell anyone, I know Max didn't, and I know you wouldn't. It was years ago. You guys were teenagers."
"I dunno. He's just... Creepy."
"Yeah." Ronnie kissed my hair. "I'll always be here, by your side. I never intend on leaving, okay? I'm not gonna let you go, not for the world."
"Okay."
"Come on, you should get some sleep."
"It's three in the afternoon. You probably don't want to sleep now, either."
"Yeah, but you need it. I'll stay, don't worry."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
I rested my head on his chest and he wrapped his arms around my waist. "Night, Ronnie."
"Night, Ash."
After a few minutes, I was almost completely asleep, when I heard Ronnie whisper. "I love you, babe."