Alleyway BxB

XVII (Fault)

MONDAY, 8 OCTOBER
NATHAN COVINGTON

"I'd hate to tell you this, Nate... but I think you just gave Matt another anxiety attack."

Just outside the glass fence surrounding the pool, the house was close but not close enough to hear me and my tempest of thoughts that were near ready to spill. My fingers had gone white until I let go of his arm and even after the bone-crushing grip, the same stupid expression stayed plastered on his face. Him: something I hadn't touched in so long and just when I started to move past him... "I can't believe you." My hands were so tightly clenched that the feeling in them had numbed slightly. He was smaller than me, always was weaker.

But he smiled. "Matt's really kind," he told me as if I didn't know my own brother. "So sweet yet so troubled. I almost didn't believe the both of you were related, but the negative traits had to go somewhere, didn't they?" His placid tone tipped me closer to the edge. There was an edge of humour to it, like we were still sat under that oak tree at the park reminiscing on the evening we first met. Briefly, he looked toward the house again. "I met Zach a couple weeks ago too. I'm starting to think you treat all your partners like this."

"What did you do to him?"

A subtle snicker slipped his lips. "Wouldn't you love to know," he taunted as he paced around me slowly.

"Answer me, Jace."

"You were my first," he said and I knew I was. "Oh, I was so excited. Six months of pure bliss. February to July. I thought we were going to last forever... Where did you go?"

"This isn't about us-"

"Then let's make it about us," he demanded, the first ounce of venom I'd ever tasted in the time I'd known him. "It's why we're outside, isn't it?" He opened his arms and motioned to the darkening sky. "You're assuming that I'm as terrible of a boyfriend as you were and you're terrified. I would never do what you did to me to anyone and you should know that. You two kept your relations so under wraps, who's to say I knew about it when we started?"

His hands were now crossed behind his back and he leaned forward slightly in interest; but I wouldn't have ever fallen for it. He always knew how to look innocent. "I know you did."

"How?"

"I just know you did!" I growled lowly.

He grinned. "Okay, maybe I did. What are you gonna do about it?"

I responded in silence. What could I do about it? I had only found out about them tonight and they were together for far longer than that. Blaine and I started in August. Maybe then? How deep did they go?

"I've waited all this time just to talk to you again. I planned it too. I wanted to hurt you so badly just to get back at you for leaving me like that," he admitted. "Matt's been at my side the entire time we were together too. It felt like the perfect plan. The things I was going to do to him... but I realised he didn't deserve it," he sighed in disappointment. "Besides, I fell for him about a week in. It would have hurt me as much as it did him. I dare you to break us up, Nathan. He'll feel so guilty; especially after what he did."

The red that had clouded my vision lifted somewhat but I couldn't come to terms with the ache in my head he was causing me. Why did they ever have to meet? I always suspected he went to Beaumont but I never thought it was important. Why was I so careless? "And what did he do? You're blaming this on him?"

"Whoa, I never said that!" Both his hands shot up in surrender as I took a step forward. "Conclusions. Always jumping to conclusions... maybe you two are quite similar after all." He let them drop again as he exhaled a sharp breath. "He's cheated on me too. That's what I meant."