Love Obsessed (7 page)

Shaking my head, “No. I’ve come to make sure that you’re alright.”

“Do I look alright to you?” she snaps. I’m at a loss on what to do. I want to hug her, to hold her, but what if she doesn’t want me to. I can’t tell what she wants anymore.

“Sweetheart.” I take a step toward her.

“Don’t ‘sweetheart’ me, Cole. You think that you can swoop in and pick me up when I’m having a weak moment? You haven’t spoken to me in weeks, and now I have a fight with Brandon, and you think that what? That I’ll act like you haven’t acted as if I don’t exist?”

“You’re the one who told me to stop!”

“Because Brandon was listening to the conversation!”

“You didn’t say that he was there!”

“How could I? He was listening!”

“I told you to tell me if he was there, and you hung up!”

“You don’t get it. God.” She places her hand on her forehead and spins around, her back to me.

“I thought that you and Brandon....”

“Me and Brandon?” she laughs, turning back. “Seriously, Cole? I thought we...” she closes her eyes, a tear escaping.

“You thought what?” I ask quietly.

“It doesn’t matter now,” she whispers.

“What’s going on over here?” Brandon’s voice sounds from behind me. He’s angry and coming toward us.

“Great,” Erin mumbles, gesturing toward Brandon’s direction.

“Erin, go home. We’ll talk there,” Brandon tells her.

“You can’t keep telling her what to do,” I tell Brandon.

“This has nothing to do with you, Cole.”

“It has everything to do with me. If it wasn’t for you, Erin and I would be together right now.”

“Oh my god! I’m right here!” Erin yells. “I am not some consolation prize, awarded to the last man standing. No one wants me until the other can’t have me. I’m sick of this. I’m so sick of this,” She whispers the last part.

“Erin,” Brandon whispers.

“No, Brandon. No. Go off and be with Beth. I don’t care, anymore, and you, Cole, just go and keep on doing what you do. I’m done.”  I watch helplessly as Erin gets into her car and leaves the car park, and me, behind as fast as she can.

***

I enter Ryan’s house, slamming the door behind me so that he’ll know that I’m here. Going past the bedroom and the lounge room, I hit the kitchen, the room I’m looking for, and help myself to a beer. I take a seat on the bench, facing the threshold of the kitchen and the hallway as I wait for Ryan to come and see who is in his house. He doesn’t disappoint.

“What brings your ugly mug here?” He spots me on the bench with the beer in my hand. Entering the kitchen, he heads over to the fridge and grabs a beer for himself before siting down at the table. I’m staring at the drink in my hands, so I can’t see him, but I can feel his eyes on me. I came over here wanting to talk to him about something, but don’t know how or where to start.

“Erin?” he guesses quietly. I look up at him, sympathy in his eyes. “I heard what happened at the office. Men gossip, too.”

“She said that she was done,” I say quietly, diverting my eyes back down. “I drove by the apartment, and her car wasn’t there.”

“From what I hear, she’s pretty angry. Give her some time to calm down.”

Looking back up, “She thinks that I’ve been acting as if she doesn’t exist anymore. She told me to stop all contact, and I get in trouble for doing just that, and then I find out that she only said that because Brandon was listening to our conversation. Who the hell does he think he is, having that much control over her? It’s not right, Ryan, and now she’s pissed at all of us and is God knows where with someone else.” My voice is getting louder as I speak, “And,” I continue, “I thought, this whole time, that Brandon and Erin were a couple, thought that he was the lucky bastard who got her. Everyone said so. From the day he brought her home, everyone has been saying that Brandon and Erin will end up together, and that they were just fighting their attraction for each other. No one else had a chance. They were all wrong, because he just wants to keep her locked away from anyone who could make her happy. Now we’ve all lost her. I just don’t understand why she would let Brandon have that much control over her. She’s stronger than that,” I finish, my voice quieting down.

Ryan sits there listening to me. He stays silent for a long time, his eyes still on me. I take a large mouthful of my beer, and then decide to finish it off. When the bottle is empty, I place it on the counter next to me, my pain still very present.

“You got something stronger then beer?” Ryan gets up from his chair and goes over to a cupboard above the stove. He pulls something out, comes back over to me, and he hands me the half empty bottle of whisky. I take the lid off and gulp down a mouthful. It stings, but for a moment, the pain in my heart goes away.

“Brandon gave Erin a family,” I slowly lower the bottle from my lips. Ryan continues, “I was in the bar the night that Brandon found Erin,” he smiles at the memory, “You had already left with some girl. Brandon had been watching her for a while. I picked on him for being a chicken shit and not going up to her. He was ignoring every other chick, and I was getting sick of him just staring at her, so I went up to her.” My pulse is racing, wondering where he’s going with this. “I had barely ordered our drinks when he arrived. He told her that she shouldn’t take drinks from strangers. He was acting like he cared, and then he eyed me. I could tell he was up to something, but I just thought that he wanted her for himself. He told her that I had just been with another girl in the bathroom, not a few hours earlier. I was furious at him, but he got the girl. You know how it is with us. They’re just girls; replaceable.”

“So you two didn’t....”

He shakes his head. “Brandon kept her close for the rest of the night, and scared off any other guy who approached her. I left soon after. Then he started talking about an Erin. Mum and Dad were so happy that one of their sons had found a girl, and then he brought her home one Sunday.”

“I remember. She looked so young, with those large brown eyes taking everything in. She never left his side.” Brandon had told mum that he was bringing a friend over. She was so excited. When Erin walked through the front door, everyone stopped what they were doing. She looked so out of her element. Mum and Dad had been very welcoming; we all were. She was quiet, but the way Brandon was with her, we had never seen him that way with anyone. We all thought that they were a couple.

We went out one night, and Brandon was dancing with someone else while Erin was at the bar. I went over to her, asked if everything was alright with her and Brandon, and she assured me that everything was fine. When I asked her why he was dancing with someone else, she laughed and told me that they weren’t a couple, just friends, and that Brandon can stick it anywhere he wants, as long as it’s not near her. I fell in love with her at that moment.

“Brandon gave Erin a family. Before she met him, she didn’t have anyone to care for her, or anyone to care about. She probably thinks that she owes him everything, and that she would lose the only family that she has ever had if she leaves him.”

“She wouldn’t lose us, though.”

“Brandon holds Erin up on a pedestal. He loves her like you do, but he doesn’t think that anyone is worthy of her, including himself. He’s keeping her from you, because he can’t stand the thought of her being with anyone else. That’s why he scares off any guy who shows interest in her, or her them. That’s why he’s been as miserable as you are about her being with someone that’s not either of you.”

What he’s saying makes sense, but it still sucks. I swallow, about to ask what I originally came over her to ask him. “The other week, you said that you loved Erin, too.”

“Yeah.” He places his beer down after taking a mouthful.

“What happened?”

“I told her.”

“And,” I prompt.

He laughs, “She said that she doesn’t date guys who have sex with one girl in the bathroom of a bar, and then go out and hit on another.” He smiles when he speaks of that moment, “I didn’t think she remembered,” he laughs again, taking another mouthful of his beer. “Fucking Brandon,” he laughs.

I smile, “That’s my girl.”

Erin

“Here you go, girl.” Jules passes over a drink. “To the scum they call men,” she toasts.

“To scum.” I lift my green drink and shoot it down. It burns my throat and tastes like shit, but it helps. After my fight in the car park, there was no way in hell that I was going back to Brandon’s. I didn’t want to go to Jakes either, so I called Jules. We went to college together.

“So what are you going to do now?” Jules asks while filling my glass up.

“Not a clue.” I shoot this drink down, too.

“Well I have a spare room. It’s yours.”

I look up at her. She knows what Brandon is like, and she understands the relationship that we have. “Thanks, Jules. I think that I’ll take you up on that. It will only be for a little while, until I can find my own place.”

“It’s yours for as long as you need it. No rush.”

I fill the glasses this time, “To new housemates.”

***

“Hey, baby. You alright? You sound unwell.”

“I’m fine. I just had too much to drink last night. How are you?” I groan out. My throat burns, my eyes refuse to open, and my mouth is dry with a foul taste in it.

“I’m ok,” he says cautiously. “Who did you go out with?” Jake asks over the line.

“Julie. She’s a friend from college and my new housemate.”

He’s silent for a moment, before saying, “Brandon kicked you out?”

“No. I’m moving out, and I’m moving in with Jules. I’d like for you to meet her.”

“I’d like that.” He sounds awfully happy at the moment.

“Good. We’ll organise something after I get all my stuff over here and settled in.”

“So, you and Brandon had a fight?” I tell Jake about Brandon, and his protectiveness. He’s as understanding as I could have hoped for. I suspect that he was a little jealous that I lived with him, but I have assured him that there was happening, and that nothing will ever happen with Brandon.

“Yeah. A huge one.” I slowly peel my eyes open, and then quickly shut them again, only to try to open them again. It is very bright and I have to squint to see.

“What about?”

I’m looking around for a clock in the room and don’t see one. “What time is it?”

“After twelve.”

“In the afternoon?” I ask, sitting up, then quickly lay back down as my head spins and my stomach turns.

“Yeah, baby. You sound horrible. Where are you? I’m coming to get you. I want you with me while you’re nursing your hangover.”

“It’s alright, Jake. I’m just going to sleep.”

“Please. I want you with me for the remainder of the weekend.”

“I won’t be any fun.”

“I don’t care. Now give me the address.” I tell him Julies address, and after having a shower, I wait in the lounge room where Julie is sprawled out on the couch looking like death.

She mutes the TV when she sees me. “Doesn’t your body hurt? Why are you dressed?”

I sit down on the couch, lifting her feet and placing them back on my lap. I need to sit down. The room is spinning. The shower helped some, but not much. “Jake’s coming to pick me up. He wants to nurse me back to health.”

“Aww, I want to meet him. Will he be coming around here? When are you moving in?”

“Yes. You will be meeting him. He wants to meet you, too, and I don’t know. He may be here. He has his own place. As for my stuff, I’ll bring it over during the week.”

“Cool. If you need help...” there’s a knock at the door, “let me know,” she continues on.

I remove her feet from my lap and answer the door. “Thanks. I will.” I open the door to see Jake standing on the other side, looking clean, neat, and alive.

“Hey, you.” He leans in and kisses me.

“Hey.”

“Come on. Let’s get some food into you.” Jake drives to a cafe not far from his place, where we eat breakfast and talk about the fight. “You think Beth told him?” he asks, surprised that she may know. We have been careful about being seen together.

“When she told me about her and Brandon, her eyes flicked to you, and I don’t know, maybe I’m just being paranoid. I don’t see how he could have found out any other way. I’ve only told him your name and that we met at a bar.”

“Baby, it doesn’t matter, ok? If she was going to say something, she would have by now. Maybe she just wants to see what type of reaction she’ll get out of us if we know that she’s seeing him.”

“Why would we care, though? I know that I don’t care who she is seeing.”

“You seemed pretty upset when she told you,” he quietly states.

I take a deep breath, “I was. I mean, Beth tried to make a move on Brandon in front of me when she first met him, before she knew that he was like a brother to me. I asked him not to sleep with anyone that I work with. He promised me that he wouldn’t, and that’s why I was so upset.”

“Beth tried to make a move on me too, so had Anita, Alicia, and a few others.” He shrugs as if it’s nothing.

“They hit on you?” I ask, shocked.