Maybe

I was vacuuming when he stormed in, I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but I turned off the vacuum waiting for him to come in and talk to me. I waited a couple minutes, but he didn’t come so I called out to him.

“Bane?” I said hesitantly. No reply. I cautiously walked down the hallway towards his room. I didn’t bother knocking, I’d been living there too long to care. I pushed open the bedroom door expecting him to be watching T.V. or reading a book. I was wrong.

He sat on the edge of his bed, his hands gripping the sheets until his knuckles were white. He stared straight ahead, looking passed the walls, the house, his home. It was dead quiet.

“Bane?” I said again almost on a whisper. Nothing happened for a moment, he still looked straight ahead. Then he snapped. There was rage in his eyes, a madness I hadn’t ever seen in him before. I hadn’t known he was capable of such anger and so instead of feeling fear, shock is what pulsed through me.

But suddenly he was up off the bed. He raged forward and pushed me up against the wall.

“Bane, I-” but he cut me off. His hot mouth covered mine, taking all the breath from my lungs. His hands were harsh, running up and down my sides. I melted into him, giving into my own needs as well. So long I had wanted this, so long I had stayed up thinking about him loving me this way. He was even more passionate than I thought he would be. His mouth was hot and hard. His hands were bruising me, but I didn’t care. I wanted him. That’s all that mattered. But it wasn’t love coming off of him now. So many emotions were pouring into me while he kissed me, but the main emotion was pain. I could feel his heart breaking as he dispensed everything into one mind-blowing kiss and it was then that I felt my own heart break because this…it was all fake.

3 Months Before.

You aren’t mature enough for this kind of relationship.

My heart constricted, my breath was uneven and I held back the tears that threatened to spill over my eyelids.

I read the text message over and over again in my head before I finally shut my phone off completely.

There it’s done, I thought to myself. I had just put him through a test and he failed, but instead I was the one that was heartbroken. I had thought that maybe if I threatened to end the “friends with bens” relationship, he would realize how important I was. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Instead he agreed with me.

That bastard, a tear slipped down my cheek, but I quickly nudged it away with my knuckle.
Well, I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be, I tried to convince myself. It wasn’t working.

Bane and I had been best friends since kindergarten it was only until high school that things started to change. Puberty took over and Bane lost his baby fat. He was looking pretty good. Really good, actually. I was very confused at the time, because like every other kid my age, I was going through puberty as well.

As our Freshman year commenced, Bane had changed dramatically. Growing taller in height, growing deeper in voice, losing weight as time progressed…Bane was hot. The reality of it hit me in the face while we were at a pool party at our friend’s house. His broad shoulders, and tan skin. His newly formed six pack had come from his daily workout at the local gym along with some really nice calves. His short dark brown hair curled slightly and his eyes were a light shade of green. He had five o’ clock shadow, making him look dangerous. His smile was cocky, disarming and constant; as if he always had it at the ready.

Our relationship rollercoaster lasted until the end of our sophomore year. Bane came out completely fine, while I was taking it much harder. Within a month of our ended relationship, he had found someone else and he was happy. Christina, his new girl, changed him the way I never could or would. He wore different clothes, he hung out with a different crowd, and he listened to different music.

My Bane wasn’t “My” Bane anymore. He became arrogant and stupid, playing it off like the only thing he cared about was sex and weed. And of course, through it all I loved him more than anything. He was the last thing I thought about before I went to bed, the first thing I thought of in the morning.

At the time, my family was going through a hard time and since I no longer had Bane to tell everything to, I kept it to myself until one night.

My dad and my mom always fought like this. The screaming, the name calling, it was all just a normal thing, but something about that night was different. I could tell right when the fight started that it was not going to end well. I decided my best bet was to go into my room, shut my door and just sit it out. The yelling escalated until I heard a loud crash.

I was scared out of my mind, but I was also worried that one of them had gotten hurt so I carefully twisted the lock on my door and eased the door open. I was just in time to see my mom push herself up off the floor and shove my dad backwards just like I assumed he had done to her except my dad was a lot bigger than my mom. The whole thing became quite violent and I didn’t know what to do. So I shut my bedroom door and locked it and cried. I listened to the crashes and tumbling and the curses and yelling.

Luckily, my neighbor had called the police. When the police finally arrived they pulled my raging parents
apart, they asked me a whole bunch of questions about my parents, and they told me I had to stay at a relative’s house for the night. The problem was that I didn’t have any relatives nearby. I sat and panicked for awhile trying to figure out where I could go. It was then that Dave, showed up. Dave was a big part of our small community. He was the deputy sheriff and he had known my parents for a long time. Something about Dave always calmed me. He knew me well and he should have anyway, because he, coincidentally, was also Bane’s father.

“Valerie will be staying with Martha and I,” he said to the officer who had been questioning me most of the night. The officer nodded and strode away. I quickly got up and jumped into Dave’s arms. I sobbed and sobbed, letting all of my fear and sadness release. Dave hugged me fiercely and wiped away my tears.

“Come on, darlin’. Let’s take you home,” I nodded and wiped my nose on the back of my arm. I was so tired, the whole night was just exhausting. I climbed into Dave’s cop car and tried to numb all the feelings that wrapped themselves around my heart.

By the time we got to the house I had managed to stop crying. A quiet settled over me and I tried to still my fast beating heart. Dave opened the door to the house that I used to call my second home.

“I’ll just wake up Bane really quick,” Dave said walking down the dimly lit hallway. I went to protest, but he had already made it to Bane’s room. So I decided to just go sit out on the couch. I didn’t expect him to come out of his room. He didn’t talk to me anymore anyway. Whenever I was near him, he looked through me. It was like I was invisible to his eyes, but still he came out of his room.

His eyes were wide as he came in and saw me sitting on the couch.

“Look, I’ll find somewhere else to stay. I know your dad is just trying to be polite, so it’s cool. I’m sorry for making this uncomfortable for you,” I said to his beautiful figure. It was quiet for a moment, while he thought everything out.

“Come on,” was all he said. He turned around and walked back towards his bedroom. I still sat there watching after him with my jaw dropped open. I expected him to say something along the lines of, “Yeah, can you find somewhere else, because you being here is kind of awkward for me.” A moment later, he peeked his head around the doorjamb.
“Dude, Elmo, it’s three in the fucking morning. I don’t know about you, but I want some sleep so maybe you could get your fat ass over here so we can go to bed,” he said, using his old nickname for me. I almost started crying again, but I pulled myself together and followed him into his bedroom.

When I walked in, I was surprised to see my old bed laid out next to his.

“You kept it,” I said to him.

“Well, it is yours so yeah, I kept it,” he replied smiling. So I laid down on my bed and curled up in his old power ranger blanket.

“Hey, Val?” he said into the darkness.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“I missed you.”

I felt the tears run down my cheeks and then I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

Months went on, Bane and I were friends again and even though he was still with Christina, I was just glad that I had My Bane back. My parents weren’t allowed to have me in the house with them for a total of five months until the hearing. Dave and Martha decided that I would stay with them.

Since Bane and I were friends again, we would hang out at school and stuff. I felt myself healing from all the dramatics that took place only a couple months before. I even started to like Christina. Everything was okay. I was okay…until one night.

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So, what do you think?