Chapter 69 Does it hurt?
The door opposite me opens and Tim stumbles out, looking half-asleep.
“What the fuck’s going on out here?” he yawns, stretching his arms over his head, as he glances around taking in the scene.
Me in my pyjamas, Terry in my arms crying, Natte bleeding from the mouth, Dennis in his boxer shorts.
“Oh, right,” he says putting two and two together, dropping his arms down. “Guess I’ll leave you guys to it then.” Stepping back he closes his door.
Natte hasn’t taken his eyes off me, but I can’t bring myself to meet his stare.
“Come on,” Terry says to me after crying for a while. “we can’t stay out here.” Because Will will never look at me the same again it's over between us Shiva, I can feel her agony and it makes me feel pretty worse.
Moving me forward, my legs feel like lead as she steers me into Natte’s suite. He steps back, making room for me to pass.
Dennis closes the door behind us all, as Terry sits me down on the sofa, sitting beside me.
It’s utter silence in the room. The most uncomfortable silence I’ve ever been in.
“Come on, man, let’s clean you up.” Dennis jerks his head in the direction of the bathroom at Natte, breaking the unnerving silence.
Natte looks at me. He seems hesitant to go, but after a long, lingering moment, he wordlessly follows Dennis through the bedroom to the bathroom.
“I’ll get you some water.” Terry gets up and quickly returns with a bottle of water and a wad of tissues, handing me them both.
I wipe my face dry with the tissues, putting the bottle beside me on the sofa. I wonder why she's relaxed considering Will is her boyfriend and we've betrayed him.
“How did he find out?” she asks in a quiet voice.
“He heard while I was talking to the night boyfriend I have.” I glance at her, a fresh tear leaking from my eye. I wipe it away. “He knew something wasn’t right from your behaviour last night.”
“Yes, but I did the wrong thing in the beginning. I’ve fucked everything up, Terry.” Leaning forward, I put my head in my hands, as tears form in my eyes again.
Terry rubs my back. “You made a few errors in judgement granted, but you’re only human, Shiv. And you’re clearly in love with Natte.”
I turn my head glancing at her. “I know, but I still shouldn’t have done what I did.”
“No, you shouldn’t have, but there’s no changing it now I’m afraid.” She tucks my hair behind my ear. “So now we have to figure out what we're going to do from here.” She nods her head in the direction of the bathroom.
She means what we are going to do about Dennis and Natte.
“I don’t know.”
“Well I’m taking it I and Will have broken up.”
“But that doesn’t mean we should jump straight into something with them, and… well, Natte spent the night with another woman.” My lips turn down at the corners.
I was half-expecting Vanessa to be here in his room to be honest as it’s still so early.
She shakes her head. “No he didn’t.”
I look at her surprised. “He did. Steve told me Ben had brought him and her back here.”
“I was leaving the party with Dennis last night, not long after you left, and Tim said he was coming back with us, that he’d just got off the phone with Natte; said Natte had called him and he was wrecked and was in a real mess over you. He said he’d never known Natte to be like that over a girl, and it was freaking him the fuck out. I said I thought he’d left with that girl too, but Tim said there was definitely no girl with him because no girl would have put up with his whining over you.”
“And from what I know, Tim spent most of the night in Natte’s room talking him down. I know for definite there was no girl in here because Dennis was so worried about him that he left me to go check on him too. When he came back, he said that maybe I should talk to you, because Natte was really screwed up over the whole Fake boyfriend being here thing.”
“I’ve messed up so badly,” I whisper, the tears starting again.
I’m relieved that Natte hadn’t slept with her, but I’m all cut up over Will and how much I’ve hurt him. I just don’t know what to do.
The bathroom door in the bedroom opens, and Natte comes out with Dennis behind him.
My whole body tenses.
The blood’s gone from his lip, but it’s all swollen and readying for a bruise.
He comes over and sits on the edge of the sofa, opposite me, resting his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together, he looks over at me with wary eyes.
I dry my tearstained face again, and set the damp tissues on the sofa beside me.
“We’re gonna go get some breakfast,” Terry says, rising to her feet. “I’ll come and see you later.” She rubs my shoulder.
Then she and Dennis are gone, and it’s just me and Natte, and a whole lot of silence.
“Will is your fake boyfriend,” he says quietly, like he can barely believe it.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I look at him surprised. “I have a real boyfriend, he comes to my bed every night before you showed up. I was telling him about us when Will overheard everything and because I couldn’t go on lying to you… and because of you, Natte… because I hated what this was doing to you, had done to you.”
He stares at me with such intensity, it’s momentarily almost too much to handle. My insides are quaking.
“Did he hurt you?”
I look confused.
“When he pushed you and you hit the wall, did he hurt you?”
I touch my shoulder. “No. I’m fine. I should be the one asking if you’re okay?”
I’m lying, it hurt, it still does, but I don’t want to anger him anymore than he already has been.
He puts his finger to his lip. “It looks worse than it is.”