Best Friends With Benefits

Chapter Thirty One

Soon after the brother incident, Gale left and passed Charlie and Alex who were sitting in the kitchen when I finally decided to show my face after 10 minutes of composing myself.

"Oh here she comes, the liar and sneaky boyfriend stasher" Charlie laughed as he poured me a cup of steaming coffee.

"Says you! I heard you two come in and giggling and eugh!" I used a gagging gesture for affect but this only seemed to make Alex laugh, I was glad they were taking it lightly.

"I knew it! I knew you would get with Gale!" Alex exclaimed in excitement.

"We're not together, I mean he asked me but I told him I need to sort things out between Aiden and I" Charlie just stared at me and then nodded in agreement.

"Well, Gale's a good guy and Aiden, he'll get over it" Alex always said what she thought and I knew after the whole 'issue' with Aiden that she had never really seen him any other way apart from a 'betrayer and player' as she called him. Maybe that influenced me to see him that way too, I didn't know but I definitely was seeing him in a new light since he beat up Gale. Aiden didn't hit Gale for my sake, he did it for his own satisfaction and that wasn't okay with me, I knew I needed to clear the air so decided to see him later that afternoon.

I strolled over to Aiden's door and knocked, it was the perfect time since his parents cars were gone meaning if we argued, I wouldn't have to face them as well. Aiden answered the door and the first thing I did was search his body for injuries but there didn't seem to be any which only made me angrier, fuelling the fire inside of me. I didn't need an invitation to walk in so I barged into his shoulder and he closed the door behind me.

"Why did you attack Gale like that!" The images of Gale wincing ran through my memory.

"He's not right for you" Aiden rubbed his temple which was a sign of a headache but that was nothing compared to the bruises and cut that Gale suffered. Aiden was surprisingly calm, probably because he knew I was going to come to him, he knew me and it was annoying.

"So that gives you the right to beat him!" I almost screamed but Aiden didn't react, not angrily anyway, he actually smiled and walked into the kitchen. "I'm sorry, is something funny to you?" I was yelling now and his smile disappeared when he faced me and saw pain in my eyes. "He didn't even fight back, I guess we know who's the bigger man" I threw a disgusted look at him and this boiled him up.

"Peyton, do you honestly think that people win what they want by walking away! No! In a battle, they fight to get want they want! Not walk away!" He slammed his fists onto the worktops making an echo through the house and through my brain.

"Win what exactly! What did you battle for?" I gripped my hair to stop myself from climbing over the worktop and strangling the guy in front of me.

"You! I fought to get you back!" This silenced me, it was as if I already knew the answer but it didn't settle in. Was it true? When he told me he loved me, maybe he wasn't just saying it to make Gale jealous but just an unfortunate occurrence of timing, I didn't have time to think about the fact that he was right.

"Why? Why fight over me?" This definitely was nothing like the movies when a girl has two guys fighting over her, this was awful and painful, especially when you felt you had to lose one to gain the other and right now I was losing Aiden and I didn't know if it was the right guy to lose.

"I told you" He muttered this and looked to the ground as he clenched his fists, Aiden wasn't the easiest guy to get to express his emotions but if he couldn't express them to me then he had no hope.

"Well, tell me again!" I shouted, I wanted him to be clear this time, for him to tell me with no witnesses around for him to provoke.

"I LOVE YOU" The silence that followed pierced my ears and I wanted to escape from this moment because I felt trapped as if the walls were closing in. Just as I was sure that Gale was my future and that I could regain Aiden as my best friend, these three little words turned my life upside down. My brain fizzled and I wanted to collapse, to take a break from the emotional rollercoaster that I couldn't get off of. Aiden voice was more piercing then the silence.