Page 27 of Love Triangle
We jog out the door, only stopping to put on our shoes and lock the door, then head to the woods. There are a few stumbles along the way in the dark, but we finally make it there in one piece. However, we don’t make it exactly to the center of the clearing before midnight hits, and I’m standing far too close to Crystal when the clock strikes twelve. When she changes suddenly, my leg gets caughtunderCrystal.
“FUCK!” I scream into the woods.
I can see my shin under her gentle glow, smashed into the earth. Thankfully the ground where we stopped is soft and I seem to be in a more “leg pressed into the earth” and not “leg snapped off” situation. It’s the part under my knee, not my entire leg, so I have some freedom of movement via my hip. Not that it really matters when I’m trapped here.Shit.What am I going to do?
There’s only one person I can call. Damn it.Trig.Reluctantly, I use my shaking hands to pull my phone from my pocket and I pull up the number I thought I’d never use, the one I thought about deleting a million times, and dial it.
“Hello?” His voice is scratchy with sleep.
“Trig.” Mine is hoarse with pain. “I need your help.”
He wakes up when he recognizes my voice, “Anything. Tell me what you need.”
It takes nearly twenty minutes for Trig to arrive even though he actually drove this time. He hates driving, but he did it. It’s just a long walk with the limp I didn’t know he had.
“Okay. I have no idea what to do. The pyramid is making me feel, uh,weirdbut I’m trying to ignore that,” Trig starts babbling and I know I need to cut him off.
“Good. Pulling your dick out wouldn’t help right now,” I snap. “I believe we need an ambulance but I’m afraid they will need some equipment to lift this, and then people might still be here when Crystal changes back to her human form. I can see some of my leg, but I need you to get a better look and tell me how much blood I’ve lost. If I can risk staying here until sunrise, I will.”
“Oh man. Okay. Um, it looks, uh, bloody. But it’s sort of pushed into the grass and dirt and you have pants on most of it so I can’t tell how bad. I think your circulation is probably fucked though. You have to get this taken care of. I’m not a doctor but it just doesn’t seem like a good idea to stay like this.”
“Fuck. Trig, I don’t want them to hurt her. Isn’t there a way we can move this?” I grit my teeth as a lance of pain shoots through me.
“It’s a massive rock that I’m surprised didn’t actually cut off your leg entirely with its weight so no. I mean it’s really heavy. Actually, hmm. Maybe I could tip it over with–”
A darkness seeps into the edges of my vision and I begin to feel very tired.
“Hey, Cliff, sit up. Don’t pass out.” Trig is shaking my shoulders. The darkness recedes.
“Alright.” I run a hand over my face and find myself to be ice cold. “I’m cold, Trig.”
“Oh shit. Cliff, I’m gonna call an ambulance, okay?” Trig’s voice is tight with panic.
“No, Crystal.”
“It’ll be okay. We will figure something out. I can’t lose you.”
“You already lost me long ago.” A sob breaks from my chest and I cringe in embarrassment.
If you’d have asked me yesterday if I would be spilling my emotions in front ofhimI would have laughed in your face, but now…now I don’t have the will to stop. Too much pain at once, too much fear. It’s no longer possible to hold it all inside, as hard as I try. I’m too exhausted to hold up these walls. I’m in pain, I’m tired and I have been for so, so long.
“Cliff, please. Don’t say that.” Trig puts his forehead on my shoulder and I’m too weak to shake him off.
“I loved you and you turned me away. You rejected me. Then you ruined my life.” The tears are flowing freely from me now as I pour my heart out. I can’t stop these words, despite my mind screaming at me to end this.
“You loved me? I rejected you? What do you mean?” Trig’s voice is full of hurt and confusion, and I could almost believe that lie it sounds so honest.
“I asked you out to prom and you turned me down. Maybe you didn’t even realize I was asking but that hurts just as much. You never even considered me as a candidate for a lover.” Sobs break from my chest one after the other. I can’t even feel the embarrassment anymore over the pain.
“Cliff. I didn’t realize. And I never considered it because I never thought you’d want an idiot like me.” Trig falls back on his heels, his face fully serious and dark for once. Tears fall from his beautiful gray eyes and I wish I could wipe them away. “All I’ve ever wanted was to be close to you.”
I think about our lives, everything passing in a flash. Every moment that he lost or fumbled just to be near me. I sob harder.
“You left me all alone. You were all I wanted, everything I needed, and you left me. I didn’t know what those feelings were and I’m sorry. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it, but I love you and I can’t lose you. Even if you still hate me and tell me to go away every day, I just need you near me. Please don’t go away.” Trig curls up into himself and cries in soft sobs.
The beautiful man before me becomes, for a moment, the boy I knew so long ago. The one who came to my bed when he couldn’t sleep for fear of monsters. When he was heartbroken. When his dog died. He always came to me.
My heart shatters harder than any bone ever could.
