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Pete let his mouth fall open slightly. Foolishly, like most liars, he had expected to not get caught. Assuming, very wrongly, that his infidelity would be a secret and nothing more. His head wildly beat with excuses, reassurance that this will not change anything. Patrick kept his face still, now showing no emotion but his eyes threw accusations.



"Patrick I -" Pete began to stutter.

"Can explain?" Patrick said through somewhat gritted teeth. Pete once again was stunned into abrupt silence.

"No I mean, it's -"

"Not what it looks like?" Patrick frowned his eyebrows at his friend, "It looks pretty incriminating to me."

Pete's failing attempts at convincing his friend that his affair was harmless fell upon Patrick's ears refusing to care. He tried one last time, "Look you don't."

"Understand?" By now, Patrick had stood up from the couch, "I understand alright. What's wrong? Not getting enough? Couldn't cope a couple more weeks without a fuck? It's sick." He shouted this, kicking a random item of clothing across the room in the bus.

The rage that Patrick was feeling emanated of him, and Pete began to feel a similar amount of antagonism within him. He could hear his pulse beat wildly in his ear. Pumping new blood to his cells but with it a new leash of fury to release at Patrick. No, Patrick didn't understand, and no, Patrick would never understand.

"You know what man, fuck you," he spat out, "because you don't understand."

"What the hell is there to understand?!" Patrick moved closer to Pete, "There is nothing that could make what you did right!"

"If you'd give me a chance to explain then maybe you could know. Know how I feel about the whole goddamn thing."

This was all in hushed whispers, neither of them, for some reason, wanted to wake the rest of the bus. Each keeping a lowered tone as not to let the secret between them out. Patrick had enough respect for Pete to keep this quiet. To keep this to himself, though that respect was whittling away with each angered beat his heart gave. He was keeping stance, fighting urges to lash out at Pete. He clenched his fist into a ball.



"What explanation could you give me? Beata does not deserve what you have just done. And I don't know how long you have been doing it, I don't want to know. The point is it hurts to be deceived, to be lied to, to be cheated on. I thought you'd remember that pain. Explaining can not dignify the actions you have committed yourself too."



Pete stood aghast for seconds. Letting Patrick's speech sink in. Trying to make sure Patrick could not see that his words were affecting him. He kept his mind and face blank.

"What right do you have to tell me I'm wrong?" he said, quietly.

"What?"

"I said what right do you have to tell me I'm wrong?" His eyes filled with perfect discontent, "When you're fucking your best friends girl?"

"What the hell!?" Patrick tried not to laugh, "What the fuck are you going on about?"

"Oh don't give me that," Pete said, walking to the fridge and getting a drink, "It's obvious you're sleeping with Beata."

Patrick felt his cells rattled with hysterics. He wanted to punch Pete. No, he wanted to kill him. "Have you gone fucking insane?"

"You tell me," Pete had removed a drink and had now started to drink it, sipping at it with an air of superiority. In the argument, for once, feeling the winner, "Don't try to deny it."

"Deny what?" Patrick brushed of the insult, "Deny your crazy paranoia? You've lost it, I would never do that to you, I wouldn't dare touch Beata. God I've wanted to, but no, it's wrong Pete, wrong." Patrick walked up to Pete, not feeling out of place with the evident height difference, "I would never hurt you Pete."

Pete stared at Patrick, his eyes filling up with the guilt he had before. The remorse, the shunned silence only confirmed what Patrick said. He let his ridiculous ego ruin everything. Patrick offered one last blow to Pete's defeat, "And neither would Beata. She loves you. Not me. You."

"Fuck" Pete whispered. Slipping away from Patrick's blame. He lifted his hands to his head, rubbing his temples out of sorrow. Trying to think. What to do? What to say? There was nothing but a ringing in his ears. Whispers. Telling him he had messed up. Again.


"You have to tell her" Patrick said softly, "I can't keep this from her, she's one of my best friends, and you have to tell her."

"I c-can't Patrick, I love her."

"You should have thought of that before," Patrick kept his focus on Pete though he began to walk over to the bedroom, "You tell her, or I will."

And with the bated silence all that could be heard was the breaking of their friendship. The trust fading away. And a door, shutting with resentment. Pete hung his head with shame. His thoughts swimming around in his head. There. was nothing he could do to stop them.



~@~

Beata gripped the side of the wheel. Her eyes to the road, though they were glazed over. Blank. She spun around in the perfect corners. Watching the beams of her headlights hit each object to gain a better vision. Swerving to avoid disaster, though she relished the thought of crashing. Dying as her world fell down around her.


Tears began to line her eyelids and as she blinked they spilt down her cheek. Stinging painfully as she refused to wipe them dry. Her grip on the wheel was a grip on herself. Anything to keep control.

She could see them, dancing wildly in her mind. The girl, her blonde hair signifying deceit. Pete, with his arms wrapped around her, dragging her onto the tour bus. Beata had seen it all. But could not believe a second.

Instead of surprising him, she furiously spun the car around, speeding of in the other direction, with no destination a head of her. Just a heart that was slowly breaking into millions of pieces.

She reached down for her phone. Desperately typing in Pete's number into the pad. Finding any bit of evidence that would suggest that it wasn't Pete. Perhaps a look a like.



"Beata?" he whispered, hushing his tone.


"Pete? Is that you?"

"No it's me Patrick"



"Oh right," Beata sighed "why are you answering Pete's phone?"



"Oh he's erm"there was a pause "asleep."

"Asleep?" Beata spoke though she kept her fingers crossed. Praying silently to a god she knew didn't exist, "Pete never sleeps."

Patrick chuckled at her slight joke, "Go figure, must be his lucky day."

"Oh well, if he's not available, tell him I love him and miss him"

"I will"

"Miss you too"

Patrick held his breath for a mere second, "I miss you too"

"Bye

"Bye"



She hung up the phone and pulled over into a lay by. A swirling amount of traffic rushed by, horns beeping and music blaring. The dark turned around her. Distorting the beauty of the nature. The light of the moon. The shadows on her car. All became fiends. Enemies. She closed her eyes and began to sob. Unprotected tears falling from her mind. Slipping away from her. And with each droplet that fell, so did her trust, and another part of her heart.

***

Ciao Bella