Fake Turns Real

The Time Has Come

“You’re finally out,” John smirked as I stepped out of the bathroom in my tank top and shorts, about to go to sleep, “I thought you regretted having me out of the bathroom and cried for so long.”
“Shut up,” I said, and tried not to show that I was freaking over his fit body – he had stripped down to only his boxers. He never listened to me, did he?
“Anyway, it’s my turn,” he said and headed to the bathroom.
“JOHN!” I hissed when John slapped my butt on his way to the bathroom as he walked past me. He laughed.
I threw my hands up in the air in frustration and sat down on the bed.
I was thinking about everything and my eyelids were drooping when John got out of the bathroom. My eyes almost popped out when I saw him.
He only had a towel wrapped around him, his hair still wet and dripping with water. He laughed at my expression.
“Is it really that hard to put on something?” I composed myself and asked.
“Yes, when I’m going to see you next,” he replied grinning, and walked towards the closet. He fished out a pair of boxers and was about to unwrap the towel right then and there. Of course, I stopped him.
“STOP!” I tried to shout as quietly as possible, and he looked up with a sly grin, his fingers tightening around the rim of the towel. He unwrapped it slowly, and I immediately let out a tiny scream before pulling up the blanket to cover up the crazy scenario in front of me.
John was laughing again, and after a few moments the blanket was yanked out of my hands. I was about to scream when a pair of lips silenced me.
My scream was muffled so I was making some weird noises. John pulled back and flicked his wet hair. At least he had put on his boxers now.
“What are you doing?” I said, shocked, “I hate you!”
“You love me, stop lying to yourself,” John smiled, and went to the bathroom before I could speak furthermore.
He came out with the hairdryer and plugged it in and started blow drying standing at the end of the bed. I was initially staring at his toned abs, but immediately lied down and turned away from him when he looked up to wink at me.
I was actually very tired, it was only John who pulled me back from falling asleep when he got out of the bathroom, so I was starting to fall asleep again even though the hairdryer was kind of noisy. I did not even realize when John came under the blanket, so I was startled and almost screamed again when a pair of arms snaked around me from behind me.
“So you’re not asleep yet,” John stated as he felt me tense up under his touch.
“Get your hands off me,” I hissed but he just further tightened his arms around my waist. I could feel the heat radiating from his almost-naked body. I could not see his face as he was behind me or else I would have bit his nose off.
“No,” John said and one of his hands began to creep under my top. I quickly slapped his hand away.
“Ouch!” John yelped, “What was that for?”
“You clearly know what that’s for,”
“For trying to be a good husband?”
I sighed and attempted to unlock his arms around me but he would not move.
“Please,” John pleaded in a sugary voice, “Let me cuddle you, please?”
“No,”
“I promise I won’t try anything,”
“No,”
I heard him sigh, “I won’t let go anyway, so whatever,” he said as he could see I would not surrender.

The next day I left with my parents and John stayed at home. I went to the shops for groceries, and when I came back I found John in his room working so I moved my stuff back to my room as quietly as possible.
I was going to put back my books onto the shelf when I noticed that it was fixed – it was no longer falling. Did Dad fix that up for me? But I did not know that he had a tool box with him and as far as I knew I did not see him asking us for one.
Confused, I went back to John’s room and got the remaining stuff over when I noticed his fingers covering in bandages.
I gasped aloud, and John immediately snapped his head around from his desk to see what was wrong.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, and followed my gaze to look at his own fingers.
“What – what happened to your fingers?” I asked.
“Oh,” he bit his lip, “It’s nothing.”
“Did you fix up my shelf?” I accused.
“Actually… I called Liam over to help fix it when you were out so I helped him out a bit… And you know how clumsy I am with these things so I mainly looked at him doing his job, but I did help a bit so…”
“A bit? It doesn’t look like it,”
“It’s true,” he said, “I didn’t help much but that little work I did already made my fingers like this so you don’t have to thank me.” He winked at me.
“I need to give Liam a call and thank him,” I said.
“Don’t,” John stopped me and grabbed my arm when I was about to turn around but winced as it hurt his fingers, “Liam actually told me not to tell you about it – he said it’s a small thing and he doesn’t want you to make a big deal out of it.”
“But having that shelf back to its perfect state basically saves my life,”
“Just don’t okay, or he’ll blame me,” he said looking into my eyes.
I thought for a second, “Okay then, if you say so,” I grabbed John’s hand tenderly and examined it instead, “Does it still hurt?”
“Not really,”
“Thank you,” I thanked him sincerely. I knew it was nice of him to remember my complaint.
“I told you, it’s not my glory,” he winked at me again. OH WELL.

A few months had passed and I was starting to worry when Richard was going to get married. I had held John back for a long time now and I did not want to ruin his life.
Today I went over to my parents’ on my own and we were talking on the sofa when the topic of Richard got brought up. He had visited my parents less often now and I had not really talked to him much for a long while, even though I had seen him a couple of times in these few months. He had almost given up his hope on me completely, but we wanted to play safe so we did not dare to divorce now or who knew our effort would be wasted or not.
“Have you talked to Richard lately?” Mum asked me.
“No, why?”
“Do you know he’s got engaged?”
“WHAT?” I exclaimed, shocked. He was engaged? Our deal were about to come to an end? Oh my God! This was a great news!
“Yeah,” Mum continued, ignoring my stunned expression, “They’re going to get married next month – I think they’re kind of rushing it but…”
I could no longer hear what Mum was saying. Richard was engaged. He was getting married next month. Just one more month to go and both John and I could be free. But now that I thought about it… I knew I would miss John after this. I would miss him a lot.
It sounded strange but a part of me did not want this to end. But well, just a tiny part of it. And it was not like I could not see him afterwards, was it?
“Are you okay (Yn)?” Mum asked after noticing my sudden lack of response.
“Yeah,” I answered, “I’m just pretty shocked.”
“I can see that,” Mum laughed, “And I was very shocked when I heard it! But it’s all just a matter of time, isn’t it?”
I nodded.

I went home a while later, and when I opened the door, I found John sitting on the sofa with a blank expression. The TV was not on, and he was just sitting there, staring into space, expressionless.
“John?” I walked closer to him, and stood next to him. That was when I noticed an envelope and an invitation card lying on the coffee table in front of him – Richard’s wedding invitation. I gulped. I knew what was wrong with him now. He knew I still treated him as a friend and nothing more, so he probably knew what was coming next for us.
“Richard’s getting married, huh?” he whispered, still not looking at me.
“Yes,” I felt my stomach tense up, “And that means—”
“No,” he suddenly snapped his head up to look at me and he stood up to face me, “NO.”
“John, we—”
“NO,” he repeated, his eyebrows furrowing, “I don’t want this to end. I need you (Yn)… I have been thinking about this for a while now, thinking of what will be ahead of us… I have imagined what’s going to happen to you after we di – divorce, and the image of you in another man’s arm always breaks me into pieces… I can’t stand the thought of you being with someone else other than me… I love you (Yn), please, don’t do this.”
“But this is the best way for both of us,” I said, and I began to feel bad, “You deserve your freedom – I’m sorry for holding you back for so long, but it’s time…”
“It’s not,” he said, “I love you, and I know you actually feel something for me, you’re just not admitting it – please, give it a try…”
He was staring into my eyes, sadness swirling in the beautiful pool of green. He looked tired and scared, and I had never seen him so vulnerable… And it hurt me.
“I – we can’t—” I began when I got cut off.
“Do you love me?” John asked.
“John, I—”
I could not finish my sentence because he silenced me with his lips.