"Man you fuckin' outcho mind." Proof paced down the hallway behind Marshall.
"Nah, doody. You're the fuckin' twisted one in this shit."
Marshall was so angry he could practically feel the sweat beads begin to seep out of his forehead. Proof on the other hand could not believe the assumptions which Marshall had come to about him.
"Go on, motherfucker. Check the tape. Just know that you brought this shit on your own fuckin' self." It was rare that Proof yelled like he did. Marshall was definitely caught off guard. Nonetheless, he made his way towards the security room to check the tapes from earlier that evening.
It had been just a week since Marshall had cheated on Sloane and ended things with her. He would have been lying if he said that he didn't miss her desperately. He'd not spoken to her since he'd told her that things were over. All of her calls and messages went ignored by him. He did not want to face up to what he had done to her. iiu 'You're my best friend, man. But you ain't no man if you can't look that woman in the eye and own up to the shit that you've put her through.'
Proof's voice was on a loop in his mind.
"Show me the security tapes from the booth." He busted through the security room doors.
"What?" A technician furrowed his eyebrows, thrown off guard.
"You fuckin' heard me. Show the security footage from 6 o clock this evening and get out." Marshall was angry enough at what he believed he would behold; the sight of his best friend fully exploring the same body, the same elegant curves of the woman his heart still held onto. He didn't need some twenty year old screen leech seeing it too.
Once Marshall was alone, he watched. Sloane had walked through the lobby doors, and the sight of her again made him still.
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Her glasses were pushed up on her head and pulled her hair back. Her figure moved from different angles by different cameras as she made her way through the building. At last she reached the studio and knocked softly.
"Yea?!" Proof yelled from the other side of the door.
She opened the door and stepped in.
"Hey Proof."
"Sloane..." He turned around in his chair, attention completely to her.
"I was looking for Marshall."
"Ah, uh.. He's out right now."
"Oh.. alright." She twisted one of the rings around her finger. "Bye Proof..." She said sadly.
"Hold up, hold up.. Come here." He rushed to the door and opened it completely for her.
Marshall knew that Proof was only being nice. After all, Sloane deserved that after what he'd done to her. But something about the way Proof pulled a chair out for her just infuriated him.
"You doin' alright?"
"I'm good." She said flatly.
"Good?"
"Mhmm.." When Marshall watched her look down in her lap and fidget with the seam of her jeans, he knew that she was lying.
"I'm sorry he did this to you..." Marshall became even angrier with Proof for openly going against him.
When Proof scooted closer towards her in his chair he took that as an advance towards her, but what Marshall couldn't see in the fairly clear video footage were the tears that had already begun to fall down Sloane's cheeks.
"He really fucked up with you. And I don't know that he'll ever be able to fix that, but you've gotta know that he loved you as much as it was possible for him to love. And I think he still does."
Suddenly, her shoulders caved in and she hid her face in her hands. Now he could hear her sobbing. Proof pulled her body into his and while it made Marshall jealous, he was the one that had pushed her into his arms.
"I don't understand, Shaun... What did I do?" She cried into his shoulder. Marshall looked away from the screen.
"I loved him with everything I had.. And that wasn't enough." He closed his eyes, now totally unable to look at anything. Guilt, embarrassment, and sadness filled him.
"Slo... This doesn't have to do with you. The man is fucked up. And that doesn't excuse what he's done to you... But don't blame yourself."
"I thought... I thought I might be able to fix him. I thought that I could." She cried.
"Everything will get fixed, girl... I'd bet my life on it."
The next few minutes consisted only of her sweetly tragic sniffling and occasional whimpers. Then came a point where Marshall's anger turned completely on himself and he couldn't take the emotions he was feeling. He would've given anything to have been able to reach through the screen, back in time, and hold her against him. To feel her and know that she was real.
He yanked the keyboard from the computer and slammed it against the desk. With all his strength he lifted the computer system and flung it through the clouded glass door. Glass shattered everywhere, but he didn't care. So lost in rage and the overbearingly painful consequences of his actions, Marshall drove his fist through the dry wall and felt the dreadful impact against his already darkening knuckles. Exhausted with emotion and sudden exertion, Marshall sat down at the desk with his head resting in his hand and felt himself begin to choke on his tears. He missed Sloane with all of his heart.
Proof rushed down the hallway to see what the commotion had been, he was still angry at Marshall. But when he saw his best friend hunched over a desk and his back convulsing with every silent sob that came to him, he decided to let go of his anger. For Marshall held more anger towards his own self than Proof could have ever held against him.
