S C H M I C O || A collection of short stories

Forgive and Forget

"I know you won't forgive me, but I'm still sorry!"

"Maybe if you actually tried to show me you were sorry instead of just telling me, I'd believe you."

Levi never expected to be sat in Taryn's apartment, knees pulled up close to his chest, face buried in his knees as he sobbed. That was something he had never thought would happen. Especially not over a guy, of all things.

She was a great friend to Levi. Really, she stayed by his side the entire time. Not necessarily saying anything, just keeping him company. Taryn knew Levi's boundaries; after all, they were practically best friends. It wasn't the first time she'd seen him cry, but it never got any easier. Especially when he couldn't calm down, when he couldn't control himself. It broke her heart every single time she witnessed it, even when she'd caught Levi crying over the fact that he was simply tired and wanted to sleep. She almost cried with him on that one.

Levi didn't stop bawling his little heart out for over an hour. A whole hour. It took every inch of self-control for Taryn not to cry too. She even debated calling up Casey, as he was better suited to situations like this. She really didn't want to wake him up in the middle of the night though, so she decided against it. He needed his rest just as much as anyone did.

"Do you want to tell me the full story now? I can't help you if I don't know the whole story of what happened." Taryn spoke softly, gently trying to persuade him, but not pushing Levi into telling her if he wasn't ready. He sniffed and tugged his sleeve over his hand, using the fabric to wipe under his eyes and nose as he nodded. Taryn sat back against the couch, crossing one leg over the other as she waited, the mug of tea in her hands warming her skin.

"I fucked up," Levi coughed harshly, shaking his head as he glanced upwards, as if he were trying to stop the tears from falling yet again. "I fucked up big time and I may have lost the man I love."

"Oh, Levi," Taryn sighed out, her face dropping at Levi's confession. She knew how much Levi absolutely adored Nico. It was so incredibly obvious and she could see how much this had affected him. She reached one of her hands out, resting it on Levi's knee for comfort. He forced himself to grin through the tears, placing his own hand on top of hers.  "I'm sure you haven't lost him. He loves you too much to let you go."

"I don't think it matters this time around, Taryn."

-

It had all begun over the fact that Nico and Levi hadn't had any time to see each other over the past few weeks. Their relationship had been somewhat strained and it was stressing Levi more than it should. His self-esteem hadn't always been the best and when Nico wasn't around, it only seemed to plummet even more. It didn't help that even when they texted each other, Nico would be blunt with his replies. One half of him understood that Nico was probably exhausted and just needed some time to rest, the other half was telling him that Nico didn't love him anymore, that perhaps he had done something wrong. Even if they had seen each other in the hospital, passed each other in the hallways, Nico barely acknowledged that Levi was even there.

Levi only just managed to catch Nico before he left for the night, so Levi decided to talk to him there and then, outside the hospital. Ironically, it was the same place Levi had first told Nico that he loved him.

"Nico, wait up!" Levi called after his partner, running after him. Nico turned around, feeling like he could fall asleep at any given moment. As much as he adored Levi, all he wanted to do was go home and sleep. Levi stopped right before him, breathing elevated a little from his sudden sprint.

"What's up?" Nico asked, a brow raised. Levi took a deep breath as his hands were shoved deep into his pockets.

"Can we talk? Just, quickly?" Levi wondered, to which Nico nodded once. He just hoped it wouldn't take too long; his feet were burning as he'd barely had time to sit down all day.