I Won't Give Up •The Substitute Teacher Sequel•

Chapter 39

Daniel's P.O.V.

   Life fucks us all in different ways. Maybe you aren't as pretty as your friends. Maybe your parents are alcoholics. Maybe you're stuck in the closet. Or maybe, just maybe, you have to make the love of your life be happy without you.
 
   Yes. I still love Joey. But what we have is unhealthy, not right. I love him with everything I am and more. But at a certain point you have to quit tearing yourself apart to make others happy.

   He made his choice that day he chose Preston. He knew he didn't want Preston. He fucking knew it. But I guess love does weird things to you. It makes you do things you would never think of doing.

   Sometimes people are depressed by the fact that they haven't fallen in love. But I think that's dumb. Love is amazing but you don't have to be in a relationship to experience it. You could love a friend, your family, a tree, a cat, just anything that makes you smile, you can love. Even if you have never met the person. Even if it is someone on the internet who makes silly little videos and you have never met but for some reason still makes you smile. You can love whatever you want. It doesn't have to be in a relationship.

   "Daniel, someone is here to see you," the nurse says and she steps away from the door, pulling me from my thoughts. Who the hell-
   "Preston," I say as my body fills with anger.
   "Calm down Preda. I'm here to make this right," Preston says sitting down at the chair beside me. It has only been 24 hours and this bitch has already found his way back to me.
   "What are you doing here?" I say taking deep breaths to try and not slit his throat.
   "I was in the neighborhood and I wanted to talk to you," he says with the most sincere grin on his face that I just want to rip off.
   "Why aren't you with Joey?" I say turning away from him and looking towards the door.
   "That's actually what, or who I should say, I want to talk to you about. You see Preda, you may recall earlier when I said that I actually wasn't in love with Joey?" He says. I nod my head as I pant from wanting to kill him and he continues, "well, just before we came in to see you the first time, Joey was asking all of these questions. One of them was if I actually loved him. Of course I lied and said I did blah blah blah. Anyways, I see the say he lights up around you. I can tell how he feels about you versus me. I know i'm not right for him, I knew that from the beginning. He was just to blind to accept his feelings, which i'm sure you caught onto as well," he says and then takes a breath.
   "What are you saying, Preston?" I say to him becoming more and more interested.
   "What i'm trying to say is, I know you actually love Joey. Don't even lie. And I sure as hell know that Joey loves you. Daniel, you go home from the hospital today. Why don't I drive you over to see Joey and you guys can make up? I will step out of the picture and let you guys have what you deserve, a happily ever after. Joey is lost without you. All night he was crying the most hurt cry you have ever heard in your life. He never stopped crying and he was still crying when I told him I was going to the store, but I actually came here. Joey is nothing without you. And honestly, you seem to be nothing without him," he says getting a bit closer to me. Why is he doing this? The guy that screwed this whole thing up is trying to put it all back together?
   "Why are you just now stepping up to the plate? Why didn't you help before everything started falling apart?" I say to him. A single tear streaks down my cheek. But only one.
   "Because i'm a heartbreaker. It makes me happy to hurt other people. I was planning on hurting Joey until I saw how much you loved him. I wanted you to fight for him. I wanted you to never give up. I wanted to make you guys stronger by showing you guys how crazy you were for eachother. And if that meant this whole year spent with you guys in pain, it was worth it. Because now if you guys get back together, nothing can hurt you anymore. Now you've walked through hell to make it to heaven," he says.

   I glance blankly at the ceiling. It all makes sense. He cheated on Joey to try to bring us closer. He got back with Joey and tried to get us to talk. Preston tried to make us closer. And, in some sort of fucked up way, he did.

   "Why would you do that?" I say with a little laugh straining through my voice.
   "Because that's how to be a heartbreaker, my friend. So, are you going to do it?" he says with an extremely hopeful smile.
   "Of course," I reply. And finally, for once in this whole god damn year, everything feels like it is going to be right.

   I have to sign some papers in order to be let go. I have never had a larger smile on my face being around Preston than when we walked out of the hospital and I got in his car. It's all falling into place. It's all working out. I shut Joey out but I knew I didn't want to, and now I get a chance to fix it.