Circled by The Wolves [Brustoff]

Chapter 21

I woke up to a regular squeaky beep sound, that instantly started to annoy me, and sharp white light that blinded me for a second when I opened my eyes.

I covered my eyes and waited a second then removed it from my face looking around. I was in a hospital room. 

"Ben?" I muttered feeling his hair on my other hand.

He was sitting next to my bed with his head right next to my hand. 

He instantly raised his head although I didn't even know how he heard me.

"Guys, guys! He's awake!" He said and not even a moment later I could see James and Sam. 

"Wow, wow, wow... Relax, I'm fine." I said and tried to sit up in my bed, but I ended up coughing.

"You're not." Sam said. "You could've died if they didn't find you in time."

I gave him questioning look, then gave Ben and James the same one. "Explain." I narrowed my eyebrows.

"Do you even remember?" Sam asked me and I just stared. 

"The fire?" James said, then added when I wasn't responding: "What's your name?"

"Denis? What kind of question is that?" Are they playing me? "Where's Cam? I'm not playing this sick game." I announced. 

"No, Denis..." Ben stopped me from getting off of the bed. "We were playing a show in the Illusion Center and the whole building started to collapse. We wanted to jump down off of the stage, and then there was some kind of an explosion and you and Cam fell on the other side of the stage."

"You don't remember any of that?" Sam asked me, and I just stared. 

"Oh." Was all I managed to get out.

I remember. The fire... and everything. Dusty was there too. The symbol...

That was no coincidence. It was all a set up.

"Denis, do you remember?" Ben spoke again and I nodded slowly. 

"How's Cam?" I asked. "Is he okay?"

"You two both fell into the stage, but he was found before you. You both breathed too much smoke, but he woke up like two hours ago. He's good. We're worried about you though. Your condition was a lot worse. They said you could go into a coma, mate." James explained. 

"Really? But I'm perfectly fine!" I tried laughing but I coughed instead.

"Yeah, as we can all see." Sam muttered sarcastically. 

"Okay, I'm awake now so you can stop worrying." And let me think, I wanted to add but I hushed my mouth on time.

I mean, whoever did this didn't want me to die. Because if they did I probably wouldn't be here. But did they really had to blow up a building just to teach me a lesson or whatever?

And Dusty... What the fuck was he doing down there? Was he the one sending me those texts all along?

No, I wouldn't say. He was all about the mind games. 

This was something else. Something a lot more serious. Actually, someone a lot more serious.

"Can someone get my phone? I wanna tweet I'm fine." I lied. 

"Sure, here you go." Ben handled it to me eyeing me suspiciously.

"Jeez, chill you guys I'm fine!" I snapped meeting all of their worried glares. 

"Okay." Sam said.

"Fine." James frowned.  

"Whatever you say." Ben raised his hands in the air like he's giving up.

I glared at them then focused my gaze on my phone. I eyed them all not raising my haed from my phone. They were still looking at me. 

"That means you can go get some coffee or something!" I snapped again.

"Okay." 

"Fine."

"Whatever you say." They all repeated. 

"Then go!" I looked at them like they were all out of their minds.

"Guys, he's right. Let's go." Ben said and escorted Sam and James to the door then as soon as they were out he shut the door and pushed a chair under the doorknob so they couldn't get in. 

He walked straight up to me and pressed his lips on mine carefully pulling me in for a deep kiss.

I melted into the kiss. I could literally feel everything he wanted to say through this simple kiss.
It was always like that with him. Ben didn't really talk about his feelings, his acts would say it all.

And right now, he was relieved.

"Denis, I was so fucking scared." He spoke once we broke the kiss. 

"It wasn't my fault that I almost died." I flashed him a smile.

"Can you fucking not?" He protested. "Denis, for fuck's sake..." He took a deep breath turning his back on me. 

"I'm sorry..." I tried but he cut me off.

"No." He was suddenly facing me. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault. Don't feel bad."
I laughed. "But..."

"No, don't you dare laugh! It's not even funny!" He snapped. "I could've lost you." He then turned around again.

My face went serious. "Ben, it's okay... I'm fine, really. See I'm here, alive. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here to stay."

"No, fuck that!" He still didn't look at me. "I mean, like... You could have died, Denis. And I was completely unable to help."

"It's okay, Benji. It's okay. It wasn't your fault ether. My voice softened while my heart fluttered.

Was he really this worried about me.

"It's not okay... Don't say that..."

"Ben, what do you want me to say then?" I smiled awkwardly, but I found him adorable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I was enjoying him stressing out because of me, it's cute. Deal with it. 

"Tell me that you love me and that you're never gonna leave!" He burst out, his eyes going wide just a second after as he realize what he just said.

I couldn't say much different about my state ether. 

My eyes were wide and my jaw probably on the floor. I couldn't breathe for a moment and I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.

Did he really just... Oh my god!

Did he feel that? Did he...

I chocked on air, and Ben then seemed as he started to function again. 

He stayed silent for a moment probably processing what he just said. Then he slowly walked up to me while I was still in the state of sock.

He looked me in the eyes, but it was more like he was looking anywhere else then into my eyes.

Like he was thinking.

Then he moved away from me.

Was he going to regret his words?! Was he going to say he's sorry for saying it. I mean, he technically didn't even said he loved me... I mean, it was like he was expecting me to say it back, but not like...

I realized I was zoning out, so I shook my head and when I brought myself back to reality Ben was sitting on my bed next to me. 

"Awkward silence is gold, don't ya think?" He asked rhetorically.

"Ben, you... I..."

"I love you Denis." He sighed. "I have for a while. Please tell me you feel the same."

It hit me like a fucking pile of bricks and I had to look away from his fucking perfect angelic eyes letting the words sink in. 

After few moments I looked back up to meet Ben's gaze, but it was like I didn't even see him. It was like I was looking right through him and everything become a blurry drawing as the realization occupied my mind.

"I love you too." I whispered, admitting it more to myself than to him.