Tainted

2 - Colt: Red

Ben threw his fist into the punching bag, pounding and pounding as I held it in place. I watched his taped fists collide with the bag time after time until I was getting dizzy, but all I could think about was that slap.

That slap was enough for me to think about it until I died. Her expression tense, while her cheeks tinted red from embarrassment and anger. Her voice was broken, almost as if hiding something that I was surely oblivious to for some reason.

And her eyes... The ignition of the girl I've known to be as exuberant, sexy and confident was masked slightly; like it was temporarily replaced by a much maturer, emotional Vee.

But she was still my Vee.

I thought back to last night and my stupidity dumbfounded me, because all I did was sit back, completely immobilized, watching her pace around my room urgently, in hopes of escaping.

All I could think about was how much I didn't want her to go. I wanted her to stay and explain to me why she didn't want this. It was like she held my heart in her fist and tossed it up and down from her hands.

But she kept going.

And ultimately, my mistake was my idiotic anger that got the best of me when I said what I did.

I didn't mean it. I didn't mean a word of it, even though I sounded pretty convincing. But she should've known - for fuck's sake, Vee of all people should've known the intent of my words.

Her slap was a hard, tight violation. The sound echoed through my mind even now, being branded into my memory like hot iron. It stung and I knew for a fact that it was almost as red as I had felt. Red from anger, red from my previous pleasure, red from chagrin, and red from how much I'd been hurting. How much I was still hurting.

"How many was that, mate?"

I looked up to see Ben huffing in front of me, his face red and doused in sweat, his dark eyebrows scrunched together.

"I - fuck, sorry, mate. I lost count," I admitted, releasing the bag and taking a step back. He shrugged, unwrapping his fists from the white tape before grabbing his water.

He watched me suspiciously as he chugged the bottle to the last drop, waiting a moment before he spoke.

"What's up with you, mate? You've been outta it all day," he asked, panting in exertion.

I shrugged, unsure of what to tell him exactly. It's not that I minded telling Ben about what happened - it was more his reaction that I feared.

He knew Vee and he encouraged me to get to know her in the first place. But what would he say once I told him what I said? What she did? Then again, maybe he could help me figure out what the fuck actually happened.

"Trouble in paradise?" he joked, sending me a grin. I smirked at him but didn't say anything as I sat down and stared at my water bottle.

I didn't feel like talking about it, but I knew that if there was anyone I could trust, it was Ben. The issue here was that he wouldn't so easily sympathize with my stupidity.

"Oh, shit," he said, but I didn't look up. "What'd you do?"

I shrugged again and glanced up at him this time, seeing that he had his arms crossed over his chest as he waited impatiently.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, but prepared to tell him the truth.

"We were together last night and she... Well I kinda -" I started, but he shook his head.

"What'd you say, mate?" he cut me off curtly, wanting me to get straight to the point.

I sighed. "I... Well I told her that she messes everything up."