Brian and I pulled out of Matt and Paige’s neighborhood in Brian’s gorgeous shining black ’69 mustang. The inside of the car smelled like alcohol, cigarettes, and cologne, Brian’s signature smell.
We drove for about fifteen minutes before reaching a long asphalt road leading to nowhere. It was surrounded by trees with only the stars above us. Brian turned on “Every Rose has its Thorn” by Poison and stared straight ahead into the black.
“I guess I have some things to tell you,” he finally confessed.
“That’s a start,” I urged him on.
He chewed on his lower lip and sighed through his nose not wanting to continue but did anyways.
Brian started off by telling me about how he met the love of his life, Mackenzie Hewitt. She was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen, making me feel a bit depressed. She had gorgeous long brown hair that felt like silk. She had a beautiful body and the most comforting brown eyes. He finished describing her then mumbled, “she was perfect, but too perfect to be true.” He described how I looked and acted nothing like her making me feel even less confident about myself. He told me about the day they met and how they instantly clicked, or so he had thought. He proposed to her six months later and she said yes.
It was in every newspaper every, every magazine, and headlined the news on the internet about how adorable Mackenzie and the untamable Synyster Gates were. Then one day Brian received a call from Jimmy. It was the one of the only times Jimmy had ever threatened to beat up a girl because he was so pissed.
I looked into Brian’s mortified eyes, he was reliving the moment.
~Brian’s POV~
“I’m going to tear you up, you b*tch!” Jimmy screamed on the other side of the phone, “you’ll go to hell for this! I’ll kill you!”
“Let me go Jimmy! You don’t mean it! I know deep down inside you still love me like a sister! Remember all of those times you, Brian, and I had together? Remember those memories?” a high pitched voice cried in the back ground.
“Get you’re a** over here Brian before I kill her and her f*ckin man whore!” Jimmy thundered through the phone.
I drove to my apartment and unlocked the front door 10 minutes later. “Jimmy?” I called throughout the empty apartment, shaking.
No answer.
I slowly walked through the apartment, everything was neat and in place like it usually was. It was just in my head, I didn’t receive a call from Jimmy saying that Mackenzie was cheating on me. I walked over to the dark blue couch and sat down to try and relax. It had been a stressful day so I pulled my box of cigarettes out of my pocket and was about to light a cancer stick when I saw a small glimmer in the corner of my eye.
I looked on the ground next to the refrigerator, there was something shining coming from under it. I got up from the couch leaving my unlit cigarette on the couch. I reached under the fridge and pulled out a ring, Mackenzie’s engagement ring.
I stared at the ring that was now resting in the palm of my hand. Was that call from Jimmy I received real? Was he still here? Was Mackenzie? I slowly started for the only place I hadn’t looked in my apartment, my bedroom.
The closer I got the more I smelled Mackenzie’s perfume. Then I smelled something familiar, Jimmy, his usual cigarette and alcohol smell lingered in front of my closed bedroom door. As I placed my hand on the door handle I caught scent of an unfamiliar smell, a rich, expensive cologne and expensive wine. It was real.
I jerked my hand away from the doorknob and sat on the couch. The room started spinning. I felt tears rush to my eyes. As much as I blinked to hold them back they still began to fall. I sat on the dark blue couch in my dark apartment my head rested in my hands and silently wept for what felt like hours.
In reality only about five minutes had passed, I knew Jimmy was waiting for me so I set aside the despair in my heart and replaced it with fury. I was pissed.
I wiped my tears away and stormed towards my white bedroom door. The memory of seeing that door, the door that ruined my life, haunted me. I placed my hand on the silver doorknob and flung it open.
Jimmy stood in a corner facing me. His white t-shirt he was wearing was stained with drops of red, his grey skinny jeans too. His fists were balled up and bloodied. Mackenzie sat on my bed dressed in next to nothing, crying. The grey sheets around her were messed up as if someone had been in my bed. On the ground there lay a man dressed in striped boxers, nothing else. His face was bloody and his muscled body, bruised. Spilled and staining the white carpet next to him was the expensive red wine I had bought Mackenzie and me for a night when we both had nothing to do, two broken wine glasses lie next to the man.
Mackenzie looked up at me, there was a red handprint marked into her face where Jimmy must’ve slapped her. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy.
“Brian,” she began to whimper.
“Shut up you f*cking b*tch,” Jimmy demanded from the corner.
I was in shock. Everything was happening at once. My world was falling apart. Once I saw the mess I was in it seemed all my anger and sadness washed away. I was numb.
I slowly held my hand up, in my fingers I held hers and my engagement rings. Mackenzie started to cry harder, “Brian I just want you to know I still love you and I’m sorry.” I knelt down and laid the two gold rings next to the man that was lying on the floor. “No,” I said my voice empty, no emotion was shown, “you’re sorry you got caught.” Mackenzie cried harder as if that was possible and buried herself in the comforter of my bed.
I proceeded to take my apartment key from my pocket and set it on the dresser. I then turned to Jimmy who was glaring at the man, “is he dead?”
“Close to it,” he answered sharply.
I stared at the unconscious man then turned and walked out of my bedroom with Jimmy following behind. “Brian I love you come back baby please!” Mackenzie screamed as Jimmy and I walked out of the apartment, closing the door on my old life forever.
~Blake’s POV~
“Brian I don’t know what to say,” I said. He stared dead ahead at the black paved road ahead of us.
“Just know that the night I met you, it was a little over three months that the whole thing with Mackenzie happened. I was depressed, I wasn’t ready to get back out into the world and bring myself into another relationship. That night we were at that club Jimmy asked me to point out any girl that I thought would be ‘easy.’ I saw you sitting alone at the booth so I pointed to you. I remember seeing Jimmy’s eyes light up, he knew you wouldn’t just be another one night stand. He had already known somehow. He forced me to talk to you and wouldn’t let me leave without talking to you so I did. It just so happens that when I finally did talk to you I was wasted so of course I was being a d*ck to you. I had just lost the love of my life and then I saw you and I was angry at how much prettier you were than her. I was angry I hadn’t seen you before I ruined my life with Mackenzie. When I saw that sleazy punk start to make moves on you I had to swoop into the rescue but I also knew that as soon as I started to talk to you I wouldn’t be able to get you out of my mind. That’s why I tried purposely to sabotage talking to you that night. I wanted to wallow in my own sorrow some more before moving on. Then when I got you pregnant I realized I couldn’t just drop you like any other girl, I also realized I couldn’t suddenly start being nice to you or you would’ve been weirded out by me so that’s why I was suck a jerk. Also you know I don’t open up to people easily.” Brian finished with a long sigh, “I really like you Blake I just have some holes that need to be filled and in the meantime they’re being filled with an anger and hatred towards anyone that tries to get close to me, I’m not sure I can trust just anyone yet,” he paused, “but I want you to know that you’re not just some random slut I picked up at a bar, I like you a lot and I am still willing to go on another date with you.”
I looked over at him, he was being completely serious. I thought through everything he had just said. Brian Haner Jr. had just opened up to me. He told me most if not everything he was feeling. The least I could do was give him another chance to redeem himself after everything he had just told me…
…so I said the only thing I could say in a moment like this, “okay.”
|Thanks for reading! Poor Brian no wonder he's so moody.
This chapter is dedicated to @Randi-rai for voting for chapters of my story! Thanks you so much it motivates me so much!
The picture is of Brian and Jimmy when they were younger. The song is "Every Rose has its Thorn" by Poison.
Thanks again so much for reading!|