Tomorrow May Never Come

"Michelle, I want to ask you something...and tell me the truth," Brian said with a sigh as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, walking along with Michelle during one of their many meetings over the past few weeks.

"Okay," Michelle answered with a nod of her head.

"Do I really have very little time left?"

Looking over at Brian, Michelle hesitated, her mouth opening as she wanted to say something, and she looked away. "Um...well... Brian, you know..." she said, stuttering along and contorting her face in a way to hide the look on her face; what she really wanted to hide was her answer.

"That stupid face," Brian said, interrupting her. "How do you make that face? I've tried a million times to do it, but I can't.... Is it a Doctor Special or something?"

"Brian, be serious."

"Okay, I'm being serious."

"What did you tell Kate?" Michelle asked, wanting to quickly change the subject to something other than Brian's current situation.

"What's there to tell her?" Brian asked, looking at Michelle with a half-grin of disappointment. "Actually, Kate has a mental problem. She thinks that whoever she loves will leave her forever. So if I leave her too, she'll go insane. I mean, she's already halfway there anyway..." Brian joked. "And anyway, you know the effect I have on girls. I am just so sexy, baby." With that, he smirked and stretched his arm out, putting it around Michelle's shoulders and pulling her into his side as they ambled along, getting closer and closer to his home.

"Yeah, right. Except for me..." Michelle shot back with a playful grin.

Clicking his tongue, Brian looked at her with a smile in his eyes. "It'll take time, but I'll eventually have an effect on you."

Showing a genuine smile, Michelle paused and looked in Brian's eyes as their gaze caught. "You really love her, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do," Brian answered, putting his hands back in his pockets.

"I can't believe it, Bri. I really can't. I've known you for so many years, but I have never seen you like this," Michelle said as they finally reached Brian's house, stopping out front on the sidewalk. "How'd you manage that?"

"I don't know..." he answered. "It's kind of strange. All my life, I've ran away from love. But now that life is running away from me, I somehow bumped into love." He took a deep breath after his statement and let it linger, letting out a sigh afterward as he tried to think of a way to push the conversation back to where it had started. Somehow, whenever he addressed his situation to Michelle, she tried to find a way to not talk about it, and it would continuously come up throughout each conversation with her. Finding no other way than to just come out and say it, Brian did. "Really, tell me the truth, Michi. I don't have a lot of time left, do I? Isn't there anything that can be done? ...Please...." he pleaded quietly, and the look in his eyes just about broke Michelle. It wasn't fair, what was happening to Brian. He was too young -- not even thirty yet.

Pulling the same cover-up face mixed with confusion as she had before, Michelle faltered in her answer. "Brian...uh...as soon as you get a donor-"

"Please, without the stupid doctor face and the uh-um's..." Brian answered, trying to make light of the situation with a chuckle, though the fact that Michelle wouldn't give him a definite answer was very hard on him. If his life was on the line, he wanted to know where he stood in the balance.

"Why are you laughing? It's really not funny," Michelle answered, getting upset.

"Okay, okay...come on, give me a hug," Brian said, holding out his arms to her, but Michelle only backed away and shook her head.

"No."

"Come on, please?" Brian pleaded with a pout. "How else is my charm going to affect you?" Sighing, Michelle couldn't help the grin that tugged at her lips as she stepped forward and into his arms, feeling their warm wrap around her. "...Is it working?" she heard Brian whisper into her ear, and she pulled away with a chuckle.

Unbeknownst to them, Kate was stood at the upstairs hall window in her house across the street. She had seen Brian outside with a passing glance and seeing a woman with him, she stopped and looked further. She recognized her as the woman from the picture, and as much as it hurt her to think about it, she knew that Brian and Michelle looked good together. And the way they were hugging and laughing just seemed to break her heart even further. She didn't want to feel this way about Brian, but she couldn't help it.

Hers wasn't the only heart that was breaking either. It was only a crush, but Gia was upset upon hearing that her Brian was married to someone else. She was only a child, she didn't understand that what she felt for Brian wasn't true love, but it still hurt just as much.

And then there was Zack...

But even out of all of them, the worst heartbreak of all...was Danielle's.

Kate's eyes were wide as she sat with Danielle, who was crying hysterically, blubbering about as she tried to speak.

"He doesn't love me, Kate," Dani shrieked. Trying to deal with her own heartbreak was hard enough; Kate didn't want to have to help someone else with their problems.

"Danielle...don't cry," she sighed. "Please, just relax. Everything will be just fine."

"I won't relax, Kate! He doesn't love me! He says he's 'confused'...stupid boy," Danielle said erratically, wiping away her tears as she tried to steady her breathing.

"I don't blame him," Kate muttered under her breath as she looked away from her friend.

"Oh, thanks a lot, Kate," Danielle snapped. "He wants to leave for London to join some stupid band." With that, another flood of tears came. "Can you get me a tissue?" she asked with a sniffle, and Kate nodded, handing her the entire box. "Thank you."

And while all the hearts of the young were breaking, it seemed that the hearts of the old and finally found each other's. Joe and Ally, specifically.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A few days after Kate had heard the news that Brian was married, she and Zack were sitting in a booth at a small restaurant having lunch together.

"So, how'd it go with Brian?" Zack asked halfheartedly.

"...He's married."

Choking on the drink he had just taken, Zack tried not to spit it out. "Married?! Why didn't you tell me that before!?"

Looking at Zack like he was stupid, Kate answered, "If I had even known before, would I have fallen in love with him?"

"Hmm..." Zack muttered. He looked down at his food, but all of a sudden he didn't feel like eating. "...So, now?"

"What now?" Kate answered, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. "First, I couldn't fall in love. Now I can't fall out of it. But I know that I have to, or else me and my heart will be pretty lonely," she said with a sympathetic smile toward Zack. He nodded, and then looked her square in the eye.

"You'll never be alone...I'll always be there," he said with a smile, which Kate reciprocated.

"Why are you being so nice to me, Zack?"

"Well, I'm a nice guy. Had you been in love with me, you wouldn't have a broken heart," he answered, straight from the heart. He meant every word he said, because if Kate had been in love with him, he would have made sure that nothing ever went wrong and that she was always happy. Because Kate's happiness was all that mattered to him. Zack hated seeing her so distraught.

"Zack...come on," Kate said with a chuckle, shaking her head as she looked down at the table.

"You see, that's the problem with you. You never take me seriously," Zack said with a sigh of disappointment.

"When are you ever serious?"

"Right now."

Pausing, Kate cocked a brow at him, looking very carefully at the expression on Zack's face. "....You don't really mean that."

"Not at all," he shot back, grinning a little at her. Truthfully, he really did. But he didn't want to put even more on Kate's plate than she already had by complicating the situation and letting her know how he felt about her.

Huffing, Kate rolled her eyes. "Told you so..." Taking a bite of her sandwich, Kate noticed Zack was still watching her. "...What?"

Licking his lips, Zack took a deep breath. "You think...you'll ever fall in love again?"

Taken aback by his question, Kate paused. Not even giving him an answer, she looked away.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

My silence had said it all, and Zack realized then and there that his first love...had to be forgotten.

But it's not that easy. It's not that easy to forget your first love.