Denial

"I'M HAVING A GIRL!!" I exclaimed as I jumped into Matt's arms.

"Woah," He laughed. "Take it easy baby or you'll kill ours." I frowned.

"Be nice to me or I'll bite you." He grinned and put me back down on the ground.

"Alright, well. Everything's fine. You're healthy, the baby's healthy, and you now know that it's a girl!" Dr. Bentz smiled at me. "And I'm sorry, Love, but Mathew is right, you need to be careful." I frowned yet again at the doc's words, and Matt frowned at the mention of his real name.

"I will, I was just excited. Now come on Matt! Let's go tell everyone!" I grabbed his hand pulling him from the doctor's office.

"Thank you Dr. Bentz!" Matt called as I drug him out of the office and towards the exit.

"I'm so excited Matt! I can't believe it! We're having a baby girl! Now we gotta call Val, Michelle, Leana, Jimmy, Zacky, Johnny, Lacey, Tihana, Bre, and Bri- er..." I bit my lip and suddenly stopped walking towards the car. Matt turned around when he noticed I'd stopped walking and pulled me into his embrace.

"Hey, it's okay. Brian will come around alright? He just, he'll get over it." It's been a month since that day and he hasn't spoken to me since. If we ever get caught in the same place at the same time, he won't speak to me at all, he just makes up an excuse to leave. As for me and Zacky, we're becoming like best friends again. And every time I think about it my heart over flows with joy, cheesy as it sounds, because I never thought we'd ever get back to this point.

Tihana still isn't on comfortable terms with Zacky. But her and us girls are still good friends. And Johnny finally got a girlfriend!

"Baby, come on we need to go." He pulled me towards the car. I sighed as I got in.

"I don't see what his problem is." I muttered to myself. Matt placed his hand on my leg after climbing in and shutting the door. "He'll come around." He gave me a small smile which I returned and we set off on our journey home.

**************************

"Okay, well, Matt and I went to the doctor's office earlier to find out the gender of our baby and I can proudly say that, it's a girl!!" I grinned. Everyone stood up from their seats cheering and clapping. I laughed and Matt wrapped his arm around me. Jimmy laughed before speaking,

"Isn't it funny how we always find ourselves here in this living room every time there's big news, and Leny's usually in the center?" We all tended to look at each other and laugh. There was only two people missing.

Brian and...

Zacky.

He said he couldn't make it and that he was really sorry. This is the first time he's done this in a really long time. I just wonder what was so important that he couldn't make it here when I told him it was kind of urgent. I sighed and sat down on the couch next to Val.

"What's wrong honey?" She asked, brushing a piece of hair out of my eyes that had fallen there.

"I wish Zacky was here. I wish Brian was here." She nodded.

"I'm sorry." I shrugged.

"It's okay. I'm hungry."

"Well what do you want? I'll make Matt get it for ya." I laughed.

"Chicken nuggets and a strawberry shake! No chocolate. No-"

"How about a variety?" She suggested. My eyes widened.

"Perfect! Thanks Val!" She laughed shaking her head and stood up to go find Matt.

"What's good My Little Senorita?" Jimmy sat down next to me. I immediately leaned over on his chest and he wrapped his arms around me.

"Awe, someone doesn't feel good?" I laughed.

"No, I feel okay. I just miss Brian and Zacky."

"You saw Zacky yesterday."

"Shut up." He laughed yet again. I sighed and sat up.

"I think I'm gonna go to Zacky's house for awhile just to see what was oh so important." I rolled my eyes dramatically.

"I thought Matt was going to McDonald's for you!" Jimmy called after me. I turned around and smirked.

"I'll be back, and if the food's cold when I get back, well then he'll just have to get me more."

"You'll be wanting Taco Bell by the time he gets here anyway." He laughed.

"True." I laughed, walking to the door. "I'm leaving everyone!! Val's in charge!!" I yelled, before walking out the door.

I sighed as I trudged up to Zacky's house and stood in front of the all too familiar door. I didn't even bother with knocking anymore, so I just opened the door and invited myself in. But the sight before my very eyes disgusted me. It sickened me.

Zacky was sitting on the couch with Gena wrapped in his arms and he was actually kissing her! I didn't know whether to slam the door and run or start yelling at him for lying to me. Before I could do anything, Zacky had taken notice of my presence.

"Leny I-I.."

"Save it Zack. You lied to me! You told me you couldn't come over to hear my important news, because you had something important to do! You lied! You think laying around with her is important?! Boy you just can move on fast enough can you?!" I threw my hands in the air.

"Helena-"

"Forget it. I'm through wasting my breath. I'm done. Good bye Zacky." I turned and walked out slamming the door behind me. I slammed it so hard I think I heard the pictures on his wall rattles from all the way down the sidewalk. I ignored the sound of the front door opening and his rapid footsteps coming after me.

"Helena." He grabbed at my arm but I jerked it away and spun around to face him.

"Don't touch me! Don't you ever touch me again! You're a liar! You're a stupid, no good for nothing liar!" I yelled at him.

"Leny don't go judging me when you have no clue what even went on."

"Oh it was pretty clear Zachary!" I yelled throwing my hands in the air. He sighed running his hands over his face.

"Will you just listen to me? Please?"

"I'm listening! Talk!" I shouted.

"I'm not gonna stand here and talk and make a big scene, let's go somewhere else."

"I'm not going anywhere with a liar." I crossed my arms and looked away.

"If you'd let me explain maybe you'd feel differently!"

"Explain then!" I yelled at him. I was surprised everyone hadn't made there way out of Matt's house yet to see what was up.

"Leny," He sighed. "Let's just go somewhere please?" I glared at him for another minute.

"Fine, but only because Matt's gonna be back any minute and he doesn't like it when I get worked up, especially being pregnant." I marched over to Zacky's car, got in the passenger seat and slammed the door. It wasn't long before we were off.

Soon enough, we were sitting on the dock on the beach watching the waves crash over the rocks as the it was starting to get darker out now. I sighed.

"Are you gonna talk or what?" It got silent for another long minute before I heard Zacky inhale deeply and let it out as a low sigh.

"I didn't want to give into Gena like that. So easily." He looked down at feet then. "I just, I dunno. It feels like my entire world's crashing down on me. I lost my chance with you. The whole thing blew up in my face. I basically lure you into a drunken one night stand, that results in a child that I'll never get to raise, and because of that, I lost my girlfriend. So I turn to what shows up at my doorstep." He sighed blinking a few times. I felt my heart crush into a million pieces right then. I felt horrible for calling him a liar.

I knew what it felt like to feel like the entire world was crashing down over you. I've been there.

"Maybe it's bad karma." He spoke again. "Ya know? I left you to go to Miami with Gena, and that's basically when all you're problems started. Or well, the biggest ones anyway. Maybe what goes around really does come around." I sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Zacky.." I paused, I didn't know what to say. He looked over at me staring straight into my eyes. "I'm sorry for calling you a liar, I guess I just thought you might want to be there to hear the gender of your baby." I sighed dropping my arm and turning away from him to stare at the ocean again.

"You found out?" He asked, looking at me once again. When I looked back up at him, his eyes were shining. I smiled. I couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah. She's a girl." His smile widened.

"A girl." He murmured to himself. "Wow." I nodded.

"That's what I was thinking."

"Matt's a-a lucky guy." He mumbled, looking out at the ocean while playing with his hands. I frowned.

"Zacky-"

"No I mean it, he's got a terrific woman, he's gonna have a beautiful baby, I mean, what more could a guy ask for?" I sighed.

Guilt was starting to consume me, but not because of Matt this time, because I knew I was hurting Zacky, and I knew somewhere deep inside, I loved him. I wanted to do something for him right then, but at the same time,I didn't know if it would help his aching heart or hurt him worse. I turned towards him, facing him entirely now.

"Zacky.." I called his attention back to me. As soon as I had it, I placed my hand gently on the side of his face and stroked my thumb over the stress lines under his eyes. He's so young and full of life. He shouldn't have stress lines.

"I don't wanna hurt you." I said, shaking my head lightly. He looked at me slightly puzzled. I leaned forward and very gently pressed my lips to his in the softest kiss. He didn't react. He froze. I took that as a signal and backed away. But before I could get so much as two inches away from him, he pulled my face back down to his and our lips met once again. The second they did, my head started spinning, butterflies were released in my stomach, something completely twisted was happening here. But just as he tried to pull me closer to him, I pulled away. He looked at me, slightly hurt. I bit my lip.

"I'm sorry Zacky, I-I'm sorry. I have to go." I got up from the dock and started running. I ran from the dock, from the beach, from Zacky. I ran past Zacky's car and just kept running. I ran until I found myself running past an old familiar park and dodging swings as rain started to down pour. I could almost swear it was like a sign that it was a bad thing I left Zacky.

I ran and ran and kept running until my bare feet ached. I'd left my shoes at the dock. I ran until I came face to face with the door I'd been struggling to make it to. I pounded loudly on it, repeatedly, continuously until it flung open.

I threw myself into the arms of the person in front of me.

"You were right okay? And I'm sorry. You were right. And I hate myself for it. I hate myself for it." I cried into Brian's chest as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in and out of the rain. He didn't say anything for a long time, just let me cry into his chest as he held me, stroking my wet hair.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, my crying had basically seized and Brian had taken notice of this. He pulled me back a little to look at me before pulling me back to his chest.

"What happened babe?" He asked, rubbing my back. I just let out a slight whimper at the memory. That and my feet hurt. I shifted a little and he glanced down. Brian was a smart guy, he knew when something was wrong. He picked me up and carried me over to the couch sitting down and placing me in his lap. Great, now I feel like a baby.

"What happened?" He repeated, digging little rocks and things out of the bottoms of my feet that had found there way there on my little journey here.

"I went to his house to see what was so important that he couldn't make it over to find out the gender of his baby," Now most people would interrupt me right then and say, 'you found out the gender, what is it?' but Brian just waited for me to continue. That's what i liked about him. I sighed.

"When I walked in, he was kissing Gena! Gena of all people. So I blew up and accused him of this and that and that led to him wanting to go talk somewhere so he could explain. So we went to the beach. When we got there, he told me that he felt like his whole world was crashing down on him and he explained that and when he did, I felt horrible. I've felt that way before so I know how he feels. And he mainly feels that way because of me.

"Then guilt started to eat me up and so I did what I felt like my heart was telling me to and I kissed him, but when he didn't react, I pulled away, but he pulled me back, and when he tried to pull me closer, I freaked out and pulled away and told him I had to go and just ran. I ran and ran and ran, and then it started raining, and now I'm here. And I had to tell you that you were right." I explained in a rushed voice.

He had finished cleaning the odds and ends out of my feat and was now staring at me.

"So you admit that you do have feelings for him? Stronger than a friend?" I nodded weakly.

"I-I mean it's there Brian. And it won't go away! But I need it to, it has to. I love Matt, I want to be with him. We're gonna get married, have a family." I broke down again and he pulled me into his chest once again.

"Shh. It's alright." He murmured.

"I'm stupid, I'm so stupid." I pleaded.

"No, no you're not, stop it." I sniffled.

"Brian you don't understand. I just, I don't know anymore. But please, please don't leave me again." I cried. He just wrapped me tighter in his arms and kissed my head rocking me back and forth. Before I knew it, I fell asleep, just like that. Brian sighed and sat back on the couch relaxing looking down at me. Though I couldn't see these actions being asleep, they were done.

"Leny, what am I gonna do with you? Matt wants you to be his and he thought he was protecting your heart from being broken. What he doesn't realize is that he's only breaking it worse by keeping you away from the one you truly love." He sighed pulling me closer to him in his arms.

"I'll always be here to protect you from these guys no matter what. I hope you know that. I just needed you to see for yourself what is so clear to everyone else." Brian had a tendency of playing it cool when people were awake and actually spilling his feelings when they fell asleep. I sighed contently in his arms and rested my head just below his chin. "We'll fix this. I promise, we'll fix this." He murmured.

I woke up the next morning to a loud banging sound. It took me a minute to realize someone was at the door. I sat up and looked around at my surroundings confused at first before looking down at a sleeping Brian. 'Oh' I mouthed to myself as I recollected my thoughts. I stood up and walked to the door sleepily.

"There you are! What the heck happened to you last night babe? I went to McDonald's for you, came back and you were gone." He kissed me lightly. I sighed.

"Me and Brian made up." I gave a small smile looking back towards the sleeping Brian. He smiled then.

"That's great babe. Does that mean you won't be moping around the house now, wishing Brian was here, or wishing he'd call?" I laughed and playfully smacked his arm before kissing his cheek and wrapping my arms around his neck.

"You missed me that much?" A sleepy eyed Brian came walking up behind us. I laughed.

"Don't let it boost your ego too high, Bri." He pointed to himself, "You know you love me." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm hungry."

"Oh gee, why don't I go get those chicken nuggets and five different shakes I got you last night?" My eyes brightened up.

"Would you?" Him and Brian exchanged looks that said I was nuts before Matt laughed.

"Come on kid, let's take you to breakfast." Brian said, leading me out the door with Matt. I shrugged and followed the out anyway. Breakfast sounded good, but facing Zacky later was gonna be a problem.