Fake My Smile

Scream

It’s amazing how quickly time can go by when you’re helping to plan someone’s wedding. Six months had gone by since Zacky and Hayley had gotten engaged and they were to be wed in a month’s time. It completely shocked me when I realised that that was how long there was left. I didn’t know exactly where the time had gone but boy, had it zoomed by.

“I’m getting married in a month,” Zacky commented.

I nodded as I swallowed my ice cream. “That you are. You’ll be officially a member of my family.”

Zacky looked at me and smiled. “And I couldn’t ask for a better sister.”

I smiled, hoping it wasn’t obvious how much his words had stung me.

“Do you know yet if your mum is coming over?” He asked as he dug into his own tub of ice cream, the movie we’d put in being completely ignored by us.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really talk to mum much. You’ll have to ask Hayley.”

I dug some more ice cream out and placed the spoon in my mouth and thought about whether or not Hayley had said anything to me about it. I mentally shrugged presuming that if she had then there would have been a remark or two about our step-brother Tom.

Zacky and I fell into a comfortable silence as we zoned back in on the film and finished our ice cream. By the time I had finished mine, Zacky had pulled me over to him so I was in his arms. My head was resting against his shoulder as my legs curled beneath me and Zacky had his arms around me.

“You know what I was thinking about the other day?” Zacky voiced after a while.

I shrugged and looked at him with a teasing smile. “Knowing you...probably not a lot.”

Zacky gasped and placed a hand over his heart. “You wound me with your words.”

I chuckled and straightened up a bit. “What were you thinking about?”

“When we met,” he replied, his eyes sparkling with amusement as I blushed slightly.

“That was so scary.”

Zacky pouted and I rolled my eyes and shoved him slightly.

“Not meeting you,” I chuckled. “The fact that I almost died. You saved my life that day. Technically I still owe you.”

“Eh,” Zacky flapped his hand about before pulling me back in his arms. “You don’t owe me. You let me infiltrate your life. We’re pretty damn even.”

I smiled and nodded. “I still think I owe you though. You do a lot for me...I hardly do anything for you.”

I thought to all the times Zacky had stood up for me when we’d been younger and still as we got older, scaring off creepy guys that hit on me in clubs.

“That’s not true. You do a lot for me.”

I scoffed and straightened up again to look at my best friend. “Name one thing.”

“You keep me happy. You keep me sane. You stop me from doing stupid things that would get me either in trouble or hurt or both,” he listed off.

I shrugged and felt my mood deflate slightly as a thought hit me.

“You don’t need me for that. You have Hayley.”

“I know,” Zacky replied with a fond smile. “And she does do all that for me but, I don’t know. You’re Rosie...you know? You’re my girl.”

I shook my head. “No I’m not. Hayley is.”

“Hayley’s not my girl,” Zacky corrected me. “She’s more than that. She’s like...”

I knew that Hayley would mean more to Zacky than I would. It was a given. He was after all getting married to her in a month’s time but this didn’t stop his words from hurting slightly. As selfish and as childish as it sounded...I was here first.

“But you’ll always be my girl,” Zacky finished and I realised that I’d zoned out of what he’d been saying about my sister. “And regardless of my marrying your sister, you’ll always be up there at the top of the list with her as a priority. Just because I’m getting married doesn’t mean you’ll be rid of me. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

I chuckled slightly, forcing the happy sound out, before settling my head back on Zacky’s shoulder.

“I love you Rosie,” he muttered against the top of my head.

I smiled weakly as I gazed at the TV, feeling Zacky’s arms wrap around me once more.

“I love you too Zacky,” I replied before finishing in my head with too damn much.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“How you holding up?” Lyndsey asked as I moved about in my kitchen.

As the time before the wedding got shorter and shorter, Lyndsey had taken it upon herself to try and keep me distracted as much as possible. But she also took it upon herself to make sure I was okay, asking me every single day how I was ‘holding up’. Today she’d even brought Brian but he’d remained in the living room, engrossed in some kind of sport playing on TV, whilst Lyndsey and I got some drinks for us. Brian didn’t know about my feelings for Zacky and I didn’t really want him to know.

I shrugged. “Fine.”

“Really?”

“Yup. I’m peachy,” I replied, sarcasm dripping right off my words as I located the bottle opener for Brian’s beer.

Lyndsey was silent for a moment as she watched my every movement. I knew she’d noticed my sarcasm, you’d have to have been deaf or stupid not to...two things that Lyndsey definitely wasn’t.

“Rosie,” Lyndsey sighed.

“What?” I grumbled as I glanced at her.

“Stop doing this. Stop shutting me out.”

I rolled my eyes as I got a couple of glasses for Lyndsey and I before grabbing the bottle of wine for us.

“I’m not shutting you out.”

I walked out of the kitchen and almost got to the living room but I stopped as Lyndsey began talking again.

“You are Rosie. You’re shutting me out. You’re not happy and keeping it inside is just going to make it worse.”

“Worse?” I asked in disbelief as I turned and looked at her, momentarily forgetting the fact that Brian was just a few feet away from us. “How can I feel any worse Lyndsey? And what the hell do you want me to say? You know how I feel about this bloody wedding and you know how I feel about Zacky. Do you just want me to tell you over and over again that I’m still in love with him? Tell you over and over that this wedding is breaking my heart and it’s my own damn fault? Just...just drop it okay?”

I didn’t let her answer and instead turned so I could go into the living room only to stop once more but this was because Brian was sitting there with a wide-eyed look. He looked like a damn fish. I felt colour flood my cheeks and bit my lip. I closed my eyes before opening them so I could walk to the living room. I put the glasses and the bottle down before grabbing up my jacket and leaving my apartment.

I didn’t get far though before arms wrapped around my waist and made me stumble over my next few steps. I didn’t need to look to see who it was because I recognised the tattoos that were spread across his arms. Those stupid monsters staring back at me.

“Brian,” I sighed. “Let me go.”

“Nope,” he replied and I groaned in frustration.

“I’ll scream,” I threatened.

I felt Brian shrug before he turned me around and held on to the tops of my arms as his eyes flickered across my face.

“I’m sure you will...in fact, I think that’s just what you need to do.”

My head jerked back slightly at his words. “What?”

“You need to scream,” he explained. “Just not here. We might rouse some kind of attention that we don’t need.”

Brian looked around for a bit before a small grin spread across his lips.

“I know just the place.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I never knew,” Brian voiced as he drove Lyndsey and I to wherever he was taking us.

“Never knew what?” I grumbled from my sulking position in the back of the car.

“How you felt about Zacky,” he replied, his glance flicking to me in the rear view mirror. “You hide it really well. I would never have guessed how unhappy you really were.”

I scoffed. “Thanks. Glad my efforts weren’t for nothing.”

I heard Lyndsey sigh in frustration and I bit my lip as I looked out of the window.

“Rosie, stop being so fucking sarcastic,” Lyndsey snapped.

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. I had definitely not woken up in a good mood this morning.

The car came to a stop and I saw that Brian had brought us to the local park. My brow furrowed as he got out and Lyndsey and I shared a look for a moment before stepping out of the car too.

“Baby? Why the park?”

“Have I pissed your wife off so much that you’re going to off me?” I asked in all honesty as my eyes flickered about the place.

Brian chuckled and shook his head as he grabbed Lyndsey’s hand and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

“I’m not going to kill you Rosie,” he promised and started to lead us to a more quiet part of the park where there were less people, though it was now nearly eleven at night so there were very few people around anyway.

“Then why are you leading me to a secluded area of the park?”

Brian laughed again and dropped a kiss on the top of my head.

“I didn’t mean it the way you took it when I said I wouldn’t have guessed,” Brian began to explain as he let go of both Lyndsey and I. “Well I did. I mean I never would have guessed and I like to think I’m a pretty good judge of people. But if you’re hiding it so well then you’re just bottling it up and if you,” he stated as he looked at his wife,” have also been hiding it since you hadn’t told me anything then you both have things bottling up and you need to release it. Release all the anger and frustration you have.”

Lyndsey and I shared another glance and I sidled over to her.

“Is it just me or is he speaking in riddles?” I whispered.

Lyndsey nodded and grabbed my hand. “I’m actually a bit scared. I think you’re right. I think he’s going to off us.”

Brian rolled his eyes before turning his back on us. We watched silently before Lyndsey and I jumped as Brian let out a scream. A very loud scream. He turned and looked at us, laughing at the confused and shocked looks on our faces.

“Yup, he’s gone insane,” Lyndsey muttered. “How am I going to explain that to his parents?”

“You two try it,” he voiced and gestured at us.

I scoffed. “You’re kidding right. When I said earlier I was going to scream...I meant so you’d get off of me.”

Brian shrugged. “I know but it’s a good idea. Like I said, you’ve both been bottling things up. This is a good way of getting it out your system.”

Lyndsey looked at me and we both shrugged at the same time before taking a deep breath and both screaming loudly.

“You feel any better?” Brian asked once we’d finished.

“Not really,” I replied and Lyndsey shook her head.

“Then keep going until you do,” he commanded. “And I promise you that you will.”

Lyndsey let go of my hand and took a deep breath, doubling over as she let out what had to be one of the loudest screams I’d ever heard come out of her. She did it once more before straightening up with a small grin.

“I do feel a little better,” she admitted.

Brian chuckled and pulled his wife to him before looking at me as he propped his chin on Lyndsey’s shoulder.

“Rosie?”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I screamed, letting all of my anger and frustrations from the past ten years finally come out. I screamed until I felt my face go blue. I screamed until tears pricked at my eyes. I screamed until my throat couldn’t take it anymore and even then I screamed, though my scream was admittedly scratchy.

I panted a little once I was finished and looked over at Brian and Lyndsey. I felt a smile spread across my lips and I shook my head before letting myself flop to the floor.

“Feel better?”

I nodded at Brian’s question. “A little bit yeah.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Brian is just a little bit insane!! Tee hee.
Hope you all liked this one, there are still 10 chapters left!! And drama is just around the corner, *slot in evil laugh*.
Comments make my otherwise hectic day much much brighter. x