Shattered By Broken Dreams

The day before the big day

“I cant believe we agreed to have the wedding at the mansion, we should have just eloped” Seven said.

“It’s not too late you know, we could still run away” Legend looked down at her with a goofy smile.

“My dad would kill you” she laughed.

“It would be so worth it though” They both laughed and she sat up and covered herself with a sheet. “

“Lest skip the dinner tonight and stay right here” he suggested leaning over and kissing her lips.

“ah what part of my dad would kill you did you not understand?” she smiled again.

“What? I could take him!” he joked.

“ok, but it’s your funeral”

--
Matt & Jimmy…. Round one.

“Can you sit still for five minutes?” Sydney said as she chased her husband around the house.

“I can’t there is still a lot to be done” there were caterers and florists walking in and out of the house along with the decorators who were setting up the back yard.

Matt walked into the kitchen just as the cake was being delivered. Jimmy was making room in the refrigerator. When he had cleared a space to put the cake he turned around just as he saw Matt lifting it up off the counter. “I got it” he smiled and put his hands on the side of the box, but Matt didn’t let go.

“NO, it’s ok, I got it” he smiled sarcastically.

“Thanks for the help, Matt, but I can handle it” Jimmy tried pulling the box but Matt pulled it back in his direction.

“Jimmy, let go of the cake” he warned still with the smile on his face.

“Matt, you let go of the cake” Jimmy smiled back.

They were now in the middle of a tug of war with the wedding cake and after pushing and pulling both of them yelled at the same time. “LET GO” and with that, both of them let go of the cake and watched as if it were falling in slow motion as it descended to the floor.

“Look what you did!” Matt yelled.

“Me? You dropped it!” Jimmy shot back

“Damn it, where the hell am I supposed to get another cake the day before the wedding? Huh genius?” Matt yelled.

“Fuck that, I’m getting the cake!” Jimmy said and ran out of the kitchen.

“Oh I don’t think so!” Matt ran after him and the two of them left Sydney and Tera alone in the kitchen.

“Is it too early to start drinking?” Tera asked.

“You get the Vodka, I’ll get the glasses” Sydney answered looking down at the cake on the floor.

--

Johnny…

“Just be calm and remember tonight isn’t about you, it’s about Legend and Seven” Stormy said kindly as she handed Johnny a beer.

“I just don’t know what to say to Jonnie anymore”

“Did you ever try to just sit back and watch?” She asked.

“What do you mean?” he sipped his beer and looked at her as she spoke.

“Kids are wondrous beings and once in a while if you stop and sit back and just let them be, you’d be amazed at how they can surprise you.”

He spun around on the chair “Really, and how has Melody surprised you lately?” he asked curiously

She walked around the counter and sat in the stool beside him.

“After everything that’s happened to her, she gets out of bed everyday. Yes, she may be acting out now and then, but she could have crawled inside herself and let what happened with Laura win. She didn’t though and that surprises me everyday.”

“Me too.” Brian smiled from the doorway of the bedroom. He walked over to the kitchen in only a pair of sweat pants and kissed his wife before getting himself a cup of coffee.

“I think I’m going to go see if my sister needs any help” She got up off the stool and went up stairs to the kitchen to find her sister.

“What the hell is up with you two?” Johnny asked noticing the tension between him and Stormy.

“She hates me” he shrugged and sipped his coffee.

“Wow, well you seem to be handling it well”

“Yeah, I just plan to keep loving on her until she remembers she loves me too and things are back to normal”

“I wish I knew what the fuck normal was” Johnny set his beer down on the counter and started thinking about his own wife. They would have to talk and he knew it and now was as good a time as any. After excusing himself he started upstairs.

Riley…

Riley walked into the kitchen with Aubrey and found Sydney, Stormy and Tera sitting on the kitchen floor with a bottle of vodka and digging forks into the wedding cake.

“What’s going on?” Aubrey asked.

Tera looked up as Sydney put a forkful of cake in her mouth. “Well, Jimmy and Matt decided that the cake would look better on the floor then on the table.”

Sydney nodded. “Want some? It’s pretty good actually” Her and Tera started laughing.

Aubrey looked at Riley and the two of them went to sit on the floor in front of the counter where the other three girls were already sitting.

Stormy passed the vodka bottle over to Aubrey and she took it. After sipping from it she passed it over to Riley.

“No thanks” she smiled.

“Come on, have a drink, you’ll need it to get through the dinner tonight, trust me” Syd smiled.

“I cant” she said and the other four girls put their forks down and turned their attention to her.

“You cant?” Tera said

“I’m pregnant” and as soon as the words came out of her mouth she started to cry.

“Oh honey! Don’t cry, babies are a good thing” Stormy said

“Johnny doesn’t want the baby” she frowned.

All four of them at the same time said “What?”

“He said he can’t do it again” she put her face in her hands and cried. Tera put her arm around Riley’s shoulder.

“What the hell is wrong with him?” Sydney asked.

“You know, I don’t think I can take much more of this. I have lived in this house and in our relationship in the shadow of someone else. Someone who died over 20 years ago and I stayed knowing that Johnny would never love me like he loved Kelli, but I didn’t care, because he did love me and I figured that would be enough.”

“He loves you, I’m sure he does” Aubrey said.

“I have for nearly all of her life been the only mother figure Jonnie has ever known and she throws it in my face every chance she gets that I’m not her mother. Between the two of them, I have been the one person that was there through thick and thin and neither of them can see that. Everything was always about the two of them and now I’m having a baby of my own and Johnny doesn’t want it. When do I get to be happy?” she cried.

Johnny stood on the other side of the counter hearing every word that his wife said and for the most part she was right. She was the one who helped him deal with his grief over Kelli and she was the one who helped him raise his daughter so he wouldn’t have to do it alone. Yet, he was the one who made her wait 6 years before he even told her he loved her and he was the one who denied her a child because he didn’t want to hurt Jonnie. He was a selfish prick and the more that went wrong, the more he was going to have to try and make right.

Zacky walked into the kitchen in search of Johnny. “Dude, I’ve been waiting all morning for you, get a move on!” he said raising an eyebrow at the sight of his wife swigging out of a vodka bottle on the floor. “What the hell?” he whispered to himself.

Now the cat was out of the bag and a teary eyed Riley looked up to see her husband standing behind the counter knowing that he had just heard every word said between her and the other girls. Sydney and Stormy looked over at Riley as Johnny walked out of the kitchen.