Twist, Bend, and Break Me

“So, what are we doing tonight?”, I asked my friend Tori. “Please tell me we’re going somewhere crazy, because I have a new outfit I’ve been dying to try out.”

“Well, Charlie.”, she started. The next few words met my ears inaudible. I furrowed my brows in confusion. What the hell was her problem? Was she drunk already?

“Sorry ‘bout that.”, she apologized. “I dropped the phone.” Of course. “What I said was...the guys invited us to go out to the movies with them tonight.”

I groaned inwardly. Hanging with the guys almost never turned out the way I wanted it to. For a very obvious reason. Well, it was obvious to me and Tori. “Tori.”, I said. “I don’t know if I want to go out with the guys tonight.”

“Why not?”, she asked incredulously. “They’re so much fun!”

“Yea, but I’m totally in love with Brian and he doesn’t even know I exist.”, I stated miserably. “Plus, it ain’t such a walk in the park to watch him with that girlfriend of his.”

And so the truth comes out. Yes, I was totally in love with Brian Haner. Otherwise known as Synyster Gates. He was my best friend, and it seemed like that was all he would ever be. Over the years, I had realized that my feelings for him had shifted over from friend to...more than a friend. Too bad he didn’t feel the same way about me. Two years ago, when I had first become conscious of my ‘friendlier-than-friends’ feelings for Brian, he had introduced us to his girlfriend, Alaya. Of course, I was the only one who wasn’t absolutely ecstatic for them, mainly because I was too busy trying to hide my broken heart. I was hoping that their relationship would fizzle out, so that I could move in, but it never did. And now every time we went out with the guys, I had to watch them all over each other, while my heart slowly broke.

“Oh, would you get over that?”, Tori scoffed. “Brian loves Alaya. Alaya loves Brian. Why don’t you just move on?”

Move on? Easy for her to say. She’s been dating Matt for three years! She doesn’t know what the definition of ‘move on’ is.

“Tori, I really don’t-”

“You’re coming and that’s final.”, she declared.

. . .

“Oh Charlie, you look so cute!”, Tori yelled when I walked into the theater. Thank God the guys weren’t there yet.

“Yea well, ‘cute’ ain’t gonna cut it.”, I grumbled. “I need ‘gorgeous’ or ‘sexy’.”

“Oh, are you still on about Brian?”, she questioned. “Just forget about him! Whenever we go out, you’re so preoccupied with him you forget to have any fun!”

“Yea well, it’s hard to have fun when the guy you’re in love with is ten feet away sucking face with his girlfriend.”

She laughed. “Please. You know if it was you sucking face with Brian, you would be all for it.”

“Exactly.”, I stressed. “Because it would be me.”

She shoved me, hard enough to sway me off of my feet. “Oh, shut up.”, she hissed. “They’re here.”

As soon as Matt stepped foot into the theater, Tori raced over and kissed him, triggering a mini make-out session which I was not eager to watch. But what really caught my eye was Brian, walking in the door with his girlfriend, Alaya, on his arm. I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces and crumbled down into my stomach. This night was so not turning out well. Especially due to the fact that not only had Brian brought his girlfriend, but the other guys had as well, leaving me the only one without someone glued to my side.

“So what movie are we seeing?”, Brian asked in a tone of voice that somehow brought a flurry of butterflies to my stomach.

“Oh, we are so seeing ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’!”, Jimmy shouted at the top of his lungs, earning a nasty look from one of the ushers.

“So, we’ve decided?”, Matt asked. “We’re going to see ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’?” Everyone chipped in their approval and Matt dragged Tori off to buy the tickets. Meanwhile, I was not happy about the movie choice. I hadn’t actually agreed to Jimmy’s suggestion, but of course no one bothered to notice. I didn’t want to see a horror movie, not when I was the only one without a guy to hide behind.

I took a seat at the far end of the row, hoping that Brian and Alaya would seat themselves at the opposite end. I was so not in the mood to watch them make-out for two hours. But of course, they chose the seats right next to mine. Brian smiled at me as he sat down. It was a real smile, not a fake one, and I started to think that this might not be so bad after all.

Needless to say, that positive thought was gone thirty minutes into the movie. Sitting next to Brian, who had Alaya’s head buried in his shoulder, while I was forced to cover my own eyes was not my definition of fun. God, I felt so alone.

I fled the theater as soon as the credits started to roll and headed to the car to wait for Tori. When she finally flounced out of the theater fifteen minutes later, she handed me the car keys and announced she was staying the night at Matt’s house. So I was going to be stuck alone while my best friend fucked her boyfriend all night? Great. God, could this night get any worse?

Well, of course it could.

After deciding to try and salvage tonight, I selected several of my favorite movies from my DVD collection and settled on the couch with some popcorn. But halfway through ‘My Sister’s Keeper’, my phone started blaring, sending ‘A Little Piece of Heaven’ echoing through my house. I groaned loudly. I was so not in the mood for this.

“Charlie?”, the hushed voice on the other end said. “C-Can you come pick me up? I don’t know where I am and Alaya stole my car.”

“Brian, are you drunk?”, I asked.

“Yes.”, he admitted. “Now please come pick me up. I don’t know where my house is.”

I sighed. Regardless of how easily he made me feel like shit without even trying, he was still my best friend. “Fine. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Do you know where you are?”

“The street sign says Burlewood and Maple.”, he stated after a moment’s hesitation. He obviously had to search for those street signs.

“You do realize that you live on Burlewood?”

“I do?”, he asked incredulously. “Really?”

Okay, if he was too drunk to remember where his own house was, he was definitely too drunk to be wandering the streets at one o’clock in the morning. “Brian, I’m going to come and pick you up. But I’m not taking you home. You’re coming to spend the night at my house.” What? It wasn’t like I was going to take advantage of the guy or anything like that...He had a girlfriend, and I respected that. Despite my secret hatred of her. And yes, I hated her.

“Okay. Just hurry please?”

Forty minutes later, after driving up and down nearly every road in Huntington Beach, I dragged a very drunken, unstable Brian over my front stoop. Truthfully, I was a little pissed. Despite Brian’s statement that he was waiting at Burlewood and Maple, that was not where I found him. On the contrary, I had found him sixteen blocks away, in Central Park. Turns out that when he was telling me where he was, he was actually reciting his address.

“You so owe me for this, Brian Haner.”, I grumbled as I dumped him onto my couch.

“Wait, I have to sleep on the couch?”, he asked, completely ignoring my I.O.U. I think he did that on purpose.

“Yes, you have to sleep on the couch.”, I said very slowly, hoping to get my point across. “Where else did you think you were going to sleep?”

“Well, I though I was going to sleep with you.” Ha, I wish.

“Nope, sorry.”, I apologized, not really meaning it at all. “Your drunk ass is sleeping on the couch.”

“Please?”, he begged. “You never had a problem with us sharing a bed before.”

Yea, but that was before I fell totally in love with you.

I could feel myself breaking down. Of course, it really didn’t help that Brian kept staring at me with his gorgeous brown eyes. “Fine.”, I said, giving in. “But you have to get upstairs by yourself.” Yes, I was evil.

“What?”, he shouted. “But I can barely stand!”

“That’s your own fucking fault.”, I declared. “If you want to sleep in a bed that badly, you’ll find a way upstairs. Otherwise, pillows and blankets are in the hall closet.”

Brian mumbled something inaudible under his breath, but stood up from the couch, wobbling on his own two feet. He tried unsuccessfully to walk to the staircase, crying out in pain each time he fell, usually striking a sharp pointed object.

Not that I didn’t love torturing him, I really didn’t feel like taking him to the hospital to mend a broken bone. I strolled over to him and held out my hand, offering to help him up from the floor.

“I thought you said I had to make it upstairs by myself.”, he said sarcastically.

“Can it, Haner.” I offered him my hand again. “I’m not that evil. Now do you want my help or not?”

Grumbling to himself, he took my hand and tugged, which needless to say, resulted in both of us in a heap on the floor. He started laughing and I couldn’t help but join him.

“Okay, so you’re probably going to have to stand up by yourself.”, I said as I stood up.

“Can do.” He stood up and leaned heavily against the wall. “Now what?”

“Well now we go upstairs.”

“But how?”, Brian whined.

I took his hand again and smiled. “One step at a time.”

It took longer than twenty minutes, but finally we reached my bedroom, both of us very short of breath. Brian staggered over to my bed and collapsed onto the comforter with a loud grunt. “Comfy.”, I heard him mumble.

“Scoot over.”, I instructed. “You can’t sleep in the middle of the bed.”

“Fine.”, he grumbled. He sat up and scooted over, as I told him to. But before he fell backwards onto the surface of the bed again, he shed his shirt and flung it to the middle of my room.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I never sleep with a shirt on.” He smiled, and for a second I though he was being flirty. “Alaya doesn’t like that.” Never mind.

“Why are you with her?”, I asked suddenly. Well, at least I would get an honest answer out of him. Brian was a horrible liar when he was drunk.

“Because...well, I don’t really know.”, he admitted.

“Is she just a good fuck?” Holy shit. Did I really just ask that?

“Kind of.”, he relented. “I don’t love her if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Then why do you stay with her?”, I pressed.

With a heartbroken sigh, he whispered, “Because the person I really love doesn’t love me back.”

“Who? Who do you love, Brian?”, I asked excitedly, although I tried to hide it. “You can tell me. I’m your best friend, remember.”

“That’s the problem.”, he said, instantly confusing me.

“What the hell are you on about, Gates?”

“You, Charlie.”, he shouted. “I’m in love with you. And you don’t love me back.”

I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. Brian was in love with me? How could he be in love with me? He’d barely acknowledged my presence these past few months. Had it been because he was harboring secret feelings for me? Feelings that were definitely returned.

“Brian, you don’t know.”, I said.

“What do you mean, ‘I don’t know’?”, he asked, beginning to get a bit pissed. “Charlie, you’ve hardly spoken a word to me for three months!”

“That’s because every time I saw you, you had her on your arm!”, I shouted, tears starting to roll down my cheeks. “Do you know how worthless that made me feel? And don’t you dare say I don’t love you back. Because I do. I love you, Brian. And it broke my heart to see you with her.” Now that my feelings were out in the open, I finally started crying, not caring that Brian was there to witness my breakdown.

“Charlie, y-you love me?”, he asked shakily, putting a hand to my cheek. At his touch, my tears stopped falling and I forced myself to look into his warm, chocolate brown eyes.

“Yes.” I nodded my head a little over enthusiastically. “I love you, Brian. God, I do.”

“Then why are we still sitting here talking?”, he asked, surprising me a little. What was he on about now? Slowly, giving me enough time to draw away if I wished, Brian leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine, kissing me softly. This was exactly how I pictured my first kiss with Brian. Well, not exactly like it. I never really pictured him drunk. I never really pictured him shirtless, either, but that one worked out in my favor, didn’t it? But one thing I always pictured was the way we fit perfectly together, like it was meant to be this way. And I’m pretty sure it was.

To my disappointment, Brian pulled away from the kiss and gently touched my cheek. I still couldn’t believe this was happening. Shit like this only happened in movies. In real life, you weren’t supposed to get your fairytale ending. But I was.

Moving closer so that he was only centimeters away from my ear, Brian whispered, “I love you, Charlie.”

God, I finally got what I wanted. The man I had been swooning over for the past two months, my best friend, loved me back. And I can’t begin to tell you how that made me feel. No words can describe it. Except maybe...

“I love you, too, Brian.”, I said softly, and we sealed our love with another kiss.