Crossroads of Life

“Hey Brian?” Matt asked suddenly. “There’s this guy Maddy talks about a lot. Jimmy I think is what she called him. Who is he?”

“Jimmy was a good friend of ours.” I explained. “He died, almost a year ago. He was the drummer for our band as well. The dude was a fucking genius. He played drums, guitar, bass, he sang. He played the piano and keyboard.” I felt my throat clog thinking of him.

“He was one of my best friends, and he was another older brother to Maddy. I fucked up with her when he passed. I never called her to tell her or talk to her about it. I was shocked myself, I wouldn’t of been able to deal with her reaction.”

“She called, about two days after we found out. She was freaking out, crying, screaming, asking why I didn’t tell her. I hung up the phone on her. I couldn’t talk to her about it. I was still hurt from hearing my best friend died, at twenty eight years old he died.”

“How old are you?” I asked Matt suddenly.

“27,” he replied.

“Think if you would just drop dead, right now. What do you think would happen to your parents, to Madison, the baby. That’s what happened to us when we lost Jimmy. It tore our souls in two, leaving it to where they will never be fully healed. They’ll get put back together, but there will always be a crack in the middle.”

“He sounded like a great guy.”

“He was, and Madison hates herself over him right now.”

“She told me the last time she saw him they were in a fight.” I nodded, thinking back to that night.

“She yelled at him, the very first time she’s ever yelled at him like that. The very last thing she said, I know she regrets now. For a while she probably felt like she killed him.”

“She didn’t kill him just by yelling at him.” Matt muttered.

“Trying telling her that and let me know how it goes,” I said with a sigh. “So, what do you say, we stop our arguments. Start with a clean slate with each other.” Matt nodded and held out his hand.

“Matthew Korklan, AKA Evan Bourne from WWE.” he said.

“Brian Haner Jr. AKA Synyster Gates from Avenged Sevenfold.” I said back, shaking his hand. We both ended up laughing at our own stupidity.

“I’m sorry for being such an asshole to you,” Matt said.

“Hey, we’re starting over remember. We have to, there’s a baby on the way. I was gonna kick your ass out, but I guess since you don’t have anywhere besides a hotel, you can stay here.”

“Thanks,” Matt replied. I just shrugged and sat on the couch. “So, I guess you’ll have to meet the rest of the family now.” I said, flipping the TV on.

“Guess I do. I met your brother Johnny.”

“You didn’t meet short shit though,” I replied. He gave me a confused look. “When we say family around here, we mean the immediate family, plus the Avenged Sevenfold family.”

“I’ll have to get my parents out here as well.” he muttered, his arm falling across his eyes.

“We’ll make it a big day. Why don’t you see if Maddy’s dad can get over here as well.”

“We’d better let Maddy take care of that,” he said.

“Suzy’s going to know real soon,” I muttered, glancing at the clock. “You better be prepared from hell from her.”

“Damn, it’s not like we planned this to happen,” Matt said.

“I know, but still, you could have been a little more careful that night.” I pointed out.

“We were drunk,” he sighed. “We weren’t thinking clearly.”

“Obviously,” I muttered. He glanced my way before shaking his head and closing his eyes. “Just, take it one day at a time. Maddy needs to heal from her neck injury still, and not too long after that the baby will be here. Just take things one day at a time and you two will be fine.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re not living clear across the country from the mother of your unborn child.”

“No, but I know someone who went through it.” I said. “He lives in Texas, and his daughter was born in LA.”

~POV: Matt~
Laying on the bed in Brian’s guest room, I stared at my phone, trying to get the gall up to call my parents to tell them they were going to be grandparents. They both practically beat it into me to wait until I was married before having a baby.
Sighing, I flipped open the phone and dialed my parents house number. It rang three times before someone picked the phone up.

“Matthew, how’s Madison doing?” My father’s voice asked me when he answered.

“Um, that’s actually what I wanted to talk about,” I muttered. “Put the phone on speaker, there’s something I need to tell you and Mom.”

“How far along?” Dad asked with a sigh.

“Huh?” I was confused. How did he know?

“How far along is she? She’s pregnant right?”

“H-how did you…”

“Just a feeling I had.” he cut me off.

“Probably six weeks. Close to seven,” I answered, rubbing my hand over my forehead.

“What do you mean probably? When did the two of you…”

“Six weeks ago,” I said quickly, not really wanting to hear my father asking me when I had sex.

“And there was no one else before or after you?” he asked.

“No, Dad, there wasn’t,” I muttered.

“Well there you go, she’s six weeks.” my father said. I just closed my eyes and shook my head. This was going to be a disaster.

“Well, we were going to get everyone together, her family and you and mom, so everyone could meet each other and everything.”

“When?”

“It won’t be for a while, about a month maybe.”

“Why so long?” Dad asked.

“Because Madison’s going through morning sickness and she’s recovering from a neck injury. We don’t want to much stress on her right now.”

“Good thinking. Just call and your mother and I will be there.”

“Thanks Dad, I have to go.” I said as Brian knocked on the door. He walked in as I hung up the phone.

“Hey, I’m heading to my Dad’s house to check on Maddy and to let them know how things are going, wanna come?”

“Sure,” I said, standing up.

“Your parents?” Brian asked as we walked out the front door.

“Yeah, my dad.” I replied. “I didn’t even have to say anything and he knew what I was calling about.”

“Father’s intuition. People talk about the mother’s side all the time, but as for the father, it’s still there, just harder to notice.”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” I replied.

“You’ll probably start to feel it, once it gets closer to being time for the baby to be here.” Brian said, stopping at a red light. I didn’t reply, just looked out the window as we passed stores and shops in the city Madison grew up in.

“So,” Brian said after a few minutes. “What did he say?”

“Nothing really, just that they’ll be here for the family meeting thing,” I replied. “That has to be discussed on when it’s going to be.”

“Yeah, it can’t happen now because Maddy’s too sick and still healing. It’s only been two weeks since the surgery.”

“I know,” I muttered as Brian pulled into a driveway. I took a deep breath and got out of the car. The front door opened and a woman around my age stepped out, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Well well, tweedle dee and tweedle dumbass.” she said.

“Which one’s which Mickey?” Brian asked. She rolled her eyes and walked up to her brother.

“Mickey, this is Matt Korklan, Madison’s boyfriend and co-worker.” Brian started.

“And baby daddy apparently.” his sister replied.

“They told you?”

“More I found out the hard way.” she replied, her nose wrinkled. “She threw up everywhere and when she tried to clean it up, it made her even more sick. So I asked Dad what was going on and he told me.”

“Wait, why was she trying to clean up?” I asked. “I’ve had that same injury before she can’t strain her neck.”

“It’s Madison, Matt, she’ll do what she wants.” Brian pointed out. “Is Dad in a bad mood?”

“With me and Maddy, no, with you two, yes.”

“Just what I thought,” Brian muttered. “Who else is here?”

“Mom, Brent, everyone. They don’t know though.” his sister said.

“Oh, damn, Matt, this is McKenna, mine and Madison’s sister.” I nodded as she nodded back. “Well Matt, let’s go into hell.” Brian muttered. I followed him into the house, and the first thing I noticed was the family was very similar. The house was decorated similarly to Brian’s house, cozy. I could tell this was a close knit family just by the way this house was.
Madison’s father was sitting on the couch when I walked in behind Brian. He looked up at the two of us before going back to the newspaper he was reading.

“Hey Dad,” Brian said.

“Thought I said you weren’t allowed back here,” Brian’s father said to him.

“Until Matt and I got ourselves to where we’ll stop arguing and stressing Madison,” Brian added to him. “Which we have, right after you and Madison left. We even decided that we’re going to get Matt’s parents out here to meet everyone.”

“Where is she?” I asked, looking around more.

“In her old bedroom upstairs.” her father replied, standing up. “Physically she’s up there, but mentally she’s about to enter the seventh circle of hell. She won’t relax, she feels she needs to talks to you,” he looked over at me. “So I’ll let you up there, but just so she can relax and get rest.” I nodded and looked up the stairs.

“Third door on the right,” Brian said. I nodded again and walked up the stairs. In the hallway the wall was covered with pictures. There was one that was a family portrait. Brian Sr. was in the middle with an woman who must have been his wife Suzy. There was a boy who looked older than everyone, so it must have been Brian. Another boy was on the other side of the two parents, so it was probably their brother Brent. McKenna was easy to spot because she was the oldest girl.

When my gaze fell on Madison, it was obvious, even at that age, that she would be beautiful.

“That was taken when I was five,” I heard from behind me. I turned to see I was standing outside of Madison’s room. Her door was open and the way the bed was angled, she could see down the hallway.

“I’ll bet you had guys chasing after you even back then,” I commented, walking into the room with her. I sat on the bed beside her as she smiled up at me.

“Not really, everyone knew the family I was from.” she replied. “It wouldn’t of mattered though, my very first crush actually ended up being my first serious relationship, and things just got real serious between the two of us.”
I ran my hand over my hair, looking away for a minute.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her, grabbing her hand.

“I’ll be fine,” She replied. “We need to talk things out Matt. I want to know what you want to do.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking confused.

“Madison Michelle!” a voice behind us exclaimed. I saw Maddy flinch as the person walked into the room. “You’re brother told me,” the woman said. She looked at me and gave me a blank stare. “Who are you?” she asked.

“Uh, who are you?” I asked back. She eyed me for a minute before shrugging. “When were you going to tell me about the baby? Girl I was so worried when you didn’t answer my calls earlier.” I looked at Maddy, who just shrugged.

“I’m fine Lee,” she said to the woman. “By the way, Leana, this is Matt Korklan, my boyfriend. Matt, this is Leana Sullivan.”

“Ooh, Matt!” Leana exclaimed, facing me. She pulled me into a bone crushing hug, and Madison ended up giggling because of it.

“So, how far along? Oh no wait, darn it I should know,” Leana said, turning to wink at me.

“You told her?” I asked Madison. Madison opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Leana.

“No no,” she said, waving her hand. “You stick around long enough, you’ll soon learn I know things, and things know me, we kind of go hand in hand.” I turned to stare at Madison again, but she was too busy trying not to hurt herself anymore from laughing.

“Anyway,” Leana said, turning back to Madison. “What are you going to do?”

“We were just about to discuss that,” Maddy said breathlessly. Leana nodded and looked at me. “Word of advice, just give in with her,” she then left the room. I stared after her, still not too sure if that really happened.

“Excuse Leana, she’s very, carefree I guess is how to describe her.” Madison said.

“She’s something alright. That’s the woman you was moving in with because her husband just passed?”

“Yeah, she’s okay anywhere as long as it doesn’t remind her of Jimmy, though this place does as well. I guess she just got distracted by the baby to think about it.”

“You know what I just thought of?” I asked Maddy. “With every ending, there’s a new beginning.”

“Do not even finish that thought,” Madison said, adjusting herself on the bed.

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll be sorry if this baby ends up with Jimmy’s spirit. He was a good guy and cared about everyone, but he was more carefree than Leana, and he wasn’t afraid to show it.”

“That’s not really a bad thing though,” I pointed out. “It’ll show he or she’s happy to be the way they are.”

“Yeah, if you want a kid who’s going to chase a goose and call it a stallion duck, be my guest.” She replied. We went silent, each lost in our own thoughts. “You know,” She said suddenly. “We’re sitting here talking as if we’re having the baby and raising her together.”

“We will be, won’t we?” I asked. “You still want to move to Missouri right?”

“I don’t know Matt. I’m having a baby now, meaning my parents are going to be grandparents. This is the first grandkid for my family, and I don’t want the baby to go without knowing them.”

“The baby will miss out on two sets of grandparents no matter what,” I pointed out to her. “You have Mike and Rebecca in Texas and my parents in Missouri. If you’re in Missouri, my parents get the baby all the time and the others go months without seeing it.”

“I’m damned no matter what I do,” she muttered. “Will you be willing to move away from Missouri?”

“I can’t,” I said. “I honestly don’t really want to. Missouri is my home, I’ve been there my entire life. Even if I did want to though, I still can’t because of my company over there.”

“I forgot about that,” Maddy said, staring at her hands. “So I guess I have no choice. I move to Texas or stay here, you miss out on the baby’s life.”

“Madison, it doesn’t matter where you live when it comes to me. I’ll be on the road most of the time anyway.”

“It really isn’t a good time for us to have this baby is it?” Madison asked, biting at her thumb nail.

“No, it’s really not.” I replied, grabbing her hand. “But we can work it out.”

“I know how we can work it out, I’ll just need your support, and we’ll have to convince our families it’s our choice, so it doesn’t matter what they say.”

“I’m sorry, I know it’s your body and everything, but we’re not aborting the kid.” I said.

“I wasn’t talking about that,” She said.

“Then what did you mean?” I asked, confused. We’ve decided abortion was out from the get go, so that left two options, and one didn’t seem too likely to work right now, so that left,

“Adoption?” I asked. She nodded, tears falling from her eyes.