I Tried

Brian’s P.O.V.
 
I watched as she practically sprinted away from me, dragging her small daughter the whole way. Something about her seemed familiar. Had I ever been with her? Damn, I was as bad as Zacky if I couldn’t even remember what the faces of the girls I had fucked looked like. In my defense, I was almost always drunk and high so no one could really expect me to remember every one of them. Of course, those days were over now that I was with Michelle.
       
“Hey! Who ya creepin’ at?” Zacky asked, walking up behind me.
         
“No one,” I said walking past him. “Have you seen Michelle?”
          
“No. Why? Don’t want her to see you checking out other girls, huh?” he said smirking.

“Baker?”

“Yes, Haner?”

“Drink fish piss and drown,” I said to him.

“Oh, not nice,” he said punching me in the shoulder.    

“What was that, Baker?” I asked him, gripping him in a head lock.

“Hey! Quit screwing around and get over here already!” Leana called.

“Coming!” I called back.

“So, have you asked Michelle yet?” Zacky asked as we walked back to where our friends were waiting.

“Not yet. I’m trying to wait for the right moment. I want it to be special.”

“Hmph. Not the first time you’ve had to be dramatic. Juli would know all about that…” I heard Zacky murmured to himself.

“What did you just say?” I asked him incredulously.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing… It was nothing,” he hastily replied.

For the rest of the walk back Zacky stayed quiet. I occasionally opened my mouth as to start a conversation, but after what he had just said, I thought better of it. Why the fuck would he say something like that? Did they all honestly not like the fact that I’m planning on asking Michelle to marry me? Was it such a bad idea that they had to be complete dicks about it? Jimmy had barely even spoken to me since the day that I had told them about it.
I knew the guys would all be a little upset since I had told them all countless times in high school that there would never be anyone I loved more than Juli. However, the hard truth was: Juli was gone. We hadn’t heard from her in six years. Six whole years. She hadn’t even taken the time to tell Jimmy where she was, or even let him know that she was okay. It was just when I had needed her most that she left. Typical Juli. She always ran off when things got too hard and ran crying to either Jimmy or me, expecting one of us to fix her mess. I wondered who it was that she ran off to that night six years ago…

No. I wouldn’t think about it, any of it. I wasn’t with her anymore. She had made it clear that she wanted out of our relationship and didn’t waste any time getting the hell out of here. I had moved on to bigger and better things. I was with the love of my life, Michelle. Michelle had never hurt me the way that Juli had. Michelle had never left me. Michelle had never turned her back on her family just because things weren’t working out the way she wanted them to. It wasn’t like she really ever needed to, though. Things always went Michelle’s way. Damn, why was everyone so upset about this? They’ve told me time and time again that they all loved Michelle and have even asked me why I hadn’t proposed to her yet. So why was everything turned upside down when I finally grew the balls to actually do it? Most of the encouragement had come from Jimmy, yet the day that I had announced that I would propose, he had bolted from the room crying! I loved Jimmy like a brother but Juli wasn’t going to come back and nothing would change if she did. Nothing.