Second Chance

Zacky’s POV

“How much did you guys listened?” Brian asks, from where he’s sitting on the couch. I turn to see everyone’s faces. & I guess our silence tells him more than our words would. We heard everything. We heard every single word that came out of Brian’s mouth. He can’t get out of this one & he doesn’t even try. He lets out a big sigh of defeat. “Ok” He says in a low voice. “I guess you guys want an explanation” He says, before rapidly glance at Jimmy who’s perched on a wall, his hands in his pockets & his blue eyes staring at Brian. “What do you guys want to know?” He mutters more to himself than to us.

“How long?” Johnny is the first to have the balls to actually make a question. Him being the little shit that he is, of course he was gonna be the first one to fire out a question. Brian ponders in his answer for a while, making the tension in the room almost unbearable.

“I don’t know” He says. Matt jumps from his seat.

“How the fuck can you not know?” His voice dripping with anger. “How long have you & Annabelle being fooling around behind Michelle’s back?”

“We haven’t been fucking around her back, ok? It was a onetime only” Brian says, a lot cooler than I thought he would be. He doesn’t look nervous, or angry, or annoyed. In fact… he looks sad. No, scratch that… he looks miserable.

“When?” I ask.

“A day before the wedding” Brian says, letting out a big breath & lowering his head in shame.

“& you knew about this?” Johnny says, turning to Jimmy. He nods slowly & Matt lets out a loud groan. “Since when?”

“I kinda walked in on them kissing” He says, pulling himself off the wall to walk closer to where we all are.

“& you didn’t do or said anything?” Matt says, pacing behind my couch, his heavy steps were giving me a slight headache. “For fuck’s sake, Jim. You didn’t think about telling us?”

“Who the fuck do you think was the one responsible for Brian marrying Michelle?” Jimmy spats, nearly screams & that’s when I see everything starts to click in our head, even Matt stopped pacing.

We all noticed the distance that grew between Brian & Jimmy in the past couple of years. It came to a point where they couldn’t stand being in the same room. We always wondered what could’ve happened but never asked them, too afraid to make things worse. Or too afraid to make things worse. Well… that was my fear. Given Brian’s & Jimmy’s past, them being almost inseperable. They had been so close & best friends that I couldn’t actually believe they couldn’t even look at each other. Then was the fact that Brian actually walked out of his wedding for a few minutes. Who does that but someone that doesn’t want to get married? He didn’t really walk out; he was pulled away by Jimmy. Brian was actually standing in front of Annabelle when Jimmy pulled him. & Annabelle followed them. & when Jimmy came back & Brian appeared a couple of minutes later, they acted like nothing had happened & the ceremony continued.

But Anna never came back.

She left California that same day without even saying goodbye. She never called, she ignored our calls, emails, texts… everything. It seemed like she disappeared from the face of the earth. She didn’t even keep in touch with the girls. Which was weird since her & Gena were so close. & when we asked her family, they were as lost as we were. Only Jeremy told us he spoke to her when she called to congratulate him & London for the birth of Sean. She even missed that. Not even her family made her go back to California. That’s so not Annabelle. Family is everything to her. Well… was.

“She asked me not to get married” Brian says, snapping us all out of our thoughts. “With tears in her eyes, she asked me not to get married” Brian says with regret in his words.

“& you fucking did” I said. He nods his head slowly. “Why did you do it then?”

“Because…” He stops, the words getting strangled in his throat.

“It was my fault” Jimmy pipes in. We all look at him. “I made him feel like shit for what he did & for what he was doing” Jimmy says, walking so he’s standing in front of Brian. “& I regret it. I never thought that you loved her the way you did. I never thought I was making you so miserable” Brian turns up to look at him. I see his eyes glistening with tears. He looks like he’s about to cry. I’ve never seen Brian cry in my entire life. “But what I regret the most is losing your friendship. I know things will never be the same between us, but I would be more than happy than for us to be at least civil towards each other” Jimmy finishes, sitting next to Johnny on the couch in front of Brian. We all stay quiet for a while, just taking all in, trying to come up with the better way to say the things that we wanna get off of our chest.

“Well…” Johnny starts. “Then you can’t let her get married” He says like it the most obvious thing in the world. We all stare at him like he has 3 fucking heads. He must be high, drunk or something. “What?” He asks after noticing our stare. “Oh, come on, guys. You can’t tell me that you didn’t see this coming? We all knew that Brian should’ve been with Annabelle from the fucking beginning. They are made for each other” He says, shrugging & leaning back on the couch, placing his hands behind the back of his head. The little piece of shit doesn’t care about anything. That’s what makes him so special. He’s one of a kind.

“I think you’re forgetting the fact that Brian is married to my sister-in-law” Matt says, pointing out the obvious while we all nod.

“He can get a divorce. It happens all the time. Why would he stay married to someone he doesn’t love? He’s not happy, which means he’s not making Michelle happy. It would be a win-win situation for everybody. You can be with Annabelle & live your happily ever after. If she asked you not to get married, means that she must really love you. I’m sure if you ask her not to marry John, she will dump his ass in a second & be with you” He says, finishing his argument.

“Although your argument is valid, I can’t throw away a marriage just like that. I might love her, but she doesn’t feel the same anymore. I begged her not to get married but she’s moved on. It’s my turn to watch her be happy” Brian says, before sniffing, trying to keep his cool.

“Am I the only that sees how fucked up this is? You all talk about this like it’s nothing, like it means nothing. He slept with one of Michelle’s bridesmaid the night before their wedding? He cheated on her. He was willing to leave Michelle at the altar to run away with someone else. Am I the only one that sees that? Am I the only that sees how wrong this is?” Matt spats, furiously. You can’t blame him. He’s married to Michelle’s sister. Michelle is part of his family now.

“What the fuck do you want me to do, huh? I can’t take back what was done. I screwed up, yes. But my intention was never to hurt Michelle. She’s the last person I want to hurt” Brian says & I start to see that he’s starting to lose his cool. & a fight between Brian & Matt is the last thing we need right now.

“You surely weren’t thinking about her when you were fucking around behind her back. You’re a douche bag” Matt says.

“Fuck you, Matt. You have no idea what it feels like to realize you have to spend the rest of your life married to someone you are not in love with” Brian says, standing up. That was our queue for us to stand too, ready to jump in if they started to fight. “Not all of us get to marry the woman we really love. Our high school sweetheart like you did. Not everyone gets the pretty perfect life that you seem to live. Some of us make mistakes. I made a huge one, but I don’t regret it cuz I love Annabelle. & if I could, I would do it again in a heartbeat” Brian says, inching closer to Matt. Johnny places a hand on Brian’s chest, stopping him on his track. Jimmy stands next to Matt & I’m just stuck in the middle, awkwardly standing there, not knowing what was gonna happen, or which one to stop. “I don’t get to marry my best friend like you did” He says & Matt lunges forward, being stopped by Jimmy, but bumping a table on his attempt, breaking a few beer bottles that fell from it. Johnny pushes Brian back. Before they struggle to free themselves, I hear a soft knock on the door &, after hesitating about opening, I did. I never expected her to be standing there.

Annabelle’s POV

I see Zacky’s emerald eyes wide open, almost as in shock, watching me. Weird… since he doesn’t seem to have even noticed his gorgeous girlfriend standing next to me. “What are you doing here?” He asks, his mouth hanging open a bit. I let out a chuckle while turning to look at Gena, who’s smiling back at me.

“I’m here to deliver you your girlfriend” I say, grabbing his chin & turning his face slightly to my left so his gaze is on his girlfriend instead of me. He blinks a few times, before finally noticing Gena.

“What are you doing here?” He says, before letting go of the door & wrapping his arms around the slim figure of his girlfriend. Gena gives him a small kiss, before pulling away from him.

“Well… I’m here to help Annabelle with her wedding preparations. She made me the Maid of Honor. Can you believe it?” She says, excitement on her voice. She’s really thrilled that I have taken her in consideration for this. But how can I not? She’s the closest I have to a sister. Besides, she can help me with my hair. That’s a plus.

“What?” Zacky asks his head turning sharply at me. “You’re getting married?” He asks & I just laugh at his silliness.

“Uh… I’m pretty sure I’ve been through this with you, guys” I say, making Gena laugh too. “You’re acting weird. What’s up with you?”

“No, I mean… you have a set a date?” He asks, grabbing Gena’s hand in his.

“No. But I’m really starting to get everything ready. I’m gonna have to do it someday… maybe soon. Who knows? I just want to be ready with the basic” I say. “Where’s the rest of the guys?” I ask him, making my way towards the door, before him stopping me by standing at the entrance. I watch him in shocked. What’s his deal? Why is he acting so weird?

“You shouldn’t come in” He says at me & I frown in confusion.

“Zack” Gena scolds him.

“I mean, the place is a freaking mess. It’s disgusting. You don’t want to see that” He says. I notice him nervous, but why? It’s not like I haven’t seen how disgusting these guys can be.

“I’ve been on a van with you guys for a month. I’m sure I can handle your mess in a wider place” I say, before pushing him out of the way & entering the suite. I walk straight to the living room. Everyone’s quiet. Deadly quiet. “Who died?” I ask with a smile in my face. Everyone turns to look at me, with the same expression Zacky had when he opened the door. “What’s going on?” I ask, looking at them. My eyes get fixated with Brian’s & his face reads guilt. “What’s going on, Brian?” I ask. Now I’m getting nervous. They’ve never been like this before. It seems like something happened before I got here. I notice the bottles shattered on the floor & how Matt’s eyes are almost stabbing me. He has the same look he had when he found out I was moving here.

“They…” Brian starts, taking a big breath to continue. Almost like he’s getting the courage to speak to me. “They know, Belle” He finishes & I don’t quite get it.

“Know what?” I say, in confusion.

“Don’t play dumb bitch, ok?” Matt snaps at me, surprising me. He’s never treated me this way.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I say, my anger getting the best of me.

“We know everything” He says & that’s when it clicks for me. “About you & Brian” He sneers & I feel my blood turn cold. I turn to look at Jimmy. That son of a bitch! He must’ve told everyone.

“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t say a word” He says, rolling his eyes. I feel myself panting as I slowly turn my gaze to look at Brian.

“Brian?” I question him. He just looks at me & nods. “How?”

“They overheard Jimmy & I talking about it. I’m sorry, Annabelle” I feel light headed & dizzy.

“I think I’m gonna throw up” I mutter, turning around to bump into Gena, who’s shocked. I look at her, almost scared. “I need… I need to go” I say, swallowing hard, before passing through her & Zacky, making my way to the door.

“Hold on. I’m coming with you” She says, following me. She shuts the door behind her & I fall to the floor, my legs shaking so bad that I’m not able to stand. She drops down by my side & hugs me as I start crying. “Shhh… it’s ok. Everything’s gonna ok, Anna” She says. I know she must have a slight idea what’s going on, but not to the full details. “Let’s get you out of here” She says, grabbing my purse & helping me stand. I sniff & nod, taking her hand as we walk to the elevator. One thought running through my mind… I hope they don’t tell Michelle.