Without A Doubt, You're All I Dream About.

Jack’s P.O.V

I was really surprised to see I had a missed call from Haley the next morning. It was only 9am on a Sunday. Why could she call me when her boyfriend was over? I decided to give her a call back.

“Jack?” her voice sounded wary.

“Haley! What’s the matter? You sound upset.”

“Oh yeah. That’s why I called you. I uhh, kind of blew up in Brian’s face last night…”

“You what?!” I was shocked. I didn’t think Haley was the type with a short temper.

“He really pissed me off, Jack. All day he was talking about football and his traning, yada yada… and when he finally asked how I had settled in here…” she trailed off.

“What’d you say?” I gulped.

“well, I told him that you and I had gotten pretty close and that you play in a band.”

“So? What’s so bad about that?” I asked.

“He said that he found it gay and that really set me off. I mean, who the fuck is he to judge you like that?”

“What an asshole.”

“and then I kept yelling at him and he was like, ‘Oh, why are you getting so defensive over him’. WHY? I just can’t believe he would say something like that!”

“Hales, it’s alright. If he want to act like a total dick, that’s fine. Did he do anything to hurt you?” -- that was my main concern.

She let out a sigh. “no. I haven’t seen him since last night. I think he got up earlier and went for a run. It’s going to be awkward when we do decide to talk about it though.”

“Thanks for defending me, I guess.” I said with a laugh.

“Fuck you, Jack. This is all your fault, as usual!”

“Hey! Don’t start blaming things on me now!”

“can’t you take a joke, Barakat? Ohh you’re funny. Talk to you later!”

What.a.fucking.dickhead.

I had to try and not let myself get mad.

First he says he’ll bash my face in, now he claims that I’m gay? Ha, well newsflash Brian, you seem to be the one with the problem.

In all honesty, he could call me whatever names he’d like and say whatever he wants to me, I couldn’t give a fuck. Just as long as he didn’t do anything to hurt Haley. I had promised her that I would always be there for her, and I will.

I was contemplating whether or not to go over and confront Brian… that’ll just cause more problems. Plus, I don’t even think Haley knows about the “threats” I had been given.
It bugged me that this guy was so absorbed in his football that that’s all he had been talking about yesterday. What kind of boyfriend was he?

I spent the first half of the day lazying around until I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to go talk to Brian. Alone. I sent a text message to Haley saying,

“Do you think it’d be alright if Brian and I meet up at the park to talk about something?”

“He’ll be there in 20 minutes.”was my reply.

The streets were quiet for a Sunday afternoon. There would be usually little kids chasing each other around the neighbourhood… huh, Brian must’ve scared them off, I joked.
As I neared the park, I could see Brian’s boofy blonde hair in the distance.

Whatever you do, Jack, don’t loose your temper, I told myself.

“Hey, Brian.”

“Hi. Listen, before you say anything let me apologise… I know Haley told you what I said… and I’m sorry.”

Wait, what? He was apoligising to ME?

“oh… thanks… but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

“then why did you want to meet me here if you didn’t want an apology?”

“an apology was the last thing on my mind, Brian. I wanted to talk to you about Haley’s feelings.”

“why talk about her feelings? I have feelings too, you know.”

“can you just not think about yourself for a second?”

That shut him up.

“Before you came…she told me that you were there for her when her mother wasn’t. I was like, ‘Hey! He sounds like a great guy!’ but then she started to cry. I hate seeing anyone cry… especially a beautiful girl like her… I told her I’d be there for her whenever she needed someone… and yesterday all you were talking about was yourself. Shouldn’t you ask how your girlfriend is going? You know, stop being so self-centred for once?”

“You fucker.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You’re trying to make Haley fall in love with YOU! Fucking prick. Who are you anyway? Just some loser that plays in a band with another bunch of losers.”

“You are so judgemental, man! What is your problem? Okay look, I’m not in the mood to fight with you. All I’m saying is that you actually pay a little more attention to Haley. Because she is your girlfriend. And if you really cared about her, you’d make her feel special.”

This was getting deep.

“What would you know? Just get this through your head, band boy,” he lent in closer to my face.

“Haley will never be your girlfriend. Why? Because she’s mine. She will never love you as long as I’m around.”

Ouch.

“Um, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but uh, you live in New York.”

“Fuck you. She won’t want you as her boyfriend anyway.”

“Nice to see you too, Brian. I’ve gotta go, but make sure you apologise to Haley when you get back to her place. See you.”

I got up and headed back home. I think that went well. I just really hoped he had listened to what I said about making Haley feel special…and I surely didn’t care about what he said about Haley “never loving me”. Because guess what? He was wrong. Dead wrong.