Forgive Me

Normal POV

Maddy, Ollie, Joan and Valerie were waiting for two cabs to come pick them at the airport.
Ollie sighed. They now were in California.
She wasn’t really complaining. It was hotter than Scotland, and people were really nice.
Maddy couldn’t stop smiling. She was really excited; Valerie and Joan couldn’t understand why though.
The cabs finally arrived. Joan and Valerie climbed in one cab, while Maddy and Ollie took in the other one.
A company had already brought their stuff to their new house, in Huntington Beach.

***Later***

The cabs arrived in front of a cute big house. Ollie’s and Maddy’s jaws dropped, and Valerie smiled proudly. Joan kept his indifferent expression on his face.
Ollie and Maddy wasted no time and almost ran to their room.

In Ollie’s room, the walls were a light grey. There was a normal sized bed and a quite big closet. It wasn’t extravagant but it was just like Ollie wished it to be. Simple.
In Maddy’s room, there were the same things, even if Maddy’s bed was a little bigger, and the walls were dark purple. Maddy had a content smile on her pretty face; dark purple was her favorite color, and she was entirely satisfied with her room.
Soon, the walls would be covered with band posters, and different pictures.
The girls started to unpack their stuff, while Valerie and Joan looked in every room of the house.

When she had finished unpacking her clothes, Maddy came in Ollie’s room.

“So…”, she started .”I’ll call Zack and propose him to meet somewhere. You…You want to come? I’m sure the guys will happy to see both of us…”

Ollie hesitated. Sure she enjoyed the guy’s company, but she wasn’t ready to face Brian. But another idea came across her mind: if she didn’t go with her sister, she would have to deal with her mother, but more specifically Joan. This simple idea made her shiver. She hated Joan with all her heart, and even if it meant to let her mother alone with him, she couldn’t spend another minute with him today.

“Okay, I’ll go with you.”, she responded quickly.
Maddy was lightly surprised but said nothing. She asked herself how his sister will act toward Brian. She was worried about it, because she didn’t want it to ruin the ambiance in the group. She shrugged and texted Zacky. His answer came almost instantly.

Zack and the guys proposed to come over the girls’ new house. Maddy and Ollie were waiting for them in the streets.

***At the same moment, the guys’ POV***

Zack could feel his heart beat fast, and couldn’t help but smile to the idea that in a few minutes he would hold Maddy in his arms. He could see her smile and look in her gorgeous eyes. He really missed her, and he still couldn’t believe that she was now living here, in California, in HIS city. It was a gift from God. Okay, maybe that sounded a bit cheesy, especially from a rockstar, but he didn’t care about that. Groupies were funny a few years ago, when the band started to be famous, but not anymore. Maddy was the kind of girl who seemed not to give a fuck, and Zacky loved that. Maddy wasn’t complicated, Maddy was beautiful, Maddy was kind, Well, he felt like he knew her since tens of years. He felt really close to her. He couldn’t get bored of her, he could spend days, weeks, or months alone with her and he wouldn’t be bored. Maybe that kind of feeling was called love. He never experienced this before, and he expected to be afraid of it. But he didn’t. Instead he was excited about it. Even if in a really hided part of his heart he was afraid that he loved her more than she did.
Zack escaped his thoughts. He had no reason to think about that. In a few minutes, he’ll be with her. And her sister. The tensed situation between his friend and Maddy’s sister came to his mind…
He looked at Brian. The lead guitarist seemed lost in his thoughts. He didn’t seem happy, but annoyed.

“You okay?”, he asked.

The brown-eyed man nodded, but Zacky sighed. “I know you’re not…”, the raven-haired male retorted.

“I’m a bit stressed, I don’t know how I’ll react when I’ll see her…”, Brian confessed.

Brian didn’t know if he would be able to stay calm, or to hold back his tears. He didn’t know if he could refrain himself to yell at Ollie in frustration. He wasn’t really emotional or something; It was just that life was rude with him since a too long time now. He wanted to have someone who cared about him, to feel loved…

“It will be okay. No need to worry, Gates.”, Zacky tried to convince him. Zack was really worried about his friend. He couldn’t blame Ollie though, because her feelings weren’t his problems, but he simply wished that things would go easier for Brian.

Brian nodded again, grateful to his friend. He was conscious that everybody – especially Zack- started to be worried about him, and he tried not to be too boring in front of them. He didn’t want to be like he was after Elise’s death. He hoped that things would be okay, but wasn’t really sure of this.

***Normal POV***

“They’re here”, Maddy said excitedly when she saw a group of five men walking in their direction.
Both girls could feel the fast beating of their heart…but it wasn’t for the same reasons.

Maddy’s POV

As soon as Zack was not too far from her, she ran and hugged him tightly. She passed her and in his hair, and pulled away. She looked at him in the eyes. She almost melted.

“Hey…”, she whispered. Her voice was low, but loud enough for Zack to hear it.

“Hi…”, he said back, not breaking the eye contact.

“I’ve missed you..”, she said, truthfully.

“Me too. But now you’re here, and I won’t let you go away from me. You’re my prisoner!”, he joked.

“Well, doesn’t sound too bad…”, Maddy replied, and both of them laughed lightly.

“Zack…I don’t want to disturb your cheesy moment but…can we say hello to Maddy too?”, Johnny interrupted.

The green-eyed guitarist glanced at the short man, and reluctantly pulled away from Maddy.
Maddy smiled and hugged Johnny, then Arin and Matt, and finally Brian. The brown-eyed man and her exchanged a long look, and Maddy squeezed Brian’s hand. The brown-eyed man smiled lightly and nodded.

“Hi Ollie!”, Zack greeted. Ollie smiled sincerely to him, but she didn’t hug him. She wasn’t the one to hug everybody. But she greeted Johnny, Matt and Arin nonetheless. Then she approached Brian.
She didn’t want to act like a teenager and ignore him. It would have been stupid and useless. Plus she realized that she had been selfish, lately. She was concentrated on her own fears, while Brian was feeling hurt. She had no right to treat him like that. She needed to tell him that she was sorry, to ask for another chance.

“Hello…”, she said almost shyly.

Brian looked deeply in her eyes, and he couldn’t stop himself. He captured her in a tight embrace. He expected her to shout at him, telling him to stop, but she didn’t. Instead, she placed her arms around his neck, and breathed his scent. She realized how much she had missed him and suddenly felt really bad for what she had said to him a few days ago.
She looked at him in the eyes. “I-I’m happy to see you…”, she admitted.

Brian was surprised to hear that. In fact he didn’t understand her reaction. “Really?”

Ollie nodded. “I was worried, because I feel bad for what I said to you. It was harsh. But now that you’re in front of me…well I missed you, Brian.”

Brian smiled inside. He was really happy to hear that from her. “I missed you too, and…yeah…I was worried too.”, he chuckled nervously.

“I didn’t mean exactly what I told you. I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I know I did. I didn’t know, at that moment, that I was moving to Cali, and maybe I wouldn’t have been that harsh with you if I knew that. I can’t delete what I said, but I can say that I’m so sorry Brian. You didn’t deserve it. You’ve been nice and comprehensive. You’ve made me laugh, and I learned so many things from you, you’ve got no idea. I know that sorry isn’t enough, but that’s all I can say now. I hope you’ll be able to forgive me. I was afraid, you know…”

Yeah, Ollie was still afraid that someone would break her heart again. But she also needed to feel alive and happy. She had to learn how to trust people if she didn’t want to end alone at the end of her life.
She wanted to trust Brian, because something about him made her heart melt. She needed him in her life.

Brian didn’t know what to say. He wanted to reassure her, tell her that it was nothing. But it would have been a lie. What she said had broken his heart. But he didn’t want her to feel guiltier than she should though. He wanted her to be just like when they met.

“Let’s forget about that, okay? Yeah… I was hurt, but I know that we can start again. I-I think we get along pretty well, and that we could be really good friends… Now you’re here with me and it’ll be more easier. I think it will take some time till we trust each other enough to start something, but we’ll make it, Ollie. I promise you to try, at least, and if you want to, of course…”, Brian explained.

Ollie couldn’t explain the joy that was running through her body on the moment. She was conscious that Brian was making a big effort, and she wouldn’t be able to thank him enough for that. All what she knew was that she wouldn’t waste this chance once again.
Well, it will take time for her to trust him totally, because the only persons that Ollie trusted were her mom and her sister.

“Yeah, I want to start again with you, Brian. I want to learn to know you, I want to spend some time with you. It doesn’t mean that I’m ready for more or something, but I know that I can’t stay away from you, Brian. I’m still afraid that I’ll end hurt or something, but something tells me that I should give it a try. I never met someone like you, Brian. You might think the opposite, but I do care about you.”, Ollie said, while running her thumb on his cheek.

“I agree that we should take it slow, and I promise you that I won’t hurt you. I’ll do my best to make you laugh and smile. You deserve to be happy, Ollie.”

The green-eyed woman chuckled.

“What’s funny?”, Brian asked, raising his eyebrow.

“I’ve said horrible things to you, and I know that you’ve been quite down the past few day, but you’re telling me that I deserve to be happy. You deserve it more than anybody Brian.”

“Well, enough cheesy things for today…”, he laughed. He turned to see the rest of the group chatting. “Who want to come to the beach?”, he proposed.

Everyone agreed, and he turned to Ollie. “Please say yes… That’s what friends do: going to the beach together and having fun…please.”, he begged with pleading eyes.
Ollie smiled and kissed his cheek. “Of course”, she whispered in his hear, and Brian smiled like an idiot.

The guitarist thought that today would be one of the worst days of his life. He was wrong because on the moment, he was more than happy. Well, it was true that he wanted to be more than a friend to Ollie, but he also knew that it was a big effort from her to try to trust him, so he was satisfied.

Maddy and Zack looked at them, with smiles on their face.
Zack was happy to see his friend smiling again, and Maddy was proud of her sister. Ollie realized that it was stupid to hide and ignore the fact that she cared about Brian. It was a big step…

“So, motherfuckers, you coming?”, Johnny asked, tapping his foot on the ground.