Right Here Waiting

December came with a bitter coldness in Boston. Eliza was bored with her life, to be honest. She went to work, came home, made dinner, and went to bed. She had told David about her pregnancy, and he hadn’t taken it like she had thought. He wanted to keep it a secret from his parents; he didn’t want anyone to know.

They were lying in bed when everything really went down. She was lying on her back next to David while he read. She heard him clear his throat, and interested, she looked to see what he was reading. She read a few lines, and curious, she lifted her hand to point out a line.

“What does that mean?”

“What’s that around your wrist?” David asked, curiously lifting the bracelet.

“It was a birthday present,” she said only, and watched him fiddle with the silver chain.

She watched his face for a reaction until she heard a click. She looked back to her wrist and saw that he’d found something on her bracelet. She pulled her wrist back and saw that it wasn’t just a guitar pick; it was a locket. Inside was inscribed “I’ll always be right here waiting”.

She smiled as she thought of Brian.

“So this is how life is going to be with us, huh?” David said, angrily.

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean, you’re going to be married to me, with my kids, but always thinking about some other guy. That’s real classy, Eliza.”

“I wasn’t thinking about him!”

“You’re wearing a bracelet he gave you. I don’t want you to wear that thing, Eliza,” David said and got up from the bed. He opened their door and walked into the hallway. Eliza followed.

“It was just a birthday present. It doesn’t mean anything, David,” she said, grabbing his arm.

“Let go of me, Eliza.”

“Just come back to bed, David,” she said pulling on his arm.

“NO!” he hollered and pushed on his arm, making Eliza step back quickly, before pulling his arm completely away from her.

Without the leverage of his arm to hold onto, Eliza stumbled backwards into the bannister. She turned to her left to try and right herself, but forgot about the steps. She plunged head first down the steps, tumbling and turning, before landing on her stomach on the last step.

David hollered her name. She didn’t answer him. Her eyes were closed and there was a cut on her forehead that was bleeding. He made it down the stairs and rolled her over before he saw the blood covering her thighs.

Katie sped all the way to the hospital. She’d called Zacky to tell him what was going on, and even he and some of the guys were flying out. They had another week before their tour started back up.

Parking her car, she ran into the hospital and found David staring into a room. He turned around to talk to her.

“Move out of my way, asshole. This is your fucking fault.”

She pushed past him and closed the door in his face. She shut the blinds and sat down beside Eliza on the bed.

“Hi, sweetpea.”

“Hey Katie.”

“You feel okay?”

“I’m really tired and really numb.”

“I know baby, I bet you are.”

Katie was stroking Eliza’s face, which was looking at the ceiling while talking. She purposely kept her eyes away from Katie’s face, knowing she’d break down crying if she looked at her best friend. Unfortunately, she picked that time to look at Katie.

“I wanted to keep it.”

Katie watched Eliza’s face twist up in agony and sadness and then tried to wipe away the tears that quickly fell. She curled up beside Eliza on the hospital bed and hugged her while she cried.

A shouting match woke the two girls up. They looked up as the door opened and Matt, Jimmy, Johnny, Zacky and Val walked through the door. Eliza’s face immediately lit up and everyone came around to give her a hug.

“What was all that noise?”

“Your bitch-ancee didn’t want us to come in,” Jimmy said.

“We set him straight though,” Matt said.

Eliza watched as Zacky and Val placed different vases of flowers beside her bed. She had missed these guys. In reality, she had missed one of them the most, but he wasn’t here. She glanced around at the door and then back to Val.

“We didn’t tell him.”

“He’s not coming, Eliza. If he wants to act like a dick towards you, he doesn’t deserve to know,” Matt said.

“He was right in everything he said, though,” Eliza said.

“It doesn’t mean you deserved to hear those things he said to you.”

Eliza blinked back tears and nodded slowly. She should’ve known Brian wouldn’t come. He hadn’t approved of her relationship, marriage, and definitely didn’t approve of the child.
They all stayed with her until the doctor came to give her an update on what was going on. She had already informed them that she’d lost the baby, and the doctor just confirmed that she was okay but she’d be in a lot of pain for a couple of days. Hours later, everyone filed out, saying their goodbyes except Katie.

Two days later, Eliza was allowed to leave the hospital. Katie helped her home, and stayed until David got there. They hadn’t spoken much since the “accident”, which is what David was calling it. Eliza was thankful he hadn’t really tried to talk to her. It was completely his fault that she had fallen in the first place.

They moved around for a month barely speaking to each other. If they did, an argument started. Eventually, David moved into a guest room to sleep. Eliza spent her nights staring between the bracelet Brian had given her and his ring that she wore on her thumb.



At the beginning of February, she did something she never thought she would’ve done.

She found her acoustic guitar while she was cleaning out her closet one Saturday. David had gone out with a client for lunch, and she had decided to clean their room. She froze in her movements and pulled out the guitar from its case. Crossing her legs underneath her, she set the guitar on her lap and ran her fingers over it. She forgot how much she’d missed the feel of the guitar.

She put her arm around the neck and her left hand instinctively fingered the notes while her right hand strummed out a song. She smiled widely as the song came out effortlessly and fluently. She glanced up at a sound and saw Katie standing in her doorway, smiling.

“Keep playing, please?”

Eliza smiled and looked back down at her guitar. It felt like the notes flew out of her fingers and into the guitar. She had played three full songs before she finally pulled her fingers away from the strings. She looked down at her fingertips and saw how red they were.

“Guess I better get used to it if I’m going to keep playing,” Eliza said, shrugging.

“You’re going to start playing again?”

“Well, I came to some conclusions today. One, dad would be so upset with me if he knew how much I wasn’t playing guitar. He’d be so fucking pissed off at me. Two, I think it’s the way to get Brian back.”

“I think that’s a great idea.”

“That’s not all, though.”

“What’s the rest of your master scheme?”

“I’m going to do it at a concert. I’m going to have the guys help me, and I’m going to go from there.”

“What exactly does that entail?” Katie asked, picking up some boxes to help her.

“I’m not exactly sure, but I’ll figure that out. Hey, will you help me finish cleaning so we can get started on invitations? I picked them up this morning. They’re already addressed and everything, we’ve just got to put them in the envelopes and shit.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

They quickly put boxes away into the closet and moved downstairs to the kitchen table where Eliza had the box of invitations.

“Oh, Eliza, these are beautiful!” Katie exclaimed, looking at the green and brown invitations. “The colors are gorgeous. They go together so well!”

“Thank you, I really like them. Okay, let’s get these puppies ready to mail out.”

They spent the next hour putting each invitation in the correct envelope before marking it off the list. They had gotten to a speed bump in the process when the guys’ names came up.

Unfortunately, David happened to walk in at the exact same moment. He smiled at the two and politely asked what they were doing. As they explained, he made his way to the table to look over their progress. He saw the names of the guys and immediately frowned.

“Eliza, I don’t want them at my wedding.”

“It happens to be my wedding, too, and Zacky’s coming because he’s Katie’s date. Val is one of my bridesmaids, so of course Matt is coming. Johnny and Jimmy are invited, and they’ll be coming.”

“What about the other one?”

“Brian,” Eliza said, making sure she enunciated his name. “Is getting an invitation, but I’m not sure he’s actually going to attend.”

“Don’t send him an invitation, Eliza. I’m going to be extremely pissed off if you do.”

“Honestly, David. We had this conversation before. He’s a friend. If he wants to come, he will. I’m not going to not send him an invitation just because you said so.”

“That’s fucking ridiculous, Eliza.”

“No, you’re being ridiculous, David,” Eliza said, standing up to face him.

“I don’t want that motherfucker at my wedding!”

“I do!”

Katie’s head went back and forth like she was watching a tennis match; however, her head stopped its movement when David’s hand found Eliza’s cheek. Katie’s gasp was the only thing heard after the slap, but she saw the fire returning to her best friends eyes.

Eliza chuckled as her fingers came away from her lip with blood. “You know…I’ve put up with a lot of shit from you, David.”

David didn’t move. He just stared wide-eyed at Eliza as she circled him. When she made it back to face him, she pulled her fist back and slammed it into his nose. After a minute of trying to stop the bleeding and cursing, he pulled his hands away from his face long enough for Eliza to get another hit in.

“You’ve taken me away from my best friends, you’ve beaten me, and you got me pregnant and then ripped that away from me.”

“Eliza, I’m sorry. Look, I didn’t mean to—”

“I know. You didn’t mean to hit me,” she said in a mocking tone. “You’ll never do it again, right? You love me, you’re so very sorry, and you’ll make it up to me. Trust me; I know all of your bullshit by heart.”

“Eliza, what the fuck has gotten into you?”

“YOU HAVE!” Eliza burst out. “I am through with your shit, David!”

Eliza shoved him and turned around, heading upstairs. David immediately rushed after her, and Katie followed, interested in what was going on. Eliza immediately started shoving her things into bags, pulling out boxes, and rushing around the room and bathroom.

“What are you doing, Eliza?”

“I’m leaving you, fuckwad. I’m getting as far away from you as fucking possible.”

“Where will you go?” David said as she and Katie filled their arms with bags and boxes.
“I don’t care; anywhere as long as I’m fucking away from you.”

“What the hell am I supposed to tell my mother and the guests? What about what you owe me?!”

“Considering I haven’t sent out invitations, there won’t be any guests. As far as your mother is concerned, you can tell her to go fuck herself. As far as what I owe you, trust me, you’ll get it back.”

With the last sentence, she grabbed as much as she could and walked downstairs. She piled her car along with Katie’s car full of boxes and bags. She walked back up the few steps into the house and roamed around, making sure she had everything of hers. She didn’t see David. He’d cooped himself up in the bedroom, and Eliza didn’t care. She left all the pictures of them in the picture frames to remind him of how badly he’d screwed up.

Finally, when she was sure she had everything, she smiled and slammed the door. She was free, finally.

Now, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. She did know one thing… she had a best friend to win back.