One More Sunset

She stood outside of the venue with a Marlboro 27 hanging from her lips. The smoke drifted from her lips as she leaned against the side of the building. Her eyes were fixed on the tour bus parked across the street. She was sure the show had ended already, especially because girls and a few guys were beginning to pile around outside the side doors. They were all desperately trying to get a picture with one of the boys she knew all too well.

A few mothers gave Brooklyn a bad look, watching as she smoked her third cigarette in the last twenty minutes. But in all honesty, she didn't care. All Brooklyn wanted to walk away, to go home, but she couldn't. She knew it would be too wrong to go all that way, then not even at least say hello. She absolutely had to.

At least, that's what she was telling herself repeatedly as she stood outside the House of Blues. It took everything inside of her to not leave. The first person to leave the side door was Kennedy. He somehow managed to slip through them all, saying he'd be back in just a minute and that he had to take care of something important first. They all pouted, but accepted it anyways.

Brooklyn watched as he walked closer and closer to her, going to the door of the bus. She thought she was in the clear as he opened the door, but at the last second, Kennedy's head turned. His hazel eyes met with her blue ones and she froze. Kennedy stopped, all movements seizing. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. Before he could speak, Brooklyn felt burning ash from her cigarette fall on her hand. She cursed loudly, looking down at the ground to make sure she stepped out the ash. When she looked back up, Kennedy was gone.

She sighed to herself. Maybe he didn't see her. Maybe he didn't recognize her at all. Brooklyn took that as a chance to escape. She stepped out the rest of the cigarette then pushed herself away from the wall. When she realized the only way to get to her car was to go through the crowd of girls, she internally cursed herself.

Praying that she could get through without one of the guys coming out and recognizing her, she attempted to make her way through the crowd. She was barely halfway through when a hand was placed on her arm.

"Aren't you Brooklyn Conners?" a snobbish looking brunette asked.

"Uh no," Brooklyn replied.

The brunette tapped her friend next to her. "She's Brooklyn Conners, right? She used to date Garrett."

Hearing that simple phrase caused several surrounding people to turn around. They all suddenly agreed, saying she looked like Brooklyn Conners. Questions were pushed her way, asking why she was there or if she and Garrett were still together.

The annoyance was obvious on Brooklyn's face as she tried to push her way through. She had no idea that people knew who she was, let alone gave a fuck about who she was. Before she could tell the girls to leave her the fuck alone, a deep voice was heard through the high pitched females.

"Hey, hey, she's here to see some friends, let's let the lady breath, ladies," the person said.

Brooklyn looked up in a desperation, but slightly afraid as to who it was. She smiled when she saw Austin Gibbs standing there. He gave her a side smile, his mustache moving in tow. The girls pushed aside, allowing her to have some room. Austin grabbed her hand, pulling her through the crowd and to the side. He told the ladies, much like Kennedy did, that he'd be right back.

"What the hell ya doin' here, girl?" Austin asked, his southern accent shining through. He pulled her into a hug, grinning like a mad man.

She shrugged. "Hear y'all were playing, figured I'd come check it out. You did great up there, Gibbs," Brooklyn told him.

He smiled at her, saying a thank you. "Does uh... does Garrett know you're here?" When she shook her head, Austin frowned. "Were you planning on tellin' him?" She shook her head again. "Damn girl, you know you can't do that."

Frowning, Brooklyn nodded. "I figured that much. I just... I didn't know if I could face him."

Austin's eyes left hers, landing on something behind her. "Well you're about to do that, girl. He just walked out and your name is still floating around those girls."

"How the hell do they know who I am?" she asked, frowning.

With a shrug, Austin ruffled his hair. "I'm not too sure, but you know fan girls can do some crazy shit. But listen girl, I gotta meet fans right now. Promise me you won't run off just yet? I at least wanna see you for a minute more after. I'll open the side door for you and will you wait upstairs? It's all the same crew so they won't kick ya out or anything. I'll be up as soon as I can."

Brooklyn promised she wouldn't leave yet and followed Austin to the side door. She smiled at him as he turned around. Just before the door shut, she swore she heard someone tell Garrett that Brooklyn Conners was there. Without looking at his face, she ran quickly up the stairs, finding a big white door two flights up.

As she went to open that door, it was already being opened by the other side. There stood John O'Callaghan with Pat Kirch and Jared Monaco behind him. They all stopped, looking like they'd seen a ghost.

"Brooklyn Conners," John murmured.

Her reunion with Jared and Pat was quick. They said it was great to see her and gave hers hugs. With a promise to see and talk more after, they went running down the stairs, saying they had to get to the fans.

"What the hell do I owe the pleasure to?" John asked, almost sarcastic.

She shrugged. "I heard y'all weren't playing," she said softly. "I was trying to make an escape, but Ken saw me, then your fans somehow in hell recognized me, then Austin saved me and I figured it was too late to run."

He nodded, then suddenly pulled her into a hug. "It's good to see you, Brook," he whispered into her ear. "I can't believe you're here."

"I come to all the shows, John... This is just the first one I had to courage to stick around for long enough to be noticed."

Furrowing his eyebrows, John shrugged his backpack off his shoulder. He handed it to her. "None of us hate you, Brook. But hey, I really gotta get down there. Since you're here, mind watching my back pack? Last time I took it down, fans slipped their numbers in the back, so I didn't want to take it, but there's no one I really trust up there to watch it. So will ya?"

She agreed before taking the back pack and swinging it over her shoulders. John jogged down the stairs, leaving Brooklyn to herself. She wandered further into the venue, walking past a few people she didn't know, while recognizing a few that were too busy to even notice her.

After a couple minutes of wandering around, she somehow found herself into the big room where the concert was held. From the side of the room, she saw the merch table. There were two people there, only one of which she recognized. Vito was there and he immediately noticed the girl, calling her name. She smiled sheepishly to him, then wandered over to the table.

The other guy was introduced as Peter. When Vito told him her name, he nodded slowly, saying he'd heard a lot about her. Brooklyn frowned, but didn't say anything. She wondered what he had heard, thinking it was probably all bad things, but she didn't say anything at all about it.

The three of them spoke for a couple minutes before Vito said they had to finish packing up the merchandise. Brooklyn offered to help, which Peter was wary about, since he didn't know the girl. He claimed he didn't want Max or Tim to get mad.

"Dude, she's fine," Vito told him, laughing. "The only thing Max or Tim will get mad about, is that we didn't tell them she's here so they could kick her ass for not calling any of us for years. This girl used to tour with us and help me every damn night."

Peter's cheeks flushed slightly as he apologized. Brooklyn smiled, saying it was perfectly fine.

As they finished packing everything up, a couple pairs of footsteps were heard in the room. Brooklyn looked behind her back to see the two people they were speaking of earlier walk in.

"Well look who the hell decided to show up after years of not talking to us," Max said, cocking his eyebrows. "What the hell you think you're doing here, girl?"

She smiled at him, setting down the cardboard box. "Well I figured I'd come see what shitty band was playing tonight with their shitty tour managers."

Laughing, Max hugged her. "We heard you were here. Apparently Ken saw you when he was getting on the bus. He sent out a mass text just a minute ago since the number of fans are dying down. Turns out everyone's already seen you except for Garrett," Tim informed, also hugging her.

"Yeah, I've been avoiding that one. I figured seeing John would be rough also, but he was cool."

Max scoffed. "I don't get why you think we all hate you. None of us could ever hate you, Lynnie, not even Garrett."

The five of them began to clear out the merchandise, being able to get it in one trip since there were so many of them. They carried it downstairs to the trailer being pulled by one of the tour vans, since there was no room anywhere on the bus. The boys all had just a couple fans left, not too many, so they'd be done soon.

Brooklyn readjusted John's backpack on her back and side, leaning against the bus to smoke with Vito while the three other boys got a few last minute things. Her eyes landed on Garrett, whose back was to her at the moment as he smiled for a camera phone. She could barely hear his voice as he spoke and joked with the last couple of fans.

Vito finished his cigarette before it was done and told Brooklyn he had to grab a couple more things. He made her promise to not leave yet. Once he was gone, his spot was replaced with Austin, who had just said goodbye to his last fan there.

"Are you nervous?" he asked, his eyes flickering to Garrett. "So many people keep telling him they saw you and he just... just I don't even know. One girl said she was happy that you two were back together. He froze, but just changed the subject."

Shrugging, Brooklyn stepped on her cigarette. "I don't know what I feel... it wasn't bad to see everyone else. I just feel Garrett's going to curse me out and walk off. I mean, I'd deserve it."

"You wouldn't deserve it, Lynnie. He doesn't hate you." When Brooklyn didn't reply, Austin sighed. "You know, he still dreams about you. John was tellin' me it's been getting worse the last couple days."

With a frown, she looked at him again. "He looks good. He looks happy."

"You of all people know that's an act. Garrett's never happy, he's always hiding how sad he is with his sarcastic asshole remarks."

Austin and Brooklyn spoke for a couple more minutes as the last remaining fans died down. A couple of them even said goodbye to Brooklyn, which she thought was extremely odd. As everyone cleared out, she grew more and more nervous, knowing the inevitable reunion was about to happen.

He turned around, his eyes spotting her. Kennedy stood next to him, his hand patting his shoulder. He told him to go say hi, to say anything. It took a couple more moments, but he finally did. Garrett made his way over to her, his hand falling to her waist to catch her attention away from Austin.

"Hey," he murmured, a soft smile on his face.

She returned his smile. "Hey...," she trailed off. "You uh... you were great up there."

"Thanks... and thanks for coming. It's good to see you."

Brooklyn smiled again, he hand reaching up to touch Garrett's hair. "You look good, Gary, very handsome."

"You do, too. Not handsome, uh... beautiful."

She couldn't help but laugh at him, which made Garrett smile. He missed her laugh and her smile more than anything in the world. What he said was true. She looked absolutely beautiful to him.

He was slightly surprised when he felt her arms around his body. It took him a second to realize that she was hugging him, but when it registered in his mind, he hugged her back, his arms securing around her body.

He felt the familiarity in that hug. For both of them, memories upon memories were dragged up. It felt good, and nice, to be in each others arms again, even if it was years later and just for only a moment.