Shattered Glass & Broken Hearts

Ronnie was about to do something he knew Emily wouldn’t approve of. If she found out where he was right now, he knew everything he’d been working so hard to fix could come crashing down around him. For the past couple of weeks since she’d stayed at his house that first night, things had been going well.

Her friends weren’t thrilled that they were back together, but both Joss and Hanna were, for the most part, supportive of Emily’s choices. They were a little cold towards Ronnie but he couldn’t say he’d expected any differently from them after what he’d done to their best friend in the past. He’d prove to them eventually that this was meant to last, just the same way he’d proven it to Emily and to her parents, who seemed happy they’d mended their burnt bridges.

The only person left that he needed to talk to was someone he’d been avoiding for years. Max had fled Las Vegas as soon as he’d been released from the hospital and the last Ronnie had heard from him, Emily’s brother was living in some shithole apartment in Studio City.

Ronnie knew that in order to completely move on from the past, talking to his old friend would be necessary. He had always understood Max’s hatred of him. After all, he’d walked out on Emily when she’d needed him most. He’d never really turned around, even if he’d thought of her every single day since he’d made his choice.

Ten years had passed, but that didn’t mean things were fixed between him and Max. They’d never resolved their issues the way he had with everyone else from his past. That wasn’t something Ronnie was comfortable with, especially given how close he’d been getting to Emily again.

He looked up at the clock and saw that it was just shy of nine at night. Emily was already sleeping in the bedroom since she’d woken up early to work, and she was expecting him to head out to Derek’s place tonight to start work on the new album. She didn’t know that he was planning on seeing Max instead.

God only knew what she’d say if she found out, he thought to himself with a frown. But that was a risk he had to take. Seeing Max wasn’t just something he wanted to do, it was something he needed to get done.

He walked into the bedroom and smiled when he saw her sprawled out on his mattress. Seeing her laying there always made his heart warm. Her hair was messy around her head and he couldn’t help but feel butterflies when his name fell from her lips quietly as she slept. He walked over to her and kissed her forehead, rubbing her bare back for a moment.

“I’m heading over to Derek’s for a bit, baby,” he murmured into her ear. “I’ll be back in an hour or two.”

That much he figured was the truth. He didn’t plan on sticking around at Max’s apartment much longer than that. He knew that Emily’s brother hung with the wrong types of people. The last thing he wanted to do was stick around a neighborhood like that for any extended period of time. He was only planning on saying a couple of things that Max needed to hear from someone, and then he was going to walk away and come back to Emily before eleven so that he could spend the night in her arms.

It only took him thirty minutes to reach Max’s house. If it hadn’t been in such a shady area with few street lights to guide the way, Ronnie probably could have found it a little bit faster. He pulled his phone out, wanting to make sure that Max would at least see him before he bothered getting out of the car. This area made him feel uneasy, which was almost ironic given the fact that only a couple years back, he’d been living in the same kind of shithole Max was in now.

Max took nearly three minutes to pick up the phone, and when he did, Ronnie couldn’t help but feel his heart break. Not only for Max, but for Emily as well. He knew how much she cared for her brother and to hear him in such a broken down state made Ronnie wish he could beat some sense into the younger man.

But he knew that that approach would never work with Max. Emily’s brother was just as stubborn as he was, and the only way he was ever going to pull through the shitstorm he was in now would be through his own sheer willpower. Ronnie doubted that he actually had that willpower, but he decided it was a safer bet not to tell that to Emily.

He needed her to remain hopeful that Max could get better. It was for her peace of mind that she continued having that hope, even if Ronnie had long since stopped believing that Max could get himself clean for good. It was a shitty thing, seeing someone you’d once been so close to killing himself.

But hey, Ronnie tried to tell himself. Not everyone wanted to be fixed.

“Hey, Max,” he spoke into the phone before his thoughts could get too carried away. “It’s—”

“I know who the fuck this is,” Max spat into the phone. He was clearly angry – and clearly a little higher than he had been in a while. Ronnie couldn’t help but wonder what his drug of choice was these days. Was it still cocaine, or had he moved on to the more potent stuff?

“Listen, I’m outside and I’m gonna come up so we can talk, alright? It’s about Emily, man.”

He was hoping that maybe talking about his sister would get Max in a more easygoing state of mind. Ronnie knew that despite the addiction Max battled, he loved his younger sister more than anything. It was why he’d hated Ronnie for so long, after all.

He didn’t give Max the opportunity to say anything else before he hung up the phone and got out of the car. He was aware of people watching him as he made his way up the darkly-lit staircase into the dingy corridor that led towards Max’s apartment at the end of the hall, but he tried to ignore them. By the time he’d reached Max’s door, it was already open and he was standing there with a scowl on his face.

“Unless she’s fucking dead, you can turn around and get the fuck out of here,” Max grumbled. “She isn’t any concern of mine anymore. She fucking made her choice.”

“Max, shut the fuck up. Do you even hear yourself right now?” Ronnie asked, eyebrow arched as he shook his head. He sidestepped Max into the apartment and, once Emily’s brother had joined him, he shut the door behind themselves, making sure to lock it.

For a few minutes, neither one of them said a word. Ronnie wasn’t quite sure how to phrase what he wanted to say, which was odd. He always had something to say and he always knew how to say it, but facing Max right now rendered him speechless.

“Well?” Max growled after five long minutes had passed by. “I’ve got things to do, Ronnie, so if you’re not going to—”

“Have you given any thought to your funeral?” Ronnie finally asked. His voice was quiet as he stared Max down, knowing the weight of his words would hit his old friend. “Have you thought about what it will be like, who’ll be there? It sure as fuck won’t be these assholes you live with and buy from, Max. Hell, they probably won’t even call 911 when they find you overdosed in your bathroom or the back alleyway.”

Max’s eyes turned two shades darker as his hands clenched into fists at his sides. It was obviously a touchy subject for him, but Ronnie wasn’t going to broach it. This was shit that his friend needed to hear.

“I know you don’t give a shit about me, Max. And that’s fucking fine by me. I’ll always love you and you’ll always be a brother to me, but you’ve got to get your shit together. For Emily, man. She’s your goddamn sister and she cries every day over you. Do you realize how broken you’ve made her?”

Max blinked, looking down at the floor. His entire body was tense, but he still said nothing. Ronnie hadn’t expected much more from his old bassist, in all honesty. Max had a habit of avoiding tough conversations.

“She loves you, man. She’s all you’ve got left in this world except your parents, and you’re the only brother she’s got. What do you think’s gonna happen to her when she gets the news that you’ve died alone in some shady ass apartment? It’s gonna destroy her worse than I ever did, that’s for damn sure. I know you don’t want to think about it, but you’ve gotta do something, Max.”

He threw his hands up in the air, waiting for Emily’s brother to say something – anything at all to let Ronnie know that his words had hit some kind of nerve.

But instead, he got silence. It pissed him off a little bit, he wasn’t going to lie. But he also knew better than to get angry with Max. It would put them in a volatile situation and right now, that wasn’t what Ronnie needed.

“That’s all I came to say. Take it and let it sink in,” Ronnie muttered as he turned to leave the apartment. It hurt, leaving Max like this. But it was what had to be done. In the end, Max had to save himself. Ronnie had done all he could on Emily’s behalf, but now it was up to him to make those steps for himself.

The sad thing was, Ronnie was pretty sure it would never happen.