One More Night

It felt like the phone had been ringing forever, which it pretty much had been considering I’d called at least five times already. “Hey, this is Lyn, I can’t get to the phone right now, but leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” I sighed and hung up, deciding not to leave another message. I put the phone down and rubbed my face, shaking my head. She’d been ignoring my calls for the past week, and I was missing her so badly. I guess she hadn’t wanted me to know about her past, which I could completely understand, but still, I didn’t know why. It wasn’t that bad. Brian’s parents had split up when he was young, and he turned out just fine.

I plopped down on the couch and scratched the back of my neck, sighing heavily. I thought about it for a minute, biting at my bottom lip. Maybe I could help her. Maybe I could convince her to think differently of me. I could be the one for her. It’d take a lot of work, but I was willing to do it. I wanted to. I knew she was my soul mate. She had to be, she was perfect. I felt something for her I’d never felt before.

After sitting around staring into space for what felt like the longest time, I finally decided to take my mind off of Lyn and hang out with the guys. I got up and got ready, calling Brian and telling him to call the guys so we could meet up. We met up and Johnny’s Bar and had a few good drinks before we got into some deep conversation.

“Got some news,” Brian said, his trademark smirk spreading from ear to ear.

“What’s up, Gates?” I asked, taking a swig of my beer and raising an eyebrow at him.

“I proposed to Michelle last night,” he said, and I swear, if it was possible, Brian’s head grew a few sizes. “She said yes.”

The table grew silent for a moment before Jimmy spoke up for us, congratulating him on his engagement. I couldn’t help but feel envious of him. I wanted that. I wanted to be able to propose to someone, to call them mine, to be ensured that I have a future of happiness and not one of laying around, eating cold, leftover pizza and drinking until my gut busted. I’d found the right girl at the wrong time. I wanted to tell Brian to fuck off, but he was my friend, and I had to be happy for him.

“Congrats, man,” I muttered, chugging the rest of my beer down and dropping the bottle on the table, rubbing my temples.

“What’s wrong, Matt?” Johnny asked.

“Is it that girl again?” Jimmy asked, rolling his eyes. “Come on, Shads, you gotta get over her.”

I glared at Jimmy and scoffed. “I can’t just get over her, Jimmy!” I groaned. “I–I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve never felt this way about another girl before and I just care about her so much. But she wants nothing to do with me anymore. She’s ignoring my calls and texts and I want to go confront her, but I don’t want to be a dick.”

“Maybe she thinks you’re going to love her and leave her,” Zacky suggested.

I rolled my eyes. “This isn’t a hit and run,” I snapped.

“Okay, okay, calm your tits, Paula Abdul,” Jimmy said. “Let’s look at it from her perspective. She has a bad history with love, so she obviously doesn’t want to fall in love.”

“Her parents divorced when she was 13, and she watched her mother’s heart get broken,” I replied with a small shrug.

“Well there you go, genius,” Jimmy chuckled. “She thinks you’re going to make her fall for you and then leave her when you get bored of her.”

“I’ll never get bored of her,” I said, shaking my head. “She’s the most amazing girl I’ve met.”

“Tell her,” Johnny said.

“You don’t think I’ve tried that already? She’s been avoiding me for a week and whenever I bring up anything about a relationship, she changes the subject, so it’s impossible,” I mumbled. “I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

“I can help,” Brian said. “My parents split when I was younger and I’m engaged. Maybe I could convince her that letting someone in isn’t a bad thing. Just let me talk to her. I can help her. And while I help her, you need to come up with a plan to get her because sitting here and letting her control you like this isn’t going to work.”

I looked down and thought, scratching the back of my neck. “I guess I could form a plan,” I shrugged. “Just give me some time to mull it over, okay?”

Brian nodded his head and patted my shoulder. “No problem, bud,” he said, taking a swig of his drink and smirking at me.

I stared at him for a minute, biting my lip. “I did kind of have an idea, but I wasn’t so sure of it,” I said.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I was planning on convincing her to fall in love with me,” I said, looking around at the guys to see what they’d think. “Kind of. I want to woo her.”

“You’re going to woo her?” Jimmy asked with a laugh.

I glared at him, instantly feeling rejected. “Hey, it’s not funny,” I hissed.

“It kind of is,” Zacky chuckled.

“I want her to fall in love with me,” I huffed, looking down at the table and shaking my head. “I’m going to do whatever I can do to make her fall in love with me.”

“Maybe I can help you out too,” Brian said. “I can help her with her past issues and also lead her to fall for you at the same time. I can hook you up.”

“You’d do that for me?” I asked as I looked up at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Anything for a brother,” Brian smiled.

I grinned in excitement and wrapped my arm loosely around his shoulders. “Thanks, man,” I murmured. “That means a lot.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get all mushy on me,” Brian chuckled.

I sighed and pulled away, ordering myself another beer. Maybe things were looking up after all.