Merrily We Fall out of Line

Sophie sat at the table, playing thoughtlessly with the food in front of her. She couldn’t concentrate that day at work and her head was a complete mess. Sophie had spent the day second guessing her actions and choices that she had made after the fight with Alan. Was it really that big of a deal? Did she really need to walk away like that? Or did she have a right to be upset at how little Alan seemed to care. Sophie didn’t know.

After work she had given her friend Brooke a call to help clear her head. Sophie was too scared to head home that night, so she decided to see if it was okay to stay at Brooke’s place until the mess had been cleaned up. So now here she was, attempting to eat dinner and still not knowing how to feel.

Brooke looked sympathetically over at her friend. “It will work out, Sophie.” She tried to reassure her, grabbing Sophie’s hand in her own and giving it a small squeeze.
“I don’t know about that.” Sophie sighed, her voice barely audible. “I screwed up so badly this time.”
“No, Sophie.” Brooke stood up, walking over to her and pulling her into a hug. “You reacted how you thought was right at the time. Everyone does it.”
Sophie finally broke, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I threw his engagement ring back at him over a petty fight, Broke. How does that to someone they love?”
Brooke sighed. “It will be okay, I promise you.”
Sophie began to worry about Alan being on his own. If she was this much of a mess, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how he must be feeling. Wiping her tears away, she turned to face Brooke. “Can you ring Austin and ask him to make sure Alan’s okay?”
Brooke nodded. “Of course. You on the other hand need to go have a shower, relax and try and get some sleep okay? Stressing yourself out isn’t going to help the situation at all, okay?”
“I know.” Sophie stood up, taking her plate up to the sink and rinsing it. “Thank you for all of this.”
Brooke smiled over at her. “Anytime. Now go relax.”

With that Sophie mad her way upstairs to go shower and get ready for bed.

Sleeping alone proved harder then Sophie thought it would. After Alan being away touring so much, she figured she would be used to it. That night proved different. It was like her body knew he was home and he was meant to be curled up with her. This only made her overthink everything throughout the night, making the idea of sleep less and less of a possibility and the night grew on. When the clock on the nightstand hit 4am she officially decided not to bother with even trying to sleep anymore. Sophie decided a movie would be a much better way to take her mind off of things. Tip towing down the stairs, as to not wake Brooke, Sophie quietly walked down and into the living room. Spying the DVD selection, she settled on the Lion King and placed it in the DVD player. Sitting back, wrapping herself in a blanket and hitting play, she wondered how much sleep Alan had gotten that night.

Alan had gotten about three hours sleep that night. After talking through everything with Austin everything was still running one hundred miles an hour through Alan’s head. He had talked through some ideas with his best friend as to how to fix everything, but that didn’t make Alan feel any better then he did before. If anything the gut feeling had gotten worse due to nerves. He just wanted Sophie home with him, sleeping alone didn’t feel right to him even after years of touring. She was meant to be there with him.

Trying to stay in bed as long as he could, Alan finally had had enough of laying there and decided to get up around 6:30am and make himself breakfast. A piece of toast and a coffee was about all his stomach could take that morning. He felt sick due to the mix of nerves, lack of sleep and the feeling that has stayed in the pity of his stomach since Sophie has stormed out. After he had finished eating, he headed to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. He knew what he had to do.

Sophie was ready for work early that morning, still deciding to head in even after no sleep and how she felt. It would help distract her from everything. At least she hoped it would.

Her day dragged on for hours and hours, her exhaustion finally getting the better of her. Finally 5pm hit and she collected her things and headed outside. Much to her surprise she was greeted by a familiar figure standing near her car.

“Austin.” She breathed out, not sure how to take him being there. She wasn’t sure if he was mad at her for what she did to Alan or not, she just hoped for the best.

Austin smiled down at her sadly. “C’mon Soph, I’m taking you home.”

Sophie was taken aback as Austin lead her to the passenger seat of her own car, grabbing the keys off her. She wasn’t sure she was read to face Alan yet, but clearly she had too. Instead of saying anything, she sighed accepting her fate and just went with it. The whole way home, Sophie fought to keep her stomach contents down, she was so nervous. It must have shown on her face because Austin reached over, taking her hand in his.

“It’s going to be okay.” He smiled over at her. “I can promise you that.’

“Is he angry?” She croaked out, fighting now to keep the tears back. This was all to scary and real for her and she didn’t know how to handle it.

Austin shook his head. “You guys just need to talk it out, okay? He loves you a lot and you love him so don’t worry yourself sick.”

It was too late for that. Austin pulled up in front of their apartment block and Sophie’s stomach was in her throat. She because to sob in the car, her nerves getting the better of her.

“Hey, Soph!” Austin squeezed her hand. “It’s okay! You guys just need to talk this over ASAP okay? You’re both messes without each other.”

She sighed, knowing he was right. Neither of them could handle much longer like this, so the sooner the better.

Alan waited nervously for Sophie’s arrival. Austin had gone to pick her up from work and bring her back home. He had set everything up and was prepared for her to come home, although his nerves were going through the roof. He sat in the bedroom, waiting. After about 15 minutes, her heard the door open and close signalling that she was home. “Alan?” Her small voice called up the staircase.

“Up here.” He called back to her. Alan heard her footsteps lightly padding their way up the stairs right until she was standing at their bedroom door. The look on her face was pure shock.

The first time Alan had proposed to Sophie he’d been so nervous that he had screwed everything up. He’d spilled wine on her dress, been a nervous wreck and spoiled the surprise of the proposal by accidently forgetting the ring and asking her to go back and get it. To make up for this, and for the fight Austin had helped Alan come up with the idea of re-proposing to Sophie.

Tea light candles lined their bedroom. A group of about 40 candles in a group spelt out the words “Marry Me?” next to where Alan was now kneeling down. He had pre-run a romantic bath for the two of them and had fully gone all out cheesy old school romantic. He knew Sophie was a sucker for that kind of stuff.

Alan looked up from the floor, to Sophie. Her eyes beginning to water once she realised what was happening. “So, I screwed it up the first time and still managed to get you to say yes. I guess I screwed up again and I’m so sorry for that. You’re my everything Soph and I’m a mess without you. I never meant for it to get this bad. You put up with the touring, the typical band guy antics and you’re still there to come home too. I love you so much. Will you marry me?”

Shaky hands and tears streaming down her face, Sophie nodded allowing Alan to slip the ring back onto her finger. Alan stood up, embracing he as hard as he could. “I’m so sorry.” Sophie blurted out. “I’m sorry I walked out I over reacted.”

Alan smiled. “We both did. I’m just glad you’re home.”