In My Dreams It's Me And You

"Are you ready for this, baby?" Brian asked, rubbing my shoulders as I sat on his bed the next day.

I sighed and closed my eyes, letting my head fall back as Brian kneaded the knots in my neck. "It doesn't matter if I'm ready or not; we need to tell him," I responded, speaking of Matt. Today was the day we were finally telling him that we were together, and I was less than enthused about it. Even though I was going to be with Brian no matter what happened, I was worried about how Matt was going to react.

"Hey, don't worry, okay? Everything is going to be fine," he assured me, dropping his hands and kissing my shoulder blade. "I can handle whatever he feels he needs to do to me."

"I just don't want him to hurt you," I confessed. I turned around so I could face him and Brian took my hands in his. "I know that he's not going to take this well, and I'm pretty sure he's going to react more physically than verbally."

Brian lifted my hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to the knuckles on each hand. "Even if he does decide he needs to beat the shit out of me, I can deal with it," he replied. "You are worth it, and so much more, Natalie."

I gave him a small smile and leaned over to press a quick kiss to his lips. "I love you, Brian," I said softly.

"I love you too, baby," he replied. "Now come on, it's time to do this and get it over with." With that, Brian grabbed my hand and pulled me off the bed, leading us out of the room and down the stairs. Our hands remained linked as we walked in to the living room and stood in front of the entire group. Val smiled at us from her spot next to Matt once she noticed us, and Jimmy nodded his head nervously. It didn't take long for Johnny and Zack to notice, faces scrunched in confusion and fury respectively. Matt was the last to acknowledge our presence, and when he did, his eyes immediately shot to our entwined hands.

"What the Hell is going on?" he asked slowly, his eyes traveling from our hands to our faces. When neither of us answered, just held tighter to the other's hand, Matt became enraged. "What the fuck do you think you two are doing? Let go of her fucking hand, Haner."

Brian shook his head in disobedience. "I'm not going to let go of her hand," he replied. "No one can make me let go of my girlfriend."

When these words left Brian's mouth, I knew that this was where things were going to get ugly and fast. "What did you just call her?" Matt asked, brushing Val's hand off his arm and standing up from the couch.

"You heard me," Brian answered. "I don't need to repeat myself."

Matt stepped up to Brian and myself, and I gripped Brian's hand tighter. "Oh I heard you alright," he said, "but I sure as Hell don't believe it. You're not fucking dating my cousin, Brian."

"You don't believe me, huh?" Brian asked, making Matt nod his head. "Well maybe you'll believe it when you see it," he said. Brian gently unwound his hand from my own and we both turned so we were facing each other. Sliding his hands into my back pocket as I wrapped my arms around his neck, Brian closed the gap between our bodies by pulling me against him and pressing our lips together. His tongue slid across my bottom lip begging for entry, which I gave him. I ran my hands through his thick hair and Brian groaned quite audibly, resulting in me pushing myself even closer to him. He gave my ass a slight squeeze before pulling away, both of us looking into each other's eyes.

"Do you believe him now?" I asked quietly, turning to Matt.

From there everything happened so fast that I wasn't able to stop it from happening. Not speaking a word, Matt ripped Brian away from me so harshly that I stumbled and fell to the ground. As Val rushed to my side, I saw Matt throw his fist into Brian's jaw and follow it up with another shot to his head. I screamed for him stop, but it did no good. Brian dropped to his knees and Matt quickly jumped on him, sending them both to the floor.

"You motherfucker, I told you to stay the fuck away from her!" he roared as he drove his fists into Brian's face. I could hear his head bouncing off the floor with each hit, and it broke me down into tears. "How long has this been going on behind my back, huh?" Brian brought his hands to his face to try and defend himself as he tried to speak. "You've been fucking her too, haven't you? That's why you two are so fucking close," Matt screamed, his anger only increasing as he expected an answer. "Tell me, have you been fucking my cousin?"

I shook Val's hand from my arm and got to my feet. "It's none of your fucking business! Stop it, Matt!" I screamed and started trying to pull him from Brian's body as I saw him drop his arms from his face.

Matt roughly pushed me away from him, sending me flying towards the wall. When I hit, my head collided first and my vision blurred. I felt my body slide down the wall and groaned, tears stinging my eyes as I felt my head throb. "Oh my God, Natalie, are you okay?" When I opened my eyes, Matt was crouched in front of me, eyes filled with worry.

"Get away from me," I whimpered and pushed him away as I crawled towards Brian, who was slowly sitting up on the floor. "Oh my God, Bri," I cried as I reached him and cradled his head in my lap. His left eye was showing signs of bruising already, the right side of his face was also darkening, and his lip was split. "Don't fucking touch me!" I screeched as I felt Matt lay his hand on my shoulder. "I don't even want to fucking see you, so get away from me!"

Jimmy approached us then and slowly pulled Matt to his feet. "Come on, I suggest you leave her alone for awhile before you look like Brian," he said and led him out of the room.

"I'm so sorry baby," I whispered as Brian looked up at me. I held his hand and he pressed a kiss to my knuckles like he did before this all happened.

"At least we know the worst is over," he said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. "And besides, I've been in worse conditions after a fight."

I sighed and shook my head, a smile coming to my face as he gingerly leaned up to kiss me. "Come on, you need to go get cleaned up," I told him and Johnny stepped in to help me get him off the floor.

"We'll take it from here," Val said, taking my spot on Brian's other side. "I think there's someone who wants to talk to you." I looked around the living room and saw Zack standing across from me, not looking too pleased. "Just talk to him, okay? In a way, you do owe him an explanation," she whispered before helping Johnny carry Brian up the stairs to the bathroom.

"How long has this been going on?" Zack asked as I stepped closer to him.

Running a hand through my hair, I exhaled and looked into his eyes. "He only asked me to be his girlfriend just last week," I responded.

"That's not what I meant and you know it, Natalie," he spat. "How long have you been fucking him? And don't fucking try and tell me you haven't been; it's so obvious a blind man could see it."

"Since a little after our breakup," I told him, and Zack scoffed. "Hey, don't get all fucking condescending and self-righteous on my ass, you're the one who started this whole situation! If you had never cheated on me, I never would have admitted my feelings for Brian."

"Oh, so you did have feelings for him while we were together!" he exclaimed incredulously. "Maybe I was right to cheat on you first then, since I was right and you were going to cheat on me anyways."

My jaw dropped and I stared at him in amazement. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked. "Did you honestly just say that to me?"

Zack ran a hand down his face in frustration. "I didn't mean it like that," he replied. "I meant to say that maybe I was right in assuming you had feelings other than friendship for Brian."

"That doesn't mean I was going to cheat on you," I pointed out angrily. "If you hadn't gone and fucked things up, I'd probably still be with you, Zack."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked. "If you know you had feelings for him even while we were together, who's to say that you wouldn't have cheated on me sooner or later?"

I shook my head and glared at him. "I can't believe we're even having this conversation right now," I scoffed. "Do you seriously believe I would have cheated on you?" Zack shrugged his shoulders and that gave me my answer. "I can't fucking believe you, Zack!"

"Well maybe if you hadn't of gone behind the entire group's back and started fucking Haner, maybe I wouldn't think this way!" he shouted. "Why the fuck did you keep it a secret?"

Rolling my eyes, I threw my hands up in the air and replied, "Because we knew this would happen! We both knew Matt was going to freak the fuck out, and that the rest of you would react out of proportion."

"Oh, so we're just supposed to be okay with the fact that you two have been sneaking around behind our backs and keeping secrets from us?" Zack asked venomously.

I put my hands on my hips and answered, "Don't be a fucking hypocrite; it seems to me that it was perfectly acceptable to you for you and I to do the same thing." Zack rolled his eyes and I narrowed my own at him. "You know, I bet that you're just pissed that I'm with Brian - "

"Damn right I'm pissed!" he interrupted.

" - and not you," I finished. "You're mad because I did with Brian what I did with you, except this time the relationship is going to work out."

Zack gave off a short laugh and replied, "Don't be ridiculous, don't kid yourself. This relationship is going to last maybe another month or so, and that's it."

"But I'm right, aren't I?" I prodded, not letting go of the thought I had started on. "You still want me, but you can't have me. That's why you're in here acting like a jackass."

"That's not it at all," Zack defended. "I'm fucking pissed off because you lied to me about having feelings for him, and then you kept it a secret from all of us when you two started seeing each other."

"I wasn't aware that you are my keeper, and that I have to tell you everything I do," I said with a hint of sarcasm.

Zack looked at me with a resigned look on his face and shook his head. "Whatever, Nat. Do what you want, I don't care. When he hurts you, though, I'll still be here to pick up the pieces." With that said, Zack walked out of the room.

As I sat alone in the living room, I couldn't help but think one thing:

He just sounded a lot like Brian used to.