Not Like The Movies

Jonathan was not really sure what she was doing right outside of his bedroom. He had been pacing back and forth, trying to figure out how he was going to break the news to his ex-girlfriend. He peeked around his bedroom door and saw that she was simply sitting down on the couch, looking outside the windows. That was what most people did when they were at his apartment—look out his window. It was a great scenery of the city and it was even more amazing during the holiday season because of all the lights.

Jonathan took a deep breath and went back outside of his room to face his ex.

“Have you seen the picture online?” He asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Yeah, I have,” she said and Jonathan immediately opened his mouth to say something but Lindsey kept talking. “I didn’t know Davey has a girlfriend. I almost had a heart attack when I thought she was at Rockit with you.”

“Girlfriend?” He was confused. He knew that that was what the gossip sites wrote but he also knew Lindsey was not stupid enough to believe a word they said until she has heard it from me, David, or anyone else that was trustworthy.

“Yeah, I saw Davey at the movie theater two days ago and saw that girl Denise there too. He said that she was his girlfriend. I think they make a great couple if you ask me.” Lindsey said as she retrieved her ringing cellphone from her purse.

Jonathan, on the other hand, wanted to beat the living hell out his brother. David had the nerve to lie to his face for the past two days he has been staying at the apartment. David was out for the day, claiming that he was going to meet up a friend at some bar. Jonathan did not know if that was true or complete bullshit. At this point, he was not even sure if he could trust his brother. All he knew was that the minute David stepped inside his place, he was going to give him a piece of his mind.

“Sorry, that was just my manager telling me about a couple of shoots he booked me,” she told him.

“Anyway, I came here to apologize.”

Again, Jonathan was confused.

“Apologize for what?”

Lindsey sighed and said, “For not trusting you. I was marching my way to Denise when I didn’t even know the whole story. I really thought that those gossip sites were just shitting me and that you and Davey were lying to me. I’m really sorry.”

“I…I don’t know what to say.”

“Just say you’ll forgive me. I really am sorry. I’ll even apologize to Denise if you want me to…though, I didn’t really say much to her.” Lindsey begged.

“No! It’s fine, Linds. I’m just surpised.” Jonathan said honestly. He really was surprised. He was not sure what alternate universe he was in right now or what kind of horrible nightmare he was having but he knew everything was just going wrong.

“Do you happen to know where David is right now? I uh, I never got to ask him where he was going,” Jonathan tried to reel in some information from Lindsey, if she had any.

“Nope,” she said. “But I did see a picture of them hugging it out in front of this apartment building, probably Denise’s. It was so cute! Wanna see it?”

“Where did you see this?” Jonathan asked, trying not to let her hear the anger in his voice. The picture showed Denise and David hugging in front of Denise’s apartment building. It did not look like a friendly hug either.

“That same site posted the picture. I guess your brother and that girl is getting pretty serious. When did they even get together?” His ex-girlfriend questioned.

“I honestly don’t even know.” Jonathan said, slowly losing his mind.

--

When David came home from his third date with Denise, he was not expecting his older brother to be sitting on the couch, waiting for him to get home. It was almost two in the morning and he had blood in his eyes. He was angry and David knew it was all because of him. He casually greeted his older brother, hoping that he would just forget about giving him a lecture. When he came home, he expected to just go straight to the guest bedroom and pass out for a few hours. What he did not expect was the right hook his older brother gave him, causing him to stumble and hit the guest bedroom’s doorframe.

“How long have you been fucking her around my back? Tell me!” Jonathan demanded, his voice dripping nothing but murder. He was ready to beat his little brother into a bloody pulp.

“You don’t fucking deserve her if you think she’d fuck around behind your back!” David countered back. “I’m trying to save your ass here!”

“By dating her? How the fuck is that saving me?!” Jonathan continued to yell.

“If you were honest with Lindsey in the first place, none of this would’ve ever happened! I told Denise that if we dated for real, we can have a real break-up sooner or later and she can just go back to you like that never happened!”

“You’re a fucking idiot!” Jonathan yelled and pushed his younger brother, causing David to hit the doorframe once more. “If you guys break-up and she goes back to me, it will only make her look bad. It will make her look like a fucking whore going back and forth between brothers!”

David went silent. He knew that his impulsive decisions would come and bite him in the ass later on but he did not think it would be this soon. He knew that Jonathan was right. It would not make the brothers look bad but it would only make Denise look bad. She was just a regular girl caught in between the stupid decisions the brothers made. But David was having the time of his life with Denise. He almost never wanted their time together to end.

“Fuck, man. You’re right.” David finally said.

“No shit, I am. You can be so stupid sometimes. Look what you’ve done.” Jonathan mumbled, clenching and unclenching his fists.

“Don’t put all the blame on me you asshole. This is also your fault! Denise is gonna hate us for this. She might as well not talk to us ever again.”

Jonathan was mad at the fact that he had caused this mess. He never wanted Denise to enter his world with this kind of problem. He knew David was right. He should have just been honest with Lindsey in the first place so that he would not be so afraid of being around Denise in public. He was losing Denise before he even had her.

“I promised her that I would fix this. The only way to fix it is to break up with her.” David said more to himself but Jonathan heard it.

“How are you gonna do that?” The older brother asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” David simply replied. But Jonathan always did.

--

Two more days passed and both brothers were avoiding speaking to each other. Jonathan tried to text Denise and even tried calling her at least four times but she never answered to any of them. It was the weekend again and it was the fourth time that Jonathan had stayed up all night which made him wake up in the afternoon. He stared up at the ceiling, hoping that whatever David had done would work. He promised that he would fix it and Jonathan was counting on it.

Jonathan’s cellphone buzzed on the pillow right beside his head and he immediately grabbed it, hoping it was Denise.

It was not.

Patrick: Ur bro is so fucked up

Jonathan read it and right below the text message was a photo attachment. He clicked on it and at first he was not sure what he was really looking at until he saw the familiar cap that he knew only belonged to one person. The picture revealed his brother, David, making out with not one, but two girls at this bar called the Roof. Jonathan instantly became furious. He was mad at the fact that this was how his younger brother went about to deal with the problem. He was positive that the picture Patrick sent him would be on the gossip site that had been up to date with his younger brother’s love life.

He went ahead and called Denise. He would keep calling and calling until she picked up. But on the third try, Jonathan was on his way to the movie theater. If she would not talk to him over the phone, he would just have to talk to her in person whether she was working or not.

He parked little ways out of movie theater. He had to jog a bit before he actually reached the entrance. He immediately saw her and her head snapped up the moment he did. Their eyes locked for a second before she excused herself to go to the staff room. He tried to get past the guy who was collecting the movie tickets and threw him a twenty dollar bill. The guy, however, grabbed him by his arm and pulled him to the side to tell him that he had to have a valid ticket to get by. Annoyed out of his mind, he went to the ticket booth and bought a ticket. He threw the ticket at the guy and headed straight for the staff room. Well that was until a certain blonde got in his way and poked him right on the chest.

“I trusted you!” The blonde, Julianne, yelled at him. “I trusted you and your brother and what did you guys do? Break her fucking heart! I may have expected it from your brother but from you? I always thought you were better than that.”

“Please, you don’t understand!” Jonathan tried to get by her but she would not budge.

“I think it’s best if you just leave. We’re working and she made it clear that she doesn’t want to see you or David.” Julianne said in a calm manner. She was trying to keep her anger under wraps.

“Let me just talk to her, Julianne. You know me! It’s my asshole brother who did that shit to her, not me!”

“Ugh! You don’t get it! You boys never get it!” Julianne tugged on her hair and tried to push Jonathan out of the way. “Just leave and give her space. I think you guys have fucked with her mind too much for her to even understand what the hell is going on.”

Jonathan stared right at the staff door, knowing that Denise could hear everything he was saying.

“Denise, I know you can hear me,” he said a bit louder in order for Denise to hear it more, “Let me explain what happened. Please talk to me.”

“Just leave, Jonathan. You’re causing too much trouble.” Jonathan opened his mouth to say something again until he saw security eyeing him. He knew that if he did not leave, he would end up front page in tomorrow’s news.

Giving up, he left.

--

David packed up his stuff and left Jonathan’s apartment before he got back home. He booked the first flight home back to Winnipeg, leaving a bad reputation in Chicago.

His impulsive decision making got the best of him. He spent all night thinking about how he was going to break it off with Denise without jeopardizing her reputation. After spending hours thinking about it, he got up and headed straight to the bar that was notorious for girls who made out with anyone with a dick. The first girl he made out with after his first drink looked like Denise but then another face came in the picture and everything just started to get blurry. The girls’ faces started to melt into one and his head was starting to spin. His moves started to get sloppy and his morals flew out the window.

There were a lot of people that night at Roof. David knew that there had to be at least a handful of people with cameras, ready for their next article for their gossip sites. He thought that by ruining his own reputation, there was no way they would even remember Denise.

As David sat on the plane, waiting to take off, he looked back on the few days he got to spend with Denise. He remembered the kiss he placed on her soft lips before the night he went to Roof. He remembered the way she asked him to stay and how he said he would. He remembered waking up to a terrible headache and a text message from Denise telling him that she never wanted to see him again. He remembered feeling like his heart fell to his stomach as the events from the night before came back to him.

He knew that he was an asshole and he knew that Jonathan was probably never going to talk to him. But David valued family and David knew that giving up Denise to Jonathan would make his brother extremely happy. He had put his feelings aside and gave up the only thing that made him feel alive, even for a little while.

When he had landed and taken back to his childhood home, he crashed into his bed and replayed only the good memories he had with Denise.

--

“Denny?” Julianne knocked on Denise’s door for the second time. “Denny, are you awake?”

As she lay in bed, Denise ignored anyone who tried to speak to her including Julianne. She wanted to drown in her misery and let the bed swallow her. She felt so broken and hopeless but refused to let anyone console her.

She thought everything was going well with David. She was starting to actually like him and then…she turned her back for one second and he went ahead and betrayed her. He played with her feelings, her heart. The first man since her senior year in high school that she has let in her heart messed with her feelings and left like the coward that he was. Denise cried for hours, even during work. She would excuse herself in moments where she felt like she was going to breakdown in front of a costumer. She hated that. She knew the reason that she always stayed on top of her work was because if she got distracted, it would mess everything up for her and everything she had worked hard for. She strived to be the best always but her weakness was love.

Ever since she got her first real heartbreak when her boyfriend of three years—a guy who she met during her freshman year in high school—told her that he was moving to California and said that long distance relationships never worked. She was sure she was in love with the guy. His name was Alex Thomas. He was everything every girl wanted. He was the star baseball player and was the smartest kid in their year. He had deep blue eyes that she often got lost in and soft blonde hair that she ran her hands through many times. He was her first kiss and it felt magical.

Denise always wished for a relationship like the ones she saw in movies. The guy gets the girl, prince charming meets his princess, and the happily ever kind of thing. She thought she had that up until their break-up. She was a mess that summer.

She changed her mindset shortly after. She focused on doing well in her classes to graduate college as a nurse and find a stable job after. But in the back of her mind, she still longed for the fairy tale love story she had always dreamed about. She told a few close friends about her dream but some laughed and said that she was silly and naive. She knew that it was a childish dream but was it so wrong to want a love like the movies she watched?

She wanted to hate David for putting her in her vulnerable state and taking advantage at the fact that fell too easy for the first guy that gave her the smallest amount of attention. She wanted to hate him so much but somehow she could not find herself to do so.

Then Denise’s mind shifted back to Jonathan.

She felt like she played him the way his brother did. She had gone on dates with Jonathan yet there she went with his brother instead. She felt like a user, a fake, a player—all the things that she never wanted to be. When Denise saw Jonathan and heard all the things he said behind the staff door, she wanted to cry and say sorry for all the mess she had started. She did not have the guts to face the guy she replaced with his own brother. She heard that he wanted to explain something to her but what was there to explain? She did not want to hear him call her names and tell her how disgusting it was to go behind his back and get with his younger brother. Maybe she could take the heat from someone else but not Jonathan.

Denise liked him. She really did. And maybe the reason why she liked David in the same way was because she almost saw Jonathan in him. He was just the less serious version of his older brother. Nonetheless, she felt like she played the brothers and for that, she did not deserve the love she hopelessly wanted.

Julianne knocked at her door again and she did not answer again.

”Maybe tomorrow.” She told herself but she knew that tomorrow would be another day to get through.