Girls, Breaking Hearts

With Brooke on a trip with her parents for the weekend, John had nowhere to go but hang out with his friends, most of which were growing suspicious of his sneaky actions and more cryptic-than-usual tweets. Only Jared knew the cause of this version of John: the other Shelton. Jared knew Bailey Shelton very well, she was the first girl that ever broke Jared’s heart and he just wished that Brooke wouldn’t do the same to one of his best buds.

Maybe she wouldn’t, they’d been together seven months after all, but Jared couldn’t just shake off the feeling that sooner or later- maybe later- John’s heart would break because of Brooke. But then again, what did one truly know about love? All he knew was he had Tessa, and Gabi took Kennedy back even after he cheated. Love was simple, yet unexplainable; it was what it was.

“Wait, listen to this- eyes that could melt the insides’ insides, ten thousand stares will never be enough,” Eric Halvorsen read, and John immediately groaned as his friends chuckled at him. “What the fuck is this even about, John?”

They had been at Tim’s for over two hours and fifteen minutes ago, Eric decided that it would be fun to read some of John’s recent tweets and try to decode them. The guys had a hunch that something was blossoming in John’s life, because lately he seemed to text a lot and he never checked out girls anymore, but they respected his privacy enough to not force it out of him or go to the lengths of snooping and spying. They pried a lot, though, he was just unmoved.

“Dude, are you trying to be the next Buwow- Bukowski- shit I’m messing up my words, man.” Peter chuckled after speaking, looking over at John who was just smiling and shaking his head.

“Seriously John, when are we gonna meet this girl?” Ashley asked, resting her feet on John’s lap as Tim wrapped an arm around her. “I know a lot of us are crazy and maybe that’s the reason you’re keeping her from us, but it’s me and Tim. We can double-date sometime, you know?”

John remained silent, he just smiled in response and sipped his drink, but this only made them ask more.

“Okay, is she not a girl? Fuck, it’s a dude? That’s why you have the equality sign tattoo don’t you, it’s a guy?!”

Now Eric had conjured something that was way ridiculous, and they all laughed as he continued to shake his head. Truth was, he didn’t know how to tell his friends he was dating someone not their age. He figured he’d wait until she was at least eighteen.

“Come on Johnny-boy, give us a clue!” Peter exclaimed, pounding his fist on the table as he stupidly chanted, “Clue us in! Clue us in!”

“Give us something, John!” Eric cried, but John just laughed and shook his head.

“Fuck I can almost swear it’s one of our friends,” Moose stated. “Maybe even Mel! Ash, you know what they say about those twin stuff. Do you feel something?”

Ashley just laughed, shaking her head as they continued to pester John but he wouldn’t budge. He always said that the more people involved with the relationship, the more complicated it would get. Theirs was already complex, the confession could wait a few more months, when it would be easier than now.

“Whatever, I’m gonna get more liquor,” Jared said with a laugh.

“I’ll come with,” John hurriedly said and the suspicion was born.

“Jared knows something! Jared knows something!” Eric cried and John could only laugh and flip him off, as he and Jared headed back to the kitchen. “Ginger, come back and tell us who it is!”

“Fuck,” Jared muttered as soon as he and John were out of earshot. “They’re becoming more persuasive and insane by the second.”

“I know.” John laughed as he awkwardly rubbed his neck. “Um, hey man, I said it.”

Jared opened the fridge, glancing at John once. “What do you mean?”

“I told her that I loved her,” he blurted out. “We were, um, we were talking and she almost said it, and pretended it didn’t happen, but I thought about it for a while and figured, you know, maybe I should stop fighting the whole thing.”

John always went to Jared for advice, or even when he just needed to say something no matter what it was about. Though Jared was the comedy man, John trusted him and his decisions and though he could make his own, he still asked for Jared’s opinion on the matter. When the whole thing with Brooke started, he tried to keep it to himself for a while until Jared noticed something was up with John. It wasn’t until four months into their relationship, when he and Brooke had talked and officially labelled themselves boyfriend and girlfriend, that he told Jared about her, figuring he needed another person’s perspective especially since they were leaving for an overseas tour in a week. They had a four-hour discussion about it resulting to John getting drunk that night and almost telling Moose and Tim about what he’d gotten himself into.

Jared nodded, a smile tugging at his lips as he watched his friend shift his weight and move awkwardly. He had never seen John act like that when it came to a girl, even when they were younger. Jared could tell John really cared about her, and even though he wasn’t completely supportive of the relationship, he found himself admiring it.

“I- uh, just, I can’t do it. I tried to. But I always end up calling back.” He gulped and averted his gaze. “I thought I could. But I remembered that time I got sick and she took care of me. I’ve never felt like that before.”

“Man, you’ve turned gay,” Jared teased after a moment of silence.

John physically blushed at this and avoided his friend’s gaze. “Fuck you, man. Please... Just, don’t.”

Jared laughed once more, nodding. “You’re good right now, huh?”

“Yeah- I really can’t break up with her, you know I really try but...”

For the third time, Jared nodded, completely understanding John. “You love her.”

John nodded as well, looking at Jared seriously. “I’m just going to take it as it is,” he said. “Whatever she wants to do with... us, I’ll take it.”

“You’re giving her the pants.”

“She calls the shots from now on- if she wants to break up, or tell everyone, I just... I’m going to make my peace with it. There’s no sense in fighting it especially since I always end up caving. From now on, I’m just going to let it run its course.”

Jared had advised before, when John was wary, to either break it off or court her properly through her parents. John had chosen the former, for the fourth time, but now he was determined to make it work and for some reason Jared was proud of that. “I’m happy for you, man,” he said honestly. “Hope it works out well.”

~

“I have to go pick up Shane from his swagger friends,” John complained, writhing his forehead in annoyance as she shoved his phone back onto his pocket. They had gotten back from a two-month overseas tour three days ago, and he’d come to see his family earlier except Shane because he was at some party, and he was still there and needed to be picked up apparently.

“Aww, Shane O’s drunk off his ass?” Eric asked, pausing from his current beer pong with Peter to look at John.

“I bet.” John huffed, leaving the party as he thought of how ridiculous it was that even at 24, his parents still asked him to do things like that. He loved his parents, and his brothers, but for fuck’s sakes he didn’t like being around Shane’s friends. He wasn’t close with his youngest brother, they had different taste in almost everything; most importantly music. He thought Shane’s friends were ratchet. Well they weren’t, but it was a private joke to John and, well, just him to be honest. The young girls always looked at him like he was some piece of meat and he hated that- they were too young for him.

When he got to the address Shane had drunkenly sent him, he grunted at the sight, questioning why the police hadn’t gotten there yet. Loud music was blaring and as cliché as it was, there was a naked guy doing laps around the exterior of the house. He shook his head, but smirked as he thought of telling on his brother. Their mother, though of Irish descent and aware that drinking was in their blood, was most likely still in denial that her youngest was already following the footsteps of their ascendants. He picked up his phone, reading his mom’s text once more: Sweetheart, would you mind picking up your brother? I’m at the store and he sprained his ankle, drive him to the hospital and I’ll be there soon. x

Sprained his ankle my ass, he thought as he grunted once more and got out of his car to find his brother. He knew Shane was just drunk; he wasn’t sick like what their mother thought.

Finally, he spotted Shane, who’d apparently seen him first. He was struggling to walk as he made his way to John’s car, and the older noticed that his left leg was crooked and it was the reason he was limping.

And he wasn’t alone.

His arm was around the neck of a tall, brunette girl whose face John couldn’t see yet, but her curves were enough for John’s earlier annoyance to completely fade. She was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a top that showed her midriff, which seemed to be the trendiest outfit nowadays. One of her arms was gripping Shane’s waist tightly, obviously assisting him.

They got closer and closer, and when she got close enough for him to see her face, he silently cursed Shane for having a girlfriend who looked like that. The first thing he’d noticed was her eyes, they were the greenest of all and seemingly showed so much emotions. Then he moved to her lips, which were thicker than his and definitely pink.

She held his gaze for a moment, and mustered up the courage to send him a small smile. He gave her a lazy smile in return, then tore his eyes away from who he assumed was his brother’s girl, thinking he didn’t need to have a stupid crush on a stupid seventeen-year-old; she was just attractive, she was just a girl.

He was dead wrong.

There was a tap on Brooke’s window, making her flinch a little and quickly turn. She was positive it wasn’t her boyfriend, and she confirmed it upon seeing a blonde boy tapping on her window giving her a stupid smile.

Wrinkling her forehead, she opened it and motioned for the boy to come in. Within a few seconds and a bit of struggle, he was already in, proof that he’d done it a lot of times before in other people’s rooms.

“Sweet B what’s up?”

Brooke rolled her eyes at the nickname, guessing he was already high or drunk- or both. “What do you want, Brendon?” she asked casually.

Among all their friends, Brendon was the closest to her. She could even consider him her best friend, a bond that formed after he’d tried to kiss her one night while he was drunk and she slapped him. He had never put a move on her since.

“We’re heading over to Jake’s, Amber said to invite you,” he said.

“None of you could use the front door?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Dude we’re all fucked up.” He snickered, shaking his head. “I don’t even know how I managed to climb up here.”

She shook her head at him, unable to hide her smile. “I can’t tonight,” she said. Silence followed and she couldn’t tell whether Brendon was just really high or waiting for an explanation. Finally, she sighed. “I have work tomorrow. Plus I was out late last night, and-”

“You were with your girlfriend, say no more,” he said with a chuckle and Brooke just blushed. She’d denied having a boyfriend, turned down blind dates, so now her friends thought she was gay, and she had no plans of dispelling that yet, figuring it was safer. It was easier for her too, now at least she could tell them she was hanging out with someone else. “Right, I’ll tell them, but you better be at my party next week!”

“Won’t miss it for the world, B.”

Once again, he chuckled, and in a few minutes he was gone. Brooke shut her window and laid back down on her bed, thinking about the one person that was always on her mind.

“You’re not gonna introduce me to your girlfriend?” John chuckled, deciding to tease his brother as he helped him get in the car. Shane and the girl both groaned the moment he said that.

“We’re just friends,” both of them said quickly, Shane following it up with a, “You know her, she’s Brooke.”

“Brooke? Brooklyn Shelton?” John blinked, looking at the girl once more, who bit her lip shyly and nodded.

“Yeah, you used to babysit her,” Shane added, making John want to punch him. Then he quickly tried to forget the want, asking himself what the fuck was up with him. “Brooke, you coming?”

“No, I think I’ll stay awhile.”

John was immediately smitten with her sweet voice, but he managed to hide it as he acted calm. “You sure?” he asked, giving her one of his famous crooked smiles. “You can join us, stay with me at the hospital while this punk gets fixed up.”

He was flirting. It was obvious to him, but Shane thought of it as just his older brother embarrassing him, and Brooke thought of it as nothing more than a polite offer laced with a joke. She shook her head, smiling up at him, trying not to blush as she met his gaze. She’d had a crush on him when she was younger and now that he was here, in front of her, that crush was back.

“I’m staying.”

“All right.” John nodded, walking over to the driver’s side and feeling utterly stupid. Did I just flirt with a teenager? What the fuck is wrong with me? He opened the door to his side and got in, trying to talk some sense to himself, when suddenly he heard her voice once again.

“Drive safely,” she called, and he turned his attention back to her. She smiled at him and waved, and he smiled back with a nod. Then she turned around and just like that, the moment was over. It was brief and not much, but definitely enough to spark something in both of them.

“Come on John, I need to go to the hospital!”

John rolled his eyes and they left the premises, with his brother talking and cussing about how he’d hurt himself but John wasn’t even listening; he was too busy thinking about Brooklyn Shelton and how grown up she looked now.

***

just to clarify in case of confusion: though they have been at it for seven months, they never really verbally acknowledged that it's a relationship until after the fourth month, and it wasn't until then that brooke started thinking she was in-love with him. there will be flashbacks throughout the story to cover how they met and officially started. :)
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