Last Year Was Complicated

"What does lover boy want?" Brett looked up at Gia as she dropped onto the couch next to her. Kelly was sitting on the corner of the sectional, the coffee table was covered in food, and Halloweentown was playing on the TV. They could have gone out, but why bother leaving the house when everything you needed to have a good time was right there?

Brett looked down at her phone and smiled at the site of Tyler's text that she had received five minutes previously.

'I hope you're having fun tonight. Let's FaceTime later? I decided not to go out with the guys.'

She knew she shouldn't read too far into it, just because he chose, on his own free will, not to go out with the guys while they were on the road didn't mean anything. Sure, he had never done that before but it didn't mean suddenly he was changing. She wasn't about to let herself get her hopes up, because it never ended well for her but it didn't mean she couldn't at least be a little happy that he was making these choices.

She told Gia, "He wants to FaceTime tonight."

"Why are you so excited over that? You guys talk all of the time when they're on the road." Gia reminded her, and Brett rolled her eyes in response.

Kelly came to Brett's defense by telling Gia, "But he wants to FaceTime while on the road because he chose to stay at the hotel by himself instead of going out to the club with the boys."

"How sweet, he's learning that bad decisions follow him around when there's alcohol involved." Gia joked and Brett let out a laugh. Gia stated, "What? It's true and we all know it."

"Oh trust me, I do." Brett assured her, she then said, "But I'm glad he's making better decisions. He's at least trying, you know?"

"I know. And I know it means a lot to you." Gia said, and Brett nodded her head.

Kelly asked Brett curiously, "Do you consider Ty to be your end game? Like the guy you would want to be with for the rest of your life? Someone you could see getting married and starting a life with?"

Brett had to think about her answer for a minute, because truthfully she wasn't sure about that. Had she ever thought about it? Of course she had. But she didn't know how truthful to herself she was being at the time of thinking about it.

She told Kelly, "I think... I could see a future and being with him for the rest of my life if things stay the way that they are now. The Tyler that he is when he's like this; sweet and loving and kind, absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt I could see forever with him."

"But all the other times?" Gia asked her, no doubt out of curiosity. Brett wasn't stupid, she knew Gia was asking because she wanted to know just how far off of the deep end she was.

"I know enough about who he is and I've been through enough because of that to know that I would have to be crazy to want a future with him if he doesn't change for the better for good." Brett told them, and she then added in for extra benefit, "And he is making changes. They're happening slowly but they are happening and I'm really happy that they are and I'm choosing to believe that they're going to stick this time."

"And if they don't? I don't mean to be rude, I'm just curious about what your next step is." Kelly asked her, and Brett shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess I haven't thought that far ahead. I'm kind of just winging this, for once. I know it's crazy but... I love him, I want to see the good in him, I want to believe in the person I know that he can be and I'm just not ready to give up on that yet." Brett told them with complete honesty.

"No one can fault you for that." Gia told her with a soft smile, reaching out to pat her leg gently. She then asked, "Now... I hate to be that person and bring the mood down but how's your mom doing?"

"She's okay. They're optimistic... Well... Measured optimism her doctor says. I'm going to visit this weekend." Brett told her.

"I'm glad to hear that. You talking the dog or am I on pupper duty?" Gia asked her. With a grin she clasped her hands together and pleaded, "Oh please leave her here Brett, please. I love her so, and I would be so lonely."

Kelly and Brett both laughed and Brett told her, "Yeah, alright I'll leave her here."

Gia jumped up and threw herself against Brett to wrap her in a right hug as she said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Oz jumped up onto the couch in curiosity and she wiggled her way between Gia and Brett and first locked Gia's face and then Brett's. Brett told Gia, "I'm only doing this because there would be no one to look after her at the house."

"I know but I love you for it nonetheless."

Two hours later Kelly had left for the night and Brett and Gia were laying on the couch trying to form enough will power to get up and go to their beds after a long night in. That was when Brett's phone beeped from the coffee table.

Gia joked, "Lover boy finally responded?"

"Ha ha." Brett told her and she grabbed her phone. She wouldn't say it out loud but she hoped it was Tyler because he hadn't responded to her since her response to his FaceTime question.

It wasn't Tyler, in fact it wasn't even from a text. It was a notification of a private message on Instagram and it made Brett crunch her eyebrows together as she opened it. It was the link to an Instagram post, which turned out to be a boomerang video.

She didn't recognize the name on the account and she didn't recognize the girl in the video but she did recognize the guy.

The small breath of air she let out caught Gia's attention and she turned to Brett, and followed her eyes down to her phone where she watched the video as well.

Here Brett was talking about how she had faith in Tyler changing and becoming who she knew he was and now she was sitting there watching a video of some blonde kissing his cheek... in bed.

Gia tried to help the situation by telling Brett, "Maybe it's an old video. You know what those girls are like."

That had been Brett's first thought, but much like she had noted, she pointed out to Gia, "He just bought that tie."

Gia let out a sigh at the sight of his tie hanging off of the headboard between them in the video.

So that's why he wasn't answering.

"Guess it was too good to be true." Brett mumbled, her eyes still staring down at her cell phone screen, torturing herself by not looking away from the video that was playing.

Gia finally grabbed her phone from her hands and told her, "You have every right to be upset but I am not gonna sit here and watch you do this to yourself."

"I'm going to bed." Brett told her, not even bothering to grab her cell phone back as she got up and went down the hall, immediately diving face first into her mattress the minute she was close enough to do so.

You're such an idiot Brett.

Three days later when the Stars arrived back in Dallas after their road trip no one had heard from Brett, not even Tyler. Gia had text Jamie when he asked to let him know that she was alive she was just taking a break from electronics for a few days, and she had purposely not answered a single call or text from Tyler. She was floored that he was even trying to play the part of the worried boyfriend now, after all of this. But she thought maybe he really was dumb enough to think he had done nothing wrong.

Brett had spent three entire days in her bedroom, she didn't speak much to even Gia, in fact Gia would consider it a good hour when she could get Brett to mumble a thanks and eat some crackers. She hadn't done anything but lay in bed, she hadn't even cried which was perhaps the most annoying part to Brett. She always cried when Tyler hurt her, and now it seemed like there was just nothing left to cry.

Gia nearly fell out of her chair when Brett came out of her bedroom in actual clothes, her hair damp from an obvious shower, looking like she hadn't just spent days holed up in her room with no contact to the outside world other than her dog curling up with her every day.

"Hold on, I need the photograph this." Gia joked, and she was surprised when Brett not only cracked a smile but she even let out a chuckle at her lame joke. Gia patted the seat next to her at the kitchen island, slid half of her Thai chicken wrap over to Brett and asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. It's time to move on, I guess." Brett told her, biting into the wrap and even stealing a handful of fries from Gia's plate.

"Do you really want that?" Gia asked her curiously. She could help Brett either way, but she needed to know where she was at.

Brett had to admit sadly, "No."

"I'm sorry Brett." Gia told her, reaching out to rub her forearm softly. She added in, "Maybe going to see your family tonight will help. Mom time always fixes things."

"Yeah. I should go pack." Brett told her softly, taking one last bite of the wrap and then she grabbed the fries she had taken and ate them on the way back to her bedroom.

She packed only comfortable clothes, things she could lounge around in because she knew most of her time would be spent doing just that. She didn't pack any makeup, what was the point? She tossed her computer into her duffle bag because she had a paper due next month and she thought maybe she would try to work on it a little bit while she was home. It hadn't taken her more than half an hour before she was zipping up her bag and taking it out to her car.

When she closed the door to the backseat to find Tyler standing by her car she rolled her eyes and asked him, "What do you want?"

"Jeez, I didn't know I wasn't allowed to come see you. Especially considering how you've been ignoring everyone for days." Tyler told her, watching as she crossed her arms over her chest in silent response.

She asked him, "Did you ever think to wonder why I was ignoring you?"

"Oh, so this is about me?" He asked her, and when she rolled her eyes he told her, "Don't roll your eyes Brett. You're an adult, talk with your words."

"That's rich coming from you." Brett stated as she turned on her heels and walked back into the condo, aware that he was hot on her heels.

When Gia saw them she asked her, "Are you okay?"

Tyler rolled his eyes and told her, "Stay out of this for once."

Brett turned and narrowed her eyes at him, "Don't talk to her like that."

With a sigh Gia told her, "Brett, it's okay. I'll be in my room."

When she disappeared Tyler turned his hard stare onto Brett and he asked her, "What does 'that's rich' mean?"

"It means it's really rich of you to be telling me to speak with my words when you speak with your dick all of the time." Brett told him, crossing her arms over her chest again. When his eyebrow quirked she rolled her eyes and asked, "Did you really think you could get away with it? That I would never find out? Do you honestly think I'm that stupid?"

"You don't want me to answer that question." He told her.

"I know what you were doing when you were gone." Brett told him, and as usual he remained so stoic she couldn't tell what kind of reaction he was having in his head, if he was even having one.

"You're acting crazy right now." Tyler told her, his voice was so neutral that it pushed Brett right over the edge.

"I'm acting crazy? You fucked some broad on the road and I'm the crazy one? Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Brett asked him, her voice seemingly getting louder and louder with each word.

"Yes, you are. You're acting fucking crazy Brett. If I wanted an around the clock babysitter instead of a girlfriend I would have hired one." Tyler told her, this time it was he who crossed his arms over his chest and then he went on to tell her, "A girlfriend is supposed to trust their boyfriend. You have never trusted me."

"You've never given me a reason to!" Brett exclaimed loudly, and when he rolled his eyes at her so non-nonchalantly she went on, yelling as she spoke, "You have done nothing but make a fool out of me the entire time I've known you. All you ever do is pull this 'oh I've changed, I'm different now' bullshit routine and I fall for it hook line and sinker every fucking time. Do you have to tell yourself how much you've changed, how good of a man you are when you have your dick inside some random chick and your girlfriend, your trusting, faithful girlfriend is waiting for your call at home? Hmm?"

He barked out a laugh and asked her, "Faithful? You really wanna go there right now? Why don't we talk about Mike while we're on this topic, hmm?"

"One guy Tyler, one, how many girls were there for you?" Brett asked him in annoyance, she stepped a little closer to him and she wasn't surprised when he stepped closer to her.

"None of them were your friends!" He yelled, he took another step forward and Brett instinctively took one back because she knew how they fought and she didn't want any part in that again.

Still, she couldn't help but say to him, "Oh, right, I'm sorry that makes it all okay!"

"Makes it a hell of a lot better than someone you practically considered a brother." He told her, his voice flat and void of emotion.

Brett's voice however was filled with emotion as her eyes welled up with tears, she blinked them away, took in a deep breath and told him, "I bet you would run out of fingers on both hands if you tried to count the amount of times you've cheated on me, and I can't tell if that makes me stupid or you a grade a dick... maybe both."

"Yeah, I doubt the number would fit on both hands too. Actually, if I'm being honest it probably wouldn't fit on two sets of hands...maybe more. I don't keep track but I know it's a high one." He was only saying that to hurt her, Brett knew that and every part of her wished she could be tough enough to take it and let it roll off of her but she wasn't tough enough and she couldn't do that.

Her eyes welled up with tears and she said, more to herself, "God, I was stupid to think that you would ever change, to think that this thing between us would ever be more than what it always has been."

He stepped forward again and she matched it with a step backwards as he told her harshly, "Yeah, you are pretty god damn stupid. I haven't cared about you for years, what the fuck do I have to do to get it through your thick head that I don't want to be with you? How many times do we have to do this dance before you get how fucking pathetic you are?"

"Excuse me?" She asked him.

Another step forward and another matched step backwards. They were beginning to run out of room, they were fast approaching the corner of the wall to the hallway.

"You are the definition of pathetic. Look at you; like always, you're still here begging me to love you even though you know I won't." He told her, equally as harshly as his previous words.

"What is wrong with you?" Brett asked him, and he cocked an eyebrow so she continued her rant, "There has to be something. I don't understand how you can treat anyone the way that you treat me, how this is fun to you. You have something seriously fucked up inside of you, and I really hope you figure it out some day and figure out why you are the way that you are."

"If there's something wrong with me then there's something equally as wrong with you for sticking around as long as you have. Admit it Brett, the way that I am is part of what attracts you to me. Fucked up people belong with other fucked up people." Tyler told her. He took another step forward, she took another step back as usual, and he told her, "And you might just be the most fucked up one out of all of us."

This time when he took a step forward and she took one back her butt connected with the table they kept their keys on, and when that happened the pineapple shaped trinket container fell off of the table and hit the floor, shattering into pieces. That seemed to be enough to knock her out of whatever spell her had her under because suddenly gone was the cowering, insecure Brett, she was replaced by the Brett Tyler had grown to know well over the years.

She put her hands on his chest and pushed him backward with enough force that he had to take several steps to steady himself, all the while he simply smiled at her, as if he got off on making her this angry.

She gave him two more quick shoves, which caused him to grab her by the biceps tightly to keep her in place as he said, "I told you so."

That was when Gia came out from down the hall, took one look at Tyler but before she could tell him to leave herself Brett looked up at him, tore herself, painfully so, out of his grasp and told him, "Get out of my house."

It was as if, because Gia was there, he had flipped a switch thinking that it might help his case. He spoke gently to Brett, with soft eyes, and she couldn't tell if he was being sincere or not when he said, "Just let me explain things, please."

"I think you're done here. Get out before we call the cops." Gia told him, going so far as to hold the door open for him. He grabbed it and slammed it shut behind him.

Brett was rubbing her arms where he had grabbed her when she turned to Gia, smiled pathetically and said, "Guess that's that."

"Are you okay?" Gia asked her, glancing down at the red marks on her bare arms.

Brett followed her gaze, she knew there would be bruises tomorrow and she said, "Yeah, I'm fine. I think I might have given him a good bruise too."

"Brett-"

Brett interrupted her to say, "I know. It's not okay. But I'm not that girl, don't ask me to be. I won't lie and destroy him just because I'm pissed of with him, just because he hurt me. I am just as much to blame for how out of hand things get between us when we fight."

"I know, and I love that about you but that's not what I was gonna say." Gia told her, and when Brett's eyebrow lifted she picked up Brett's phone from the coffee table and told her, "You have a voicemail."

Brett took her phone from Gia's hands and unlocked it, finding that she did in fact have a voicemail waiting.

One missed call from: Dad.