Last Year Was Complicated

Brett hated bars. She really did.

She hated everything about them; they were too small and too crowded, there was always too many drunks, her body all of a sudden was public property to grabby hands, it was loud and it was hot. She hated them, and yet here she was on a Friday night standing at the bar with a drink in her hand and a tall blonde standing half a foot away from her.

He was telling her about his college, and she really didn’t care but she nodded and laughed at all of the right times and while she looked at him her eyes were everywhere but his as she searched for a familiar face.

She wasn’t even sure why she was here.

No, that was a lie; she knew exactly what she was doing here. She was here because she knew that if there was ever a place that Tyler would be on a free Friday night it would be here.

It was his favorite place.

It was where they had met, three years previous.

She knew he would be here.

She knew he would be here and that was why she had worn something that showed a little extra skin than normal, a dress that she knew would get his attention as it had so many other men already.

She tried not to look too bored as her eyes darted around the bar, just as she tried not to look too excited when her eyes landed on the brunette she had been looking for since arriving an hour earlier. Their eyes met from across the room, and instead of going to him Brett turned away and back to the blonde in front of her and she tried to remember him as she stepped a little bit closer to him, tilted her head back and laughed at something he had said.

He smiled down at her as she placed her hand on his bicep and she leaned up on her tip toes to ask him, “Are you a natural blonde?”

He looked down at her with a quirked brow and an amused expression, “Is that what you’ve been wondering the whole time I’ve been talking to you?”

Brett’s eyes darted out to where she had seen Tyler, he was still watching her. He raised his beer bottle to his lips, taking a drink all the while his eyes never leaving her. She couldn’t tell what his expression was, he was always so stoic when it came to her.

She kept an eye on him from the corner of her eyes as she leaned into the blonde in front of her, giggled, and told him, “Guilty.”

He laughed and assured her, “Natural blonde.”

She ran her fingers through the short hair at the side of his head, and then let her hand slowly drag down the back of his neck, over his shoulder and part way down his arm before she dropped her hand to her side. She sat down once two stools at the bar opened up for them, and he scooted his stool closer to hers, their thighs touching as they sat, Brett glanced over at Tyler once more, before she turned back to her company and smiled at him.

“So, you never told me your name.” He told her, leaning towards her so that they could hear each other better.

Brett placed her hand on his shoulder and leaned into him, lying to him, “Jessica.”

“Well... Jessica… why do I get the idea that you’re sort of a high maintenance kind of girl?” He asked her with a smile.

Brett kept her full attention on him, throwing him a flirty smile and a raised eyebrow as she asked, “What on earth would make you think that?”

“Oh just the way you keep looking all over the bar as if I’m boring you to death.” He told her, and Brett sighed. When she tucked her hair behind her ears he asked her, “Your name’s not Jessica is it?”

“No.” Brett said softly, and she looked over at him before she was completely honest with him as she told him, “It’s Brett, and I know it’s awful but I was trying to make someone jealous I guess.”

“Did it at least work?” He asked her with a small smile.

“Doubt it.” She muttered, taking a sip of her drink.

“Well, I’m sorry that it didn’t work for you, but I think I’m gonna go try my luck somewhere that I actually have a chance.” Brett couldn’t blame him, she felt like the world’s biggest asshole and the world’s biggest idiot simultaneously. How was that even possible?

Out pure habit and borderline patheticness Brett let her eyes wander around the bar again in an attempt to find Tyler and when she found him she wished she hadn’t even looked in the first place. He was leaving the bar with some brunette hanging all over him, and it made her down the rest of her drink in one shot.

She waited a full twenty minutes before she grabbed her clutch and left the bar, she didn’t want to even chance running into Tyler on her way out. So as she found an empty cab and was on her way home Brett pulled her phone out of her pocket and wrote and re-wrote a text to Tyler. She hit ‘send’ before she could convince herself otherwise.

‘I guess I was stupid to think you cared at all about me.’

What the hell was the matter with her? Why did she constantly let him do this to her? She wasn’t this girl normally, she really wasn’t and yet it seemed like Tyler brought that side of her out so often lately it was almost embarrassing.

When she arrived home to find Gia and Alex on the couch watching movies Brett sighed. Gia glanced over the couch and asked her, “How was your night?”

“Fine.” Brett mumbled, kicking out of her shoes and leaving them by the door as she walked into the kitchen.

She was filling up a water bottle with water from the fridge when Alex asked her, “You want to watch this with us? We just started it.”

Brett shook her head, “No, thanks though. I’m just gonna call it a night, I’m exhausted.”

She knew Gia saw right through her lie, they had been best friends for so long that neither one could lie to the other, but Brett didn’t really care. She simply closed her bedroom door behind herself, slipped out of her dress and into a pair of matching pyjamas before she dropped on top of her bed and didn’t even bother getting under the covers.

That was when the blinking LED indicator on her cell phone caught her attention. She rolled onto her stomach and grabbed her phone, tapping the home button to light the screen up, and she was quick to unlock it to get the waiting message from Tyler from it. She wished she hadn’t bothered however once she did open it.

‘I wasn’t aware that after watching you whore yourself out to half the bar all night that we were exclusive.

- - -

“Can you get that?” Brett sighed when Gia asked her this from the kitchen where she was finishing their dinner for the night and the doorbell had rang.

Brett heaved herself up off of the couch and made her way to the door, pulling the door open to find Kelly on the other side. Kelly let out a laugh and said, “Nice shirt.”

Brett look down at her top and shrugged her shoulder, leading Kelly into the apartment before Brett dropped onto the couch and took up her former residence; on the couch, scrolling through social media while the pre-game played on the TV.

Kelly took the spot beside Brett and with a raised eyebrow she asked her, “What’cha doing?”

Brett didn’t answer, it was Gia who told Kelly, “Probably Instagram creeping Tyler.”

“I am not.” Brett stated.

She panicked when Kelly grabbed her cell phone out of her hand and looked at it, announcing out loud, “She’s creeping him on Twitter.”

Brett snatched her phone back from Kelly, and exited out of all social media apps that she had open before informing them, “I’m not creeping… I just… wanted to know if he was doing anything while he was on the road.”

“Thus; creeping.” Gia stated while giving her a pointed look.

Brett sighed and asked, “I guess. I just… like I need another reason to hate him right?”

Curiously Kelly asked Brett, “What happened this time?”

Gia warned her, “Don’t even ask.”

Brett rolled her eyes and told Kelly, “I’m just an idiot that’s all.”

Kelly nodded her head slowly but wasn’t sure what to say, which was when Gia explained to her, “Tyler took some girl home from a bar knowing Brett was there and saw it happen.”

Kelly rolled her eyes and told Brett, “No one ever said he was a genius.”

“He basically told me to go fuck myself when I asked him about it too.” Brett told Kelly, and when Kelly’s eyebrow raised she sighed and explained, “I mean… I was flirting with a guy first so I guess he has a point you know? Like how is he supposed to know we’re exclusive this week when I spent the whole night talking to someone else?”

“I guess you have a point there.” Kelly said softly.

Brett picked at the paint on her finger nails and sighed, before she continued on her rant, “But I mean, I know that he knew that I was only doing it to piss him off.”

“True.” Kelly said. She knew at this point Brett just needed to say it all and get it off of her chest, and Gia had been hearing it all day so she welcomed someone else trying to get Brett to stop talking about it.

Brett bit down on her bottom lip, chewing harshly as she tried to keep her mouth shut as Gia brought three plates with tacos on them over to the couch. The game was set to start soon, Brett wasn’t even sure why she was even bothering to watch it but when they showed Tyler leaning against the Stars bench she realized why. She continued on her rant, “Am I really that stupid though? Like did I really honestly think that just once if he saw me with some other guy that he would get mad and jealous and do something about it or give a single fuck about it like I do when I see him with some other girl? Am I seriously that stupid?”

“I’m not even gonna touch that question.” Gia stated with a grin that made Kelly laugh.

Brett rolled her eyes but try as she might she just couldn’t keep a straight face and soon enough she too was smiling, and then that smile morphed into a laugh that bubbled out of her throat. She told Gia, “You’re so mean to me.”

“Only when I have to be.” Gia told her, patting her head like you might a dog who followed an instruction.

Brett rolled her eyes at that, but she then told Gia, “Yeah, yeah, what would I do without you? You’re like my fairy Godmother.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” Gia stated with a grin.

In an effort to get the conversation off of herself Brett turned to Kelly and asked, “Do you and Antoine have any Halloween plans?”

Kelly shrugged her shoulders, “He’s probably going out with the boys. I’m just gonna hand candy out at our place and watch Hocus Pocus.”

Gia rolled her eyes, “You’re such a party pooper with this ‘I don’t want to dress up’ thing you have for Halloween.”

Brett, surprisingly, defended Kelly by telling Gia, “I’m not going out either. I think I might just go over there and help hand candy out.”

“Bullshit, you’re both going out with me. No if’s ands or buts. It’s a crime not to go out on Halloween.” Gia told them, and when they both rolled their eyes she added, “Come on, it’ll be fun. Me, Alex and you guys? That’s like the best drinking team ever.”

“I don’t really feel like hanging out with you and your girlfriend all night thanks.” Brett stated, shooting Gia a look when she laughed.

“You can’t mope over Tyler forever Brett. Don’t you think it’s time you just forget about him and do something for yourself for once? Something you want?” Gia asked her and Brett sighed.

She was right and Brett knew it but she hated to admit it. The last three years of her life had been all about Tyler. It had been the Tyler and Brett show for so long that Brett just didn’t know what to do for herself anymore. She was so used to them being together, then breaking up and while they were broke up she simply moped and pined after him until they got back together. It was a very vicious cycle, and as much as she knew it had to end at some point she wasn’t sure she was ready for that yet.

Brett didn’t know how it was possible to love someone so much even knowing they didn’t love you the same way or the same amount. She didn’t know how it was possible to need someone so much that it didn’t even matter how badly they hurt you or how much they blatantly didn’t care about your feelings. She didn’t know how any of it was possible but it was, and it drove her crazy that she couldn’t figure it out, but even more than that it drove her crazy that he didn’t see that.

Brett was exhausted by the time the game was over; she had gotten almost no sleep all night the night before, how could she when she spent most of the night crying? She hadn’t even been able to have a nap during the day, and then the game had gone into overtime so they were up even later than planned. But Gia had finally gone to bed, and Kelly had made her way home twenty minutes before, so Brett escaped into the bathroom to run a bath.

She hadn’t been in the bath, enveloped by warm water and bubbles when her cell phone rang. She reached out and grabbed it, finding a picture of she and Tyler, she was laughing and pushing at his chest as he had his arms around her and was trying to lick her face. He had set the picture to his contact information the minute it was taken and Brett hadn’t had the heart to delete it yet.

Against her better judgement she hit talk and held the phone to her ear, asking quietly, “Hello?”

“Hey.” She rolled her eyes, and she was surprised when the next words out of his mouth were, “Did you watch the game?”

“Yeah.” Was all she said to him.

She heard him sigh on the other end, and then a ruckus, before silence and he told her, “I was trying to score for you.”

She wanted to roll her eyes at him, but instead the corners of her lips turned up into the smallest of smiles and she asked him, “You were?”

“Mhmm. Didn’t work so well I guess.” He stated with a chuckle. Brett laughed lightly, and Tyler asked her, “What did you do today?”

Clearly what had gone down just twenty-four hours earlier was something that they were going to pretend had never happened.

Brett told him, “Nothing really. Kelly and Gia and I watched the game and had dinner, and now I’m in the bath.”

“You’re in the bath?” He asked her, his voice raised slightly like it always did when he was picturing things he probably shouldn’t have been. She knew him well enough by now to know this.

“Mhmm.”

“So what you’re saying is you’re on the phone, talking to me while you’re all naked and wet?” He asked her curiously, and Brett’s face flushed fifty shades of red hearing him ask it.

She couldn’t get anything out other than, “Maybe.”

He sighed contently, and told her, “Don’t ruin the video I have in my mind right now.”

“And what’s that?” She asked him curiously.

He told her, “That time I came home from a game and you were in the bathtub and I jumped in with my clothes on.”

“I’m not sure I’m recalling this particular moment in time.” Brett said with a small smile, she knew exactly what she was doing to him when he let out a low growl of disapproval at her comment.

But Tyler surprised Brett by not commenting back on her joke, but rather he asked her, “What are you doing tomorrow?”