“Love? You aren’t in love. Zane Morris doesn’t know how to be in love. When will you see that?”
I feel a tight ball of frustration in my chest. He’s being so stubborn just because he doesn’t want to understand. He won’t even open his ears for a second to listen to me. I squeeze my fists by my side, trying to contain myself.
“Brandon, maybe you should just take some time to listen to Leah,” Jenny jumps in. “I’ve heard your side of the story over this, and I get it. I do know why you’re angry and hurt, you feel betrayed, you feel like you’ve been stabbed in the side. I know it. But, you haven’t listened to Leah and heard what she has to say.”
Brandon looks at his girlfriend, at first glaring at her, but soon his expression starts to relax. I think that he might actually be about to listen to Jenny, but then I suppose the reality of me and Zane hits him again and he shuts down. “Leah, how could you walk out of our house? How could you pick him? What the fuck?”
“Me and Zane have had something for a long time.” I need him to try and understand. “We liked each other even before he left five years ago, this isn’t something that we’re just running head first into.”
“Oh, you are fucking kidding me.” Brandon smacks his hands down on the table, forgetting that we’re in public now. His anger has truly gotten the better of him. “You were fucking even when we were younger? Because I have some real news for you. You were one of many, and I mean many whom Zane Morris fucked around the whole school. You were definitely not special to him then. If you thought that you were, then you’re stupid.”
I slide my eyes closed, hating the way that feels. I know that he was a player back then, I know I might not have been special, but I am now. I’m confident in his love for me this time around.
“I’m not stupid. I know what I’m doing, and I don’t appreciate you talking to me like that. You need to start respecting me. I’m very appreciative that you’ve always looked out for me and taken care of me, but now it’s time for me to look after myself. I know what I’m doing, you just need to trust me.”
Brandon shakes his head, still refusing to pay any attention to me. “Your decisions have all been shit recently, I don’t know what you’re doing. You’re throwing your whole life away.”
“I’m making my life better, that’s what I’m doing, maybe one day you’ll see that.”
Just at that moment, when I’m really about to get into the middle of my rant, the doors swing open and Zane comes through it, completely unsuspecting of what he’s about to face. I feel bad because all I’ve done is rile Brandon up and piss him off. That wasn’t part of the plan at all. Shit, how can I make this right?
“What the fuck is going on here?” Zane snaps, his walls already high. “Why are you all fighting?”
“Because of you!” Brandon yells. “Because you cannot keep your fucking hands to yourself, that’s why. Because you have to defile my sister, and now I learn that’s been going on for years. Even in high school.”
Zane’s face falls, this knocks him back a bit, I can see it in his face. I didn’t mean for any of this to come out, especially not like this. I was just trying to defend what me and Zane have now.
“Brandon, it really isn’t like that,” I try one last time, but now male pride has gotten in the way and there isn’t any chance of anyone listening to me. Brandon is squaring up to Zane and I have the horrible feeling that things are going to go south again. Maybe I should have waited, perhaps this is too soon.
“You are a scum bag with no respect for our friendship,” Brandon yells. “The more I think about it, the more wound up I get. You used to be at our house all the time, I used to feed you, I gave you a place to avoid your father, I did everything with you. The only one thing I asked you not to do was go anywhere near Leah.”
“Does that not show you how serious I am about her? We wouldn’t be here if not. I wouldn’t do anything to throw away what we had. You’ve been my best friend for as long as I can remember.”
“Huh. Well you sure as shit have a funny way of showing it. You don’t care about me at all.”
“I stood back and let you say all those terrible things about me the other day, without fighting back…”
“Terrible but true.” Brandon sneers nastily. “I suppose the truth must hurt.”
“Truth? You don’t even know the truth anymore. You don’t care to get to know me.”
“People like you never change. It doesn’t matter at all. You’ll be a prick for the rest of your life.”
“You’re being ignorant and you’re making everyone unhappy around you. Don’t you get that?”
“You are the asshole who came back here and wrecked everything. We were better when you were gone.”
“For you, maybe. But you don’t even want to know about your sister. You’re so busy trying to control her…”
“Control? Just because I dint want her anywhere near you? That’s the most ridiculous thing that I’ve heard.”
“You do control her. Even when you were kids. You were always way too involved in her life.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I suppose I got in the way of you fucking her then as well. What a real shame.”
“It wasn’t like that, it was never like that. It’s always been different with Leah.”
“If it was so different, then why did you go? Why didn’t you stay for her? And don’t try and blame that one on your father because you could have kept in touch, if you were so in love. But you didn’t.”