The One who got Away

I don’t know how he even knows that, but the accusation opens a wound. I can almost feel it burning.

“I… I…” Zane stammers, the color flooding from his cheeks.

“You… you, what? You have no excuse because you behaved like a dickhead. Just like you always did. Girls were just a play thing to you. If I’d known that Leah was one of them…”

I don’t even know why they’re yelling so loudly, they’re right in one another’s faces. The neutral location was a terrible idea. I should have thought all of this through more. I need to work out how to get us all out of here before more stuff gets smashes to smithereens. It was bad enough in my room. Here’ we’ll have to pay for it.

I dart my panicked eyes around, trying to hunt for an escape route. The staff look just as freaked out as I feel and not one of them appear brave enough to do anything about it. To be fair, this is a quiet and quaint little establishment. I’m sure they don’t usually have trouble like this. Brandon and Zane are both big, intimidating looking guys. They probably look very frightening. I guess it’s up to me and Jenny to stop this.

“What do we do?” I hiss to Jenny. “This is horrible, we need to get them out.”

She nods defiantly and pulls out her chair. She stands on it so she’s almost looming above th

e pair of them and yells at the top of her voice. “If you idiots don’t stop this now, I’ll call the cops immediately.”

Brandon gives his girlfriend a strange look, but to his credit he does step back from Zane. Both of them have the sense to look sheepish since they’ve been caught out by many people acting foolish. If we were in the sort of place where it was filled with young people, this row would be on YouTube already, going viral.

“We need to go,” I join in hurriedly, taking advantage of the moment of silence. “The staff want us to leave.”

Maybe they haven’t directly said that, but they don’t need to. It’s obvious from their faces that this is their idea of hell. I can almost see all of them sag with relief when I suggest leaving them all alone. One by one, we file out in silence, all of us lost in our own bubble of sadness. Mine centers around Brandon. I cannot believe that he even said some of those things. I don’t know if any of us can come back from them. He might have gone too far this time. The damage that his anger has caused might well be irreparable.

Chapter Thirty Two – Zane

The cool fresh air hits my face, washing over my skin, but it doesn’t do much to calm my temper down. I thought that I was just going into the café to meet Leah for something to eat, I had no idea that I was about to be ambushed. Maybe Leah thought that she was doing something good with this, but the wounds are too raw and open. She should have listened to me and waited until things had calmed down. Now, I don’t know what we’re going to do. The communication channels have been opened. I don’t think we can walk away without closing them. Not unless we don’t ever want to talk again, which will make things very challenging.

“We all just need to talk calmly,” Jenny tries her best. “We need to hear each other out. If we talk one by one without interrupting, then maybe we can actually get some resolution from this.”

“Or, maybe I should just punch Zane again, since the first one didn’t get through.”

Jenny leans up to Brandon and she hisses angrily at him. I almost want to laugh at him for getting yelled at but I know for a fact that will only ignite things further and make them impossible. Much as I’m wound up by Brandon, I do want to sort this out. I don’t want to lose him forever.

I glance over to Leah, but her body language is completely closed off. She’s lost in a world of her own, all hurt and upset, trying to work out how she can make this okay again. I understand her well enough now to know that if I go over there she’ll just end up getting too emotional and upset for words. All the color has already drained from her cheeks. If she starts crying, I’ll comfort her, but I don’t want to be the one to set her off.

“I don’t want him to come to our house, Jenny. I don’t have anything to say to him. I’m sure he doesn’t want to come either.” I slide my eyes closed and Brandon rants loudly. “After this, we don’t have a friendship, it’s done, over. There’s no coming back from this. We will never be friends again. That can’t be changed.”

“Oh, for fuck sake, Brandon,” I can’t resist yelling back, just one last thing. “Can’t you see yourself ever letting go? What about if me and Leah end up married? What will you do then?”

“You’ll both be dead to me if you end up getting married. In fact, you’re dead to me now. Both of you.”

Leah shrinks forward even more. This is really getting to her. I need to try and stop it before it gets even more ridiculous. Maybe there isn’t any solution to be found today, but we don’t have to storm off after arguing with one another. That’s just stupid. We’re both so much better than that.

“Look, Brandon, maybe we should arrange a time to talk just me and you? Yeah? That way, we can really get everything out in the open and talk about it properly. Isn’t that the best solution…?”

But I don’t really get to finish my sentence, because the next thing I feel is the unexpected sensation of his rock hard knuckles connection with my cheek, making my teeth shake in my mouth. Because I didn’t know that it was coming, I stagger to the side, almost falling under the pressure of it. A red hot pain radiates all through my face and I find myself shocked that we’re actually here again. Another fight over the same damn thing.

“I don’t want to fight,” I yell out, needing to be the bigger person. “I just want to talk.”

“Fuck your talking,” Brandon cries back. “It hasn’t gotten us anywhere. It’s all just bullshit.”

Punches and kicks feel like they fly from every direction. It’s almost impossible to protect myself from each one. I get hurt, I can feel bruises already starting to form, but I don’t want to fight back. I barely fought back last time and I felt terrible for it afterwards. However angry he’s made me, I don’t want to hurt Brandon.

“Fucking, fight back you pussy! Give me something. I need you to fucking hit me.”

Brandon just wants something, he wants a way to take out his frustration, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to comply. Now, I just need to find a way to get out of his vice like grip so I can stop this. The last thing I want is for one of the girls to get in the middle of us – like Leah kept trying to do last time – and getting hurt, or even worse, Jenny following her threat through and calling the cops. I don’t need anything on my record, and as an up and coming lawyer, I don’t think Brandon does either. If only he could clear his head to see that.

“Don’t even think about running away,” Brandon grunts out once I slip from his hands, giving myself a moment of freedom to think. “We’re seeing this through now. This is a fight that has been building for fucking years. I don’t know how many exactly, I’m not sure how long you were screwing my sister for…”

“Just once,” I pant back. I speak quickly while I have a chance. “We only slept together once. Just before I was sent away and I knew then that she was special. I don’t have any excuse for not keeping in touch, I just thought at the time that it was the right thing to do, but if I hadn’t I think we would have been together then.”