After Hours

Pity

He scoffed, "Yeah.. you could say that.." He crossed his arms, his outward expression was conflicting what was going on inside of him.

Of course, he was pissed, but he couldn't believe she was there in front of him. He had missed one of his oldest friends even though the woman before him was not his friend, it was like someone else had possessed her body. After what happened between them, he never thought he'd see her again, let alone be engaged in conversation.

Denise half assed whispered to Jane, "Who is this?" Jane turned to look at her and then back at Brian, he raised his eyebrows at her, curious to see how she would answer this question.

"This is Brian, umm.. we went to school together..." She intentionally left out the part about their history. Even though she was incredibly embarrassed by this, she couldn't take her eyes off of Brian. He had changed, grown up a lot. She couldn't believe this was the same clean cut, well mannered little boy she once knew.

"Still putting on your little act, huh?" He asked, his words becoming more and more bitter. He hated to talk to her this way but after years of frustration, this was possibly his only chance to get some closure.

She took a deep breath, not sure how to answer his question. It wasn't like she could make things any worse, "I.. I don't know what you're talking about, Brian." She tried not to make eye contact with him for long periods of time, this level of confrontation was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for her.

He rolled his eyes and kind of laughed to himself, "Of course you'd say that, excuse me.." He said as he walked away from them, closing his eyes and takes a series of deep breaths.

Jane and Denise were shocked, she couldn't be in here anymore. Jane turned around and made a beeline to the door of the club, pushing past people as she attempted to fight back the tears that began to pool in her lower lids. She didn't smoke much, mostly in social situations or when she was drinking but she needed one now. Jane needed to get out of the building as she swore the concrete walls were slowly closing in on her. She was lighting her cigarette before she even got outside.

When she took the first drag, she leaned against the brick exterior wall. The rush of nicotine started to take over, dizzying her mind and warming her limbs outward, giving them that tingling sensation. The desired effect from her smoke calmed her down but she was still a little rattled by the interaction.

"What the hell was that?" Denise asked, bumming a smoke from Jane.

She held in the smoke until her lungs started to burn, she half exhaled and coughed. "It was something I did that I'm not typically proud of.. it's in the past." Bringing the cigarette to her lips for another inhale, staring at the pavement that had become different speckled shades of grey from the slight drizzle.

"Did you fuck him?"

She tapped the lipstick stained butt to rid the excess ash, "Oh god no, we used to be friends. Good friends." Memories started to flood her brain in quick succession, hours that they spent listening to music and reading together. Exploring their neighborhood and surrounding areas on their bikes, then as they got older there was the teasing and ocasional harmless flirting as the two were experimenting with their newfound hormones and feelings. All were fond memories and she doesn't regret them. Memories of blissful innocence brought comfort to her, which she was in desperate need of in the moment.

"I'm guessing you had some sort of falling out so.. spill." Denise could've burnt a hole through Jane's head with her stare.

Jane knew she wasn't getting out of this one, there would just be even more questions she didn't want to answer. "Well.." She hesitated to even tell her, continuing to look at the pavement and rubbed her arm, "We were childhood friends. As you know, I was.. different than I am now. Brian had the same interests that I did, we lived on the same street so we became friends and we did everything together.." she took a deep breath, struggling to get her next words out, "I didn't want to be.. different anymore so I had to cut him off to get away from that part of my life."

"You broke that poor boy's heart, didn't you?" Denise was already starting on her second cigarette.

"Let's just say, I could've handled it better. If I could go back, I would've done it differently. I essentially told him that.. I pitied him and I didn't actually like spending time with him." She fiddled with her fingers, studying them so maybe she wouldn't hear the words that were coming out of her mouth.

Denise raised her eyebrows, "Jane.."

"I know, I know.. trust me, I've given myself more shit for it than anyone else combined.. I felt like I had no other option." She let her cigarette fall to the pavement, burying it further with the toe of her shoe to put it out. She didn't like making excuses but couldn't help herself on this one.

*****

Freddie stood there in awe of what he had just witnessed, he followed Brian who was sitting on the edge of the stage, his guitar in his lap.

"Bri?" Freddie asked cautiously as he approached him.

"What?" Brian answered a bit more angrily than anticipated. He didn't intend to take it out on Freddie, but when he saw Freddie's expression, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry Fred.."

"What just happened between you and Janie?" He crossed his arms.

"It's in the past, no point in digging up old things." He was fiddling with the knobs on his guitar, trying to find something to distract himself and not focus on what was going through his head.

"Was she an old fling?"

"Not necessarily, she was the first girl I ever had feelings for. Some things got nasty and I haven't spoken to her in almost ten years."

"Oh darling, was it that bad?"

"It wasn't nice, I thought she was different y'know?" He took another deep breath, his tone of voice softened, almost to a whisper. "Turned out like the rest of them.."

Freddie felt bad for Brian, he knew that if Brian still carried a grudge for all of this time she must've really hurt him. Freddie decided maybe after the show he was going to try and get her alone and convince her to apologize or hope that her guilty conscience would get the best of her and Jane would take up that opportunity on her own accord.

Freddie sat next to Brian on the stage, "Screw her, show her what she missed out on!" Freddie smiled at him, doing his best to cheer Brian up, who turned to look at Freddie, albeit confused before smiling himself.

"I guess I could.." He sheepishly looked back at his guitar.

"You're not the quiet, timid little boy anymore."

"I know, I know." Brian looked back up at Freddie, his confidence raised a bit. Freddie patted him on the back.

"Well you better get ready, the show is about to start."

Brian nodded and double checked the tuning of his guitar. They all started to gather on stage, Jane and Denise returned into the club as they heard last minute soundcheck starting. Instead of the table up front they were going to take, they opted for the one in the back, closer to the bar. Jane was going to need a few more drinks to get through the night.

*****

How do you think the two of them are going to move past it?

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