Brie Sheridan has had her heart broken way too many times. Rhett Price is usually the culprit, but, this time, he might be the solution.
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Brooke 'Brie' Sheridan wouldn't necessa...
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RHETT
Andy is beaming like a beacon the second we step out onto the ice.
Meanwhile, I'm a petty guy, who has been having some pretty shitty days lately. I'm also a victim to my own bitterness, having barely retained any semblance of respect for other people's feelings, and I have to put in conscious effort to not say something snarky that I'll end up regretting.
The distortions your own brain forces upon you when you're not at the top of your game are wild to me, and never cease to surprise me. Being happy when my best friend is beaming like the goddamn sun at the sight of his girlfriend and his daughter is the normal, human thing to do, but my anxiety is robbing me from these experiences and replacing them with a semi-permanent sense of dread.
Instead of being happy for Andy, who rarely ever gets to see Jackie and Daisy these days with how much more packed, intense, and frequent practice has become, all I can think about is how miserable it must be to try and fail to find some balance in the midst of all the chaos and how miserable I feel. It's even worse knowing I'm too much of a coward to ever voice this to him, so I let these thoughts poison and rot me from the inside out.
As I know all too well, this, more often than not, turns into an Ouroboros of self-loathing and self-fulfilling prophecies I've been trapped in for years at this point. It's hell living like this, but it's so deeply rooted in my brain it feels like I've been doing it since forever, oblivious to any other way of living, and having Magnolia be repeatedly mentioned around me during the past couple of weeks hasn't been doing my state of mind any favors.
Brie, I don't blame.
She doesn't know a damn thing about what happened between me and Magnolia and, though she might need to know—I owe her the honesty, not just for the sake of the fake relationship, but for that of the real one, too—I intend to not say more than I absolutely need to. It's one of those things that most people need to be kept on a need-to-know basis about, and I have no desire to sour what is already so shaky and uncertain between me and Brie. When the time is right, I'll pull her aside and tell her the truth, all of it, but, with how much easier it is to ignore the issue at hand . . .
Besides, I don't even know how to approach the subject. She's always been understanding and supportive—a lot more than I deserve, especially after all I've put her through—but there's a chance this will be the last straw. I can't risk losing her again, not when it would be definite.
Having her sit right next to Jackie isn't helping, either.
I look at her and wonder if this is who we'll become–-young parents, struggling to make time for each other and only staying together because there's a kid involved. Though that's not what I always think is going on with Andy and Jackie—and the inner details of their relationship are none of my business—I also know this isn't how he expected his life to become. Even if he's never been one to indulge in more . . . bohemian college activities, I still see the look on his face whenever he has to skip a team hangout or leave early.
