Hero {Brendan Gallagher}

8 - Hit the Refresh Button

Brendan had moved into a new apartment since the last time I had seen him. Apparently he and his teammate had decided that it would be better if they just lived together, considering they were together ninety-nine percent of the time anyways.

"Why are you doing this?" I questioned Brendan as he drove us to his new place.

"Doing what?" he answered my question with a question, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Picking me up off the street. I thought you couldn't do this anymore," I said, and it came out a lot more bitter sounding than I had meant it to be. He finally looked away from the road and at me, and his eyes had a look in them that I couldn't quite read.

"I'm wasn't just going to leave you out there to freeze to death," he replied, putting his eyes back on the road.

"I would've been just fine," I shot back, folding my arms over my chest. I didn't need his charity.

"Yet here you sit in my car."

I turned to look at him, shooting daggers through him. He had that stupid cocky smirk on his lips, and I didn't know whether I wanted to smack him or kiss him.

I had been hoping that Brendan wouldn't ask any questions as we walked towards he and his teammate's apartment. But he was having other ideas.

"What were going to do had I not found you?" be questioned, folding his arms over his chest. I kept my eyes down.

"I would've been fine."

"You keep saying that," he said. I noticed his voice was beginning to sound frustrated. "Why won't you tell me anything?"

"You should've thought of that before you left," I shot back, still keeping my eyes on the ground in front of me. He was silent for a moment, the sound of his shoes echoing through the parking garage.

"It's not like I wanted to," he finally said. At that point, I finally lifted my eyes to meet his. We both stopped walking and stared at each other.

"Bullshit," I told him. "If you didn't want to, you wouldn't have. Simple as that."

"I didn't want to go, believe me," he said, his voice pleading.

"Then why did you?" I questioned, raising my voice. "Why did you leave me with nothing but this stupid note?"

I pulled the crumpled up sheet of paper out of my pocket.

"You kept that?" he asked, his eyebrows pulling together.

"Of course I kept it. Now could you please just fucking tell me what happened? Things were going pretty well if you ask me."

He took in a deep breath and pressed his lips together.

"Can we just drop it for now?" he asked. "Just give me some time."

"You're acting so weird," I told him, a smile suddenly cracking onto my face. Despite the intensity of the conversation, I realized that I had missed just being with him.

"Why're you laughing?" I looked up at him and realized that he was beginning to laugh too. After a few moments, we were both doubled over laughing in the middle of an empty parking garage, gasping for breath.

I clutched onto his arm to steady myself as I started to collect myself.

"What just happened?" I asked, taking in a deep breath. He gave a small chuckle and draped his arm across my shoulder.

"I don't really know, and I don't really care," he said with a smile playing on his lips. I leaned my head onto his shoulder as we continued the walk back to his place.