Brittany
“What the fuck did you say to Melania?” This angry demand came from Gerard as he stormed into the living room where I sat doing my homework.
I looked up at him in confusion when he stopped in front of me, because I had no idea what he was talking about or why he was so mad at me.
“Uhm?”
“She called me yesterday and told me that she wanted to take a break. I was confused at first, because things were going well between us, at least that’s what I thought, and then it came out that I should ask you why. So now I’m asking, why did Mel break up with me?”
I removed my feet from the couch to sit up straight and frowned.
“She didn’t break up with you. She simply suggested that you guys should take a break…”
“That is breaking up!” he exclaimed. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You said it yourself, Gee, things are going well between you two. Why would she want to break up?”
“That’s exactly what I want to know,” he growled. “What the fuck did you say to her?”
I honestly couldn’t think of anything I had said that would have made her decide to break up with my brother. One thing was certain, he was livid.
“I…”
“Because you sure as hell said something!” he cut me short. “This didn’t just happen.”
I put my books down next to me. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what caused this.”
He took a deep breath, probably to calm himself down. “What did you guys talk about when she came by the house yesterday?”
I easily remembered what our conversation had been about.
“She asked me whether you were planning a surprise birthday party for her twenty first and I told her no. The only way I could convince her that you weren’t throwing her a party, which, of course, you know I am, was to tell her that you had some other big plans. After that she ran off.”
He frowned deeply, mulling over what I just told him.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
I shrugged innocently. At least now he knew it wasn’t my fault. I would never do anything to upset their relationship. I loved Mel almost as much as my brother did. I would hate for them to break up.
I watched as realization dawned on his face.
“Oh, no, Brittany. Why? Why did you tell her I had such big plans? Couldn’t you just tell her that there was no party in the pipeline? You had to choose those specific damn words? No wonder she freaked out and ran for the hills. She probably thinks I’m planning to propose.” He threw his hands in the air.
“What? Why would she think that?”
“I don’t know!” he grumbled. “I don’t know girl code. I don’t know why you always have to think that any big plans are related to some lifelong commitment. It’s fucking ridiculous and quite frankly a real pain in the ass. Guys can’t do anything without girls attaching some ulterior motive to it!” He paced around the living room. “This is entirely your fault by the way. You have to talk to her and sort this shit out.”
“Why me?” I asked flabbergasted.
“Because you cost me my relationship.”
“It’s not like I meant for it to happen. How was I supposed to know Mel would attach a completely different meaning to my words than I intended? I mean, Mel is like the most level-headed person I know.” I was still confused about the whole situation.
“This is different. Mel does not like the idea of marriage, at least, not at this point in her life,” Gerard explained calmly. “She’s only turning twenty one for crying out loud.”
“If you love each other, why not?”
“She’s not ready. I am not ready either, but thanks to your little brain fart yesterday, I didn’t even have the chance to explain. That’s why I’m telling you again that you better fix the situation.”
I nodded, “I’ll try.”
“Thanks,” he sighed in relief. “I still can’t believe you told her that…”
His sentence was interrupted when Mikey sauntered into the room and fell down on the couch, burying his face against my shoulder.
“Mikey.”
“What’s the matter?”
His face reappeared and he rested his head against my shoulder, causing Gerard and I to look at each other worriedly.
“Syd and I broke up,” Mikey blurted out.
“Did Brittany talk to her too?” Gee made an attempt at a joke, but Mikey was in no position to catch on.
He sighed deeply and set about explaining. “We had a huge fall out. Syd got a job in Louisiana and now she’s moving away. This has been coming on a long time and lately all we’ve been doing is fighting. She wants me to come with her, but I can’t because of the band and I want her to stay, but she really wants this job and neither of us are willing to compromise. Also, neither one of us want to do a long distance relationship so basically we’re screwed and I hate it, because I love her. Now it’s over.” He breathed in deeply. “I already miss her or maybe it’s just the idea of her leaving that has me missing her. I don’t know. What am I going to do?” My brother was miserable. What were the odds of both my brothers losing their girlfriends at the same time? I should stay away from Frank for the day in case fate had plans for our relationship too.
Gerard and I shared a look, agreeing that our argument could wait. Right now we had to try to cheer Mikey up.
“Hey, Mikey how about I buy you some ice-cream?”
He lifted his head to look at me.
“Yeah, it’s been ages since we’ve been to the park. You know that little ice-cream cart there has the best ice-cream in the world,” Gerard agreed overeagerly.
“Thanks, you guys, but I’m not really in the mood to go out right now.”
“Nonsense, you’re coming,” I stated firmly, getting to my feet and pulling him up with me.
“What else are you going to do anyway?” Gerard wanted to know, heading for the front door and pulling it open.
“Ice-cream makes everything better,” I told Mikey with a smile. “You’ll see.”
He snorted in disbelief as if nothing in the world could take his pain away.
We were only halfway down the road when we bumped into Frank coming from his house.
“Where is the entire Way clan headed?” he asked, surprised to see all of us.
“My brothers both need something to cheer them up so now we’re going to the park for ice-cream,” I informed him as he greeted me with a kiss.
His eyes lit up momentarily at the mention of ice-cream and then he looked at me questioningly, probably wondering what all the long faces were about. I gave him a look that he hopefully took as me telling him that I’ll fill him in later.
He put a smile back on his face. “Mind if I join you guys?”
I grabbed his hand as Gerard nodded and Mikey remained with a vacant look on his face. “Not at all.”

Gerard
Mikey and I sat on a park bench both just caught up in our own thoughts. What a messed up day this turned out to be. Mikey got dumped by his high school sweetheart – I swear I thought those two were going to get married, guess I was wrong – and I basically also lost my girlfriend thanks to my sister’s inability to think before speaking. Granted, how was she supposed to know that this was how Mel was going to react to her innocent little lie.
Melania. My girlfriend of the last year and a half. I could still remember meeting her at the kindergarten when I tagged along with Ray to pick up his niece from there. She was not your typical kindergarten teacher with her somewhat gothic appearance and she was definitely way out of my league. Yet, somehow I managed to get her to go out with me. She didn’t come with all the issues my previous girlfriends had. She was simple, didn’t freak out over every tiny little thing and she had an insane sense of humor. She sometimes even scared me with her thoughts. Of course, she had to have her own hang-ups, like her aversion of marriage. At this point in life I totally understood this, but to break up with me simply because she assumed that I was going to propose was ridiculous. It kind of pissed me off too. Relationships didn’t work that way. She needed to tell me when something bothered her. We weren’t in high school anymore. On top of everything, this whole take-a-break-thing was bullshit. If you wanted to take a break from your relationship, I think that’s a clear sign that it’s time to go your separate ways.
“Look at those two idiots.” Mikey’s statement pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up at him questioningly while he leisurely licked at his ice-cream cone. He nodded his headed in a direction and I followed his gaze to where Frank and Brittany were playfully wrestling each other in the children’s sandpit.
“They are crazy about each other, but neither of them is willing to admit it. That’s the only reason why that,” he motioned towards them. “Won’t work. Their stupid pride is getting in the way. I’m surprised that they’ve lasted this long,” he finished with a sigh, tossing his napkin in a nearby bin.
“You almost sound pro-Frank-and-Brittany,” I noticed slightly amused.
Mikey practically pouted now. “Maybe I can see that they’re good for each other in some weird way. I mean, when they’re not trying to kill each other. The only problem I had with the idea of them is the fact that I knew they were sleeping together. I still can’t get that image out of my head.”
“Mikey!” I exclaimed, not wanting that image in my head either. I’ve made peace with the physical part of Frank and my sister’s relationship. That did not mean I needed the mental trauma of what it would look like. “I didn’t need that.”
“Sorry,” he chuckled. “Gee, I’m going to be fine, right?” He looked at me with a puppy dog expression, not quite as mastered at it as Frank was, but then again he wasn’t using it to get out of trouble. He genuinely wanted to know.
“Yeah, Mikey. You’ll be fine,” I assured him with a smile.

Frank
I enjoyed the last bit of my ice-cream with a satisfied little smile on my face, then giving into the urge to throw sand at Brittany. I didn’t mean for her to drop her ice-cream, but she did and looked at me indignantly.
“Why would you do that?”
I burst out laughing. “I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to do that.”
“But I did and I was quite enjoying my ice-cream.”
“I know, I’m sorry. Let’s go get you another one.”
Brittany jumped up eagerly, waiting for me to do the same. Once I was on my feet the teen motioned for me to turn around and then jumped on my back. I grabbed onto her legs to keep her up.
“Let’s go,” I said, heading in the direction of the ice-cream cart.
We were about halfway there when I spotted a familiar couple putting on some PDA for the park-goers in the shade of one of the trees. It was barely PG stuff, but still. I could only imagine people’s reactions. I was too late to turn away from the sight and Brittany also saw them.
“Is that… It is!” she whispered loudly. “I never!”
“Do you want to go over and say hi? Meet Jill?” I asked, hoping against hope that she would say no.
“No. I’m still waiting for Kasey to tell me herself,” she said almost adamantly. “And I know she will.”
I wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t going to tell her that though and continued our trek to the ice-cream cart.
“Two more cookie dough cones please,” Brittany told the guy at the cart once we arrived. “He’s paying,” she added sweetly, planting a kiss on the back of my head. She hopped off to allow me to pay and we turned around to be met by Kasey and Jill holding hands.
“Hey, you two!” I greeted cheerily. I liked the couple. They were cute together. At least I thought they were.
Jill greeted me, but Kasey just looked at Brittany, waiting for an explosion or some other kind of probably psycho reaction.
“Brittany,” she started cautiously.
“Hello best friend,” Brittany smiled at her.
I didn’t even realize that I was holding my breath while the two girls were seemingly having a stare down.
“I know you saw us so you know about us,” Kasey continued after a while.
“No, I don’t know,” Brittany said still sweetly. “You haven’t told me.”
“Fine then.” I was surprised to see that Kasey was cross. “This is my girlfriend. There, I told you, now go ahead and freak out.”
Brittany sighed, shaking her head. She smiled at Kasey.
“Are you serious? I don’t care if you have a girlfriend. I don’t care if you have two girlfriends. I just want to be informed of these things.”
“What?” Kasey was officially stunned. “You’re cool with this?”
“Dude, you’re my best friend. Of course I’m cool with it. You forgot that I grew up with Frank and Gee. Where in the world would they let me mind?” It was like the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m Brittany. It’s nice to finally meet you,” she continued, turning her attention to the other girl.
“Jill. She’s not so bad,” Jill said to Kasey who still looked dumbfounded.
I loved Jill. She was so honest in even the most uncomfortable situations. She didn’t have a care in the world.
“No, I’m not so bad,” Brittany agreed, grinning broadly at Kasey. “Ice-cream?” she offered her friend.
“I think I need alcohol instead,” Kasey muttered clearly relieved, causing all of us to laugh. “It’s not funny. I seriously dreaded this moment.”
“You should have a little faith in me,” Brittany told her. “I’m not always the biggest bitch on earth. I do have some nice moments.”
“I know and thanks. I’m really glad that you don’t have a problem with us.”
“Of course not. I’m happy for you even if it is late.”
Kasey sighed in an exaggerated fashion. “You’re going to keep me not telling you about my relationship against me, aren’t you?”
“Mhm,” Brit smiled. “What are friends for?”
I offered Jill a smile which she returned. I think we were both happy that this turned out so well.

Notes