To say that Abby was confused was an understatement. To say that Brian was confused was an even bigger understatement. He felt bad for running out like that, especially with what she was going through, but he panicked. It happened so fast and they were so caught up in the moment, and he was falling for her, but wouldn’t admit it. He told Kevin about what happened, and Kevin yelled at him for running out. Brian stopped listening to him after awhile. He needed someone else to talk to so he turned to Nick. Nick didn’t yell, but he hit Brian really hard on the back of the head.

“Maybe that will knock some sense into that pea brain of yours!”

“Damn Nick, that hurt,” Brian said rubbing the spot on his head that had connected with Nick’s hand.

“Good. Come here so I can do it again. I can’t believe you ran out on her like that! What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking! I was freaking out and I didn’t know what else to do. Staying there would have been to weird.”

“So, you kissed her, big freakin’ deal. You liked it even though you’re not going to come out and say that you did. She likes you, too. What’s the problem here?”

“I don’t think I’m ready to get involved again…”

“Oh, that’s bullshit. Come on Brian. Abby’s perfect for you. Don’t let her get away. She’s not going to sit around and wait for you to decide when you’re ready to get involved again, you know that right?”

“We can be friends. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“You didn’t answer my question. She won’t wait forever, Brian. And if you let her slip away, you’ll end up regretting it later.”

Brian stared at his friend, surprised at how smart Nick could be sometimes. He never thought that Nick was stupid, but he just had his moments where he’d spout out advise like he was an expert at whatever it was. It made sense every time, too, and he was right. Brian hated it when Nick was right.

***

A few days after the incident in Abby’s kitchen she called Brian to talk about what happened. She was left with new and weird feelings and she didn’t know what to do with or about them. She knew she had feelings for him, but she didn’t want to read more into a situation and end up getting hurt. After picking up the phone and hanging up three times before getting the number dialed all the way, Abby finally forced herself to call Brian.

When the phone rang, Brian had been playing on his guitar and messing around with some new lyrics he’d been working on. He sat his guitar down and answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Brian.”

“Hey. Abby?”

“Yeah. Listen, I was just calling to see if everything is okay. You kinda freaked the other day...”

“I'm... I just got confused. Sorry about that.”

“It's okay...” Abby stopped and they sat silence for a minute while she thought of what to say next. “I just wanted you to know that I don't expect anything from you.”

“Expect anything? What do you mean?”

“Like... just because we kissed... it doesn't mean that I expect you to suddenly jump into a relationship or anything like that.”

“Oh yeah. I understand. I... I realized that I'm really not ready for such a big step in my life right now, you know?” Brian mentally kicked himself for saying that. Where was Nick when you needed a good hit?

Abby was a little disappointed, but she didn’t want Brian to know. “Yeah, I totally understand. I jus hope that we can still be friends. I don't want that one moment to screw things up.”

“I totally agree with you on that. Um... so…”

“I think I’m just going to let you go now. Sasha just came in and she wants to hang out. Call me later?”

“Absolutely. Later, Abby.”

“Bye, Brian.”

Abby hung up the phone and stared at it. She wished Sasha were there so what she told Brian wouldn’t have been a lie. She just had to get off the phone. It was extremely uncomfortable. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that staying friends with Brian would be harder than she originally thought.

Brian almost called her right back, but he didn’t want to interrupt anything. He wasn’t sure of how well being just friends was going to work out either. He grabbed his guitar and notebook and found a comfortable spot to work. He had a lot of thinking to do and his music would serve as a type of therapy to help heal his mind.