My Fucking Nightmare

Harriet stormed into my room after I heard her end the phone call that had been going on for the last half hour. Usually the only person she spoke to that long was her mother or sister, and she never usually got frantic about it afterwards. So when she barged in through my door without knocking, her eyes wild with fire and face flushed red, hair askew, all I could think was, what now? “Do…do you want to talk about it, Harry?”
“Sorry, Melissa, sorry. You won’t fucking believe what just happened.” The shrieking in her voice grated in my ears.
I cocked an eyebrow and put my phone down. Brian’s cutesy texts would just have to wait. “Uh, Beyoncé moved in next door?” I gathered that she was unimpressed, but I cracked a half smile and a cocky giggle. “Okay, shoot.”
“Your boyfriend’s buddy called me. Matt. Holy fucking shit, did you set that up?”
I nodded. “Yeah, Brian said Matt was looking to see someone. Figured you two were compatible, gave him your number. Wasn’t sure if Matt was too chicken shit to call you though. How’d it go?”
She sighed and brushed her arm. “He sounds so sweet. We didn’t really arrange any kind of meet up just yet, though. He wanted to see if you and Brian were willing to go on a double date thing. Something about a beach. I wasn’t really…paying attention.”
“Awe, that sounds fun. I’ll bring it up with Brian. Although it might be a better idea for you guys to mingle a bit first, don’t you think?”
She shrugged and plopped down on my bed, leaning back against the wall and turned her head to face me. “I’m nervous. He seems so intimidating in pictures. Always has that snarl. You know which one I’m talking about.”
I giggled and nodded. “Yeah, I definitely know which one you mean. I haven’t met any of the rest of them yet so I can’t really tell you what they’re like.”
Harriet went quiet for a minute and closed her eyes, probably to reflect on her conversation with Matt. Jeez, I haven’t even had a conversation with him yet. Brian and I were too wrapped up in each other to have formally introduced and broke the news of our relationship to the other four. Surely by now they knew everything. But they didn’t know me. “Well, how was your night with Brian?” she asked, hoping to break the silence.
I smiled and ran my fingers through my hair, exhaling slowly as I did so. “It was…perfect.”
“What did you do? After I left, I mean.”
“Well, we ate dinner. I made chicken parmesan. We shared a bottle of wine, ate dinner, then left to go watch fireworks from Hollywood Hill. And just before it started raining he took me back to his place. Kind of a quiet night in, nothing too special. He’s got the cutest fucking dog.”
She eyed me warily and punched me in the shoulder. “You guys did it, didn’t you? You got laid. With Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold.”
“Ahem, it’s Brian Haner, my current interest. But to appease your nuisance of a curiosity, yes. We had sex.” Harriet squealed in excitement and threw herself onto me in a swift movement, knocking us both over into the wall. “What, I’m not that big of a prude.”
“Oh, I knew you had it in you. He’s gonna call you, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “He told me he loved me this morning, is that enough?”
Her jaw slacked. “Isn’t that a little fast?”
“Their lifestyles are always fast. He’s not looking for casual dating. He’s looking for something real, something that will last a while.”
Her eyes went wide. “Are you willing to commit to that?”
I picked up my phone again and opened my conversation with him and sent a couple hearts. “I wouldn’t have slept with him if I wasn’t. I think I love him too.”
“Wow, kudos to you guys. If Matt was anything like Brian I’ll be in for a treat.”
I laughed and responded to his kissy face he just sent back. “Brian is definitely not your type, Harry. If Matt was like Brian you’d go nuts.”
She pinched my thigh with a joking demeanour. “Fuck off, if I was lucky enough to be with Matt, regardless if he was like Brian or not, I wouldn’t just run away. It’s a once in a lifetime chance.”
“I suppose so, yeah.” I didn’t mean to sound so preoccupied, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what Brian said just after we woke up this morning. He was tired of being alone in his enormous house with his dog and wanted me to stay over lots. Or move in. Left the decision in my hands, and I’ll admit I was sort of taken aback. Perhaps I’d text him with a little more decisiveness on the matter whenever Harriet decided to leave. “So you and Matt never decided to make any plans for coffee or beers or anything?”
She shook her head. “No, he told me to call him back if I wanted to go out. I feel bad, you know? Kind of like I’m imposing on his lifestyle.”
“Oh, trust me. They’re lonelier than you think.”
“Brian said that?”
I nodded, smirking. “He’s got this huge place in some suburbs on the west end. No one lives with him. Must be three or four bedrooms and a basement setup. Huge backyard, five door garage. Just him and his dog, Pinkly. Shockingly he doesn’t have much to fill it up. Lots of empty space. I can only imagine what Matt’s place is like.”
“He was married, right?” she asked while playing with the gold strands of her hair.
“No, just engaged, but she didn’t take much from him. Brian was sort of talking about it a little. We were discussing you two both having just gone through breakups. His was a while back, couple years ago anyways. Might just work out for the best.”

Notes

Kind of a filler, sort of important, but not really...