Unholy Confessions

"Why are you looking at naked women?" Brian asked me quietly as I scrolled on my phone. We've been in the waiting room at the doctor's for about fifteen minutes and I was ungodly bored.

"They're not naked," I said. "And I'm shopping."

"You don't need more bras," he said, looking over my shoulder anyway. "Oh, hey I like that one."

I clicked the one he pointed out. "What color?"

He looked at the options. "You don't have any green ones."

I added the green choice in my size to the shopping cart and went back to scrolling through. "And that's how I get too many bras."

"I can't help that I liked it," Brian muttered.

A nurse walked into the waiting room. "Courtney?"

Both Brian and I stood up and followed the nurse to a room. Once we were in, she shut the door behind us as I hopped up on the exam table and Brian sat in a chair.

"So you were in a car accident?" she asked, wrapping the blood pressure band around my arm.

"Yeah," I said, watching her do the velcro. She pressed a button and it started squeezing my arm. She waited until it was done. It beeped and she undid the band.

"Normal blood pressure," she said. "Did the paramedic say anything?"

Brian cleared his throat, telling her, "He said she had a concussion and this morning we found a cut on her head that started bleeding kind of a lot."

"All right," she said, writing that down in a folder. "Any other changes since you were last here?"

I looked at Brian.

"No, everything is the same," he said for me.

The nurse shut the folder. "Great, then Dr. K will be right in." She left and Brian shook his head at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You're 21, you should be able to do this by yourself."

"I didn't ask you to come in, did I?" I asked, mocking.

He smirked. "You didn't."

Before either of us could say anything else, someone knocked on the door and it opened. A female doctor walked in and smiled.

"Hey Courtney," she said, then looked to Brian. "And the rockstar fiance, right?"

He chuckled. "Yes, ma'am."

She opened the folder and skimmed over what the nurse wrote down. "All right, so you were in a car accident and you have a concussion along with a cut."

"A bad one," Brian interjected.

She nodded, walking over with her little flashlight. I tilted my head down as she moved my hair to see it.

"Actually, this isn't as bad as it looks," she said, running her finger over it. "Did you scratch it open?"

"Yeah," I said sheepishly. I could feel Brian smirking over there.

"I can see that." She stepped back. "If you can, just put some Neosporin on it every six hours or so, it'll help it heal." She shined the light in my eyes and then stepped back again. "A bit delayed dilation, but that's expected with a concussion. Do you feel all right otherwise?"

"Yeah, the cut just freaked me out this morning," I told her.

She smiled understandingly. "It'll heal up fine with the cream, and try not to itch as it heals."

"Memory is meant to be shotty right after, right?" Brian asked.

"Yes, everything gets thrown off when something like this happens," she explained to him.

He nodded, looking back at me. "Sounds good, then I guess that's it."

I hoisted myself down as she walked us back to the reception desk.

"Oh, the wedding's coming up, isn't it?" she asked, smiling at us. It was a genuine smile, too, not like the ones we usually got.

"Few more weeks," Brian said with a big grin.

"Try not to get too stressed out," she told us and then went off to another patient.

Brian paid whatever he had to and we were on our way back home. As we pulled into the driveway, he sighed.

"By the way," he said, "the guys are coming over later to play some of the new shit."

"Okay," I said, waiting for the point.

"Just letting you know," he said as he got out. I followed suit and walked behind him up the path to the house.

"As long as Matt being around doesn't trigger anything," I said.

"It'll be fine."

I could tell by the strain in his voice he was still unsure of himself, so I said, "I haven't watched you play a lot of the new stuff anyway, I love watching you play."

He smiled at me, appearing relaxed. "You make me nervous, though."

"What? How?" I laughed.

"It's like..." He walked to the fridge and I followed. "It's like when you're doing something in front of your crush, you get all nervous 'cause you don't wanna look like an idiot."

"But I already know you're an idiot," I said nonchalantly.

"Oh haha," he mocked.

"But you're my idiot."

He rolled his eyes, cracking open a beer. "Because I haven't heard that a thousand times."

I giggled as I went up the stairs and to the bathroom to put the Neosporin on the cut. While I was up there, I heard the front door open and Matt's voice waft through.

As much as I didn't want to, I had to be all over Brian tonight. Not only for his sake, but for mine as well. I knew it would bother Matt, but right now he wasn't my biggest concern. I heard more voices but they grew distant, which meant they were already in the basement. I made my way down there and was instantly barraged.

"Hey, are you okay?" Matt asked as soon as he saw me. I felt Brian's eyes on me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, walking past Matt to sit down by Brian.

"Brian said you were in an accident," he said, feeling the need to elaborate.

"Your poor car," Johnny fake cried. He hated that thing, I never understood why.

"Shut up, shortshit," I said. I winked at him and he shook his head, strumming his bass. Brian was already fucking around on his guitar.

"Is your head gonna be okay with the noise?" Brian asked as Brooks did a mini drum solo. I felt a bit of a sting, but it was bearable.

"Yeah, I just wanna watch you," I said, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.

He blushed a little and turned away with a smile. He was such a teddy bear, it was ridiculous.

"What should we start with?" Zack asked.

"I've already heard 'The Stage' a million times," I complained.

"Then how about 'Paradigm'?" Matt asked. I gave him a thumbs up and they all got ready but I could tell Matt knew something was up.

Brian kept giving me funny faces the entire time and I watched him. I hated ignoring Matt basically, but I couldn't let what happened happen again.

"Father, oh Father," Matt sang as the end came up, catching my gaze and holding it, "have you lost that boy you used to know?"

The line rang through my mind as they started "God Damn".

Did he know? Did Brian tell Matt about what's been going on? I doubted it, Matt would've said or done something by now. But it bothered me how he looked at me like that for that line...

I couldn't lie and say I was okay after the last week. It was stressful and scary and confusing. Whenever he did get remotely like that, I did feel like I was losing him. Not because he was changing, but because I knew I couldn't do it forever.

They ended up playing almost every song from their new album, besides "The Stage" and "Exist". Put those two songs together and they clocked in at almost 25 minutes, so I was glad they skipped those. I kept my smile on for Brian, who didn't seem to even notice my interaction with Matt. Matt knew it got to me, though.

Once we were sitting around bullshitting, I felt my phone vibrate. I saw Matt looking at it while Brian and Zacky told Brooks about something that happened when Avenged started. I picked my phone up and clicked it open.

What's going on with you two?

I locked my phone and shook my head a little to Matt. He started texting on his phone again, and mine went off not even five seconds later.

Yes there is. You're acting weird. I know you.

I glanced at Brian before I sent back, I'm fine. Concussion.

He sent something before my text even got to him.

You keep looking at him to make sure he doesn't catch you texting. Courtney TALK TO ME.

I locked my phone and tried listening to Brian's slurred story while I felt Matt's glare on me. After a few minutes he got up and went upstairs only to come back almost instantly.

"Courtney, can you go with me to get more beer?" Matt asked.

Brian looked at me. "Me and her can go," he said.

"Brian, you'd be arrested for public drunkenness," Johnny giggled.

"I'm the most sober, and she hasn't been drinking," Matt said. "We'll be back in no time."

I looked at Brian and saw a battle in his eyes. He was trying to stop himself from getting upset.

"Okay," he said, smiling. "Hurry back." He took my hand and pulled me to him as I stood up, kissing me long enough to make Matt uncomfortable and to make the guys disgusted.

I walked out with Matt to his car and neither of us said anything until we were in and the doors were shut.

"Now tell me," he demanded, starting the car.

"Matt, stop," I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"No, something is going on and you need to tell me."

I grunted loudly, displaying how annoying he was being.

"I don't care," he said in response as he pulled out on to the road.

"We just had a fight and we talked and that's it," I said in a rush. "Happy?"

"No, because that's not all."

"Fucking hell, Matt, seriously?"

"What was the fight about?"

"I'm not telling you," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"And why not?" he asked.

"Because it's not important and it's none of your business, to be frank."

"To be frank," he repeated, chuckling. "And it is my business when I believe something is seriously wrong."

"Why are you so goddamn convinced something's wrong, Matthew?" I asked loudly.

He was unaffected by how pissed I was getting. "Because you're being really defensive. And you wouldn't look at me with Brian around, nor would you let him see you text me."

"Nor," I repeated, scoffing.

"And," he said, ignoring me. "I've driven with you before. You're a great driver, you are always paying attention to everything around you."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"You of all people got in a car accident," he said. "Not just a little one, either. Your car is fucking totaled. You weren't paying attention at all, which means you were probably on your phone, but that's something that you hate. So why would you be on your phone? Oh, maybe because Brian called you and you were upset. But not just regular upset, you were full blown hurricane upset."

I stared at him as he pulled into the store parking lot and cut the engine. He looked at me, appearing drained.

"Anything else?" I asked.

He shook his head. "That's all I got."

I turned my head away from him. "How did you get to know me so well?"

"Because I care about you," he said like it was obvious. "Now can you tell me what's going on? I can't come up with anymore theories."

"But that one was good," I said with a small smile.

"I'll never come up with another one that good again," he chuckled.

I looked back at him and saw the desperation in his eyes. He just wanted to help me, I knew that. But deep down I was so scared.

"I can't, Matt," I whispered.

"Why not?" he said equally as quiet.

"Brian will get upset."

"I figured that," he said. "But why?"

I let out a breath. I was so conflicted, until Matt took my hand.

"No matter what it is, I'm here," he said. "And I will do whatever you need me to do. It won't be like last time. I won't intervene, but I still want to help you."

I watched him for a few seconds before I said it.

"I think Brian is getting bad again."

Notes

Chapter title credit: A7X
Reminder! I'm gonna be implementing some new characters as Courtney's friends, if you're interested in me using you as one of them shoot me a message with a name, some background info, hobbies, job, personality, etc. I mainly need them for the wedding but I'll try using them more often than just a couple chapters
Thanks for reading, don't forget to comment!