BRIAN

I slammed my fist into the wall in anger as Michelle stormed out of the loft. We'd been fighting a lot lately because she wanted to get married but I didn't. I growled and punched the wall again before stalking off to the kitchen. I needed a beer.

Everyone else was out, thankfully. Marley was at Hilary's, Johnny was out with Lacey, Jimmy was at Kay's, and Zacky had been ordered to get this week's groceries by Marley.

I yanked open the fridge, harder than necessary, spilling milk everywhere. Cursing, I grabbed my beer and slammed the door shut again, spilling yet more milk. Marley was going to scream her head off at me for it probably. But I ignored it, striding towards the balcony.

I leaned back against the wall of the balcony, pulling my cigarettes out of my pocket and lighting up one. I sighed as I inhaled and cracked open my beer. I was on my second cigarette when my phone rang. I answered the call, without bothering to check the caller ID. Bad move.

"What's up?" I asked, taking another drag. "Gates!" Val snapped and I dropped my cigarette in shock. "Where are you?"

"A-At home." I stammered. "Don't go anywhere, I'm coming over!" She sneered before hanging up. Damn, she sounded pissed. And a pissed off Val was almost as bad as Marley. Almost. She arrived in about fifteen minutes. I was attempting to clean up the milk when she stormed to a stop in the kitchen doorway. Seriously, Marley shouldn't give away the extra keys of her loft to everyone!

"Gates, you have a lot of explaining to do." I didn't reply, it wouldn't be a wise decision. "Would you care to explain why my sister has been on the phone to me in tears?"

"She wants to get married." I sighed. "She thinks I should have proposed already." The tension from her shoulders slowly bled, she sighed and set her bag on the table, taking a seat. "You are the source of a constant migraine, Brian." I smiled weakly at her words and took a seat opposite hers.

"Why are you even with Mich? You two aren't any good for each other." Val said softly and I just shrugged. I knew that she was my friend but she was Michelle's sister, she wouldn't like the truth. But she was Marley's sister-in-law. Maybe she would understand. Or not. Hell, I didn't want to take any risks.

"Don't lie to me." Val said, looking me straight in the eye. "Because it's better than being alone. Because I won't end up getting my heart broken, again." I replied quietly and Val snorted. "At the cost of breaking my sister's heart?" I turned my head back to look at her. Her angry expression softened and she sighed.

"Why don't you just talk to Marley. I bet it's not that hard." She suggested. Clearly she didn't know what happens when Marley and I start talking. We end up swearing like sailors at each other. "I tried that once, she broke my heart." I said, pondering about that night when I tried to talk to Marley after her show.

"A taste of your own medicine probably did you good!" She snapped, getting angry again. "Marley is my friend and sister-in-law, Michelle is my sister. You know who you wanna be with, you're just running away from the work that it's going to take. You know what you need to do, grow a pair and do it already." She grabbed her bag and stood up, glaring at me one more time before stalking out of the house.

I remained in that glumly thoughtful mood all day. The one thing that cheered me up a little was the sight of Marley arguing. With someone other than me. Miracles!

She was in the doorway of her bedroom, glaring at Greg who was about five hands away from her. "Excuse me?" Her voice was quiet and seemed calm. Damn, that's not a very good sign. Did Greg know that? Probably not. This was going to be interesting.

"You heard me. I've hardly seen you these past two weeks, M. Do I actually mean anything to you?" I winced slightly at Greg's words. "Sorry that the Showcase takes up so much of my time! But it's my job! Not even my brother sees me as often when I'm organizing Showcases. How dare you say something like that?!" She yelled, turning on her heel and starting to storm upto her room.

"Marley, wait!" Greg called and started to follow her. She whirled back to face him with a deadly look, fuck. "Don't fucking talk to me!" Greg stared at her, dumbfounded as she thundered up to her room. A few seconds later, her door slammed shut. I forced myself not to laugh and walked into the corridor. The punk was starting to make his way to her room. Not a good move, douche.

"I'd leave her for a few hours, if I were you." I commented. He turned to face me, his face becoming an ugly sneer. Apparently, he didn't like me. Well, the feeling was more than mutual. "Oh really?"

I just shrugged and he walked towards me, looking pissed. "Just speaking from past experience." I informed. "Well, past experience shows that you don't exactly see eye to eye most of the time." He stopped in front of me, trying to look intimidating. Well, he failed. I was used to Matt and Jimmy, but this punk didn't fucking scare me.

"I see the way you look at her." He sneered and I raised an eyebrow. His glare intensified, "You stay away from her, she's mine." I looked away and snorted. "I'm sure she'd love to hear you refer to her as a possession." He took another step closer. "She's my girlfriend, not yours." He sneered at me one last time and strode over to the front door.

He glanced back over his shoulder at me. "I mean it, stay away from her. Or you'll have trouble playing that fancy guitar of yours." He walked out, slamming the door behind him. He could come and fucking try, that's all I'll say.

MARLEY

I let the soothing rhythm wash over me. It sounded like a strange thing, but running really calmed me down. I glanced down at Bella. Once again, Matt had asked me to keep an eye on her for a couple of hours as he worked away in the studio. It was pouring with rain outside, so I was relegated to use the gym that the guys had set up in one of the spare rooms.

Bella was running on the treadmill next to me. I learned that she loved running as much as I did, maybe more. A stupid grin sat on her face and her tongue bounced. I smiled. Oh yes, running had definitely been a good idea. I didn't even realize that anyone else had joined me, until he spoke.

"Your brother's dog is a nutcase." I didn't break my stride but turned to see him. Brian stood in the doorway with crossed arms and dressed in his workout gear. "For once, I'm not going to argue with you." I replied, turning my attention to the treadmill, increasing the speed. I listened as he moved into the room and dumped his stuff onto the next bench. I stayed focused on the wall in front of me.

"How long have you been here?" He wanted to know and I glanced at the digital display on the treadmill. "Long enough to run six and a half miles." Brian whistled at my comment and fiddled with the weights. "Impressive, Denise"

I glared at him, "Don't fucking call me that!" He simply smirked and began his workout. For the most part, we ignored each other. Well as much as you can ignore that many muscles working out right in the corner of your eye. He may be a dick but I will admit to myself that he was a very muscled dick. I was almost certain that I was getting the occasional look too.

When I hit the seven miles mark, I stopped for a break. I let go of Bella and picked up my water bottle, taking a few sips, noticing Brian watching me as I did so. "Stop staring at me." I said as coldly as possible with a glare. He only smirked back, "Only if you stop staring at me, Denise."

My reply was to squirt some water at him. He yelped as the cold water hit him and I snickered. I walked over to the sound system and heard him curse behind me as he searched for a towel. "You're such a bitch." He grumbled as he wiped the water off his face.

"That's old news." I replied with a grin and made my way over to the punching bag. I couldn't really punch the shit out of the annoying ass of that boyfriend of mine, so this was the best option to let out the frustration. I ignored the set of eyes that watched me from across the room and began to go through my kick boxing warm up.

About five minutes later, Brian got bored of watching. "Denise, come and pick on someone your own size." I turned to face him as he smirked at me in the padded mat area. I raised an eyebrow at him. Was I going to turn down a chance to beat Brian up? No fucking way. I walked over to him, an evil smirk playing across my lips.

"Ready?" I grinned. "You have no idea." He replied cockily.

1& a half hours later

I bounced from foot to foot, trying not to laugh as Brian tried to catch his breath. His padded hands rested on his knees. "Come on, you're not even doing most of the work. It's mostly just me beating you up." I goaded and was rewarded with a glare.

"Where the fuck do you get all your energy from?" He asked, panting and I shrugged. He groaned in response. Chuckles came from the doorway and I glanced to see Matt and Jimmy stood there grinning. "Would you like to explain why you're trying to kill our guitarist?" Matt asked as he and Jimmy walked in.

"He offered. Not my fault if he can't handle that." I replied, earning another glare from Brian. "I can fucking handle that, just not for an hour and a half straight." He grumbled, straightening up. "What's up?" Matt asked but I ignored him and punched the bag a couple of times. "Nothing." I muttered after a while.

"Come on Marls, don't try and fool me at least." Jimmy smirked and I growled before giving him a vicious punch. He winced. "I do need to use these hands you know. Plus I have a girlfriend!" Brian snorted but I ignored him. Matt sighed and leant against the treadmill. "Greg?" He guessed.

My response was a roundabout that had Jimmy yelping and diving to the floor. "That'll be a yes then." Matt muttered. "If that's the problem, then is it safe for me to carry on as your punching bag?" Jimmy mumbled from where he was lying face down on the floor.

"Sorry Jimmy." I rubbed my forehead with a hand and sighed. "What's the matter?" Matt asked, I so wasn't going to get away from this conversation. "He's being a douche, was talking to her in such a tone that none of us would even dare to use." Brian said and I glared at him.

"You heard that?" He just shrugged at the question. "It was difficult not to." I gave him that point. "Elaborate, please." Jimmy asked in confusion. "He's complaining that I don't spend enough time with him." I replied. "He even asked her if he actually meant anything to her." Brian added and I glared at him in reply. Fucking eavesdropper.

Matt tensed and he spoke up. "Marls, you have been spending time with him and you've never dated someone who didn't mean anything to you."

"I know." I shrugged. "He wants me to move in with him." To New York. I decided to leave that part out but they understood probably. I glanced over at Matt and winced. He hardly ever got angry with me but now he looked like he was about to kill someone. Named Greg.

"Let me get this straight. He wants you, to move out with him out of your house and hometown, and live with him in New York?!" I flinched at the anger in Matt's voice. "Yes." I muttered and he growled again. This was bad.

"This doesn't sound good to me, Marls." Jimmy's eyes met mine as he sooke. For once, he looked deadly serious. "If you want my advice, I'd get out of this relationship sooner rather than later. It sounds like he's turning into a controlling boyfriend, things only get worse when they turn like that." He warned and closed his eyes then looked back at me.

"I don't want something bad happening to you, you're my little Marls." I forced myself to smile at his words, when in reality they were chilling me to the bone. "I know Jimmy, you're like a brother to me." I glanced over at Matt who looked shocked and angry.

I beckoned him over. "Chill out, it'll be fine. You all know that I can handle myself." I reassured, wrapping my arms around Matt, wishing that I could actually reassure myself.

Notes

So Marley's still with Greg, and Brian with Michelle :D
I really hope u guys liked this new chapter with a twist!
I'll start working on the next chapter, soon :p

And congrats to Mich and Brian, they're having a boyyyyy!!!