When We Were Young

Unlike what Nancy initially thought, those five days passed quite quickly. Too quickly, actually. During that week Brian asked to see JJ almost every day; sometimes they stayed home, other times he took her to the park or the beach. Whenever he was with her, Nancy stayed home or kept herself busy, not wanting to interfere with their attempt to bond. She saw the girls twice that week, but they didn’t speak much about the kid or Brian. She thought it was because they wanted to see the kid first, but truth was they knew enough from what Brian told them or rather, from what their partners told them.

That Saturday afternoon, Nancy helped JJ get dressed then put some casual clothes on. She was pretty sure the party was rather informal, so no need to dress up all fancy. The only fancy one there was JJ and that was more than enough.

The drive towards Johnny and Lacey’s was quiet for most of time, at least from Nancy’s side. JJ, instead, was singing one of the songs from the Lion King soundtrack. Brian made her watch the movie and when she came home she wanted to watch it again and again. Nancy was starting to get sick with the movie, but there was no way JJ would stop wanting to watch the cartoon. Brian had no idea what he had started.

Parking the car on the other side of the street, Nancy noticed some cars in the driveway. The others were probably already there. She picked JJ up then put her down, holding her hand. The child was holding her precious elephant with her other hand and followed her mother. Nancy stood there for a moment, almost tempted to turn around and leave, but JJ looked up at her, a questioning look on her face. Nancy smiled down at her and finally knocked on the door.

When Lacey opened the door, she gave the two girls a wide smile.

“You must be Joan.” She said but JJ frowned and shook her head.

“JJ.” The child said and Nancy couldn’t help but chuckle.

“JJ, right! How could I make such a mistake? My name is Lacey.” Lacey said, quickly glancing up at Nancy. “Hi. Come in, please!”

Both Nancy and JJ walked into the house, there were voices coming from the living room but as soon as they walked into the big room, everybody suddenly stopped speaking. Having so many eyes on her made JJ feel quite uncomfortable, so she squeezed her stuffed animal to her chest and hid herself behind her mother’s leg.

“Hello there.” Linda said, taking a few steps towards the two girls.

JJ gripped onto her mother’s jeans and Nancy immediately squatted down, just like she did a few days before when her daughter met her father for the first time.

“JJ, these are my friends.” She said, “They’re also daddy and uncle Jimmy’s.”

The girl looked up at her mother but didn’t say anything, until both Linda and Valary walked towards her.

“Hi, I’m Valary.” The blonde said, “She’s Linda.”

Nancy picked her daughter up and smiled at her, walking closer to the others. Seeing her with the others would probably make JJ feel a bit more comfortable.

“This is my husband, Matt.” Valary continued and the man greeted the child before smiling at Nancy.

“Hi, Nancy. It’s been a while.” He said.

“It has.” Nancy said and smiled at him.

Linda introduced Zacky, then Lacey introduced Johnny, who seemed to be completely hooked by the girl. He took her hand and gently kissed her.

“It’s a pleasure to meet such a pretty girl.”

“Christ, don’t do that. You’re gonna scare her.” Zacky said, making everybody laugh.

Johnny rolled his eyes then smiled proudly at his friends as JJ told his name.

“See? She already loves me. Not like you dicks.”

“Johnny! Language, please!” Lacey scolded him trying not to laugh.

“Sorry.” He said before Zacky hit his head. “I said sorry!”

Nancy laughed and put her daughter down. “If you guys could avoid cursing, that’d be great. She’s in a phase where she’s gonna repeat pretty much everything.”

Matt chuckled and nodded. “Of course. We’ll hold back.”

The brunette thanked him, then looked around, noticing how there was some food on the coffee table.

“JJ, look there.” She said, “Somebody made muffins, why don’t you take one.”

“I made them this morning, I really hope you like them.” Lacey said and JJ slowly walked towards the table, then grabbed a muffin and started eating it.

“She really looks like Brian.” Valary said and smiled at Nancy, who was quickly surrounded by most of her old friends. Johnny sat down next to JJ and started speaking to her, which made her mother smile a little. It was adorable how he was trying to befriend her daughter.

“She does.” Nancy confirmed before Matt chuckled and spoke.

“But she’s way prettier than him.”

“Oh, absolutely. You’re right.” Zacky agreed and laughed.

Nancy noticed Brian’s absence the moment she walked in and she wondered where he was. He had told her he’d be there, so she was quite surprised not to see him there. Apparently, her friends realized what she was talking about because when Matt spoke, he answered her questions.

“He said he’d be late.” He told her, “He should be here soon.”

“That’s okay. It’s just that JJ was looking forward seeing Brian, you know.”

The singer nodded and quickly glanced at her wife, who was speaking to JJ. Nancy smiled, loving how pretty much everybody was trying to get to know her and glad that her daughter was interested in getting to know them as well.

“She seems to be a good child.” He said and Nancy nodded.

“She is. She’s my world.”

“Brian seems to be very hooked as well.”

“He does and the thing is mutual since JJ wouldn’t stop talking about him.”

“That’s understandable.”

Nancy looked at the man and smiled softly, “Congrats on the wedding, by the way.” She said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”

When Jimmy told her about Matt and Valary’s wedding, Nancy couldn’t be happier. They were one of the best people she knew and she wasn’t really surprised their relationship would last so long, they were perfect for each others. Soulmates. For a brief time, she thought what she had with Brian was something similar to what they had, but then she came to the realization that it wasn’t like it. Not even a little bit.

They invited her at the wedding through Jimmy, knowing he was still in contact with her, but she chose not to go. The main reason was that she had to work and she couldn’t ask for time off, but deep inside she knew that another reason why she didn’t want to attend the wedding was that she would’ve seen Brian and she wasn’t ready.

That afternoon, she was sitting at her desk when she received a phone call from Jimmy.

“Nancy, babe!” He exclaimed and she could tell he was already tipsy, if not drunk already. She chuckled and leaned back against her chair.

“Hello, stranger. How’s the wedding?”

“I can’t believe they got married, but at the same time I can, you know what I mean?”
Nancy nodded in agreement even though he couldn’t see her. “Obviously. It’s Matt and Val we’re talking about, after all.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Jimmy said before taking a sip of his beer. “I wish you were here.” He said distractedly, “At least I wouldn’t have to see this shitty Michelle-show.”

Nancy smiled sadly and sighed softly. “I wish I was there too, but only to see you getting drunk. I really don’t care about what she’s doing.” She admitted, “Just stop being so mean to her.”

“Why should I?” He asked. “She’s not you, therefore I can be as fucking mean as I want.”

“Okay, okay. Just tell Matt and Val I said congrats, alright?”

“Alright.” He said, “Take care, baby. Give her a kiss for me.”

“I will.” Nancy smiled, “See you, Jimbo.”

Matt nodded slightly. “It’s okay, Jimmy told us you were busy with work and well, I guess you were busy with that little girl over there.” He glanced at JJ and both he and Nancy couldn’t help but smile. She was surrounded by her new friends and Johnny was the one who was trying his best to impress her.

“I was really busy with work but you’re right, she was taking most of my time.” She said, “She still is, actually.” She added and then gently squeezed his forearm. She was about to say something when someone knocked on the door; since they were the closest one to the front door, they opened it.

Brian was standing there and looked at Matt, smiling a bit at him.

“Thought this was Christ’s place, not yours?”

“Shut up, they’re all over your child; if we didn’t open the door, you’d still be standing outside.”

The guitarist rolled his eyes and ignored Nancy, who simply took a step back, before walking inside. He noticed her, of course, he simply decided to ignore her as always.

“And you’re not?” He asked to the singer.

“I kinda am, although nobody will love her more than Johnny. Pretty sure he’s gonna steal her from you.”

“He can definitely try, but I’ll fucking kill him before he can do anything.”

Nancy smiled slightly at his words, liking how protective he already was of JJ. She watched Brian walk into the living room and at first JJ was so busy telling Johnny and Valary about her stuffed animal that she didn’t notice he was there, then Zacky spoke.

“Oh, look who’s here.”

JJ looked towards the door and smiled widely as she saw her father. “Daddy!” She exclaimed and quickly ran towards him. He picked her up and kissed her cheek, then smiled at her. Brian was still surprised by his own behavior – he found out about having a daughter less than a week before and yet he already loved her so much. It was like he was born to be her father, which was both amazing and terrifying.

“How are you, princess?”

“Good.” She answered and pointed her finger to her new friends. “Daddy, they have colors!”
She continued before frowning. “I want colors, too.”

Everybody started laughing even if JJ couldn’t really understand why.

“Yeah, you’ll get colors when you’re older.” Brian said, “Not until you’re in college, though.”

Brian headed towards his friends and played with JJ, not really bothering about what was happening around him.

Matt spent some time with the girl as well, then sat down next to Nancy, who was sitting on a chair not far from where everybody was. She felt incredibly out of place; even if pretty much everybody tried to include her in their conversations, it didn’t feel like when she and Brian were still together and they were all friends.

“Is he always like this?”

Nancy frowned and looked at Matt, who was sipping his beer. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Brian. Is he always like this? Ignoring you and shit?”

She shrugged at his words, she was getting used to it. She hated it, but she couldn’t blame him. Not even a little bit. “Yes, but it’s okay.” She answered, “I mean, sometimes he speaks to me when he comes over to pick JJ up or he brings her home, but otherwise, he doesn’t speak to me; but I can’t blame him.”

The man nodded and leaned back against his chair, looking at his friend. He understood him, he’d be really pissed if Valary did something like this to him, yet he couldn’t understand how Brian could just ignore Nancy like this.

“He’s upset you kept this from him.”

“I know and I’m sorry.” She sighed heavily and tilted her head, keeping her eyes on her daughter. “I’ll never stop saying I’m sorry but I had no idea what to do. We broke up, then he started dating Michelle and that’s it, I guess.”

The mention of his sister-in-law made him sigh heavily. Ever since Brian told Michelle about the kid, she had been spending most of the time at the Sanders’ place. He hadn’t really spent much time with her, not really knowing what to tell her – this was Valary’s job, not his. His wife eventually told him how upset and disappointed her sister was, and it was understandable, even for him, but it wasn’t exactly Brian’s fault if he found out about JJ now and not years ago.

“Are you back for good?” He asked, finally looking over at her. She turned her head and met his gaze – his eyes weren’t like Brian’s, Matt wasn’t judging her and didn’t look disappointed, he seemed rather… Concerned, and she couldn’t tell if it was because of Brian, Michelle or maybe
both.

“I don’t know.” She admitted, “I have my life in Portland, I can’t move here and start my life from scratch again.”

“Understandable, but now Brian is in your daughter’s life and he cares about her. Just don’t disappear again, okay? It would kill him.”

“I won’t. Promise.”

Notes

Hi! I'm so sorry it took me so long for the update. I had this chapter ready before I posted chapter nine, but I wasn't completely happy with it, so I took some time to change a few things and I'm still not happy about it. I hope you enjoy it anyway! I'll try to update more often.

As usual, I want to thank those who took a minute to comment on the story: Hollie, Kimmie, EmilieAlyosha and J.J.; I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and I must say, I'm glad you were surprised by Michelle's reaction! It was definitely my intention! Thank you again <3