When We Were Young

Sandra Coleman couldn’t believe her own eyes. In front of her, sitting at a table, there were the two kids she had seen grow up, kiss, fight, make up and build their relationship. She had been working in that diner almost her whole life, she saw various couples but none were like Brian and Nancy. It had been quite a while since she saw the two of them together; while Brian came to the diner every once in a while, sharing his thoughts or just telling her what was up in his life, Nancy seemed to have disappeared. He told her that they broke up and she eventually moved to another city, so when Sandra saw her again, she was really surprised. But maybe it had to do with the fact that their best friend had just passed away.

She read it on the news before Brian came to the diner to tell her. She had seen Jimmy once or twice, always with Brian and Nancy, but she kept a nice memory of the guy. He was funny, maybe even too much for her, but he was lovely. She liked him and was heartbroken when she heard about what happened. Mostly heartbroken about Brian, though.

“Oh my God! Guys!” Sandra exclaimed, “It’s been so long! Especially, you.” She said, looking at Nancy. “I see you’re still pretty as always.”

“Thank you for noticing me, Sandra.” Brian joked, “You obviously look amazing as always.”

“Thank you, dear.” Sandra said, knowing he was probably joking, but it didn’t matter that hearing some nice words were nice regardless. “However, you came here last month, so you’re not a surprise. I know everything about you, while her…” She turned her attention back to Nancy and gave her one of her big smiles. “I haven’t seen her in years and look at you, Nancy.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while.” The girl said, smiling at the woman.

“I can’t believe you’re back! We’ve missed you, right Brian? Nancy, you have to come back here one morning so you can tell me everything. Obviously, breakfast will be on the house.” Sandra said and smiled widely. “Now tell me, what do my favorite guys want?”

“I’ll have a cheeseburger and a beer.” Brian answered.

“I’ll have…” Nancy said, looking at the counter. “A slice of cheesecake and a chocolate milkshake.”

“Great, I’ll be right back with your order.” The woman said and was about to walk away when Nancy spoke again.

“Sandra! Some fries too, please!”

“Of course.”

Brian watched Nancy order some more food and couldn’t help but chuckle. He loved how she could eat whatever thing she wanted, whenever she wanted. This was something that apparently didn’t change with time and it was also something he always loved about Nancy; she didn’t care much about diets and food, she always ate whatever she wanted.

He looked down at his hands for a moment, then glanced up at Nancy. His mind was filled with questions he wanted to ask, things he wanted to tell her and just random shit; he had no idea where to start.

“So, how’ve you been?” Brian asked.

“I’ve been… Good.”

“Just good? It’s been three years; you can’t tell me you’ve been just good.”

“But that’s the truth. Dealing with life and work; adult stuff, you know. I moved in with my grandma and when I’m not working I spend time at home. I have a normal life, unlike you.”

“What do you do? You finished your studies?” He asked, completely ignoring the mention of his job.

“I did and I ended up working in the publishing industry. It’s not much, I don’t have a big job but I can’t complain. They pay me enough to make ends meet, I got a nice office, so yeah.”
Brian chuckled, to which Nancy raised an eyebrow, confused. “Just the thought of you in an office makes me laugh, but I’m not surprise. I knew you would end up getting a nice job, so I’m happy for you.”

Nancy smiled at his words, but again, before they could say anything Sandra came back with their food. The woman gave them a quick wink before disappearing behind the counter.

“What about you?” She asked, taking some fries.

Jimmy kept her updated to what the band was up to, so she knew they were working on a new album, but he usually never mentioned Brian to her, just like he never mentioned Nancy to Brian. They were both each other’s weakness and Jimmy tried his best to deal with this.

“I’ve been great.” He answered, “I’m just not good now.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

Nancy looked down, suddenly not feeling hungry anymore. The only times when she tried her best to look happy was when she was around JJ, otherwise, she was simply trying to deal with her loss. She was pretty sure Brian was the only one who could understand how she felt.

“How do you…” She started speaking and took a deep breath before continuing. “How do you deal with this?”

“I don’t.” He answered, looking out of the window for a moment. “I wake up in the morning thinking it was just a nightmare then I remember that he’s gone and I wanna give up.”

“Yeah, me too.” She whispered. “I heard from him on Christmas and everything seemed so good.”

Brian looked at her as soon as he mentioned that she and Jimmy kept in touch. Of course they did. They were best friends. He knew Jimmy was speaking to her when he suddenly walked away from him with his phone in his hands.

“It was, everything was so sudden and fuck–” Brian squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face with his hands.

Nancy slowly reached out and gently stroked his forearm, not really knowing what to say. Whenever someone told her they were sorry for her loss or that death is just a phase of everybody’s life, she wanted to punch them in the face and she thought he might feel the same, so she stayed quiet.

Brian swallowed hard the lump in his throat as he felt her hand on his arm, then removed his hands from his face, looking straight into his eyes.

“Did you know that fucker gave us the last song for the album just three days before his death?” He asked at some point, she looked confused, so he nodded. “Oh yeah, he did. Wanna guess the title? It’s Death.”

Nancy opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, she covered her mouth with her hand. What a curious yet spooky thing. She wondered what the lyrics were. She reached out to grab Brian’s beer and took a long sip of it. He watched her do it, but didn’t say anything to her, instead, ordered another beer. Alcohol was always good. Especially now.

“Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy…” She whispered, shaking her head.

“Don’t think I can do this without him, you know.” He said at some point. “I miss him too much.”

Nancy looked up at him and tilted her head, holding back her tears. “We all do. He was… Jimmy. I already know I’m gonna miss him every day of my life.” She said, saying what she thought was the truth and she was pretty sure the same applied to JJ, who loved her Uncle Jimmy to the moon and back.

“Everybody loved him, but we did more than anybody else.”

Brian was sure about this. The pain in her chest was nowhere to be compared to Matt, Johnny and Zacky’s.

“That’s true.” She whispered and rested her head on her hand, keeping her eyes on him. “You were his brother. We didn’t speak much about you but when he mentioned you here and there, he was always so damn happy.”

Brian’s eyes widened. He was actually surprised that Jimmy even mentioned him to Nancy, especially since he always tried to avoid the subject with him.

“Unless you were stealing his alcohol, he wasn’t very happy then.”

Brian laughed at her words and nodded, especially when a few memories came to his mind. Jimmy was always so happy and funny and he definitely was going to miss his presence in his life.

Nancy took a deep breath and started eating her fries again. “So, uh… I’ve listened to the self titled album. Jimmy sent me a copy right after the album was published, I think he was afraid I wouldn’t find the album in city. Not sure if he thought I was living in the middle of nowhere or something.”

Brian chuckled and nodded, glad she decided to kind of change the subject.

“I’m glad you like it; we’re working on this new album now but I’m not sure we’ll publish it. Not after what happened.” He said and shrugged, “We’ll see.”

His ringing phone interrupted his words. Brian took the phone out of his pocket and sighed as he read the name on the display. It was Michelle.

“Sorry, gotta pick up.”

Nancy nodded, giving him a small smile watching him walking away, but not enough because she could still hear his words.

As always, Michelle was complaining about him leaving the house without letting her know and was telling him that she was scared to death.

“Yeah. No. No. Uh-huh.” Brian said, sighing heavily. “Look, I’m fine, alright? I’ll come back later. Go to sleep, watch a movie, do whatever the fuck you want. I don’t care. See you later.”
When Nancy noticed that he hung up, she quickly looked away, hoping he didn’t notice her. He didn’t. He sat down again and sighed, turning off his phone.

“Sorry, annoying people.”

“It’s okay.”

“What were we talking about?”

“About you being a famous rockstar.”

Brian laughed and nodded, running his hand through his hair before finally starting to eat his cheeseburger. It was cold, but it didn’t taste bad.

“Am I?”

“I don’t know, you tell me.” She said, taking a sip of her milkshake. “Once you guys were playing in my city and there were so many people wearing shirts of the band and stuff like that. So yeah, I guess you’re a famous rockstar. I mean, you already were back when... You know, but you’re even more famous now.”

Brian raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “You keep saying ‘my city’. Where exactly is it? Where do you live now?”

“Portland, Maine.” She answered and chuckled when she noticed Brian’s surprised face. “I know, I remember I told you I would never go back there but life, again.”

“Do you like it?”

“It’s not bad. The weather can be a bitch but I don’t complain.”

“You never do.”

Nancy smiled a little and looked down at her food. He was right. She never complained about anything – she never complained about him practicing almost all day every day, she never complained when he got home drunk or high, she never complained about him not being able to cook… This was another that made her completely different from Michelle, she just didn’t know it.

“I missed it.”

“What?”

“This. Us.” He explained, “I missed talking to you.”

Nancy’s heard started beating in her chest and slowly looked up at him, meeting his gaze. She could get lost into his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She said and Brian frowned, so she continued. “For not keeping in touch, you know, but I wasn’t at my best back then.”

“Neither was I.” He admitted and quickly scratched the back of his head, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Jimmy knew about all the times Brian got drunk in order to try to forget Nancy, he knew about all the times he failed, he knew everything, but didn’t tell her anything. Not after she made clear that she wouldn’t want to tell him about the baby.

Nancy bit her bottom lip and felt even worse. Things weren’t supposed to go like this.

“I gotta go.”

“What?”

It was like she had just slapped him in the face, he looked at her, confused. What the fuck had just happened?

“I’m sorry if I said something–”

“Oh no, it’s not your fault. I noticed the time and I really gotta go.” She said, getting up and leaving a 10-dollar bill on the table. “It’s been nice to talk to you again. I–I’ve missed you.”

She walked away and Brian sat there, confused as hell.

“I’ve missed you, too.” He whispered, even though she couldn’t hear him anymore.

Notes

Here's part three of three, finally! I had to post this today, hope you don't mind. Also, I really hope you enjoy it :)

I introduced the character of Sandra Coleman, the owner of the diner Brian and Nancy used to hung out at a lot when they were younger. I kind of have an idea for her importance in the story, however it's not set, so I'm not adding her to the character list yet. Until I decide what to really do with her, I wanted to let you know that I envisioned her looking like Kathy Bates :)

As always, thank you to the new subscribers and to forREVer-A7X, Avengedlover, Hollie and JJ12 for leaving comments <3