I know it's been a while since I updated, but I've been busy! But it's done- and here's the new chapter. Enjoy!

Brian

"Lucy? Lucy, come on baby don't be like this!" I yelled after my girlfriends retreating back, and only when I began to sound slightly more desperate than ever, did she actually turn around. She was fuming, so furious, she didn't even begin to speak until she'd slapped me hard across the face, like somehow this was all my fault.

Well, I'm sorry, but I didn't ask for my best friend to get caught in an arson attack on her building, and be hospitalized because she'd collapsed trying to escape! This was hardly my burden to bear- but Lucy didn't seem to recognise any of that.

Sometimes I wondered why I stayed with her all this time.

"What are you going to say to me Brian. Because this time, your petty words won't work" she spat at me, smashing her feet against the ground like an ungrateful toddler. That's if an ungrateful toddler wore Louboutins and Prada on a day to day basis, paid with money I earned, I might add. Suddenly, she adopted a mimic of my voice, and sounding a little like Kermit The Frog as she did.

"I'm not back in town for three days, Lucy. I call you when I get back Lucy, we can be together then, Lucy. And now I come down here and you're with her again!" she yelled, her words filling the corridor around us and earning us both stares from the people who occupied said corridor.

"I didn't choose for this to happen, OK? I was in LA when I got the call that she'd been in a fire, she needed my help. She's got no other family who can come out here and be with her, that's why I'm here. I'm the closest thing to family Hayley's got- yet you can't seem to understand that!"

"But you lied to me. It's pretty obvious that you love her a hell of a lot more than me, so why don't you just come out and say it, instead of playing chicken with your feelings!"

"I have no feelings for her and she reciprocates those feelings! She's like my little sister- why can't you see that we're just friends!" I countered and she fell silent, like she was digesting my words. But it was all too soon before she sprang back into action.

"Brian, I always knew what her plan was, right from day 1. I tried to be civil, but the bitch wouldn't let it go. It's obvious she feels differently from how you feel, and instead she's thrown herself around like a whore! She doesn't deserve anyone even close to you!" Lucy yelled at me, and without even thinking, I'd backed her into a wall, cowering over angrily.

"Don't you dare call Hayley that near me, or anywhere near anyone for that matter. She has been nothing but nice to you ever since you became my girlfriend, and you spew that load of shit at me? You know what? I'm done playing your stupid little game Lucy. You can take whatever the fuck you want from my life- the money, the fame, the recognition. But you will never take what matters to me most- and that is Hayley" I snarled at her, not even caring that this was a girl I'd said 'I love you' about a thousand times before this argument.

I earned myself another slap for that and she pushed me across the corridor, my back slamming into the wall. It didn't hurt, as such, but I defiantly heard something cracking back there.

"Fine. It's obvious you don't want me here, so I'll just leave. This is over Brian, I'm done with you" she hissed, and stalked off in the other direction, stomping as fast as those five inch heels would carry her.

"It was doomed from the start, bitch" I yelled right back at her, and when she turned around, casually flipped her off as I walked in the other direction. She didn't respond. Yet I didn't care.

I flopped down onto a hard plastic chair that sat against the wall, a few doors down from where Hayley was. People who had witnessed the argument were still staring, even though the spectacle was long over.

"Shows over folks. You can all fuck off back to your jobs now" I whispered to myself as people began to take less and less notice of me.

"Hard day at the office?" I heard a familiar voice say above me, and I looked up to see Jordan staring over me. He was wearing his famous half grin across his face, yet his eyes betrayed the fact that he was tired, stressed and worried about everything I'd forced him into.

"You could say that" I replied as Jordan pulled another seat up next to me, ready to become my therapist in an instant. It always worked out like this, because I was always the one who had girl issues and couldn't hold down a steady girlfriend for more than six weeks. That's why I'd be so adamant at keeping Lucy around for a little bit longer- so I could finally say I'd been in a long term relationship.

"How's Hayley doing?" I asked, half out of habit and half genuine fear that I was losing her. Jordan sighed.

"She's resting. We still don't know what the amnesia's going to do to her, but they want to run some more tests soon" he paused.

"I'm sure she wants you to be there when it happens. She's scared, Brian, and like you said, she hasn't got anyone but you"

I hung my head, realising Jordan and Hayley had defiantly heard the whole sordid affair, minus the part where we were hissing at each other in such low voices we

could barely even hear ourselves.

"I know she's scared. But if I can't hold myself together- how the hell am I meant to help her stay on track?" I muttered, running my hands through my hair, getting ready to tear it all from my skull if it would provide me with the answer of how to turn my life around. Jordan stayed silent for a moment, and it felt like every second that there was unbearable silence between us, this whole situation would get worse and worse.

"So you defiantly finished things with Lucy?" he asked suddenly, turning the entire conversation upside down and startling me out of my inner conversation with myself. I nodded sullenly in reply, yet still wondered why I felt so downbeat about it. I'd wanted to finish things with her ever since she told me about 'Todd the Asshole' (my words, not hers) who she'd slept with accidentally when she was drunk. I'd actually considered getting a security camera installed in our home.

Our home. Fuck, we still lived together. In the rush of getting down here to see if Hayley was still alive, and then breaking up with Lucy, I'd forgotten about the huge beachfront house the two of us owned. In the legal sense, it was mine, seeing as I made the down payment, but I knew already that Lucy would put up more than a fight to make sure she got it.

I'd just have to prepare my battle weapons early.

"I can't deal with her anymore. I don't understand how I feel- but it's like my insides are running around and don't know when to stop" I mumbled, lowering my head back down to my hands, wanting all of my desperation to just filter out of me and never come back.

Jordan looked down at his watch, deliberately making our silence even longer than I really wanted, without having to pour out some emotional crap about my feelings. I knew he was anxious to get back to the guys and sort this whole mess out. The mess I'd created by being so damn worried about Hayley.

"You should go back up to LA, J. I know you don't want to hang around here, and plus, you have to sort everything out with the guys" I told him firmly, and when he opened his mouth to protest, I just shook my head at him.

"Don't bother telling me differently Jordan. Hayley's my burden, not yours"

Jordan stared me up and down for a moment, analysing me like a therapist would with a brand new patient, and then threw his arms around me in a sort of awkward hug that I wasn't expecting, and almost choked and laughed at the same time.

To onlookers, I probably looked like a scared and confused penguin.

When Jordan had finally released me from the cave that was his arms that were so full of muscle I didn't even bother trying to fight him, he smiled.
"Just make sure she gets better. And don't feel any obligation to come back out and play a show for a while. We'll find someone to fill in for you" he said to me, and without saying another word, or even a soft goodbye, Jordan got up and made his way down the empty corridor to the exit.

I didn't think. Didn't contemplate on the weird, yet strangely thought provoking conversation Jordan and I had just engaged in, but instead my head flitted immediately to Hayley in the other room. She needed me, and like hell was I going to run away from this sort of obligation.

No more was I going to chicken out of taking care of something or someone.

When I wandered into Hayley's room though, she was wide awake, sitting up and staring at the wall like she had been when I'd run after Lucy. When she saw me come into the room, she smiled at me, but made no move.

"Are you Brian?" she asked politely, and with a sickening click and crack of my heart, I knew it.

The amnesia was kicking in, and now to my lifelong friend, the one who had always had my back, the one I thought I was in love with…

Couldn't even remember me.