Chapter 14: I Didn't Mean To (part 1)

Bailey sat at Jennifer's desk in the lobby. It was the only place that she could think to go at the moment. The tears freely fell from her eyes as she thought about what had just happened back there.

A while ago, she had noticed that Johnny was acting different, but had somehow convinced herself that it was nothing. Now, after hearing that, she felt like a complete idiot. Everything was right there and she was blind to it.

"Bailey?" Andy asked trying to get her attention as he walked into the lobby. He had to sit there and watch as she was told about the marriage and hated it. Now he had to see what it did to her and wanted nothing more than to tell her that it was all a joke or something.

"What?" she shakily asked without turning to face him.

"I'm sorry you had to hear all of that," he said as he arrived at the desk and sat on the corner of it.

"Yeah, well I'm sorry that I actually believed that maybe a guy wanted to be with me instead of miss perfect." Bailey sighed and then stood up and walked over towards the door.

"Now hold on a minute," Andy said. He got Bailey to stop in her tracks. "What do you mean by that?"

Bailey could feel him watching her. Even if she wanted to be left alone at the moment, there was some odd sort of comfort to be found in the fact that he had cared enough to be there. With much hesitation, she turned to him and crossed her arms. The look of concern in his eyes allowed her to easily trust him. "I mean exactly what I said. All my life I've been second best. Just because I wasn't the last one to be invited to the party doesn't mean that I was the first one noticed when prom came around." Sighing, she let her arms drop. "I don't blame him, why go for second best when number one is right there?" The question was more to herself, but she felt as if it were being broadcasted to the entire world.

"Second best?" he asked approaching her.

Bailey dropped her arms to her sides as she sighed. Turning her head away from him she responded, "To Jennifer, and to Laurie and probably anyone else that I ever meet."

Andy stood there perplexed, as he crossed his arms. "Who's Laurie?"

Bailey looked up to him and stood there for a second. "My sister, she's a few years older than me." She stopped a second to wipe her eyes of any tears that were beginning to form. "When I was in my third year of high school, my family went to go see Laurie at her college and while I was there, I met this one guy, he was perfect, well, he was in my eyes."

Bailey couldn't help but to start to cry. She did the best that she could to maintain the little self control that she had left. "We dated for a small while. It was only a few weeks, but he was the first one to make me feel wanted."

Andy's heart had dropped as soon as he had heard the beginning of her story. Now, as soon as she paused and the tears started rolling, he could tell that there was something bad that she was getting ready to tell him. It pained him to see her this way. Anxiety began to fill him as he watched her try to gather herself and speak.

Bailey shrugged and looked off over towards the side. "I don't know why I didn't see it coming, I mean, it was Laurie that we we're talking about."

"What should you have seen coming?" Andy asked.

Bailey sighed and looked up. "I walked in on her and James! My boyfriend and my sister right there in front of me!" Bailey threw her arms down as she shook her head. "I don't know anymore." Bailey then walked off to the side and looked down for a second as she gathered herself. "And after all of that she had the nerve to come home hours before my graduation and parade around her engagement ring that he had given her!" she said quickly wheeling around back to face him.

Bailey just stood there and cried. Closing her eyes, she felt Andy wrap his arms around her. It was the first time in a while that she had felt warm or loved in the arms of someone. This was something that she had longed for with Johnny. Now, someone else was in his arms receiving something that she had never gotten from him. It was unfair how every girl around her got her own Cinderella story, while she was stuck to watch her own love being taken away from her.

"Bailey?"

Bailey lifted her head from Andy's shoulder and looked over to see Jennifer standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry. Neither of us meant to hurt you."

"You married him!" Bailey argued. She stepped back from Andy and turned to face her. "You knew we were dating and yet you went behind my back and married him! You even helped him to cover it up!"

"I didn't mean to!" Jennifer argued as she approached Bailey. "You've got to believe that Bailey! I mean, just look at the circumstance! I was drunk, vulnerable, scared, nervous, depressed. I couldn't even go home! And he was there and willing to listen!" Jennifer stopped and sighed as she tried to relax herself. "I don't remember all the details, but all I can remember is the cab ride from here to city hall and then waking up in the morning next to him. And, if it helps, I was there in Andy's office waiting for him. Johnny showing up there was just something that had occurred. It wasn't supposed to work out that way."

Bailey wiped her eyes and thought for a minute. "You know, you may not have meant to do anything, but when someone gets in a car accident and kills someone, they didn't mean to do that either, but they still did it."

Bailey just walked past everyone and back over into Andy's office. She thought that when she got there that she would see Johnny still sitting there, but he was already gone. It hurt her to know that he would be avoiding her now, but it was also a relief that she wouldn't have to be reminded of past events whenever she saw him now. Instead of going to look for him, she had decided to sit down at the desk and finally cry her heart out at everything that had happened.

Jennifer watched her leave and then hurried off to the booth where she knew he would be. Before actually going in, she stood out in the hall for a moment and watched him through the small window. She could see his glazed over eyes as they blankly stared forward towards the wall. She entered into the room and silently approached him. "Johnny?"

Johnny slightly turned and looked up at her. "Yes?" There was nothing else for him to say at the moment. He knew that she was going to tell him to go talk to Bailey, but he couldn't. He couldn't go out there and face the one that he had just hurt so badly. He couldn't go out there and sit through her yelling at him about how she had trusted him and loved him and how he had broke her heart.

"I think you should go talk to Bailey," Jennifer stated.

She was able to keep her posture, and she was able to hold the tears back, but Johnny could see it that she was hurt. "I really think that I should wait a little bit," he said in protest.

"Well, okay, but I think I should tell you that today, I'm going to go over to your apartment, grab my things and go find somewhere else to stay. I also think that we should go out and get the annulment sometime this week," she said.

"You don't have to," he started, but Jennifer held her hand up.

"I know that normally when it comes to fighting over a guy, I wouldn't mind going for what I want, but this is completely different. I went between two of my friends who were dating and lied to one as I married the other. I actually hurt two people that I cared about and I don't think that I can handle that," she explained. With that, she turned and left.

Johnny wanted to stop her, but he knew that she wouldn't listen to him. As she walked away from him, an uneasy feeling of dread overcame him. The obvious threat was still following her. He should have stopped her, but she wasn't about to listen now. As soon as it began getting dark he was sure that he could get her to change her mind.