'He didn't even say anything. I shouldn't have said anything. He is happy. Why did I think that suddenly declaring my love for him would change that? Why did I think he would just leave Hannah and be with me? Temperance, you are a stupid woman for thinking that."
She grabs the untouched wine from half an hour before and takes a long swig. About an hour later, she has a nice carefree buzz going and calls Angela.
"Hey, Sweetie. What's up?"
"A roof, but that's not important."
"What's wrong, Bren?"
"Have you ever heard of a band called Paramore?"
"Yes, hun, I am up to date on current music. Why?"
"I had the radio on and a song by them came on and it really made me think."
"What song was it?"
"It was called The Only Exception."
"I see. Did this make you think about Booth?"
"Y-Yes. And I have made a big mistake."
"What did you do?"
"I went over to his apartment and said I loved him. And he didn't say anything."
"What? Hold on. I'm coming over."
"Ange, there's no reason to. I am fine. Booth has… Booth has moved on."
"Sweetie, I do not mind. I can get Jack to take me."
"Okay."
"Okay, I'll see you in about 15 minutes."
15 minutes later, Angela shows up at Brennan's door with a bottle of red wine in hand.
"Okay. Tell me what happened."
"Well, when I got home, I turned on the radio because every night that I've come home since I got back, the apartment has been silent and I am sick of the silence. And when I sat down, this song started playing."
Brennan grabs her laptop and presses play on The Only Exception on her iTunes. The now familiar tune starts playing, filling the large room with sound.
"I've heard this song, Bren. What about it made you think of Booth?"
"It speaks of the protagonist not believing in love until someone comes along and because of that person now believing that they can in fact be loved."
"So you're the protagonist and Booth is the antagonist?"
"Yes. I really listened to the lyrics and I find that they suit my situation well."
"Did you know this song was written by a bunch of kids that are only an average age of 22?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Look."
Angela brings up their Wikipedia page and shows her.
"See?"
"They are so young. And they started 6 years ago?"
"Yep. They started when they were an average age of 16."
"Wow."
"Okay. Now back to you and Booth."
"This song made me think of all the things Booth has done for me out of love and friendship. So for no apparent reason, I got up and drove to Booth's. He said hello and I blurted out that I loved him."
"What else?"
"I also said that I wasn't ready to give up on us yet."
"Wow. Maluku really changed you."
"I had time to think and I often dreamt of what it would be like to be in a relationship with him. Aside from that, I mentally prepared myself for the situation where he would have a girlfriend. I thought if I prepared myself, it wouldn't hurt that much if he did."
"And you were wrong?"
"Yes. When he said he was with Hannah seriously, I wanted to metaphorically crawl into a hole."
"Oh sweetie."
"It was inevitable. He said he wanted to move on and he did. I'm- I'm happy for him."
"Bren, if you went to his place to tell him you are in love with him, you clearly aren't happy. You two need to wake up to yourselves! You are both still in love with each other, but you are too scared to do anything. He took a giant leap of faith and it's your turn, honey."