It was the night of Jesse's stag party and Will was wondering what the heck he was doing there. He just couldn't get into the mood, not when the woman he loved was marrying someone else.
Will threw another hateful glance at Jesse, who was too busy joking with his friends to notice, and took another swig of his drink. Why was he here anyway? It's not like he and Jesse were friends. Friends by acquaintance more like it. He had probably only been invited because of Morgan and Caroline. Oh Caroline! He took another sip. Why, why, why?
"Hey, Will," Jesse said, walking over. "Stop hiding in the corner."
"No, I wanna hide," Will replied.
"Hmph. Hey Caro tol' me you ain't coming to our weddin'?"
"Can't."
"Hmph."
"Shheya later Jesse!" slurred one of his friends.
"'later!"
A bunch of Jesse's friends left.
"Y'know Will… I can tell you this now 'cause I'm getting married tomorrow…"
Silence.
"Tell me what?"
"Huh? Oh yeah. I was always jealous of you."
This took Will by surprise.
"What?"
"You… you, you, you… you have Morgan."
It could have been the alcohol, but Will didn't get it.
"Huh?"
"You have Morgan. Oh Morgan… she's great, isn't she? I love her, y'know. I've always loved her, but I never realised until…" Jesse frowned, "I forget."
"You love Morgan?"
"Always. Always, forever. Forever."
"But what about Caro?" now Will was mad. "How can you marry Caro when you love Morgan?"
Jesse seemed stumped for a moment.
"I love Caro too -"
"But not like you love Morgan?"
"No… but Morgan doesn't love me."
"How do you know? Have you ever asked? How can you do that to Caro?" Will shrieked. "How can you? How can you! She deserves more than that!"
And on that note, Will threw a punch at Jesse's face. Jesse retaliated and soon there was a large drunken brawl at the club.
**********
Caroline and Yvonne showed up at the police station to bail out their friends.
"I can't believe you guys got into a drunken brawl," Yvonne commented.
"Oh my gosh! Jesse!" Caroline exclaimed, seeing his battered face.
"It was his fault," Jesse muttered, pointing accusingly at Will.
"Oh no, not this again," Tyson groaned, who was the only one of the three who wasn't ridiculously drunk. "Y'know Caro, Will has got the idea that Jesse is really in love with Morgan and -"
"But he is! He told me!" Will cried on their way out. "He doesn't deserve you Caro! He - "
"Shut up!" Jesse bellowed, lunging towards him.
Tyson grabbed Jesse and held him back.
"Hey I don't know if you noticed," he said harshly, "but we're still in the police station."
Jesse calmed down and they headed back home. Morgan was typing away at her computer.
"Hey," then she frowned, "Where have you guys been? I get home from the studio and no one's here."
"The guys were involved in a drunken brawl." Yvonne replied.
"Ahh, well, that would explain a few things," Morgan replied, eyeing their appearance.
"Morgan! You'll believe me!" Will wailed. "Jesse loves you, not Caro. You!"
Morgan stared. The shook her head sadly after a glance at Caro's face.
"Will, I know you love Caro, but that's no reason to make up stories -"
"I'm not making it up! Why doesn't anyone believe me?"
"Maybe because it's so unbelievable," Morgan replied gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Jesse and Caro are getting married tomorrow. How could Jesse possible be in love with me?"
Will was silent and just as the matter appeared to be settled, he glowered at Jesse.
"You think you can get away with it just because you're a stupid actor. And you're doing pretty darn well at convincing everyone I'm drunkenly rambling. And I am drunk. I'm drunk, drunk, drunk. But at least when I'm drunk I tell the truth. You're a lie, Jesse Trewin. Your whole life is one fat lie. You can't even be honest to tell the woman you love that you love her, or even break it off with your girlfriend because you love someone else!"
Will whirled around and grabbed Caroline's hands.
"Caro, you'll probably disregard this as a drunken man's rambling in the morning, but I love you. I love you so much it kills me to see you with Jesse. And that's the real reason why I couldn't come to your wedding. Because I love you too much to see you marry someone else."
Caroline swallowed. The whole matter was upsetting her terribly. She looked into the eyes of all her friends. She probably shouldn't, but she believed Will's confession of love, but was he right about Jesse? She sought his eyes, but he avoided her gaze.
"Jesse?" she whispered. "Jesse, is it true?"
Silence.
"Jesse?"
Still Jesse wouldn't answer.
"It's true then," Caroline said, her eyes welling with tears. "You love Morgan. You love Morgan! I should have known, all this time, I should have known."
She turned and ran from the room. Morgan stalked over and slapped Jesse.
"Will's right. Caro didn't deserve that. She loved you, and you…"
Morgan shook her head angrily and ran to catch up with Caroline.