“…and that’s how it went. When we saw her father there, I thought, yeah, I lost my only company to come here. But then she reacted totally opposite. She saw with her own eyes her father was there to get help, just like me, something she expected us to do for years. She begged him to do it and he never listened. That night changed her. And changed me a little bit too, I confess. When you wake up, I wanna take you there, okay? You’re gonna like it.” I was holding Jimmy’s hand strongly, expecting to feel that little grab that I felt that time we played for him.

Now I always had an acoustic guitar hidden in the closet of his room. When it was passed midnight, his favorite time to listen or make music, I’d play a few songs quietly with the highest hope he could respond. But usually I didn’t get more than a few accelerated heartbeats, expected variations as the doctors said. It meant the world to me.

That night I finished playing earlier, placed the guitar back on the closet and sat there, staring at nowhere, feeling that all my attempts to reach him were useless so far. A few tears formed in my eyes and that killer silence surrounding the room wasn’t making any better. I missed his unique and soft voice echoing through the room or close to my ear, the strangest ideas he had and shared only with me in the still of the night, his gentle and sweet way of treating me. God, the sound of his voice was vanishing little by little from my conscious but I never want it to disappear. He was more than a month in that bed in complete silence. Everything I knew about him was disappearing slowly and that was freaking me out completely.

When I was about to head to the bathroom to shed some more tears, I heard a knock on the door. I narrowed my eyes into that direction, cleaning the water from my face as quickly as I could. If it was one of his parents and Pauline didn’t let me know, I was completely screwed. But to put a sudden end to my fear, Brian was opening the door. And he was alone, thank god.

“Hey, Em, I told Pauline not to call you here cause I thought you might be asleep so…” he whispered from the door and I rubbed my eyes as he came in. I didn’t want him to think there was something wrong.

“No, not really, I’m always awake here. Most of the time, at least.” I answered, getting up from the couch and closing my robe. I was only wearing a silky sleeping shirt and didn’t want to pass the wrong impression.

“I can see you need to sleep.” He probably noticed my red tired eyes.

“No, I’m here to keep him company. I can’t do that if I’m asleep.”

“I can stay here a few nights too. I always come during the day but… I can take turns with you
if you want.” He still seemed to want to take care of me even when I was giving him a cold treatment for all this time. How persistent can he be?

He stepped closer and his face softened. He licked his lips and my breathing went fast in an involuntary response to his closeness. His voice got even quieter, as if he didn’t want Jimmy listening to him.

“I’m here cause… I want to take you out tonight. I think you need some time off from this place and you need one night to relax. And I have a few stuff to show you, and one surprise or another. What do you say?” his lips showed me a beautiful disguised smirk and I got a little hypnotized for a few seconds. Then I started to think straight again.

“I… I don’t think it’s a good idea, you and me going out together. We need to focus on him now, Brian. We can’t… We are apart and we need to stay that way, okay? For the sake of his health.” I went straight to the point. I didn’t want to keep holding him back.

“Why is it always about him? Why is it never about me? About us?” he tried not to raise his voice, I could tell, but he was altered now.

“You are being really selfish now, Brian.” I tried not to lose my patience too.

“Yeah, I wanna take you out for a while and I am selfish. Good to know you still didn’t lose the habit to scold me at every opportunity you have…” he was turning his back, probably tired of trying, and was about to open the door when I just lost control of my legs and they moved towards him. My hands held his wrist involuntarily, making him turn to me promptly.

“Bri... I’m sorry. Just… don’t leave yet.” I wouldn’t let go of his hand now. And I don’t think I could. He was staring at me with a hurt expression with his other hand still holding the doorknob. “It gets really quiet here. Can you stay a little more?”

He thought about it, gazed at my lips for several seconds and nodded with the same hurt on his eyes. I wished I wasn’t able to feel how much he missed me and I wished I wasn’t able to miss him anymore. I wished I could love Jimmy as intensely and deeply as I loved him. Now I knew I couldn’t.

He picked up a chair and sat beside Jimmy. I sat on the other side of his bed and we kept trading glances. It was even more silent than if I was completely alone in there. We had so much to say but couldn’t dare to speak in front of Jimmy cause we didn’t really know if he could hear us or not.

“How’s Jess doing?” he broke the ice.

“She’s great, she’s going to therapy now so… Zack is helping her a lot.”

“I bet he is. They really love each other.”

“Yeah, they do…” we went silent for a few minutes and then I noticed we’ve been seating there for an entire hour.

And I couldn’t help but feel curious about what he had planned for us that night.

“You said you… wanted to show me something. Can you tell me what it is? I’m kinda curious.” I smiled softly and he pursed his lips, moving his eyes to Jimmy.

“Well… I can’t really tell you now. But I can show you. It’s downstairs.” My brows lifted and he stood up. “It’s chilly outside, just put a jacket on.” I thought about it for a while and when I noticed I was already getting rid of that sleeping robe and dressing my leather jacket. What am I doing?

“I’ll be right back, Jim.” I kissed his cheek quickly.

“See you later, bro.” Brian tapped his shoulder and we both left to the elevator.

He led me to the parking lot and it was getting more and more mysterious as he walked. When he finally stopped in front of a car, I stepped by his side and looked at where he was staring with glinting eyes.

“Do you think he’s gonna like it?” he kept staring at the car and by the dim light I couldn’t really see it at first. It was just a car. But then I looked closer and I recognized it: a black Impala ’69, exactly like Jimmy had and I made sure it got destroyed.

“Oh my god, is it… you bought this to him?” I walked around and checked everything. It looked exactly like it was before the accident.

“No, I asked him if he was gonna restore it, he simply said no. But I knew how much this car meant to him so I decided to do it and give it back to him when it was done. And now that it’s done, I wanted you to be the first person to see it.”

“Wow it’s… it’s perfect, Brian, just the way it was. I’m speechless. And I feel like I owe you thousands of dollars for this, I should be the one restoring it.” I brushed my hair back and could only show a sad face. I still felt so guilty about it.

“No, Emily, this is something I wanted to do. You don’t owe me anything.” His kind eyes were paralyzing me again as he came closer and I hated to love that effect he had on me. “Oh, I said it too soon. You do owe me something. A ride here.” He tapped the car, hiding his chuckle to the double meaning but I didn’t hide it, I smiled broadly and decided to accept his invitation. The clean one, not the dirty.

“Just a ride around the block?”

“Maybe a whole song? I told them to install a badass sound system, you have to hear this bass.” He winked and opened the door to the passenger seat for me and we left.

---

“Hey… you said we were only driving around the block… you’ve passed three blocks already, Brian!!” I tried to make myself audible screaming while the stereo was blasting Highway Star more than loudly. “I need to go back!”

“I wanna take you somewhere. If we speed things up, we can still get there.” He smiled and stepped a bit more on the accelerator, making the new engine roar exactly like I remembered. Like his guitar.

“Oh god, I’m not even dressed. I’m wearing pajamas, Haner!” I closed my jacket and looked at my pants. Tracksuit ones.

“I don’t mind, you’re always hot.”

“Oh shit… are you kidding me? Why the hell are you parking here, in front of the most famous jazz bars in town, the one you have to make reservations years before coming???” I was perplexed. I always wanted to come here but never had the time. Well, let’s be honest, I never had money for that kind of classy stuff.

“Cause with my name I can open those kinds of gates. Voila.” He smiled, made a sign with his hand for me to wait there and stepped out of the car to go talk to the guy standing in the front door.

I could hear some of the conversation. And it wasn’t good.

“We’re full sir, we’re really sorry.”

“What? I made reservations weeks ago for tonight, how can it be full?”

“Our policy is to give your place to another client if you don’t show up here on time for the beginning of the act, sir.”

“Fuck… Can’t you just… make an exception for me and my girlfriend there? You know me, right? Synyster Gates, Avenged Sevenfold guitarist?” I stopped listening when he called me his girlfriend. It sounded so natural.

“Oh yeah, I do know you. But unfortunately that’s not enough to put you inside when there’s even people sitting in the stairs. You can look at it yourself.” The guy moved away from the door and I could see from the car how crowded that place was.

Brian thanked the man and turned to the car with a failure expression.

“Don’t be sad, you tried. I always wanted to come here, you know. You know me so well.” I smiled.

“My father used to bring me here when it wasn’t that famous. You could just sit there and enjoy some good live music. Now it’s just impossible…”

“Your father must be awesome, huh?”

“Well, for his own public, he is.” We both chuckled and then he seemed to be searching for something through the back window.

“What is it?”

“Hm, I’m just wondering if we can park in that other street, maybe we can hear at least something.”

“Wow, I’m getting back to my teenage ears of eavesdropping expensive live concerts from outside. Let’s do it.” He turned on the engine, winked at me and made a quick turn in that tiny street like a pro pilot, screeching for everyone to hear. He looked so dangerous, that was definitely turning me on.

He parked again and we both got outside of the car. Thankfully the street was empty and dark, we could hear some music and we didn’t need anything more than that right then. Music and each other.

I leaned in the front of the car and he did the same by my side, making sure his arm was touching mine.

“So… how have you been?” I tried to begin with a conversation in the middle of that more than romantic jazzy song that was making me want to make out with him so bad.

“Lonely… and you?”

“Just as lonely.”

‘What a difference a day made, twenty four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers where there used to be rain
My yesterday was blue dear
Today I'm a part of you dear
My lonely nights are through dear
Since you said you were mine’

“How’s your band going? Did you talk to them again?”

“Yeah I did, I called Brad and explained everything. He forgave me and I told him I was definitely retiring from the stage from now on. It’s not for me.”

“I don’t think you should quit, you love to play, the crowd loves you. You just need more experience with bigger crowds.”

“Oh, I had enough of those experiences, Brian, believe me. I don’t wanna go back to that. I know it can only lead me to the dark road again.”

“Yeah, you’re right, you need to value your health now.” He landed his hand on mine, entwined his fingers for a while and it warmed everything around me as magic.

“And you guys, already named the new album?”

“Oh… yeah, that. We put everything on hold for now. Without Jimmy we can’t decide anything. But I can think about hell of meaningful names to reflect our life at the moment. Chaos is one of them.” He giggled.

“It’s more like a nightmare. Wow, I still can’t believe we went through all of this and I only know you guys for a year.” I shook my head, flabbergasted.

“Yeah, it’s hard to believe. You messed with his heart, you messed with mine, all in a few months. I think the next album should be called Bandwrecker.” he shielded himself promptly with his arms cause he knew I wouldn’t take that as a joke. I only snorted a laugh and pushed his body with mine slightly.

He was right, after all. I was a homewrecker and didn’t really enjoy that name weighing over me.

‘Oh, what a difference a day made
There's a rainbow before me
Skies above can't be stormy since that moment of bliss
That thrilling kiss
It's heaven when you find romance on your menu
What a difference a day made…’

“You need to know I never planned to be that kind of woman, Brian. I never thought I could be in love with two men at the same time. And I never meant to fall that deeply for you. It caught me completely unprepared. Please, do not have the wrong impression of me.” I tried to focus on my speech instead of the song and be as sincere as I could while looking into his kind eyes.

‘And the difference is you, is you.’

I watched as his Adam’s apple moved up and down. He looked even more beautiful and enigmatic by the moonlight and those jazzy notes as background. And he stood quiet to my words. It almost freaked me out. What the hell was he thinking now? Well… I had a few ideas of what he might be imagining but I wouldn’t dare to speak. Not now at least.

“You’re using his cross chain all the time now.” he broke our very intense eye contact by holding the chain hanging in my neck. I could sense that sting of jealousy on his voice.

“Yeah, it’s a promise I made. I won’t take it out until he’s out of that hospital bed for good.” He lifted his eyebrows quickly and pursed his lips. I bet he didn’t believe I was in love with him anymore. Maybe it’s for the best? “You know, I found a good NA meeting in the neighborhood. I went for a few reunions and I felt welcomed there. Jess is going with me. It’s nice.” I decided to change the subject.

“Wow, that’s… that’s very good to know. You’re taking this seriously this time and… I’m kinda proud of you.” He changed his serious traits to a smirk and it brought the smile back to my lips.
“Seriously… I am.”

“Hey, you can make me proud too. Do you know how? You can always start using the patch! What do you say? Deal?” I showed him my hand and he laughed, running away from it.

“Oh come on!! I’m not ready to quit my nasty habits yet. You’re so ahead of me on this.” He breathed in the smoke of his cigar just to piss me off.

“But you need to promise you’re gonna stop that eventually.” I pointed to his hand holding the cigarette butt.

“Okay, I’m gonna try... someday. Can you leave me and my cigarettes alone now?” he chuckled and I had to join him.

“Oh, okay sir, when it’s about your habit, you’re very obnoxious, you know that?” I nodded, forging an irony. Or not so much.

“Yes I am, next topic.” I saw him smiling broadly and then his eyes moved from me to a bunch of guys gathering in a darker corner, a few steps away from us.

We knew what was happening there, they were scoring with a drug dealer. And it wasn’t really bothering me but I guess I couldn’t say the same about Brian.

“Emily… Come on, let’s get out of here.” He grabbed my hand and took me to the passenger seat, opening the door quickly.

“Bri, don’t worry, I’m fine. We don't need to leave.”

“The best songs are already over, we should go.” After I got inside the car he went for his seat and we drift off to the main avenue, the beach by one side and the night clubs and dinners by the other.

And I finally got to a conclusion by his actions. He still didn’t trust me.

“The hospital is that way, Brian. You’re going to the wrong way.” I warned him as we were almost leaving the town perimeter. There was only ocean sounds and the Impala engine surrounding our ears.

“There’s just one more place I wanna take you. Then I’ll take you back.”

We traded glances and I nodded discreetly. I could never refuse to spend more time with him. It was pure delight to my soul.

I just grabbed the volume button up and Foxy Lady burst loud as he drove off to somewhere I was still very clueless about.

Notes

uhh earlier chaap this time!! o///
part one of romantic bremily time is up, next is coming soon =p

Where's he takin her now? :3

Did you like it? let me know ;)