The guys were gathered at Jimmy’s living room, speechless. They heard everything Jimmy had to say, which was not much since he was shameful of having to ask them to delay the album and admit his problem so he needed a little help from Emily to finish his explanations.
She used very good words in a very good tone as he was staring at the ground and sometimes facing his immobilized hand. He couldn’t play now not even if he wanted to, his hand was very hurt.

But not even her smooth way of handling the situation this time was able to make them all understand why they had to do this. Matt’s hate for her only increased, in fact. Even when she was just trying to help his friend.

The only one who seemed to comprehend it all was Brian.

“But… I don’t understand why you two decided to… go that far away and… We can get you help here, Jimmy.”

“I told you, Matt, Cali is not a good place to get clean. I speak from my own experience, alright?
I just don’t want him to get through what I had to go through while detoxing.” Emily finished talking and moved her eyes from Matt to Brian, who comforted her through his irises. He was the only person who witnessed her suffering back then, so he knew what it was like. He didn’t want that to happen to his best friend too.

“Oh, now I get it! YOU are making the decisions for him. That’s why you wanna take him away from us.” he nodded his head ironically, always in a provocative tone towards her.

“Look, Matt…” Emily would probably start an argument when Brian interrupted her.

“We have to prioritize Jimmy’s health here, Matt. No one here wants him to leave but we should trust Emily on this. She’s been through enough to know what’s the best way to do this. And she knows him. Probably better than us. So I think we should start giving her our vote of confidence and stop acting like jealous kids.”

Matt cocked his brows quickly to Brian after hearing everything he had to say and crossed his arms, turning his back to face the window behind him.

“Okay, Jimmy’s life is the most important thing here, we all know that, but… What about the album? We already have everything settled for the launch. We can’t just… let it go, just like that. Can we?” Johnny threw it, breaking the ice.

“We won’t have to let it go, of course not. We’ll just have to postpone it. That’s not a big deal, we still have the final arrangements to do. It can wait.” Brian stood up for Emily again and that was his permanent side as everyone noticed.

“The point is… what Jimmy wants. What do you want, man?” Zack asked and Jimmy finally raised his head to him. It even made Matt turn to look at Jimmy

That question got him unprepared. He had no idea what he truly wanted, he hadn’t have much time to think about it.

“I wanna… I wanna be able to record the album, I wanna be able to play again, to make concerts, tours and stuff. But I know things cannot be as they were before. I know my heart is weaker, I can feel it, so I need to come to terms with my new life. And that means taking things slower.”

“Okay, we understand that, but do you want to go to Hawaii and stay away from us just like that?”

“It’s not like I’m gonna live there. It’s just… for a few months.”

“Do you WANT to go?” Zack insisted.

Jimmy took a deep breath and looked at Emily before answering.

“Yes, I want. I need some time off.”

He didn’t know if his friends had captured that feeling as well, but he sure felt like he had rehearsed that dialogue just to tell them what Emily wanted him to say. It’s not like he wanted to leave his friends and stop recording. But he knew he needed to. For his own sake.
Zack nodded and paced closer to Jimmy, with a much more comprehensive glare on his eyes than before.

“Screw the due date, we would never finish that thing on time anyway. I support whatever you wanna do, man. Whatever is best for you. I mean it.” He pulled Jimmy for a tight bro hug and that made him feel much better.

“Thanks, Z, I appreciate that.” he forced a smile and that’s all he had to offer to his friend.

“No problem, man.” Zack tapped his shoulder and went closer again. “And hey… about next week, our plan still up?” he kind of whispered but everyone heard it, of course.

“Yeah, of course, man.” Jimmy tapped his shoulder this time and Emily frowned a bit. What were they talking about?

Brian was the next in line to talk to his friend.

“I really admire what you’re doing, man. It’s very brave. Really. Both of you.” Brian traded glances with Emily and Jimmy and they tried to smile back.

Jimmy mouthed a thank you.

Brian hugged his best friend, messed up his hair jokingly and let his gaze fall down the floor when he let Jimmy go and saw himself standing too close to the woman he loved. And now she has just held Jimmy’s hand in front of him as a sign.

And he completely got it. He was the third wheel there. As he always was.

He nodded his head, pursed his lips like answering to her sign and turned his back to sit somewhere far away from them.

Johnny came next to hug Jimmy and said it:

“Stay strong, Jimbo. We’ll be here for you. Always. Remember that.”

“I will. Thanks man.”

It all felt too much of a farewell than anything else. Jimmy’s heart was beating on his throat, like he was about to jump by parachutes. He didn’t wanna feel like that, like a sick person that everyone had to comfort and give that pity look before he had to choose how his coffin would look like.

And he knew exactly what would make all those feelings go away. Yeah, he knew. And keeping that in mind was making everything even harder.

Matt was incredibly silent for several minutes. He needed more time to digest all of that. In fact, he had a lot more to digest in his life right now than he ever thought he would ever have. He knew he was being selfish. Jimmy’s life was at stake here. So of course he went to him and gave him one of his hugs. But he couldn’t do or say anything else, he couldn’t say he agreed with their plan.

He still thought it was a bad idea to let him go with Emily. He never stopped suspecting of Brian and her and all their distance now was just a facade for him really. He saw how those two stared at each other all the time and he knew who would always gonna end up hurt in that game. It was just a matter of time.

They talked a bit more about how they would rearrange the launch date and how they would manage that with their crew and left Jimmy’s house.
When Emily closed the front door, she glanced at Jimmy and wondered if he would ever say what was on his mind. He seemed unreadable.

“Babe? How are you now?”

He shrugged and his traits suddenly changed. He was sad.

“I don’t know, Emily. I feel bad, exposed. I really want to leave this place now, more than ever.”

“Okay, we will leave. But in the meantime, I think I can make you feel better.”

“Really?” he smirked slightly.

“Definitely…” she threw in that grin that always made his knees buckle and held his hand, pulling him towards the garage door. “You… me… music… your car… now!”

---

When Matt left Jimmy’s house, he couldn’t think about going home. It was the last place he wanted to be. Just by thinking about having to explain everything to Val he didn’t even agree with and knowing she wouldn’t understand either, he thought about going straight to anyone’s couch but his.

He had too many knots to untie. His almost failed engagement, their delayed album, Jimmy’s problems… Could he manage it all as the leader he naturally was? He definitely had doubts this time.

He decided to take a walk by the park as he reflected about his problems, wishing he could sit at some bench with a good tree forming a shadow for him and he could forget about his life for just an hour, reading a good chapter of his favorite story.
But no. Not even that was working on his life. That story wasn’t being updated for weeks now.
The writers simply disappear leaving the biggest cliffhanger for their readers without one word of explanation. It was part of his daily routine already and now, he missed it too much. He just couldn’t understand everything was going so wrong in his life.

He sat on one of the park benches and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He thought he could try his luck with that story. Maybe it had a new update today just to cheer him up. And as hope flooded his insides while he refreshed the Avenged Sevenfold Fanfiction page, it got washed down the drain when he saw nothing had changed.

He could only read people complaining about their delay to update, as if someone had any right to ask for something they were having for free. He read the last comment and the name of the person and her picture caught his attention:

Jess Lockhart

Oh, alright. He knew her. It was Jess. Of course she was there, she was the person who first introduced that website to him. But then he read her comment again:

Kim, Mei… where have you been? Do I need to cross the street and personally threat you to kill you to update this or what?? Please, I know you’re busy but… C’mon!
Still love you!

Kim… Mei… cross the street…? – a big frown here.

Those names were very familiar. Then he read the authors’ profile names and saw it:
Kimmie

“OH FUCK!!!” he gasped to the trees surrounding him.

His mind worked in a billion miles per hour on those last minutes but he finally was able to understand what was going on.

His memory of that night at the bar was a little bit off by all the liquor he had but he could remember exactly what he had said to Kim when he saw her reading in that website:

“Yeah, I get why you’re so behind at the dating department. You’re too busy reading this stuff and… have no time to live.”

It made her so angry. He could remember the look on her face. That was why she took it so personally. She’s one of the authors!

“Yeah, I screwed up…” he mumbled to himself as he stood up and walked towards the park exit. “But I guess I can fix that at least.”

He had to start fixing things. And now he was sure he should definitely start with Kim.
His determined pace took him straight to her front porch. Next thing he knew, she was opening the door and not even showing a slight smile at the sight of him.

“Matt! What are you doing here?”

“Hey! Nice to see you too!” he tried to joke about it, but no mood for jokes on her face.

“Don’t start… I don’t have short memory, Matt. What do you want?”

His smile faded away from his lips, causing his eyes to fall to the ground promptly with her contempt.

“Look Kim, I… I gotta talk to you. Can we just… take a walk now, please?”

His eyes came back to hers and they shared a long staring contest before she crossed her arms and finally opened her mouth, looking back over her shoulder:

“Mei, I’ll be right back!” and closed the door behind her.

Matt and Kim walked side by side through the streets quietly until they got to Huntington Park. He was trying to find the right words.

“So… how have you been lately? I haven’t seen you around for a while…”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy. With my life. That one you told me I didn’t have time for.” She was acid
still and he rolled his eyes.

“C’mon, will you stop that, please!?”

“No, I won’t stop it! You hurt me, asshole. And you didn’t even notice that until today?” Kim raised her voice and a few birds flew away, scared.

“Kim, I’m not here to fight, okay? I’m here to apologize. I know I hurt you that night but… today I found out I hurt you even more...” Matt didn’t shout in response.

“What… What do you mean?” Kim was perplexed and was left behind as he kept walking, hands in his pockets, head down.

She had to run a little to rejoin his side, with her blue eyes dazed up to him, waiting for his answer. His silence was killing her.

“You know, back when I was starting the band, my family would gather on holidays and all my cousins would brag about their successful way to college, or finishing it, or their successful jobs. And when they asked me what I was doing, they always made a question like: ‘Did you finally get a job or you’re still on that band thing?’ Like it wasn’t serious at all. Like it was just something to waste your time on. And it pissed the hell out of me. And that was stuck in my head for years. Was I really wasting my time on this? Is music really not worth it?” he shrugged and Kim was still trying to figure out where he was going with this.

“Then, when I had a paycheck bigger than all their salaries together, I was in the verge of taking copies of it and sending to all my family members as a Christmas card, with big words printed on the back ‘I have the best job in the world, suckers! What do you have?’, but my dad said it would ruin the holiday so… I just enlarged it, put a frame on it and hanged on the wall of my parents’ house, together with our first platinum record. They have to stare at it all the time they come around, the fuckers…”

Kim finally chuckled along with Matt.

“Okay, Matt… A simple I’m sorry would do the trick. Why all this speech now?”

“What I’m trying to say is… I’ve been underestimated before. I think we all have been, right? But I never let it get to me to the point of giving up what I like to do.”

Now Kim was almost getting what he meant. But she still wasn’t sure if he knew everything yet. She let her gaze fall down now, staring at her walking feet.

“The point is… You should never let your wonderful gift fly away from you because a stupid jackass, drunk friend of yours said you’re wasting your time with it.” Their eyes finally met again, peacefully this time. “Don’t let Izzie wait that long to get out…”

He grinned charmingly and she replied, her cheeks a bit red.

“How long have you known Izzie, huh?”

“Long enough to miss her a hell of a fucking lot.” Her grin couldn’t get bigger now. Her heart was beating fast again at his presence. “Please… tell me you have the next chapter ready.”

He looked desperate now. And she laughed loud.

“Yes, I have…” now she walked faster, getting distant from him.

“Can you…?” he had to run to get to her pace.

“Ah my friend… I don’t know if Izzie is in the mood right now. But maybe I do know something that might wake her up.” She kept walking fast.

“What!?”

“Ice-cream!”

And she sped up towards the ice-cream truck that was parked inside the park and Matt was only staring at first.

“But you gotta catch me first!” she looked over her shoulders playfully at him.

“Watch me!” he left after her in a sprint even when she held a very big distance.

Notes

Matt finally figure out, huh? xD