Johnny, Matt and Brian were the firsts to arrive at the emergency meeting Zack called up in the last minute. Jimmy and Zack had been hanging around together all day long, as they knew those two had something going on as a secret. And now they were late...

“Why are we all here anyway? I thought we were off from band work until...”

“We still have a few things to discuss, Brian. Chill out.” Matt grumbled and Brian puffed air, bored.

He had so many better things to do instead of staying there... Like calling Michelle for a quickie and... No, that was definitely not what he called as better thing.

As time went by, Brian was tired of waiting and just picked up his guitar, unplugged and all, just to check a few set of notes he was imagining that might be those magical ones he was looking for to that song. Turns out they weren’t even close. And he was going insane with it.

When he was ready to break his favorite guitar in pieces into the ground out of frustration, the door opened to Zack and Jimmy finally enter the room with big grins stamped on their silly faces. They haven’t seen Jimmy smiling like this in months.

“It’s about fucking time...” Brian rolled his eyes and set his guitar back on its place, intact, standing up to go greet his friends.

“Sorry guys, we had to eat something before coming, we were starving after our little shopping.” Zack said, proudly, and the guys traded weird frowns.

“Oh my god, you totally sound like a pussy. I hope you two didn’t get married on your way here.” Johnny joked and Zack grimaced as Jimmy chuckled.

“Cut the crap. So what is that all about, guys? ” Matt let out.

“Yeah and… what’s that on your left pocket? Are you happy to see me?” Johnny pointed to the bulge on Zack’s leg.

“Well, my friend Johnny, I’m not THAT happy to see you and we didn’t get married. BUT it’s good that you brought it up! That’s why I called you all here today. Jimmy and I went out today to find this:” he finally took the box out of his pocket and opened it for them to see with a cocky smirk.



Matt, Brian and Johnny curved their mouths in a convinced and surprised smile as they stared at the diamond brightly shinning on their eyes.

“Heeey, it’s about time, my friend!” Brian repeated the same sentence in a completely different context now, tapping Zack’s shoulder.

“She’s gonna love it, man.” Matt was next and Johnny was holding it closer to his eyes now, pretending he knew something about diamonds.

“It was very hard to find something musical, but Rev here and his eagle-eyes caught it when we were already giving up.”

They all turned to Jimmy with grins and he shrugged with a smirk.

“I went along to help him. I wouldn’t let him get out of there with empty hands.” Jimmy answered in his behalf.

“When are you planning to propose?” Brian asked.

“Well I… I technically did it a month ago. But I’m planning to make it official on Christmas night. Is it… too cheesy maybe?”

“No, definitely not. We’re all gonna be there to mock you two, it’s perfect.” Johnny elbowed Zack and he looked with killer lasers down at his friend. “Christmas’ gonna be on Matt’s house this year, right?”

“Yep…” Matt agreed, not as excited as Johnny and Zack.

“This asks for a celebration. We should go to Johnny’s.” Johnny called out, all jumpy around them.

“Yeah, it’s been too long since we gather and do stuff like that, for fun. C’mon, we need a night off as friends, not as co-workers for once.” Zack added and they nodded. “The first round is on me!”

“Only the first? C’mon, you can do better than that, husby.” Johnny complained as they moved out of the studio and he got slapped in the head by Brian.

“He’s just bought a freaking expensive ring. We should be buying him drinks, insignificant small creature.” Brian spoke on his ear and closed the door behind them as they left for Johnny’s.

---

Brian left the table with Matt, Zack and Johnny doing shot games and sat closer to Jimmy on the bar counter, secluded from the others for a while. When he still wasn’t sure what he was drinking, he grabbed his glass daringly and just smelled it. It was just soda. Jimmy was staring at his moves with a puzzled face.

“Sorry about that… I’m supposed to keep an eye on what you drink.” Brian smiled, blandly.

“Guess Emily called all of you to give her rules to babysit me in a bar, huh?”

“Yep, that’s her…” Jimmy analyzed Brian as he asked for another whiskey with ice. “How’s your hand, man?”

“Ah well, still hurts a little when I move my fingers but the swelling is almost gone.”

“I can see you already got rid of the cast.”

“Yeah, that thing itches and gets fucking hot. It’s terrible. I should’ve thought twice before punching the wall like that.”

“Yeah… She can drive you crazy, huh?” Brian smirked, drinking his scotch.

“You know that very well, do ya...”

They traded glances through the corner of their eyes and instead of shooting daggers, they smiled peacefully. They were the only persons who knew Emily that well. And it wasn’t such a jealous thought exceptionally this time

“The way she controls you then make you surrender nice and slow to her charm…” Jimmy grinned at the recollection of their previous discussions. Very bad ones, but she was always right.

“Making you have second thoughts about your opinion you were so sure about, and then you ends up taking hers as your own. That’s Emily.” Brian completed.

“Yeah and… the way she laughs and…”

“Her smile.” Brian couldn’t contain his soft, dreamy voice when he added it to Jimmy’s sentence.

He thought about her lips, her ardent kisses, every curve her body held as he traced her skin. Jimmy had the same pictures on his head. But none of them would ever dare to say that to each other, obviously.
They looked at each other again, chuckling at that weird conversation, and drank from their glasses. They knew exactly what they were talking about. Every inch of that woman messed with their insides like crazy.

“She’s always taking care of me. I shouldn’t complain. She’s the first woman who ever… cared about me that way, you know?” Jimmy played with his glass, looking at it.

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Brian did know. Cause Emily was the first woman he ever cared about that way too. And that he ever truly loved.

“Brian, I…" Jimmy glanced at him again. "I want to show you something.”

Jimmy fumbled in his jacket pocket and placed a little box, very similar to Zack's, into the counter. Brian was trading confused looks between Jimmy and the box.

"Don't get me wrong, man, I love you, but..."

"Stupid... just open it." so he did it. And saw a silver ring with a diamond on top, simpler than Zack's but much more Emily's style.

"Wow! This is... huge, man. It's... You're gonna..." Brian wanted to feel truly happy for his friend decision but he couldn't really show a smile. He was even stumbling in words. "Why didn't you show it to all of us before, back at the studio?"

"I don't want anyone to see it before her. You know, to keep bad luck away. I had enough jinx for an entire life. And I'm only showing it to you cause... you're my best friend, you always were, and I’m very aware you two share this... connection that I can't even begin to explain or understand so... I wanted to ask you first, if you think it's a mistake. Just... be true to me, man. Cause I really want to make her happy and I want to make her love me again, that’s what I want the most. But if you say it's not the right thing to do, I'm returning it tomorrow."

Brian thought about Jimmy’s speech for a while.

"I'm not… the right person to answer you that and you know it, Jim." Brian looked away cause shame was burning on his eyes and he didn't want to let it show.

"Yes, you are. You don't need to keep lying to me, I know how you feel about her. I can see it on the way you talk about her, when you look at her. I don't wanna hurt you, man..."

Brian drank a sip and stood silent for a while, facing the glass. So he wasn't as good to hide feelings as he thought he was.

"Don’t worry about me. I'll be okay, Jimmy. Really. She deserves someone that can make her happy, understand her and love her every day, to stay by her side no matter what, cause she's been through a lot in her life. So... can you do that? Can you be that man?"

Jimmy's turn to think about Brian’s words. He knew he had a long road to be a better man than he was right now. He needed to take care of her just as she was taking care of him. And part of it was to give up the reckless, dosed and junkie life he was living for the last years for a healthier and normal one. Could he do that?

"I wanna try. Cause I really think she's the one for me."

Brian nodded several times, trying not to show his disappointment and at the same time, trying to be understandable.

"Then I couldn't imagine anyone better for her." he had to push himself to the limit, but he was able to say those words in a believable way. Even when all his head was shouting was that he was the right man for her instead.

Jimmy smiled in appreciation.

"So... are you sure you're good with this? I mean... Are we good?"

"Yep, man... as long as you can keep your words, I'm good." Brian finally was able to smile, with a much hidden heavy heart. And Jimmy smiled back, closing the little box and placing it back on his pocket.

“When are you proposing?” Brian asked, suspiciously eyeing some guy that just entered the room and passed by them. No… It couldn’t be him. He wouldn’t dare.

“Well I was thinking… maybe before we leave to Hawaii or on Christmas Night after Zack, just to steal his thunder.” They both chuckled.

“That would be hilarious to watch…” Brian drank his last sip and eyed the guy at a table with great distance from them, confirming his suspicions. “That motherfucking asshole... I can’t believe it…”

“What? Who?” Jimmy asked, clueless.

“Fuck… it’s that ass that used be a good friend of mine. Scott… He’s sitting right in that table in the back. And I need just one good reason not to go over there and smash his brains under my foot.” Brian was extremely angry, he felt his blood boiling on his head.

“Oh shit… that arrogant moron I punched once. But why are you enraged like that? Should I have punched him more?”

Brian frowned at Jimmy and understood why he was so cool about that. Emily hasn’t told him about what happened in Seattle. And he knew this would get very ugly if he’d tell him now.

“Well I… probably shouldn’t be the one telling you this but… I think you deserve to know.” Brian threw a big puff of air before starting. “Back in Seattle, after Emily left the stage in the middle of the concert, she stumbled upon him at some bar. He said he could give her some heroine for free and since she was running out of money, she went to his hotel room with him. When she was loaded enough, he…” he gulped. “…he forced himself on her.”

“What… he…? Did he…?” Jimmy was thunderstruck, but soon enough fury was being welcomed into his veins.

“Well… she didn’t let him go through with it. She managed to escape after… biting his dick.” He giggled.

“She did… she did what?!” he wanted to laugh, exactly as Brian wanted by the time she told him that story. But his anger was far from gone.

“Yeah, that’s Emily… But he pushed her head on a table. She was bleeding when I found her unconscious on that park. So I promised myself that if I ever had the chance to see him again – oh and how much I wanted that chance – I would just make a good use of my knuckles on that disgusting face until I can’t feel my fingers no more.” He said those last words with his teeth closed and clenched fist.

Jimmy was suddenly feeling exactly like Brian described. Desperate to wear off some of his energy and rage on that lame pretty face and scar it for life.

Then, Scott just passed by them again, going outside probably to smoke, they figured. They traded glances and Jimmy raised one of his brows, devilishly.

“There’s an alley in a few blocks from here…” Jimmy used his darkest tone.

“Yeah, I’m picturing it now. And he just went outside…” Brian answered as darker, fist still clenched.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

They left money on the counter to pay for their drinks, stood up and walked by to their table to let the guys know they were heading off.

“But we just got here, guys! C’mon! My wife didn’t even call me yet.” Johnny shout it, making everybody aware of the fact that he would probably have to crash on someone’s couch for the night if he kept having more shots.

“We have business to take care… See you fuckers later.” Jimmy tapped Johnny’s and Zack’s shoulder and left with Brian.

“I’ll be on his left side, you take the right… Let’s take a walk and have a little chat with the coward.” Brian commanded as they approached him on his back, smoking.

“Hey my friend!”

“Long time no see!”

One bump at a time on his sides and he had to turn his head from one side to another too many times to know what this was all about. Jimmy and Brian started to walk fast and drag him along with them, against his will.

“What the… what is that?”

“It’s fate, my friend. Coming to get ya.”

“Yeah, you dared to defy your luck and came back here, with that shameless face of yours, thinking we would just forget about your filthy actions. But that’s not how it works, buddy. Naah…” Brian said softly closed to his ear, threatening.

Scott tried to disentangle from their strong hold on his arms and stopped walking.

“WALK!”

“Look, dudes… whatever you heard about me from that…”

Jimmy pressed his arm as hard as he could and by the way he grimaced, you could tell physiotherapy worked very well on him.

“Better watch your mouth, scumbag. We’re not here to listen to you. We’re here to teach you how to be a man. Cause apparently no one ever taught you that.” Jimmy finished his sentence and finally threw Scott in that dark alley at the end of the street.

He tried to run through them but both their hands stopped on his chest and pushed him to the ground this time. Brian and Jimmy walked inside the alley and closed the space between the wall and them. When Scott tried to get up again, he got pushed against the wall. And before he could even think about passing through them again, Jimmy got a hold of his arms behind his back and held him tight for Brian to give the first punch right in his nose.
Brian’s hand hurt more than ever but it was such a good pain at the sight of Scott’s bleeding nose.

“HEY! I’m all alone here. This is not fucking fair, you cowards! Get off of me!”

“Oh I was waiting for too long to show you what’s fair!” and another punch a little closer to his mouth and chin. It hurt Brian’s hand even more. The guy groaned a lot and moving a lot on Jimmy’s hold. “Who’s the coward here anyway??? Who likes to attack women whey they are vulnerable??”

“That’s exactly how you deserve to end up with. Alone. With two very pissed off guys. And never… NEVER with a woman.” Another fist full, but this time, on the guy’s stomach, which made him have difficulty to breathe. “Asshole! How did you have the balls to show up here again, huh? Really thought we were just forget about what you did?”

“I didn’t do anything! She stole from me, that whore. HELP!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! Haner, it’s my turn now.” Jimmy said in the guy’s ear with gritted teeth.
Jimmy pushed his chest against the wall harshly and Brian assumed his place, holding the guy tight on his grip. He tried hard to run this time, but Brian was even stronger than Jimmy.

Jimmy didn’t hesitate to punch the guy everywhere. Scott’s eyebrows were both bleeding, his lip was cracked and he already had swollen cheeks. But Jimmy was eager for more. He wanted to see him drop unconscious on the floor. Deeply, his big wish was to kill him.

“You better never… try… to get near her again. Do you hear me?” he stopped for a while to get closer and the guy was almost out. “HUH???”

“Okay…man, okay, just… stop it, please.”

“Oh you’re begging for mercy now? I bet a lot of them begged you and you never stopped, did you?”

“Stop…”

“No!” Jimmy couldn’t contain his rage anymore. He just pulled the guy away from Brian’s grip by his jacket and tossed him on the floor. He wasn’t fighting anymore.

“You’re lucky I wasn’t there that night, you son of a bitch.” Jimmy was on top of him, beating him like crazy and Brian was starting to worry about it.

“Rev, man, it’s enough. C’mon, he’s out. Let’s get out of here.” Brian tried to stop him but apparently he wasn’t even listening. “HEY! JIMMY! ENOUGH MAN! YOU’RE KILLING HIM! LET’S GO!!”

Brian had to use his little strength left to contain Jimmy and get him out of the ground. But in a second before he was getting up, Jimmy saw something falling off the guy’s jacket pocket close to his hand. He didn’t even check what it was. All he knew was that it was a vial of something and hid it on his own pocket before Brian could notice.

The guy moved his head slowly, groaning in pain. So Brian came closer and whispered those last words:

“If I ever see you around here again, you better have your grave digged, you piece of shit.” He spat on him and ran away from there with Jimmy.

As they both made a good use of their legs before the police got there, all Jimmy could think about was the vial inside his pocket. What it held. If it was painkillers. Something he knew he shouldn’t even be thinking about but he was. His mind kept going there insistently as adrenaline filled his veins, like an obsession. Like he needed that to survive.

“Just like in the old times, man…” Brian chuckled to Jimmy as he ran.

“Yeah… like the old times…” Jimmy didn’t smile. He was too busy thinking about the pain on his hand and the pills on his pocket he was desperate to swallow.

Notes

Sooo... this chap was sooo good to write!! justice finally!! hahaha =p

but... a lot has happened here... need to know your thoughts about every single thing, please! =p

(oh and...by the way, ppl really like to steal from that guy, huh?? xD)