Insignificant

I quickly ran to my best friends side after seeing him collapse on the ground with tears in his weary eyes. After hugging him close, and making a dumb remark about him looking like he did years ago with the smeared eyeliner, he laughed and pushed away from my tight grip. It was good to know I could still make him smile. I pulled him up from the ground, and he leaned in close, saying something about how I was an asshole for making his 2005 days sound like a bad thing, and how he looked badass.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that." I smiled. We made our way off stage, trying not to trip over anything in the darkness. Looking over at Brian, I noticed he was already wearing that obvious fake smile. I don't know about the other guys, but I could always tell when he was faking a smile or not, mostly because his real one was bright and so unforgettable.
"That was quite a stunt you pulled, Gates." I looked up at Matt who'd just welcomed us back by saying something about what just went down on stage.
"Yeah," Bri looked down, scratching the side of his head; something he always did when in thought. "But then my man Zacky came over, and said I'd make myself look like I did in my 2005 days. Whatever the hell that means. I looked fucking great. He's probably just jealous." He patted my back as if to say it's okay, I would make it to his level of progress one day. "Hardly." I laughed, shoving his arm off of me. Matt nodded, probably feeling bad about Brian's little show out front.
"Well, is that the end of the show? I feel like we should at least go out, and say good night to everyone." Johnny spoke up. I reached over and flicked him on his ear.
"No you short shit. I'm too hungry to do that." I joked. "We can let Matt do that."

Matt again just nodded, and jumped out on stage. I managed to steal a few glances over at Bri, and it was kinda sad to see him having to put on such an act around us. His smile seemed to fade more, and more everyday as time went on. As did all of ours, I suppose, Brian was just easy to pick out of the all of us.
"So do any of you wanna chill at my place for a bit?" Syn asked after Matt came back.
"Sure," I responded with a smile, not wanting him have to spend a night alone after something so intense happened to him. "That'd be cool."
Matt shrugged, showing a sorrowful look. "I'm sorry dude, Val and I have something to do later tonight. It's really late, but we have to go over to her parents house." Disappointment swept over Brian's face, but he was good at keeping it all in his eyes.
"I would, but I'm just really fuckin' tired dude."
"Well no one asked you, you fuck," Brian laughed, lightly hitting him in the shoulder. "It's okay." Johnny nodded at the response, and said goodbye to all of us.
"Later."
After everyone, left Brian and I made our way out to my car. "Oh great," He pretended to whine. "I'm stuck with having to stay with you the whole night." I laughed, and backed out of the parking spot. "Yep. Looks like you have a long night ahead of you."

Once we made it to Brian's house, and got inside I immediately flopped down on the couch, waiting to be tossed a beer. Tonight had been kind of stressful for all of us and all I could think about was relaxing after the dumb show. "Lets take shots." I said, looking over at Synyster Gates. He turned on the tv, offering his sinister smirk.
"You know you're not going to be able to handle it, right?"
"Oh really? I bet you I will be able to handle it." I dared, searching for where my friend kept his vodka. After finding it, I got out two shot glasses. "Are you kidding? Fuck the tv. We're going to listen to our own shit white doing this." He turned on his home sound system, and one of the songs from our new album began blaring throughout the house.
"Really?" He looked over at me with a serious look.
"Um, yeah. You ever done this before?"
"No?" After hearing my response, a bark of laughter. I guess this would be interesting. I poured us a short, and clinked to Jimmy. We downed the drinks, and Brian thought he'd have a little fun in making this a game. He got out 6 more shot glasses and before I knew it, all of them were filled. "Alright, whoever downs all of the shots first gets to have the advantage in saying how many shots the other has to take next. No chaser."
"I like the way you think, Gates." I smiled.
"Oh, why thank you. Thank you very much, Vengeance." Brian counted down on his fingers until he got to one, and we began drinking as fast as we could.
"My my my, Vengeance. You got down 4 shots before I could get to my third one. I'm impressed. You've gotten better, huh? Alright well looks like you get to choose how many shots I take next." I showed an evil smile, and his facial expression changed to faking nervous. "You get to take 8 shots." I tried to hold back my laughter, but it wasn't working out very well. He brought his hand to his chest, gasping. "Vengeance! Are... Are you trying to get me drunk??" He questioned in over exaggerated concern. All I could do was let out all of my laughter, and nod. "You need to get your mind off of shit. I can fuckin' tell when you're faking shit." He went a little quiet, and tilted his head. I just poured 8 shots, and lined them up before him. "Oh come on, Zee. You should at least have to take half of that." Sighing, I agreed. "Fine." I lined up 4 shots of my own, and counted down. Glass after glass, I took all of my doses, finishing long before Brian. On the 6th shot he paused for a moment, coughing. "You're. Evil." He choked after the 8th shot. I nodded, agreeing. "What's my name? What's my name? Vengeance." He faked laugher, and stared at me until the both of us started laughing for real.

10, 12, 16, 17... 18 shots later with A Little Piece of Heaven blaring in the back ground, we were sitting on the couch laughing our asses off, and holding beers. There wasn't even anything to really be laughing at, but that didn't matter. We had too much alcohol running through our system. "Gates, you are thoroughly drunk."
"Vengeance, you are thoroughly obvious." He slurred.
"What?" I questioned, laughing so hard I swear I almost fell off the couch. "That doesn't even make any sense! Thoroughly obvious about what??" Brian scotched over to me a little more, shrugging his shoulders. "Oh dude," He began. "Do you remember that time we were all on acid, and Jimmy was jumping up at down going on and on about how obvious it was that the fucking trees were giving off oxygen? He said he could fucking see it coming out of them!" I doubled over in laughter, sighing as I tried to catch my breath. This was definitely the best time I've had in a long ass time, and I could tell it was the same for Bri. "Dude yeah, what the hell was he talking about??" When I got no response I took that as a break to catch my breath, and relax back into the couch. We both contained ourselves, and all I could hear was my own steady breathing. I don't know why I would ask this, or why this thought would even enter my mind, but as soon as I asked it, I was hoping that the loud music would be more distracting than my question.
"Brian, what was it like for you to loose Jimmy?" I looked over at my friend, and he remained silent. Just stared into blank space. Finally, he looked over at me, and began to answer.
"It hurt. It hurt walking in and seeing him like that, and it hurt shaking him as I tried to wake him up." His response was more or less depressing than just a drunk response, which is what I was expecting. I opened my mouth to apologize, but I couldn't answer. I felt a hand on my side, trailing upwards. I looked at the hand on my side, and followed the arm to Synyster's shoulder. He was looking at me with the most curious, and concentrated face. His hand didn't stop there, he gripped the loose fabric around me, and used it to pull me closer. I just stared in amazement. What the hell was this mother fucker doing? Brian inched closer. His fingertips, barely running over my leg. He leaned in, pressing his lips against mine. I was inclined to push him away, but I didn't. I couldn't entirely register what was going on. He grabbed my hand, placing it on his shirt. He pulled me on his lap, and I just went along with it. We looked at each other for a moment, and I guess questioned our motives. I didn't exactly want to be doing this, but the more I thought about it I didn't not want to be. His eyes slowly wondered down my shirt, and to my pants. I leaned in when he pulled my head down a little, and forced our lips together. The kiss deepened, and I found my hands lightly roaming over his body. What the hell was I even doing?
Brian pulled back a little for air, and his eyes stared right back at mine, his mouth slightly hanging open. Before going back in to kiss me again, a question escaped his lips. "Why? What was it like for you?" I didn't answer, but drew us closer, kissing a drunken Brian.

I closed my eyes, letting his tongue wonder around my mouth, and lightly brush against mine. Brian pushed me off of him, and straddled my hips on the couch. I let it all happen, and allowed our lips collide as the night deepened, and melted away into a blissful blur.
I guess I just wondered how the fuck this would play out in the morning, and how much I would regret this if I even remembered it

Notes