Denial

“Nessa!” Izzie hugged her friend as soon as she opened the door. “How are you?”
“So good now!” Nessa smiled widely at the sight of the bag and tray with foam cups in Izzie’s hand. Dunkin’donuts, the absolute favorite of both.
The two women walked into the house and sat down. Nessa’s cat Toshio nestling in Izzie’s lap, ready to get cuddled with. Izzie loved Nessa’s tuxedo cats, even though she really was a dog person. She was absently stroking the cat, when she looked over to her friend, asking the same question once again.
“How are you?”
The other woman shrugged and looked sad. “He came over yesterday, stood at my door, told me he made a mistake” Izzie’s eyes grew wide, letting out a squeal. She startled Toshio, who looked for cover behind the chair Nessa was sitting in, peeking around it every now and then.
“You didn’t go back to him, did you?” Izzie asked, her arms leaning on her legs now, as she studied her friend’s face.
Nessa looked offended “Of course not!” Izzie let go a sigh of relief as Nessa continued “I didn’t forget what he did to me, but I’m lonely you know... And I guess he ruined everything for me, I mean, how can I trust another man ever again? He broke me, Izzie”

Izzie’s heart broke, seeing her friend like that. She sure didn’t deserve it, she was so damn sweet and just too nice for this goddamn world, she wanted to kick the troll’s ass for hurting her like that. There is something you should probably know about Izzie. She was the nicest, most social person you would ever meet, until you did something to her loved ones, Matt, her family, her friends, she turned into a monster and was ready to kick some serious ass. That monster was steadily emerging, now she noticed her friend being all shattered to pieces.
“Do you miss him?”
Nessa looked at her hands, fumbling with the hem of her shirt. She took the cat of the floor and put it on her lap, to give her hands something to do, she sighed “I don’t know, I don’t really miss him, but more someone, you know… Just someone to cuddle into at night.”
The other woman nodded, completely understanding her friend’s desire. Even though Izzie had never been without Matt, or alone at all for that matter, she had been alone in their bed for so many nights when Matt was on tour. She missed him like crazy, even though she knew he would always come back to her. She wondered what it would be like if she didn’t have that certainty.

“Maybe you need to get out there again? Try dating someone new?” She tried carefully
“NO! I’m done, I’m perfectly fine with my cats and my friends, I’ll die an old cat lady. No. No dating for me. Ever again. I’m so over it”
It made Izzie feel sad inside when she heard the statement, but on the other hand, she wanted to prove Nessa wrong and find the perfect guy for her. She was even more convinced now that Johnny would be that guy. He would never cheat on her ever, because he knew how it felt. And he would be the best one to mend her broken heart.
The two sat in comfortable silence, both completely lost in thoughts.

“I ended up having a panic attack after he left” Nessa said so quietly, Izzie was barely able to hear her. “I was hyperventilating and I didn’t really sleep anymore”
“Why didn’t you call me? I would have been here within no time”
“Matt is finally home again, I didn’t want to interrupt”
“That’s just plain stupid! First of all, you are my friend, you are important to me, I’m here for you. Second of all…. Matt will be home for a few months now, a night apart will do us good.” Izzie winked and stood up to walk over to her friend, pulling her in a hug.
“Never do that again, okay? You are not alone, Matt, me, and even the others, I know they would help you wherever they can.”
“Thanks Iz”

“You know what you need? A night out, it’s been forever”
“I don’t know, don’t know if I can handle being out… Maybe just hanging out or something? Nothing too special?
“No, of course not, but my lovely husband and his little garage band have this show on Saturday” Izzie chuckled, putting sarcasm in her voice. Nessa laughed
“Matt won’t like it at all you call them that”
“He isn’t the boss” More laughs between the two women. “I would like you to come, hang out, drink, enjoy the music. You can even come out to dinner with Mia, Tammy and me beforehand. The guys will be busy anyways. It will just be a fun night”
“I don’t know Iz, I mean.. large groups of people and all…”
Izzie looked at her friend as if she said the dumbest thing ever “You won’t have to stand in the crowd, we’ll just be backstage” She smiled “Come on, Nessa, I know you want to. You can even drive yourself and bring Charlotte if you like to. If you decide to get smashed I will make sure you get home.”
Nessa hesitated, but mentioning her beloved car pushed her over the edge.
“Okay, you know I never turn down a good meal and drinks. I will be there.”

On the other side of town the guys were reaching the point where they all knew rehearsal would soon end.
“Okay, if we want to play Acid Rain, we need to do rehearse it again, it’s not there yet” Matt stated with his mic in hand. They decided to give the fans a new live set before they would go on a hiatus and Acid Rain was part of that new setlist. But they all knew it needed some work to get it to the point they were all comfortable performing it.
“Tomorrow, it’s already 6” Brian sighed
“Yes, tomorrow” Zack agreed as he fell down on the couch, watching Arin move from behind his drums. “Arin, grab some beers”
The guys all sat down and Matt scribbled down some last things on a piece of paper.
“We agree on Acid Rain? And the double encore?”
They all nodded.
“Mia will be so happy we are playing LPOH again, she loves the song” Zack smiled.
“All the women do” Johnny added with a chuckle “Probably because of Brian’s dance routine”
All the men laughed. In the beginning Brian might have used his fun in LPOH to see which women in the audience would be up for some adventure, but not ever since Tammy was around. Now he was a strictly one woman man, disappointing dozens of fangirls at every show. All the married men had been loyal to their women and Johnny thought about how it would be. No worries, just someone to go home with. His thoughts were interrupted by Matt checking things off his to do list. Matt always did that days prior to a concert, organizing every little detail, the other guys never had to worry about a thing, Matt usually had already taken care of it.

“Arin, do we need to put people on the guestlist for you? I mean, with us playing at home, there might be some people you want to invite?”
Arin shrugged “No one special, my parents, the usual suspects”
“You Christ?”
“My parents are trying to come, but they are out of town”
“Good, good” Matt replied faking ignorance. “Who knows you will meet, right?”
A smirk pulled his lips, making Johnny wonder what the hell was going on. He couldn’t help but play the defense.
“I hope to meet a lot of willing fangirls, have some fun. With you guys being on the leach, there are more left for me.”
“And me!” Arin piped up, a big smile on his face.
“Sure kid, for you too”

“So when us married men are entertaining our wives, you two bachelors will use this show as one big fucking speed date?” Zack chuckled.
“Yeah, that sounds about right” Johnny confirmed with a grin. He was determined to at least make one of the visitors his, or maybe he got lucky and he could get two of them to entertain him.
“Johnny, you should keep your eyes open for me too, I mean… I don’t see much from behind the drums, you need to be my eyes, man. Every other song little meeting back at the drums? Do a roundup of the best candidates?”
“Sure thing!” Johnny high fived the kid, drank the last of his beer and got up.
“Ready to go Sanders? I promised your wife to bring you back in time. Speaking of Izzie, what did she mean with the you performing shirtless?”
“What?!” Brian and Zack let out surprised “Will be reliving the old days? Don’t know if that is very appealing. Not all of us have aged as good as I did” Brian said with flair, patting Matt’s belly. Matt shot him an angry glare, while the others laughed loudly.
“Hell no, just a little bet, which she isn’t going to win… I will …”Matt looked around at his friends
Johnny looked at the larger man with a smirk on his face “What’s this bet about? Usually when you and Izzie play games like this, something hilarious comes out, I’m wondering if I could help her!”
Matt smiled, thinking his friend would be the best person to help her, but he wasn’t helping his wife, even though he would be very willing to help his friend get a nice girl.
“Shit, remember that one time Matt and Izzie had a bet and she dragged us all into it?”Zack let out.

They all remembered that bet. What it had been about was remembered by none of them, but the outcome was that Matt had dragged them all into it, so when he lost, they all had to shave their heads. It was Izzie’s way of getting rid of Matt’s long hair, which she hated. In the end Johnny had been the one saving the day, telling Izzie it would be so much better if the guys just followed his trend setting hair for once… Leaving Brian with a Mohawk he never really wanted and Matt with a stripe of long hair all across his head, which eventually only got in the way during performances.
“You are not dragging us into something again, Shadz, I mean, I hated that hair! It took me too fucking long to grow it back into something decent again” Brian muttered as he looked over to Zack “I still can’t believe how you got out of shaving your head back then”
Zack smirked “It might be a perk if the love of your life is best friends with the one winning the bet”

The other guys made gagging noises at Zack’s remark. “Love of his life… Won’t you look at him…. Happy he finally found something that’s crazy enough to spend her life with him”
“You are just jealous she chose me over you… Simple as that!” Zack smacked the back of his best friend’s head.
“Nah, I think he is jealous of Mia, Z, I mean, we all know Brian would rather have you to himself. You know those rumors always have some truth in them” Johnny laughed out, receiving killing glances by both men.
“Cut it out with the Synacky remarks.. what do people need more, seeing we both got married?”
“That doesn’t mean a thing” The smallest of the group has found his fun now and wasn’t planning on giving it up soon. “There are enough men that leave their 20 year old marriage to be with their ‘best friend’” He airquoted the last few words.
Unfortunately for Johnny the larger part of the group had lost interest in the topic and went back to what it started with.

“What is the bet about? Can we do something to thwart her plans?” Brian asked.
“Nah, I’m just proving a point, if I don’t, she’ll thinks she is god or some other supernatural thing that can do what she want. She needs to be thought a lesson, that’s for sure” A devious smile got over Matt’s face “That is why I’m certain I will win”
“So you have to perform shirtless if Izzie wins, what will you get out of it? I mean, you are so convinced about winning, must be a good reward” Arin said as he cleaned out the mess they had made during the day.
“We will go to the cabin and she will be my slave for a whole weekend” Matt grinned, already excited by the idea.
“What… Nah..Just leave it, I don’t even want to know” Brian clapped Matt’s shoulder before leaving the room, Zack following him quickly.
“See you guys tomorrow!”
Johnny and Matt walked out of the room towards Johnny’s car, heading over to the Italian place to grab Matt some food. “Sure you don’t want to stay over for dinner?”
“Are you kidding me? I know where that is heading if you are ordering Italian food.” Johnny smiled, but Matt could see the hint of pain on his face.

Matt got out of the car and put his hand up to wave Johnny goodbye as the latter drove off. Even though he would hate to lose the bet, he would love for Izzie to be right. It would be great if they could make their friend happy again.

Notes

I'm so embarrassed this took me so long!
My life is kinda busy at the moment and I totally found out the hard way that keeping up with writing two stories might be a little hard for me.. So yeah... I'm sorry!

Hope you like it anyway! This is a little in between chapter, certainly not my best one... BUT next chapter Johnny will meet Nessa, so yay, it will pick up, hopefully