The Way Your Heart Sounds

After two hours of rushing around, Lauren and Jimmy were finally all dressed and ready to go. Brian was driving the three to the ceremony location, where they would meet up with the rest of their friends. Michelle had already been there for a while helping her sister prepare, so it was just the three of them. The ride was pretty quiet, just some Iron Maiden playing over the car speakers. Jimmy had his head resting against Lauren’s shoulder, and was playing with her hair, styled in gentle curls for the day.

“I said this a couple times already, but you look amazing,” Jimmy mumbled to her.

“You don’t look so shabby yourself,” Lauren smiled.

“I can’t wait to take that dress off later,” he whispered into her ear. They smirked at each other, and Lauren leaned in to kiss him.

“Are you two making out in my back seat?” Brian asked, looking at them through the front mirror.

“We’re doing other stuff in your back seat too,” Jimmy answered, with no hint of sarcasm. Brian rolled his eyes and smiled.

After twenty minutes or so, they finally pulled up to the wedding venue. It was a beautiful beach side resort, the kind you see in commercials. Lauren couldn’t help but stare out the window, enchanted by the gorgeous surroundings. Brian pulled up to a valet, and the three of them got out of the car. They were escorted by one of the resort employees to an outside set up of chairs, tents, and more. Some people were already here, but none of them Lauren recognized. Jimmy introduced her to a few people, mostly members of Matt and Val’s family, and a few friends of the band she had yet to meet. Everyone mingled and chatted with each other while they were waiting for the ceremony to start.

Lauren felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Zacky there.

“Don’t you look beautiful? Rev is a lucky man,” he said.

“You’re very sweet,” Lauren smiled at him, and was blushing a bit as well.

“And I’m very lucky!” Jimmy grinned. He kissed Lauren on the cheek. “By the way, do you know where we’re supposed to go, Zack?”

“Matt said his father would come grab us when they were ready,” Zacky shrugged.

“All we have to do is stand there and look good. Not a problem,” Brian shrugged, with a smug smile etched onto his face.

A few minutes later, Matt’s father walked over to the group. Jimmy introduced him to Lauren, but she could tell it was Matt’s father before the introduction. He told the guys that it was time to go, so Jimmy kissed her before leaving with the guys. She decided to sit with Lacey, since it was one of the only people there she was familiar with from a previous encounter.

The two of them chatted briefly before the ceremony started. First, the groomsmen and bridesmaid took their places besides the alter. Jimmy was grinning ear to ear, and blew a kiss at Lauren when he made eye contact with her. Matt was the next one to take his place, anxiously awaiting Val’s arrival. When she started to make her way down the aisle, Lauren noticed that Val’s hair was a deep brown color as opposed to the usual blonde. Either way, she looked absolutely fantastic. Matt was grinning ear to ear as she walked down the aisle towards him.

They had a brief ceremony, and exchanged vows. Lauren couldn’t help but smile at how happy the young couple was together. She knew that she and Jimmy would be in their position soon enough. If their relationship kept going as fast as it had already, it was only a matter of time before they were up on the alter. Just thinking about marrying the man of her dreams made Lauren’s heart race.

Once the ceremony was over, everyone made their way back to the resort’s dining hall for
dinner. Lauren eventually met up with Jimmy, Brian, and Michelle. While they were in the middle of having dinner, Jimmy grabbed her arm.

“Why’d they have to have an open bar?” he whispered, “It’s like God is mocking me.”

“You’ll be fine babe, I promise. Stick with me or Brian,” she replied. Jimmy nodded.
Brian was nice enough to hang around with Lauren and Jimmy for a majority of the night, which helped to keep Jimmy entertained, and keep his mind away from alcohol. Matt eventually also made his way over to their little group.

“I got something for you,” he said to Jimmy. He handed Jimmy a CD.

“You really finished it?” Jimmy smiled.

“I had to wait for Val to fall asleep. She probably would have chopped my nuts off otherwise,” he snickered.

“We gotta listen to this now, who has a CD player?” Jimmy asked, turning his head back and forth.

“There’s one in the car?” Brian suggested.

“If we leave for just ten minutes will Val rip my head off?” Jimmy asked Matt.

“Probably. Let’s do it,” Matt said.

The four of them rushed out of the dining hall and asked the valet where the car was. The valet offered to bring the car over, but Matt and Jimmy said they would go themselves. Less likely to be caught by Val that way.

As soon as Brian unlocked his car, Matt and Jimmy hopped in the front two seats and immediately shoved the CD in the CD player.

The music started with a gentle lullaby type of melody, but quickly slammed into dueling guitars, larger than life drums, and Matt’s powerful vocals.

“Dragged ya down below, down to the devil’s show, to be his guest forever…”

Matt and Jimmy were grinning and jumping around like two five-year-olds in the front seat as they listened to the song. The five minutes seemed to go by pretty quickly, and then it was over.

“I love it. I’m so fucking excited!” Jimmy yelled.

“This album is going to be unreal,” Brian added.

“I agree. I’m stoked. But we should get back inside before my wife divorces me,” Matt joked.
They quickly made their way back inside, thankfully Val didn’t seem to notice they were gone. With all the family and friends she invited, surely she had plenty of people to talk to.

The rest of the night was spent dancing, talking, and eating dessert. Brian and Jimmy continued to talk about the song they had just listened to in the car. Their excitement was contagious. Lauren could feel herself anticipating their new album already.

Aside from that, she was so thankful for Brian tonight. Not only did he hang out with Jimmy the entire night to distract him from the urge to drink, but Brian himself didn’t have a single drink. Lauren and the two guys were probably the one people not drinking, but at least Jimmy didn’t feel alone.

Around midnight, Jimmy tugged on Lauren’s arm after he returned from the bathroom.

“Can we get out of here soon?” he mumbled. She looked at him and noticed he seemed anxious. The child-like excitement he had for most of the night was gone.

“Yeah, sure. You alright?” she asked.

“I don’t feel so great. Maybe I need to go home and sleep,” he said quietly. Lauren frowned and put an arm around him.

“Let me grab Brian.”

Lauren found Brian and asked him if he’d be okay with leaving a little early. He said of course, and that he just needed to find Michelle first. Once he found her, and they all said goodbye to the happy new couple, they were on their way out the door to Brian’s car.

“What’s the matter?” Brian asked Jimmy as they were getting in the car. Brian knew automatically that something was wrong without Jimmy having to say anything.

“Nothing. Just not feeling so well. Kind of light-headed,” Jimmy answered. He cuddled up to Lauren in the back seat, who rubbed his back to comfort him.

“No worries. I’ll have you home soon,” Brian said.

They managed to get home a little quicker than they had gotten to the venue in the first place, probably because there was less traffic this late at night. When they arrived at Jimmy’s house, Brian walked the two of them up to the door and made sure they got inside okay. He gave both of them a hug and told Lauren to call him if she needed anything.

While Brian left, Jimmy made his way to the bedroom and plopped down onto the bed. He was lazily shedding the suit he had on, gradually letting pieces of it slide off of the bed and onto the floor.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Lauren asked, taking a seat next to him.

“I lied about not feeling well," he blurted out.

Lauren looked down at him with her eyebrows furrowed. He was staring at the ceiling, but shifted his gaze towards her. She could see the reflection of the moonlight from the window on his pretty blue eyes. He sighed heavily.

“There were people doing cocaine in the bathroom. I thought about joining them,” he said quietly. Lauren frowned and took his hand, rubbing the back of it with her thumb.

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I'm so proud of you for getting out of that situation,” she said.

“Can you lay down with me?” He asked.

She nodded, then slipped out of her dress and into a nightgown. She also picked Jimmy’s suit up off the floor and hung it back up. Sliding into bed, she rested herself against his side. He was only wearing boxers now, the same thing as this morning.

“Feeling any better?” she asked quietly, rubbing his chest.

“A little bit,” he mumbled. “You’re here. So it could be worse.”

“Get some sleep sweetheart. I’ll be right here if you need me,” she murmured. He hummed in response, and drifted off to sleep shortly after.

Notes

Here it is- comments appreciated as always. :)