The Way Your Heart Sounds

As they walked into the bar, almost every person there greeted Jimmy. He must be a regular here. They spotted Brian in the corner of the bar, with his head down.

“Hey Jimmy. Sorry to bother you this late man, but he won’t leave and I can’t serve him anymore,” the bartender said. He seemed young, probably a little younger than Jimmy. Seemed to know Jimmy and Brian pretty well.

“No worries Mike,” Jimmy said as he and Lauren approached Brian in the corner.

“Bri? Come on, I’m here to take you home.” Jimmy said, putting a hand on Brian’s shoulder. Brian poked his head up and made eye contact with both of them. He had no expression on his face at all.

“I know I’m really trashed… but isn’t she the nurse from a few days ago? At the hospital?” he mumbled, squinting at Lauren. Jimmy smiled.

“Yeah, she is. Surprised you remembered.”

“What….what’s she doing here?” Brian had trouble getting his sentences out.

“I was actually on a date with her when Mike called me,” Jimmy explained, holding an arm out to Brian, who was looking at Lauren.

“I can’t tell if I’m hallucinating or not... Is he lying?”

Lauren laughed and shook her head.

“Why’d you drag the poor chick out?” Brian asked, taking Jimmy’s arm. The bartender was right, he could hardly stand on his own. He struggled to stand even with assistance.

“I need her in case something happens to you,” Jimmy said. Lauren went to take Brian’s other arm. Jimmy said farewell to the bartender, and they slowly dragged Brian out of the bar. They didn’t even make it to Jimmy’s car before Brian threw up on Jimmy’s shoes.

“You’re lucky I love you so much,” Jimmy grumbled, looking down.

The ride home was extremely quiet. Lauren was wondering if Brian had nodded off at one point, but every time she turned around to check on him, he was just staring out the window. Jimmy had yet to ask Brian about what happened with his girlfriend, but she figured that he would ask after she left. It was probably already embarrassing enough for Brian that she was here.

They stopped at Lauren’s house. Jimmy told Brian he would be right back, and started to walk Lauren up to her front door.

“Do you want me to check him out? I have a stethoscope and stuff inside… He seems alright to me, though. Certainly not as bad as you were the other day,” she said. Jimmy sighed and nodded.

“That would be amazing of you, just for my own piece of mind.” She told Jimmy to go back and stay with Brian while she ran inside. Stopping at her bedroom first, she grabbed a stethoscope, a pen light, and a blood pressure cuff. She then stopped in the kitchen to grab a few plastic bags.

When she went back outside, Jimmy was sitting next to Brian in the backseat, but they didn’t seem to be talking. Brian probably couldn’t hold up much of a conversation right now. Lauren made her way over to them, and explained to Brian that she was going to check him out. He nodded, and didn’t seem to have any other input.

She checked his pulse, listened to his heart, checked his blood pressure, and checked his pupils. Nothing seemed to be too out of the ordinary.

“Just make sure that you stay with him tonight. Keep him on his side in case he throws up. Oh, and you’ll want these for the car ride,” she said, handing Jimmy the plastic bags. He smiled and hugged her very tightly.

“How can I ever thank you enough? I’m sorry again to drag you out of the house so late. I’ll call you tomorrow morning,” he said.

“Anytime, Jim. Feel free to call me anytime tonight if he gets worse as well.”

After Jimmy thanked her ten or twenty more times, he was off to bring Brian back to his house to sleep off the alcohol. Lauren went back inside, and sat on her bed. She couldn’t help but wonder if seeing his best friend like that would perhaps be a deterrent for Jimmy. Her first instinct was telling her no, but she thought she could hope a little. Now being wide awake, she decided to lay in bed reading for an hour or two before she dozed off.

When she woke up and saw that it was eight in the morning, she felt reassured. Since Jimmy hadn’t called during the night, Brian was probably doing fine. Her agenda for this morning was to shower, stop by the supermarket, and wait for Jimmy’s eventual phone call.
She started to get a little worried when it reached noon and he hadn’t called yet. As if he were reading her thoughts, he called a few minutes later.

“Hey Jimmy, how’s Brian?”

“He’s fine. Sorry I took so long to call. I was busy cleaning puke out of my carpet.” Lauren laughed, but felt a little bad for doing so.

“You didn’t give him a bucket or a small trash can?” she asked.

“Oh, I did. He missed,” Jimmy grumbled. Lauren stifled another laugh.

“Do you think he’s well enough to go to your friend’s party later?” she asked.

“Yeah I think so. He’s in the shower right now. We were planning to head over there around four or five, so I’ll stop by around four to pick you up?”

“Of course. I’ll see you later.”

Lauren was starting to feel a little nervous about meeting Jimmy’s friends as it approached four. She wasn’t exactly into their crowd of heavy metal, tattoos, and alcohol, so she worried that they would think she was boring.

A few minutes after four, Jimmy pulled up in front of her house. She could see Brian in the backseat through her window. Jimmy got out and walked up to the door. As soon as she opened the door, he grinned.

“I missed you,” he said, giving Lauren a quick kiss.

“I missed you too, Jimmy. I’m ready to go,” she said.

“Then off we go!”

Jimmy drove the three of them, and it was barely a five minute drive before Jimmy stopped the car and announced they had arrived. He got out of the car and linked arms with Lauren as they walked in. She wondered if the two of them acting like a couple bothered Brian at all. He seemed to be in his own little world.

When they walked inside, everyone was quite loud in their greetings to Jimmy and Brian. The first person to come over was a very muscular man with sunglasses, and a buzzed head. He had a young blonde woman attached to his side. Lauren immediately recognized him from the music videos she watched a few days ago as the singer in Jimmy’s band.

“Well well, who do we have here?” he asked, looking at Lauren. He smiled, showing off an adorable pair of dimples.

“Matt, Val, this is Lauren,” Jimmy responded. Lauren smiled and waved.

“Is this the chick I’ve been hearing about nonstop?” came another voice, which belonged to a green eyed man with two lip piercings. He seemed to emerge out of nowhere. Next to him was a short man who had a mohawk. Both of them looked familiar as well. From the band, she assumed.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Zacky. Welcome,” green eyed man said, holding out a hand to her. She shook his hand.

“This little shit is Johnny,” Zacky said, pointing to the mohawk man next to him. Being called ‘little shit’ didn’t seem to upset him all that much. He shrugged and smiled at Lauren.

“Now you know all of us,” Matt said. “I promise we’re not as wild as we look. Well, Jimmy is. But if you can handle him, you can handle us.”

Jimmy didn’t talk much, just smiled and nodded along with what his friends were saying. He also had his hand resting on her back.

“Come on in, no need to stand by the door like strangers. Drinks are in the kitchen,” Zacky said.

Notes

Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! Plenty more chapters to come. :)