Don't You Dare

As soon as the band arrived back in Huntington Beach for a two-day reprieve between tours, Jimmy, Brian, and Zack each packed a small bag and loaded up in Brian’s SUV then set off toward Phoenix at four o’clock in the morning. They only had 36 hours to drive all the way to Phoenix and back to California because the next leg of their tour was set to begin in two days, but they did it anyway.

The road ahead was dark. Zack drove in silence, focusing to keep awake. Jimmy, on the other hand, was out cold in the backseat, snoring ever so slightly. Brian, in the passenger seat, was buzzing with anticipation and fear.

The phone call with drunken British Aubrey had been their last substantial phone call. Other than that, their phone calls had been brief and their texts had been short. They were both busy and both struggling with the distance, and their communication had been suffering.

And now he was going to surprise her? Just show up at her house without warning? He was such an idiot. What if she wasn’t home? What if she didn’t want to see him? What if she had given up on him and found a new guy? Oh god, what if they showed up at her house while she was fucking him?

Brian’s stomach turned. He had gone from elated to fearful, assuming the worst and most ridiculous scenario, in a matter of seconds. And he worried that he had made a huge mistake jumping in the car to go see her without so much as a warning.

Though he never stopped actually missing her, the lack of communication had eased the physical effects of not being with her lately. But when he thought about the actual consequences of her giving up on him and moving on, the physical effects came back tenfold.

"You look like you're going to be sick," Zack observed as he glanced at his friend beside him.

“I feel like I’m going to be sick,” Brian replied.

“Don’t barf on me,” Jimmy muttered sleepily from the backseat as he adjusted himself to get more comfortable.

"You've barfed on me plenty of times,” Brian retorted.

“Yeah,” Jimmy huffed. “Don’t do it on me, though.”

Zack chuckled as Brian rolled his eyes at his friends then went back to staring out the window.

He was only six hours away from her. And the next 36 hours would tell him a lot about their future together.

Ø

Aubrey was busy cleaning up her kitchen when she heard a series of frantic, loud knocks on her door. It startled her, as she wasn’t expecting company, especially that early in the morning, and the urgency of the knocking heightened her fear.

Carefully, she crept over to her front door, glancing through her peephole. She blinked a few times then looked again. Was she seeing things? Hallucinating? Through the small window of the peephole, it looked like...

She quickly threw open the door to find her eyes had not been deceiving her - Brian, Jimmy, and Zack were standing on the other side of her door, smiling like mad idiots.

“HOLY SHIT!” Aubrey screeched, jumping through the door and pulling all three of them in simultaneously for a hug. “What are y’all doing here?”

God, Brian missed hearing her say y’all so much. Especially in person.

“We came to see you!” Jimmy exclaimed as they all pulled out of the hug.

She specifically pulled Brian in for his own hug. That eased a lot of Brian’s tension and fear immediately. Not to mention, she smelled amazing.

“I can’t believe y’all are really here!” Aubrey shouted, pulling away from him. “Come in, come in!”

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Zack regrettably informed her, wanting to be the one to break the bad news so Brian wouldn’t have to. “Twenty-four hours to be exact.”

Aubrey’s face fell into a soft frown. “Only one day?”

“Tour starts back in two days,” Jimmy explained.

“But we figured it was better than nothing,” Brian finally spoke.

Aubrey glanced at him and they locked eyes. It was obvious that there was so much that needed to be said between the two of them.

“Definitely better than nothing,” Aubrey agreed with a nod, not breaking eye contact.

“Oookay, come on, jackass,” Zack said to Jimmy. “Let’s go explore Phoenix so they can fuck.” He turned back to the couple, whose eyes were still locked, then he pointed to Brian. “You’ve got two hours and then you’re sharing her.”

Brian nodded but didn’t take his eyes off of Aubrey.

“Fine,” Jimmy huffed as he stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. He was ready to hang out with Aubrey. He didn’t come along for the boring six-hour drive just so Brian could fuck Aubrey. But he knew his friends each needed some time alone, especially after the last few tense weeks.

Their eyes stayed locked even after Jimmy and Zack walked out of her apartment and shut the door behind them.

Neither wanted to move. Or speak a single word. Would they fight? Would they just forget the tension from the last few weeks and have sex? Who was going to cave and speak first?

“Brian, I’m sor-”

“Don’t,” he stopped her. “I don’t know what you’re going to apologize for, but just don’t do it. I’m not apologizing for anything and you shouldn’t either. Our relationship has always been high on emotions and we need to stop apologizing for how we feel.”

She nodded. “It doesn’t even matter anymore now that you’re here.”

For the last few weeks, their lack of communication had been weighing heavy on her. They didn’t call or text each other nearly as much as they used to. And when one called or texted, the other’s comments and responses were short and brief.

She wanted to apologize for that. She wanted him to apologize for that.

But seeing him standing right in front of her? She didn’t even care about any of that anymore. All that mattered was that he was in Phoenix, in her apartment, in front of her. She didn’t want to fight. She didn’t want to argue. She just wanted him buried deep inside of her.

And minutes later, he was. Pumping into her furiously, panting and sweating above her as he fucked her on top of her kitchen table. God, how badly she had needed to be fucked by him. Needed. She could practically feel him in every fiber of her being, each time he pulled out and pounded back into her.

Once they had both come in the kitchen, they made their way to the bedroom to continue, but Brian couldn’t even get all the way down her hallway before he needed to be inside of her again. Needed. Pushing into her again so soon, without giving himself time to recover, made his balls ache. But he welcomed the pain and turned it into pleasure as he fucked her up against the wall in her hallway.

They finally made it into the bedroom, where their fucking quickly turned into making love. They had a lot of lost time to make up for and very little time to do it.

Sex had always been their vice, their most effective way of communicating. And maybe that wasn’t the foundation for a strong relationship or the healthiest vice to have, but at times, it was all they had.

Aubrey moaned as they flipped, with her on top, riding him.

“God, you’re so beautiful,” he rasped, digging his fingertips into her hips as she rolled them on top of his.

“Brian,” she moaned, so turned on hearing those words come out of his mouth.

He’d never get tired of hearing his name slip out of her mouth in a moan. She was moments away from an orgasm. Her third in merely an hour. Brian did not stop that fact from inflating his ego.

She came undone on top of him, throwing her head back in pure pleasure, moaning, her whole body trembling in involuntary waves. With the moment etched into his brain forever, he let go as well, crashing into her in the same way.

Ø

“Holy shit, Aubrey,” Lauren said discreetly as she elbowed her friend in the side. “Brian is fucking hot. And the way he keeps looking at you is making my insides tingle.”

Aubrey followed Lauren’s gaze toward Brian. He seemed to be aware that she was looking at him, because his glance moved from the pool table up to her, and when their eyes met, he smiled cutely at her.

“Like that,” Lauren muttered to Aubrey. “Holy shit. He adores you. And wants to fuck the life outta you. At the same time.”

“Yeah, I think he’s pretty great too,” Aubrey confirmed with a dreamy sigh.

“Actually. They’re all pretty hot, not going to lie,” Lauren continued, raising her eyebrows at the realization.

Aubrey chuckled. Yeah, Zack was good looking, but it was weird to think of him as ‘hot’ after he had curled up in her lap for her to play with his hair after a long night of drinking. And it was even harder to think of Jimmy as ‘hot’ with all his goofy antics and the great platonic companionship he formed with her.

“More drinks for the beautiful ladies,” Zack announced as he placed two full glasses on the high table in front of Aubrey and Lauren.

“Ooh, thank you,” Lauren replied flirtatiously as she accepted the drink.

He winked at her and took a seat at their table, joining them to watch the rest of the pool match between Brian and Jimmy.

“Come on, bitch,” Brian provoked Jimmy. “It’s your turn.”

“Fuck you, Haner. There’s no way I’m going to win this,” Jimmy slurred, leaning forward and lining up his shot with the cue ball. “I am way too drunk. It looks like I’m holding three sticks and they won’t stop moving.”

Brian laughed. “Does the little baby want to forfeit?”

“Fuck no,” Jimmy persisted. “I’m not going down without a fight.”

Zack and Aubrey chuckled as Jimmy sloppily took his shot, not sinking any of the balls into any holes. Brian laughed wildly as Jimmy nearly fell over.

“Are they always like this?” Lauren asked.

“Always,” Zack and Aubrey responded at the same time.

“In fact,” Aubrey continued. “This is nothing compared to how they usually are. If Matt and Johnny were here, you’d question my sanity for being friends with these lunatics.”

“If Matt and Johnny were here, somebody would be bleeding by now,” Zack added.

“Probably Johnny,” Aubrey said.

“Probably,” Zack laughed.

Lauren smiled at the comradery between her good friend and these guys. It was nice to finally see the great things that Aubrey had been raving about since she went on tour with them, and she was thankful that Aubrey wanted her to be a part of their visit.

“Fuck this,” Jimmy roared as he sunk the cue ball. “I’m done.” He dropped the pool stick and let it crash to the floor. “You win, Gates. Bye.” He walked - more like stumbled - toward the bar for another drink.

Brian laughed and picked up his friend’s pool stick then set them back in the holders and made his way over to Aubrey.

“He’s gonna puke all night,” Brian stated, walking up next to Aubrey. “Just warning you now.”

“Great,” Aubrey laughed.

He placed a sweet kiss on her cheek. “You need anything to drink?”

“Zack just got us some refills,” she informed him. “I’m good for now.”

He nodded with a small smile.

“I’m bummed that you guys are only here for the night,” Lauren said. “This has been fun.”

“Yeah, it sucks,” Brian frowned then looked at Aubrey. “But this is how we have to make it work.”

She smiled in agreement, appreciating his understanding.

“So, Lauren,” Zack began. “You ever been to California?”

Lauren turned to Zack and began a conversation between the two of them.

Aubrey’s eyes widened at Brian.

“Oh boy,” he laughed, making suggestive eyes back at her, then whispered. “He’s totally going to get her number.”

“I am not ready to deal with that,” Aubrey replied.

“Hey, if they end up together, you’d have a traveling buddy when you come see me. And I’d have one when I come see you,” he deflected.

“You already have traveling buddies, apparently,” Aubrey pointed out, though she appreciated his point.

“Well, it was Jimmy’s idea to come see you, so I had to take him,” Brian informed her. “Zack wanted to come and he offered to drive since Jimmy is an awful driver and I was way too nervous to be able to get us to Phoenix in one piece.”

“You were nervous?” Aubrey asked.

“It’s been tense the last few weeks, ever since I left Phoenix the first time,” Brian reminded her. “We haven’t been talking much and I didn’t know if showing up at your house without warning was going to go as well as planned. I was scared you wouldn’t want to see me.”

Aubrey frowned. “I’ve just been trying to meet you on your level like you met me on mine, B.”

His heart fluttered when she called him B.

“I know the distance is hard on you and I know I’m asking a lot of you by keeping our relationship long-distance, so I’m trying to make it easier by giving you the space you need,” she continued.

“I know it’s hard on you, too,” he said. “Even when we do talk, I can hear it in your voice. Your responses are short and you haven’t really expressed any kind of emotion since that night you called me drunk.”

She nodded. “I feel like I’m just trying to survive the days until we can see each other again.”

“Such is the story of our relationship,” Brian sighed.

“I fucking love you guys,” Jimmy slurred as he appeared between Brian and Aubrey, throwing an arm around each of them.

“We love you too, buddy,” Brian replied, winking at Aubrey.

“I just want you guys to be happy,” Jimmy continued sadly. “Together or apart. Just be happy.”

“We’re happy, Jim,” Brian fibbed ever-so-slightly.

Aubrey loved the way Brian handled Jimmy when he was obliterated - like an older brother taking care of his younger brother.

“That’s a lie,” Jimmy called him out.

“We’re happier together, but we’re okay when we’re apart too,” Aubrey tried to counter.

“Also a fucking lie,” Jimmy persisted then looked at Aubrey. “I want you to hurry and get your shit together, so you-” he turned to Brian, “can hurry and marry her. Then you’ll be happy. And I’ll be happy.”

Aubrey went to laugh, to make light of what Jimmy had said about them getting married, but when she saw the look in Brian’s eyes, she couldn’t even bring herself to smile. He was looking at her with seriousness, with a look that said he agreed with what Jimmy had said. With a look that seemed defeated.

“I’m just sayin’,” Jimmy slurred. “If I have to drive Brian to Phoenix every time we’re off, I’ll fuckin’ do it. If I have to drive Aubrey to whatever fuckin’ city we’re in, I’ll fuckin’ do it.”

Brian patted Jimmy’s cheek. “Thanks, bud.”

Jimmy planted a sloppy kiss on Brian’s cheek then one on Aubrey’s cheek.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the bathroom to puke,” Jimmy announced, turning away from his friends.

Aubrey frowned but Brian laughed.

“Oh, come on,” Brian began. “You know he had to make some part of this trip all about him.”

Aubrey chuckled at that. “Come on, let’s go help the sick baby.”

Notes

It always means so much to me to see you guys sticking around to read and comment even after my very delayed updates - I have so much love for you guys and you make me remember why I love writing this story so much! Hope you enjoyed! Xoxo &*