Water and Salt

Penelope has spent most of the time rubbing her foot on our legs during the dinner. The first one she touched was Brian, who clearly blamed me for being “the shortshit I am”. He got disapproval looks from the parents and I couldn’t help but smirk. There. Christ 1 – Gates 0. Anyway, what Penelope has done made me wonder what the hell’s going through these kids nowadays and when we finally say goodbye to the two families, I can’t help but notice something pale pink in Jimmy’s hand. Are those…? I can’t exactly tell if they’re what I think they are until we sit on the shore not far from the beach and Jimmy, who’s sitting next to me is looking at pink panties. Poppy’s. I can’t say I’m shocked, especially considering the amount of panties and bras girls throw at me (I think it’s all part of one big joke from the guys, though), but it doesn’t mean I feel weird, or something like that. Who the fuck knows.

“So.” I say just to say something, without taking my eyes away from that piece of fabric. “You and that Lena Collins were together, huh?”

“Hm?” Jimmy mutters as he stares at the panties; it’s almost as if he’s analyzing them. Jesus, he can be so fucking creepy sometimes. For a brief moment nobody says anything, then Shadows rolls his eyes and shakes his head slightly, before getting up and finally speaking.

“According to Lena, yes, they were together. According to Jimmy… Who knows? As always.”

“It didn’t end well, anyway.” Brian says, with an unusual serious voice.

“Hm?” Jimmy mutters again.

“HELLO?” Brian yells into Jimmy’s ear, a bit annoyed by the fact that he isn’t listening. “We were talking about you and Lena Collins!”

“Who?”

“Oh, you know, just the girl you wrote Girl I know for.”

“Ah.”

As always, I decide to say nothing and instead I look at the ocean. It’s unusually calm tonight and I like it. Lacey would’ve loved it. The thought of my girlfriend makes me think about how us five are all different from each other. Sometimes I could even say that other than a strong passion for music, a love for pizza, the Johnny’s and quite a problem with make-up, we have nothing in common; but then I realize that there’s always more. We’re more than friends with something in common. We’re brothers. However, when it comes to relationships things couldn’t get so different from each and everyone of us.

I’ve always been faithful to Lacey. In any possible possible. I’ve never had their troubled relationships, or love stories if you asked to their girlfriends; beautiful women, or normal women, or interesting women, but either way, they were crazy women who made the guys go crazy with their fights and claims, angry outburst where the girls cried, the guys yelled and then they called me asking if we could go get a drink or even if they could spend the night at my place.

Lacey and I have always been quite an ordinary couple; never plates thrown against the wall, never anger, never endless fights. I’ve never felt the need to run away from her, to seek shelter at my friends’ places, trying to find the sanity I’ve never had anyway. We are boring compared to them. Even Matt and Valary, so strong and inseparable, live in their own drama, which can be good, especially for two who’ve known each other for so long like them. For all of them, my four friends, my brothers… Regrets are part of the routine. And as I look at those pink panties, I think that maybe Lacey and I are the only one who truly know what love is.

“That look she gave you when she said bye, Almost Easy was one of the most beautiful and full of meaning things I’ve ever seen happening in my life.” I notice. The others turn their heads to look at me as I’m fucking E.T. or Dracula. How cool would it be if I was Dracula? I’d definitely be taller and maybe even hotter. Johnny, enough! Stop thinking about crap.

“Sorry.” I say, vaguely offended by the fact that my friends didn’t take me seriously. They all write songs and lyrics and yet they don’t even know what to say when someone say something deeper. What even? Maybe I’m turning gay, or maybe Lacey made me watch too many chick flicks.

Brian attempts to do an impression of me speaking and as the others laugh, I roll my eyes.

“Really? You haven’t noticed anything? Guess what, you don’t understand a fucking thing about women.”

Jimmy shows me the panties of the girl and smirks. Is he trying to impress me or something?

“Wow, you hit on a eighteen-year-old nympho and got her panties. Such a pro, dude.”

He shrugs. “I have to fuck her, not marry her.”

Suddenly, I feel upset. “Of course not, but you’re not a kid anymore. Do you know that, dude? Sooner or later you’ll have to marry somebody and not because you have to, but because you’ll want to! Especially after you broke up with–”

“Don’t name her!” The other three yell at me, scared.

I take a deep breath and then I start speaking again. “After you broke up with She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, I get that you wanna sleep around and have fun but c’mon! What do you do with that girl, huh? All she does is acting all pure and innocent but she can’t wait for you to fuck her and it’s fucked up.”

Brian looks up at the sky, in thoughtful silence. I wonder if he’s thinking about what my words or if he’s thinking about the fedora he didn’t get to show to the Williams and the Millers tonight. I think Shadows has always considered himself married to Valary and it’s completely understandable, they’ve been together since fucking forever. Zacky is incredibly happy with his Gena, the luckiest woman in the world (according to him). And then there’s us, Lacey and I, with our ordinary relationship, ordinary life and ordinary date nights that consist of cookies and old horror movies.

Zacky’s playing with his wallet. He takes a picture out of it. “There it is.” He says as if we all know what he’s talking about. I look down at the picture. There are four kids in a backyard. Two are in the background playing in the pool: in the front there’s a little boy with bright green eyes and a little girl, blonde as the sun, who’s wrapping her arms around the boy’s neck. A happy smirk on her face that shows that two of her front teeth are missing.

“Is it Lena?” Shadows asks.

“It’s Virginia.” Zacky answers, sighing softly.

“She got so tall!” I say, noticing the obvious.

“I don’t know if you also noticed that she got nice breasts. And a great butt. And two long, beautiful legs.” Brian says, speaking as if he’s some sort of medical doctor. He knows almost everything about women, or rather, about the female body so I’m not exactly that surprised to hear him speak like that. “And Jesus, have you seen that dress and how it moved around her pretty waist?” His eyes were now on Jimmy, probably trying to get some kind of reaction from him. Still nothing; the drummer’s eyes are still on the pink panties. Ugh.

“Look, I barely looked at her.” Jimmy says.

“Yeah, barely looked at her, my ass.” Shadows comments, shaking his head in disappointment.

“Thank you, Matt.” Jimmy says, glaring at him.

“What? You just can’t say you haven’t looked at her. I was there and I noticed that creepy ass look you gave her.”

“What creepy ass look, Matt? That’s my look. I look at everybody like that.” Jimmy says, “Don’t you remember what my neighbors used to say? James Sullivan is a maniac.”

“It’s not like they were completely wrong.” I say, looking at Jimmy who glares at me as well.

“This means nothing.” He simply says, refusing to admit that indeed, he looked at her, just like we did. And apparently Virginia Collins looked at us as well. I mean, I’m not too sure she looked at me in particular, but she certainly looked at Zacky and Jimmy. Do you think I’d remember you if we slept together? I just can’t stop thinking about that sentence and damn, that was one of the best things ever. I’m pretty sure Jimmy thought his pride was hurt in that moment but I can’t help but laugh to myself. Collins 1 – Sullivan 0.

Suddenly, I think of something. “Zacky, do you still have that napkin with Gin’s phone number?”

Zacky jumps at my words and starts touching his body, searching for that napkin. When he finally takes it out of his pocket, he sighs in relief. Now, and only now, he says: “Yes, why?”
I’m about to open my mouth when Shadows speaks first. “Let’s invite her to the Christmas barbecue, next Saturday. We can invite her parents too since yours will be there, Zacky.”

Nobody speaks for a couple of seconds then Brian smiles widely. “Yes.” He says, hitting Jimmy’s shoulder so hard that for a moment I think our drummer will end up face down on the shore. “Let’s invite her to the annual Christmas barbecue at the Haner’s.”

Notes

Hello! This is a shorter chapter so I apologize. I can assure you the next one will be longer :)

Thank you so much to Hollie, Kdennis9, Avengedlover and seventhtrumpet for commenting the story. I really, really appreciate it <3