Almost Easy

I’d been strategically placing Mona and Justin in the same environment for nearly two weeks with no real progress. Maybe Justin was actually a decent human being and wasn’t ready to move on from his past relationship—or maybe they just weren’t compatible.
I’d decided to really expand my female bonding horizons and had invited both Mona and Lauren over to watch scary movies. I loved me a good scary movie. I’d gone as far as to give Brian a head’s up about my planned activities and we’d opted to skip our daily phone call.
They brought snacks with them and we got into the liquor by nine. Instead of watching the original Halloween, like we’d planned, we’d somehow moved into gossip while the movie played in the background.
“I need a good, hunky man,” Mona whined, collapsing her face into one of my couch throw pillows.
Lauren had been keen on my plan to set up Justin with our tech and hardly skipped a beat, “Justin is pretty hunky.”
“You both know I’m not stupid, right?” Mona groaned from inside the pillow.
I smirked, “He is hunky.”
“No,” Mona retorted, sitting straight up. “Synyster Gates is hunky. I want me a Synyster Gates.”
“Sorry, he’s spoken for,” I teased, tossing a handful of popcorn at her.
She laughed, “You know what I mean. Justin is…damaged.”
“Who isn’t?” Lauren asked seriously.
“Is Jimmy damaged?” she asked curiously. “Wait—I can probably figure that out for myself.”
We all laughed in unison.
“No way is Brian damaged though,” Mona continued. “He’s too adoring.”
“Everyone is damaged,” I shrugged. “Unfortunately for him, it’s me that’s all fucked up.”
Mona laughed, Lauren didn’t.
“Justin is a really good guy,” I said then, returning to the original plot. “He was with his last girlfriend for a long time.”
“I know,” she sighed. “We’ve talked about it.”
“Right,” Lauren replied, obviously the only one that hadn’t been on tour together for the past four months. “On tour.”
“No,” Mona grinned widely, her cheeks burning red. “We hung out….the other night….”
“What?” I gasped. “No!”
“Yeah,” Mona groaned, collapsing into the pillow again.
My jaw was ajar, “Did you…”
“Twice,” she moaned, holding up two fingers.
Lauren and I giggled like high school kids. I couldn’t help but relish in the moment of pure, totally untainted joy. Maybe this was what friendship was supposed to be like—this was a far cry from anything I’d ever known. Tyler included.
“Okay,” I said, trying to stop my giggle fit. “Okay. In all seriousness though, what?”
We all started up again. Mona was upright now and shaking her head in shame, rubbing at her forehead.
“He’s cute,” she said finally. “But oh my—seriously, I don’t feel like getting into rebound territory.”
I nodded, my laughs coming to a halt, “Then just hang out. No one says you have to marry the guy.”
We all passed out in various places on my couches within the next hour. I, personally, had drank far too much.



The next week, which I’ll have you know marked three more weeks (!!) until Brian was coming home, Justin decided that we’d been hoarding the new songs away for long enough. We had two worked out, almost to perfection.
We were gathered in John’s living room, an impromptu sort of meeting. The new guy, Ryan, had been working into our group quite nicely. He was quick and it showed. That said, John’s girlfriend had been paying a lot of…attention…to the newbie. I knew it was likely going to cause trouble but hoped they’d sort it out privately.
“So,” Justin spoke to the group nervously, “Blair and I have been working on a couple things…Maybe for the new album. They’re a little different from what we’ve been doing, so…”
“Keep an open mind,” I added, giving a lazy wink to my comrade.
This was new territory for Justin and I was determined to show my support. I’d been through this process a thousand times, since I was often the one leading the band through our song-writing process. Tyler and I usually wrote together.
We played through the first song together, the one that Justin had written mostly about me. I tried not to notice the obvious looks of disdain on our group’s faces.
The second didn’t seem to go over much better…They didn’t seem to be getting into it at all. I knew that it was different; but I’d loved the songs. Every piece of them wowed me. Apparently this opinion didn’t stretch very far.
“What do you think?” Justin asked once we’d finished.
He’d nervously watched his hands throughout our little run though-s, so he had no idea what was about to happen. I knew though.
“No,” John said flatly.
Justin’s eyebrows fell, “No what?”
“Just…no,” John said again.
Chris piped up, “I think that they’re…decent first attempts at song writing…but they’re not what Haven is about.”
“About?” Justin repeated sarcastically. “What exactly is Haven about, Christopher?”
Here comes that Justin temper.
“I don’t know…” he trailed off.
“Haven is supposed to be heavy,” the new guy inserted.
Justin grimaced at him, “What the fuck would you know about it?”
“I’ve been obsessing over your sound for the past two weeks,” Ryan said flatly. “These would make great pop songs. They’re hardly metal though.”
“These just seem kind of…poetic,” John tried.
“What the fuck are songs if they’re not poetry?” Justin demanded.
I tried to help, “I think they’re beautiful—”
“The men are talking,” Ryan said to me and I nearly died.
Justin was on his feet, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Justin…” John warned, his hands up.
“You’re new here, buddy,” Justin said to Ryan through angered eyes. “So let me make this clear for you, since you seem a little confused.”
Chris and I exchanged worried glances.
“This woman right here is the only reason that we’ve had any fucking success,” Justin started at a normal tone but quickly grew into a yell. “If you ever talk to her like that, I swear to god I will fucking stab you.”
Ryan scoffed loudly to John, “I thought she was fucking that Avenged guy. Didn’t know in-band relationships were allowed.”
Justin lunged at him but Chris had cat-like reflexes and caught him before he could take a swing. The new guy looked quite smugly impressed—I assumed that would be it for him. He obviously wasn’t going to be able to play well with Justin.
Or with me, for that matter.
The men are talking. I almost laughed.
Chris and I dragged Justin outside where, although he wasn’t a smoker, I forced a cigarette into Justin’s mouth. He’d been known to smoke here and there when stresses got really high.
He puffed on it dramatically, pacing back and forth.
“I don’t really know what just happened,” Chris said awkwardly. “Why do you have to fight everyone, Jay?”
Justin looked stunned.
“I hardly think Justin started that,” I grunted.
Chris sighed, “He’s new, guys. We have to give him a little slack.”
“You did hear how he talked to Blair, right?” Justin hissed.
“Yeah,” he replied. “I think he was joking.”
“You guys are so fucking short sighted,” Justin half-laughed, which honestly made me nervous.
“I’m sorry your songs were shit,” Chris snarled. “But you can’t fight everyone that has a different opinion than you.”
“I’m out of here,” Justin decided aloud, shaking his head as he disappeared down the driveway and into the street.
Chris looked at me expectantly.
“You and I both know that Justin didn’t start anything,” I said flatly. “And if that new guy can’t figure out an appropriate way to talk to me, then he has to go.”
“He’s not going,” Chris shrugged. “We can’t have three guitarists in less than a year, Blair. We don’t need that kind of reputation.”
“I don’t have time for this,” I sighed. “I’m going to go catch Justin. I hope the three of you have a lovely fucking afternoon.”
But I never did catch Justin. I drove around for nearly an hour searching for him. So, despite my serious worries, I went home and I called Brian. I hoped I’d catch him at a good minute, and because luck was on my side, I did.
“What’s up?” he answered happily. “I thought you were at a band thing.”
I sighed heavily, “I was. But then drama broke out.”
“Uh oh,” he sung.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Course you can.”
I hesitated, trying my best to think of an eloquent way of wording my curiosity, “Do you feel…proud? Yeah, proud. Are you proud of the music Avenged puts out? Like, do you feel like you guys are saying something through your music?”
He paused before replying, “Yeah, I think so. We definitely try to, anyway.”
“Yeah,” I sighed again. “That’s what I thought.”
“What’s on your mind, pretty?” he asked knowingly.
“Justin and I showed them the stuff we’ve been working on,” I said lowly. “They didn’t like it…and then the new guy was an asshole—”
Brian cut me off, “Why? What’d he do?”
“Oh, right, I’ve neglected the punchline,” I half-laughed. “He’s a fucking misogynist!”
“I need more, Blair,” Brian chuckled.
“Well, the guys started arguing and when I tried to step in,” I paused for dramatic effect, “Ryan told me that the men were speaking.”
Brian erupted into hearty laughter. I could almost see the wrinkles forming outside his eyes, as they always did when he had a good laugh. Damn, I missed him.
“And you told him to fuck himself, right?” Brian chuckled.
I snorted a laugh, “Yeah, right. Justin tried that and basically was chastised for the attempt. New guy thinks we’re banging.”
“That’s adorable,” Brian scoffed.
“I don’t know what this means,” I said then. “I don’t want to, you know, jump the gun here but…I’m not sure we’re going to get along. Justin’s going to hate this guy forever now.”
“He was a dick to me at first too,” Brian said and I could practically hear him shrugging. “Justin gets over shit.”
“It’s not even really about that,” I tried to explain. “It’s…I don’t think that Haven is ever going to mature musically, you know? I think we’re all on very different pages…I don’t know that we’re going to agree on a direction to take. Especially if I have to listen to the men.”
Brian sighed lightly, “You’re talented enough that you could jump in with another band if you wanted. If they’re not going to get you where you want to be, then I don’t really know…”
“I can’t just quit,” I said firmly.
“I’m not telling you to,” he replied quickly. “What I’m saying is that if things don’t work the way you want them to, you have options.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“I guess,” I relented. “Why can’t anything ever just be easy?”
“Some things are easy,” Brian smiled through the phone. “Our life together is easy.”
I smiled back, “True…but I meant my music.”
“Maybe the fit is wrong,” he said and I knew he’d developed a theme.
“I can’t handle that today,” I laughed. “If my band goes to shit, I swear to god I’ll lose my mind.”
“It will only go to shit if you let it,” he assured me. “You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.”
I smirked, “Maybe Matt suffers an accident…maybe he’s rendered voiceless by said accident…”
“And Blair Peterson steps in to save the day,” Brian finished for me.
“Avenged is saved!”
Brian laughed, “Fuck I miss you.”
“Only three more weeks,” I said happily. “It’s flying by.”
There was a silence, some muffling, and then I could hear Jimmy yelling hello to me.
“Shit, I gotta go,” Brian groaned. “They’re calling us for check.”
“No problem,” I said. “Have a good sound check.”
He laughed, “Yeah, okay. I’ll see if I can take Matt out for you.”
“Please do.”
And then he was gone again.
What a life it must be to have a band that gets along all the time. This new guy, I decided, had better get his shit together—or maybe I’d have to start seeking out alternatives.
But Tyler had built Haven and it was going to take more than some idiotic and close-minded fools to chase me away. I was determined to be the bad ass bitch that Jimmy had assured me I was. I could throw my weight around as well as anyone.
It was my band too—and I absolutely got a say in what kind of music we would play.
Fuck those men.

Notes

Can never have new characters that aren't total pieces of shit. It's the rule of writing, I swear.

I miss Brian. :(

xx