Just Before You Go

We finally scored our little group a table, with many thanks to Zacky Vengeance. He was absolutely wasted by time we’d stumbled upon him and his lonely table. He’d encouraged us to join him and swore up and down that he hadn’t been sitting alone all that time. Jimmy was relentless in his accusations and teasing.
Brian was with us but he was somewhere else, too. He was distracted and kept watching the door. I couldn’t lie; I felt bad for the guy.
“Why don’t you go talk to her?” I suggested to him.
He grimaced at me.
“Talk to who?” Zacky asked. “What’d I miss?”
“His girlfriend,” Jimmy groaned, stacking coasters into a tower. “Or maybe she’s Matt’s girlfriend…at this point it’s hard to tell.”
Brian frowned.
“She said they were talking about working together on something…” I said, trying to remember exactly what it was she’d told me.
“I bet they are,” Jimmy cackled. “With their bodies.”
“Stop that,” I instructed firmly, trying to be sensitive to Brian’s obvious feelings.
Feelings that didn’t make much sense, granted. But he obviously had them.
“Matt can fuck whoever he wants,” Brian said coolly. “I don’t fucking care.”
“Sure ya do!” Jimmy grinned.
Brian furrowed his brows as he reached over and flicked Jimmy’s coaster tower. It tumbled onto the table—Jimmy looked genuinely heartbroken.
“You’re mean when you’re rejected,” Jimmy pouted, folding his arms across his chest.
Brian rolled his eyes, “I wasn’t rejected. You have to proposition someone to be rejected.”
“Are we still talking about Blair Peterson?” Zacky asked confusedly, handing Jimmy a rogue coaster as he started building a new, revised tower.
He shielded it from Brian with one of his arms, glancing suspiciously over at him every few seconds.
“Yeah,” Jimmy nodded once.
Zacky burst into laughter, “Are you kidding, Gates? You’re still hung up on that chick?”
Brian groaned, “I’m not hung up on anyone.”
“Fuck that,” Jimmy cackled. “He’s got it so bad I can basically smell the chlamydia.”
My jaw dropped as I turned to my boyfriend in horror, “I’m sorry. What the hell did you just say?”
Jimmy just laughed.
“Who has chlamydia?” Matt’s voice interrupted our conversation.
Matt sunk down across from us next to Zacky, Blair Peterson in tow…and the guy I’d walked into one more than one occassion. Zacky waved at them awkwardly—Blair looked just as awkward waving back.
“Not you,” the guitarist griped. “Keep your drinks on your side of the table.”
“To be fair,” I smirked, “I’ve only ever spilled your drinks…not mine…so…”
He pulled his beers closer to him, “So, I’ll keep these far away from you.”
“That’s a good plan,” I giggled.
Blair and Brian were exchanging glances when the other wasn’t looking. It was both adorable and hilariously frustrating. I had a serious impulse to get up and smash their faces together, just to see what would happen. You know, for science.
“Seriously though,” Matt laughed. “Who has chlamydia?”
“No one,” the entire table answered.
Jimmy cheered at the finalization of his creation. He was looking very proud of himself, so I plunked a kiss on his cheek for a job well done.
“Are you five?” Matt asked him with a grin.
Jimmy held his hands out, “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
“So where’d you go, Matt?” Brian asked pointedly, sipping on his beer as he gave Matt the stare down.
“Outside,” Matt shrugged. “Blair’s a smoker…so…we went to do that.”
Brian scoffed, “How cute.”
Tyler was sizing Brian up in the most palpable kind of way. It made for an immediate tension that could have been cut with a single blade of grass.
“We were thinking of having me jump in on their set next week,” he told our little group.
I leaned to Jimmy, “Speaking of next week…Were you going to invite me?...or?...”
He smiled, “Don’t be dumb.”
I scratched at the back of my neck, “I…I don’t know what that means.”
“Yeah, I cleared that with your boss like a month ago,” he shrugged.
“I’m sorry, you what?” I choked.
He shrugged again, “He said it was cool. Nice guy.”
Typical Jimmy. That was all I could think—I didn’t know what else to say or to do. So, I shut my mouth and mulled that over in my mind a few times. I was certain I was going to lose my job, what with taking two weekends off in a row. The anxiety of losing my job was enough to make my fingernails look awfully scrumptious.
“Do you still have my lighter?” Blair asked Matt quietly as she patted herself down.
Brian raised an eyebrow as Matt tortured her with it. He held it just out of her reach so that Blair would have no choice but to lean over him to get it. It was pretty smooth, I’d give him that…if not a little juvenile. Brian hit his peak.
“Why don’t you two just go fuck it out already?” Brian snarled from behind his bottle of beer.
Matt’s face turned to stone. Blair seized the opportunity and snatched the lighter from his hand. She settled back into her spot, lighter fitted firmly into her pocket.
“That’s a great idea,” Blair bit. “…Sorry, what did you say your name was? Steven?”
Brian’s face fell, “Steven?”
“Is that not right?” she feigned panic. “Sorry, I don’t make a habit of memorizing people’s names who don’t mean anything to me.”
The group all cringed—every last one of us. Poor Brian’s heart. Even Matt was looking pretty tense, which was a far cry from his smug exterior only minutes ago.
The Bs got settled in for war.
“That’s cute,” Brian retorted. “Coming from some C-list musician that no one’s ever heard of.”
She tipped her beer to him, “Oh, but you had, hadn’t you?”
“Ooo,” the group chorused collectively.
Brian shot us a warning glare—we fell back into a tense silence.
“We should have brought popcorn,” Jimmy said to me. “Why do we never learn?”
“I’ve only heard of you because you strut around in next to nothing,” Brian answered her smugly. “I’m not noticing you, honey; I’m noticing your ass.”
She didn’t seem to like that one bit. Her eyebrows raised high on her head and she took a long gulp of her beer before slamming the bottle onto the table. Her friend appeared to be plotting Brian’s murder—but Blair’s hand on his arm seemed to keep him tamed.
“You’re real suave, huh?” she snarled. “Is this how you attract all of the Trixies in California? I can see the appeal.”
Brian cocked an eyebrow, “Jealous? I’ll tell you, it doesn’t look good on you.”
“Jealous?” she scoffed. “Of what? Some pompous dick that gets shitfaced in broad daylight? Oh yeah, I’m dying to get me a piece of that.”
“Listening to your music drove me to drink,” Brian said with pursed lips. “What can I say?”
Blair shook her head, giving Tyler one solid push to get out of her way. She climbed out from the table and leaned herself into Brian’s personal space. He didn’t flinch; not even when she was an inch from his lips.
“You like to check out my ass, huh?” she growled lowly. “I bet it’ll look real good walking away. So go ahead and get a good look before you go fuck yourself.”
She turned on her heel and dragged Tyler off into the crowd. I honestly half expected Tyler to come back and pummel Brian within an inch of his life. But after a few minutes of silence, nothing happened. No one came back.
Brian was visibly uncomfortable.
“Well that was fun,” he announced, tipping his beer to the group before chugging it down.
I considered maintain my place in Brian’s life and keeping my seat on the sidelines. But I was so tired of his self-destructive bullshit. It was basically all I’d ever seen from Brian. I’d heard there was more to him…but I’d rarely played witness.
“Why do you have to act like that?” I snapped.
Brian was taken aback.
“You obviously have a teenage crush on that girl,” I continued. “But instead of talking to her and getting to know her, you bully her. I don’t get it. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to make her hate you? That’s all the way you’re acting is going to do.”
Brian tried to answer but he didn’t have the words. So, he drowned his words with more beer.
“You’re pathetic,” I told him seriously. “You know that, right?”
Jimmy intervened immediately, “Okay! That about wraps it up, kids!”
He pushed Brian and I both out of the way but only pushed Brian back down into the booth. He kept his grip on my arm to ensure I wouldn’t continue my berating of his best friend. Alcohol was a wild thing. It makes people act wildly out of character—in my case anyway.
“I’m sorry,” I winced at Brian before Jimmy dragged me off without saying goodbye to anyone.
Once we were on the street and had started walking to get away from the crowd and hopefully hail down a cab, Jimmy started to laugh. It was unnerving at first because I couldn’t quite figure out why. But it was infectious and soon I was laughing too.
“You’re hilarious,” he finally said, walking backwards to face me. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you go off like that.”
“I’m sorry,” I blushed. “I honestly don’t know what got into me.”
He stopped walking, causing me to walk straight into him, “We need to work on your depth perception.”
“People need to stop walking near me,” I laughed.
“I like that you’re confident enough to tell Brian to fuck off,” he grinned. “That’s all I ever wanted in a girlfriend.”
“It wasn’t a good time for me,” I confessed awkwardly. “Will likely not repeat it.”
Jimmy waved at me, “He’ll get over it in a few years.”
My jaw dropped.
“Don’t worry about it,” he cackled. “He’ll come around and he’ll start to love all the things about you that I love.”
My throat dried itself out at the mention of love from Jimmy’s lips.
But Jimmy didn’t press it, he continued without thinking about it at all it seemed, “Just give it five to six years…then he’ll probably say hello to you again. A few years after that and you’re golden!”
I laughed, “Great.”
“Let’s get you home, shit disturber.”

Notes

Because why not one more.

xx