Flashback to around 12 years ago. Location- Harvard University.


Laura had been in classes for four hours. Four long bloody hours of having facts shoved down her throat by professors who were all very passionate about their subjects but after two hours she had been ready to call it a day and go home.

“God I am so freaking ready to chill out today” Her best friend JR shouted next to her.

She had met JR within the first hour of arriving at college. Both him and John had walked in on her during a not so elegant moment and the three had become thick as thieves faster than anyone could of guessed. She knew that they would be long life friends and that made her smile.

“DRINK DRINK DRINK!” JR chanted as they passed a group of students who looked down their noses at the pair while Laura rolled her eyes and smirked.

Although they had gotten in on their own merit and were just as smart, if not smarter than everyone else at Harvard. But because of the way they dressed and the people that they associated with a lot of the other students were not huge fans of theirs. Especially the ‘Rock Stars’ Daughter.

Laura’s room mate, who on meeting her on their first day in the dorms instantly hated her. She couldn’t blame her too much really she had been drinking neat vodka, straight out of the bottle, listening to heavy metal and crying as she jumped up and down on her new bed. Thats teenage heartbreak for you. Pushes you to alcohol, death metal… and makes you cry. A LOT


Said room mate was now scarce around their room, well as soon as he had found her boyfriend that is.

Laura wasn’t really that bothered.

Girls had never been too much of a fan of hers.

And honestly if they tired it was normally to either get close to her Dad or one of her brothers. Less drama hanging out with guys. Fact.

JR was still chanting about drinking as they walked into the accommodation building. He went left towards his and John’s room while she went right.

Really Laura was more interested in getting back to her room and into her boyfriends pants than spending the night drinking.

Jimmy known to most as The Rev was the drummer in a band known as Avenged sevenfold, or A7X to their dedicated fans. The two mainly had two moods when they were together. Either they argued like cat and dog or fucked like rabbits.

As she walked through the door of her room and saw his glazed over eyes she knew what it would be tonight. He was high as hell and drinking whisky neat out of the bottle. No sex tonight then. Damn.

“Baby” he slurred bringing the bottle to his lips “Now the party has started!” Trying to wink he took a massive gulp as she surveyed the room. Empty alcohol bottles littered the floor along with things she didn’t want to know what the hell they were.

“Jimmy I think for it to be a party there has to be more than just you In the room!” Rolling her eyes she was surprised to hear the toilet flush in the small cubicle attached to the bedroom as she dropped her book bag at her feet.

Glancing at Jimmy who answered her unasked question with one word “Matt”
Shadows? He was here? Why?

Jimmy hadn’t mentioned he was flying in with him. Had he?

She swore that she also heard him mutter another word. One he knew would annoy her. She chose to ignore the S word.

Why was her boyfriend so convinced that she was the perfect match for his best friend was beyond her. She didn’t get it. But that was Jimmy the lovable, crazy genius. Who had a drinking problem that was getting out of hand, and fast.

She wasn’t against drinking, very far from it she loved a drink or several herself. It was the excess she didn’t like. The daily habit of waking up and reaching for the bottle. The popping of pills. It scared her. Her Dad, and he himself had admitted this, if he hadn’t of sobered up and stopped the drinking and taking all of the drugs he would of died years ago. And the thought of that alone scared her.

Being in love with someone who could…. That terrified her. To her very core.

Laura couldn’t help but gulp trying to remove the lump in her throat that appeared suddenly.

She didn’t like being around her boyfriends best friend and band mate too much. Matt made her feel uneasy, it was like when they were in the same room electricity made it almost unbearable, she could hardly breath sometimes. His eyes seemed to look through her like laser beams. Sometimes she thought that there would be marks on her skin from them. It was uncomfortable. She was convinced that he hated her.

That was the very reason Jimmy thought what he thought when in reality it was the opposite.

What made it even more awkward was his girlfriend Valary was also not a fan of Laura either. They had been together since high school her and Matt. Hell she wasn’t a fan of anyone that had a pair of boobs that was in the vacinity of her boyfriend.

Matts eyes widened as he realised that she was now in the room when he opened the door from the tiny bathroom that just held a toilet, sink and a tiny cubicle shower that her boyfriend didn’t even fit in it was that small. There are those laser eyes again.

“Hey” he awkwardly glanced at her before walking over to his best friend who looked like he was about to pass out. Why did he always have to drink to such an excess?

“Great” rolling her eyes she grabbed her bag once again and went to leave but Matt’s voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

“I tried to stop him but you know what he is like” his rough voice filled the room. She could tell he had also had something to drink but not like Jimmy had.

She didn’t know what to do.

What to say.

To him.

“I just can’t” she didn’t dare look at them. To see the sympathy in his eyes and Jimmy’s canatontic ones.

After a couple of seconds, that felt like minutes, if not hours soft snores filled the room, Jimmy’s snores.

He knew why she wasn’t a fan of drugs of course, everyone did. Him being drunk constantly, popping whatever pills someone handed him. Not thinking of the consequences.

She should of ended it months ago when she realised that he wasn’t going to change, that it was getting worse the more popular they got. She didn’t want him to stop being Jimmy, but she couldn’t watch what her Dad had gone through happen to her boyfriend. Or anyone she cared about for that matter.

But there was just something about him, something that called to her heart and soul. Maybe they should of stayed friends. Destined to of been? Who knew?

“Jimmy doesn’t listen” Or care.

She went to leave again but he moved so fast she almost jumped when he grabbed her arm “Wait just let me get him into the bed” Matt’s eyes shone at her. Dimples out.

Turning around she dropped her bag at her feet once again and pulled back the duvet before Matt lifted Jimmy up onto the bed. Once he was on his back she stopped Matt “On his side, incase he vom’s in his sleep” That was the last thing she wanted to walk in on, him choking on his own sick.

“Good idea” he flashed her his infamous dimples again and turned his friend so he wouldn’t choke.

Once Matt had moved him onto his side she lifted the duvet to cover her passed out boyfriend, sighing as she did.

Matt moved the bottle he had been clutching from the floor and placed it on the table.

“I can’t watch him do this to himself anymore” Her honesty shocked Matt who looked at her with wide eyes.

Fear that this would be one of the last times he would get to see her scared him. But why?

She was just some girl that they had met in Los Angeles one summer five years ago who was now dating one his best friends. Why should he care?

He had Val.

His high school sweetheart.

His girl.

Jimmy was wrong.

Matt gently nudged her out of the room. Closing the door with a small click. Not that anything at this point would of woken Jimmy up.

The two awkwardly stared at each other, neither unable to form words, let alone sentences.

JR came crashing around the corner but stopped when he saw the pair. He didn’t have to ask he knew. Jimmy was drunk and more than likely passed out. Great.

“Come on” he grabbed her started to pull her away.
“I’m not really in the mood to drink” she admitted shaking his hand off.

“I think you need one” her friend smiled at her and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. This is why they were friends “Just one Wild one” wiggling his eyebrows he knew using her nickname would get her to go.

She looked at the man stood next to her “Coming?” She smiled kindly at him.

“Hell yeah” Matt smiled at her, his eyes looked brighter than they had in her room.

---------

One drink soon turned into several.

“Home” Laura leant over John and whisper shouted at Matt who had been flashing his dimples at some blonde girl who had attached herself to the group almost as soon as she had entered the bar with her friends. When he just nodded but turned back to the girl she huffed and muttered something to her friends about going to the bathroom she left the table.

Why did him talking to another girl make her… annoy her so much. She couldn’t say the ‘J’ word.

She had no right to be.

She wasn’t Valary.

She was the one who should be.

Valary was his girlfriend after all.

Taking one look over her shoulder back at the table she had just left she turned and walked out of the front door of the bar, sending a text to JR telling him she had gone back to her room and to have a good night.

She didn’t get more than ten steps away when she heard feet pounding the pavement behind her. She didn’t need to turn around to see who it was. She knew.

“Why are you leaving?” He asked as he slowed down and walked at the same pace as her.

“I’m tired and had enough of drinking”

“Oh” was all he said. Apart of him had wondered if him talking to that girl had made her leave. Why would it?

“I just… I just wanna sleep” she glanced at him as the pair walked in sync through the dark campus "Today has been a day"

He couldn't deny that so stayed silent as they walked.

Everything in him wanted to reach out to her but he kept his arms by his side firmly.

Jimmy was wrong.

He had to be.

When they arrived at her room Laura fished for her keys in her bag. She felt like she couldn’t look at the man next to her. The tension was getting thick and she didn't know why. Liar.

When she finally found the keys she looked up at him and all she could see was his green eyes looking at her like damn laser beams. She could feel them in her soul.

Almost shaking her head to clear it she looked away and shakily inserted the key in the lock and opened the door.

Stepping into the room she saw it was exactly as they had left is a few hours earlier.

Once the door clicked close the realisation that her boyfriend was still passed out in her bed and there was only her roommate, Hayley’s bed that was free hit her. One bed and two of them.

“I’ll share with Jim” Matt spoke, as if he had read her thoughts. But just as soon as he had said the words Jimmy groaned and rolled over, star fishing on the bed. Leaving no room for even Laura let alone Matt’s tall frame “Or not” he laughed awkwardly.

Looking from Jimmy to Matt she did something she would never of normally done. She didn’t know if it was the drinks she had consumed or what but as she threw her bag down and slipped her vans off of her feet “We can share Hayey’s bed Matt, I know you’re not a big fan of mine but its just a bed”

“What?” He was confused “What do you mean I’m not a big fan of you?”

“You normally look at me like you want to punch me or something, you hate me I get it” she could feel tears pool in her eyes as she said the last bit. Don't. she begged herself.

“Thats…. I don’t hate you Laura” How could she think that?

“You don’t?” they hadn’t realised that they’re voices were raising until Jimmy groaned in annoyance and then farted loudly.

“Oh for fuck sake Jimmy!” Matt laughed as Laura had turned away, trying to get away from the conversation that they had been having and to stop her traitor tears. Do not fall.

“I’m just gunna..” She looked over at him again and could see sadness in his eyes “get changed” she didn’t what for him to speak instead she rushed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

When she finally come out of bathroom after being in there for several minutes longer than necessary, Matt was already laid on the bed. He had discarded his jeans and placed them on the chair at her desk.

Not speaking she turned the light off leaving them in complete darkness.

She could hear Matt’s deep breaths over Jimmy’s shallow ones as she climbed into bed, the one that didn’t have her boyfriend in it.

Laying still neither of them spoke as she began fiddling with a hair tie on her wrist she started to feel awkward. Shit.

She was about to get up and go and stay in John and JR’s room but she didn’t get the chance.
Suddenly warm fingers stopped her fidgeting ones.

“You really think I hate you?” He moved onto his side, not removing his fingers from her hand so he could look at her fully. She felt like they where burning a hole in her skin. So warm.

Looking into his eyes she could make out the glint in them, the light shinning out of them like the sun. How had she never noticed how beautiful they were?

“Sometimes” she was honest.

“I don’t hate you” he moved his head as close as he could without touching her “I promise Laura” The way he said her name stirred something within her. Shit.

“Okay” was all she could come up with. For a split second she though he was going to kiss her, on the lips but he lifted his head and pressed them into her hair line.

“Go to sleep beautiful” Beautiful?

She couldn’t stop the yawn that left her lips as Matt chuckled.

As the pair fell into a deep sleep the bed next to them began to stir.

Jimmy popped his eyes open after half an hour of laying there awake but unable to move, feeling slightly confused but as his eyes cleared from sleep he realised he was in Laura’s dorm room.

Shit.

How strong where those fucking pills?

Fuck I bet Laura is pissed.

How much did they argue?

Damn it he always fucked shit up.

Slowly he sat up and looking at the bed opposite that always sat empty as her room mate was never ever around he was surprised but not shocked at the sight before him.

Standing with woobly legs he staggered to look over the pair. Matt’s arm was thrown around her waist. His fingers tangled in the ends of her long hair.

“Soulmates” was all he said nodding to himself before turning around and grabbing the previously discarded bottle of whisky and knocking it back as he climbed back into the bed and passing out once more.

Notes