Trashed and Scattered

“I know that we’re closing just to do manual god damn labor,” Jonas said, glancing over his shoulder to watch Peyton pack up her things. “And I know it’s the last time I’ll ever close up with you…But fuck am I ever glad to have an afternoon off.”
Peyton smirked, “Glad to be of service.”
Jonas’ smile faded out slowly, “It’s been really great having you around, Pey.”
She nodded, “I know…It’s been nice to see your ugly mug too.”
“I’ll be in New York next month for a convention,” he grinned. “Maybe I’ll look you up.”
“I think you’d better,” Peyton laughed. “Which event are you making the journey for? Brooklyn Tattoo Expo?”
He nodded, “The one and only.”
“I’ll see you there then,” she winked lazily, pulling the last of her things into her black bag. “Maybe we can swindle our way into adjoining booths.”
Jonas smiled, “Maybe we can.”
At the very least, the tattoo artist thought, he’d get to see his friend again through their craft. It wasn’t in the same league as sharing a shop space and it certainly wasn’t as intimate as daily conversations, but he’d grown fond of Peyton all over again. He was deeply saddened to see her go.
“Okay,” Peyton breathed, scanning her space one last time for any overlooked detail.
Jonas frowned, “Got everything?”
“I think so,” she nodded glumly, the realization creeping in.
This was it. This was the last time she’d come to work with her friend. This was the last time she’d pack up her belongings to the soundtrack of Jonas’s smart mouth. Although she hadn’t spent a substantial time basking in this version of her life, she’d become particularly attached to it. More attached than she could have ever anticipated.
“Well,” Jonas sighed. “This is it, I guess. Should we make out now or save it for tonight?”
She laughed, giving her head a light shake, “You’re disgusting.”
“Tonight it is,” he grinned.
“I’ll see you in a bit?” she asked, slowly meandering her way to the door.
He nodded, waving her on, “I’ll be there soon.”
She lingered in the doorway, her hand clutched tightly against the metal handle. There was so much she felt she needed to say. She wanted to express her gratitude; not only for taking her in and giving her work, but for reigniting their friendship—for being a shoulder to lean on. But he was busied with his own packing for the day and was entirely distracted by his own existence. With one last memory made, Peyton stepped out from the shop for the last time.
The artist fiddled with her keys, struggling to juggle her full arms while simultaneously working to pull at the door handle. All at once, her belongings went crashing down to the pavement alone.
“Great,” she grunted, pulling the door open to toss the saved items onto the passenger seat.
As she squatted down and began to collect her wayward belongings, a throat clear garnered her attention. She glanced up to find a pair of heels stationed before her.
“Peyton,” a familiar voice spoke.
The artist looked up, instantly on edge at the sight of the blonde temporarily towering over her. Peyton quickly scrounged up her things and packed them into the car, pushing the door closed with a loud thud.
“Natalie,” she replied, forcing herself to sound surprised instead of irritated.
The scorned lover glanced from the shop to the car, “Am I catching you on your way out?”
Peyton nodded, “I was just leaving. Did you need something?”
Natalie sighed, “I was just hoping we could talk…Do you think I could borrow you for a few minutes?”
The artist hesitated, staring the blonde down.
“After everything that happened,” Natalie breezed. “Don’t you think you owe me two minutes?”
Peyton wanted to tell her that she owed her absolutely nothing; that she’d never owed her anything. But, for the sake of morality, Peyton forced a polite smile.
“I was going to grab a coffee,” the artist lied. “Why don’t you tag along? We can talk along the way.”
Natalie nodded, falling into an unsure step with the brunette as she led them away from the shop’s exterior.
“So…” Peyton began slowly. “What…Um, what did you want to talk about?”
Natalie swallowed her feelings down, “I assume Jimmy told you what happened.”
“That you broke up?” Peyton asked, doing her best to hide her satisfaction.
The blonde nodded.
“That was a while ago,” the artist replied awkwardly.
“Yes…It was,” Natalie sighed. “But…I guess I just feel like I need some closure, you know? I’ve been…really missing him lately…”
Peyton recoiled internally. For whatever reason, it had never occurred to her that Natalie might miss Jimmy—or that Jimmy might miss Natalie. She had no right to form a vein of jealousy, but under the grim spotlight of her departure, Peyton couldn’t stand the thought of Jimmy and Natalie reconciling in her absence. It was enough to leave her stomach in tight knots.
The artist nodded her head absently, resigning to silence.
“He told me all about you,” Natalie informed Peyton, only a hint of hostility ringing through. “He told me that you’re Lexi—just like I thought.”
Peyton continued to nod.
“He told me you two slept together,” Natalie said, glancing over to the artist for reaction.
Peyton’s jaw fell a little, which she immediately caught and straightened. She couldn’t believe Jimmy would come clean about their night of promiscuity. What good had it done for either him or Natalie to confess that truth? Had it been his intention to hurt her? Had he simply been trying to be honest?
He’d betrayed Peyton’s trust, regardless of his intention.
She’d asked him to keep it between them. She’d asked him to keep it locked deep inside the vault. Like everyone else in her life, Peyton assumed then that her requests meant nothing. People would do as they pleased and spill her secrets as they saw fit. It wasn’t as if this was the first secret he’d spilled over Natalie’s ears—Natalie had a deep seeded working knowledge of Peyton’s entire childhood.
Peyton’s heart shattered with the distrust.
“I’m so sorry,” was all she could think to say.
“I’d like to hear your side of it,” Natalie said flatly.
Peyton sighed, “I…I don’t know what to say, Natalie. We got swept away by the weirdness of it all. It…It didn’t mean anything.”
The lie tasted like vinegar against her tongue.
“You realize that your little escapade ruined a three-year long relationship, right?” Natalie seethed, her prior calm disposition entirely resolved.
Peyton furrowed her brows, “I don’t think that’s fair. If you guys had a solid relationship, then my fucking presence wouldn’t have mattered.”
“It was solid,” Natalie retorted. “And then you showed up, screwing everyone in a five-mile radius and suddenly Jimmy’s a different person. I had him on a track, Peyton. I had a plan for our life.”
“You had a plan?” Peyton challenged, suddenly protective of her deceitful friend. “What about him? Did he get a say in your little plan?”
She rolled her eyes, “Jimmy doesn’t know what he needs. That man is so impulsive, it’ll be the death of him. I had him on the right track.”
“He doesn’t seem to like your track much,” Peyton noted starkly.
“He may have chosen you once,” Natalie growled, her steps ceasing all at once. “But he’s chosen me every day for three years, Peyton. You understand that, don’t you?”
Peyton nodded, her eyes darting around the clouds as she prayed for the strength not to strangle a bitch, “I think our chat is about done.”
“I need you to get out of his life,” Natalie informed her. “Don’t ever come back. He loves me…and once you’re gone, he’ll see it. He’ll see that you’re nothing but trouble. Some insignificant story to tell.”
Peyton smirked, tilting her head lazily to one side, “Oh, Natalie. We both know that isn’t true. After all, you’re not Lexi, are you?”
Natalie hissed, “You’re not good for him, Peyton. I am good for him. You need to go back to where you came from and leave Jimmy alone. I’ll see to it that you do.”
The artist laughed darkly, “And how are you going to do that?”
“By reminding him that he loves me,” she spoke cryptically. “And that you’re some drama-causing succubus.”
Peyton nodded, “You do that, Natalie. I’m going to go home now…Enjoy your closure, you psycho.”
Before Natalie could maul her like a rabid beast or pull satanic violence from Peyton’s fists, the artist quickly retreated the way she’d come. She was relieved to find Natalie hadn’t followed. Peyton wasted no time climbing into her car and speeding off, leaving the ugly and strange conversation in her rearview.
She knew Joanna would get a real kick out of the story, but decided to lock it away until they could be alone. There was no use dousing the atmosphere with theatrics just before a crowd of people strolled in to be put to work.
So, as she and Joanna got to work preparing the house for the stampede, stocked the fridge full of beer, and placed the order for entirely too much pizza, Peyton tucked the awkward confrontation into her pocket. The debate whether or not to tell Jimmy would have to be sorted out later.
Brian was the first to show up, a case of beer in hand. The others soon trickled in thereafter, Jonas gravitating to Joanna’s side immediately. Peyton decided not to intervene; her best friend deserved some one-night fling if that’s what she desperately craved. But Peyton’s eyes continuously fluttered to the front door, waiting eagerly for Jimmy to arrive.
She wanted to clear the air. She wanted to see that nothing had changed, that he still adored her the way he had before their strange near blow-up. Peyton couldn’t fathom preparing to leave without being on stable terms with her childhood best friend.
When he finally arrived, he smiled politely at the artist before bounding up the stairs after Brian. Peyton stood dumbfounded at the base of the stairs, her mind buzzing.
“Still mad, huh?” Joanna noted, sipping at a beer.
Peyton shrugged, “I guess so…”
“Give him some time,” Joanna encouraged, rubbing her best friend’s back lightly. “He’ll stop being such a boy.”
Peyton smirked, “Men are the real women. I don’t know why we get the bad rep for being sensitive and emotional.”
“Girl, I just don’t know,” Joanna snickered. “It’s men all the way! So, just let Jimmy be a woman and I’m sure he’ll come down and fawn all over you soon enough. Look at that ass of yours! How could he not fawn all over you?”
“Shut up,” Peyton laughed, slinging an arm around her insane friend’s shoulders. “Let’s get this house done, shall we?”
Joanna smiled widely, “I’m at your service!”
The women busied themselves away from the hammering sounds of men at work. Just after eight, the pizza man finally turned up. Joanna stole the boxes from his arms, carrying them happily down the hall and into the kitchen.
“Party?” the teenager asked Peyton as she fumbled with the cash.
She smirked, “Something like that.”
“Sweet,” he nodded.
Peyton tried her best not to laugh, shoving the fistful of cash at the young boy, “Totally, dude.”
“Have a good night, lady!” he cheered, thanking her with a wink for the tip as he disappeared.
Peyton shook her head, watching the teenager as he bounded down her walkway toward his car.
“Food here?” Jimmy asked, startling Peyton from her daze.
She whipped around, “Uh, yeah…In the kitchen.”
“Thank fuck,” he groaned. “I’m starving to death up there. My ribs are showing.”
Peyton grinned, sensing the ice had begun to thaw, “They’re not.”
“They are,” he maintained. “Feed me.”
“Come on,” she laughed, entirely distracted by the drummer’s seeming forgiveness.
She left the door open to the world, neglecting security for a different type of stability. As the workers were herded into the kitchen for dinner, an uproar of chit chat filled the spaces in the home. Peyton took the opportunity to begin memorizing the sounds of their voices, the wrinkles in their skin as laughter overtook their features.
The way Jimmy’s face would crinkle itself into a coyote when something was impossibly funny.
Just as she was truly reveling in the depth of her attachment to him, drowning in the blue of his eyes as he glanced over at her, a shrill cry broke the happiness into pieces.
“Jimmy!”
The drummer’s eyes widened with horror as he whipped around to face the banshee.
“I need to talk to you!”
There, in all her insane glory, was Natalie. Her eyes were rimmed with red, her hair messier than it had been when Peyton had seen her a few hours prior.
“Natalie,” he gasped. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you,” she hissed again, seemingly impervious to embarrassment.
The crowd in the kitchen slowly dispersed, out of polite obligation and absolute discomfort. Joanna linked her arm with Peyton’s as the artist made her escape. They followed Brian down the hall and out the front door, where he promptly lit a cigarette.
“What the shit is happening?” he asked Peyton with a laugh. “That bitch’s crazy knows no bounds.”
Peyton was at a loss, “Can I have one of those, Bri?”
He smirked, tossing his pack to the shaky singer, “She stresses me out too.”
Joanna glanced around, trying her best to see through walls, “I assume that’s the infamous Natalie?”
“That it is,” Brian nodded, pulling hard on his cigarette.
“I guess she really does know everything about me, huh?” Peyton sighed.
Brian tilted his head at her.
“She knows where I live, Brian,” Peyton noted. “It’s creepy.”
“That’s my fault,” Zach spoke up from the woodwork. “I was out here smoking…I didn’t think she’d actually fucking go in…”
Brian laughed, “Jimmy’s going to have a special thank you for you later, my man.”
Zach cringed, his lips falling into a frown.
Joanna giggled quietly, “Well…front yard party!”
Just as Joanna tried to turn the tide, as she often did, Jimmy tore through the open door. His blue eyes scanned the yard with a fury before finally landing on Peyton.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he shrieked, approaching her with his fingers balled into fists.
Peyton took a step back, her face contorting itself with confusion, “What?”
“You fucking told her we slept together?” he demanded loudly, his eyes laced with absolute and pure hatred.
“No!” Peyton argued. “Well yes…but no! You did!”
“Wait, what?” Brian interjected, the air escaping his lungs. “You two slept together?”
Jimmy and Peyton both seized up, their muscles tensing as their little spat had spilled over onto innocent ears.
Natalie appeared, her hands shaking as she moved briskly toward Peyton.
“Get the fuck away from me,” Peyton warned the speedy blonde.
“Hey, Brian,” Natalie sneered, stopping in her tracks just before the guitarist. “Did you catch wind of their little night in paradise yet? Or did they lie to you too?”
Brian’s brows furrowed themselves, “Did you two seriously sleep together?”
Jimmy and Peyton both let their eyes fall to the grass.
“When?” he demanded lowly.
Peyton opened her mouth to speak but the words simply would not manifest themselves. The guilt began to tear her limb from limb—the betrayal she’d felt earlier was now her gift to the man who had been so kind to her. As predicted, her lies had finally caught up.
“When you two were fucking I assume,” Natalie answered for the guilty duo. “So…Not only are you a homewrecker, Peyton Winchester, but you’re a filthy slut too!”
Like a bat out of hell, a flash of strawberry blonde flew across the lawn, tackling the platinum blonde to the ground. A series of grunts and ferocious growls escaped from the scrapping women before Matt and Jonas finally sprung into action and tore them apart.
“She’s not a slut!” Joanna screeched, fighting against Jonas’ grip to sink her teeth into the ex-girlfriend glaring over at her. “You’re just some jealous bitch!”
“Natalie, you need to leave,” Brian spoke calmly. “They’re not worth this shit. Neither of them are.”
He shook his head at the pair before taking his leave. Matt released the fiery blonde, who immediately marched herself up to Jimmy.
Peyton watched Brian retreat away, but couldn’t handle the settling hatred as it crept in along the breeze. Without a second thought, she tore after him. At the very least, she knew that she owed Brian an apology. She was more than prepared to offer it up in spades.
Jimmy watched in horror as Peyton chased after his best friend.
“We need to talk about this,” Natalie pleaded, despite his attention focused elsewhere.
He snapped his gaze to her, pursing his lips together, “Do you see the kind of shit you cause, Natalie? Do you see the effect you fucking have on people?”
“Me?” she gasped. “You did this! You fucked another woman behind my back!”
“She’s not just any woman, Natalie!” he shouted, his frustration running high. “I was perfectly fucking clear about my feelings for her before you and I’d even started fucking dating! You knew how I felt about her! I’m sorry, Natalie. I am. I’m so fucking sorry that it happened and that it hurt you…I really didn’t mean to. But you need to leave. You need to get out of my life and you need to take your dramatic bullshit with you.”
Natalie’s jaw fell open with the shock.
“But I love you,” she stammered, her emotions welling up.
Jimmy exhaled deeply, stepping closer to his pained ex-love, “I love her.”
“No!” she wailed. “No, you love me! I know you do! We were supposed to be forever!”
The drummer shook his head, letting his gaze follow the brunettes disappearing down the street until they fell from view. With one last mumbled apology and a heart full of regret, Jimmy quickly retreated to his own side of the property line. With a turn of the deadbolt, he locked it all away.
Natalie collapsed into a mess of feelings onto the lawn, causing everyone in attendance a great deal of discomfort. Matt eventually took pity on the sobbing blonde, pulling her to her feet and escorting her away from the carnage.
Jonas rubbed at his neck, finally releasing Joanna from his grip. She turned to look at him, her eyes wide.
“That was…wow,” she laughed oddly.
“Good tackle,” he commended with a grin.
“Thanks…Peyton’s California life is dramatic,” Joanna sighed. “Wow.”
Jonas laughed, “No shit.”
“But, um…Did you hear what I heard?” Joanna smirked, eyeing up the tattoo artist with a devious intent.
He nodded, “Shame Peyton wasn’t around to hear it.”
Joanna’s amusement faded away, “Yeah…”
She knew Peyton would never believe her. Peyton would never believe anyone but the source itself.
But Joanna had heard it clear as day. There would be no further speculation needed. There would be no further investigative research. Joanna now knew, without a doubt, what she’d suspected from the first time his name slipped through Peyton’s lips. Joanna wasn’t sure how she’d help Peyton to see it—but Joanna prayed, for her best friends’ sake, that she figured it out sooner than later. Not just her own feelings, but the feelings of her soul mate as well. The same feelings he’d just confessed to his former flame. The revelation to top all revelations.
Jimmy was in love with Peyton.

Notes

Well.....That was....

I don't even know what to say.

xx