Fighting Ourselves.

Adeline’s POV

“Can I ask you something?” asked Matt. I rolled my eyes.

“You just did, but yeah…” I mumbled.

“What’s up between you and Brian? What did he do to upset you so much?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Because.” I said, looking out of the window.

“Woah, that’s the best argument I ever heard!” he said, sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes, “What do you want me to say then?” I asked.

“The real reasons… Like why you look like you are about to murder him every time he’s in the same room as you and everything…” asked Matt. We were the only ones in his car.

“Because it’s Brian.” I muttered.

“Wow, even better!” said Matt laughing as he stopped at a red light.

“You want the truth?” I asked, looking at him.

“Yeah…” he said, looking at me for a brief second before driving again.

“He’s just getting on my nerves! First he got married to Ellie and then they slept together, then the kids discover that he’s their father and they spent so much time with him and I feel like the bad parent because everything Brian does seems so awesome in their eyes! I feel so lame! And he just, I don’t know! His presence is annoying me and I can’t wait to go back to France…” I ranted.

“France? No way! You can’t go back!” yelled Matt, starring at me with wide eyes.

“Stay focused on the road!” I warned. “And don’t worry! Ellie wants to stay here, it’s just me who will go back home…” I explained.

“Damn Adeline, you’re stupid. Like really stupid…” he muttered.

“Why thank you Matthew…” I muttered, rolling my eyes.

“Seriously Adeline, don’t you remember when we were talking about acting like adults?” he asked.

“While we were lost somewhere in Nevada or Arizona? Yeah I remember, why?” I asked dumbly.

“Well, you’re certainly not acting like one. Just have some guts and talk to Brian! The only nice words you spoke to him were ‘thank you’, and that was 3 days ago!” said Matt, slowing down the car.

“I’m still mad at him! He just gets on my nerves really easily!” I ranted.

“Everyone gets on your nerves easily, except the twins maybe. But for fuck sake Adeline, stop denying it and just admit your undying love for the man.” Said Matt, sighing dramatically. I froze.

“Stop the car.” I mumbled.

“Come on Adeline, you know it’s true.” He said.

“Stop the goddamn car!” I said, louder.

“I’ll, when you’ll stop being so immature! Dude, you’re worst than Jimmy!” he commented. I rolled my eyes.

“Just admit it, the reason why you’re so mad at Brian is because you still love him.” Said Matt.

“And what if you are right?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Then tell him and get married and have more kids to start a football team.” Said Matt, grinning.

“He’s already married, with my sister.” I said, reminding him in case he had forgotten.

“So, you’re just going to be a major pain in the ass until the divorce will finally be proclaimed?” he asked.

“Pretty much yeah!” I said, looking out of the window.

“And they say I’m the one with a temper…” Matt mumbled, parking the car. I just grinned and jumped out of the car.

“So, we’re the one in charge of buying the alcohol and food while the others are dropping the twins at Papa Gates’ house, right?” I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets and following Matt as he was putting on his aviator and inside the shop. Yeah, that’s Matt… sunglasses inside a shop… Sure…

“Exactly, I’ll buy an extra bottle of vodka just for me…” he mumbled.

“Why, thanks for sharing!” I mumbled, hitting his shoulder.

“Hey, I’ll have to deal with Nate and Ellie being all lovey-dovey, be nice and let me get smashed.” He said, taking a bottle.

“I’ll have to deal with Brian…” I said as I grabbed a bottle of JD, “and deal with Zacky…” I said as I grabbed another one.

“I’ll get a cart…” said Matt, giving me his bottle of Vodka and leaving me standing here, three bottles of alcohol in my arms. I was doing fine, until my phone started ringing and vibrating in my pocket and I had no way to get it.

“Dude took you long enough…” I mumbled and put the bottles in the cart. “Take care of the alcohol, I’m taking care of the food…” I said as I walked away.

Nice, one night, stuck at the beach… Like we are going to eat, everyone will drink and not eat, which means I will have to stay sober if I don’t want a repeat of last time. That means I have to buy things I like, I mean… Matt will pay. Which means…

“CRISPS!” I squealed and grabbed several bags of crisps with different flavors before I made a stop and grabbed some chocolates (for Ellie) and some candies, (for me only…).

“Adeline, are you done already?” asked Matt, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Yeap, I’m done I think…” I said as I walked with him to pay for all the junkwe bought, he bought.

**

“Here you are! I tried to call you!” said Brian as soon as I got out of Matt’s car. I rolled my eyes, making him aware of my annoyance and opened the backseat door to grab the bags. I grabbed one and handed it to him, before grabbing the other bag and made my way to the beach, leaving Matt and Brian by the car.

I let myself fall in the sand, next to where Nate and Ellie were sucking faces. You know, I used to complain when Matt and Ellie were sucking faces, but with Nate, it was fucking gross.

I made a gagging sound and reached into the bag, taking a bag of crisps and opening it, stuffing my mouth with vinegar crisps.

“Yo Adeline, it’s not even 8pm! Don’t start stuffing your face yet!” said Jimmy, sitting next to me.

“Then don’t start drinking yet!” I retorted, sticking my tongue out at him as he took a swig from his beer.

“Hey, what crawled up your ass and died?” asked Zacky, as he sat next to Jimmy but not really next to him since he was almost facing me.

“Obviously not your dick…” I said, taking a handful of crisps and stuffing it in my mouth while Jimmy was choking on his beer, along with Johnny who had just joined us and sat next to me, on my right, blocking me from seeing Ellie and Nate. Thank God for Johnny Christ.

“That wasn’t really nice…” said Matt, trying to hide his smile as he sat next to Johnny, his back turned to Ellie and Nate. We were forming some kind of circle now…

“Just like your face…” I mumbled under my breath, trying my best not to smile and hoping Matt didn’t hear me.

“Ellie! Your sister’s being a bitch yet again!” said Brian, sitting down between Zacky and Matt, basically in front of me.

“If there’s a bitch here, it’s clearly not me…” I said, not missing a beat and starring at him. His eyes opened wide in shock and he opened his mouth to answer back but Ellie and Nate choose to join us, they both sat between Matt and Brian. Nate sat down first, pulling Ellie on his lap, which made Matt reach out and grabbed the bottle of vodka with ‘SHADZ’ written on it…

Yes, I might have found a marker pen in Matt’s car…

“Starting with the vodka already Shads?” asked Jimmy, with a slightly concerned tone, but he quickly shut up when both Matt and I turned to glare at him.

“Guys, remember the last time we came to hang here?” asked Ellie, looking at us. I nodded shortly. Hell yeah I remembered… It was in winter but we decided it would be nice to go to the beach…

“We had made a fire because it was freezing…” added Johnny, looking at the center of our circle.

“And Matt and Ellie were sucking faces on one side, while Adeline was hitting Brian on the other side because he said something that didn’t please her…” said Zacky, starring off at the center too.

“Oh yeah, and by the end of the night, the girls were so smashed we had to carry them back to the car.” Said Matt, with a small smile gracing his lips.

“I wasn’t that smashed…” I retorted.

“We were…” said Ellie with a smile.

“And we played Truth or Dare…” started Jimmy, with a grin. “And Adeline was so smashed that when we told her to go dive in the ocean, she almost did it, and she would have, if Brian hadn’t been there to stop her and yell at us for telling her to do so…” added Jimmy, in an excited tone as he remembered that night.

“I remember!” yelled Ellie, bursting out laughing. “Matt told her that Billie Joe was also swimming in the ocean, that’s why she was so eager to go…” she said.

I groaned and covered my face with both hands.
“Stop reminding me of that…”

And they kept talking about that peculiar night, passing around the beers, JD and vodka, while I kept to myself the coke and other stuff I had chosen. Except for the bag of crisps Jimmy had stolen from me.

**

“Oh and remember when Matt nearly beat up that random guy that Adeline had paid to kiss Ellie to give him a lesson for making the stupid bet?” asked Johnny, high fiving Matt in the process.

Would you believe me if I told you that it was getting late, like close to 1am, but that we were still sitting at the beach. The guys had started a fire in the middle of our circle. The alcohol was becoming rare and the guys were on their way to being pretty smashed…

“Yeah, that was Nate…” said Ellie, turning to look at her boyfriend, smiling. Let’s just say that Nate didn’t look very pleased to be reminded of that peculiar episode.

“And when Adeline hit Zacky? I thought she castrated him!” said Jimmy, doubling over in laughter. I just cracked a smile at the memory. Contrary to my friends, I wasn’t drunk and was far from it. I might have been a little high on sugar, but that was all.

“Oh and Adeline singing ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ on repeat while putting up decorations in Brian’s house, almost falling off the ladder a couple of times!” said Zacky, “And Ellie unconsciously started playing that song on the piano… Matt was about to murder her… Adeline, not Ellie of course…” he rambled.

“And when Matt and Adeline got their tattoos!” yelled Jimmy, clapping his hands loudly.

“Yeah, and when you kept trying to see it even though it hurt like a bitch…” I reminded him.

“I wanna see it now!” he yelled, pushed me face first in the sand and straddled my back, lifting up my T-shirt and looked at my death bat tattoo.

“Are you done now?, you saw it? Can you get off me now?” I asked, trying not to laugh.

“Hell no, come on guys! Look at that death bat, our first fan ever!” said Jimmy.

“Jimmy…” I said in a warning tone, as I saw Matt, Brian, Johnny and Zacky getting up.

“Guys, it’s just a tattoo! Matt got pretty much the same on his stomach, leave me alone…” I whined, trying to turn around and make Jimmy fall, but failed miserably.

Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted off the sand. It took me less than a second to realize what was going to happen.

“NO! No, put me down!” I yelled, trying to wiggle free. “I’m not joking guys, put me the fuck down!!!!!!” I yelled, squirming around.

I could only see their legs and feet, my guess was that Jimmy and Matt were holding me, Johnny and Zacky were just laughing their drunken asses off, and Brian… well, I had no idea where he was…

“I’ll make sure you don’t end up in the sea if you tell me what you have against me…” slurred Brian in my ear, making me yell in fright and surprised, before I turned my head to glare at him in the darkness.

“I have nothing against you…” I lied shamelessly, trying my best to see his face.

“Liar…” he said and with that I felt myself being carried closer to the water. I winced in pain as my back was arching at a weird angle. Those morons were too drunk to realize that they were holding me the wrong way, I shouldn’t be facing the ground, but the sky.

“Are you going to tell me what I did wrong?” he asked, knelling down and looking at me.

“You were born?” I asked, trying my best not to smile.

“You really do want to end up in the ocean?” he asked, sounding less drunk than before, and a little hurt.

“No, I just don’t want to answer…” I said, wincing in pain as the guys started to walk again.

“You’re too stubborn for your own good Adeline…” stated Jimmy, cackling like a maniac. I heard the sound of the waves getting louder and louder and soon, I was inches away from the water. The guys had water up to their ankles and with the weird way they were carrying me, add to that my back arching, which equals my face almost touching the water.

“Adeline, you have fifteen seconds before they drop you into the icy cold water. So, tell me what you have against me?” he asked, his face really close to mine, too close.

“No.”

“Ten…”

“Nine…”

“Eight…”

“Seven…”

“Come on Adeline, just tell me, is it because of what happened between me and Ellie?” he asked lowly.

“Five…”

“Four…”

“Adeline, don’t be stupid!” yelled Johnny, clearly not amused by the situation.

“I have my pride…” was all I managed to say before Jimmy and Matt started swinging me back and forth.

“Two…”

“One!” and with that, I went flying in the air and landed in the water with a huge ‘SPLASH’…
The water wasn’t that deep, but enough to get me soaked from head to toes.

A roar of laughter erupted from the shore as I stood up, with the water up to mid-thigh…

I ignored them the best I could, and walked out of the water with my head up, not even glancing at them.

“Adeline, I’m sorry!” apologized Brian, while Jimmy was laughing hysterically.

I ignored him and walked faster closer to the fire. Ellie was still there, along with Nate. Ellie was about to start laughing until she saw me and her eyes widened.

“They actually throw you in?” she asked.

“I guess so…” I mumbled, sitting down on the sand and taking off my Chucks, and turning them upside down so the water would fall down on the sand.

“But you’re soaking wet!” retorted Ellie.

“I know…” I mumbled, too busy taking off my socks and placing them by the fire, along with my shoes.

“Are you going to start yelling anytime soon?” asked Nate, “Just warn me so I can cover my ears…” he added, trying to be funny.

“Ha ha ha…” I said, lamely and I twisted my hair and then tied it up in a messy bun.

“Adeline, I swear I thought you were going to say something…” apologized Brian, as he sat next to me, on my left.

“Huhu…” I mumbled vaguely, too focused on taking my hoodie off and wringing it out.

“HAHAHHHAAAAA!”

That was Jimmy…

“Like, she went flying like… WOOOH! And then SPLASH! And HAHAHAHAHAHA!” yelled Jimmy, as he kept on laughing, doubled over.

“It’s Ellie’s turn now!” said Zacky, leaning against Jimmy as Brian and Matt made their way towards her.

“NOOO!” she yelled, holding onto Nate as Matt grabbed her legs. She squirmed around, laughing.

“Let go of her.” Said Nate, getting up, towering over Matt, trying to impress him.

I should probably warn him that, nothing can impress Matt, especially when he’s drunk.

“Come on dude, chill out!” said Brian, making his way towards them. Ellie was trapped in Matt’s arms and Nate had his fists clenched at his sides.

“Shut up you fag, you and your bunch of assholes friends, cackling like idiots for nothing. Seriously, you’re pathetic and retarded. I feel sorry for you!” he said.

“Hey!” I protested lamely, not even having the strength to get up, or move, my back was killing me…

“Listen you ass, you better talk better about my friends, okay?” boomed Matt; tightening his grip around Ellie.

“Hey, I told you to let go of her!” yelled Nate, taking a step forward. Brian stepped in between.

“Calm down guys…” he said, holding up his hands.

“She’s not yours!” yelled Matt.

“Neither is she yours!” yelled back Nate, and in a heartbeat, Matt had pushed Ellie to the side and had jumped on Nate, straddling him and slamming his clenched fists in the poor guy’s face.

They started rolling around in the sand while Ellie was screaming at them to stop, and Brian was trying to hold her back.

“You and your lame ass band!” yelled Nate as he got back on his feet and wiped the blood off his split lip with the back of his hand.

“Lame ass band, I’m gonna show you what’s lame!” yelled Matt, grabbing Nate by the collar.

“Guys, stop!” I yelled, trying to get up, only to fall backwards. Brian saw me and went to break it off.

“She’s mine okay! She’s mine! She’s better off with me!” yelled Nate, trying to hit Matt as Brian stepped between them and pushed Nate, while Ellie went over to check on Matt who had fallen on his ass, due to his drunken state.

“Hey, shut up man okay! Ellie told me once that she’d always choose Matt over you as long as Matt will be around, so if I were you I’ll just turn away and leave…” spat Brian, finally losing patience. “Bastard.”

Nate tried his best to keep his composure and stood still, eyeing Ellie suspiciously, waiting for her reaction before doing anything.

Ellie was looking at Matt, her hands on his shoulders, smiling. I bet she was remembering all the time Matt stood up for her, but she had probably drunk a little too much…

“Fine!” yelled Nate, he turned on his heels and started walking towards the parking lot.

Finally, Ellie came out of her daze and ran after Nate. We heard loud shouting and screaming in a mix of French and English before Ellie came back, a pissed-off expression on her face.

We had all sat back down in circle. Ellie sat down between Brian and Matt and snatched the SHADZ’s bottle from Matt and took a long gulp from it. She was going to finish the bottle before the end of the night…