It's Really Happening

Every Avenue’s shows never failed in leaving me bouncing off the walls, or at least I always felt like I was. According to Abby, I just got more loquacious and prone to laughter. So basically they got me drunk. And I did experience show-hangovers.

“You know what we should do?” I said, continuing to drum with my hands and feet on the wall outside the venue. The guys were lugging their equipment back to their trailer and we ladies were watching. Abby and I had offered multiple times to help, but we were always denied; Couch just didn’t care.

“What?” Abby asked, eyes fixed on the inside of the van. She was probably wondering when the last time it’d been cleaned was.

“We should go to that bar up the street and get drunk!”

“Hell yeah!” Josh agreed, appearing out of nowhere. He put his arm around my shoulder and grinned. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

I laughed and ducked under his arm before pushing his towards his fiancée. “Awesome, the lush approves. I’mma go convince the others!”

Of course, the word “convince” is used in an incredibly loose connotation. I didn’t so much convince anyone as say, “Hey, bar up the street when you’re done?” and I had everyone in agreement.

“Drinks on Jimmie!” Abby announced gleefully as we strolled into the establishment.

“Hey, what?!”

“I can’t believe you made us drive here,” I griped in a laugh. We claimed a long table in the corner away from the cluster of guys watching football on the televisions. Fitting nine people with legs into a booth just wasn’t going to happen; trust me, we’d tried before. “How damn lazy are you guys?”

“That’s way too far to walk when we’re wasted,” Matt argued.

Abby laughed shortly. “Right, because driving while wasted is so much better.” I opened my mouth to question that fact she was being the voice of reason, except then I realised she probably wanted her fiancé alive and well before their wedding. Maybe after too.

The guys never minded drinking with us for the simple reason that none of us were picky about alcohol. Abby only didn’t like beer, I preferred hard liquor but would drink pretty much anything, and Tiffany would drink anything. But tonight it was strictly top shelf rum, which terrified all of us right in our wallets.

But of course, she paid for it herself and was out after two drinks. So we got over it.

I settled in with my rum and coke, trying to make it last; although the youngest of the group, I had the feeling I was being the responsible one tonight. I smiled and laughed and was social, but generally kept to myself since my high was wearing off.

In general, I had a tendency to get lost inside my own head, though everyone else thought I was just spacing out. It often resulted in re-entering the conversation at a strange point where whatever someone said made no sense.

“The thing was so huge it actually hurt.”

“Whoa, what?” I asked, sitting up and staring bewildered at Jimmie.

The rest of the table cracked up. “You weren’t even close to listening,” Jimmie laughed. “I was talking about a box, Eris.”

“Oh.” I leaned back into my hand, taking a drink. “Well, that’s less interesting.”

“Why’re you all thinky and shit?” Tiffany asked, looking disgruntled at the mere idea of thinking.

“Yeah, what’s your problem?”

I smiled. “Your face, Strauchman.”

“I like his face!” Abby protested.

“I like your face.”

“Aww, thanks, Josh!”

I pulled a face and looked away from the pair, instead polishing off my drink. Once I set my glass down, I wanted another. “Hey, Jimmie,” I said, getting up. “Let’s do a shot.”

He and I crossed the room and I flagged down the bartender with the help of my, uh, “assets”. I also attracted a lot of attention from the other patrons in the stools, but I did my best to ignore that by turning back to Jimmie and making small talk.

“Helloooo!” Abby greeted with a grin as she stopped beside us. “What’d you order?”

“Whiskey.”

“Make that three,” she called to the bartender, who nodded. I frowned at her inquisitively. “Every drink you drink, I’m drinking one too.”

Jimmie and I exchanged alarmed looks. “Dude, that would kill you,” he contested.

She shrugged as the bartender poured out three shots on the bar. “It's about time I start building a better tolerance. I have to keep up with His Tallness, after all.”

Askance, I watched her drink her shot and grimace before taking my own. “This isn’t going to work,” I announced, setting the glass back. “I can drink a hell of a lot more than you can. Plus one of us needs to drive home, because Tiffany sure as hell can’t.”

(Currently she was sitting in Dave’s lap.)

Abby thought for a moment. “Fine. Two for one, then,” she decided brightly. “Two for you, one for me.”

“Remind me to cut myself off after this,” I muttered to Jimmie after ordering another rum and coke. He chuckled and nodded, leading Abby back to the table.

My intention was, since I’d already had three drinks, to make my last one last and thereby save Abby from alcohol poisoning. However, this plan fell through since her loving, enabling fiancé was not in on it. So Abby soon was too drunk to notice that I’d stopped drinking.

I sat at the other end of the table, trying not to glower in jealousy at them. “I miss Zack,” I declared sadly to myself.

“What?” Dave half-shouted, impersonating Lil Jon.

Everyone laughed, including me. “I’ll be right back,” I rephrased, climbing to my feet.

“But whyyyy?” Tiffany demanded, whining and holding onto my arm.

“Because I’m going to call my boyfriend,” I said reasonably, pulling my hand out of her grip, only to have her fling her arms around my waist.

“But whyyyyyyy?” she repeated before giggling.

I rolled my eyes. “Because I’m evil, now shut the fuck up and let go of me.”

“Bitch.”

“Whore.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I swaggered away from the table and pulled my phone out of my pocket once I stepped outside to the little roped-off area for smokers. I did a little dance as the line rang, both because I was wondering what his ringtone for me was and because it was a little cold.

“Hey, Eris,” Zack said once he picked up.

“Hi, love,” I greeted, smiling widely.

“What’s up?”

“I’m out with the ladies and Every Avenue! But I miss you, and I love you, and Abby and Josh make me sort of sick.”

There was a pause on the line before he chuckled. “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

I laughed and leaned against the front wall of the building. “Getting there,” I admitted. “But I’ve gotta drive us all home, so I stopped a while ago. So what did you do today, mister professional recording musician fellow?”

“Uh… bled a lot.”

My eyes widened and my eyebrows shot up. “…I’m sorry, run that by me again?”

“Well, Squire and I fought over part of a song, and he’s a better fighter than I would’a thought.”

I stared blankly into the street and tried to process this information. “You got into a fist fight with your producer over one of your songs?”

Zack sounded a bit sheepish. “Yeah… I had a bloody nose and he fucked up some of my teeth.” I could almost hear the gears in my brain grinding to a creaking, rusty halt. “…Eris?”

I sighed and passed a hand over my face. “Zack…” I sighed again. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured me. “You don’t sound mad. I know you hate when I get into fights.”

“Oh, I do,” I reminded pointedly, standing up from my leaning-place. “And you’re an idiot. But I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Aaand I have been drinking.” Zack laughed and I chuckled, returning to my happiness of talking to him. “So other than getting bloodied up, how are you?”

“Pretty good. Mostly I’ve been hanging out at the house. They don’t need me to come in much, except we’re doing gang vocals in a few days, so a lot of guys are showing up.”

I smiled. “You guys do seem to like mobs of people,” I pointed out. “So lots of skating and working out.”

“And surfing,” he added. “Can’t forget that. But it’s not the same with you up there, even if we’re both out on the water.”

I ran a hand through my hair and tried not to let my smile make my head fall off. Zack and I had made a habit of planning to go surfing at the same time when we weren’t together. It was a big ocean, but it made us feel a little closer together.

It had started before we became an official couple. The guys were in town for a show and something had gone wrong with their booking a hotel, so I offered to let them stay at my apartment. I could be a foolish young thing sometimes. But this was when I still had classes early in the morning, so if I wanted to surf, it had to be around five-thirty when the waves were good.

Sneaking out with a surfboard and trying not to wake up a bunch of dudes was harder than I thought it’d be though. Especially when it was still dark outside. I managed to get into the kitchen to grab some water before Zack poked his head into the doorway. He smiled hesitantly. “Mind if I join you?”

So we loaded up my car with my surfboard, boogie board, towels, and wetsuits—we went by the venue and stole his out of the bus—before driving down the coast. I had a secret surfing spot I went to on weekends and days off, and since I had a major crush on Zack, I decided to share it.

Not that I could think of anything clever or coy to say on the way down. The drawback of being attracted to someone was that they made me so nervous I felt sick.

Out on the water, though, we both loosened up, alternating on boards. He complimented me on catching an impressive wave and I laughed appreciatively of his goofing off on the boogie board. There was a moment where we were just sitting out on the water, talking, and in a lull of conversation (and moment of insanity) I leaned sideways to kiss him.

…And then fell off my surfboard. When I surfaced, Zack was still laughing. With a smirk, I grabbed his arm and pulled him off his.

After that, people started to show up at the beach, so we decided to call it a day. We kept walking sideways into each other heading up to the car, up to the point where he almost tripped over someone stretching.

My face had probably burst into flames when I looked over and he was already half out of his wetsuit. But I tried to be calm and not freak out while peeling my own wetsuit off on the other side of the car. “Eris?” I raised my head to peer through the open windows at Zack, who was leaning down at catch my eye. “Can I use the extra towel?”

“Uh…” I was only wearing a bra and shorts at the time. “Yeah, hold on.” I ripped the t-shirt I’d brought off the back seat and threw it on before walking around the back of the car with a second towel. He was leaning on the door, gazing out at the water, and I grinned. “Hey, Zack.” Before he turned fully, I tossed the towel and it landed perfectly over his head.

Our drive back up the coast was far more lively, full of singing Third Eye Blind. In the garage of my apartment building, we wrestled the boards out of the back before replacing them with his stuff that was going back to the bus. I slammed the trunk down and turned to Zack with a smile.

“You, uh, got something…” he said, gesturing. I blinked expectantly while he leaned in and kissed me softly, his hand slid behind my neck.

“You’re very sly sometimes,” I said, leaning against the wall again. “And I think I’m gonna go out tomorrow.”

“I was just thinking that,” Zack agreed. “Six-thirty?”

“Better make it seven. That way Abby and Couch won’t maim me as badly if I wake them up.”

“Good point.”

I tilted my head back and forth, feeling more sober. “I suppose I should get back,” I murmured, missing him all the more. “Make sure everybody’s okay.”

He chuckled. “You’re always everyone’s mom, even when you’re drunk.”

“Does that make you Oedipus?”

“Ew, Eris.”

“I love you, Zack.”

“I love you too, weirdo.”

I strode back into the bar in much brighter spirits than when I left. After halfway across the room, I heard Dave, Josh, and Jimmie yell, “No sleep til girlfriend!” and then an explosion of laughter.

I sat back in my seat, raising a confused eyebrow. “What is wrong with you guys?”

“Girl, don’t hate!” Dave called across the table. “We fuckin’ street!” Even Abby’s face fell into her hands at that declaration.