She's Like a Shot, Good 'Till Morning

“He isn’t going to show again,” Celia grumbles as she twirls her straw in her drink, the small pieces of ice clinging into each other with a noise barely audible over the booming music system of the bar.

“Nope, he’s blown us off again.” Sierra concurs before downing the rest of her third drink.

“For the last two weeks all he’s been doing is going out, sleeping with that whore and doing who else knows what! He comes home all hours of the day, sometimes not even then and when he does he passes out. I think he’s doing serious drugs again too.” Celia goes off, like she has been all week. Breaking into the same rant about Johnny and his newlove interest.

“Maybe he just wants to have some fun, I mean don’t chew me out for saying it but he’s a young, good looking guy.” Cayden says, her finger tapping the bottle that’s firmly in her palms.

“Did I tell you how she was a total bitch when I met her? The one time!”

“Yes hun, you’ve told us several times. And we agree but maybe Cayden has a point…It’s not like him but-“

“She’s bad news is all I’m saying and I don’t-“

“Want him getting hurt.” The three girls say in union, all looking at Celia at the same moment.

Rhian and Sierra have been through this with Celia so many times before, she’s always trying to protect him and her heart is in the right place but they’re just questioning whether he wants protection.

“You don’t like any of his girlfriends,” Rhian points out, tucking a stray piece of bang behind her ear.

“That’s not true, I have liked some of them but by the end I tend not to…I can accept new people, I’ve accepted Cayden, and we all have.” Cayden smiles slightly awkwardly at the mention of her name, eying the rim of her bottle exceptionally. “I just have a really bad feeling about this girl. If he brought her around, out of the bedroom or back alleys or where the hell ever, I’d get a better feel for her and maybe like her.”

“We know and we get where this comes from and I’ll say he shouldn’t be blowing us off all the time for some girl,”

“I second that,” Rhian says, cutting into Sierra’s sentence.

“I know I miss him, the guys miss him,”

“He isn’t around long enough to even talk to these days.” Celia mumbles, her eyes pouring into her glass, suddenly the drink captured in it is not longer wanted and she shoves it away. “I need something stronger,” She whispers to herself, not knowing the three girls hear her, and she gets up to head over to the bar.

“Is it just me or is she kind of…” Cayden starts, looking over at Celia as she talks to the bartender.

“Obsessive? Just a little, but Johnny’s her best friend he’s like her little brother too, he has been forever, it’s hard for her to step back and let him go.”

“I get that,” She says nodding.

The girls fall into silence until Celia walks back with another drink that’s already halfway gone. “So where are our guys? Weren’t they just over there?” She asks as she takes her seat again, nodding over to a table across the room.

“Probably in the bathroom having sweet guy sex,” Sierra suggests, biting her lower lip in the images that pop up in her mind. They start laughing as the previous tension dies down and the fun starts sitting in.

“So, Miss Cayden you should give us some details, how are you liking our Brian?” Rhian asks, popping the cherry of her new drink, in her mouth.

Cayden blushes lightly, the color barely noticeable under the florescent lighting that’s changing to every beat of the song. “We haven’t been seeing each other that long,” She says, eying the girls with a small devious grin, causing them to urge her to go on. “But I do like him, we have fun.”

“Fun is good,”

“Not always it can be bad,” Sierra interjects and Rhian throws the stem of her cherry at her.

“You are such a slut,” Celia and Rhian exclaim together.

“And I’m glad you guys invite me out, it’s nice to know I’m accepted.”

“Oh you haven’t made the team yet,” Sierra says with a moment of seriousness but that falters as quickly as it started and the four start laughing hysterically. “Nah, I accept ya’.”

“I accept ya too,” Rhian concurs, nodding and shaking her empty glass at Cayden.

“Same here, you’re in our little club now,” Celia says, picking up a napkin and waving it around daintily.

“Tomorrow let’s all shop,” Sierra says as she makes her way out of her seat, “Because right now I’m slightly intoxicated and I see a guitarist a little ways over there and I just need my hands on him. Bye girls.” She squeaks before jetting off to where Zacky is sitting.

The girls laugh while watching Sierra as she disappears through the crowd of people then appear on Zack’s lap; those two are something else for sure.

“Well should we go do the same? Go claim our men?” Rhian asks, pushing her chair out.

“Actually I think I’m going to go, I’m gonna’ go find Matt and tell him, but you guys have fun tonight, and see you sometime tomorrow.” Celia says, removing herself from the chair and looking the bar over for her Matt.

Over at the bar he’s ordering a round of drinks for the guys, she walks over putting her hands around him and he kisses her knuckles after taking them, causing her to stand on her tip toes. He lets them go and turns to face the girl he’s very much in love with. “Hey,”

“Hey, I’m going to go, you alright here?” She says over the music, leaning in to his chest and talking in his ear.

“Are you sure? Why? What’s the matter?” He asks, looking down at her with a furrowed brow.

“I’m just not feeling it tonight, I’m sleepy and it was a long day at work. But you stay, I think I’m just going to curl up with a book and have a quiet night with fictional characters.”

“Are you sure,”

“Yes, don’t worry; get a ride back with Zack?” She asks, making sure he isn’t left alone to walk back to their place.

“Yeah I will. Here are the keys, drive safe babe okay?” He says handing her the keys only after she promises to drive safely. She normally wouldn’t conduct in driving under any influences but it doesn’t hurt to break that rule once or twice, and she’s only had three drinks, one of which she didn’t finish.

“Love you,” She whispers along his lips before kissing them adoringly. “Love you too,” He breathes against her lips after she breaks her kiss then walks out to the exit.

With the radio turned off, Celia keeps her focus on the road, it’s only a ten minute drive from here to home and she’s driven this rode millions of times. With getting there safely she gets out and locks the door, her house keys ready in her hand as she comes up to the porch, walking a straight line.

Well she was walking a straight line, until she met the steps and tripped over something that normally isn’t there. Her elbow breaks her fall on the porch, an instant stinging rises in the tip of it making an assortment of noises escape her lips. “Johnny?” She asks as she massages her arm. “Johnny?” She calls again, extending her hand the body that’s crumpled on the stairs, unmoving. This time she screams his name, prodding him harshly with her hand.

“Johnny,” She keeps repeating as her hand wonders off in search of her house keys on the porch ahead of her. After finding them she hurries up to the door, pushing the right key into the lock by luck and thrusting open the door a few seconds later. She turns on the porch light and turns around to the horror of her friend lying in a pile against the railing.

“Johnny can you hear me!?” She cries, shaking him feebly with the growing seconds. Bad thoughts clouding her actions as her eyes get lost in the scene before her. And just as she is about to run off into the house or to the car for a phone his eyes shake open and scare the living hell out of her. “Can you hear me? Johnny are you okay? What happened?” She asks all at once, pressing her hands against his face.

“Celia?” He asks with a dry voice.

“Yes it’s me, what happened? Who did this to you?”

“Nobody,” He whispers in a laugh, shoving away her hands.

“Are you high on something?” She shrieks with bulging eyes.

“Something, everything, does it really matter?” He slurs, still laughing and sniffling. He shifts his body so he is no longer in a slump against the railing but now sitting erect.

“She did this to you,” She scoffs, eying him in disgust.

“Leave her outta’ it.” He replies with anger coating his voice, his eyes dart to Celia’s and when he sees the look in them he has to look away again.

“Look at you!” She screams, getting to her feet and standing over him. “You’re so fucked up you couldn’t make it in the house! You couldn’t make it to the porch! Is this what has been happening to you?”

“Shut up I don’t need this from you!” He yells back, hitting his head against the railing with a thud.

“Yeah I think you do. You need to lose this girl! Look what she’s reduced you to,”

“To what exactly is that? Huh Celia? I’ve used drugs before, I’ve drank before, I’ve done this all before-“

“Yeah and that scares me. You are wrecking yourself and for what?”

“Go inside with your fabulous love and leave me the fuck alone.”

“Is that what this is about? There are other girls out there-“

“No! That’s what you have made this about.” Johnny shouts, even as his eyes are blurry he stands to his feet to be at her level. “This is your fault for getting involved in the first fucking place.”

“How can you say that?” She asks, clearly in hysterics as the sentences are thrown back and forth, that this is cutting her deeply.

“Because it is the fucking truth Celia, if you weren’t so damn pushy I wouldn’t go bother looking for companionship. But you make it so clear that I’m alone!”

“I never meant to…” She whispers, her voice slightly cracking. But in the mist of hurtful emotions she gets back to the furious starting. “This is destructive,”

“Yeah so, stay out of it!” He shouts, grabbing her forearm tightly.

“Why are you acting like this?” She yells, trying to break her arm free. She’s afraid of putting her all into it and end up sending him off balance and maybe knocking him down the stairs.

“I’m in love.” He replies flatly, letting go of her arm.

“You’re not in love! You’re blinded is what you are. You can’t know anything about this girl! Where does she live? What does she do? Do you spend any time outside of a bedroom? What the hell is her last name?”

“I don’t have to answer any of your goddamn questions. Leave me alone Celia, ok.” Johnny says before turning and stumbling down the porch stairs and into the night.

Stunned, alarmed, furious, crushed and a mix of many other emotions, Celia stands there staring at the spot he last was seen before he disappeared into the night. “What the hell just happened?” She asks herself and the tears really start falling and now she takes slight notice to them. When they were fighting a few fell here and there in a sprinkle but now the storm has just blown into town.