Holding On

"Alright are you guys ready?" Jimmy asked and looked at Brian and Zacky, who were both sitting next to a table, in front of each of them were placed equal number of shots. Jimmy's hand was raised in the air, as if he was about to give someone hell of a slap. As soon as Brian nodded and Zacky gave the thumbs up Jimmy started a count down. "Well then 3…2…1…Go!" he said, throwing his hand down with his last word. Brian and Zacky started drinking their shots, each his own. They wanted to have a drinking contest, the loser have to pay for everyone's drinks for the whole night, which works out pretty awesome for me and Jimmy. I was standing a little further than where they were sitting. The contest was like this – the first one to drink all his shots, get up and get to me wins.

I saw Brian raising his hands; all his shots were long gone. He then jumped off his chair only to find himself hitting the floor, falling down. With help of his chair, he got up again and put his arms in the air, trying to get balanced so he could walk all the way to me. Less than a minute after Brian was done with the shots, so was Zacky. Both Brian and Zacky started walking on the same time, but Brian fell down way more than Zacky did.

Suddenly, a heavy figure landed on me, causing us both to fall down. "We've got a winner!" I announced from underneath Zacky. "Now get off me, man" I said, trying to breathe.

"Not fair" Brian complained to Jimmy as I got up. "You were close, though" Jimmy tried to cheer Brian up as I helped Zacky to get back on his feet. Brian nodded and ordered himself a drink as Zacky and I were walking back toward them and then sat back in our places. "That was a fair fight" Zacky said, shaking Brian's hand. They both laughed as Jimmy ordered a beer bottle to himself.

"Hey guys, check this out!" he said, taking a big sip off his beer, holding it in his mouth. We all looked at him, waiting to see what he's up to now. He counted backwards with his fingers; 3,2,1…and before I knew it, I was sprayed with beer straight from Jimmy's mouth to all over my face, which apparently caused all three of them to laugh their asses off. I wiped the beer off my face and stole Jimmy's bottle, taking a big sip myself and raising my head a little so I could hit Jimmy.

That, I must say, was the greatest beer spraying of all time. "In the nose!" Jimmy said laughing and choking a little. "That's your end, cowboy!" he warned, taking the bottle away from me as he took another long sip. "That's enough guys you're wasting some-" Brian started saying, getting up to get the beer out of Jimmy's hand and receiving all of what Jimmy had in his mouth right in his face. He glared at Jimmy before joining the fight.

It wasn't long before we were all covered in beer, with two and half empty beer bottles on the table. Zacky filled his mouth as he aimed to me when I felt something moving in my pocket. "Wait, wait, wait!!" I tried to stop him. He looked at me questioning with beer dripping from his mouth. "I think I've got a phone call!" I explained with my hands held in front of my face. He just shrugged and spilled the beer on me as I tried to stop it with my hands. "Motherfucker" I said, taking the beer from his hands and drinking the rest of it to make sure I could actually answer the call.

"Hey" I said as I pressed the phone against my ear and staffed the other ear with my finger, to be able to hear well. "Uh are you still at that pub?" the known voice asked me. "Oh hi!" I said with a smile and naturally took a few steps away from my group as I recognized Matt's voice. He didn't say anything in respond so I repeated the conversation in my mind, realizing he was probably just waiting for an answer. "Yeah, when are you coming man?" I asked, looking back at the guys. "I'm here" he simply answered. I walked a few more steps and looked at the entrance to this place. I tried my best to see between all the people, one figure stood up to me though. Even I wasn't so sober, I could easily tell it was Matt. When you know someone for so long, you can recognize them from very far, at a very crowded place and with tons of people similar to them; so finding him here was not a problem for me.

"I can see you!" I said as I held up my hand and started waving. "Where are you?" he asked, looking ahead. "I'm at your left!" I said, jumping as he turned his head to his left, which turned to be the side I wasn't at. "Right! At your right!" I corrected myself laughing. He nodded as he saw me and hanged up, starting walking over me. I put the cell back in my pocket and walked over him, hugging him. "Mattie!" I said with a smile on my face as he awkwardly tapped my back.

"Drunk already, eh?" he asked as I got off him. I smiled and raised my hands in the air as if my tattoos were an excuse. "Okay let's go to where we're sitting!" I said and started to walk back to the table. When it was already in sight I felt an arm on my shoulder stopping me. "Who exactly is we?" Matt questioned, his eyes glued to where the guys were sitting, if Jimmy standing on top of Brian who was sitting on Zacky that sat on the table can be counted as sitting.

"You, me and the guys; of course" I said and kept on walking. As I got to the guys, their little tower fell apart and Jimmy ended up sitting on the floor. "Hey it's Johnny! Welcome back Johnny!" Jimmy said smiling from down there. Yes. Jimmy was down there. I was up here. Isn't that cool?! "Yeah I'm back and with-" I turned around only to see Matt's back fading away. "Crap" I mumbled and walked away, speeding my pace to catch up with him.

"Matt!" I shouted as I was close already, causing him to turn around. "Where the hell are you going?" I asked confused as I reached to where he was standing. "Home?" he said in an obvious tone, questioning my question. "But why?" I asked confused. He sighed and looked at me. "How will I explain it for you to understand" he wondered as he made a thinking face.

"These people there you call friends do not want me around them" he said slowly "Naturally, it makes me want to keep distance from them" he explained, still talking to me as if I am an idiot. "When you call me and tell me to come, without any of us knowing, it does not help anybody" his voice was getting more annoyed. "Does your little tiny brain get that?" he asked and I have to confess, scared me a little.

"Well…you don't have to be such a drama queen and insult my tiny little brain!" I said in reply, feeling satisfied about my answer until I realized he was laughing at me. Hey! "And I don't have a tiny little brain!" I added and crossed my arms annoyed. All he did was shake his head still chuckling. "Sorry. I'm just trying to say that all you do for me it's nice and all but you need to realize that things has changed and we are not friends anymore" he explained calmly. I looked at him confused "Are you breaking up with me?" I asked, causing him to laugh again. Dammit I was actually serious! "I didn't talk about us. I talked about me and…them…" he explained. "Well…" I started saying thinking of what I can say. "Can…" a sentence started building in my mind and was nearly out there. "Can you just give it a chance? I just wanna hang out with my best friends. Alright?" I looked at him pleading. "But-" he started with an excuse but stopped. "Fine" he gave up. I smiled and started walking back to the table, making sure he follows me this time.

The table seemed empty when we got there. "Guys?" I looked around; I was pretty sure they were hiding somewhere. Some hair was rising from the floor and appeared from behind the table, Brian's head connected to it. He didn't stand up; I think he was on his knees. He was looking around confused, his eyes stopping on Matt. He made a face and pointed at him. "Uh…Jimmy?" was all he said, causing another head to rise up. "Morning!" the longer head said with a huge smile on his face. I think he was a little drunk by now. "Oh I see" he said as his eyes laid on Matt. "Hmm, Johnny? Can you come over here for a second?" Jimmy said to me, not taking his eyes off Matt. I looked at Jimmy, at Brian and then at Matt.

Matt rolled his eyes annoyed. "Okay, listen, you don't want me here and I don't want to be here. But that little guy over here have something wrong on his mind, or maybe not so wrong I don't know, and he decided he wants to have a drink with you guys and with me too so would you please shut up, drink and fake a smile?" he spit in a pissed off voice and then walked over to the bar probably to get himself a drink.

"What's wrong with you?" a voice asked from somewhere…around my legs? I looked down surprised, seeing Zacky laying on the floor looking at me. "Do you want a printed list?" I asked as I helped him get up. Zacky was about to answer that when Jimmy held his hand in the air. "Let it go, Zee." He said and got up, helping Brian up as well. I guess he wasn't as drunk as I thought he was. Zacky shrugged and went to sit on Brian. They were both so drunk already from all the shots they had.

Just as everyone found places, Matt came back to the table with a Jack Daniel's and sat on the chair next to me. He kept tapping with his leg on the floor nervously. No, not nervously. Maybe annoyed? I don't know. Something was bothering him for sure.

No one was talking. Not after a minute, not after two and not after five. Jimmy has been glaring at Matt ever since he sat down. Zacky has been falling asleep, sort of. Brian has been trying to drink with Zacky falling asleep on him. Matt has been drinking and faking smiles to Jimmy. And I…I've been sitting there trying to figure out of ways to break the ice, but anything that came to my mind would have made one of them hit me or something.

"Hey you know what the guys did to me today?" I decided to kill this silence before it kills us. Well, it wasn't completely silence here, there was tons of noise from around us, but that didn't matter. Matt looked at me, putting down his bottle. "They soaked me in water like how many times? Two?" I said laughing. "Really? No way!" Matt said laughing. "Dude he fell asleep on the couch so I woke him up with a bucket full of water" Jimmy said proudly. "And then when he was all ready to go out…" Jimmy added laughing. "Boom!" Zacky said, raising his hand. Apparently he wasn't that much asleep. "Zee over there threw another bucket at him just as he opened the door" Jimmy finished and they all laughed.

For a minute there it felt like the old time. We were all laughing and I was so glad to see that. After the laughter was over they didn't keep talking though and it led to another awkward silence.

"And they spilled beer on me!" I said after another minute, trying to keep something going. Matt just clicked his tongue. "Now that's just a waste of beer" Matt said, shaking his head. "Hey that's what I said!" Brian said from underneath Zacky. They both put their hands in the air for a high five but then looked at each other and slowly lowered it, without touching anyone.

And…back to the silence. But they're progressing, it's getting better. By the end of the night they're friends again in not time I bet. What else could I say to have those things keep going? Let's see what happened today. Oh I know!

"By the way Leana asked me to tell you-" I started. "Yeah?" Jimmy said looking at me. "Not… Not you…" I said looking down insecure. Maybe I shouldn't have said that? After all Jimmy didn't want her and Matt having anything to do with each other. "Then who?" he asked naturally. I didn't look up, but did look at Matt for just one second. "Him?!" Jimmy said pointing Matt, his voice sounding angry. "When did you see her?" he nearly yelled, getting up and looking down at Matt. I just looked down, hoping that Matt wouldn't tell Jimmy it was me who brought her. He wouldn't tell him, would he? He knows that he isn't supposed to. Or does he? He's not stupid. But I am. Why did I have to mention her now? I might have ruined everything!

"Chill out, man, I haven't seen your damn wife in over a month." Matt said calmly as he finished his bottle. Did he just finish a Jack Daniel's all by himself and didn't seem drunk at all? That's just very weird. "Alright" Jimmy said and sat down. "Stay away from my wife." He added glaring at Matt.

There was another silence after that, and that one was a very tense one. I didn't know what to do and I was afraid Jimmy and Matt would jump on each other throats. Luckily, Zacky fell asleep and found the perfect time to let out one hell of a snore. Everyone looked at him laughing, even Matt chuckled. "Get off me!" Brian said, pushing Zacky off him to the floor. "He was getting heavy" he explained shrugging.

"Hey you know what's the problem?" Brian said as Zacky looked around confused. "That my bed just pushed me to the floor, that's the problem." Zacky said annoyed and went to grab a chair. "One of us here is not drunk, and that ruins all the fun" he explained carefully looking at Matt. "I'd suggest you a drink but I see you already took care of that" he said. "So what is it? Is it some vampire thing, eh? What do we need to do to get you drunk?" he asked, not waiting for an answer as he got up and walked two steps so he was standing right next to Matt. I was actually impressed that he was able to walk all the way there, but felt something bad is going to happen if he doesn't shut up now.

"Come on what do you need? Blood? Is that why you're so sober?" Brian didn't seem as if he was going to shut up. I didn't even dare looking at Matt's face; I bet he was so tempted to just kill Brian right there.

"Oh come on vampie" Brian kept going, pushing his neck right to Matt's face. "Suck my neck, get high, join the fun!" he kept going, not knowing where to stop.

"Brian… Calm down…" Jimmy tried to make him stop. "No, he ruined our night! We were having fun then he appeared and it's not fun anymore so go on and get something to get you flying 'cause we're bored and we don't like being bored!" Brain said crossing his arms. Matt smiled and got up, not bothering to even say a word before he walked away.