In My Dreams It's Me And You

Nathalie's POV

When Brian and I finally arrived at Zacky’s house two hours late at 9pm I was immediately confronted by a sulking Zacky as we entered the front room, his arms crossed over his chest and his mouth turned downwards in a pout. Chloe came up to us a few moments before and had explained he had been like that for the past hour, refusing to talk to anyone in his mood.

I slid onto the empty seat next to Zacky and nudged him in the side with the two bottles I was holding. At first he didn’t budge so I poked him harder a second time, almost falling from the seat out of shock as he suddenly turned and grabbed the bottles to stop me from jabbing him again.

His initial scowl soon melted to surprise as he examined the bottle in his hand, flipping it over to read the label and saying, “You got some 40s?”

“Take it as some sort of peace offering,” I replied, reaching over and hooking the underside of the ring on my finger underneath the lip of the cap and pulling it off before taking the other for myself.

The others- apart from Val, Clo and Brian who had disappeared somewhere- were all wearing a look that said ‘I’ve lost my treasured teddy bear’ as I took a sip. They all seemed to be fixated upon the bottles in Zacky’s and my hand, so I just shook my head with a sigh and reached to the bag I had put on the floor earlier, pulling out three more and tossing one to each of them. A loud cheer came from them before they began some sort of unmentioned drinking contest, the beer rapidly disappearing as the seconds passed.

I raised an eyebrow as the 40s were gone in a matter of minutes, looking over to see Johnny with a slight flush from the alcohol. Poor guy was already being prodded by Jimmy about it, but technically it was his own fault anyway. Not that he needed my sympathy; he seemed to be able to give as good as he got anyway, if not better.

“So where’s Brian then?” Zacky asked, glancing at me while drinking.

I shrugged. “Went somewhere with Chloe and Val. Why?”

He smirked in reply, not saying anything. Before I could begin interrogating him Jimmy had sidled up next to me and was sitting on the arm of the couch, pointing to the almost full bottle in my hand.

“Are you going to drink that?”

Jimmy took the bottle from me with a loud whoop as I shook my head and fell back onto the other couch between a scowling Matt and Johnny. He didn’t seem to care for the glares as he drank, just seeming to enjoy the alcohol in his hand.

And he called me an alcoholic?

--

Brian’s POV

There is nothing worse than being cornered by two sober females who aren’t strippers; unless of course they are two sober females who happen to be angry with you for some unknown reason.

“What did I do?”

They both stood with their hands on their hips, blocking the doorway so I couldn’t make my escape.

“What did you do?” Val began, shaking her head with a disapproving look.

“More like what didn’t you do,” Chloe finished, her actions mimicking Val’s.

How they managed to get along so fast was beyond me- they only met yesterday- yet here they were, ganging up against me. I didn’t even know what they were on about, but I knew better than telling them that. To save me from admitting to that, I just ended up saying nothing. However that just seemed to make them a bit more annoyed.

“Are you even listening to us?” Val said. “Brian Elwin Haner Jr-” I cringed at this, she only ever used my full name when she was angry. This wasn’t going to be good. “When are you going to be a man and face responsibility?”

“Responsibility? To what, the band?” I replied, still not seeing the point behind this. That was definitely not the answer when I saw both of them glance at each other and sigh, almost looking as if I was missing the most obvious thing in the world.

Chloe’s eyes flickered to mine, saying only one thing. “Nat.”

“Oh.” I sat down on a chair as Val moved to lean against Zacky’s kitchen table. “What about Nat?”

Leaning against the door frame Chloe crossed her arms, frowning. “You know what we mean, don’t try and pretend like you don’t.”

I sighed. “Well what do you want to know?”

“If you’ve decided to tell her yet or not,” Val asked.

“Tell her...?”

She shook her head in annoyance. “Come on Brian. All of us can guess. Don’t make me have to tell her myself.”

I laughed weakly, looking sideways at her. “You still can if you want, I don’t mind.”

For saying that I got a swift slap on the back of my head courtesy of Val, followed up by Chloe hovering over me, glaring. I scowled at Val as I rubbed the spot where she slapped me as the topic of out conversation walked in- or rather on someone else.

“Looks like Syn has been kept busy for a while,” Jimmy remarked as he staggered into the kitchen, Nathalie perched on his back.

I raised an eyebrow as he couldn’t seem to keep his feet moving in a relatively straight line. He was obviously drunk- or at least very close to it. Nathalie rested her head on his shoulder as she looked around with a bemused expression, glancing briefly at Val and Chloe before settling on me.

“Seems that Synyster Gates certainly does live up to his reputation,” she mused. Reaching with one of her hands that had been looped around his neck she tapped Jimmy lightly on the chest before pointing to the fridge, passing two beers for him to take while grabbing two of her own. She opened one and brought it to his lips so he could drink it, fixing her gaze upon the bottle as if she didn’t want to look at me. Not bothering to look up she asked, “Do you want a ride home later Brian?”

“A ride home?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Exactly how it sounds.”

“Well I...” I paused, glancing over at Chloe who merely shrugged. She knew that I had pretty much spent all my time over at theirs and that every time I had to leave I had a minor fight with Nat since she always wanted me to stay. “I’m actually staying with Zacky at the moment.”

“Oh, alright then. Could you let me down Jimmy?” She slid off his back and handed him the two beers in her hands, pulling her keys from the hoodie and curling her fingers around them before turning to Chloe. “I’m guessing you are going to stay here tonight?” She didn’t give any time for a reply as she walked out of the kitchen, pausing just to say, “I’ll see you whenever then.”

Just then Jimmy spoke up, his words slurring over each other. “What about what you said to me on the phone?”

She turned her head back to look at him, flashing him a sinister smile. “Don’t you worry about it- it’s already happened anyway.”

We all watched after her as she left before we all looked at Jimmy, wondering exactly what she had done. He didn’t appear to be any different, and after checking himself over he merely shrugged and teetered back into the front room, his arms full of beer.

Once he had gone Chloe turned to me asking, “What did you do? Ever since you two met-” I could tell she didn’t like using that word, since technically our initial ‘meeting’ could have killed her friend. “-she always gave you a hug goodbye. Hell, watching you two say goodbye is like watching the Titanic sink all over again. You make it look as if you were never going to see each other again. So what’s changed?”

“I don’t know. Well I did break one of her photo frames, but I doubt that would-”

“Which one did you break?” She demanded, her tone hinting at both anger and worry.

“A silver one I think-”

“What was the photo in it?”

“Erm...” I stopped, trying to remember. “One of her and her parents.”

Chloe’s expression faltered, running her hands through her hair. “You idiot,” she muttered. “Not now, of all times.”

She murmured a quick apology to Val as she grabbed onto my arm and dragged me behind her into the front room where the others were sitting, drinking the beers Jimmy had returned to them with earlier. I rubbed my arm where she had held it as she stepped in front of Zacky, standing exactly how his mum did. “Zacky let me borrow your car.”

He pulled them out of his pocket and was about to hand them to her until his eyes narrowed and suspicion finally set in. “Wait... why?”

Instead of answering she merely retorted with another question of her own. “How much have you drunk tonight?”

He picked up the 40 from the table and shook it, showing her the half full bottle. “Not much.”

“Good.”

Much like she had grabbed me she pulled Zacky to his feet and dragged him out of the room to where I was standing, giving me just enough time to shrug at him before finding myself being pulled alongside him outside and to his car.

“If I knew you were going to get angry at me drinking then I wouldn’t have bothered,” Zacky muttered under his breath, only to shrink back from the glare she shot him and quickly get into the drivers side. I shortly followed suit and got into the back as Chloe got into the front, tapping her nails impatiently on the window.

The fear in Zacky’s eyes grew as he turned slowly to look at Chloe, his fingers tensed at the wheel. “Where are we going?”

Her eyes flickered to mine in the mirror as she calmly said, “To go fix something.”

“Oh.” Zacky of course didn’t know what she meant by that, but I understood it clearly. “And where is that?”

“Nat’s.”