In My Dreams It's Me And You

Brian’s POV

After overhearing Chloe’s and Nathalie’s conversation a week ago the world just seemed to stop, and I just couldn’t seem to understand anything. Why would she do that when she said she loved me?If I didn’t have the tour as a distraction, I just knew I would have died a drunk, considering it was the only thing that prevented me from drinking to my untimely demise and entering the headlines.

“I think you’ve had enough now Brian,” Val said as she sat down next to me, plucking the beer from my hand and placing it on the side. She attempted to draw out some enthusiasm from me, but I couldn’t even bring myself to smile at a joke anymore, so to begin shouting for joy was one of the last things I was going to do, whatever the occasion. “It’s the home town show! We can’t have you going out like a drunk before the show even starts, now can we?”

Even though I knew she was right, I didn’t want to believe her. She sighed as I reached into a bag on the floor and pulled out another beer, popping off the top and bringing it to my lips.

“Everything doesn’t stop just because you want it to,” she murmured sadly while getting to her feet, shooting Zack a meaningful look as he took up her place at my side. This happened quite a lot, since apparently none of them trusted me enough to be left to my own devices for any length of time anymore. If one of them left then another would appear to take their place; almost as if they were following some kind of rota or something.

“She has a point Syn.”

I looked at him briefly before turning away. “Everyone seems to have a point to make.”

“Maybe it’s because you don’t seem to want to listen,” Zack muttered, his gaze dropping to his hands. “I know it’s rough, but it wasn’t like she got off lightly either.”

I had told Zack about the conversation, and considering the size of this tour bus and how close we all were, soon everyone knew and was trying to console me for it, like my favourite puppy had just been run over. However the puppy in question just happened to be the girl I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with, and did more than just strain my heart.

She ripped it out, stomped on it and squeezed every ounce of life from it before throwing it away..

“She got off more than lightly Zack, she had a fucking fantastic time getting off,” I replied scathingly, downing the last of the beer before reaching down to get another, only to be cut off by Zack.

“You really should stop.”

I was about to reply when someone else spoke, but it was a voice that didn’t belong to anyone on the Avenged Sevenfold bus. “I think so as well. In your own words, “‘You’re acting like a child.’” Alex walked up the stairs flashing me an unimpressed look before pushing the bag of beer away from me with his foot. “You think you are the only one hurting, don’t you? Your ego must be having a fantastic time in self-pity party. Misery does adore company after all, and you seem to be in abundance of it.”

“It’s not every day your supposed girlfriend asks to fuck someone else,” I snorted. “I’m so sorry if I was just a little affected by it.”

“It’s also not every day that your girlfriend would consent to it either,” he replied casually, looking down at me. “I bet you never asked her about it, did you?”

“It’s not like I needed to. I can do the math, so don’t bother trying to defend her.”

“So, you’ve worked everything thing out have you?” He asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Well six weeks from the clinic, I’m out recording and pregnant is pretty much all there is. Shame it would have been the perfect cheat had she not got pregnant out of it.”

“Did you ever consider how she was? The way she was acting at all?”

“Didn’t need to.”

“And that is where you went wrong.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How? It’s not rocket science; she cheated.”

“Depends what your definition of cheating is,” he stated, already turning to leave. “Do me a favour and ask Chloe about a guy named Jake, then you’ll find out where you went wrong.”

Alex disappeared soon after dropping that comment and ironically enough, the very person he said to ask appeared five minutes later. She had just come back from dropping Nathalie at their house, luckily finding her car left at her club that was only a few blocks away. She collapsed onto Zack’s lap with a sigh and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, something that made me feel like something was missing.

Well, I already knew what was missing.

Nathalie.

“Chloe?”

“Hmm?” She turned on his lap so that her back was leaning against his chest, looking at me. “What is it?”

“Who is Jake?”

Almost at once her mood darkened. “He’s a fucking bastard who should be stabbed, shot, cut into many pieces, fed to dogs and then have the dogs vaccinated against whatever shit he has in that disgusting body of his.”

I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have asked.

She soon added, “If you see that little fucker then let me know and I’ll kill him myself. He deserves it.”

I was dreading asking the next question, considering the outburst I got from the first. “What did he do?”

“A few years ago, Nat and Jake were together. At first he was sweet, and really nice,” she began, her hands balling into fists on her lap. “Then he showed his true colours. He started to act like she was his possession, anything he didn’t like her doing, she didn’t do. She was his slave. Over time she came out less and less, and soon enough she stopped coming out with me altogether because ‘he didn’t like it’.” Her knuckles were beginning to turn white from where she was clenching her fists hard, a slight shake taking over her as she became more enraged. “Nat never told me herself, but I knew he beat her. Every time I caught a glimpse of her there was always a new bruise, or a new cut, yet any explanation was all because she was clumsy, and apparently fell over a lot. No one falls over like that.”

She sighed, falling back against Zack and releasing her hands to lock with his, adding, “But one day Nat came to her senses and left him, and hid at my house for a while. He came knocking pretty much every day after that looking for her, so we got the police to put one of those restriction orders on him. Needless to say, he never came back after that. He’s supposed to be living in Florida or something now, probably scaring another girl shitless.” She looked over at me after finishing her rant. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

After the whole parent thing, I didn’t think Nat’s life could possibly have been any worse for her. At least not until I finally figured out what Alex was trying to say, without actually spelling it out for me. There was no way Nat would go back to him, let alone want to have his kid.

But why didn’t she tell any one? Well… I guess she might have told me if I hadn’t been such a dick to her in the first place.

I glanced at the clock and found there was just over an hour before we were to perform- perhaps just long enough for me to sort this out. “Chloe, can I borrow your car?”

She shrugged and reached over to pass me the keys when Zack snatched them from her hand, shaking his head as he stood on his feet, sliding Chloe into his place. “Oh no. No way. We’re on stage in an hour, there is no way you are going anywhere. Anyway, you are way over the limit; you’ve drunk way too much.”

“Fine with me.”

I grabbed him by the arm and hauled him with me down to Chloe’s car, which luckily happened to be one of the few I actually recognised between her and Nathalie’s collection. I let him go by the driver’s side and crossed to the other, opening the door and hooking one foot in.

“You better drive fast Zack. I’ll be very annoyed if I’m late back for the home town show.”

When I got into the car he glared at me from the driver’s side, just managing to catch his muttering over the roar of the engine.

“Jackass.”