Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

It's been a week since the whole pill escapade. Adam and I went last weekend to the tattoo shop and he got the angel tattooed on the upper left side of his chest. I got the "letter" from underneath it on my right forearm like Adam's cuff, and I got Adam's initials under the butterfly that we got together.

We're babysitting Kya at our house for a couple hours tonight so that Liv and Royston can go out to dinner and a movie. I'm currently in the kitchen, making sausage and pepper's for dinner. Adam is sitting with Kya at the dining room table, I can hear them talking.

"What are you drinking?" She asks him.

"Beer."

"What's that?"

"A refreshing beverage."

"Can I have some?"

"Not on your life, Doll."

"Why not?"

"Your mama would kill me, besides you're not old enough to drink beer."

"How old do you have to be?"

"21."

"Oh. I'm six." He laughs.

"I know."

"How old are you?"

"29."

"How old is Aunt Sophie?"

"27."

"You're older than her, that means you're going to die first."

"Probably." He takes another drink of his beer. I tune out of their conversation for a couple minutes. I hear her call him Uncle Adam once, and it makes me smile. I take a drink of my own beer and listen in on them again.

"What are you drinking?" He asks her.

"Apple juice."

"That's cool. I like apple juice." I hear the familiar sound of his lighter clicking and the questions start again.

"What's that?" She asks.

"A cigarette. And if I ever see you with one, or hear about you having one, there's going to be hell to pay. You hear me, Doll?"

"Why?"

"Because they're bad for you."

"Then, why do you have them?"

"Because I'm not a very good person."

"Aunt Sophie has them."

"She's not as bad as I am though." She ponders this thought for a minute. I hear the doorbell ring. Odd, I wasn't expecting anyone until later when Liv and Royston come to get Kya. I leave Adam and Kya at the table still talking, and answer the door. Austin is standing on the other side with a suitcase in his hand.

"Hey Austin. What's in the bag?" I say.

"My clothes and shit."

"That's nice, what is it doing here?"

"Jackie and I had a fight, so I figured I would come over here and spend the night in your guest bedroom. You know, give her some time to calm down."

"Why would you figure that you could come over here?"

"I figured that I would stay with Mike, but since Tripp's over there, there was no room for me."

"OK?"

"I figure if you were there, you would have made room for me on the couch or something."

"You're doing a lot of figuring here, Austin."

"So, I thought that since you're pretty much the reason that I can't stay over there, I would crash here." He pushes by me and walks into the kitchen.

"What's up, Austin?" Adam asks.

"I'm gonna crash in your guest room tonight." He explains his theory to Adam about staying here and how it's my fault he can't stay with Mike. When he's finished, I look at Adam for some help.

"You can't argue that, Babe." He says.

"What?! You're agreeing with him?!"

"It's just for one night. Right, Austin? It is only for one night?"

"Yeah man, I just want to give her some time to realize that she misses me, and that she would be a wreck without me." Oh boy. With an attitude like that, it might take her more than one night to calm down.

"So what's for dinner?" Austin asks, plopping down in one of the dining room chairs with Adam and Kya.

"Sausage and peppers." I answer.

"What's that?"

"What does it sound like, dipshit? Sorry Kya, you'll have to excuse me and my ugly mouth." Adam says. I grab four plates and serve the meal By the time Liv and Roy get to the house to pick up Kya, Austin and Adam are blazed. When Kya is gone, they decide that the best thing for them to do is to go downstairs and play drums as loudly as possible. In about an hour, my house has gone from calm, family peace, and serenity, to a bachelor pad. At about 3 am, I feel someone shaking me and saying my name.

"Babe."

"What?" I must have fallen asleep on the couch. Both guys are hovering over me.

"You need to help us." Adam whispers.

"With what?" Austin's breath reeks so bad of alcohol that I'm feeling tipsy just from him breathing on my face.

"Austin needs pillows and shit." Adam says, still whispering.

"Stop whispering, its freaking me out."

"You have to get up." Austin pipes in.

"OK, I'm getting up." They both walk off to the bedroom as I sit up and look around the living room. I go down to the basement and grab some pillows out of the linen closet in the laundry room, and then I grab a blanket out of the upstairs closet. When I come back into the bedroom, I see Adam pulling my corkboard off of the wall.

"Babe! What the fuck are you doing?"

"Austin said he couldn't sleep with your drawings watching him."

"Oh, for fucks sake!"

"Easy there, Sausage Pepper." Austin says, saluting me.

"You are such a douche." Adam is cracking up, trying to balance the corkboard against a wall in the closet.

"It's supposed to be Sergant Pepper, Steener." He says.

"I think I like, Sausage Pepper more." I roll my eyes so far into the back of my head that I can swear I see hair growing.

"OK, time for everyone to go to bed." I say.

"I think you and I are going to be up for a little while longer. I have needs that need to be met." Adam says.

"Your needs are going to either have to satisfy themselves, or wait until there arent two drunk men in my house."

"Nice." Austin says. He's sitting on the bed with his feet up, laughing at us.

"Bed! Now, both of you!" I shut the bedroom light off and stalk off to the master bedroom by myself. I hear Adam say something, and Austin's loud raspy laugh. I take my clothes off and crawl into bed wearing sweats and a ribbed tank top. I feel Adam come in a little while later. He puts his arm around my waist and nuzzles the back of my neck.

"I'm horny." He whispers.

"Sounds like a personal problem." I say bluntly.

"Come on, Babe."

"You should have thought about this when you were getting drunk with Austin."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"You need me to tell you?"

The next morning, I wake up feeling very refreshed. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, Adam is breathing hot, nasty alcohol breath in my face. Whoa, sweet Jesus Christ. I reach out and lightly push on his shoulder to wake him up. His mouth is open and he's drooling on the pillow. He blinks his eyes open and looks at me.

"Yowzas." I say.

"What?"

"You're drooling." He lifts his head slightly, then lowers it dramatically.

"My head." He complains.

"Come on, its a beautiful day." He looks over my shoulder out the bedroom windows, at the sunshine.

"Oh goody." I laugh.

"I have to go run some errands this morning, are you going to come with me?" I ask.

"No." He shuts his eyes and rolls over. I sigh and get out of bed. I start coffee and let Mabel and Simba outside to pee. Then I shower and get dressed in a black ribbed tank top, little denim cut off shorts, and wrap a wide black scarf around the base of my head, and tease my hair up around it. I put flip flops on and leave a note for Austin on the bathroom mirror, just in case he wakes up before Adam.

'Steen-
Coffee is on, help yourself to anything in the kitchen. Dont let the dogs out, they wont come back in for you. Feel free to use the shower in the little bathroom. - Sophie.'

I go back into the master bedroom and rub Adam's arm.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" I ask him. He makes some sort of grunting, whining sound. I'll take that as a no. I give him a kiss on the cheek, say bye to the dogs, and head out of the house. I get in my car and crank the radio volume down to a normal level. Adam was in my car last, and had his Hannoi Rocks cd turned up as loud as it would go. Ugh, men.

I go to the grocery store and pick up a bunch of shit that we needed, then I go to the bank and the post office. I have to go to this place that is designing a bunch of t-shirts for the band and pick up some of the samples to show Adam and the rest of the guys, then I can shop for myself with the money that I saved on groceries. When I'm done, I go to JCPenney's and buy myself a pretty new bra and panties set. I figure Adam will be sorry that he missed that trip.

I spent probably two hours in town and when I get back to the house, I see that both, Adam and Austin's cars are still in the driveway, plus a small white car that I don't recognize. I park and gather my groceries, lingerie bag and the box that the shirts are in and walk into the house quietly.

I can hear some noises coming from the living room when I'm standing in the foyer, but I can't tell what they are. I can hear something moving on my leather couch, but I figure that's probably just one of the dogs. I can also hear some sort of whining or something.

"Mabel, Simba, get off the couch!" I yell from the foyer.

"What the hell?" I hear a women say. I walk slowly into the living room to see who it is. I see Austin, bare assed on my couch, banging his girlfriend. I stop dead in my tracks and scream bloody murder at the top of my lungs.

"Jesus Christ, Sophie!" Austin yells, jumping off the couch. I turn around quickly so I don't see them getting dressed.

"God, you could have rang the doorbell or something." Jackie says to me.

"Excuse me? This is my house, honey, I don't need to anounce my own arrival." I say to her with my back still turned.

"You can turn around now." Austin says.

"Where's Adam?" I ask, turning around.

"He went for a run with the dogs."

"So, is it safe to say that you guys have made up?"

"Yeah, we got into a stupid fight." Jackie tells me. I've only met her a couple times, she's very pretty with dark hair and gray blue eyes, and shes very tall like Austin.

"Sorry about you walking in on us. We'll be out of here in a few minutes." Austin says.

"So now you're in a rush to get out of here?"

"Well, yeah." They go into the bedroom to grab Austin's things while I unload groceries. Adam arrives home from his jog with the dogs about ten minutes after Austin and Jackie leave. The dogs immediately go to their dishes to get some water. Adam, comes over to me and wraps his arms around me. He's wearing jogging shorts and a gray t-shirt and running shoes.

"Gross, you're all sweaty!" I say.

"You like it."

"Not right now, not like this."

"Did Austin and his girl get everything sorted out? I left right after she got here, I figured they would like some private time."

"Yeah, they liked the private time that's for sure." He sits down in one of the dining room chairs and drinks a bottle of water. He gives me a quizical look.

"When I came home, I found them fucking like rabbits on the couch." I say. He raises his eyebrows.

"That couch?" He points at the living room couch.

"Yes that couch. What other couch might I be talking about?"

"Did you wipe it down yet?"

"No.

"Well, wipe it down, then come and join me in the shower, so you can wipe me down."

"Pig." I throw a wadded up grocery bag at him. He laughs and goes into the master bathroom to shower.

I carefully take the cushions off the couch with the tips of my fingers, and wipe them down with hot water and disinfectant. Then I wipe the remaining surfaces of the couch. When it's all dry, I put the couch back together and sit down on it. Adam comes out of the bedroom a couple minutes later in a t-shirt, jeans and trucker hat, with an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"What's that smell?" He asks.

"Disinfectant."

"If I light my cigarette will it light the house on fire?"

"I doubt it. I didn't use that much, it's just a strong smelling formula." I get up and grab the fire extinguisher from under the kitchen sink and stand next to him before he lights up.

"Just in case?" He asks.

"Just in case." He lights up and the house appears to be safe from flames for now. I put the extinguisher away and lay down on the couch.

"I'm taking a nap." I say.

"You're tired?"

"Yeah, when you get up before noon and actually do stuff, you become tired."

"Alright, smart ass. Enjoy your nap." He gives me a light kiss on the chin and turns towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

"I'm gonna take these shirts over to Barry and Tobins. I'll be back in a bit."

"OK. Love you."

"Love you." He says and walks out the door with the box of shirts in his hands. I fall asleep on the couch without a blanket on me. I wake up feeling something on my face. I open my eyes and see Adam holding a bouquet of white roses over me.

"Happy birthday." He says softly.

"My birthday isnt for another two days."

"That's a sunday though, we cant go out on a sunday." I sit up and take the flowers from him. White roses are my favorite.

"Go out? Didn't you have enough fun lastinight with Austin?"

"You can never have too much fun."

"I beg to differ."

"Get up! The guys are meeting us at GL's, and I called Mike and Daisy. It'll be fun."

"Alright, fine. I'm getting up. What time is it?"

"Almost eight." I get up and go into my bedroom to get dressed. I put on tight, faded jeans, a white tube top and a black vest over it. I do my hair and make-up and walk back out the living room where Adam is waiting for me.

"You ready?" He asks.

"Yeah, what car are we taking?"

"Mine, you can drive." He tosses me the keys to his brand new black tahoe that he bought right before the wedding. We walk out to the driveway, Adam has his arm around my shoulders and we're laughing loudly. I see our neighbors that live across the street from us in their yard doing something. They stare at us as we get in our car. Adam waves at them pleasantly.

"Nosy fucks." He says to me with a smirk. I laugh and mess with the radio. When we get to the bar, I park next to Tobin's car. When we get inside I see Tobin, Barry, Mike, Daisy, and Tobin's girl Jules, all sitting at the bar. I say hi to Sully, who's bartending and order a vodka and ruby red on the rocks, Adam orders beer.

At about midnight, Daisy, Jules and I are all hammered, on the dance floor, singing Steel Panther songs that are playing on repeat on the jukebox. We take a break and plop down at a table and talk for a few minutes.

"I'm really fucking horny right now." Daisy says. We all start laughing hysterically at her.

"Me too." I agree.

"I have no man, so I'm totally fucked...not in a good way either." She says.

"I have a man, but I dont think he's ready to go home yet." Jules says. We all look across the room at Tobin, who's having a very lively conversation with Barry and Adam.

"Fuck." I say outloud.

"I agree, lets keep dancing. Maybe it will keep out minds off of being unfucked." Jules says. Her and Daisy get up and start dancing again, which, looks pretty funny because they're the only one's on the dance floor. I get up and walk over to Adam.

"I want you, now!" I whisper in his ear.

"For what?" I put my hand on his crotch discreetly.

"Oh. For that."

"I'm horny."

"You're drunk."

"So are you, what's your point?"

"No point. So what do you want me to do about your little problem?"

"Fuck me. That would be nice."

"You want to leave a party, that was thrown for you just to get laid?"

"Who said we had to leave?"

"I'm listening." I grab his hand and lead him to the back of the room towards where the bathrooms are. If you go right down the hallway, you'll end up in the bathrooms. If you go left, you'll find the offices and a storage closet. I turn left. I'm pretty wasted, so I don't really notice what door I'm walking into. I push Adam inside and it only takes me a second to realize that it's Sully's office.

"Oopsies." I say.

He pushes me into a wall and locks the door to the office so that no one can walk in on us. He puts his hands on the wall on either side of me, pinning me against it, and kisses my lips hard and sloppily. I push him away from me, so that he's walking backwards. I guide him back and push him down in the chair that's sitting behind the desk. I drop to my knees in between his legs and unbuckle his belt.

"What are you going to do now?" He asks. I laugh and go down on him. I feel him squirm under me. He grabs my hair and pulls it gently. When I'm done I look up at him and smile. He has his head tilted back against the back of the chair. He leans down and kisses my mouth. I stand and drag him up with me.

He pushes me back against the desk and unsnaps my jeans, pulling them down. He lifts me up and sets me down on the desk, trying to take my shirt off.

"Leave it. I can't wait." I say.

He takes my panties off and I wrap my legs around his waist. He lifts me up and pushes my body against a wall and pushes into me. I dig my fingernails into his shoulders and bite my lip, trying not to cry out. When he's done, he puts me back on the ground and helps me get redressed. We sneak back out to the bar laughing our asses off.

"Where did you guys sneak off to?" Barry asks when we get back to the bar. I walk off to find Mike and leave Adam to answer questions.

"Mikey!" I slur and hug him, kind of dragging him down.

"Whoa, you're drunk. Ive never seen you get hammered before."

"I'm having fun."

"Good."

"Can I tell you a secret?"

"Why not?"

"I just fucked my boyfriend in Sully's office!" I whisper loudly.

"Honey, you don't have a boyfriend." He says seriously.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." He laughs.

"You're crazy."

"I was telling the truth, except about the boyfriend part, of course."

"Girl, I don't need to know this."

"Eww!"

"Yeah, no shit." Adam comes up behind me and grabs my arm.

"Come on, we're going outside to smoke." He says.

I follow him, Tobin, Barry and a couple of Barry's friends outside. We stand in the darkest part of the parking lot and light up. I can smell that someones cigarette had more than just tobacco in it, but it's so dark that I can't tell who. When we're done, we get ready to leave. All of us are drunk, but Adam and Barry think that they're good enough to drive home. Adam and I leave together, alone, and about halfway home, I get horny again.

"Babe, please. You have to wait until we get home. I'm not in any shape to drive, and that is really fucking distracting." I slump down in my seat and pout a little.

"Are you serious? You're upset right now because I wouldn't let you give me a BJ while I'm driving home drunk? I'm trying to get us home alive right now. So don't be pissed about it." I grin.

"BJ?" I say. He doesnt say anything.

"Big joint?" I ask.

"I take it you smelled that?"

"It was pretty obvious."

"I don't know who it was, probably one of Barry's friends."

"Soooo, you don't want me to give you a big joint?" I say giggling.

"You know what I meant."

"I do, and I'm going to be a good girl now and not talk anym-"

"Son of a bitch!" Adam yells. I look in the rearview mirror and see red and blue lights flashing behind us.

"Fuck, I don't need this right now." He says pulling over. The cop walks up and shines his flashlight in the car at us.

"License and registration, please." He says. Adam gives him the stuff, and he looks it over.

"Sir have you been drinking tonight?"

"I would be lying if I said no." Adam says.

"I'm going to ask you both to get out of the car, so I can perform a breathalyzer test on you." Adam and I both get out of the car and stand next to it. The cop goes back to his car and gets the test.

"I'm getting fucking arressed right now. Isnt this nice?" Adam says to me. The cop comes back with the test and tells Adam about how it works.

"I need you to put your lips around this and blow into it until I tell you to stop, OK?"

"Yeah." He blows into the machine until in beeps and the cop tells him to stop.

".06. Legally that's sober in this state." Adam lets out a sigh of relief.

"But, I am going to take you in on the lesser charge of DWI. Which means that you'll probably get off on a month or so of probation and fines."

"OK."

He loads us both into the back of his squad car because I can't drive either. He tells us that we can pick out car up out of impound tomorrow morning. When we get to the police station, the cop gets Adam booked and we both sit in some metal chairs in the lobby. I make some calls and arrange to pay for bail. I look at Adam, who looks like he's ready to nod off any minute.

"Who do you want me to call and come get us?" I ask him. He sighs.

"Call Neil."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, unless you want to call your parents at three in the morning. I'm sure as hell not calling my family."

"I'll call Neil." I dial the number and he answers groggily on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"It's Sophie."

"Why are you calling me collect, at three in the morning, Sophie?"

"I need you to come and get Adam and me."

"From jail I presume. That's why you're calling collect?"

"Yeah."

"You want to tell me why the fuck you're in jail?"

"DWI. Adam was driving."

"Do you need bail?"

"No."

"I'm on my way."

"Thank you so much, Neil."

"Yeah." And he hangs up.

"He's on his way." I tell Adam.

"Good."

The cop comes up and tells Adam when to show up for court, and also explains to us the dangers of drinking and driving. This is so embarassing, I never should have let him drive. I'm starting to worry about Barry now, he was in no better shape than Adam. I see Neil walk in and look around until he spots us.

"Are these two cleared to leave now?" He asks the cop.

"Yes Sir." We stand up and follow him out to his car. I get in the back seat, Adam get's in the passenger side.

"What the fuck were you doing driving fucking drunk, Adam? You could have killed somebody!" Neil yells.

"Quit acting like you're fucking better than me, Neil. I already have parents that treat me like shit, I dont need you to."

"I'm not trying to act better than you. I'm just trying to understand this. I mean, first you have us all thinking that you're on drugs again, now you're drinking and driving? This is pretty reckless shit, Adam."

"God, I thought we were over the drug shit."

"Not when a week later you're driving drunk."

"You need to stop judging me, Neil. I'm not dead, or in jail, so you don't have to worry about the band going down."

"I'm not just thinking about the band. You're my friend, I'm worried about you."

"You don't need to worry about me."

"Whatever."

"Or my wife."

"Whatever, Adam." I sit in silence the whole time. Part of me wants to shake them both. They're brothers, they need to get over this shit. I belch loudly from the back seat. Adam starts cracking up. Neil looks at me in the rearview mirror.

"That's disgusting." He says and starts laughing too. Pretty soon, we're all cracking up.

"Don't you guys see how stupid this is?" I say.

"You guys are brothers, you should be over this petty shit. Neil, you need to just let us live our life, and be there to catch us when we fall, just like you always do. And Adam, you need to realize that you arent alone anymore, you havent been for a long time, so just deal with it." I say without pause.

"That was beautiful." Neil says. Adam laughs.

"I was serious."

"I know. I was just shitting you for a minute." I roll my eyes.

"I think I can handle that." Adam says.

"Me too." Neil agrees.

"Imagine that, I'm the smartest one in this car." I say.

"Get over yourself, Gontier." Neil says.

"Yeah, no kidding, Babe."