Just Say Yes

Erin and McKenna's little project hadn't taken long to complete, however McKenna had been stealing away all of Erin's time. Each day McKenna had a new activity she wanted to do, which left him with far too much free time of his own. He was glad that McKenna had taken a liking to Erin but he missed spending time with his girlfriend. He knew though, that his sister was taking advantage since she had been stuck with two older brothers.

Due to McKenna and Erin spending all their time together, Brian had been spending most of his time practicing or hanging out with the guys. He was presently walking up Matt's driveway to an impromptu powwow initiated by the lead singer so they could go over some new material.

He was on the front door step when he felt his cell phone vibrate in his jacket pocket. He removed it and immediately recognized the number.

The familiar uneasy feeling arose in his stomach before he brought the phone to his ear. “Hey, Corinne.” He sat himself down on the top step of the small staircase that lead to Matt's front door.

“How are things down there in California?” He was surprised at the liveliness in her voice. He had expected with her being a month into her new treatment that she'd be worn down by now.

Brian smiled to himself, “Good, I think. Ask Erin that though then call me and tell me everything she says.” He felt a sense of relief wash over him at the sound of her laughter. She sounded to be doing well and that's all he had hoped for.

“She's been hanging out with my little sister who's been staying with us the past week, so we haven't been able to see each other much.”

“Well I'm sure she misses you.” Corinne said sweetly. There was a brief silence only to be interrupted by a harsh sounding cough from the other line.

“Are you okay? How are you feeling? Does the treatment seem to be helping?” He asked all in one breath, she chuckled at his long line of questioning.

“I'm good, still tired but that's normal. Treatment is going good, the doctors said I'm responding well.” The way she spoke she didn't seem like someone who had a serious disease.

“And the cough I just heard?” He felt bad interrogating the woman but he felt like he needed to know everything, if only to ease his own conscience.

He heard her laugh again. “It's just a little cold that's coming on, that's all. The treatment weakens the immune system, which makes me more susceptible to viruses.” He nodded along with her words even though she couldn't see him.

“Gates, what are you doing?” Brian heard a deep voice ask from behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Matt standing in the doorway, with his brow furrowed. Brian quickly told Corinne he'd call her later and then slipped his phone back into his pocket. He greeted Matt and followed the man into the house. Brian found Zacky spread out across one of the living room couches looking like he hadn't slept in a few days while Johnny sat casually in a plush chair across from him.

Brian chuckled and slapped Zacky's leg. “What's up with you ZV, you look fucking exhausted.” Brian commented as Matt brought in some beer for them and placed it on the coffee table.

“Playing house with the kid tiring you out?” Johnny laughed reaching out for a bottle as Zacky sent him a pissed off glare.

“Fuck you guys.” Zacky took the beer from the coffee table before continuing. “It's not Ben, I love that kid. It's Lisa,” He trailed off, leaving all three men curious.

“You guys having problems?” Matt inquired, twisting the cap off his beer.

“We're not fighting or anything, she just can't stay off me and I'm exhausted.” There was dead silence in the room as the men realized what the rhythm guitarist was trying to say, all three of them looked at him as if he were mad. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?”

“Are you actually complaining about having too much sex?” Matt sounded disgusted that Zacky would say such a thing.

“Who the fuck are you and what have you done with Zacky Vengeance?” Johnny said shaking his head.

“I'm here!” Jimmy announced loudly walking into the room, a black cloth bag in his hand and sunglasses over his blue eyes. “What's with the weird vibe in here?” The room which would've normally echoed with cheers and greetings at Jimmy's loud arrival, was instead eerily silent.

Jimmy reached for a beer on the coffee table before Matt spoke. “Zack was complaining about being tired from too much sex.” Jimmy's expression turned deathly serious.

“There's no such thing. Besides you should be so lucky, Gates here still hasn't done the deed with Blondie.” Jimmy revealed casually and all eyes that had been placed on Zacky, were now on Brian. He shifted uncomfortably under everyone's heavy gaze, and mentally cursed Jimmy's big mouth.

“It's not about that with her.” Was all he could muster with a defeated a sigh.

“Awe! Isn't this special?” Matt cooed in a soft voice while he wrapped an arm around Brian's shoulders. “Gates found a girl where the last thing on his mind is getting into her pants.” Jimmy held up his beer in salute to the rare occurrence and Johnny soon followed, clinking his bottle with Jimmy's. Brian pushed Matt away with a smile on his face.

“I wouldn't say it's the last thing on my mind, but it's not the first either.” Matt laughed and slapped him playfully on the back, just as Jimmy dropped a large stack of paper onto the coffee table.

All eyes shifted to the tall drummer. “Shall we get started fellas?” Jimmy smiled before taking a sip of his beer.

“That's all the shit you wrote?” Zacky's eyes were wide with pure astonishment at how much writing Jimmy had accomplished. Brian sat back further into the couch nursing his beer, wondering if they even needed to bother to write anything else since Jimmy had apparently written a hell of a lot already.

“Yeah, I have one that I really fuckin' love, it's called Death.” Jimmy put down his beer and started looking through the papers searching for the specific set of lyrics.

“Dude, did you write the whole fucking album or what?” Matt laughed, bringing out his own notebook. It was miniscule compared to Jimmy's large pile of papers, but at least Matt had something to show.

Brian sat on the couch enviously watching Matt flip through his notebook in order to show Jimmy one of his own favorites. All the while a sense of desire to be able to write with the ease that Matt and Jimmy seemed to possess, overwhelmed him. He needed another beer.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Erin and McKenna walked into the house they were greeted warmly by Pinkly, McKenna bent down and scratched behind the dog's fluffy white ears. The dog nuzzled into her touch, enjoying the sensation of McKenna's fingers scraping lightly over the white fur. Erin noticed the eery silence in the house, she hesitantly took a few steps further inside and glanced around the large room. She and McKenna had spent the majority of their day in Los Angeles shopping with Lacey, Lisa and Leana and Erin had returned home in hopes of spending some time with her boyfriend but he was currently no where to be seen.

“Brian?” She called, she neared the staircase calling his name once again in case he had been upstairs. She knew he was home due to his SUV sitting in the driveway, unless of course he had gotten a ride from one of the guys somewhere. She absentmindedly wondered further into the living room, she dropped her purse and the two shopping bags which contained her days purchases on the couch. Her eyes scanned the room for the phone to call him but she caught sight of something else. A dark huddled figure sat on the beach.

McKenna appeared beside her, Pinkly wrapped up snugly in her arms. “He does that when he has something on his mind.”

Erin looked over at McKenna, “You stay here, I'll go talk to him.” McKenna nodded and took Pinkly with her upstairs.

Erin slid open the glass door and stepped out onto the balcony, the cool evening breeze hit her almost immediately. She wrapped her jacket tighter around her body and proceeded down the stairs to the beach. She kicked off her flip flops and her feet sunk into the soft sand, molding between her toes comfortably.

As she got closer to him she noticed several beer bottles, which she assumed were empty, perched in the sand next to him. He sat with his knees propped up in front of him, his arms rested on top of them and in one hand he held a beer bottle. She sighed heavily and planted herself next to him, hugging her knees to her chest. He glanced over at her, a lazy smile on his face, he was definitely a little tipsy.

“Hey.” He leaned over and cupped her cheek with his free hand, placing a kiss on her lips. He tasted of beer and cigarettes. She wiped at her lips when he wasn't looking to rid her mouth of the taste.

“Hey, how was your day?” Erin asked, she wasn't sure if he was drinking because he was celebrating something or if it were because he was upset. She was assuming the latter.

“Like every other.” He answered with a shrug and a raise of the eyebrows. He didn't seem to want to open up, she figured she'd have to pry a little to find out what was really on his mind. She knew he was stubborn but she hadn't yet experienced much of it first hand until now.

“How did writing go?” She asked softly, watching him wince when she brought up the topic. He swallowed the lump in his throat and swirled around the beer that remained in the bottle.

“Good, Matt brought in a few songs he wrote.” Brian paused, his eyes shifted from the ocean in front of him down to the sand that he and Erin sat on. Erin was about to speak before he continued. “Then Jimmy shows up with a shit load of songs,” He laughed, and it sounded almost resentful.

“So many songs that we couldn't even get through them all.” His words were filled with animosity, and she wasn't quite sure why. As far she knew Brian and Jimmy were the best of friends and Brian had told her before that he could never stay angry at Jimmy for long.

Erin studied Brian carefully before saying a word, his strong jaw was clenched and he was breathing heavily which gave her clues that he was angry but his eyes told a different story. His usually vibrant and lively brown eyes looked dejected.

“Did that bother you?” She spoke softly over top of the waves crashing against the shoreline.

“No, the songs were amazing. They always are. I just--” Brian ran a hand through his hair. “I'm frustrated with myself.” He revealed meekly.

“Why?” She placed a hand softly on his forearm that held the beer bottle, with his free hand he rubbed the back of his neck trying to relieve some of the stress pent up within him.

“Cause I haven't written one song yet. Jimmy could easily write our whole fucking album no problem and then there's me who can't write shit.” He brought the bottle up to his lips taking a long sip before placing it down in the sand with the rest of the bottles. “I'm envious at how easy it comes to him. That kid has more fuckin' talent in his finger than I do in my whole body.”

“That's not true.” Erin rubbed his arm but he scoffed, clearly not believing her. “Does it make you feel like you don't contribute enough?”

“Sometimes, I mean I co-write a lot and yeah that's fine but unlike Jimmy and Matt I can't point to a song and say 'That's mine I wrote that. I put everything I had into it.' I don't know how to be able to do it.” He rested his forehead on his arms, taking deep heavy breaths. Erin shifted herself closer to him and ran a hand softly along his back.

Truthfully he had felt this way for several weeks, ever since talk of a new album had begun but it hadn't really hit him until seeing how much Jimmy and Matt had to offer. He knew that he was great guitarist and no one in the band for one second doubted that but when it came to actually writing the songs he wanted to be a part of it.

He saw the excitement in Jimmy's and Matt's eyes each time they brought in a new song. Usually as a band they'd all go over the lyrics and either Matt or Jimmy would tell him what kind of solo they envisioned and he'd go work on it. This time around he wanted to be able to contribute more than just a ridiculous solo even though that was his passion. He'd never get tired of blowing people away with his skills, but he was at the point where he wanted to challenge himself.

“You want to know what I think?” She spoke softly breaking the momentary silence between them, she had lowered her head close to his ear. He looked up and nodded faintly. She made sure to look deep into his brown eyes as she spoke.

“I think you need to stop thinking about it. Don't force it, don't try to write a song just to say you did. Wait for something to inspire you so much that it just flows out of you. We all have those big events that trigger something and it ignites something inside, just wait Brian, your time will come. I know it.”

He half smiled, “How did I get so lucky?”

“Well you left your cellphone in the diner....” She trailed off gazing at him. “and here we are.” Brian laughed softly, showing a small sign of happiness.

“Best thing I ever did.” He muttered as the wind picked up slightly blowing some of her hair in her face. She was about to tuck it behind her ear but Brian had beat her to it. His hand lingered on her cheek, stroking it softly before he closed the distance between them, his lips covered hers.

“You coming inside?” She questioned softly as they pulled away.

“In a bit.” He replied as Erin stood up. Due to the slight chill in the air and the thin sweater she had on, he had expected her to go back inside. However, he was pleasantly surprised when instead she situated herself in between his legs, and leaned her back against his chest.

She leaned her head back onto his shoulder, her eyes closed listening to the waves crash against the shoreline. In his moment of weakness which she had somehow turned into one of content, he had come to realize just how hard he was falling for her.