I Swear I Love You

There was a week before the start of the tour and everyone was currently busy with work- not with tour stuff mind, but in preparation for one hell of a birthday party for Jess. Of course it was going to be a surprise, but keeping the birthday girl away from Matt’s house where she had been staying since the beach incident was proving more difficult for Zacky than he originally thought.

“Zacky can we not go home now?” Jess whined, tugging on the guitarist’s arm. They had been walking around the mall for the past three hours now, and considering it was for a distraction trip and not actually searching for anything particular he was starting to feel as bored as Jess was.

“So you’re saying you are getting bored of me?”

He knew it was a horrible thing to do, but it did draw out the guilt he was bargaining for in her. Zacky didn’t know when everything was going to be ready so he just had to keep her away until he got the necessary green light text.

“That’s what I thought,” he continued. “Although I have to admit I’m bored too.”

“Why can’t we go home then?”

Zacky had been avoiding this question for pretty much the whole trip and up until now had managed it, but after what he last said he kind of backed himself into a corner. Instead of answering however, he retorted with another question. “Why don’t you and I go to the zoo?”

She looked dumbfounded. “The zoo?”

“Sure, why not?” Zacky shrugged. “It’s only like a half hour drive and it doesn’t shut for a while.” And it will also kill a few hours. “So what do you think? Up for some swinging with monkeys?”

--

“Where are they?” Val demanded of her boyfriend, pacing around the front room stopping only to glance up at the drive through the nearby window. “You did tell Zacky to come back, right?”

“Of course I did, I gave him the text telling him to come back.”

The barbeque was all ready to go and the place was coated with every kind of party decoration under the sun and still an hour after it was finished, the guest of honour and her current guide were no where in sight.

“Are you sure he got it?”

Matt shrugged. “Says it went through.”

“Ring him then would you?” Val said, sounding exasperated. Jess’ birthday was coinciding with their last days home so that was why it was important for all of them to celebrate- after this, they would be stuck on a tour bus for the next few months travelling across the states. “I did not go through all this planning for nothing.”

Suppressing a sigh- knowing it was better not to cross the ever-irate blonde- he scrolled through his contacts and started to call the guitarist. He moved outside and sat out on the deck where the others were currently gathered, all waiting for the festivities to start.

As he reached his friend’s voicemail yet again he shoved the phone back into his pocket with a sigh and took over the nearest chair next to Brian, who immediately looked up.

“No answer?”

He shook his head. “I keep getting his voicemail. I’ve sent him a few texts saying that we’re ready for him to come back, and they say they’ve got to him, but he still hasn’t come back.”

“I wonder where he took her,” Jimmy mused. “I thought Zack had just taken her to the mall because it was close by.”

“Maybe she’s gone off to marry him,” Johnny quipped, oblivious to the dark look Jimmy shot him as a result. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Hey it’s not like-”

Brian held out his hand for him to stop, looking away from the guys. “Do you hear something?”

As if on cue Val appeared in the doorway and called them quickly back inside, the lights in the house disappearing as they each took their hiding positions in the kitchen. The sounds of laughter and footsteps grew louder as lights were slowly flicked back on in their wake, each of them waiting until one of them reached for the kitchen light before jumping out.

“SURPRISE!”

Jess screamed as everyone jumped out and grabbed onto Zacky in reflex, her eyes wide with fear. This slowly subsided into a mild anger as she gave Zacky a friendly slap after he joined in with the others’ laughter before turning to regard all the happy birthday decorations that covered the entirety of the kitchen.

After the initial shock had subsided Jess couldn’t help but laugh as well, hugging each of them and thanking them for all the birthday greetings. “How did you guys find out today is my birthday? I don’t think I told you.”

“Come on Jess, did you really think I would forget your birthday?” Brian said, stepping in to encase his friend in his arms. “This is the one day of the year I can freak you out and not get punished for it.”

“And I still remember 2nd grade when you hid in the cloak room and jumped out at me when I went to put my coat up,” Jess replied, shaking her head as she remembered his previous birthday antics. “I had never screamed so hard in my life.”

“Except for now,” he said, pulling away from the slightly shaken girl in order to pull out a small box he had in his pocket before offering it to her. “Happy birthday Jess; this is from all of us.”

All of them leant in as she slowly pried open the box, watching the surprise flood her expression as she gently lifted the silver bracelet from the velvet sleeve. The six unique charms spaced out in the thick links swayed to an unknown beat as she examined each of them, tears springing to her eyes, touched by the gesture.

“Oh guys, you shouldn’t have,” Jess breathed, the awe growing as Brian helped fasten it across her wrist. “It’s so beautiful.”

“We all chose out our own charms,” Val explained, moving across to Jess’ side in order to point out each of them. “Johnny got you the Virgo charm, since that’s your zodiac sign, Zacky chose the koala, since you came to us from Australia, Matt and I got you the small deathbat, Brian got you the lily, since he said it was your favourite flower and Jimmy got you the bass drum.”

After running her fingers over the drum charm, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Did you get this for the reason I think you did?”

Jimmy grinned. “Now you’ll never forget.”

“I don’t think I could if I tried,” she replied, passing out her hugs as thanks. “I wasn’t expecting anything.”

“We couldn’t ignore your birthday Jess,” Matt interjected, crossing the room and draping an arm around her shoulders, beginning to lead her out the back door. “Although I hope you’re hungry, because I know I am.”

--

“I think Jess had a fun time tonight, don’t you think?” Val snuggled up closer to Matt on the bench on their deck, looking out onto bodies curled around each other on a blanket laid across the lawn.

“She certainly doesn’t let her diabetes get to her, that’s for sure,” Matt agreed, running his hand up and down Val’s arm. “If I didn’t know I would have sworn she was perfectly healthy.”

“She does make me worry though.”

“What about?” The couple’s heads turned to see Johnny coming back from the kitchen, passing out drinks to the two of them before settling himself in a chair next to them.

Val sighed. “She’s going to grow up to be a heartbreaker, I know it.”

“So you’ve seen it too?”

The three of them were the only ones still awake- the others had passed out long ago on the lawn, moved only onto the blanket with some gentle persuasion just so they had something clean to rest on. Zacky, Jimmy and Brian had all managed in some way or form to fall asleep against Jess who was lying in the middle, probably in the best position since she the blanket they had put down wasn’t really big enough to accommodate all of them, and as a result, pretty much all of the guys’ legs were hanging off it onto the grass.

Johnny nodded, bringing the beer to his lips before continuing. “I don’t even think she realises it herself.”

“No, she realises,” Matt cut in. “She said she’s considering going back to Florida to stay with her parents’ after we leave for the tour. She was going to go back earlier but I managed to convince her to stay until then.” He looked at Johnny. “She said you told her about it.”

“Uh…” He scratched his sheepishly. “Yeah, I might have done. Not in a bad way though.”

“Well you might not have meant it, but I think she took it in a bad way,” Matt replied. “It’s like she thinks she’ll just up causing trouble.”

Val looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest. “Did she say that to you?”

Remembering his promise to the girl, he quickly denied it. “No, I’m just guessing. It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?”

Just on cue the subject of their conversation stirred in the arms of their band mates, managing to dislodge herself from the various arms and heads resting against her and made her way back over onto the deck. Yawning she grabbed her bag from behind Johnny and slumped on the empty seat beside him, going through the motions of testing her sugar levels before reaching over to the table housing the leftover food and grabbed a roll, tearing off a part and sliding it into her mouth.

“Did you have a good party Jess?” Val asked just after Jess was done putting away her stuff. All of them had known to keep an extra eye on her tonight because there was alcohol, but like all other times, she proved she could look after herself. In fact, the reason she had passed out wasn’t even from alcohol because she didn’t have any- she had simply just been having too much fun. The others with her on the other hand, were stone cold drunk. “I was beginning to wonder if I should go wake you.”

“For some reason I always seem to wake up when I know I need to,” she replied, stifling a yawn with her hand. “Though I do have to ask how I managed to fall asleep in that mess.”

“You seemed rather happy to if I remember rightly,” Matt chuckled, remembering moving the lot of them onto the blanket well. “You somehow managed to keep yourself awake long enough to instruct the guys how to sleep around you so they all had a bit of you to lean against.”

“I did?” She glanced back at them briefly, biting her lip. “Oh I didn’t mean to…”

“Hey… You didn’t do anything wrong,” Johnny said softly, rubbing her arm for reassurance. “You should stop treading on eggshells around us. We’re all friends here.”

Clearly the speech didn’t help calm her nerves by the looks of her rigid posture so Val tried to have a go, sitting up from Matt. “Why don’t you tell us all what’s wrong? You’ve been really quiet these last few weeks, ever since the beach.”

Her gaze dropped to her hands, her fingers intertwined with one another. “It’s nothing really… just me being silly.”

All of them frowned; the Jess of this last week was a far cry from the bubbling girl who jumped into their lives- quite literally, that is.

“Come on Jess, we’re all friends here.”

When she opened her mouth to answer everyone leaned in expectantly, only to fall back deflated as it shut again at the shake of her head. “Really, it’s nothing.” She got up from the seat, the rest of the roll she knew she really should eat left upon the side as she walked back inside, presumably to catch a more comfortable ride through sleep on the couch.

Watching the sombre female go, all of them exhaled a sigh.

“I wish she would just open up to us. I know we haven’t been friends the longest of times, but she should trust us, you know?” Matt shook his head. “That girl is going to burn herself out if she doesn’t let anyone in.”

“Well I would have thought Jimmy could get some sense into her but apparently she’s acting a bit off to him,” Val added. “Same with Brian, and they’ve been friends for years.” She looked at Johnny. “And she’s not talking to us, so who has that left?”

At once all their eyes fell upon one of the bodies that had rolled into Jess’ place and was now the meat in a Jimmy/Brian sandwich. “Well Zack did spend the day with her today…” They all shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt.”

Val began to get up from the bench before Matt caught her by the arm. “What are you doing?”

She looked back at him oddly. “Going to go get Zack; what do you think I was doing?”

“Leave it until morning; it’s not fair to wake him up now.”

She sighed, soon relenting and flopping back down next to Matt. “I just want to get it sorted, you know? It bothers me when I see people who obviously have something on their mind.”

“I know it does babe but you’re going to have to let this one go,” Matt said before turning to Johnny. “What happened to this Lacey girl anyway? I thought she was meant to be meeting us all today.”

“She got caught up in traffic; she said she’ll be over when she makes it. You left the front door open, right?”

Matt nodded. “Yeah, just tell her to let herself in.”

“It’s about time you introduced her to us,” Val put in, leaning her back against Matt to look at the bassist properly. “How long have you been keeping her secret from us?”

“Not long-”

“Johnny?” All heads turned to where the voice had come from the empty doorway. “Johnny? Are you here?” Eventually a body joined the voice and stepped out onto the deck, revealing a tiny lost female.

“Over here babe.” Both Matt and Val noted the large smile that Johnny had when the girl walked over to him, his arms wrapped around her waist at the first instant in a loving embrace. “I’ve missed you so much.” He kissed her softly before falling back onto the chair, pulling her onto his lap. “Was the traffic really that bad?”

She nodded. “They shut off the freeway because a couple of trucks collided with each other, and I was stuck on it. Nothing moved for a few hours so it made me late- I’m sorry.”

“Hey… Don’t worry about it,” he murmured, squeezing the hand in his. “I’m just glad you came.” He then gestured to Matt and Val beside them. “This is Matt; he’s the lead singer, and Val, his girlfriend.”

She reached over and shook each of their hands, smiling warmly at the pair of them. “The mighty Shadows and Val; Johnny’s told me a lot about you two.”

“Nothing bad I hope?” Val replied, echoing her smile. “I wish I could say the same about you though, until last week I didn’t even know he was seeing someone!”

“He hasn’t?” Lacey turned back to the man she was sitting on. “Why not?”

“I just wanted it to be you and me for a while,” he replied, toying with her hair. “Plus I needed to prepare you before meeting with the Sevenfold family.”

“You needed to prepare me?” She looked confused. “What for?”

Johnny chuckled. “Well it doesn’t really matter now because most of the family is asleep.”

“Looks like I missed one hell of a party,” Lacey commented having already noticed the three passed out bodies on the lawn.

“Don’t you worry about that,” Matt said, plucking a drink off the table next to him and handing it to her. “You made it just in time for the afterparty.”