I Swear I Love You

“How sweet,” Val murmured, staring at the sleeping pair.

“Sweet?!” To her side Matt was jumping from foot to foot, a pained expression on his face. “I need to take a fucking piss!!”

“Not anymore you don’t,” Johnny chuckled, ducking under his arm in order to get a look at the obstruction. “They don’t look like they are going to budge for a while yet.”

“Like shit they’re not,” Matt growled, advancing menacingly upon the pair with full intent to chuck them out of the bathroom on their asses if it meant he could finally use his own bathroom. Unfortunately for him, Val added herself into the list of obstacles on his path to the toilet.

“Matthew Sanders show your friends some common decency and let them sleep!”

“But babe-!”

“No buts!” Val barked. “You can hold it for an hour.”

“An hour?!” Matt looked like he was on the verge of breaking- torn between the decision of doing what his girlfriend asked of him and throwing two of his friends out so he could use the toilet. Thankfully though, someone else decided to help him out, throwing him a set of keys.

However Johnny had barely got the ‘You can go to my place’ before Matt had raced back downstairs and out the door, probably to sprint the three blocks between the two homes like he had never done before. Ironically enough though if he had hung around for even a minute longer he would have witness the waking of the bathroom inhabitants, although the slamming of the front door probably contributed to it.

“Why are you all staring at us?” Jess broke away from Brian as he spoke, stretching her arms out in front of her from where they had been pressed against Brian’s side for the past couple of hours.

“Just debating whether it would be right or not to mess with you guys or not,” Johnny answered. “Although you did annoy Matt for us so we went against it.”

Jess looked around, trying to find the object of their annoyance, but coming up with nothing. “Where is Matt?”

“Running across town.” He grinned. “You guys were in his bathroom.”

She looked confused. “What has that got to do with anything?”

“You were in his only bathroom.”

The pair of them looked around until their gazes met, smiling guiltily. “Oops. We should probably find somewhere else to crash next time.”

“Probably,” Brian agreed, first bringing himself to his feet before helping up Jess. Thanks to the extra sleep- regardless of the fact it was against the edge of a bathtub- his hangover was pretty much non-existent, although the same couldn’t really be said about Jess. After a hypo that bad it normally knocked her out for the rest of the day, which explained why she was leaning heavily against him despite being fully awake. “You know if it was just me I probably would have ended up on my ass outside, right? I don’t know why you’re so special.”

“It just shows who Mr. Shadows likes better,” Jess replied, yawning loudly. Her head dropped to rest against Brian’s shoulder, the little energy that the short nap had provided her quickly vanishing. Her eyes rolled to Val. “What time is it?”

“Almost five,” she replied. “None of us wanted to wake you.”

“I should probably eat something then…” Jess murmured, dismissing Brian’s concern as he moved to catch her after she stumbled, clutching at her head. “It’s just a headache; I’m fine.” She looked over to Val after she regained her balance, feigning a smile to cover up the painful throbbing clouding her thoughts. “Do you mind if I make something?”

Despite her concern Val decided against making it known. “Of course you can Jess; you don’t need to ask each time. You’ve been staying with us long enough.”

“It’s impolite not to ask,” she responded simply, thanking her before disappearing down the stairs to the kitchen.

Once she was out of earshot Val looked over at Brian, folding her arms across her chest as she lent against the doorframe. “She’s not alright… is she?”

Brian exhaled a sigh, a frown sweeping away the previous smile he held. “This is just her way of dealing. It’s best not to bug her about it.”

“Have you asked her about the tour? None of us had a chance to yesterday.”

“She’s thinking about it.” He knew it was a lie, but he thought that somehow he could convince her to come along, even if it was just for a couple of shows. He had missed Jess since she was in Australia and he didn’t want to lose her again if he could help it. “I’ll ask her about it later.”

Following in Jess’ footsteps Brian led the others back downstairs, forcing a smile as he looked on at the female boiling pasta in a pan. “You better be cooking some for me too.”

“Of course I am,” she replied, diverting her attention from the pasta sauce she was making alongside the pasta to Brian. “Even though it’s been like five years since we’ve stayed somewhere together I still remember the rules.”

“Hell yeah you do,” Brian said, grinning as he walked over to her side and sampled her cooking. “I’ve missed your cooking. What am I going to do when you’re gone?”

“Learn to cook maybe?” She retorted cheekily, a hand resting against the groove in her hip. “Or just eat junk like you normally do? I’m not sure you can get away with the puppy fat excuse anymore.”

“I am not fat!” Brian yelled, crossing his arms defiantly across his chest. “It’s muscle!”

“You keep telling yourself that,” she chuckled, turning off the stove and dishing up the pasta and sauce into large bowls. Clearly from the amounts she had taken everybody into account and a load more otherwise. When Brian refused to budge from the doorway after she had already ventured into the back room to place the bowls on the table and came back again she smiled, walking back up to the scowling male and wrapping her arms around his waist, chin balanced on his chest as she looked up.

“Come on Mr. McPouty.” When he turned his head to the side, she simply moved until she was in his eye line again, and again. Eventually she just reached up and grabbed him, forcing him to look at her. “Briiiiaaaann.”

When he still didn’t respond she stepped back, a faint tremble washing over her as she lost her footing and almost fell, just managing to catch the side to prevent it. Brian was at her side in an instant, quickly helping her back up. “Jess; are you alright?”

Almost as quickly as her strength had waned it came back again, the large grin she flashed at Brian indicating that she was, in fact, acting the whole time. “Gotcha!”

Brian’s expression slowly changed from concern to outright annoyance. “You shouldn’t do something like that!”

“Like what?” She replied. “Oh, you mean this?” She pretended to faint only to suddenly recover in a fit of giggles. “You are too easy to play with.” Brian simply huffed and brushed past her, dumping himself into the nearest seat and grabbing the bowl of pasta and spooning himself some, sulking.

As soon as he left Jess’ smile dropped to a grimace; her hand reaching to press against the growing bruise on her thigh. She had purposely made it out to look like an act because she knew he would just start to feel guilty about having to do it, despite it probably saving her from a situation far worse.

Once she heard footsteps coming from upstairs her hand quickly dropped to her side and brought the smile back to her lips. Val and Johnny soon appeared shortly after, joined by Lacey and Jimmy emerging from the front room.

“Mmm… what smells good?” Lacey asked. Her eyes were closed as she sniffed the air, walking straight into Johnny as a result. “Oh sorry honey!”

He caught her and grinned, turning his face to the side and tapping his cheek. “I think you owe me an apology.”

Despite knowing it was just a ploy for a kiss Lacey fell happily into it anyway, pecking the bassist on the cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re forgiven,” Johnny said glancing into the room at the sullen guitarist. “What’s up with him?”

“He’s not who I remember,” Jess murmured, her gaze directed at the ground as she raised her voice so the others could hear. “I’ve made pasta for everyone.” The normal playfulness to her tone was completely void for her words as she moved through everyone, resting her hand on the door to the front room to say one last thing before disappearing inside. “Help yourself.”

Not yet been properly introduced to Jess Lacey stared thoughtfully after her, glancing to Johnny at her side. “What’s up with her?”

He shrugged. “Might just be a side-effect of her diabetes or something.” He gravitated towards the room containing the food. “Are you coming?”

Taking one look at the others she offered him a smile before nodding, but moved in the opposite direction. “I’ll be there in a minute, okay? I just want to get my phone from the front room.”

“Alright.”

Along with Jimmy and Val he went to provide company for the sulking male ploughing his way through his second bowl of pasta, leaving Lacey to freely drop the smile as she gently pushed open the door to the front room, looking around until she saw the female sat on the edge of the couch.

Without a moment’s thought she crossed the room and sat beside her. “You know, that food you made is going to get cold if you don’t get some soon. If there is any left that is; if the others eat the way Johnny does anyway.”

Once Jess saw that Lacey was in the room her mood drastically changed; going from emitting her personal rain cloud to sunshine and rainbows. “Oh hey!” She smiled as she struck her hand out in offering. “You are Lacey right? It’s nice to meet you.”

Even with her schooling even Lacey was surprised at the defence mechanisms arising in this girl. It was basically as if that fake smile was a thick metal plating of armour bound to her body.

“That’s me,” Lacey responded brightly, unable to help but assess every movement the girl was making. It was second nature to her now- she just couldn’t help it. “You’re Jessica aren’t you? I’ve been told about you by Johnny.”

“Hopefully nothing bad,” Jess said. “Although I guess marrying the band’s drummer probably falls under that category.”

“You’re married to the band’s drummer?” She repeated incredulously. “Johnny must have missed telling me that.”

“Well I guess the guys aren’t trying to spread it around,” she chuckled. “I guess not even remembering it happening isn’t really something they want to be weighing down the band.”

“Wow. I actually thought you were dating Brian at first.”

Jess blinked in surprise. “You did?”

“Uh huh. I may not have known you long but I can definitely tell. My classes have got me real good at reading body language.”

“You’re in college?” Jess asked as Lacey nodded. “What do you study?”

“I double major in Law and Psychology,” she answered. “So don’t try and lie to me, because I’ll know!” She smiled. “So what’s up with you and Brian then?” Clearly the subject of her relationships between her and the band was a tender subject but clearly Lacey wasn’t up for ignoring it, even when she didn’t get an answer. “Come on Jess! I can read into anything you say.”

“But that doesn’t stop me from just not saying anything at all, now does it?”

“You could do that, but eventually you’ll tell me.”

Jess glanced over to her. “And why’s that?”

She smiled. “Because even though I’m smart, I’m also very, very annoying.”