I Swear I Love You

Jess’ POV

Ugh my head…

It had been a long time since I had felt this way when I woke up, and was a feeling that I was glad to be shot of for these past few years. Then again it wasn’t like I had much choice in that lifestyle change; I think it was probably that which made Brian and I drift apart and lead separate lives. I just couldn’t be the partier he wanted me to be any more, and I think that even though he accepted that, he couldn’t help but feel like he lost something.

I didn’t really have much of a clue where I was but I had to admit, the bed I was currently in was pretty comfortable, and if it weren’t for the fact my phone started vibrating on the bedside table beside me I wouldn’t have bothered getting out of it.

Stifling a yawn, I flipped open my cell and wearily brought it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Jess? Is that you?”

The person on the other end sounded as if they were panicking. “Yeah it is.” I frowned as I recognised the voice. "Brian?"

“Thank fuck for that! I’ve been trying to get hold of you for the last three days!” Since he didn't deny it wasn't him I must have guessed right. He must have also placed his hand over the receiver as he shouted out to somebody else, but I could still make out ‘found her’ before he talked to me again. “Is Jimmy with you?”

“Jimmy?” The name didn’t ring much of a bell, I had to admit. All I had to go on was a vague recollection of Wikipedia and old phone calls at this moment in time, coupled with some wild guess. “Isn’t he the drummer for your band?”

“Don’t do this to me now Jess, we really need him back to finish recording for Bat Country!”

None of this made sense to me; why the hell would their drummer be with me? And what was this about three days? “I don’t understand; why would he be with me?”

“Come on Jess, we all saw you two leave the bar together.”

Now I was really confused. “We went to a bar? When?”

He sighed. “Do you not remember? The day you first came onto the set we all went out for a drink after. You and Jimmy left around midnight and have been MIA ever since. Hell, Val was even talking about getting the police involved to find you two.”

“Brian, I really don’t know what you are on about.” Absent-mindedly I began flexing out my left hand, examining my nails when I noticed something odd smiling back at me.

A gold band hugging my wedding finger.

Instinctively I looked over at the bed and realised that I hadn’t woken up alone like I originally thought as someone else groaned and rolled over; exposing not only the sleeping body of the Avenged Sevenfold drummer, but also a twin band to my own mirrored upon their wedding finger.

Momentarily forgetting that Brian was still on the line I consequently screamed, and then in the fashion of any normal person finding out they were now somehow married to a stranger, fainted.

--

Jimmy’s POV

Never had I woken up like I did just now; I jolted upright just in time to witness where the scream had come from and their unceremonious fall to the floor.

“Shit…” I threw the covers off me and leapt off the side of the bed, crouching beside the unconscious girl on the floor. From just looking at her I couldn’t tell you exactly who she was, but I did have a feeling that I knew her- I just couldn’t put a name to the face.

“Hello? Is anyone still there?”

Glancing to the left of her I found her phone resting a few inches from her open hand, presumably having rolled out of it when she hit the floor. I brought it to my ear and answered, hoping that they could shed some light on the situation; or at least the girl in my room.

“Who’s this?”

When they didn’t answer I thought they had ended the call before I managed to get to them but they soon got back to me, albeit tentatively. “Jimmy?”

That voice…“Brian?”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God, I’ve been trying to get hold of you for the last three days!”

“Three days? Am I missing something here? Isn’t it Friday?”

“It’s Monday Rev… where have you been?”

Monday? How the fuck did I manage to lose a whole weekend…

“But… but weren’t we recording for Bat Country yesterday?”

He was starting to sound worried now. “What have you and Jess been doing? Can you not remember?”

“Jess?” I glanced down at the girl and finally realised why I recognised her. “She’s the Australian girl who hit her head on my kit, right?”

“Yeah…”Brian replied slowly. Something about his tone made me feel uneasy; almost as if something had happened during those three days that I really needed to remember. “Is she alright?”

“Well I woke up to someone screaming and just managed to see her fall to the ground… I think she fainted,” I answered, glancing over her just to check she had just fainted. I didn’t want to share a room with a dead girl regardless of the time of day. “Yeah, fainted. I don’t know why though.”

“That’s it, I’m coming over. Where are you?”

“Erm…” Now that’s a good question. “I don’t honestly know,” I admitted, finding no clues to our whereabouts anywhere in the room. “I just woke up here.”

“You don’t KNOW?!”

I shifted uncomfortably, bowing my head in shame even though I knew he couldn’t see it over a call. “Well sorry if I didn’t check out where the flowers on the dressing table where from when I woke up to find a girl I couldn’t remember fainting on my floor! Next time I’ll know to check the card before I begin to wonder why the fuck I’ve managed to lose three days of my life!”

Once his rant was over, Brian merely sighed. “Look, I’m sorry if I shouted, just that we’ve all gone crazy trying to find you and Jess; it was just like you disappeared off the face of the Earth after leaving the bar. Neither of you would answer your phones and now when I finally get hold of you I can’t even go and find you.”He was starting to plead now. “Isn’t there anything in your room that has the hotel name on it?”

“Might be, give us a minute.” Considering there was nothing for me to do I just left Jess where she was to shuffle around the room, soon managing to get my hands on a small mini-bar booklet that had the hotel name emblazoned on the front. “Does Hyatt Regency ring a bell?”

“No. Doesn’t it say anything else? An address, phone number… anything?”

I flipped it over and found a blank cover. “Nope that’s it.” With a sigh I walked dismally to the window, glancing out of it hoping that by some miracle, I would know where I was.

Ironically, I did. “I know where we are.”

“Where?”

“We’re back in Huntington.”

“Are you kidding me? How the fuck did you get down there?”

Another quick sweep of the room gave the answer as I went over to my bedside table and picked up a set of keys; ones to a rental I guess. “I think we hired a car.”

“And I’m guessing you don’t remember doing that?”

“No,” I replied glumly. “Losing three days sucks.”

“It doesn’t suck Jimmy, it’s fucking annoying, and that’s what it is. We were in the middle of filming Bat Country if you hadn’t noticed which would have been finished by now if you and Jess hadn’t decided to pull a vanishing act on us.”

“Look it’s not like I planned it, alright?” I huffed. “I can’t even remember doing it!”

“Well it doesn’t matter now does it? We’ll be catching the next flight down; we’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

As I sifted through the rental papers next to the keys trying to piece together my lost memories of the past few days I came across something that shocked me. A single glance from my left hand to Jess’ was all I needed to know this horrible paper truth was real.

“And Brian?”

“Yeah?”

“Jess and I got married.”