Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You

I woke up with a sharp ache in my chest and a mouth that felt like I’d swallowed a bunch of cotton balls. Serves me right for drinking as much as I did the night before though. I sat up slowly and looked around my room, my head pounding with even that small gesture. Well fuck….how did I end up here? I didn’t remember anything past the first two rounds of beer pong, especially how I had ended up back at my house. Maybe Alex did pull through and stay sober enough to bring me home. That would be a miracle.

I grabbed my phone off its charger on my bedside table, checking to see if I had any messages. 3 New Messages. I sighed and stood up slowly before heading to my bathroom to grab some aspirin and wash my face off. The messages could wait a little while longer. I mean, if it was super important, they’d call me.

Twenty minutes passed as I stood in front of my sink rubbing my face raw in an attempt to get all of the smeared makeup off. As much of a pain as it was, I felt more awake and slightly better when I finished. My phone sat beside my straightener, its screen still illuminated and showing the messages notification. Walking out of my bathroom, I slid open the phone and went to my inbox.

Alex Gaskarth : Where are you at, Jerri?

Alex Gaskarth : I’m going to assume you found another way home last night since you weren’t passed out at Jack’s this morning.

Unknown : Hey Jerri, this is Zack. You left your jacket in my car last night when I dropped you off. Call me later and I’ll bring it by or something.

Zack had my fucking number?!?!?! That was the one thing I was hoping to avoid….shit. Saving the number to my contacts list, I shook my head and walked into the kitchen.
Throwing my phone onto the table, I opened up the fridge and grabbed some orange juice, hoping to rid myself of the dry feeling in my throat.

So Zack had brought me home last night. Meaning Alex had gotten too shitfaced to drive. Also meaning Zack knew where I lived now. This was just fucking brilliant. Bloody fucking brilliant. I bit my lip and picked up the phone and typed out a quick text before hitting send.

Zack Merrick : Yeah, I’ll be there in about an hour. I just got up and need to shower.

Here’s to hoping my dance with the devil ended well.

<->

The doorbell rang and I got up off the couch to answer it, though I already knew who was standing on the other side of it.

“Hey Jerri. Here’s your jacket,” Zack said, giving me a hesitant smile as I stepped aside and nodded towards the living room. He raised an eyebrow, but came in anyway and sat down on the couch.

“What happened last night, Zack?” I asked, not looking up from the jacket I gripped tightly in my hands. Please tell me I didn’t hook up with some random guy that I would never even dream of dating….please, I thought as he bit his lip and looked at me.

“Well….you got there and danced with a few people. You had a beer or two. Chris got you to play beer pong. And after maybe, five rounds, you were gone. I think you went off to ‘play dress-up’ with Alex somewhere,” he said, looking at me with a straight face.

My face drained of all color, and my eyes had widened. All in a matter of seconds. I had played…’dress-up’ with Alex. Which in other words, was really ‘dress down’. I had….Alex and I….we….no. No way. I would remember that. Or at least, one would think that I would remember that. Then I heard Zack chuckle and looked up at him. He was grinning and laughing like nothing was wrong. What the hell was he on?

“You look like you’re about to shit yourself, Jerri. I was just kidding, jeez. Well, about the ‘dress-up’ part. The rest was truth. You went and sat by the pool until I came and sat by you. You told me you wanted to come home, so I drove you since Alex was shitfaced.”

I wanted to slap him until his face was as bright red as a brand new rubber ball. But I knew that would just make my head hurt again. The aspirin was working, but it wasn’t doing a good job.

“You asshole. That’s not the least bit funny. Where do you get off on making me think I had sex with Alex? That’s wrong on so many levels! He’s more like the brother I’ve never had…..you’re disgusting, Zachary!”

He laughed some more before putting on a straight face once more. “I’m sorry, Jerri. I won’t do it again. I promise.”

I raised an eyebrow before shaking my head and laying my head on the back of the couch. Well, that was a relief. At least something bad hadn’t happened last night.

“Hangover?”

“Mhm.”

“You know the trick to not waking up with one?”

“No, but I imagine you’re going to tell me.”

“Yup. If you stay up until you’re sober again, then you won’t wake up with a hangover. You should try it next time you drink a lot. That or you could just pace yourself,” he said with a grin.

I reached over and thumped him on the nose, glad when he made a small sound of pain. “That should teach you to act like a know-it-all.”

“It’s true though,” he stopped for a second when I glared at him, “and you know it. Anyways, Jack asked me to tell you that you’re going to our gig tonight. He said I would have to kidnap you if you refused to go.”

“Well…if it’s between going with you on my own or being kidnapped, I’d rather be kidnapped. I can honestly say that I don’t trust you. Or like you all that much.”

“Ouch. That’s harsh. That hurt, Jerri. Why so mean?”

“Because I’m blunt when it comes to how I feel about people. I’m not gonna lie to their face because it just causes drama. I don’t need that. Now how about you shut up for a minute so I can think.”

I needed to find a job soon, that way I’d have money to do things with people like Alex and Jack, who were always up for something fun. That would mean finding a ride there and back until I had enough money to get a car, even though I was terrified of driving. It was worse than my fear of needles, and I wouldn’t go anywhere near a hospital, even if I was sick. Hopefully that puts into perspective how much I didn’t want to drive.

As for the gig later, Jack should know that I’d always be ready to go to one of their gigs, no matter how hung over I was. It was just a matter of me getting there and back, or if I stayed the night with Alex or Jack. My mom wouldn’t care, as long as she knew where I was.

“I’ll go…but then again, Jack already knew that’s what I would say. Uhm…I need to go find clothes to wear though.”

“Nope, Jack and Alex already decided that. They want you to wear your purple skinny jeans and your grey My Chemical Romance shirt,” he said.

“Uh…okay. Any specific reason they want me to wear that outfit?” I asked him.

He grinned and shook his head. “I’m not allowed to say. It’s going to be a surprise.”

“What time does the gig start?”

“In an hour and a half. But I have to be there by seven, meaning you need to hurry and go get dressed,” he said.

I stood up and made my way upstairs, grumbling about how crazy the boys I called ‘friends’ were. There were also a few statements about how they had to be gay. I re-emphasized the gay thing when I looked at myself in the mirror after putting on the clothes. With a bit of eyeliner on the bottom, I was good to go back downstairs.

“Okay, Zack, I’m ready,” I said as I put on the jacket he had brought back to me.

<->

The guys had just come on, and already, there were people crowding around the front of the stage, trying to rush the guards so they could get closer to my friends.

“Alright, alright! So…how are you motherfuckers doing?” I laughed at Alex’s bluntness. It was something that tended to get him in trouble, but it was better than him being shy and out of the picture like Zack.

“Good. So, for this next song, I want my friend Jerri to come up here and sing with me. Get your scrawny ass up here bitch!” I paled and shook my head as the guard in front of me turned to look at me. All of the kids in the crowd were looking around for me, not knowing who I was.

“I want all of the people in the front to push that girl in the purple pants and grey My Chem shirt to the fucking railing so we can get her up on this damn stage!” he yelled. I was screwed.

Within minutes, I was slammed against the rail, and then lifted over it and onto the stage by the guard. Taking the microphone that one of the techs handed me, I sighed and shook my head, faking a smile. “You are signing your own death certificate, Gaskarth. Now what song am I supposedly singing?”

“You, my dear, are singing Lullabies.”

“Ohmigosh, you’re so nice! That’s like, my favorite song ever!” I said, using my valley girl accent and grinning.

“Just shut up and sing, hoe!”

“If Rian would start playing the drums, then maybe I would start singing!” I said, giving Rian a ‘just kidding’ smile.

He laughed and counted us in, and then the rest of the guys began playing. For a second, I thought I would end up standing there looking like an idiot, but the words came to me as if they were my own.

“Alright, give Jerri-Berri a hand for showing us up at our own song!” Jack said into the mic, making me blush as I shook my head and danced off stage.

The guys came off after a few more songs and gave me sweaty hugs, laughing at my expression of disgust.

“You did pretty good out there. For a girl that is,” Zack said. I looked, no glared at him, and frowned. What was that all about? Did he have to try and kill my happy mood?

“Don’t worry about him, Jerri. He’s just jealous that you got to sing a whole song while he’s stuck doing back-up.”

I nodded and followed them back to the room that was set up for them to hang out in. Their moms were all there, giving them hugs and telling them how good they did. I stood off to the side a bit awkwardly, having only met Jack’s mom up until that point.

“Jericha! Honey, why are you all the way over there? Get over here and join in the celebration! You did wonderfully dear!” Mrs. Barakat always knew how to make me smile.

I shuffled over to them, letting myself be pushed into the arms of everyone before stopping myself from hugging Zack. He looked at me and frowned before going to hug me. I ran over to Jack and hid behind him. “Quick, hide me. That creepy guy is trying to hug me,” I said.
Jack shook his head and turned around, picking me up bridal style before walking over to Zack and dumping me in his arms.

“Traitor!”

“Relax Jerri, I trust Zack with my life, he won’t hurt you. Well…not too much. He might bruise a rib or two,” Jack said as he turned to walk back over to his mom.

“Put me down, Zack. Now,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Nope. You’re going to be my new cuddle buddy,” he said as he went over to a couch and sat down, tightening his grip a little to ensure I couldn’t get away.

“One of these days, I’m gonna have enough muscle to get myself out of a situation like this, you watch,” I hissed before crossing my arms and pouting. I spent the next three hours doing that, until he had dropped me off at my house again.

“See you later cuddle buddy!”

“Fuck you, Zack!”