Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You

Rian stood at the stove, cooking the meat while I speared all of the veggies and already cooked meat. I danced around the kitchen as I grabbed a few bowls and poured chips into each one, making sure we had a variety going. The pop and beer was all sitting out back in the cooler while my mom cooked the last few burgers.

“You having fun of there, Jerri-Berri?” Rian asked, laughing at my horrible dancing. Sticking my tongue out at him, I continued to dance around. You see, my family had this thing where every generation had at least one really good dancer. It just didn’t happen to be me. In fact, I had the balance of a cat with no whiskers, so even attempting to dance got me hurt. Usually. Which is why it made sense that I slipped and fell on my ass in the middle of the kitchen.

“Serves you right for dancing in a kitchen with hardwood floors while wearing socks,” Rian said.

“Meh, shut it Dawson. I don’t have time to deal with you and your sass,” I said as I got up and rubbed my now sore ass.

“Hey, Jack just texted me and asked if he could bring his girlfriend, Amanda, with him. Do you care?” Rian asked me.

“Oh, uh, no. There’s plenty to go around and then some. I didn’t even know Jack had a girlfriend though, he never mentions her. I mean, you and Kara are nearly always together, and Alex…well, as much as I love him, he’s a manwhore, so he always has a different girlfriend. Oh god, I’m rambling. Uhh, just tell Jack he can bring her. I think it will be fun to have another girl around. What time is Kara going to be here?”

Rian smiled and pulled me over, ruffling my hair slightly. “You do that a lot, Jerri. It seems like you ramble when you’re, dare I say it, nervous. What are you worried about?”

“Oh…I’m just not so good with meeting girls for the first time. Especially if I’m best friends with their boyfriend. Things tend to get a bit….out of hand, usually. So….Kara?”

“Oh yeah, she’s going to be here in about ten minutes,” he said. Thank god he believed that lie.

<->

I had just sat down on my pillow covered lawn chair that was oh so comfy when the doorbell rang. Fucking a, now I have to get up again. Sighing, I rose from my seat and went to open the door. There stood Kara, Jack, Zack, and I supposed Jack’s girlfriend Amanda. I let them in, studying Amanda as she walked past me.

The girl was fairly tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes that matched her blue flannel very well. Her body was built like an athlete’s and it showed through her black skinny jeans. The flannel hung open to reveal a simple white tank top. A pair of bright blue converse finished off the outfit, and I had to admit, Jack had hit the jackpot. The question was, did she play well with others?

The front door slammed shut in my face, making me jump out of my thoughts, literally. Zack was standing there with a smug look on his face. I guess he’d found out about my reaction to Jack following me.

“Did you like your little surprise?” he asked as he placed a hand on my shoulder and steered me towards the backyard. I tensed slightly, still not completely comfortable around Zack. He knew this, yet he still liked to be all buddy buddy with me.

“No, I didn’t actually. Though I imagine you thought it was funny when you decided to have Jack help you with it,” I said with a fake smile.

“Oh, I did. And it was funny. Maybe you shouldn’t put things you don’t want certain people knowing on twitter, m’dear.”

So that was how he had found out. Note To Self: Don’t put things Zack shouldn’t know on twitter. I bit my lip as Zack led the way to my backyard, where everybody else was sitting and talking. Alex had taken over my comfy chair and was talking to Jack and Rian about something while the two girls sat on the other side of the fire pit eating some chips.

“Alright people, listen up! The food’s either in the kitchen or out here. All the plates and cutlery are sitting on the kitchen table, and the drinks are all in the cooler. Now go get food before it gets cold!” I said. I then watched as the guys all leaped up out of their seats and ran to the kitchen. Even Zack abandoned me for food. Not that I was complaining. Even though my shoulder was now cold and felt like was something was missing…because it was. I waited for Amanda and Kara, then walked with them inside.

“So, Amanda, right? How did you meet Jack?”

The blonde turned her gaze to me and smiled. She had a really pretty smile. Jeez, could she get any better?

“Me an’ Jack have been mates for a while, we just never made anything of it. It’s…different, but I think we can make it.”

Hook. Line. Sinker. This girl was my new best friend! She was replacing Jack himself, which was a big thing, considering me and the kid were joined at the hip whenever we hung out. She was pretty, she had the most beautiful British accent I’d ever heard, she seemed like she was easy to get along with, and well…if Jack managed to mess this relationship up I’d kill him.

“Coolio. So, you’ve probably heard some of the guys’ songs, right? Were you at their gig the other night?” I asked, wanting to get to know this girl better.

Amanda nodded and gave a small smile. “Er, yeah, I was. You’re the one they made go up and sing, right? You did very well. I liked it a lot.”

“Really?! I’m so happy that it wasn’t complete shit! I really thought I was messing up,” I said, my face reddening slightly.

I quickly excused myself and went over to Jack, wrapping one arm around him as a hug. “You better keep this girl, Jack. I like her, like, a lot. Don’t screw it up, okay?”

“I wouldn’t even dream of it, dear.”

“Good.”

The next few minutes was me going around and checking on everybody, making sure they had enough to eat while we waited for the sun to go down so that we could start the fire. As I looked around at all of the people sitting together and talking, I realized that Zack and I were the only ones who didn’t have someone to call their own. Alex had a temporary girlfriend, Jack and Amanda looked extremely comfortable in the two person swinging chair, Rian and Kara were holding hands while talking to Alex about some gig details. Hell, even my mom had a boyfriend. Suddenly, I felt very out of place with my best friends.

From the front of the house came the sound of the doorbell, and I stood. “I’ll get it,” I called, winking at Jack as I headed towards the front door. When I opened the door, I grinned. “Glad you could make it, Carrie. Follow me.” The clown chick followed behind me and out the back door.

“Guys, Jack and I decided to call in a little extra entertainment earlier. Who likes clowns?!” I asked, watching Zack out of the corner of my eye. He tensed up, and his eyes widened significantly. His hands shook slightly, as could be told by the ice rattling in his otherwise empty cup. Wow…he really was afraid of clowns. Who would’ve thought it possible?

Rian was shaking his head with a disappointed look on his face. I had anticipated that, even though I wasn’t supposed to know that Zack was afraid of them. Carrie the Clown began juggling while balancing on a rubber ball. Even I wasn’t sure how she did it. My grin widened as I sat down beside Zack. “What’s wrong, Merrick? You look absolutely terrified,” I said softly.

He glared at me, then turned and glared at Jack before glaring at me some more. “You know. You fucking know. I-I-I’m gonna k-kill that bastard,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“Know what, Zackypoo? What on earth are you talking about?”

“Dammit, Jericha. D-don’t play stupid with me. You fucking k-know I’m t-terrified of c-c-c-them.”

I made it look like I was thinking about it before smiling at him. “Well, consider this payback for the tricks you’ve already pulled on me then. She won’t be here long anyway. Just another….25 minutes. You can handle that, right?”

“You bitch.”

“Watch your tongue Mister Merrick. I’d hate to have my mother hear you say that to me,” I whispered before patting his arm and standing. Ahh, the joy of a joke done well. I really think we should do this more often, I thought as I went and grabbed another burger before sitting next to Alex again.

“I quite like the way you think, Mister Gaskarth. Thank you for the help with this…ahem, prank.”

Amanda looked over at me, having heard me thank Alex, and excused herself from Kara and came over.

“This was your idea? You two pulled this off? Why? Can’t you see he’s terrified? I mean, it was funny at first, now it’s just bloody fucking cruel!”

“I-uh….fuck. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been scared shitless by that kid. He thinks pranking me is funny! This is just payback for him scaring me. He had Jack follow me for crying out loud! I was scared out of my mind, thinking some creep was gonna rape me before I got home this morning! Zack’s getting what he deserves,” I said, trying to keep from yelling. Amanda seemed like such a sweet girl, and I really didn’t wanna piss her off and make her hate me.

She looked between me and Alex before looking at Zack. The blonde seemed to be thinking about something, though what was going through her head was beyond me. Finally, she looked back at us and gave a wry smile. “I…alright. I guess he kind of deserves this. But if you do something this bad again, prepare to be yelled at. However…..I do want to be in on the next round of pranking. Believe me, there’s gonna be more, especially after this stunt.”
I looked at Amanda as if she had sprouted another head. She wanted to help me prank Zack? Well then….I guess that would be cool. It would mean that I would have help coming up with pranks when needed. And a little help can go a long way.

“Sure! That would be amazing! Uhm, here’s my number,” I said as I pulled out a sharpie and wrote it on her hand. “Call me or something and we can begin plotting the next phase of Operation Attack Zack.”

She nodded and went back over to Kara, who smiled and launched back into their previous discussion. Alex patted me on the shoulder and laughed. “Looks like you don’t need me anymore, do you Jerri?”

“Nonsense, of course I do! You know more about Zack then I do!”

“True…but Rian knows the most. The tricky part is getting him to tell you some of Zack’s darker secrets.”

“Hmm….I’ll worry about that when the time comes,” I replied.

“Alright, well, I’m going to go get the wood in the fire pit so we can start the fire soon. You might wanna try and calm Zack down though, he looks like he wants to murder our guitarist.”

Alex had a point. Whenever Zack wasn’t looking at the clown and shaking, he was glaring at Jack, who seemed oblivious to the daggers being shot at the back of his head. How on earth was I supposed to calm him down though, when I was the one who had him pissed off in the first place? I’d try, but no promises were being made.

“So…Zack….are you ready for the bonfire?”

“Get the fuck away from me, Jerri. I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“Zack, calm the fuck down. It’s just a fucking prank. You know that little stunt you pulled earlier, having Jack follow me, well, I was just as scared then as you are now. I’m fucking terrified of being raped. It’s one of my biggest fears, but you don’t see me sitting here shooing everybody away. I’m trying to fucking talk to you.”

“Yeah, well I didn’t know that. You know I’m afraid of clowns and you went through with the prank anyway.”

“Okay, yes, I did. But you know what; all is fair in love in war. You wanted to prank me all the time, so I figured I would return the favor.”

“Dammit Jericha, using somebody’s fears against them isn’t fair, especially if you know they’re afraid of something. It’s just being cruel.”

Wow….that was the second time somebody had called my prank cruel. Maybe I was being a bit too harsh on Zack. Sure, he had used one of my biggest fears against me, but he did it unknowingly. I had done it with the full knowledge that Zack was afraid of them. Now, I felt a bit bad about all of it. Damn the fucking conscience factor! This was the guy who constantly picked on me and pranked me, but here I was feeling bad for pranking him back. Just my fucking luck…

“I-fuck. I hate it when someone else is right. Look…I-I-I-I’m sorry, Zack. It was cruel of me to use your own fear against you with the full knowledge of your fear. But you have to understand how sick and tired I am of you pranking me for no reason. It’s really annoying sometimes.”

I sighed and grabbed a beer from the cooler and watched as Alex threw a bunch of wood in the pit. Carrie the Clown was just now leaving, so Zack would hopefully be calmer in a minute or two. My mind was wandering through all of the day’s events. Zack got Jack to follow me, Alex and I plotted an amazing prank, I met Jack’s girlfriend, got yelled at by the said girlfriend, and then felt bad for the prank on Zack. What a lovely fucking day. Hopefully the bonfire part would go better.

As the fire started up, I watched the flames lick along the logs, climbing its way up higher and higher until the fire came up to my knees. The heat was nice, especially after the cool weather earlier on in the day. But once again, I caught myself looking at all of my friends. Alex had invited his girlfriend, but she’d already had plans to go to the movies with friends. He said he had a good feeling about this one, about how she’d be the one, but we all knew it wasn’t true. Rian and Kara were meant to be together and we all knew it. Jack and Amanda looked so cute together as they sat and cuddled with each other. A lot of whispering was going on there, and yeah, it worried me a little, but I trusted it wasn’t anything that bad. And then there was Zack. He seemed to feel as out of place as I did, although he was doing a better job of covering it up then I was. In fact, Zack seemed quite happy to just sit there and stare into the fire. He looked like he was thinking really hard about something. Probably a way to get back at me for my prank, I thought. We were the only ones out here without a date, and it kind of amused me.

Girls would always hit on Zack, but he’d politely turn them down whenever they asked him out. Yeah, the girls asked him out. It was crazy, but true. None of us ever mentioned the fact that he never even tried to go on a date with any of them. The one time we had, he’d told us that she didn’t look smart enough to keep up a conversation. And she really hadn’t, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t at least try. Jack had this crazy notion that Zack was gay, because even though they’d known him for a while, they could count on one hand the number of girls the guy had dated.

Buzz! Buzz! I jumped and pulled my phone out of my pocket, seeing a number I didn’t recognize. The only person it could have been was Amanda, so I opened up the message.

Amanda : You should go sit by Zack. You two look so lonely.

I shook my head and sent a quick reply. No way. He might think I actually like him!

Amanda : Oh come on! He likes you Jerri. You’re just too blind to see it. Give him a break for once and go sit with him!

Why would I do that? There’s no way jokester boy over there likes me.

Amanda : Don’t make me come over there and force you to do it!

Ha, I’d like to see you try.

Jack Barakat : Just do it already Jerri! Or we’ll both come over there and force you.

Oh alright. Jesus.

My friends were…crazy. Why on earth would Zack like me? And even if he had, I’d probably made him hate me with my little prank earlier. Which was probably a good thing, but still. I shook my head as I stood and went over to Zack, shuffling my feet a bit as I stood in front of him. He looked up at me, uncertainty clear on his face.

“What do you want, Jerri?”

“You…you don’t mind me sitting here do you…Cuddle Buddy?”

I watched as Zack’s face contorted into a look of shock, then distrust, then happiness, and finally into one of wariness before he nodded. “I guess so. It is your house after all.”

Taking a seat beside him, I bit my lip, not quite liking this awkward silence. I’d been better off sitting by myself in my own little world.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier. I was just really scared, y’know?”

“Oh, uh….yeah. I’m sorry for putting you through the pain of being around a clown.”

“It’s okay. I mean….you did have a point. I do mess with you a bit too much. I think I would annoy myself even.”

“Haha, yeahhhh…..so….are we even?”

“Not even close. But I say we call it quits for now and enjoy this wonderful evening. Deal?”

“Deal,” I said as I leaned over and hugged him. Zack pulled me closer, into one of his famous bear hugs, and I let him. I was trying to be nice, and being this close to him didn’t bother too terribly much. It was a bit awkward, since I knew Amanda and Jack were sitting there watching us, even though they were trying to be not so obvious. Looking at Zack, I gave a small smile and tentatively rested my head on his shoulder. He tensed under me, but after a few moments hesitation, wrapped his arm around my shoulders. It was awkward, yes, but it was so wrong that it felt right.