Stick Around Another Day

Everyone was having fun tonight. It was Matt Berry, our drum tech’s wedding, and it was full of many smiles, warm hugs, lots of stories, and cold beers.

“It’s getting dark out,” Jason, Matt’s brother commented.

“Hey Matt?”

I turned around to see a couple of the guys looking at me. “Yeah?” I asked.

“Want to go to your house and finish the keg?” Jason asked me.

I considered it. I had to be in Santa Barbara early tomorrow morning to golf. I didn’t want to go tired, or with a hangover to be honest.

I told them about my situation, but they still inisisted on going.

“You sure? Then we’ll probably just head home,” said Johnny with a yawn.

“Not me, I’ll be going out with some of the guys if you want to get some sleep,” Jimmy said, looking like he could stay up all night.

I didn’t want to have everyone getting drunk at my house, but something was nagging me to let them.

I argued with myself for a minute, but my conscious kept telling me to do it.

“Earth to Shads! What do you say?” Brian asked me, snapping me out of my argument with myself.

“Come to my house,” I mumbled. I had a bad feeling right now, and I didn’t know what it was, or what I should do about it. It's probably nothing.

“Sweet, Get the keg Jason!” Zacky called out.

“Got it!” Jason yelled back as everyone started to pile into cars to head over to my place. Everybody was messing around and telling jokes in the car. When we got back to my house after the short ride from the park, everybody pilled inside my house, sitting on couches and whatever chairs they could find.

We spent the rest of the night having drinks, telling stories and just having a great time.

At around one in the morning, most of the people finally started leaving. Me, my bandmates, and Jason were all sprawled out on my living room floor with blankets and pillows everywhere.

We all muttered a goodnight to one another before I dozed off, thinking about how much it was going to suck golfing with a hangover.

-X-

]“Matt! Matt wake the fuck up!” I heard Brian yelling in my ear and felt him shaking my shoulders.

“What?” I muttered opening my sleepy eyes. It was now three in the morning and I was not too happy to be woken up.

“Jimmy needs help!”

My eyes shot open and Brian pulled me to the hallway where Jimmy was sitting against the wall, his eyes shut. I ran over to him and shook him desperately.

“Wake up Jim!” I yelled. I got no response and felt my heartbeat pounding in my chest. This couldn't be happening.

“Dude what happened?” I yelled at Zacky.

Zacky was shaking and tried to talk through tears that had just left his eyes.

“I don’t know man, he was fine before, but we woke up and-and he said he felt sick and he threw up and then he fainted and his breathing is weird, what do we do?” he rambled.

“I called an ambulance,” Johnny said quietly.

I leaned next to Jimmy and listened to his breathing. It was barely there, and it sounded labored.

“I thought he was just drunk...but...” Zacky said, his voice cracking.

“This isn’t drunk dude.” I muttered. I had no idea what was wrong with Jimmy, and I was worried sick.

The ambulance came. The para medics raced in and did their thing, while we sat back trying not to freak out. Just the thought of loosing Jimmy was enough to make me start crying.

“He’s okay, I got him breathing, load him up!” One of them said. I sighed in relief.

“Is he going to be okay?” Brian asked.

"I think so," the paramedic repiled.

-X-

We found out that Jimmy was indeed fine, and that his medications had reacted badly with the alcohol he drank. I was sitting next to his bed now, and he was wide awake.

“The doctor said that you could have been dead,” I said quietly.

“Yeah. . man if I wasn’t here with you guys tonight, I could have been dead,” He retorted.

“You know, I didn’t really want to bring the party back to my place, but I had a bad feeling man...I don’t know, I just felt like something bad was going to happen so I let you guys stay at my place,” I said.

“You saved my life, Matt. If I wasn’t at your place tonight...man I could be dead,” Jimmy said.

“I know, I can’t imagine if you....”

I stopped and looked up at my best friend. He had a hospital gown on, his hair was all over the place, but his blue eyes were shining with hope, because he had just been given another chance to live.

“Forget that man...I’m just happy I’m alive, I owe everything to you Matt,” My friend said, hugging me tightly. For the first time in a while, I cried as he held onto me, because tonight I found out how precious a life really is, and how suddenly it could be taken away. I realized how much I love my best friends, and how each day I get to spend with them are a blessing all this same.

“As long as you stick around as long as you can,” I murmured into his shoulder.

“I’m not going anywhere, Matt, I promise.”