One Wild Night

"Heads up!"

Marissa threw up her hands and twisted at the waist while running. The football was soaring through the air in a perfect spiral, launched by Matt. Johnny and Jason were right on her heels. Marissa had already taken one face-plant in the sand today; at the sight of the two guys so close behind her, Marissa felt a pulse of adrenaline. The football brushed her fingertips and she snagged it, cradling it close to her body and running full speed ahead.

Suddenly, Jimmy caught up to Johnny and Jason. With a war cry, he dove at Johnny, knocking the shorter man into Jason. The three of them went sprawling in the ankle-deep water.

"DAMMIT, JIMMY!" Jason spluttered, inhaling a mouthful of water as a small wave broke over his head.

Jimmy was rolling around, laughing maniacally. Matt had punched the air in triumph. Marissa easily reached their makeshift end zone. Giggling, she spiked the ball into the sand and did a short, celebratory dance.

Cecelia, Jess, and Sabrina cheered enthusiastically. Jess had Jacob on her lap and she made him clap. He squealed gleefully.

"Zack, what the hell, man?" Johnny called to the third member of his team.

Zacky glanced up from where he and Brian were hovering suspiciously around the cooler. "What?" he said, a bit guiltily.

"We lost, you ass hat!" Jason bitched.

"What are you guys doing anyway?" Jimmy calmed down enough to ask.

"Nothing," Brian and Zacky said innocently.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Let me offer a warning to everyone in the vicinity: don't drink anything else from the cooler." He flopped down on the blanket next to Cecelia.

"Can we not go anywhere without the Terror Twins spiking our drinks?" Jason groaned.

Zacky widened his green eyes. "What are you talking about?" He tried to surreptitiously pass a tall, mostly empty bottle to Brian.

Marissa joined the girls and Matt on the huge blanket they'd spread out earlier. It was the day after Avenged's show in San Diego. The guys were heading out in two days' time and would be on the road for six months. Marissa was flying home to Alabama tomorrow.

"This would look great in the news," Matt said with more than a hint of sarcasm. "'Avenged Sevenfold arrested for public intoxication while responsible for an eight-month-old.'"

"Jeez, Bri, you're such a good father," Johnny commented.

"Hey, I'm not drunk," Brian defended himself.

"Eh, who cares if you are?" Jimmy said, trudging to the cooler. "That's what the women are here for."

Marissa, Jess, Cecelia, and Sabrina all looked at him.

"What?" he said, totally unrepentant. "Oh, come on. You can't really be offended. You know that Avenged Sevenfold, on the whole, has, like, zero paternal instinct. We're frat boys," he concluded, filling a plastic cup from the spigot on the cooler.

"Speak for yourself," Matt shot back.

The girls exchanged amused glances.

Marissa stretched out on the blanket. It was a perfect day, slightly overcast with a balmy breeze blowing in off the water. Jess, Sabrina, Cecelia, and Matt were playing with Jacob, who was laughing happily. Johnny, Jimmy, Jason, Brian, and Zacky were talking in soft voices over by the cooler. The steady ebb and flow of the waves was soothing. And for the first time in weeks, no one was discussing what Marissa should or shouldn't do.

Marissa was truly and fully relaxed. Right now, in this moment, all was right with the world. She just wouldn't think about tomorrow.

Before she even realized it was happening, she'd drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

****

The mood in the house was roughly equivalent to that of a funeral. The relaxed atmosphere from the previous day was gone as if it had never existed. Everyone was here--the guys, the girls, Papa Gates, Suzy, and Brent--and yet silence had settled over the occupants like a heavy cloud. Even Pinkly was subdued, obviously picking up on the humans' unhappiness.

It was the day of Marissa's departure.

Marissa was shut up in the nursery with Jacob. She'd forbidden anyone from joining her, at least for a few minutes. She could no longer take the looks that were a mixture of hurt, betrayal, and resignation. It was also like a physical pain to sit in the room with Brian, knowing that he wasn't going to ask her to stay for any reason besides his son.

"You're going to love Alabama," Marissa murmured, watching Jacob stick the corner of a block in his mouth. "Grandma and Grandpa Wolf are there. And you'll get to meet Danny..." Her voice trailed away. Doubt began creeping in again, as it had every time she let her guard down even for a second.

It would be so much easier to stay.

Her thoughts strayed to all that she was leaving behind: Cecelia, Carmen, Jess, Sabrina, Marie, Brian, Jimmy, Johnny, Zacky, Matt, Jason, Matty, Papa Gates, Suzy, Brent...security, someone to take care of her, someone to help her with Jacob.

I've made a life here, she realized. It was meant to be temporary, but now this is what I know, this is where I'm comfortable and happy.

And nothing here will ever change, she scolded herself. I need a fresh start. Maybe once I'm on my feet, I'll leave Alabama. She shook her head. That was a debate for another day.

A gleeful noise from Jacob brought Marissa out of her reverie. He had used the bars of his crib to pull himself into a sitting position. Marissa knew it was only a matter of time before he'd be using the furniture to stand.

And Brian's going to miss it.

Just like that, she remembered exactly why she was going home.

The door opened a crack and Jimmy stuck his head into the room. "Hey, 'Rissa." His eyes flicked to Jacob and a smile spread across his lips. "Hey, Batman." (He'd been calling Jacob "Batman" ever since they'd watched The Dark Knight together. Jimmy swore Jacob had watched the movie with more than the typical vague interest that babies show in everything.)

Jacob laughed. Marissa couldn't suppress a smile of her own. She had never known Jacob to cry in Jimmy's presence.

"You need to quit hiding up here and come downstairs," Jimmy said, straightening up and entering the nursery.

"Why? So I can spend my final hours here being made to feel guilty?"

"No. So we can spend your final hours here with you and Jacob." Jimmy looked at Marissa earnestly. "We're going to miss you, Marissa, and you're hurting everyone by refusing to spend this time with us."

"It's hard, Jimmy," she murmured. "If I go down there and I enjoy myself with y'all, it will only make it that much more difficult to board the plane when we get to the airport."

Jimmy drew her into his arms, holding her tightly and resting his cheek on top of her head. "I know, baby. But you're strong. You're one of the strongest people I know. You made your decision, and you'll see it through to the end. And you'll be fine, with or without us."

A few tears brimmed over and spilled down Marissa's cheeks. "I want to be with y'all, I really do. I just can't take it anymore."

"We understand, Marissa. I promise. And we'll visit. This isn't good-bye, it's...see you later."

"Yeah." She managed a small smile.

Jimmy dried her tears. "That's my girl. Now come on. If we don't get down there soon, they're going to come up here. And I'm not about to be trapped in this room with fourteen other people." He let go of Marissa and plucked Jacob out of his crib, then led the way to the living room.

Brian immediately took Jacob from Jimmy. Meanwhile, Marissa crossed the room and crawled onto Cecelia's lap.

Cecelia hugged her. "You okay?"

Marissa shrugged.

"Everything will be fine, honey. I promise."

"I know." Marissa rested her head on Cecelia's shoulder, again fighting back tears. "I'll miss y'all."

"We'll miss you, too."

"Marissa," Matt said, and she looked at him. "Don't cry. We'll call you so often that you'll want to throw your phone out the window every time it rings, and every time we come to the Southeast for a show, we'll make a detour to Alabama and see you and the Deathbat baby. It'll be like you never left."

Marissa smiled. Brian and Johnny were playing with Jacob, but Marissa could tell Brian's focus was divided. He was determinedly not acknowledging her presence.

"Talk to him," Cecelia whispered in her ear.

Marissa knew she needed to and that she couldn't put it off any longer. They would be leaving for the airport in two hours. She reluctantly stood. "Um, Bri? Can we talk...alone?"

Brian handed Jacob to Papa Gates and walked out of the room without even the briefest glance in her direction. Seconds later, they heard a door slam.

Marissa raised an eyebrow at Cecelia. "This is going to go well."

"Go," Cecelia urged.

Marissa found Brian in the back yard, smoking a cigarette. Pinkly was sniffing enthusiastically at the fence that marked the property line. Marissa watched Pinkly for a moment. She didn't have a clue where this conversation should start.

"Brian--"

"I can't ask you to stay," he said abruptly, cutting her off.

Marissa squinted in the afternoon sunlight and didn't reply.

"At least not for the reasons you want to hear," he added.

"So, the sex...?" Marissa felt Brian look at her as that word passed her lips.

He shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

Marissa flinched. Her guess had been right--he'd only slept with her in an attempt to get her to stay.

"I want you to stay because you want to stay, not because someone persuaded you to," Brian said. "I don't want you to regret it later. Believe it or not, I want you to be happy, even if it means you're going to take my son three-thousand miles away from me."

"Bri," Marissa protested. "I'm not doing this out of spite. You're going to see him just as often either way, I swear. You'll be on the road whether we live in Alabama or California, and when you aren't on the road, Jacob can come stay with you."

"Yeah," Brian muttered, and Marissa wasn't sure if he didn't believe her or if he just thought that things would never go that smoothly by no fault of theirs.

Marissa turned to go inside. She had nothing else to say to him. The sex hadn't meant anything, and he wasn't going to ask her to stay; what else did she need to know?

"Marissa." His voice stopped her before she'd even made it three steps.

She closed her eyes and pressed her lips together, waiting, bracing herself for another blow.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." He spoke softly, keeping his back to her.

Marissa struggled against the tears and won. Only once she knew her voice would be steady did she respond. "Me, too." She went back inside.