In the Background

I woke up sometime in the afternoon. Matt was still asleep next to me. I stretched then got up to go to the bathroom. Once I got back to my room I went to the dresser in the corner of the room to get a change of clothes. I made sure to not make much noise since Matt was sleeping.

After taking my shower I headed to the kitchen. Jenny was sitting at the table reading the newspaper, so I decided to sit down next to her.

She looked up. "So I'm guessing Ellie and Zoey left?" I asked her. I hadn't seen them so I figured they had left already.

She smiled sadly before nodding her head. We sat there in the silence. She went back to reading the paper and I stared at the wall. I heard the door open and voices come from the hallway. I got up and went to go see who it was, Jimmy and his girlfriend Jamie greeted me in the hall.

"Hi Jimmy. Hi Jamie." I nodded slightly to them. They both waved at me before going upstairs.

I thought about some things to do. I had nothing and decided Matt needed a wake-up call. I smiled and skipped up the stairs, almost falling more than one time. Note to Self: Do not skip up stairs.

I walked inside my room to see Matt sprawled across the bed, which was a rather funny sight since the bed was so small compared to him. I run towards the bed and jumped on top of it, mostly jumping on top of Matt. He let out a groan.

"Time to get up! I'm bored and Jimmy is with his girlfriend so he can't hang out with me." I said and Matt pushed me off of him. I fell to the floor. I glared at him. He just smirked back. I flipped him off before sitting on the bed next to him.

"Do you know what you wanna do?" He asked me. I put my hand under my head and thought.

After a while of 'thinking' I shrugged. Honestly I wasn't really thinking. I was just staring at the wall making out invisible patterns.

He sighed and ran his hand threw his hair. "How about we go to the mall and just hang there." He suggested and I agreed,

He went home to change his clothes. I went to the living room. I didn't want to watch TV so I walked in circles around the coffee table. By the time Matt got back I was lying on my back on the couch. He signaled for me to get up and I slowly did. I went to go Jenny that I was leaving with Matt.

Matt and I have been aimlessly walking around the mall. None of us had bought anything since we didn't have money. Matt was currently on the phone talking to Brian.

He closed his phone and put it back into his pocket. "We gotta leave now. We got band practice in 10 minutes at my house." I nodded my head and we left.

We arrived at Matt's house right on time. We walked downstairs to find that everyone was here. Val and Ashley greeted both of us with a hug. The guys said their hello's then went back to their instruments.

"So where the fuck is our drummer?" Matt asked. I was wondering the same thing.

Nobody knew. We sat around waiting for almost 10 minutes and he still wasn't here. So I did something I never thought I would.

"I can play for Jimmy." I rose up from my spot on the couch. Everybody looked at me.

"Can you play?" Zacky asked.

I grabbed the extra pair of drum sticks and walked over to the drum kit and started playing Forgotten Faces. I looked around and smirked at the looks on my friend's faces. I finished the song, not feeling tired, even though any other person would be.

"When did you learn to play like that?" Ashley asked.

"I played for most of my life. I just haven't since my parents died." I shrugged.

Matt nodded. "Looks like you’re gonna be our drummer for today." I nodded and fidgeted behind the kit while I waited for everyone else to get their shit together. I grinned at everyone and raised the sticks in the air,

"Alright, let's do this."

After an hour or so we called it quits. Soon everybody started leaving for home. I decided to stay the night at Matt's.

We were currently in his messing room. "Matt, Jimmy's here." Matt's mom came into the room. I looked over at Matt. He was too busy with his video game.

I shook my head and got up. I walked out of the room after Mrs. Sanders. At the front door stood Jimmy. He was dressed normal. This was unusual for him. He had a look of guilt on his face.

"I'm sorry I didn't come to practice. I was with Jamie and I lost track of time." Jimmy started rambling. I just let him.

After he stopped I spoke. "Well you're lucky that I know how to play drums and your songs. Do you know how long we waited for you? Never mind. It's late; I think you should get going." I didn't get a chance to let him speak after. I shut the door and walked back to Matt's room.

I practically slammed the door. Matt looked up. Noticing my expression he shut his game off. He patted the spot next to him and flopped down beside it, throwing an arm over my face.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

I sighed. "Jimmy. He's not the same. You know he never misses practice for anything. And you should have seen the way he was dressed. He looked more normal than all of us put together. Oh and the reason he wasn't at practice was because he was with Jamie. Whatever happened to 'bros before hoes' man?" I ranted on. All the frustration I had bottled up came pouring out as I spoke.

I was glad I had Matt. He just sat there listening to me, rubbing my back in a calming way. And when I was done he told me to forget about Jimmy.