I've Lost My Fear of Falling
chapter 24
“Fuck you Vinny!”
“Hey! Watch your fucking mouth!” Jade yelled to her daughter.
“Way to teach them Jade.” I smirked and she playfully shoved me.
It was a nice autumn day. It wasn’t too hot but it wasn’t cold either. Rose and I were both comfortably wearing tank tops while Jade, Harlow and Raleigh wore t-shirts, all of us were in jeans and sunglasses. The lot of us had decided to spend the day at the park. Rose, Jade, Harlow, Raleigh, Zacky, Jimmy, Brendon, Jared, Brian and I walked a ways behind the kids.
It was amazing to think about how much had changed in fifteen years.
The twins were now 19. They had graduated from Huntington Beach High the year before with decently high marks.
Kyliee was currently enrolled in the Musician’s Institute and studying Guitar Craft and Guitar. She was having a blast learning how to make guitars and working on her playing. She was loud and rowdy and was quite fluent in profanity which I heard a lot of when she was on XBOX live. When she wasn’t shredding on guitar she was practicing her violin.
Bryan had opted not to go to collage. Instead he was a manager of a popular skate shop and was becoming a well known Simi-Pro skater using Jade’s last name of Carson so he didn’t get as much press as he would using Baker. He had basically become a carbon copy of Zacky in attitude and looks.
Starr was 16 and had dark red dyed hair the fell almost past her ass. She was hyper and had Brendon’s smile. She loved to sing and was really good at it. She was a sophomore at Huntington with Jace.
Jace was 16 now too. He was doing okay in school seeing as both Max and I had graduated by just the sink of our teeth. He loved to play the bass and Max was working on him with screaming. Max was a good dad and they were really close but he was just as close with Jared. He cussed like a drunk sailor which I couldn’t scold him about since I was just as bad. He never let his iPod out of his sight.
Aimee was 18 and a senior. She and Jace got along pretty well however god forbid they should get mad at each other. Over 15 years there had been multiple black eyes, stitched galore and a broken leg and broken arm apiece. Aimee was into music like the others were but more into producing it. She was constantly mixing things on the computer and over at Matt and Val’s place fiddling around in the recording studio downstairs. She had a YouTube channel full of remixes and mashups of Angels Forsaken, Avenged Sevenfold, Escape The Fate, Black Veil Brides, Panic! At The Disco and Tokio Hotel songs.
Vincent or Vinny as he went by now was 15 the quiet one of all the kids when it came to being in public. However he was extremely funny and outgoing when it was him and the other kids. He preferred to be up in his room writing. What he wrote we were never sure but he had folders upon folders of it up in his room. He also loved to draw which he did when he wasn’t writing.
Finally there was the baby of the kids and that was Jocy who was 14. She was Harlow and Jimmy’s daughter. She had been a surprise for the two of them a month after they had been married. Harlow had taken a test randomly when we’d found one stuffed in an old tour suitcase while we prepped for a tour we’d had coming up. Somehow she’d ended up peeing on the thing, it had read positive, she had said the thing was defective, went to the doctor and 9 months later Jocelyn Grace Sullivan was born.
She was a lot like Harlow. She was 14 and already had 3 tattoos; a sparrow on her hip, a cluster of music notes on her neck and a Deathbat on her wrist. Her hair was naturally light but she bleached it an almost white blond. Jocy was working really hard at school and had straight A’s since she wanted to get into the Fashion Institute in New York. She loved clothes and wanted to make them.
I watched the kids who were walking ahead of us. Jocy, Starr and Aimee were talking animatedly about something or another while Bryan, Jace, Vinny and Kyliee were ahead of them skateboarding. Bryan was the best but the others could hold their own.
We reached the duck pond and decided to settle under the shelter there to eat lunch.
“HEY! SPAWN PEOPLE!! WE’RE EATING HERE!” Raleigh shouted to the kids.
We sat down at the picnic tables and began to unpack the food as the kids sat down.
I passed out PB&J to everyone after figuring out if they wanted Strawberry or Grape jelly and Jade passed out fruit juice, chips and napkins.
“Hey Green hand me the chips.” Kyliee said nudging Jace who was holding the bag.
“I have a first name you know.” Jace said not passing them to her.
“And guess what? I don’t care! Pass the chips!” Kyliee replied throwing a piece of wadded up napkin at him.
“I agree with Jace…I think you’re being disrespectful Kyliee. You should call Jace by his first name.” Bryan said looking over his Ray Bans at her.
“Bryan stay the fuck out of this! And pass me the fucking chips!” Kyliee demanded turning to Jace.
“Jace just hand her the chips.” Starr chimed in.
“Nope.” Jace replied smiling at her.
I wondered for a moment if Kyliee would ask Jade or Zacky to butt in and help but dismissed it just as quickly as I’d thought it. If there was one thing we’d taught the kids it was to take care of their own battles. Unless the other person was chasing you around the house with a baseball bat or trying to hang you from the chandelier with a pair of pantyhose by the ankles (both of which had happened SEVERAL times over the course of raising our bunch) you solved it yourself.
Instead she turned to Aimee.
“Aimee make your brother give me the chips.”
“I’m not in this. Besides Ky he’s not going to listen to me.” Aimee replied wiping a glob of jelly from her Black Veil Bride’s shirt.
Finally Kyliee lost it and reached across the table and grabbed Jace by the front of the Opium Clothing shirt he had gotten from his Dad when he’d worked Merch for Escape The Fate the summer before.
“Give me the chips you little prick!” she said.
“Bryan take them! Go!” Jace yelled and handed them to Bryan who took off running.
“You asshole!” Kyliee yelled and climbed over the picnic table and began to chase her brother.
After a moment of chasing him she rugby tackled him and the two of them began to wrestle on the ground muttering curses as they did so, the chips forgotten and dumped out on the ground.
“Excuse me?” an older woman asked.
“Yes?” Rose replied.
“Are those two your children?” she asked pointing to Kyliee and Bryan.
“Yeah they’re mine.” Jade replied.
“Shouldn’t you have a handle on them? Imagine! A boy and an girl fighting in the public!” she said horrified.
“Look lady they’re 19. I can’t tell them what the fuck to do! Besides it’s not like they’re killing each other! They’re just wrestling.” Jade replied.
The woman looked harassed and walked away giving the lot of us death glares.
“Stupid old bitch.” Jade muttered and took another bite of her sandwich.
A few moments later Kyliee and Bryan came walking back. Kyliee was brushing dirt from her purple jeans and black t-shirt while Bryan had grass stains on his white skull shirt. Bryan had lost his beanie and Kyliee’s hat was turned backwards on her head.
“So you two work it out?” Jimmy asked.
“Yep. Turns out he’s an asshole and I’m a bitch but we love each other.” Kyliee replied taking her place back at the table and eating her sandwich again.
I shook my head. I loved my neice and nephew but they were just as much of a handful as my two.
We had lapsed back into our little separate convos when suddenly there was a ‘HONK!’ from behind us. Jimmy’s head whipped around and his eyes went wide.
“STALLION DUCK!!!” he screamed and took off running towards a group of stallion ducks that were gathered near the lake. .
Harlow turned from where she saw her husband chasing the duck to me, I looked to Jade, who looked to Raleigh who looked to Rose. A split second later we had grabbed the hand of our male counterpart and were racing over to join Jimmy.
The stallion ducks scattered when we ran at them and went into the water. However that hardly stopped up. The ten of us dove into the murky water after them. Soon though we were stuck due to the muddy bottom and the fact we were laughing so hard.
After a bit of work we managed to pull ourselves from the muck and climb back onto the bank of the river where our kids stood looking at us.
“Oh my god. Why can’t we have normal parents?” Jocy asked looking first at us then the other kids.
“Luck of the draw baby girl.” Jimmy smirked and walked over and gave his daughter a wet hug. She squeeled and pulled away, the front of her red shirt muddy and damp.
“Can we go now? I mean people are gathering to take pictures.” Kyliee replied blushing.
“Well we’re sorry you were born to international rock stars.” Zacky smirked as we walked up to the shelter.
“No….I think it might be the fact that a bunch of grown adults are splashing around in the lake after Geese.” Vinny replied.
“Stallion Ducks young man!” Brian snapped sternly.
“But they’re not ducks at all!” Starr replied.
“LA LA LA LA LA!!! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Raleigh said covering her ears.
“I swear you’d think we were the parents.” Jace smirked.
“Fine if you’re the parents can I have fifty bucks for a new pair of shoes?” Jared asked holding his hand out to Jace.
“You know what? Never mind you can be the parents.” Jace smiled.
“Good boy. Now you’re thinking.” I laughed and kissed his head and walked over to help my friends clean up.
“Hey! Watch your fucking mouth!” Jade yelled to her daughter.
“Way to teach them Jade.” I smirked and she playfully shoved me.
It was a nice autumn day. It wasn’t too hot but it wasn’t cold either. Rose and I were both comfortably wearing tank tops while Jade, Harlow and Raleigh wore t-shirts, all of us were in jeans and sunglasses. The lot of us had decided to spend the day at the park. Rose, Jade, Harlow, Raleigh, Zacky, Jimmy, Brendon, Jared, Brian and I walked a ways behind the kids.
It was amazing to think about how much had changed in fifteen years.
The twins were now 19. They had graduated from Huntington Beach High the year before with decently high marks.
Kyliee was currently enrolled in the Musician’s Institute and studying Guitar Craft and Guitar. She was having a blast learning how to make guitars and working on her playing. She was loud and rowdy and was quite fluent in profanity which I heard a lot of when she was on XBOX live. When she wasn’t shredding on guitar she was practicing her violin.
Bryan had opted not to go to collage. Instead he was a manager of a popular skate shop and was becoming a well known Simi-Pro skater using Jade’s last name of Carson so he didn’t get as much press as he would using Baker. He had basically become a carbon copy of Zacky in attitude and looks.
Starr was 16 and had dark red dyed hair the fell almost past her ass. She was hyper and had Brendon’s smile. She loved to sing and was really good at it. She was a sophomore at Huntington with Jace.
Jace was 16 now too. He was doing okay in school seeing as both Max and I had graduated by just the sink of our teeth. He loved to play the bass and Max was working on him with screaming. Max was a good dad and they were really close but he was just as close with Jared. He cussed like a drunk sailor which I couldn’t scold him about since I was just as bad. He never let his iPod out of his sight.
Aimee was 18 and a senior. She and Jace got along pretty well however god forbid they should get mad at each other. Over 15 years there had been multiple black eyes, stitched galore and a broken leg and broken arm apiece. Aimee was into music like the others were but more into producing it. She was constantly mixing things on the computer and over at Matt and Val’s place fiddling around in the recording studio downstairs. She had a YouTube channel full of remixes and mashups of Angels Forsaken, Avenged Sevenfold, Escape The Fate, Black Veil Brides, Panic! At The Disco and Tokio Hotel songs.
Vincent or Vinny as he went by now was 15 the quiet one of all the kids when it came to being in public. However he was extremely funny and outgoing when it was him and the other kids. He preferred to be up in his room writing. What he wrote we were never sure but he had folders upon folders of it up in his room. He also loved to draw which he did when he wasn’t writing.
Finally there was the baby of the kids and that was Jocy who was 14. She was Harlow and Jimmy’s daughter. She had been a surprise for the two of them a month after they had been married. Harlow had taken a test randomly when we’d found one stuffed in an old tour suitcase while we prepped for a tour we’d had coming up. Somehow she’d ended up peeing on the thing, it had read positive, she had said the thing was defective, went to the doctor and 9 months later Jocelyn Grace Sullivan was born.
She was a lot like Harlow. She was 14 and already had 3 tattoos; a sparrow on her hip, a cluster of music notes on her neck and a Deathbat on her wrist. Her hair was naturally light but she bleached it an almost white blond. Jocy was working really hard at school and had straight A’s since she wanted to get into the Fashion Institute in New York. She loved clothes and wanted to make them.
I watched the kids who were walking ahead of us. Jocy, Starr and Aimee were talking animatedly about something or another while Bryan, Jace, Vinny and Kyliee were ahead of them skateboarding. Bryan was the best but the others could hold their own.
We reached the duck pond and decided to settle under the shelter there to eat lunch.
“HEY! SPAWN PEOPLE!! WE’RE EATING HERE!” Raleigh shouted to the kids.
We sat down at the picnic tables and began to unpack the food as the kids sat down.
I passed out PB&J to everyone after figuring out if they wanted Strawberry or Grape jelly and Jade passed out fruit juice, chips and napkins.
“Hey Green hand me the chips.” Kyliee said nudging Jace who was holding the bag.
“I have a first name you know.” Jace said not passing them to her.
“And guess what? I don’t care! Pass the chips!” Kyliee replied throwing a piece of wadded up napkin at him.
“I agree with Jace…I think you’re being disrespectful Kyliee. You should call Jace by his first name.” Bryan said looking over his Ray Bans at her.
“Bryan stay the fuck out of this! And pass me the fucking chips!” Kyliee demanded turning to Jace.
“Jace just hand her the chips.” Starr chimed in.
“Nope.” Jace replied smiling at her.
I wondered for a moment if Kyliee would ask Jade or Zacky to butt in and help but dismissed it just as quickly as I’d thought it. If there was one thing we’d taught the kids it was to take care of their own battles. Unless the other person was chasing you around the house with a baseball bat or trying to hang you from the chandelier with a pair of pantyhose by the ankles (both of which had happened SEVERAL times over the course of raising our bunch) you solved it yourself.
Instead she turned to Aimee.
“Aimee make your brother give me the chips.”
“I’m not in this. Besides Ky he’s not going to listen to me.” Aimee replied wiping a glob of jelly from her Black Veil Bride’s shirt.
Finally Kyliee lost it and reached across the table and grabbed Jace by the front of the Opium Clothing shirt he had gotten from his Dad when he’d worked Merch for Escape The Fate the summer before.
“Give me the chips you little prick!” she said.
“Bryan take them! Go!” Jace yelled and handed them to Bryan who took off running.
“You asshole!” Kyliee yelled and climbed over the picnic table and began to chase her brother.
After a moment of chasing him she rugby tackled him and the two of them began to wrestle on the ground muttering curses as they did so, the chips forgotten and dumped out on the ground.
“Excuse me?” an older woman asked.
“Yes?” Rose replied.
“Are those two your children?” she asked pointing to Kyliee and Bryan.
“Yeah they’re mine.” Jade replied.
“Shouldn’t you have a handle on them? Imagine! A boy and an girl fighting in the public!” she said horrified.
“Look lady they’re 19. I can’t tell them what the fuck to do! Besides it’s not like they’re killing each other! They’re just wrestling.” Jade replied.
The woman looked harassed and walked away giving the lot of us death glares.
“Stupid old bitch.” Jade muttered and took another bite of her sandwich.
A few moments later Kyliee and Bryan came walking back. Kyliee was brushing dirt from her purple jeans and black t-shirt while Bryan had grass stains on his white skull shirt. Bryan had lost his beanie and Kyliee’s hat was turned backwards on her head.
“So you two work it out?” Jimmy asked.
“Yep. Turns out he’s an asshole and I’m a bitch but we love each other.” Kyliee replied taking her place back at the table and eating her sandwich again.
I shook my head. I loved my neice and nephew but they were just as much of a handful as my two.
We had lapsed back into our little separate convos when suddenly there was a ‘HONK!’ from behind us. Jimmy’s head whipped around and his eyes went wide.
“STALLION DUCK!!!” he screamed and took off running towards a group of stallion ducks that were gathered near the lake. .
Harlow turned from where she saw her husband chasing the duck to me, I looked to Jade, who looked to Raleigh who looked to Rose. A split second later we had grabbed the hand of our male counterpart and were racing over to join Jimmy.
The stallion ducks scattered when we ran at them and went into the water. However that hardly stopped up. The ten of us dove into the murky water after them. Soon though we were stuck due to the muddy bottom and the fact we were laughing so hard.
After a bit of work we managed to pull ourselves from the muck and climb back onto the bank of the river where our kids stood looking at us.
“Oh my god. Why can’t we have normal parents?” Jocy asked looking first at us then the other kids.
“Luck of the draw baby girl.” Jimmy smirked and walked over and gave his daughter a wet hug. She squeeled and pulled away, the front of her red shirt muddy and damp.
“Can we go now? I mean people are gathering to take pictures.” Kyliee replied blushing.
“Well we’re sorry you were born to international rock stars.” Zacky smirked as we walked up to the shelter.
“No….I think it might be the fact that a bunch of grown adults are splashing around in the lake after Geese.” Vinny replied.
“Stallion Ducks young man!” Brian snapped sternly.
“But they’re not ducks at all!” Starr replied.
“LA LA LA LA LA!!! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Raleigh said covering her ears.
“I swear you’d think we were the parents.” Jace smirked.
“Fine if you’re the parents can I have fifty bucks for a new pair of shoes?” Jared asked holding his hand out to Jace.
“You know what? Never mind you can be the parents.” Jace smiled.
“Good boy. Now you’re thinking.” I laughed and kissed his head and walked over to help my friends clean up.