Vengeance Is a Syn

“Girls, don’t you think we already visited enough shops for today?”, I whined.

“Of course, not!”, Leana said happily. “We still haven’t visited half of the places we want to see!”

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me!”, I cried, hiding my face beneath my hands. “If we’re not gonna buy anything why are we here!? And why are we looking over so many shops!?”

“Because we have to see the dresses before we start deciding which one we want!”, Emma answered.

“But we can decide that on the day we will actually buy them!”, I retorted.

“That’s no fun!”, Michelle said. “And every girl loves shopping!”

“Not me!”, I mumbled. “I mean, I like shopping, yeah… But technically this isn’t shopping, seeing we’re only visiting the shops with no purposes of buying anything!”

“Sweetie, sometimes I wonder if you’re not some guy hidden under a beautiful girl’s body!”, Lacey said.

“Really, thanks a lot!”, I whined, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re my friends, you’re supposed to understand me!”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby!”, Leana complained.

I sighed and threw my head back, feeling defenseless. It’s useless fighting with them. It’s just me against the five of them. I could never win that fight!

“We promise we’ll visit some more interesting places from now on.”, Val smiled reassuringly at me, giving my shoulder a light squeeze.

“Fine!”, I groaned, nodding my head even though what I really wanted to do was leave that place and go home, so I could listen to the guys’ rehearsal.

Val was right when she said we’d be visiting some more appealing stores. I found some cool stuff that I considered buying and those two hours passed by way more quickly than the first hour we’d been there.

Without even noticing it was already night and we were having dinner. I heard my phone going off and searched for it on my bag.

I looked at the screen and smiled, seeing it had a new text message from Brian.

‘How’s the shopping going?’

‘Meh, it was kinda boring at first, but we’re having a good time now! What about the band practice?’

I leaned back on the chair I was sitting and waited for his reply.

‘It was cool! We’re definitely ready to hit the stage.’

‘I can’t wait to finally see you in bigger venues other than those clubs and bars you usually play! :D’, I grinned at that idea.

‘Me neither!’

I smiled at his enthusiasm and felt my phone going off again.

‘What are you doing?’

‘We’re having dinner. And you?’

‘I gave up on trying to sober up Jimmy. He’s passed out in the middle of your living room…’, I started laughing as soon as I read the message, trying to imagine how hectic that room must be ever since they arrived there. The girls looked at me, asking me what was going on but I just shook my head, telling them that it was nothing important.

‘What about the rest of the guys!?’

‘Matt and Zack are glued to their game on the TV and Johnny’s either sleeping or passed out as well in the couch.’, I couldn’t help the silly grin that formed on my lips. They were the most crazy guys I knew, and seeing them in these situations was the most hilarious thing ever! I just wished I was there with them instead of being trapped in this fucking shopping center, where I didn’t buy a single thing the whole day, because the girls didn’t let me do that. Don’t get me wrong - I love them, I really do. And I love having them as my friends, but sometimes they can be a real pain in the ass!

‘Why do I always miss that kind of fun? :( It’s not fair!‘

‘I wish you were here with me, baby. I prefer having you sleeping on my lap instead of Jimmy!’

‘I wish I was there too, Bri… But we’re almost leaving the mall, I’ll be there in a few.’

‘Don’t worry about that ;) But prepare yourself for the chaos.’, I shook my head and chuckled.

‘I hope you don’t destroy the house, or else it won’t be my parents the ones who’ll kill you. It’ll be me!’

‘You wouldn’t kill me!’, I laughed at his response.

‘I would, if I needed to. ;)’

‘Oh, that’s nice to know…’, I laughed again.

‘I was fucking with you, Junior!’

‘If you keep doing that it’ll be another Junior that’ll be fucking you!’, I opened my mouth in disbelief.

‘You did not say that!’

‘I sure did, baby ;)’

I can’t believe he just sent me that! Fucking horny guy!

“Ready to go home, darling?”, Val asked me, looking in my direction and waking me up from my thoughts.

“Definitely!”, I yelled happily.

“Isn’t it wrong that this is the happiest news Hailey received today?”, Emma chuckled.

“No, it’s not.”, I poked my tongue at her. “So… Are we going home or what!?”

“Let’s go, let’s go!”, Leana said, standing up.

We got up and put our food trays on the garbage. We said goodbye and each of us headed towards our own houses.

When I arrived home I could hear Pantera blaring through the speakers and loud voices coming from inside the house.

I took a deep breath, convincing myself that I wouldn’t start yelling at them when I saw the room. I opened the door and was greeted by a ridiculous amount of smoke coming from the living room, as well as a bunch of empty beer cans left randomly on the floor.

I ran a hand through my hair and threw the keys to the closest table I could find. I stormed to the living room and just glared at each of them. Matt and Zacky were playing some stupid game on the PlayStation and Johnny was sleeping in the couch, with his mouth slightly opened. Apparently, Jimmy had woken up and he and Brian were laughing like lunatics and drawing something I couldn’t quite understand in Johnny’s face, with peanut butter. I don’t really know how he didn’t wake up with the noise they were making, but the both of them looked like they were having the time of their lives, messing with little Johnny.

I groaned and walked in their direction, yanking the cigars and the peanut butter jar out of their hands.

“Hey!”, they whined.

“Hailey!”, Brian yelled happily, jumping over the couch and stumbling in my direction. He reeked of alcohol and when he tried to kiss me I just placed my hands on his chest and pushed him away lightly.

“What’s wrong?”, he slurred.

“You reek of alcohol.”, I said, walking away from him.

I tossed the cigars to the garbage can and opened every window there was in the living room so the smoke could disappear.

“What the fuck? What was that for, Hailey?”, Matt complained, taking his eyes off the TV.

“Are you seriously asking me that!?”, I shouted. “Have you seen how this place is right now!?”

“It’s not that bad!”, Jimmy said, reaching over another beer can that was laying on the table.

“Of course not!”, I replied, sarcastically, taking the can out of his hold. “You can only see smoke everywhere you look at and there’s this appealing smell of cigarettes floating in the air!”

“Come on, we were just having some fun!”, Matt slurred.

“Just… Forget it!”, I said, massaging the bridge of my nose. “I think it’s time for you to end the party. You’re all fucking drunk already… And I’m not going to clean this mess tomorrow!”
“Can we party a little bit longer?”, Johnny asked, trying to make me have the same opinion as they had.

“Yeah, please, Hay!”, Zacky mumbled.

“We’ll stop with the smoke, we’ll go outside to do that!”, Jimmy added.

“That’s not my business, guys…”, I said, annoyed with the fact that they wanted to continue with their ‘party’, or whatever the fuck they wanted to call it. “You do what you want.”

I sighed and got out of the living room. I went to my bedroom and closed the door. I dressed my pajamas and lied down on my bed, starring at the ceiling. I was okay with them partying, but this time they’d gone too far. You could barely breathe on that room that was full of smoke and smelled terribly.

I heard the door being opened and tilted my head to the side so I could see who was walking in.

I smiled a little when I saw Brian entering it and closing the door behind him. He approached my bed slowly and looked at me with an apologetic look on his face.

“Hailey… Are you mad at us?”, he asked.

I sighed and sat up, resting my back against the wall.

“I’m not mad at you…”, I answered. “I just think you went a little too far this time!”

“We didn’t mean to piss you off, you know that, right?”, he asked. “We’re sorry…”

“I know…”, I nodded. “I think I just overreacted… I mean, I shouldn’t even be worried about this. You guys decide about what you want to do…”

“Hey…”, he said, walking to the place beside me and kneeling down. “If it weren’t for you we’d be an irreversible mess.”

I chuckled and patted the spot beside me. Brian stood up and crawled next to me.

“That’s not true, you know how to take care of yourselves.”, I said, looking at him.

“But you’re the one who tells us whether what we’re doing is right or wrong.”, he said and I laughed. “That’s really amazing.”

“Well, you all are amazing. And even though you’re a bunch of crazy people, I love each one of you.”, I smiled.

“Aw, you’re so cute!”, he said in his drunken voice.

I looked at him and laughed. “How much have you drink? You’re really, really wasted!”

“I don’t know…”, he said and lost himself in his thoughts. After a few minutes of spacing out he answered. “A couple of beers only…”

“Yeah, like I believe in you!”, I shoved him away playfully. “You don’t even know what you’re saying, by now!”

“Of course I do!”, he smiled.

He stared intently at my eyes for some moments and I frowned. “What!?”

“Your eyes!”, he pointed at them. “They’re so pretty. They have an amazing color.”, he kept staring at them. I eyed him curiously and giggled. “You’re so beautiful!”

I laughed and stared at him. He was already adorable and adding the fact that he was drunk and saying these utterly cute things just made him look even more lovable.

“I think I’ve never seem you this drunk, Junior!”, I laughed, wrapping my arms around his torso. He groaned and I giggled, knowing that he hated whenever I called him like that.

“You know what?”, I looked up at him. “I love you!”, he slurred, draping his arms tightly around my waist. I froze and felt my cheeks flushing red. Could he really be telling the truth? But then I remembered that it must been the alcohol talking. He couldn’t feel that way about me. No, he didn’t mean it. He’s just drunk and doesn’t know what he’s saying.

But a part of me wanted to believe in him. It would be so amazing if he was saying the truth. That would mean that he feels the same way I feel about him. Wait, Hailey, you don’t love him!

“Do you wanna marry me?”, he asked. My eyes opened wide and I couldn’t help but laugh at him.

“I think it’s time for you to go to bed!”, I chuckled, getting out of his embrace.

“Pinkly would be our baby!”, he kept imagining, not moving a single inch and not hearing what I’d said.

“Let’s get you some sleep… You’re going to be feeling terrible in the morning.”

“Don’t remind me about that…”, he moaned, rubbing his face.

“You chose to party. Now you pay the consequences of that!”, I stood up, offering my hand to help him get up.

“But I’m so tired, right now. I don’t want to move! And my eyes are really heavy.”, he showed me his puppy eyes.

“Come on, Brian…”, I whined, but he just kept looking at me with those eyes. “Fine”, I grumbled. “You can sleep here.”

He smirked and I snarled. I went to the bathroom to change to my pajamas and when I came back Brian was still lying in the same spot.

“C’mon!”, I cried, shaking his arm. “Get ready to bed!”

“I’m sorry for messing your living room.”, he mumbled, not moving a single inch.

Argh, why does he have to be such a crazy drunk!?

“We already discussed this before, Brian. I’m not angry at you.”, I looked at him, smiling reassuringly. “I ‘m sorry for having reacted like that.”

“But don’t be, we really went too far this time.”, he closed his eyes.

“Brian?”, I asked, slapping his arm. “Brian, don’t you dare passing out on me!”

“I’m tired…”, he moaned. “I think I’m gonna sleep…”

I groaned and threw my head back.

“Fine!”, I gave up. “But take off your shoes, or else you’re gonna sleep downstairs!”

“Yes, ma’am.”, he said, sliding his feet out of his sneakers.

I pushed the covers on top of me and closed my eyes. When he prepared to move I stopped him, “You’re also sleeping on top of the covers if you plan on sleeping with your jeans.”

He quickly got up and I opened one eye so I could see what he was doing. He took off his jeans and his shirt, staying only with his boxers. He entered the bed and wrapped one arm around my waist, pushing me closer to him.

“And you say that you’re tired…”, I snickered, raising up my head so I could look at him.

He smirked and I closed my eyes again, drifting off to sleep.

When I woke up later in the morning Brian was still sleeping peacefully. I slowly turned around in his arms and smiled at the sight in front of my eyes, lightly caressing his cheek.

I still couldn’t believe that we were together. And I still couldn’t believe that I’d fall for him after all those years. But I did, and I never felt as attached to a person as I am with him. I started running my fingers in his hair, absent mindedly. After a few minutes, he slowly opened his eyes. He closed them tightly, moments later, because of the light entering the room and probably because of the huge headache he was going to have thanks to yesterday night.

He winced and rubbed his forehead.

“How’re you feeling?”, I asked, quietly.

“I feel like I got ran over by a fucking truck.”, he moaned.

“Wait here. I’m gonna go get you something for that, okay?”

He nodded and finally opened his eyes. I made my way out of the room, as quietly as I could, and went to the kitchen.