Vengeance Is a Syn

I ran my fingers through his hair and stroked it. Moments later I laid down on the towel and he placed his head on my belly. We were both about to fall asleep when Matt stood up.

“Let’s practice. I want to play our songs.”, Matt said.

Jimmy stood up and helped me and Zacky getting up.

“Let’s go!”, Johnny said.

We walked to my house and the guys went to the garage where they had their instruments.

I picked mine and Matt’s dog and joined them. I sat on the garage’s couch and placed Bella on my lap.

Brian and Zacky were warming up with their guitars, Johnny was close to them with the bass and Jimmy was sitting next to me playing with his drumsticks in the air. Matt was humming random songs.

“I guess we’re ready. Now let’s rule this shit!”, Jimmy said as he walked to his drum kit.

The guys played Nightmare, Afterlife, Second Heartbeat, Gunslinger, Trashed and Scattered and Unholy Confessions. They were playing a few shows in clubs over Long Beach and starting to get recognition.

“You’re getting better and better! I can’t wait to see you on your next show!”, I said when we were already in the living room.

“I hope the show goes well.”, Jimmy said.

“Of course it will!”, Johnny said. “We’re huge!”

They all cheered and left the house after a while.

It was now 11 pm and I was in Matt’s bedroom. He was playing Call Of Duty and I was lying in the bed with my laptop. We were always together, or in my room or in his. Yup, we were inseparable as well.

“Finally there’s some peace in this house!”, Matt sighed.

“I like being with them…”, I said.

“Me too, but they’re crazy!”, Matt chuckled.

“That’s why I like them!”, I said smiling.

“Do you know what you want for your birthday, already?”, Matt asked.

“I haven’t thought about that yet…”, I answered taking my eyes off the laptop and looking at him. “I still have time.”

“Okay.”, Matt shrugged. “But you don’t have that much time…”

“It’s still 21 days until there…”, I replied.

“Still… And what will you want to do?”, Matt asked.

“I don’t know… I just want to hang out with you guys… And Val and Michelle.”, I answered.
“Don’t you want a big party?”, Matt answered smirking.

“No, Matt. I don’t want a party so you can get laid!”, I frowned.

“That’s not what I meant!”, Matt said innocently. “I was trying to say a big party, with more of your friends.”

“I might invite some others… But you know I don’t want anything with lots of people…”, I answered. “I want something like your birthday, just with my closest friends.”

“Sounds good.”, Matt nodded. “But I still want you to choose something for your birthday.”

I nodded and closed my laptop. I got off Matt’s bed and kissed his cheek. “It’s time for me to sleep. We have to wake up early tomorrow.”

“Night.”, Matt said as he kissed my cheek back.

I smiled and closed his bedroom door. I went to my room, dressed my pajamas and lied in my bed. It didn’t take long until I fell asleep, I was really tired!

“Morning, Hailey!”, my mom said.

I rubbed my eyes in order to make the sleepy state I was in disappear and looked at her opening my bedroom’s window.

“Can I sleep more?”, I asked sloppily.

“No, honey!”, she said kissing my forehead. “You’ve got to go to school!”

I growled and fell back to my bed pushing the sheets to my face.

“I want to see you having breakfast in half an hour, or else I’m going to drag you down!”, she said as she left my room.

She entered Matt’s room and all I could hear was the exact same reaction I had from Matt.
“Let me sleep!”, Matt growled.

We’re really family!

I got up and picked my clothes. I walked to the bathroom and took a cold shower so the sleep would go away. I didn’t want to fall asleep in the first day of classes, though that was almost impossible since I had practically every class with Jimmy.

I went downstairs and poured milk and cereal into a bowl. Moments later, Matt entered the kitchen and kissed my cheek.

“Morning, Hailey.”, he said.

“Morning.”, I said eating my cereal. “Hurry, or else we’ll be late.”

“Don’t worry. We still have to pick the guys. They’re coming with us.”, Matt said.

“Do I have to go on the back seat again?”, I said pouting.

“Yeah, you do.”, Matt said stroking my cheek. “Sit on Jimmy’s lap, unless you want to be smashed.”

“I know… You drive the guys to school since you’ve got the car. I’m used to it!”, I sighed.

Matt laughed and finished having his breakfast. I threw my backpack over my shoulder and waited for him by the front door.

“Bye, mom.”, we both yelled as we left the house.

We stopped by the guys’ houses to pick each of them and headed towards school. We went to our usual spot and sat down next to the Berry’s and the twins that were already there.

The bell for the classes rang and everyone gained a bored look on their faces.

“I don’t wanna have classes…”, Val sighed laying her head on Jason’s shoulder.

“None of us wants, Val!”, Matt said.

“I’m not gonna waste this cigarette, I’m going after I finish it.”, Brian said.

“You should seriously stop smoking, Brian…”, I said locking my eyes with his.

“I can’t.”, he shrugged.

“Of course you can…”, I said as I rolled my eyes. It was useless fighting with him. “Hurry up, then. You’re in my and Jimmy’s class.”

Brian nodded and the other guys but Jimmy stood up.

“We’re gonna go. We’ll see you later.”, Johnny said.

“Okay, see you later.”, Jimmy waved at them. “Hurry up, Gates! I wanna see Mrs. Franklin!”
Brian and I looked puzzled at him. Mrs. Franklin was our Math’s teacher.

“What the fuck, dude?”, Brian frowned.

“What? I love messing with her!”, Jimmy replied.

The three of us laughed and Brian stood up. “Let’s go. We’re already late.”

We walked to our class. Mrs. Franklin was already waiting for us with her arms crossed against her chest. Let’s say she didn’t particularly like us… Mainly because Jimmy was always creating trouble in her class and with her students.

“You’re late.”, she said as we walked into the classroom.

“Sorry, Mrs. Wright…”, I apologized.

Jimmy ran to her and hugged her lifting her from the ground. “I missed you, Mrs. Wright!”
The whole class started to laugh at that event. It was hilarious, indeed. You don’t see a 17 year-old lifting his 50 year-old teacher from the ground every day!

“Behave yourself, Mr. Sullivan!”, she demanded angrily. “And take a seat with your friends!”
The tables in this class were for two people, we used to work in groups of four. I walked to the back of the room and sat on the group where Leanna was. Brian sat beside me and Jimmy sat beside Leanna. We were friends of her.

The first classes of the year are the most boring, because you hear the same things you heard in the last years over and over again. Luckily this was our last year in Huntington Beach High!

In the middle of the class Brian was almost sleeping. He was leaning on the wall and his head was lying on his shoulder. He looked so adorable.

I shook his shoulder lightly.

“Brian. Brian!”, I whispered. He opened his eyes and looked around, confused. “You were almost sleeping.”

“Don’t blame me! This is boring as hell…”, Brian said rubbing his eyes.

I chuckled and looked at him. “Let’s not create any problems in the first weeks of school, okay?”

Brian nodded and sat on his chair with his back touching the wall and his feet in the border of my chair.

“They’re already sleeping!”, Brian said pointing at Jimmy and Leanna who were in the table in front of us. Jimmy was with his higher body sprawled on the table and Leanna had her head on his back. I couldn’t help but laugh at them.

“I bet they’ll end up together.”, I said.

“Nah…”, Brian said confident.

“I’m sure they will!”, I said looking at him. “They’re adorable!”

“20 bucks in how they won’t.”, Brian betted smirking.

“What’s your problem with the bets!?”, I sighed. “Fine.”, I said shaking his hand. “I bet they’ll be together by the end of the school year.”

Brian smirked and nodded.

“And take that fucking smirk off your face!”, I said frowning.

Brian laughed and looked at me. “I know you love it!”

“I don’t. I think it’s stupid.”, I replied.

“No, you don’t.”, he said as he placed his elbow on the table and rested his head on his hand, still smirking. “You love it.”

“I hate you.”, I said poking my tongue at him.

He laughed and stared at me for a moment. “I couldn’t hate you even if I wanted to.”
“Wha-…”, I was saying before the bell cut me.

“Let’s wake up this fuckers!”, Brian said as he stood up.

I cleared my head of the confusion Brian’s words created and helped him waking up Jimmy and Leanna. We walked to our lockers to get the books for the next class – Arts. I had this class with Brian, Val and Jason.

I spent most of the class chatting with Zacky by text messages.

‘Shouldn’t you be paying attention to your class? :P’

‘It’s so boring, Zee! Brian is almost falling asleep by my side and Val and Jason are busy, if you know what I mean…’

‘Then you need to thank me later, for keeping you awake!’

‘Okay, thank you Zachary James Baker for keeping me awake in this extremely tedious class! Is that good enough? :P’

‘I’ll think about that ;)’

‘Damn! Nothing I do is ever good enough! :(‘

‘I was kidding, you fool! There’s no need to thank me!’

‘Yay! :D How are your classes?’

‘Fucking boring as well… Matt’s paying attention to the class… I’m not recognizing him…’
‘Wow! I’m shocked! :o My teacher’s talking about some work we have to do. I’ll talk to you later, okay?’

‘Okay. Bye’

“What I want you to do is a pair work…”, my teacher said. Pair work? I’ll have to work with Brian. I woke him up and told him that we had to do something together. “You’ll have to paint something that has a meaning to both of you. You have until the 26th September to hand me your work, which means 15 days. I want to see great projects! This will be graded and counts as any other work we’ll be doing in the future. You are not in my class to have fun. You’re here to work! Am I being clear?”

The whole class nodded. This teacher officially scared me now.

“What will we paint?”, Brian whispered.

“I have no idea… We’ll have to think about that later. 15 days is not that much…”, I answered.
“You’re right… It has to do with both of us… Something related to music?”, Brian asked.
“Yeah… That sounds really cool. Maybe a guitar?”, I suggested.

Brian smiled and nodded. “We can always ask Cam to help us… He won’t mind at all.”
Cam was a friend who liked to draw, and he was awesome at it. He did some art work related to my brother’s band as well, which will be featured on their future CD’s as they already promised.

I nodded and waited for the bell to ring. We had two more classes and then lunch time. As soon as the bell rang I got up and walked to the cafeteria with Jimmy. We sat on our table and waited for the rest of our group to show up.

I had the rest of the classes with Jimmy and Jason and then the day was over. Finally!
I spent some time talking with Michelle, Jimmy and the Berry’s and then I decided I’d wait for the guys close to Matt’s car.

I was walking to Matt’s car when Zacky approached me.

“Hey, Hailey!”, he said.

“Oh, hi, Zacky!”, I said.

“So… How were classes?”, he asked as we sat on the sidewalk of the parking lot.

“Boring, boring and… hum, let me think… boring!”, I said making him chuckle. “What about yours?”

“The same…”, he answered.

I smiled and looked at him. “What’s going on?”

He licked his lips, moving the snakebites and looked at his hands. “You see… It’s almost your birthday…”, he said looking at me. “And I really want to give you something that you’ll like.”

“Well, surprise me!”, I answered chuckling.

“It’s not the same thing… I really need your help…”

I put my arm around his shoulder and laid my head on his shoulder.

“I’d prefer something you choose for me rather than something I picked.”, I assured lacing my fingers with his. “I trust you, I know I’ll love your gift, even if it is simply a hug.”

Zacky smiled at me and kissed my temple, hugging me by the waist. “You’re really special, you know?”

I smiled sheepishly and kissed his cheek. “You’re one of my best friends and I could trust you my life, you know?”

“I’d trust you my life as well.”, he said leaning his head to mine.

We stayed like that for a while when suddenly someone approached us. I looked up and gasped at what I saw.

“What the fuck is going on?”, Zacky asked with his jaw dropping.