Vengeance Is a Syn

“I’m starving!” Johnny rubbed his hands and sat next to Lacey.

The guys had lightened a bonfire a few minutes before and the air was starting to heat a little bit.

The sun was setting and it was a beautiful view. This beach was definitely one of the best I’d ever gone to.

“Well, I think it’s time for us to have dinner,” Val said, opening one of the backpacks.

“Fuck yeah!” Jimmy cheered, running in our direction and sitting down next to me. “What have you got over there?”

“Hum…” Val looked inside the bag. “There are chips, hamburgers, marshmallows and sausages for the hot dogs.”

Matt started handing the food to each one of us and Jimmy, Brian and Zacky started eating it in the second they received it.

“Wow,” I said, amazed with their quickness at eating. “There’s enough food for everyone! You don’t need to eat like there’s no tomorrow!” I chuckled.

“But I was hungry!” Zacky shrugged, stuffing his mouth once again.

I laughed and shook my head, and we kept dining until everyone was satisfied.

We chatted and Zacky and Brian played guitar, while Matt sang and Jimmy played some rhythms in one of the boxes that we’d used to carry the food.

“I think it’s time for me to go,” Val said, a few hours later.

“You’re leaving already?” I asked.

“Yeah… I’m tired,” she shrugged.

“I’ll go with you, too,” Matt stood up as well.

“Then we’re also leaving,” Michelle and Matt said.

“Oh, come on!” I said. “You’re all a bunch of boring people.”

They chuckled and Lacey joined them as well, after kissing Johnny goodbye.

“I hope you don’t mind that I’m leaving you as well,” Lacey looked at me. “But I’m really sleepy. You’ll have a good time with the rest of the guys.”

I scoffed and waved them off, as they all started walking to the house.

“Guys, guys,” Jimmy grinned from ear to ear and I just knew that he had something or was about to do something. He looked around with the same grin on his face and motioned for us, that is Brian, Johnny, Zacky and I, to come closer to him. “Now that they’re gone… I have something for us.”

He reached for his pocket and took out a bag with some pot.

“When did you get that?” Zacky asked, smirking.

“Yesterday night,” Jimmy answered, opening the bag. “Is everyone in?” he looked at us.

“Fuck yeah!” we all said.

“I swear I don’t understand how you smoke weed, but yet, you’re against cigarettes,” Brian smirked, poking my arm.

“That’s quite simple, actually,” I smiled at him. “Weed is good, it’s natural. Cigars are not, they’re bad for you,” I shrugged. “And I keep thinking you should stop smoking.”

Brian chuckled and took a puff out of the joint that Jimmy had made. “You’re still the same.”

“I never changed,” I shrugged. “And I usually mean it when I say these kind of stuff. I don’t usually change my opinion overnight or break my promises.”

I was hoping he caught the hint that I was speaking about him, and I think he did, since he simply nodded and looked down at the bonfire in front of him.

---

“The night’s over for me,” Zacky yawned, stretching his arms over his head. “Well, after I eat something,” he rubbed his stomach.

“Did we eat all the food?” Jimmy asked. “Or is there something left? I’m fucking hungry as well.”

“I’m afraid you ate everything…” I said, looking over the place. “But we still have water and Coke left.”

“Nah, I’m going home,” he said, standing up and grabbing some of the garbage we did.

“I’ll go to,” Johnny said.

“You coming with us, Hailey?” Jimmy asked.

“No,” I shook my head. “I think I’ll stay here a little bit more.”

“Don’t stay too long, okay?” Jimmy said. “There could be a bunch of creeps out there, and we’re not here to protect you.”

“I’ll be okay,” I chuckled. “Besides it’s about to start raining. I’ll be home in a few minutes.”

Jimmy nodded and kissed my forehead.

“See ya tomorrow.”

“See ya!” I smiled at all of them.

I closed my eyes and just rested a little bit on the sand before I felt small raindrops hitting against my skin.

I opened my eyes and smiled. I always loved the rain and feeling it on my skin. It was refreshing, and it had been a warm night.

I started humming a song that I and Brian used to sing whenever it rained and then I jolted when I heard a small chuckle coming from next to me.

“Raindrops keep falling on my head?” Brian sat next to me, with a smirk on his lips.

“Yeah,” I chuckled softly, looking down at my lap. “We used to sing that whenever it started raining when we were outside, remember?”

“I do,” he smiled, nodding.

We stood there in silence for quite some time until I decided to break it. “Thanks.”

Brian looked at me, confused, and I smiled slightly.

“For talking to me again. It’s… It’s really important for me to know that you don’t hate me, you know… And it was hard for me not being able to communicate with you.”

“I never hated you, Hailey…” he sighed, looking at the sea in front of him. “It’s just… I don’t know!” he rubbed his face. “It’s so fucking hard to describe how I feel.”

I took a deep breath and didn’t dare to look at him.

“You forgave Zacky but you didn’t forgive me…” I mumbled sadly.

He pursed his lips together and nodded. “You think it was easy for me to do that? You really think I enjoyed seeing you two being friends again, hugging and laughing like nothing happened?”

“But nothing happened!” I cried. “For fuck’s sake, Brian! Is it so hard to understand? I never wanted it to happen, and Zacky apologized for what he did. The least you could do is understanding that!”

“I just can’t understand how you can act like it didn’t happen…” he shook his head. “I… I just can’t stop thinking that you still feel something for him.”

“Then you don’t know me at all, Brian.”

He glanced at me and then sighed.

“There’s a really big difference between you two…” I said, playing with the sand. “While I was with him… I don’t know… It was just like any other relationship I’d had… But then when we started dating… I… it was different from every other… I guess I can say I was in love.”

“You’re not anymore?” he looked at me again, with sad eyes.

“I never said that, Brian…”

“It looked like it…” he bit his lip.

“Don’t make this any harder, please,” I closed my eyes.

“You know… I was in love too,” he said. “And I agree with you. It was different from any other relationship. I just can’t understand why things didn’t work out right.”

I was getting so frustrated and angry at him that I just wanted to scream and make him realize that I was trying my best at rejoining us. But I guess he was too blind to see that as well.

“Maybe if you weren’t so stubborn you’d understand,” I muttered as I stood up and stormed to the house.

It seemed like he didn’t care that I was sorry for whatever I’d done.

I wiped my eyes and closed the bedroom’s door. I switched to my pajamas and got inside the bed, lying on the edge, so that I was as far away from Brian as possible, when he decided to come to the room.

--- * Brian’s POV * ---

I sat on the living room’s couch and buried my face in my hands.

How could have I fucked everything up again?

I knew she was trying her best at getting us back together, and, to be honest, I wasn’t angry at her. Hell, I’d never been angry at her. Sure it had hurt to know that one of my best friends had kissed her, and I admit that I was pissed when I found that out. I was angry at me, for having reacted like that and broken up with her.

I was angry because I’d broken the promise I made to her. I fucked things up, and I left her before the tour started, when I’d promised her that I’d be by her side the whole time, whenever it came to me.

I groaned and rubbed my face.

“You’re such a fucking idiot, Haner,” I growled to myself.

I felt some movement and looked up, frowning when I saw Jimmy with a sympathetic look.

“Want to talk?” he asked, sitting next to me.

“I’m always fucking everything up,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “It looks like whenever I take a step forward towards Hailey, something makes me go back two steps…”

“What happened at the beach?” Jimmy asked, and I told him everything about our talk. He was our best friend, and he’d give the best advice I could possibly get.

“Why don’t you go get some sleep now and talk to her tomorrow?” he asked. “I know she’s probably already sleeping, seeing as she stormed to the bedroom and didn’t stop muttering about how much of an idiot you were until she got inside the bed.”

I chuckled and nodded.

“It seems like something she’d do. Thank you, bro,” I smiled and hugged Jimmy.

He smiled back and patted my back.

“Come on, go sleep next to the beast!”

I laughed and climbed the stairs to the bedroom, where Hailey was already sleeping.

--- * Hailey’s POV * ---

On the next day I didn’t really pay much attention to Brian at all. I was still annoyed with how stubborn he was, and I thought that it was time to begin to forget him. It just wouldn’t work out.

Oh, who are you trying to fool, Hailey? It’s obvious that it’s impossible to forget him!

I shook those thoughts out of my head and stood up from my beach towel.

Val and Lacey were going to the nearest shopping mall so they could eat something that wasn’t pizza and, even though I really loved pizza, I didn’t want to stay alone with the guys, so I decided to join them.

We had lunch and then visited a few shops on our way to the beach.

When we returned there, the guys were all inside the water, playing football.

I smiled at the sight of them and nearly yanked the t-shirt and the shorts I was wearing from my body, before I started running in their direction to join them.

We played for a few moments until I started to feel a bit dizzy. I closed my eyes but the feeling I had of everything around me spinning was still there. I walked out of the sea to my towel but, before I could get there, Jimmy grabbed my legs and threw me to his shoulder.

“Jimmy, what are you doing?” I asked, lowly, closing my eyes once again.

“Getting you back to the water!” he said, happily.

“Jimmy… I’m not feeling very well…” I mumbled, as I felt my eyes rolling back. “I’m cold…”

“Hey,” he shook my legs and stopped walking. “Hailey, Hailey, are you okay?”

Before I could answer, everything around me turned black and I stopped hearing Jimmy and the background sound.