Fool With Dreams

“So how was your trip back?” Matt asked, plopping down on the couch in Ash’s living room.

“Fuck man. I can finally understand why Berrys are always bitching. It’s a complete madness to drive such a distance in such a short time,” Jimmy said seriously, not caring that the question was meant for Ash.

“I really appreciate that you guys came back with me, saved me from organizing transport for my bike,” Ash smiled at Jimmy and Leana, thanking them once again.

“Nah, don’t worry, we had fun,” Leana smiled back, her happy grin contagious as always.

“Where’s Baker?” Jimmy asked Matt, suddenly lifting his head up from the back rest.

“Should be here soon. Johnny’ll come later,” Matt answered. He reached out his hand and pulled his wife closer to his side, leaving his arm to rest over her shoulders.

“God it’s so weird to see you guys in my living room. I never thought this would ever happen,” Ash laughed, looking at the people scattered around the cozy room.

“Well, get used to it. Now go make us something to eat woman,” Jimmy said, playfully shooing her away.

“Jimmy!” Leana shouted, smacking his arm with a frown.

“What? She knows me well enough for not to be offended by what I say,” Jimmy grinned down at his beautiful girlfriend, ignoring her scolding.

“Go make yourself,” Ash laughed, crossing her arms to her chest. Jimmy stared at her, looking shocked
for a moment.

“Fridge raid,” he then screamed suddenly, jumped up ran out of the room.

“He’s gonna tear your kitchen apart,” Leana looked apologetic, gazing worriedly towards the kitchen.

“Jimmy!” Ash yelled, waiting for an answer.

“What?” came a muffled voice.

“You’re cleaning up after yourself,” she said firmly, not leaving any doubt about how seriously she meant it.

“Nooooo!” Jimmy cried. “That’s no fun.”

“I don’t give a shit if you have fun cleaning or not but you’re not leaving anything laying around there.”

There was some grumbling heard but Jimmy stopped complaining.

“Wow, he really listens to you,” Leana marveled. “You have to teach me how you do it.”

“It’s just pretty much how you give a command to a dog, you have to sound so firm that there is no doubt how seriously you mean it,” Ash laughed, earning a disapproving look from Matt.

“What? It works!” she defended herself, smiling innocently and batting her lashes. Matt couldn’t help but smile back and shake his head a bit.

“Maybe I should try this some time,” Val looked at her husband through slit eyelids. Matt’s smile disappeared instantly, replaced by a pout.

“I’ll go see what the nuthead is up to. It’s eerily quiet out there,” Ash stood up and headed for the kitchen.

She found Jimmy sitting on the counter with a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream mixed with Cookie Crisps.

“So it takes some ice cream and cereal to get you stay quiet for a moment,” Ash smiled, stopping beside him. Jimmy just nodded happily and offered her a spoonful of his treat. She accepted it and chewed down.

“Mmh, it’s surprisingly good,” she nodded, telling herself mentally to remind this mix. It tasted really good. “So what are we gonna do today? Watch some movies or what?”

“I guess we could watch some movies. But that means I need booze. A lot of booze,” Jimmy jumped down and washed off his ice cream bowl before setting it back on the cupboard.

“Well, we might have a tiny problem with booze,” Ash looked at the floor.

“What?” Jimmy stopped in the middle of her kitchen.

“I don’t have any.”

“What!?” Jimmy stared at Ash with wide eyes. “How can you not have any liquor in the house?”

“Because I don’t drink, remember? I don’t see any reason to keep alcohol in my home if I’m not gonna use it anyway,” Ash laughed lightly, amused by Jimmy’s overly shocked face.

“Fuck. Someone needs to go to the store,” he yelled through out the house before sitting down on the kitchen island, shaking his head in bewilderment.

Ash laughed and started to pour chips and cookies into bowls. At least she had plenty of those kind of snacks.

“Ooh, gummy bears. I’m confiscating these. They are extremely dangerous, so I have to destroy them before it’s too late,” Jimmy grabbed the bag from her hands, a huge grin on his face.

“Of course they are,” Ash smiled and dug another bag of gummy bears out of the snacks drawer. She continued filling bowls and plates with all kinds of snacks while Jimmy was happily munching down on his gummy bears.

“Babe, I’m home!” Dani shut the front door behind her, balancing the grocery bag on her hip.

She didn’t notice unfamiliar coats and purses scattered around the hall. Hearing Ash yell back from the kitchen she headed straight to that direction. While passing the living room, she noticed someone moving around from the corner of her eye and she took a few steps back. Peeking around the corner her eyes grew big. She hurried to the kitchen.

“Ash, what is almost half of Avenged guys doing in our living room?” Dani set the groceries on the counter and turned to look at her girlfriend. “Hi Jimmy!” she said somewhere in half turn and then froze for a second before turning back to make sure she saw right.

“Hello to you too, Dani. You was supposed to come home two hours ago. Where were you?” Ash demanded with her hands crossed to her chest. She had been slightly worried about her usually so punctual friend.

“Oh, sorry about that. My roommate had a little party and I kind of forgot the time,” Dani forced her eyes away from Jimmy and finally looked at Ash.

“Wow, that’s a first time you’re not keeping your word,” Ash laughed before smiling at Val who walked in the room and sat down to the seat Jimmy had just left. She leaned her head on her arm and sighed.

“You okay?” Ash frowned, stepping closer to Val.

“Yeah, just a headache,” Val closed her eyes and tilted her head back. She couldn’t get a good nights sleep and her neck was pretty stiff.

“You want some painkillers?” Ash looked at her worriedly, sensing the discomfort Val was feeling.

“No, I don’t like to stuff myself with drugs. It’ll go over sooner or later,” she sighed again, rubbing her hand over the back of her neck.

“Well, I could take care of it without painkillers,” Ash offered carefully. She didn’t want to scare Val with using magic on her. And just as she thought, she found Val’s wide eyes looking at her.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna cast some spell on you. I was thinking about a herbal tea, totally natural, I assure you,” she explained quickly, smiling weakly. Ash knew that normal people were scared of magic, even when they knew all about her and accepted her, they still didn’t want to be in any touch with magic. Her mother was one of those people. She knew what Ash was, what her own mom, Ash’s grandma was, and she still made her best to ignore anything connected to magic. Ash’s mom was just too scared to open up, to see that magic wasn’t all bad, that it could be good instead.

“Ooh, I know, you have to give her one of those heavenly massages of yours. Believe me, your headache will be gone in minutes,” Dani interjected, directing her last sentence to Val.

“No magic, I promise,” Ash raised her hands in surrender.

Val stared at her for a moment before tilting her head to the side. “Guess I could try it out,” she smiled warily.

“You’re not gonna regret it,” Dani smiled reassuringly and went to put the groceries away. “By the way, why didn’t you tell me we’re having guests over?”

“Because I knew you’d be home before they arrived. It’s not my fault you’re late,” Ash smirked, picking on her friend. Dani grumbled something under her breath and kept arranging the groceries in to the fridge.

“Just close your eyes and try to relax,” Ash said calmly, standing in front of Val. She raised her hands to her temples and started to rub small circles with her fingertips. She needed a lot of positive energy so she started to recall some happy memories. She and Bam having a food war in his kitchen. A sunny day in the park with her brother Kyle and his friends. The first time Bam said he loved her. Moonlit sky and Brian’s arms around her to keep her floating on the water. Brian carrying her down the beach. Brian kissing her fear away, making her forget there’s a thunderstorm outside. Brian confessing his feelings to her on their last day together. The feeling of Brian’s body tight against her on one of Matt’s bedrooms.

Ash felt those not so happy memories pressing down on her so she quickly removed her hands from Val. She didn’t want to let her emotions ruin anything.

“Wow!” was Val’s first reaction when she opened her eyes. “How did you do that?”

“I was just channeling some positive energy through you,” Ash smiled while grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge. Messing with her energy always made her thirsty.

“It’s unbelievable. I feel great. I feel kind of excited actually,” Val was beaming happily, her headache long gone.

“I’m sorry, that’s kind of my fault. I was thinking about happy memories and it got a bit out of control. The thing with channeling energy is that my emotions transfer over to you, so sorry for that,” Ash said blushing slightly and directing her gaze to the floor.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Matt will be happy later on. Thanks hon,” Val laughed, hugging her for a moment. “God, it’s gonna be a long night.”

“There’s a guest bedroom next to the downstairs bathroom. Just be quiet, okay,” Ash smirked, watching as Val ran out of the kitchen, excited like kid going on a field trip. She wished she’d have someone to go to, to get these excited feelings satisfied. But she also knew that no one other than Brian wouldn't do. And Brian didn't want to have anything to do with her. Sighing, she pushed herself away from the counter and piled as much bowls in her arms as possible and headed to the living room. She was determined to stop thinking about that certain man.

ᘓ ᘓ ᘓ ᘓ ᘓ

“Dude, why the hell are your nails green?” Johnny started to laugh hard, as he watched Zack sit up from the mattress on the floor.

“What?” Zack said, looking at his fingertips before turning his gaze back to his friend. “Yours are red, man. And what’s that shit on your face?”

“Fuck. How much did we drink last night?” Johnny wondered, examining his own blood red nails. He then scraped his cheek and pulled away a green piece of a face mask that had not been rubbed off by the pillows.

“Obviously too fucking much,” Zack shook his head with a quiet laugh. He stumbled up with a groan and headed for the kitchen.

“Fuck my head,” he mumbled as he crashed down on the bar chair.

“You look like shit, man,” Ash laughed while sliding some painkillers and a bottle of cold water in front of him.

“I feel like shit. What the fuck did we do last night?” Zack swallowed a few pills and drank almost the whole bottle of water.

“Well you guys drank all kinds of shit and we girls had a bit fun,” she laughed again, eyeing his painted nails with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Yeah, I can see that. How the hell can I get this shit off?” Zack looked again at his neon green nails with a tiny flowers on them.

“You can’t get it off, it’s gel, it stays on for months. Besides, your nails are like a piece of art, it would be a crime to kill them so soon,” Ash couldn’t resist screwing with him. It was just a regular nail polish, not a gel.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he mumbled, leaning his forehead on the counter.

There was some mumbling and shuffling coming from the living room. Guessing that people were starting to get up at last, Ash started to make breakfast. Although lunch would be more appropriate, seeing that it was past the noon already.