Fool With Dreams

By the time Jimmy and Ash reached his house, she was hanging limply over his shoulder. She had given up her fruitless attempts of freeing herself from his hold without hurting him or herself.
Her ribs weren’t healed completely yet and hurt a little when something pressured them. Luckily, Jimmy had thrown her over his shoulder with such force that his shoulder was supporting more her thighs than her middle and this way didn’t hurt her ribs much.

“Hey, Jim! Where’d you find that nice piece of ass?” Zack shouted at the moment they walked in.

“Just found it down the street. Sexy, isn’t it?” Jimmy laughed, slapping Ash on her butt that was covered only by tiny shorts.

“Jimmy!” Ash squealed, starting to struggle again. “Let me down,” she demanded.

“Nope,” Jimmy continued to carry her around the house.

“Guys? Could anyone save me? Please?” Ash looked around the room, seeing only amused faces, staring at her.

“Fine! I’ll turn every one of you into frogs then. Well, everyone except Brian,” she smiled wide when all the smiles around her dropped one by one.

“Awesome!” Jimmy squealed excitedly, throwing his fist in the air. “I wanna be a big and scary frog. And slimy!”

“Ugh, Jims, I don’t want to hurt you but I will if you don’t let me down, like NOW!” Ash grumbled in slight pain. She was starting to lose her patience.

“Jimmy! Stop torturing that poor girl. Put her down this instant!” Leana came to her rescue, waving a greasy spatula at Jimmy.

“But it’s fun,” Jimmy protested, taking a step back for just in case.

“Fine then! Ash, you have my permission to hurt him,” Leana said while crossing her arms and leaning back a bit.

“Really? Awesome!” Ash beamed, hoping to scare Jimmy with her enthusiasm.

Jimmy only laughed maniacally and started to run around the room, making Ash wince in pain.

“Okay, that’s enough, man. Don’t you think you could be hurting her?” Brian stopped them by standing on Jimmy’s way.

“What? Fuck! I forgot! Ash, are you okay,” Jimmy stopped immediately, all worried now.

“Yeah, just let me down,” Ash sighed in relief.

Instead of setting her down, Jimmy handed her over to Brian, as gently as he could.

“Sure you’re okay?” Brian asked, walking slowly towards the couch.

“I am now. Thanks, Bri,” Ash said, keeping her eyes down. Being held by Brian, his arms so strong and secure around her, made her feel a bit awkward.

“I’m sorry baby, I totally forgot,” Jimmy padded close behind them and watched worriedly as Brian stopped by the couch and very carefully sat her down, next to Zack.

“I wanna make it up to you. What do you want? Breakfast? Coffee?” Jimmy asked, jumping impatiently in front of her.

“I’m fine, Jims. I already had both,” Ash smiled, sneaking a peek at Brian, only to see him looking back with a small smile on his lips.

“But I wanna make it up to you! Ice cream?” Jimmy whined with a sad face.

“Fine! You can bring me some soda then,” Ash gave up. She wasn’t thirsty but at least Jimmy would leave her alone for a moment.

“God, he’s annoying!” she sighed, leaning her head on Zack’s shoulder as Jimmy ran away.

“That he is,” Zack smiled, hugging her against his side.

“What the fuck? You two are getting married?” Johnny tore his eyes from the magazine he was reading, and looked from Zack to Ash and back again.

“Oh, that reminds me, I have your ring,” Zack searched through his jeans pockets. After finding it, he slid it to Ash’s ring finger. Then sat back, reaching his arm over Ash shoulders once again, all the time ignoring those burning stares guys were shooting at them.

“What about Maggie?” Johnny wanted to know.

“What about her?” Zack asked back, obviously thinking that everyone knew the deal since he had filled Matt in. But Matt wasn’t in the room and it seemed that he hadn’t told anyone about it yet.

Brian stood up and headed for the front door.

“Fuck! What a baby!” Ash sighed quietly before jumping up and racing after him.

“Hey! Wait up!” She shouted at the door, not able to run any more. To her surprise, Brian did stop and even came back a few steps. He stood in front of her, emotionless like a stone wall.

“Chill, will ya! It’s just a joke. I’m not getting married to anyone,” Ash breathed out, holding her hand over her ribs. Running, after being carried around like that, was a really bad idea.

At the moment, Brian’s childish ways of dealing with unpleasant situations seemed funny to her. She wondered how long will he keep running away from problems. She hid her smile behind a quiet growl of pain.

“Then what the hell is going on with you two? Why he gave you that ring?” Brian demanded, crossing his arms on his broad chest.

“Zack and Maggie are getting married,” Ash grinned wide. “Zack just needed some advise and we were kinda fooling around and some smartass had to take a picture. And because of that Zack didn’t have the time to buy a ring for Maggie anymore, so I loaned him one of mine.”

Brian just kept staring at her thoughtfully.

“Oh, come on! Do you really think Zack would propose to anyone at some cheap cafe?” Ash was now laughing at how stupid men could sometimes be.

“Be reasonable now,” she took a risk and grabbed his hand. She knew that Brian may not be ready for such closeness, seeing that he was still a bit afraid of her, but his actions showed her that he did care about her at least a little. And besides, she hadn’t been in such a good mood for a long time and she couldn’t keep it all inside.

She pulled him along and opened the front door to Jimmy’s house, that had somehow closed behind her. Two bodies came crashing down, screaming and flailing with hands, making her laugh even more. She walked in, squishing her foot between Johnny’s thighs and the other next to Jimmy’s long neck. Ignoring protests from the floor, she pulled Brian after her.

“Ow, watch it, man,” Johnny yelled while he tried to get up, but Jimmy’s tall body, still laying across on him made it impossible.