The wild ride called life

“OH MHY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE BACK!” Val gushed later that night while we were bbq-ing or as Brian liked to call it my “It’s about damn time you came to your senses party.” I sighed as I looked around the table of my family and friends “Neither can I it’s a little surreal. I’m not quite use to it yet I just keep expecting …” I had to take a deep breath to keep the tears for spilling out. “I just … I just keep thinking that he’s going to walk threw that door with some stupid out of this world excuse as to why he is late.” Brian Sr. reached across the table and took my hand in a sympathetic gesture “We’ve all been there … hell I’m still there I was working on my next cd today and I came up with this awesome song and grabbed my cell off the table and started to dial Jimmy’s number to tell him to get his scrawny ass down to my house that we had music to work on.” I smiled as I wiped the stray tear that managed to fall from my eyes. Matt walked over from the grill sat next to me wrapping an arm around my shoulder and kissed the side of my head. “So when is Miss Jade coming down?” I shrugged my shoulders “I’m not quite sure yet she’s still in school at the moment and I don’t really want to rip her away from all of her friends but I’ve already decided to move down here and if I back out now I have a feeling yall would tie me up and throw me in a closet somewhere. I was going to wait until I found a place before I carted her down here.” Suzy looked at me like I had just lost my mind “I absolutely will not allow you to live on your own right now you can’t properly take care of yourself at the moment!” I opened my mouth to protest but she glared at me and cut me off “I bet you can’t even open this jar of pickles or put your hair up I bet you can’t even flick me off.” I sighed shaking my head “Just because I can’t do those things doesn’t mean I’m not fit to be living on my own or I can’t take care of my own daughter.” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest. Brian came and sat on my other side. “She didn’t say that but who is going to take care of you when you have your next surgery? Who will watch Payton when you’re drugged out of your mind after the surgery or what if they have to hospitalize you again for some unknown reason? You don’t need to be living on your own right now. Who is going to make you take your pills or make sure you do don’t OD since you’re so afraid of that? Am I getting through to you yet?” I turned my head and glared at him for a few seconds before I caved in “Fine, but I want you to know that that was a low blow and I hate you at the moment!” Senior clapped his hand “Well now that’s settled Heather and Brian will be living together. Now what’s going on with the food? You better not have burnt it son because then you would have at least two people here that would be hating you.” He jokingly said as he made his way over to the grill.

A few hours later we had all had a few drinks and were having fun. The radio was on and “The Crow &The Butterfly” by Shinedown came on. I jumped up yelled “Turn this shit up!” and quickly grabbed the closest person to me and dragged them to the middle of the back yard. “What are we doing?” Zacky asked as he looked at me puzzled. I sighed shaking my head “well since Jimmy isn’t here to dance with me and make a fool of himself, you will have to do. God pay attention!” I said laughing. I grabbed his left hand in my right and placed his other hand on my hip. I started singing along with the song as we did our own kind of waltz to the song. When the song ended I smiled up at Zacky “I see you still remember how to dance” he laughed as we walked back to the table “Well it was kind of drilled into my head for the “Afterlife” video.” As we got close to the table Suzy and Brian Sr. stood up “Well we better get going and you better be here the next time we show up.” Senior said as he stared directly at me. Everybody stood up and said their goodbyes to Brian’s family.

We decided to move our party inside since it was starting to get chilly outside. We were sitting on the couch playing the king of the hill drinking game. It’s a game we came up with to get extremely drunk really fast. You take a drink whenever the guys are drinking in the alley, anytime Peggy acts like a no it all, anytime Boomhauer talks, when bill says something depressing, when Hank fills awkward, or when Bobby embarrasses his dad. You are pretty much drinking throughout the whole show. I set down my beer “I have a confession to make.” I said as I looked around at my friends. I saw you guys in concert the first time you came to Texas after Jimmy died.” I said as I looked at my feet. It was quite for a few seconds and then Johnny spoke up. “How come you didn’t tell us before hand or come see us backstage?” I looked around at the guys “I was kind of afraid to. I was still heartbroken and I figured if you guys saw me it would just make it worse. I did kind of see you tough and I know yall saw me too, but you didn’t know it was me.” I looked around the room and the guys had a confused look on their face. “Please elaborate.” Matt said. I sighed “Well as all of you guys know I have extremely bad luck. About a week before the concert I left a coworker drive my car since I had been drinking and he hadn’t long story short he totaled my car with me in it. He was doing a u-turn and the car was sticking out too far and we were hit by a truck. The car was hit right where I was sitting. The accident was so bad that traffic stopped and I actually had people pull me out of the broken window. I have horrible luck with my arms breaking threw the windows in accidents. My right arm went threw the window and I needed stitches. When the airbags deployed for some reason it broke my dashboard into pieces and the air vent broke off and hit me in the knee. When the people pulled me out of the window I could barley walk. It hurt to move my knee and my ankle wouldn’t move. When the ambulance got there they wanted to take me to the hospital and I refused. I had my boyfriend at the time come pick me up and take me home. Worst idea ever! Anyways back to the point … I went to Uproar fest a week later even though my doctor advised me of it. I was supposed to be staying off my leg and using crutches, but I didn’t listen. I went to the concert anyway and refused to bring my crutches. I made it through your set and about halfway through Disturbed's set I couldn’t take it anymore I was crying I was in so much pain. My boyfriend and I started to leave and a paramedic saw me and told me that I needed to come with him. I tried to explain to him that my injuries didn’t happen at the concert and that he didn’t worry but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I’m following him and we get to a set of stairs and he and Henry help me down the stairs. I could barley hold myself up and he told me to wait right where I was that he was going to get me a wheelchair. I snapped and I started yelling at him that I wasn’t a fucking cripple, that I didn’t need a damn wheelchair, but I didn’t say it that nicely. I was cussing left and right. If I remember right I told him that if he went and got me a wheelchair that I would beat the shit out of him and the get in the wheelchair and roll over his toes! I heard people laughing at me I turned around to yell something at them and then I realized that it was you guys and I shut up and fallowed the guy to the medic station.” I looked over at the guys and the all looked shocked. Johnny stood up pumping his fist into the air “I knew it I knew it was you! We all had a conversation about it but they thought that I was stupid and that you would have told us if you were coming. I went to the medic station later and looked at their log of people that had been in but I didn’t see your name I guess I missed it.” I ducked my head when he said that and Val laughed “You didn’t put your real name did you?” “Nope!” I replied popping the p. Matt looked at me sweetly "I've decided that you're not allowed out of the house anymore. You must have been a horrible person in you're last life something bad is always happening to you." I smiled a sinister smile "But didn't you know I was Jack the ripper."

We sat around for a few hours more talking about everything that had been going on since Jimmy had died and I refused to go back. “OMG guys I have the best idea why don’t we go on a road trip tomorrow!” Brian said as he jumped up and grabbed my arm for support. I giggled at Brian “Do you realize you just said OMG … we are not on the internet sweetie” I said laughing. “Oh fuck you!” He said as he sat back down beside me. I rolled my eyes and poked him in the chest “Not in your wildest dreams.” “Pfft we’ll see, but we do need to drive to Texas to bring Payton and your things back.” Matt threw a pillow at us “We’ll talk about it in the morning I’m going to pass out and I’m taking Val with me she can barley keep her eyes open.” “No we are going tomorrow!” Brian argued. I laid my head in his lap and poked him in the stomach “I just got here now shut up and let them go to bed!”