Shattered By Broken Dreams

Jimmy dragged Zacky into the Subway and up to the counter, keeping a firm grip on the back of Zacky’s neck. Zacky tried to squirm away from his friend’s tight grip.
“What the fucking hell dude”, Zacky sputtered, ineffectively batting at Jimmy’s hand.
“I’ll have two Chicken & Bacon Ranch Melts, and two Cokes”, Jimmy said calmly to the wide-eyed young girl behind the counter as if he wasn’t holding a struggling rock star by the neck. His fingers were pressing on the pressure point in Zacky’s neck and the smaller man was wincing at the small darts of pain that were running down his neck.
“E…Eat in or take-away”, the young blonde girl stammered, her eyes going back and forth between Jimmy and Zacky.
“Eat in”, Jimmy responded. The girl nodded.
“Take a seat and I’ll bring it out to you”, she stammered. She hurriedly gave them their drinks and turned away to make their sandwiches. No sooner had Zacky grabbed his drink, he found himself being propelled towards a booth near the corner of the store.
“What the hell is up your ass today?”, he shrieked at Jimmy as he was unceremoniously shoved into the booth. He placed his drink on the table and eyed Jimmy warily, as Jimmy had sat down next to him and not opposite him, which effectively had him pinned against the wall.
“Start with the truth about what happened, and we’ll go from there”, Jimmy responded calmly, however there was a fire lit in his blue eyes and Zacky’s eyes grew wide.
“T…the.. t…truth about what?”, Zacky asked.
“What you did to Savannah, and why the hell you left her the way you did”, Jimmy exclaimed with wild hand exaggerations. “I want to know why you ripped out my best friend’s heart?”

Zacky seemed to physically deflate. He placed his hands in his lap and began to wring them together, his eyes downcast to the table.
“Why did you do it?”, Jimmy asked him in a softer tone, noticing the sheen of tears beginning to show in Zacky’s eyes. Zacky seemed to shudder before he looked up again, and Jimmy’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw the devastation on Zacky’s face.
“I didn’t leave”, Zacky whispered. Jimmy’s eyes widened further before he leaned closer to Zacky.
“What the fuck, dude”, Jimmy replied. “Are you insane? We all know you fucking left. One minute we’re all in the hospital, and the Doctor told us that Vannah might not be able to walk again, the next you’re outside bawling like a fucking baby, and then bam you left and never went back to see her again.”
“She….she broke up with me”, Zacky said softly. Jimmy looked at Zacky like he had grown two heads.
“Dude, has your hair dye affected your ability to think? You leaving absolutely killed her, you fucking douche. You broke her heart when she needed you the most. How the hell can you sit there and say that she broke up with you?! She spent six months in that hospital thinking that you dumped her because she might have ended up in a wheelchair, and then she spent two years, two fucking years, learning how to walk again!”
“David said that she didn’t want to be with me anymore”, Zacky said softly, his eyes still downcast to the table. Jimmy went to speak again, but then froze when a look of horror went over his face.
“What?!”, he exclaimed. “David, as in Vannah’s father, told you she wanted to dump you!?” Zacky nodded miserably. “Oh my fucking god”, Jimmy said slowly. “You are an idiot, Baker. You know David didn’t like you, and it never got to you before. Why the hell would you listen to him?” Zacky bit his bottom lip, sucking his snake bites into his mouth. He looked up at Jimmy, and Jimmy’s eyes widened in shock when he saw the pain and hurt in Zacky’s eyes.
“He said something else, didn’t he?”

Zacky didn’t speak, although his green eyes widened a little and Jimmy knew that Zacky was hiding something. “Well, what the hell is it?”, Jimmy asked, shaking Zacky’s shoulder. Zacky seemed to cringe a little and Jimmy sat back, confused.
“Dude, you need to tell me”, Jimmy exclaimed.

They were interrupted by the young girl bringing out their sandwiches and the two ate in silence. Jimmy was glancing at Zacky, who was paying an extra-ordinary amount of attention to his sandwich. He glanced toward the convenience store where he could just see the others sitting around two tables, talking and laughing with each other.

Shortly after the two of them had finished their sandwiches and had stepped outside to have a cigarette, Jimmy turned to Zacky again.
“Ok, so what the hell else did Savannah’s asshole father say to you?”, he asked. Zacky flinched again, and he began shuffling his feet awkwardly and looking at the ground. “Dammit Baker, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.” Zacky looked up and Jimmy was surprised by the look of desolation in Zacky’s eyes which dulled their brilliant colour.
“I….I can’t”, he sighed.
“It’s been ten years”, Jimmy reminded him. “Whatever it is can’t matter now.” Zacky shook his head, on the brink of tears again. “Dammit, Zachary James Baker, you can’t keep it all bottled up!”
“I thought I was over it”, Zacky continued, almost as though he had not heard Jimmy speak. “I thought that her father was just a reason for her to break up with me, but now that I know that she didn’t have anything to do with it, I don’t know what to think”, he sighed. “I never meant to hurt her.”
“Great fucking stallion ducks”, Jimmy sighed.

**************************

Savannah sat with her back to the Subway store, quietly eating her pizza slices, whilst she listened to the banter of her friends around her. She was concerned about the conversation that Jimmy was probably having right now with Zacky and she wondered if she really wanted to know what had made Zacky dump her all of those years ago. She was sitting in between Erica and Trisha as they ate, and she glanced outside to where she could see Johnny eating the last of his Subway sandwich with his phone pressed to his ear.
“Who wants to make a bet that we’ve barely been gone a day and he’s having phone sex with Jayde?”, Trisha asked with a smirk.
“I think the odds on that are even money, don’t you think?”, Erica responded with a laugh. “Plus the poor dear’s gotta wait a week until we get to Minnesota.”

They were interrupted by a loud laugh from Matt, who was sitting beside Tommy. Erica raised an eyebrow as she saw the matching smirks on their faces.
“Ok, what are you two kiddies grinning like loons for?”, Trisha asked, shaking her head slightly.
“We’ve come up with a bit of a challenge for both bands to do once a week”, Matt responded with a huge grin which made his dimples look like craters.
“Why did it feel like someone just walked down my grave?”, Erica asked as she glanced at Savannah.
“We’re gonna challenge each other to play different songs!”, Matt exclaimed. The girls all shared a glance with each other.
“Well, that does sound good but I’m still kinda dreading it”, Erica asked. “Ok, what’s the catch?” Matt and Tommy shared a glance before looking back at the girls again.
“We each pick a song for the other band and we play it once a week during the concert. First night’s gonna be Minnesota so we have time to learn it.”
“Ok, so what are the songs?”, Savannah asked, looking up from the table.
“We haven’t decided yet”, Matt responded. “But”, he then broke off with an evil grin, “your first song can be that thing that the nun sang to the kids in that movie”
“What the hell – Sound of Music?”, Trisha asked. Matt snapped his fingers.
“That’s the one – that favourite thingy.” Savannah buried her face in her hands, whilst Erica stared at him with her eyes wide.
“You want us to get up in front of a metal crowd and play something from the freaking Sound of Music?”
“Yep”, Matt responded.
“Ok, yours can be Nutbush City Limits”, Erica interjected. “Plus you can’t sing that song without doing the dance moves.” Matt’s smirk disappeared. “Johnny would make a good dancer, don’t you think?”, she added with a smirk to the others.
“A good dancer to what?”, Johnny’s voice came from behind them and they all glanced up, Matt somewhat guitily.
“Well, Captain Dimples here”, Savannah said, gesturing to Matt, “just told us about the little song bet deal, and you guys are gonna have to play Nutbush City Limits in Minnesota, and you my dear little friend, are gonna be dancing your little nuts off.” Johnny’s eyes widened dramatically.
“Hell fucking no”, he shrieked. “I can’t do that in front of Jayde! She’s gonna think I’m an idiot.”
“We all think you’re an idiot anyway”, Brian added with a wink, from where he sat on the other side of Trisha.
“This is going to go down in history as the only metal gig ever where fans run out screaming ‘make them stop’”, Erica laughed.

The group was interupted by Stan who advised that the buses had been refueled and that it was time to get back onto the road. The group said goodbye to each other before they trudged back onto the buses to begin the next stint of driving which would take them to their next rest stop in Colorado. Savannah had just settled herself back onto the couch when Erica approached her with a smirk.
“What’s going on in that evil little head of yours?”, Savannah asked her with a smile.
“Matt never said we couldn’t play heavy songs”, she said with a grin.
“So we’re going to play a heavy version of My Favourite Things?’, Savannah said, her eyes lighting up. “Damn this is actually gonna be good. They won’t expect that.”