I Don't Love You, Like I Did Yesterday

Jesse's P.O.V. (The Next Night)

"Hello?" I slid my finger across the screen of my iPhone to answer Mattie's call, parking in an empty spot in front of my house.

"Yo, you still in Philly?

"Yeah." I replied, lighting a cigarette and inhaling the smoke. I fixed my hoodie and got out of the car, leaning on the door and looking up at my rowhome and the night sky. I planned on finishing the conversation with him before entering the house, since Jimmy was anxiously waiting for my news.

"I just got off the phone with Lex. She told me what happened. You flying back with them tonight? He laughed a little at the first part. I sighed and nodded, to nobody.

"Nah. I'm gonna hang down here for a little while until we go back on tour. 'Got some shit I need to straighten out." I took another drag of my cigarette and sighed, dunning my hand through my messy dark hair.

"I feel ya, dude. Be careful down there though. Shit ain't like it used to be. It's a shame, what happened with Bry and all." I heard him sigh and Dylan agree with a "yeah man" on the other line.

"Yeah. It is. Actually Jimmy's waiting for me now so I should probably go let him know what's goin' on." I muttered and flicked the ash off my cigarette before staring up the long row of steps up to my porch.

"Alright dude. Just remember, be careful."

"Yeah, heard you the first time." I rolled my eyes and hung up the phone as I reached for the door handle, not surprised to find it unlocked. I rolled my eyes again and stepped inside. My jaw dropped at the sight of my living room.

The flat screen TV I bought last year had five holes through it, the once shiny glass was unrecognizable. The entertainment center was mostly smashed, with the game systems stored in it as well. The pictures and mirrors the once hung nicely on the tan wall were smashed and hanging by corners. The furniture was only slightly ajar, pushed into different places. The windows in the dining room and kitchen were busted, shards of glass littering the floor. There were holes and cracks in the wall. It looked like a fighter jet flew through my house.

I drug my eyes over to Jimmy, who was sitting on the couch, head in his hands, leaning back and forth quickly. I looked down to the coffee table, the glass top smashed, shards of white powdered stained glass on the floor under the frame. The drugs weren't among them.

"What. THE. FUCK!" I seethed, taking deep breaths and keeping my fists balled. Jimmy's head snapped up, and he pushed his greasy blonde hair out of his face and looked up at me with bloodshot, scared eyes. It was as if he was just noticing my presence.

"Dude." He cried. "They raided the place. They took everything!" He shook his head and ran his hands over his face. My eyes widened even more at his foolishness.

"I don't give a flying FUCK about that!" I screeched and threw my arms in the air. "This was my mother's house! If she were still alive, she'd murder you! You STUPID DRUGGIE FUCK!" I lost it after I remembered how much my mother loved this house, specifically leaving it to me rather than my other siblings because she knew I'd take care of it when she passed four years ago from lung cancer. Jimmy looked at me, terrified and fucked out of his mind. I growled, realizing I was beating a dead horse. Jimmy wouldn't argue back. I was still pissed, so I threw the closest thing in sight on the floor forcefully. That thing happened to be the busted TV.

Jimmy flinched and shook his head. Apologizing quietly. I pinched the bridge of my nose, pacing quickly back and forth, crunching more glass into the once beautiful hardwood floors.

"So... you guys got booked with the dope on you?" Jimmy asked timidly, his hands shaking as he moved them to his knees.

"Yeah. Bryan's goin' back to CFCF 'cause 'a you." I growled, stopping and facing my back to him.

"Think he snitched on me?" He mumbled, voice shaking.

"I don't fucking now, Jim. I'm not with him." I replied shortly, crossing my arms over my chest, still not facing him.

"Did he snitch on me?!" He repeated as if he didn't hear me. His voice was louder this time, and I heard him stand up quickly.

"I don't know, Jim." I ground out. I heard the sound of metal clicking back, and quickly turned to face him. The sight before caught me by surprise. He had a pistol pointed at my chest from across the room. His hand was shaking furiously, silent tears rolling down his scarred cheeks. He balled his fist in his stained gray hoodie and stared at me.

"Jimmy, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" I asked slowly, trying to reason with the high off his ass, terrified man.

"You snitched me out. I know you did. You fucked me Jess. You really did a number on me." His voice was trembling, and he blinked more tears back.

"Dude, I didn't snitch on you." I held my hands up in defense as he cocked the gun back, my eyes widened in fear. I felt my heart pounded in my ears as I tried to reason with him.

"No, Jess. Fuck this. I can't go back to jail.'' He shook his head and sobbed quietly. I shook my head as well, squeezing my eyes shut.

"No Jim I promise I didn't-" My wavering voice was cut off by a loud bang. After a few seconds, I felt an unbearable stabbing and burning sensation erupt in my chest, and opened my eyes to see the front of my hoodie soaking with blood. My vision went blurry as I went down, feeling the world was being swept up from under me.

I cried out in agony as I hit the floor, hard, glass crunching into the floor and my back. The pain was nothing compared to the blood flowing out of my chest. I gripped the front of hoodie, and saw out of the corner of my eye Jimmy take off out the door, the gun that he used to most likely end my life crashing loudly to floor as he bolted, leaving the front door open.

"Fuck you, b-bastard." I croaked through my tears, feeling blood rise in my throat. My sight was getting more blurred by the second, and I barely seen the cigarette I was smoking slip from my fingers into the pool of blood gathering ln the floor next to me, the cherry sizzling quietly as it went out.

For some reason, throughout this whole ordeal, I couldn't cry or scream for help. It wasn't that I wanted to die, because I didn't. Everytime I opened my mouth to shout, nothing came out. I rolled my head to the side, gasping for air and coughing up blood at the same time. I felt the golden locket that I had worn around my neck ever since the night Lex had draped it there six years ago, fall out of my shirt and onto the floor, popping open when it collided with the wood. I squinted at the images inside, and smiled weakly at them. The one on the right was of Lex and I, around the time we had stolen the necklaces. The one on the left was of the whole band, around the time we got signed. We had all changed so much, and I found it hard to believe that this was how it was supposed to end.

As everything started to fade to black, I felt flashbacks run through my mind, kinda like they did in the movies...

Flashback To Six Years Ago

"So, you still got the necklace?" Lex asked as we walked down the street away from her house, on our way to Dylan's. The fall wind blew harshly at us, blowing her short, dark hair out of her face as she narrowed her green eyes playfully at me.

"Yeah." I nodded, pulling the locket out of my Adidas hoodie and studying it. "I was gonna sell it for crack and hookers, but meh." I shrugged jokingly and replaced it in my clothing. Lex smacked my chest playfully and scowled at me as we crossed the street to cut throught the park. She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her Led Zepplin hoodie and kicked an empty beer can across the ball court.

"I think it was worth it." She nodded to herself after a pause as we trudged through the tall grass of the baseball feild next.

"What?" I asked softly and folded my arms to keep my hands warm.

"Gettin' arrested for these." She patted her upper chest, where the necklace rested under her clothes. I smiled and nodded at her when she glanced at me. She grinned at me, before removing her hands from her hoodie and shoving me.

"OH HELL NAW, BITCH!" I screeched as she took off running through the field, howling with laughter as I chased her. One of her black converse almost slipped off of her foot, causing her to stumble, and sending me crashing into her and sending us tumbling into the grass.

We were still laughing as we rolled over to face each other. Once our laughter subsided, we rolled our heads to look up at the clear, blue sky. The sun was just setting, and I'm almost positive we were already supposed to have met up with Dylan, and his cousin who was new to town, Mattie.

"You know that kid, Mattie? Dyl's cousin?" I asked softly, folding my arms under my head. Lex did the same from right next to me, and nodded.

"Yeah, the new kid, right? I thought his name was Mike... huh." She furrowed her eyebrows and I laughed, amazed at her terrible memory of people's names.

"He has a crush on you." I stated bluntly, watching her, waiting for her reaction. I remembered over hearing Mattie telling Dylan how pretty Lex was, and how much he wanted to get to know her.

Lex's eyes widened considerably before she turned her head to face me, a confused and shocked expression written across her face.

" 'Da fuck?" She raised and eyebrow and I laughed loudly, used to this reaction. She always felt this way when she found out a guy liked her, probably because she didn't realize how awesome she was... as cheesy as that sounded. This girl wasn't my bestfriend for nothing. After I stopped laughing, she smacked my chest.

"Owwwie." I pouted, giving her an offended look and rubbing my chest.

"You'll get over it." She shrugged and sat up, brushing stray blades of grass off of her back as she stood up. I laughed again as she held out a hand and helped me up.

"C'mon," She glanced at me and broke out into the sprint towards the end of the field as the sun sunk lower in the sky. I groaned and started running after her as we slipped out of the gate.

"We were supposed to he there an hour ago!" She's giggled as we ran into the street, narrowly avoiding the speeding cars whizzing past us.

"LET'S GO GET WAAAAASTED!" I threw my arms in the air as we ran down Dylan's block, skidding to a halt out front of the old home. Dylan and Mattie peeked out of the alley way, from where they were smoking pot.

"We don't want any!" Dylan pointed and laughed from the other side of the gate, yelling at us in his attempt to sound like an old man as we jogged down the alley, trying to catch out breath. Mattie laughed and waved.

"GET OFF MAH LAWN, YOU LITTLE WHIPPER SNAPPERS!" I wagged a finger at him as Lex jumped on the gate, slipping her fingers and the toes of her sneakers through the links.

"Didn't I give you a key?" Dylan laughed and chucked the roach of his joint as he watched Lex climb and hop the gate with practised ease, practically giggling as I followed. Mattie watched on, amused and stoned out of his mind as we walked through the alley into the backyard.

"Got any beer?" Lex asked breathlessly as we sat on the plush patio furniture Dylan had probably stolen. We all propped our feet up on the table, passing around a pack of cigarettes and taking one for ourselves.

"Fuck no." Dylan looked at Lex with the most serious face he could muster. Lex glared and crossed her arms, flicking the ash off her cigarette. Mattie and I glanced at eachother, laughing quietly; waiting for the two to argue like they always did.

"Then what're you good for?" Lex giggled as Mattie reached behind him into the cooler and tossed her a can of Miller Light. We all laughed and Dylan scowled playfully as Mattie slid a can of beer across the table to me.

"Fuck you guys." He muttered and flicked his cigarette. "I don't even know why I hangout out with you."

" 'Cause this is like, our group. Duh." Lex laughed cracking open her beer and grinning at me.

"Forever." I nodded and took a sip of my own.

"Fuck that. You guys suck." Dylan stuck his tongue out and squinted his eyes at us all, opening them when Lex chucked an empty iced tea bottle at his head.

"So, we really gonna start this band?" Mattie spoke up for the first time, clearing his throat and chugging his beer.

Dylan and I looked at each other and shrugged, not really caring what we were going to do.

"Eh." Lex shrugged and looked us. "We don't really have anything better to do." We all nodded and got up, walking into Dylan's house and closing the sliding door behind us. On our way to the basement, Dylan opened the fridge, retrieving a six pack or beer.

"Got any guitars?" Lex inquired as we walked down the steps into Dylan's finished basement.

"Yup, electric, acoustic, and bass. Drum set's over there too." He nodded and sat down on the couch. "My dad was really big on music before he kicked the bucket." He shrugged nonchalantly and grabbed a pair of sticks and a bowl of picks off of the coffee table. We all grabbed a pick. When we stepped away, Lex assumed her position in the front, Dyl got behind the drums, Mattie plugged in the guitar and the bass, and grabbed the latter.

"This feels... right." My eyes widened and I looked at everyone. Lex turned around, the microphone firmly in her right hand. Mattie and Dylan were kinda zoned out, but nodding nonetheless.

"Yeah. It does." She looked back down at the mic and grinned at me. "Fuel?" She suggested.

"Yeah." I smiled and nodded.

"One, two, three, four!" We all shouted and started to play the intro the one of Metallica's best songs.

"Gimmie fuel, gimme fire...."

The Present (Lex's P.O.V.)

"Holy fuck." I muttered as Ronnie and I entered the airport. I grimaced at how crowded it was. I hated crowds.

Ironic, right?

"Can't we wait like, another... year to go back to California?" I joked, grinning at Ronnie, who just laughed and kissed my cheek, squeezing my hand gently.

"I miss Charlie." He mumbled as we walked through the clusterfuck of people. A man shoved his shoulder into me rudely, and on instinct, I punched him in the back of the head with my free hand.

Ronnie burst out into laughter, clutching his side with his own free hand as the asshole turned around and dropped his suitcase. The scrawny looking 30-40 year old's face dropped when he saw the it was a woman who slugged him in the skull. He rubbed the back of his head and glared at us, obviously biting his tongue after seeing Ronnie straighten up and give him an intimidating look. He turned around and walked away quickly, leaving Ronnie and I to start laughing again as we neared the counter to purchase the tickets.

"I can't take you anywhere." Ronnie smiled warmly at me, stuffing his hand into the pocket of his black hoodie.

"Shut up." I smiled and pecked him on the nose.

"What was that?" He raised an eyebrow and removed his hand from mine, using it to mess up my hair.

"Ugh! You asshole!" I giggled and ducked, swatting his hands away. He laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we walked up to the counter, leaning on it.

As Ronnie started to talk to the woman behind the computer, I felt my phone start to vibrate in the pocket of my jeans. I tapped my husband on the shoulder and held my phone up, letting him know I was going to answer Mattie's call. He smiled and nodded, turning his attention back to woman, ready to purchase the plane tickets.

"Hello?" I asked, walking into the women's bathroom a few feet away to hopefully be able to hear my friend.

"Lex, where are you?" Dylan's voice came through the other line. He sounded out of breath and scared, I heard an engine roaring and wind blowing in the background. I pulled my phone away from my ear briefly to make sure it was Mattie's phone number across the screen of my phone.

"Uh, airport... why? What's goin' on, Dyl?" I furrowed my eyebrows and bit my lip, already worried. From the pit of my stomach, the bad feeling I had been brushing under the rug for the past week hitting me ten fold when I heard Mattie shouting in the background.

"It-it's Jesse." He choked out, my eyes widened as I waited for him to go on. "They got him over at Jeans Hos-hospital in the Er. He-he's dyin' Lex." Dylan crying into the phone was the last thing I could register as my phone slipped from my hand, crashing onto the floor and breaking into multiple pieces, along with my heart.