There's a Story at the Bottom of This Bottle

-Kezia’s POV-
I burst into the house to come face to chest with Jimmy.

“Hey there little firecracker, what’s your hurry?”

“Where’s Brian?” I growled.

“He’s in Sasha’s room, as usual. Did you even have to ask?”

Not feeling up to Jimmy’s pathetic attempt at a laugh, I pushed my way through to my best friend’s room.

“Haner, what the fuck was that back there?!”

Brian slowly sat up from his place in the sheets, looked me straight in the eyes and said,
“Kezia, back the fuck off. This isn’t any of your business.” Allowing his eyes to roll back into his skull, he fell back on the bed, asleep.

“FUCKING DICKWAD!!!” I yelled as I slammed the door shut, storming out of the room. That boy had another thing coming; he may be almost a foot taller than me, but that only meant I had that many more “below the belt” shots I could use. Literally.
I decided to call Sasha and tell her to come home.

“Hello?”

“Hey, uhm, where are you?” I heard heavy footsteps shuffling down the hall.

“I’m at Sushi Palace with Alex. What’s wrong?”

“I’m about to rip Brian’s fucking balls off, that’s what’s wrong! Can you come home? Please?” Heavy footfalls, and raspy breathing were coming closer.

“Sure, sure. Calm down, I’m on my way.”

I closed the phone and put my head in my small hands.

“Hey there Sunshine, is there a cloud overhead?” I looked up to see Brian with a wicked grin. Not the cool kind of wicked, I mean literally. He most certainly lived up to his stage name.

Next thing I knew, his tattooed knuckles collided with my face.

-Sasha’s POV-

“Alex, I’m so sorry, but Kez just called and I really have to go.” My hands seemed to weigh
fifty pounds each as I was collecting my things together. Weighing me down, slowing my train of thought. In the midst of my hurrying, I heard a small, hopeful voice say, “Maybe we could do this again sometime?”

I looked up from my purse and saw Alex pleading desperately with his eyes; those green, green eyes that knew something more than I did.

“Sure. I’d love that.” I smiled genuinely and, as gracefully as I could, left the table.
------
Tentatively, I entered my dark house to be greeted with a mute T.V. showing infomercials and a small, somewhat hysterical sobbing coming from the corner of the living room.

“Sasha?” The fragile voice whispered.

Oh shit. Kezia was in the corner of the room, tear stained cheeks and a bruise forming around her right eye.

“Kez, what happened?” I walked over to my friend and kneeled in front of her so I could see the full extent of the damage.

“I, I don’t know what triggered him. I had my mind set on talking to Brian about how he’s being such an asshole, and BOOM! He punched me.” She stuttered and started breathing erratically; I could barely understand the latter half of her sentence. Her tiny body was shaking and trembling from the hysterics.

“I’m so sorry he did this to you. I’m so sorry.”I couldn’t do anything else but hug her and rock us together, trying to keep us from splintering apart. Kezia seemed to ease more and more as each shaky breath left her lungs, while my brain was being sabotaged by thoughts I’d been trying to push back for the whole entirety of Brian and mine’s relationship.

“He’s in your bedroom if you want to talk to him,” Kez muttered. She always knew what I was thinking.

Soundlessly standing up from our embrace, I walked down the hall to my room. At least that seemed the same; socks littered the floor, typical jeans on the floor (whether they were mine or Brian’s was still a mystery to me), among other curios.

“Hey baby, when’d you get home?” The Devil spoke so silkily, so deceptively, as did his arms snaking their way around my waist.

“Not too long ago. I heard you had quite the day today. Getting smashed, sleeping all day, and, oh yeah, let’s not forget you physically ASSAULTED my best friend in the whole world, and your band mate’s fiancé!” I whirled myself out of his grip and looked at him. Glazed over eyes that were blood-shot, and lack of balance; he was undoubtedly and unabashedly drunk.

“Y’know Bri, I thought you’d stop this on your own, maybe you’d see what an ass you were making of yourself during this whole “road to realization” or what-the-fuck-ever you want to call it. No matter how much I’ve cared about you during these two years, no one on the face of this earth, INCLUDING YOU, has any right or permission to hit a woman. I hope you’re happy with Jack, because he’s all you have left, because I can’t deal with you anymore.”

I left as fast as I could. I blazed through the house before my words could sink into Brian’s stupor. I grabbed Kezia from the living room and we left. We couldn’t look back now.

We had walked the past mile in silence; the tension and our frantic minds were keeping us busy enough. Car headlights had cast illuminated paths in front of us; I didn’t want to bother turning and seeing who it was, but Kez had taken care of that.

“OH MY GOD! JOHNNY!” The car next to us halted, allowing us to scramble into its interior.

Kez sat up front with Johnny, passionately exchanging love-filled kisses, while I sat in the back, waiting for Johnny to drive as far as he could.