Rosie

‘’Water…Advil…sedatives,’’ I groaned helplessly the next morning, rolling around in my bed and stuffing my pounding head under a pillow. God I hated hangovers; it felt like I’d been kicked in the head by a horse in my unconsciousness.

‘’Dawn?’’ I called out, unsure if she heard me or not. I rolled over to look at my alarm clock. It was 12:07 on a Saturday, meaning she was most likely already at work. My throbbing head reminded me that it needed assistance so I reluctantly crawled out of bed, still fully clothed from the previous night.

I took some Advil and drank a lot of water, brushing my hair out and sticking it in a bun-type thing. I made a cheese omelet that ended up quite burnt but I ate it anyway out of pure hunger. When I walked past the refrigerator my eyes spotted the piece of paper Jimmy had slipped me, the seven numbers written on it looking back at me dauntingly. I thought about it and thought about it, and when I reached out my hand to take it I ended up sticking my hand in my pocket instead.

I had better things to do, such as job hunting.

I showered quickly and pulled on a pair of jeans and a blue blouse, toothbrush in mouth. I scrambled around, frantically trying to rack my smallish brain of places I should apply. Huntington Beach had a decent amount of job opportunities but I needed one that paid a bit higher than minimum wage. I spent a good majority of my afternoon going from store to store, many places not looking to hire anyone new. I did find a few possibilities, however, which included a 50’s themed diner and a Border’s bookstore. Feeling a bit better about myself I decided to call Dawn once I got home.

‘’Hey, are you busy?’’ I asked.

‘’A bit, I can spare a few minutes to chat though,’’ she said, the noise in the background fading as she most likely went to a quieter place to talk. ‘’What’d you spend your day doing?’’

‘’Job hunting,’’ I replied casually, checking the paint on my nails, ‘’I applied to a few places, waiting to see if any decide to call back.’’

‘’That’s great! One of them has to take a chance on you,’’ she said sincerely.

‘’I hope so,’’ I sighed, flipping around with the channels on the TV. ‘’I’m bored, what do you suggest I do?’’

‘’Go to the beach?’’

‘’Nah, I burn really easily.’’

‘’See a movie?’’

‘’By myself? That’s pathetic even for me.’’

‘’Take up horseback riding?’’

‘’You’re kidding me, right?’’ I laughed.

''I don’t know, come down to Johnny’s again or something. Jimmy’s here and he says you’re funny when you’re drunk.’’

I was silent for a moment. ‘’Is it just Jimmy?’’

‘’Well, no,’’ she said hesitantly, ‘’Zack’s here and I think I saw Brian before.’’

‘’You know I have social issues.’’

‘’Fuck your issues, come down here and entertain me.’’

‘’Fine,’’ I sighed, hanging up and putting my shoes back on. Getting drunk was something I hardly ever turned down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘’So Zack and Brian are, like, totally fucking in the bathroom,’’ Jimmy announced to me, sitting on the pool table. I stared at him. ‘’What? They are! Go check for yourself,’’ he shrugged, downing his beer.

I shook my head, taking a long gulp of my Guinness. ‘’I’m good, thanks,’’ I replied awkwardly, ‘’I believe you.’’

‘’So what’s with the outfit?’’ he asked offhandedly.

I looked down at my pretty blue blouse.

‘’What, a girl can’t look nice?’’

‘’We’re at Johnny’s fucking bar, dude,’’ he laughed, his blue eyes lighting up, ‘’such fanciness is fucking rare.’’

‘’It’s not fancy,’’ I defended, ‘’I was applying for jobs earlier, and…well I wanted to look decent. Did I do okay?’’

‘’You look lovely, hun. Shots?’’

‘’Jimmy it’s 6 in the evening,’’ I laughed.

‘’So what? It’s never too early for shots!’’ he declared, hopping off the pool table and going up to the bar. Just as he left Zacky and Brian appeared.

‘’Hey, Ross,’’ Zacky said with a shit-eating grin.

‘’Oh shush,’’ I scoffed, ‘’you and Brian, hi Brian, were getting it on in the bathroom. Don’t lie.’’

‘’We weren't…there wasn't…I have a secret issue okay?!’’ Brian choked out.

‘’A secret issue?’’

‘’You know that episode of Friends when Ross had that weird thing on his butt?’’ Zacky asked casually. I nodded. Of course I knew that episode. ‘’Well it happened to Brian. He needed…a second opinion,’’ he said awkwardly. Brian flushed a dark red color.

‘’Thanks, Zack,’’ he said sarcastically, ‘’let’s just tell people we barely know our whole life story, starting with what it first looked like when you emerged from-‘’

‘’SHOTS!’’ Jimmy screamed, pushing Brian aside and sticking the tray on the table. I was happy for the distraction; the conversation was starting to get weird even for me.

With two shots in my system I walked up to the bar to find Dawn. She wasn’t done working that night until 8, when the real fun started. I plopped onto a bar stool and waved her over.

‘’Glad to see you’re interacting with people,’’ she commented. I rolled my eyes at this.

‘’You can barely even call it interacting, I had a discussion with one of them about strange growths,’’ I laughed, ‘’five bucks you can’t guess who has it.’’

‘’Brian,’’ she said confidently.’’

‘’Damnit,’’ I groaned, pulling a five out of my pocket and tossing it at her, ‘’how did you know that?’’

‘’Because Zacky comes to me laughing every time it happens. It’s a reoccurring issue. I have a theory that it’s an alien, here to suck out his brain…through his butt,’’ she said in between laughs, putting my five in the tip jar.

‘’That’s an interesting theory,’’ I pondered, ‘’you should come drink with us.’’

‘’I’m working,’’ she pointed out, ‘’give me two hours and I’ll join you guys.’’

‘’Alright, but I’m not waiting on you to drink.’’ With that I hopped off the stool, stumbling a bit as I walked back to the table.

I threw back two more shots before plopping in a chair, humming along mindlessly with the Nirvana song being played throughout the establishment. Jimmy sat across from me two seconds later with a smirk on his face and a Guinness in hand.

‘’You like Nirvana?’’ he questioned, kicking his feet up on the table. I leaned forward and shrugged.

‘’Who doesn’t like Nirvana? They were awesome,’’ I stated matter-of-factly, scooting over as Zacky and Brian pulled up chairs.

‘’Did you listen to our CD yet?’’ Zack asked, putting more shots on the table.

I shook my head, drinking a shot quickly. ‘’Not yet, might do that later though. The cover art is very…biblical. And gutsy. I like it,’’ I grinned.

‘’That’s ‘cause of our name,’’ Jimmy slurred slightly, ‘’we got our name out of the bible back in ’99 when we started up.’’

‘’Nifty. Have you toured yet?’’

‘’We did Warped tour,’’ Brian piped up, doing a shot, ‘’our first and only album so far was kind of just to get the word out there, show the music industry what we could do, you know? Johnny actually joined up after the tour because he was our replacement bassist for awhile. I only did a few songs on Sounding the Seventh Trumpet before deciding I wanted to stay. Warped tour itself kind of sucked ‘cause we’d drive for fucking days sometimes only to find out our show was cancelled or someone else took our time slot or some other shit. It was cramped in the van we lived in and we were always hungry, but other than that it was a blast.’’

‘’Sounds intriguing,’’ I smiled, drumming my fingers on the table top, ‘’were there lots of orgies?’’

‘’So fucking many, and hookers! I like hookers!’’ Jimmy yelled, tipping back in his chair and falling on his butt. We all laughed hysterically at this because instead of getting up, he rolled his way to the bar.

‘’You guys are fucking weird,’’ I mumbled.

‘’Well, you’re too damn normal,’’ Brian teased, shaking his shaggy black hair around so it fell over his face, winking at a girl who walked by. She paid no mind to him.

‘’Oh! Denied!’’ Zacky laughed, giving me a high five, a pretty hard one at that.

‘’Ow!’’’

‘’Zack you’re the king of douches,’’ Brian said, kicking him from under the table.

‘’Zack, you fucker, you could’ve broken my hand!’’ I said in exasperation.

‘’Fuck you guys, you’re mean. Dawn!’’ Zacky called out over the noise of the bar. She glanced over at us and shook her head laughing, pointing to Jimmy who was a bit down the bar from her, leaning on a bearded old man and singing about a hole in a bucket.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once Dawn finished her shift the guys wanted us to go with them to Matt’s place, where more drinking and crazy antics were sure to ensue. I glanced over at Dawn in my drunken state.

‘’Do you think it’s safe? What if they’re secretly murderers?!’’ I whispered frantically, genuinely scared that I would be clobbered to death or something similar.

‘’They’re harmless,’’ she laughed.

‘’Will there be more booze?’’ I asked Jimmy in all seriousness.

‘’Oh Ross there will be so much booze that you could like…rub it all over your body and no one would care,’’ he slurred, leaning against the outside of Johnny’s.

‘’We’re going,’’ I said without hesitation.

Dawn and I followed Zack’s car to Matt’s apartment. On the outside it looked very similar to ours. We took the elevator to the third floor, Dawn and I standing a bit behind the others while Jimmy knocked on the door.

An eye looked through the peephole before the door opened, revealing a pretty girl with a kind face and medium length black hair. She wore a black AFI t-shirt.

‘’Val!’’ Jimmy screamed, picking her up and spinning her around in circles. She screamed and laughed at this.

‘’Nice to see you too, Jimbo. Put me down, please?’’

‘’Yes, mom,’’ he said, placing her on the ground. Zacky and Brian greeted her as well when they entered the oddly clean room, Dawn and I following.

‘’I’m Val,’’ she smiled, giving us each a quick hug, ‘’hey Dawn, long time no see!’’

‘’Hey hun!’’ She kissed Val’s cheek. ‘’This is Rosie.’’

‘’Cool, nice to meet you,’’ she smiled, guiding us over to the two couches stationed by the beat up TV. Matt, Johnny, Brian and Jimmy were all sitting on the floor playing Halo on Matt’s Xbox, trying to kill each other. This left Zacky with three females.

‘’Hey guys,’’ I said to Matt and Johnny. I received a brief ‘’hello’’ in return before their attention went back to the game. I rolled my eyes.

‘’Zack, toss me a beer,’’ Dawn said, catching the bottle he threw in midair. ‘’Thanks.’’

‘’Hey I want one too,’’ I pouted.

He just shrugged. ‘’Help yourself.’’

‘’Help my-you’re a butt,’’ I replied in a way that caused Val to laugh. I grabbed a beer off the coffee table and popped it open, nearly jumping when Jimmy and Brian started screaming about the game. We watched in amusement.

‘’DUDE THAT WAS SO FUCKING CHEAP! GET RID OF IT!’’

‘’NO! I LOVE THE ROCKETLAUNCHER!’’

‘’IT RUINED MY KILL STREAK, FUCKER!’’

‘’YOU HAVE A GRAVITY HAMMER SO SHUT THE FUCK UP!’’ Jimmy yelled, smacking the controller out of Brian’s hands.

‘’Guys!’’ Val yelled, getting in between them, ‘’do you want me to shut the game off?! Because you know I will.’’

‘’No, Val,’’ they said in unison.

‘’Good. Now play nicely or else the game goes off, got it?’’ she threatened. They nodded meekly.

‘’That goes for you two as well,’’ she continued, pointing at Matt and Johnny, ‘’no yelling or you can say bye-bye to Mr. Xbox.’’

‘’Yes, mom,’’ Johnny mumbled.

Matt just grinned and went back to the game, mumbling to Johnny, ‘’She’s hot when she’s mad.’’

Val heard this but said nothing, blushing a bit before going to the kitchen.

At a loss of what to do, I looked around the room to find Dawn and Zacky downing beers like champs.

A drinking contest that they’d started without me. Fuckers.

I finished my beer and grabbed two more before stumbling off to the kitchen, finding Val rummaging through the cabinets over the stove. She pulled out a bag of chips and a box…of White Cheddar Cheez-Its. My eyes lit up.

‘’I’ll trade you,’’ I offered, holding out a beer and pointing to the box. Her eyes went back and forth before nodding, opening the beer and sitting down at the small kitchen table. I sat across from her, digging into the box, happy with intoxication.

‘’I feel like the mother I’m not supposed to be yet,’’ she sighed, taking a long drink and wiping her mouth, ‘’I’ve known them since high school and they haven’t changed one bit. Not that it’s a bad thing, it just takes a toll on me, you know? Someone has to be the responsible one.’’

I nodded silently, munching away at the Cheez-Its to sober up enough to have a proper conversation.
‘’I think it’s really neat that you’re still friends with them, though,’’ I said offhandedly, ‘’I lost touch with everyone after high school, except Dawn.’’

‘’You’re not much of a social person?’’ she asked.

‘’I’m the furthest thing from social,’’ I laughed, drinking some more of my Miller, ‘’Dawn pretty much forced me to hang out at Johnny’s Bar earlier. Apparently your friends don’t dislike me like I thought they would. I’m still relatively new to the area so I hope they let me stick around a bit, I don’t really know anyone else,’’ I said, laughing awkwardly at the end.

‘’Nah, they think you’re cool,’’ she smiled, clinking our bottles together, ‘’they don’t usually bring random people over unless they think they’re cool people to hang out with or they’re horny.’’

I laughed really hard when she said that, thankful that she clarified it for me. The only person who’d hit on me was Brian and that was for about two seconds right after he met me. By then I was sure he forgot that he found me attractive in the first place.

‘’I will say, though,’’ Val continued, shifting around in her seat, ‘’Jimmy called me at three in the fucking morning, wasted out of his mind, to tell me that he wants you to be his new best friend.’’

I blinked at this, slowly trying to comprehend what she was saying. ‘’But he was drinking, right? I mean, I barely know him enough to call him a friend.’’

She shrugged. ‘’It’s Jimmy. He could’ve meant it but I doubt he even remembers calling me. Everyone’s his best friend so don’t take it personally, he won’t stalk you or anything. It’s just how the Rev is.’’

‘’The Rev?’’

‘’That’s his stage name,’’ she laughed, ‘’The Reverend Tholomew Plague. He wanted to be cool so he went for the longest name ever, but we stick with ‘The Rev’.’’

‘’Do all the guys have stage names?’’

She nodded. ‘’Brian is Synyster Gates, Zack is Zacky Vengeance, Johnny is Johnny Christ and Matt is M. Shadows.’’

‘’Johnny Christ? That’s gutsy,’’ I said approvingly, eating more Cheez-Its.

‘’It has to sound gutsy, have you heard their music?’’

‘’Not that I know of,’’ I shrugged, ‘’I have their CD at home but I haven’t listened to it yet.’’

‘’Do it when you get the chance,’’ she recommended, sipping at her beer, ‘’they’re…something special. That’s all I’m saying.’’

We went back into the living room to find Brian and Jimmy laughing about something, Johnny playing the Halo campaign, Matt writing something in a large notebook, Zacky casually drinking a beer with his feet on the coffee table and Dawn…well Dawn was missing.

‘’Okay, which one of you killed her?’’ I threatened as menacingly as I could. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

‘’Killed who?’’ Matt asked.

‘’Dawn! You know, pretty tall, goldish hair, was just drinking with Zack not too long ago?’’ I turned to Zacky upon saying this. ‘’What did you do to her?’

‘’Me?’’ he asked, ‘’I beat her in a drinking contest. She’s puking in the bathroom,’’ he slurred.

I asked where the bathroom was and found it around the corner of the living room. Val stayed behind to talk to Matt about something. Sure as shit there she was, puking her guts out in the toilet, her eye makeup a bit smeared. She looked up when I entered, wiping her mouth with a towel.

‘’Rosie-‘’

‘’I know, throwing up fucking sucks,’’ I said quietly, kneeling next to her and wiping the smudged makeup off, holding her hair back. ‘’Now go ahead, I know you’re not done.’’

I stayed with her like a good friend until I was sure she was done, her face pale and her body shaking. I rummaged around under the bathroom sink and found mouthwash, giving her some in the cap so her mouth would be clean. She used it thankfully.

‘’No more drinking for you,’’ I said seriously, helping her up. ‘’Just water for tonight, okay?’’

‘’But I…fine,’’ she said meekly, stumbling out of the bathroom as she leaned on me. I put her on the sofa furthest away from Zacky. From the glare on my face he visibly paled.

‘’Is she gonna be okay?’’ he asked.

‘’She will be,’’ I sighed, leaning against the wall.

‘’I’m sorry-‘’

‘’It’s not your fault,’’ I interrupted, ‘’just let her be.’’

He nodded slowly and sank into the couch, casting glances in her direction every now and then. She was in and out of consciousness.

‘’You’re a good friend,’’ Jimmy said a little while later. I glanced up from the notebook Matt was writing in. He was working on a song called Radiant Eclipse.

‘’Whenever I throw up they think it’s funny as hell, I sometimes even fall in it,’’ he continued, ‘but you’re a nice person, she’ll thank you in the morning.’’

I blinked a few times. ‘’Thank you,’’ I said unsurely. Jimmy really was random, and he tended to catch me off guard…a lot. In fact, I was unsure of Jimmy altogether. He was very different from the other four guys sitting around me, vibrant and loud and all around unpredictable. His spontaneity made me uneasy. One: because you really didn’t know what he was going to do next, and two: he reminded me of someone that I once knew.