The Bet

“Oh it’s open mic night!” Sarah pointed out as the group neared Johnny’s bar. Rhian smiled in response, before checking her outfit and wishing she’d at least worn a jacket to cover up.

“No,” Zacky said simply curling an arm over Sarah’s shoulder and kissing her cheek. “You may not get up and sing!” Sarah pouted at him, earning a laugh from her boyfriend and another kiss, this time on the lips. The pair walked ahead, as Sarah insisted she wanted to sing and started to pick songs.

“Cold? You want my jacket?” Rhian heard Johnny’s voice from her side and was about to answer but felt an arm coil over her shoulders, and pull her close.

“She is fine! She’ll soon warm up!” Jimmy’s cheery voice answered, gazing down at with a smirk. “Or we’ll ply her with alcohol if she doesn’t!”

“I’m up for that!” Johnny chuckled earning a glare from Rhian. Brian came up behind Johnny asking him something while Rhian turned to Jimmy.

“You realise I won’t get laid if I freeze to death!” She smirked bumping her hip against him. “And then you’ll lose this stupid bet!”

“You won’t get laid wearing a man’s jacket either, unless it’s the man you plan on bedding, and I’m pretty sure short shit ain’t to your taste,” He lent down so only Rhian could hear. “You like your guys tall and hung,”

“Jimmy!” She slapped his chest hard glaring at him as he cracked up laughing; skipping off to try and rugby tackle Matt. There was something about Jimmy tonight that struck her as odd, more odd than usual. Yes he was chasing people around, tackling Matt, making fun of Johnny and antagonising Taylor; but there was something else, he wasn’t being Jimmy like towards Rhian. She watched him turn and smirk at her before Taylor shouted something at him and he turned to face her. There wa something else, he was up to something, and she didn’t like it one little bit. Rhian just shook her head following the crowd into Johnny’s bar, where the guys were welcomed back like the returning heroes they were.

“Hey come get a drink with me,” Rhian heard Niki’s voice next to her, her hand gripping her arm and pulling her away from the crowds that had assembled. Rhian didn’t get a chance to answer but instead followed Niki through the club and straight to the bar.

“Ugh it’s so nice to have them back,”

“Yeah it is,” Rhian nodded noticing Niki watch her husband, a sense of pride about the whole occasion.

“To know when I come in from work, that Brian is only a few minutes away, in that basement or the garden, I can have him naked in 60seconds,” Niki smiled licking her lips as she waved at the barman, and ordered for both of them.

“60 seconds, impressive,” Rhian mocked. “You should try for a world record,”

“What’s with you?”

“Is Jimmy being more weird than usual?” Niki raised her eyebrows and gazed around the bar to lock on to Jimmy’s tall gangly frame, he was pushing his long black fringe out of his eyes and clearly re-telling a story to the people around him.

“He’s excited, this is his night,” Niki suggested. “Why what did he do?”

“Oh Jimmy was just trying to cheer me up,” Rhian laughed taking her drink from the bar man and turning to face the crowded club. “We had a bet,”

“A bet?” Niki raised her perfectly plucked eyebrow. “What kinda bet?”

“He bet that we’d both get laid tonight, $100 dollars and a kiss from these fair lips!” She added trying to do her best Jimmy impression. Niki just laughed but it wasn’t at Rhian’s accent but instead the insane bet her best friend had made with Rhian. Jimmy and Niki had grown up together, and she knew him better than anyone. Everyone thought he was stupid, but she knew he was far cleverer than anyone else around. Jimmy saw more than most and was great at reading peoples moods and reactions. He’d made that bet for a reason, Niki was sure of it.

“Well sug, you better be careful, Jimmy tends to be lucky with bets! Remember when he bet Taylor she would run around the house naked by the end of the night, and she just laughed him off!” Rhian smirked remembering that fateful night, and the amount of begging she’d done to the cute cop who’d come to charge Taylor for indecent exposure.

“Nik you’re forgetting one thing, there isn’t a man in this bar who is getting in these pants!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Niki muttered watching the red head walk towards the booth. Instead of following she went over to the pool table where her husband and Jimmy were playing, surrounded by a family and friends. “Oi Slim Jim,” She grabbed his arm while her husband made his shot. “I just had a little chin wag with our favourite Britch,”

“You did,” He replied a smirk growing on his lips. “How’s she doing? Any men hanging over her yet?”

“Like you’d let them,” Niki winked at him, hearing Brian call it was Jimmy’s go. “You be nice to her, she’s a good one,”

“I know,” Jimmy chuckled picking up the cue and smirking at Niki. “You just wait and see,” Niki laughed knowing Jimmy whatever his plan to win this bet was, it was going to be big. She left the boys to play pool, finding her girl Taylor strutting her stuff on a make shift dance floor with the Berry twins, Johnny Gera and others. She laughed as Jason Berry grabbed her pulling her into him and pretending to do his best sexy dancing. It didn’t take long for Brian to turn up and protect his wife, he was known for his territorial nature when it came to girls. Jason ended up earning a slap round the back of her head as Brian took Niki’s hand in his. The people around them changed, Rhian came and went, followed by Jimmy, Sarah and even Johnny joined in.

Though the open mic night soon crushed their fun, random people coming up to sing lead to the dance floor being abandoned and most of the group going back to the seats. Avenged took up one booth, the girls, Berry twins and a few family members joining them, all squashing into the seats.
No one really paid attention to the people singing, instead the boys were forced into storytelling and answering hundreds of questions about the tour. Rhian had sat between Sarah and Jimmy, realising that she was never going to find a guy tonight at Johnny’s. She was almost a little bit disappointed, but then reminded herself it was a bet and nothing to do with her. If Jimmy hadn’t made the bet then she wouldn’t have even thought about finding a guy. She shook her head, taking a long drink of her Bacardi and coke.

Jimmy, next to her, was in his element. Though Rhian noticed him slowly backing out of conversations and letting Brian take over. As one of the barman came up to mutter something to Jimmy, he nodded and quietly slipped away. Rhian seemed to be the only one who noticed. Everyone else was chatting and laughing; enjoying a wonderful night.

Rhian watched Jimmy instead; a short blond chick latched herself on to him as he reached the bar and ordered something to drink. She said something to him and Jimmy shook his head, moving away from her and towards the stage. The girl followed jumping up on stage first. Maybe she was the next singer.

The blonde walked towards the microphone and gave Jimmy a thumbs up.
“So Johnny’s bar patrons!” The woman said down the microphone and gained a few people’s attention; most of the booth around Rhian ignored her though. “The next person up to the stage is an old hand at this, he’s performed to huge stadiums but today he’s downsizing the act,” Rhian’s eyes went wide, even more concerned when Jimmy walked towards the stage.

“Sarah,” She hissed nudging the girl next to her.

“Ducky?”

“I think Jimmy’s gonna sing,” Sarah laughed and turned to the stage “What are you-“ She paused as the woman spoke.

“He’s one of our returning heroes,” The boys looked up and gazed around realising they were missing a drummer. “And he’s performing for us tonight, welcome The Revended Tholomew Plague!”

“What the fuck is he doing?” Matt Sanders laughed watching Jimmy stand up and bow.

“Of course it would be Rev!” Zacky chuckled his arm going over Sarah’s shoulder as he leant back in the booth. Everyone was clapping as Jimmy took to the stage; everyone in the club probably knew him or at least knew of him. Brian wolf whistled and the boys cheered as Jimmy took a bow.

“So this is very much out of my comfort zone,” He spoke softly pulling the microphone up a little to match his tall gangly frame. His band raised their eyebrows, sharing confused looks and raised eyebrows. “But it’s dedicated to the most beautiful girl in the world,”

“He’s got a girl?” Zacky asked looking towards Brian and Matt who both shrugged.

“Last I heard he was still wrapped up about Rh-“ But Brian was drowned out by Jimmy.

“This song is dedicated to Rhian,” In that moment Rhian turned 10 different shades of red, her eyes going wide as people everywhere turned around to look at her. She wanted to die, to curl up under the table and die. Part of it was the hatred for being centre of attention and he knew it! “Girl you’re beautiful!” He finished winking at Rhian before the music started up and she groaned in realisation of what it was.

“Ah he is,” Brian added a satisfied smirk on his lips. Everyone was watching Rhian though; while Sarah was clapping excitedly next to Zack as she had worked out Jimmy’s choice of song for that night.

“I know this song!” She squealed grabbing Zacky and trying to drag him towards the make shift dance floor in Johnny’s bar.

“No way is he gonna sing that!” Matt laughed shaking his head in amazement before cheering his drummer on.

”You’re insecure, don’t know what for, you turn heads when you walk through the door!” There was the head bopping, boyband esque moves to go with his singing and Rhian wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. This was by far the cutest and sweetest thing anyone had ever done, not to mention the most embarrassing and hilarious.

She couldn’t help the smile that was escaping across her face, a real smile with real tears as Jimmy continued to sing, he had everyone singing and dancing along when it came to chorus. Rhian found herself standing up, the catchiness of the song and the pulse of the beat pleading her to dance. She found Sarah on the dance floor and let herself go with the music. All the time her eyes going back to meet with Jimmy’s as he sang the words.

He meant every word there.

”If only you saw what I can see, You’ll understand why I want you so desperately! I’m looking at you and I can’t believe, you don’t know oh oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful!”

Zack was staring at the drummer in amazement, not sure quite sure if this was the stupidest thing that Jimmy had done or possibly the one that was going to ruin Avenged’s reputation. Niki watched her best friend on stage and wasn’t sure if she needed to give him a good punch in the face to man him up, or just cry because his awful choice in song.

The whole club was split. From those that were in fits of laughter to those that were following their best friend on stage, supporting him with backup vocals and dancing; because there was so many people in that club who called him their best friend.

“Baby you light up my world like nobody else, the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed, but when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't know, Oh oh!”

As the song came to an end Rhian knew what she had to do. Pushing her way through the crowd that had formed around the mini stage she got closer to Jimmy. The crowd where cheering and screaming at him; he was such a great performer. Rhian bit down on her lip, knowing she’d duck out of this if she didn’t do it now. She pushed herself right to the front and caught Jimmy’s attention. Putting one foot down on the stairs leading to the raised platform, she climbed up the three steps and grabbed Jimmy’s arm. The crowd had stopped cheering for an encore now and instead where waiting with baited breath to see what she would do.

“She’s not gonna slap him is she?” Johnny muttered to Matt who smirked and shock his head.

“She should for that music choice,” Niki and Taylor said together looking at each other with smirks.

“Nah shit heads, it’s gonna be much hotter than that,”

Rhian pulled Jimmy towards her, standing on her tips toes she let go of his arm and cupped his face. Taking a deep breath to calm her nervous, she pressed her full lips against his, not caring about the screams and shouts, not caring that a good 100 people were watching their first kiss. She just went for it. Giving that kiss her all and not letting anything get in the way.

She felt Jimmy give into the kiss straight away, his arms going around her body and wrapping her up, his tongue tracing the soft line of her mouth. Jimmy’s hands fell to the back of her thighs, bending down and pulling her up. Rhian let out a squeak of shock, before wrapping her legs around his waist and holding on for dear life. There cheers from the crowd were loud, but it didn’t matter, the kiss was worth it.

“You sang One Direction for me?” She laughed as he lifted her off the stage and leant down to kiss her again. “I’m not sure I can kiss a man who likes One Direction!”

“You love it, and anyway I want to win my bet, and that-“

“You did this to sleep with me?!” She screeched about to smack his chest hard and then noticed the huge smile on his lips as he burst out laughing at her. “You bastard,” She muttered letting arms trail back round her waist and kiss her nose lightly.

“I missed you this tour,” Jimmy said simply a smirk on his face. “Really missed you,”

“I missed you too,” Rhian replied watching the man in front of her gaze down, his floppy black hair such a gorgeous contrast against his bright blue eyes.

“I kind of want to try something,” He smirked, knowing their friends would be crowded round them soon.

“You do?” Jimmy nodded leaning down and pressing his lips against hers again.

“I wanna try us,” He whispered trying to steal more kisses from her swollen lips, wishing he could control the desire that was starting to bubble up. It had been a long time since he’d felt like this, particularly for the past few months when the girl he was so interested in was half way across the world and he was in a tiny little tour bus, with a bunch of men.

“You realise you were only getting a kiss tonight if you won that bet!” Rhian smirked, her hands trailing under the soft fabric of his tight t-shirt. Jimmy shrugged leaning down and kissing her again, pushing one hand into her soft hair and pulling gently. Rhian couldn’t help but groan when he bit down on her lip and then gently pulled away.

“I think I have a good chance of winning that bet!” He replied with a satisfied smirk, squeezing her ass and gaining a glare from her. “What?” He laughed shooting her a wink. “Come home me with me tonight,” Rhian just nodded, still a little unsure of all this. “Promise me? Cause I will get up on that stage a sing again,”

“I promise,” She replied, standing on tip toes and pressing her lips against his, before being tackled down by Sarah who was screaming in excitement, and followed by the rest of their friends.

“I can’t believe you sung One Direction, just to win a bet,” Rhian added sending Jimmy a cute wink. “You could have just said you liked me,”

“Where is the fun in that?!”