The Only Thing I Ask

The wedding party ended late at night, half of them was drunk. Except for Leana and Jimmy. Jimmy was surprised for himself. He managed to turn down alcohol this time. He was driving Leana and Zoey home while Brian and Michelle already passed out at the back of his car with Zoey sleeping in the middle inside the babycar seat.

"You look beautiful in that dress, Lea." Leana rolled her eyes and smiled at him.
"You've been saying that the whole day, James."
"It's because it's true! I dunno when I will be able to see you in that dress again." Leana bit her lip and leaned closer to him.
"How about seeing me without it?"
Jimmy raised eyebrows at her. "That'll do too."
Leana laughed softly and leaned back to her seat. "I love our matching tattoos."

Three days ago, they got engaged secretly without the band knowing and got matching tattoos on their ring finger with each other's name. Jimmy smiled looking down at his ring finger. It says 'LEANA' all around and it was pretty amazing that nobody had noticed it yet.

"I was thinking of making a tattoo of Zoey, but I ran out of spaces on my body."
"Yeah you are. Your body is like a painting."
"I know. Sexy, right?" he teased. Leana blushed. She loved his inked body.

He drove on, a faint sound of pop song from the radio filled the car when they were both silent. Soon he pulled over to the curbside of a driveway, signaling that he was arrived at Leana's place. They both went out of the car and Jimmy opened the backseat door to retrieve Zoey. Brian and Michelle shifted in their sleep when Jimmy finally pulled off the baby car seat and brought Zoey out slowly.

"These assholes. Thank God they love each other." Jimmy murmured watching both Brian and Michelle embraced in their sleeping position without knowing.
"Here you go. She grew up so fast." He said handing Zoey over to Leana.
"Well, you were there the whole time. Thank you James."
"I'm glad to be there, watching her grow up. I just don't know if she would call me 'daddy' soon."
Leana chuckled softly. "She will. Don't you worry."

Jimmy approached her slowly, his hand rose to her cheeks. He caressed it and drew an invisible circle on it with his thumb.

"I love you Lea." Leana touched his wrist and smiled into his palm.
"I love you too James."

He leaned closer and kissed her softly on the lips. A kiss so soft and tender that made her stomach filled with butterflies. It's almost like a goodbye kiss. Well, it is a goodbye kiss since he was sending her home.

"I'd love to stay but I gotta send these two fuckers home." Leana laughed softly and nodded.

She didn't know why she felt like crying but when Jimmy walked away to the car, Leana ran to him again, with Zoey in her hand, still sleeping and kissed him hard as soon as he turned around. Jimmy rested his palm on her cheeks and kissed her back. He didn't want to let go. This girl and her daughter was the love of his life. He'd hoped to marry her someday and they both would start a happy family together.

After somewhat a long while of kissing, Jimmy pulled away. He sighed heavily, not wanting to say goodbye.

"I'll see you tomorrow, James." Leana whispered. He smiled and leaned down to Zoey. He kissed Zoey's lips lightly and her forehead too.
"See you." After that, they parted. He went into the car and drove away.

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It was a fine morning. The sky looked perfectly blue. Brian woke up with a heavy hangover. His head hurts so much that he didn't even remember how he end up on this bed. He glanced beside him, Michelle was sound asleep with her bridesmaid's dress still on. Despite the headache attack, he smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

He slowly got out of bed and suddenly realized he was still wearing yesterday's clothes only they were all crumpled up and messy. He walked towards the bathroom, trying to remember what really happened last night. He was dancing with Michelle, she kept stepping on his shoe and kept saying sorry. It didn't matter, she looked cute. He spun her around and the hem of her dress spreaded, revealing her sexy legs. He smiled to himself, in front of the mirror.

He found an aspirin inside the bathroom cabinet and quickly swallowed it in. He drank from the tap water and washed his face while at it. Taking his tuxedo off, he went into the shower.

While in the shower, Brian tried to recall again memories from last night.

Matthew was saying goodbye to them as he and Valerie went into their wedding car and took off to their four days of honeymoon in Italy. Brian couldn't drive, because he was already too drunk from the truth or dare game they made last night.

"Truth or dare, Synyster Gates?" Tona started.
Brian looked down on the empty wine bottle which pointed right at him.
"Dare."
"Aw man! You never pick the truth!" Zacky complained. He just shrugged at him.
"I dare you to drink this whole bottle and still can recognize your fiancée after." Tona uncorked a new red wine bottle and put it in front of Brian.
"You're a meanie, Tona." Tona smirked at him and shrugged.
Nevertheless he wasn't the type to easily quit so he took the bottle and drank the whole thing at one go.

Look at him now. Massive headache, but he wasn't sure whether he did recognize Michelle after the whole bottle went down his throat. But he was sure he did attempt to kiss someone, just wasn't sure who. Then he remembered being woken up by someone.

"Dude, we've arrived. Wake up."
"Huh?"
"I already carried Michelle inside. I can't carry you. You're too heavy."
"Jimmy!! My best friend in the whole world!!"
"Yeah I know. Now get your lazy ass up!"
Brian struggled to get up from his seat. Jimmy put his arms around him and led him to the door.
"Jimmy, I love you man. I love Michelle too. I love you both. I wanna marry you both." He started mumbling when Jimmy led him upstairs to his bedroom.
"Ew! I don't wanna marry you. But maybe we can have an affair behind Michelle's back."
Brian laughed. "Dude, you're like the best friend ever...in the whole world!"
Jimmy was done putting him on the bed, and tucking him in under the blanket. Michelle was already asleep beside him.
"You too, Brian. I love you man."

So Jimmy was the one who took them home. He got out of the shower and dressed himself casually. They didn't have any schedule today as they were all been given a week off because their leader was on his honeymoon.

"Baby, Michelle."
He flipped the blanket off her a bit and she curled up immediately.
"Michelle, honey."
"Mhmmm?" Michelle fluttered open her eyes. Brian kissed her on the lips briefly.
"I'm off to Jimmy's. You get dressed and we'll meet for breakfast. I'll text you the place later okay?"
She nodded. "My head hurts."
Brian stood up and went over to the bathroom. He returned with an aspirin and a glass of water for her. "Here, take this. I'm going now."
"Bye."
They kissed again and Brian went off.

Eventhough Michelle was having a hangover right now, she remembered clearly what happened last night. After Brian had taken the dare challenge from Tona, he drunkenly attempted to kiss Lacey, Tona's friend which end up with somewhat a funny as hell incident. Johnny suddenly barged in to protect the poor girl and Brian's lips landed on his instead.

The whole crew was shocked, mouth dropped and couldn't believe their eyes. Luckily Johnny's mouth was closed at the time. After that brief kiss between them, Brian just passed out and out of the game.

Michelle had to take 8 shots of Jack Daniel, a dare from Zacky. Those couple was meanie last night. Michelle wanted nothing more than to strangle them right now. She got up from the bed after taking the aspirin and went into the shower.

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(wrote this while listening to So Far Away-looping.)

Brian knocked for the fifteenth time. Still, nobody answered. Probably Jimmy was still sleeping. But he knocked as hard as he can, how can Jimmy not hear them?

"Yo, Jim! Open up!"

He knew where Jimmy kept his spare key so he searched under his door mat and found one. He didn't want to use it earlier because it will consider as breaching in.

As he entered Jimmy's house, it was dark. Like nobody was home. Brian dialed Jimmy's number. A tune called 'Walk' from Pantera suddenly echoed through the room. It was Jimmy's ringtone. He's home. Brian thought to himself. So he went upstairs into the bedroom. He saw Jimmy on his bed, sleeping with both of his arms wide open.

"Yo dude, get up. Let's get some breakfast!"

Jimmy didn't move.

"Jimmy, get up man!"

Still, he didn't move.

Brian moved closer to him, his stomach churned in a bad way.

As he drew closer he saw bottles of pills on the floor, scattered everywhere. A few of musical notations and lyrics were also lying wherever. Under his bed, on his pillow, simply wherever. Brian felt shivers went up his body.

He touched Jimmy's chest.

It was as cold as ice. He gasped. Hands over his mouth.

"JIMMY! JIMMY!" He shook Jimmy's body.

"GOD, JIMMY! WAKE THE FUCK UP!!"

Jimmy didn't answer. His face was calm, like he was still sleeping.

"JIMMY!!! JIMMY DON'T LEAVE ME! JIMMY NOT NOW!!"

Brian's hand was shaken, as he slapped Jimmy's face hard. Usually Jimmy would go ballistic if he woke him up like that. But today, he was calm. Tears were pouring down Brian's cheek like rain. He stumbled with his phone, trying to call somebody.

"911. What's your emergency?"
"He-hello! He-help! My friend- he- didn't wake up. Help!"
"Calm down sir. Tell me the address."
"56, Bayview Drive, Huntington Beach, California."
"We'll get there as soon as we can. Please calm down sir."

He hung up the call, and his body dropped down to the floor. He ran his hands everywhere, on his face, in his hair, pulling them out while watching his best friend lie cold like that. He couldn't stop crying,

"Jimmy, how could you...how could you leave...?"

He watched stiffly as the paramedics were doing their job. There was nobody beside him now. Not Michelle, not even the rest of the band. He was alone, facing all of this.

"260, Clear!"
Jimmy's chest was being pumped again. That was their fifth try. Still Jimmy didn't respond.

"Date and time of death, 28th December 2009, 8.45 am."

One of the paramedics announced finally. Brian closed his eyes, his warm tears falling down his cheek.

"We need to bring his body to the hospital for further procedure. You're advised to report his death to the police, sir."

Brian nodded weakly, his eyes dead. The paramedic patted him on the shoulder.

"My condolences." Then he moved on to do his work.

Brian already called the rest of the band including Matthew who was on his honeymoon right now. He called Michelle last, because he was so afraid that he will break down in front of her. But Michelle was the first one to arrive.

"Jimmy! Jimmy!" Michelle called as she went upstairs, to find there were a lot of people crammed in that room. The paramedics took Jimmy's body and put it into a large black plastic bag, the one that they use to put dead body in a crime scene.

Michelle broke down right there. She was practically kneeling in front of the scene, watching as Jimmy didn't fight when they shoved his head into the bag. Her tears went down like waterfall, kept pouring while there were no words escaped from her mouth. Brian slowly took her in his arms, they cried in each other's shoulder.

"Brian, Jimmy...he's..."

"I know baby. There's nothing we could do."

"Brian...he promised to go to our wedding...he promised to be your best man."

Brian broke down again when Michelle mentioned that. He did promise to be his best man. He tightened the hug around Michelle as the paramedics brought Jimmy's body out of the room.

Downstairs, Brian saw Zacky and Johnny arrived, stunned and mouth dropped open as they watched the paramedics walked past them, carrying a long black plastic bag.
"Jimmy?" Zacky called. But Jimmy continued to be carried away.

"Jimmy? Was that Jimmy? Why was he in there? Why wouldn't he fight? Why?" this time Zacky broke down in tears as he watched them put his body on a stretcher and pushed it into their van.

Johnny, being the strongest member ever right now, hugged Zacky, before he too, shattered on the floor, crying hard and screaming.

Brian and Michelle went downstairs and soon the four of them hugged together, lost in each other's embrace as the siren sound of the ambulance fade away.