If You Tell Me to Stay, I Will Stay Right Through

The next day, I got ready and hurried downstairs to my car, I needed to get an early start. My heart felt as if it was situated in a lower part of my chest. It felt heavy and reminded me of what had happened, which I was trying desperately to forget.

As I walked to my car I noticed a tall figure leaning against it, he couldn’t see me approaching.

Jimmy leaned against my car with his arms crossed and very smug look on his face.

“Jimmy?”

His head shot up and a grin spread over his face, but it quickly disappeared and he crossed his arms again with his nose in the air.

“The lady at the front desk said you weren’t allowing certain visitors and MY name was on the list,” He said, avoiding my face. “What did I ever do to you?”

I sighed, he looked hurt and my heart slipped a little further down. He was right, what did he ever do to me?

“Aw Jimmy I’m sorry. I really am. I just didn’t want Matt coming over here and what not,” I explained.

He peered down at me.

“You’re not getting away with it that easily,” He glared. I grinned, his glare was one of the least scariest ones I had ever seen.

“I’m sorrryyyyy,” I found myself whining.

He grinned, “Oh fine! Stop begging! I forgive you!” he beamed down at me.

I sighed dramatically, “Thank goodness! What a nightmare!”

He laughed joyously. “So I’ve come to bargain my sweet Natalie. My house is a disaster!! Food everywhere, clothes everywhere, it’s impossible to walk through it. I need your help. PLEASE. I can’t have the ladies over with a house like that,” he wiggled his eyebrows.

I looked up at him skeptically, “Soooo?”

“Can you please help me clean it??” He suddenly looked stressed out. Almost desperate. “In exchange, you can stay at my place until you find somewhere to live…or forever,” He clapped his hands together.

“Oh Jimmy, I don’t know. Brian offered the same thing and I said no,” I began explaining.

“Ummm you and Gates fight like brother and sister. That would never work. BUT you and I on the other hand, we’re like best friends,” He beamed, his smile was contagious.

“Oh geeze, we haven’t even known each other that long. As Matt said, you really don’t know anything about me Jimmy,” I said poking his stomach.

“Ah. But that is where Shadows is wrong. I know you. I see you. I get you,” He said in a more serious tone. “Besides, he didn’t even mean that. You’re an admirable person Natalie, and he knows that.”

I knew deep in my heart that Jimmy would never kick me out, but that meant running into Matt.

“Please Natalie!” he begged. His black hair was getting messy in the wind, he flicked it out of his face before plopping down on the ground. “I will lay here in this parking lot until you say yes,” He yelled loudly.

“Jimmy!! Get up! People are staring!” I mouthed a ‘sorry’ to some elderly people passing by. My face getting redder by the second. “Jimmy get up now!”

“NO!!!”

“Fine fine fine!!! I’ll do it! Now get up,” I said through my teeth. He grinned triumphantly.

“Great! Let’s go get your stuff!” He pulled my arm towards the lobby. As we passed the front desk he said, “We’re friends again!” The lady just smiled and shook her head, I can’t even imagine how much of a hard time he had given her.

I watched in amusement as Jimmy threw all my clothes into my suitcase. “I could’ve done that Jimmy,” I said shaking my head.

“Nope. You women take too long. We have shit to do! Let’s go!” He said pulling me up. I sighed as I checked out and followed him back to my car. “Alright just follow me okay? No funny business!

Actually, I’m taking one of your suitcases for leverage.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Jimmy was such a character.

I tried my best to keep up while doing my best not to break the speed limit, but it was impossible with Jimmy. I was relieved when we finally pulled into a nice two story, Spanish style house. No one could ever possibly guess that a famous rock n’ roll genius drummer lived here. I could tell that Jimmy liked to keep things simple.

“Welcome to my home Nat!” he said excitedly as he motioned for me to follow him.

As soon as we walked in, I was hit with foul odor. I crinkled my nose and gasped as I took in my surroundings.

“What in the hell happened to this place Jimmy!??” Pizza boxes had been thrown around the floor, empty bottles littered the coffee tables, and clothes were thrown EVERYWHERE.

“Well, I kind of had a few people over!” He said cringing at my expression.

“Yo Rev! I think we’re good dude. We trashed the WHOLE place! Natalie will never-,” Zacky walked in grinning and instantly stopped when he saw me.

Jimmy’s POV
Holy fuck. Zacky’s big fucking mouth was about to ruin everything.

“Natalie will never what?” Natalie asked arching her eyebrow.

“Natalie will never…uhh…finish cleaning! Because it’s JUST SO MUCH! I mean look at this place! It’s horrendous,” Zacky exclaimed throwing his hands up and failing horribly at covering up.

“Hm. Interesting. That makes you grin from ear to ear does it?” she asked. I could almost see her cop investigative instincts set in. Her eyes were drilling holes into Zacky.

“Don’t listen to Vengeance! He’s dumb!” I announced. “Let me show you to your room Nat!” I put my hand on her back and turned to glare at Zack who gave me an apologetic look.

I hurriedly pushed Natalie upstairs before she asked more questions.

I set her stuff down in her room, “I’ll let you settle in,” I smiled before quickly stepping out.

Sighing as I closed the door behind me, I went in search of Zachary Baker.

I made my way to the game room, well tried to. Zack had made a serious mess everywhere. It was all part of my genius plan to get Natalie to stay with me. Everyone knew about it, including Matt.

We didn’t want her wandering alone. She needed us. Zack almost blew my cover but thankfully Natalie seemed to have just brushed it off. Now, my next mission was to get Natalie to forgive Matt.
THAT was going to be a hard thing to do.

Zack was immersed in Call of Duty when I walked in. He paused his game and looked up at me.

“Dude you almost blew it,” I muttered as I plopped down next to him.

“I’m sorry! I thought she wasn’t coming until tomorrow!” He exclaimed in a whisper.

“Did you let Matt know?”

“Yes. He knows. He seemed relieved,” Zacky said. “I mean not for long…she still hasn’t forgiven him. He screwed up big time,” he said before taking a gulp of his beer. We never had appropriate times for drinking. Early morning or late at night, it was always acceptable. “I brought you one,” he nodded towards a beer sitting on the coffee table.

“Thanks. Yeah, I don’t know how that’s going to be fixed. I feel for Matt, but I completely understand where Natalie is coming from. By the way, good fucking job ruining my house,” I glared but then broke out into a laugh.

Zacky grinned, “Dude, this is legit. You know I did a good job. She’ll have work for days. There’s no way she would finish this in a day,” He leaned back with a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Hell yeah, this is perfect. Where’s Short Shit? I thought he was coming? I feel like picking on someone,” I grinned. Picking on Johnny was one of my favorite hobbies. I loved the dude so much, but he was so easy to pick on.

“Oh he said he wasn’t participating in any of our activities because he wanted to stay on Natalie’s good side. He’s such a wimp,” Zacky laughed. “He has THE biggest soft spot for her because she stands up for him.”

I laughed along with him, “She’ll be the only one to EVER do that. Everyone else thinks it’s funny.”

“So get this, remember that envelope Val gave to Nat to give to Matt?” Uh oh, Zacky was about to give me some juicy gossip.

“Yeah what about it?”

“Well, turns out that it’s the divorce papers BUT….now Val wants him back,” Zacky said shaking his head.

“WHAT!!” I felt my eyes bulge out of my head. “Is she insane? She can’t just pick him and then throw him out whenever she feels like it!”

“I know. Matt was pissed. I’m kind of nervous that she’ll manage to convince him though,” Zacky said solemnly.

“He better not listen to her. Val isn’t the same person anymore man. She’s changed,” I reminded him, although I knew I didn’t need to remind him. We all knew this.

I had a feeling things were about to get worse before they would get better.

Matt’s POV
I sat in my office reading over the divorce papers with my lawyer. Val wouldn’t be getting any of my money, which I felt bad about. Why would I give my money to someone who cheated on me though?
So she could go share it with her lover? Yeah, fuck that.

We discussed a few more things. All that was left was for Val to sign the papers and it would be done. For some stupid reason though, she was regretting her decision.

I still wanted a divorce though. Yes, it still hurt. I would be losing someone I had known for such a long time, someone who I had gone through everything with. This had to be done though. Jimmy was right, things between Val and I would never be the same again.

After my lawyer left, I felt alone once again. It was pathetic. I debated going over to Jimmy’s but I knew I had to be patient. I was the last person Natalie wanted to see right now. It hurt to know that but it was the truth.

I screwed up so bad. If I could go back to that day I would. I would listen to what she had to say. Why had I been so stupid? I cringed every time I remembered her face when I kicked her out.

Thankfully, Jimmy’s plan had worked and she wasn’t wandering around alone. Even though I knew she would be safe at Jimmy’s, I still wanted her with me. In my house. Where I could protect her.

God, I missed seeing her in my house. She always looked like she belonged here. She fit right into my home. I was going to do everything in my power to get her back. What if it wasn’t enough though?

We had a show tonight, and I wasn’t looking forward to it whatsoever. Not that I didn’t love performing but it was just a bad time right now. I felt fucking exhausted.

My thoughts were rudely interrupted when Johnny Christ walked in. “What do you want Short Shit?”

“It’s time to go man, I thought we were riding to the venue together? We have that interview and then sound check and shit,” He explained as he fooled around on his phone.

I sighed heavily, “Fine, let’s go.”

Lately, I had been an asshole to everyone. I needed to stop. This shit I had going on was no one’s fault but mine. My friends had been doing everything they could to help me. I made a mental note to change my attitude.

It didn’t last very long. It resurfaced when we arrived at the venue, we were instantly ushered into a room for an interview. We had to answer the same fucking question that we answered everywhere else. Why couldn’t they just google this shit?

Johnny did most of the talking, I guess he sensed my bad attitude.

After we finished, we headed to the dressing room where Brian, Zacky, and Jimmy sat waiting.

“How is she?” I immediately asked.

“She’s fine. Busy. Thanks to Vengeance over here,” Jimmy nodded towards Zacky.

I grinned, “Hey thanks for all of this.”

“We got you man,” Jimmy grinned back. Brian groaned loudly and all eyes turned to him.

“You guys…this is such a bad idea. She’s going to find out,” he complained.

“Are YOU going to tell her?” Zacky asked.

“Of course not!” Brian quickly defended. “I’m just warning you guys.”

“If she were to find out, this would be done. She would want nothing to do with us anymore,” I mumbled.

“Hey hey hey!! Let’s keep our heads up! And I do mean the ones on our shoulders!” Jimmy yelled. “It’s working so far right?!”

We all nodded, small smiles playing on our faces.

Time seemed to pass by quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to go on stage.

The guys took their places on the stage and I waited for my queue.

I stepped out and the crowd went wild, giving me an instant adrenaline rush.

The crowd, the fans, made me forget my problems…I realized that this wasn’t bad timing. It was actually the perfect time for a show, just what I needed.

It wasn’t until after the third song, when I start talking to the crowd about how happy we were to be here, that I saw Natalie. My heart went wild.

Why hadn’t Jimmy told me she was coming? I swung around to get his attention while Brian took over the mic.

“She’s here!” I yelled to him as Brian told one of his lame jokes. Jimmy looked at me confused.

“Natalie? She didn’t tell me she was coming!!” His eyes widened and started to scan the crowd.

She was standing in the crowd of fans…to the side, her arms crossed over her chest. A small smile graced her lips. She didn’t know that I had seen her. I had my aviators on and my face slightly turned away from her so that only my eyes were towards her.

Why was she here? Was she here for me? Or maybe just to support Jimmy? That last thought made my heart drop.

Relax Shadows, don’t jump to conclusions. As we started into the next song, I saw her smile widen.

She was beautiful when she smiled.

My heart soared with happiness just knowing she was here. I wanted to let her know that I knew she was here but what if that scared her away?

As the song ended I decided to go with my gut, “Thank you guys! You guys are fucking insane tonight! Now this next song is a special song and I want to dedicate it to someone who I admire and care about. Natalie, this is for you!” Dear God rang through the speakers. I watched her expression.

She seemed to have a content look on her face. She didn’t run off and I took it as a good sign. Her eyes were slightly narrowed though, which told me I wasn’t going to be forgiven this easily.

I sang my heart out to her and hoped that every word reached her heart.