I Like the Remix

Tori and Raelyn had left with Val a few minutes ago. The latter offering to take them home, rather than have to call a cab or an Uber. Brian frowned as he thought of how quickly Tori had hopped off of the bar stool and ran for her things in the other room. Soon after that, Raelyn had said goodbye to the guys sitting in the kitchen, Matt having joined them. She thanked Matt for letting her and Tori stay and then walked out to meet Tori who had opted to wait outside by the car.

“Well that was interesting.” Matt chuckled. “Normally, Tori is the one that says goodbye because Raelyn doesn’t want anything to do with us. So, what happened last night?” He inquired. Both Brian and Zacky shared a look before shrugging slightly. “Nice try, I know what you guys look and act like when hungover after getting really fucked up… Neither of you look that bad. So, let’s try that again… What happened last night?” Matt asked again, his tone changing from playful to serious.

Zacky threw his hands up, “Don’t look at me… I didn’t even know they were at the club when we got there…” He defended to Matt as he glanced towards Brian who was glaring daggers into him.

“Way to throw me under the bus, Zack.” Brian muttered before sighing. “They were at the bar when I went up to order a round of drinks for everyone. They were getting shots… They made comments that pissed off Michelle, so she stormed off. I gave them a friendly warning that they were drinking too much too quickly to drive home later on…” Brian shrugged with a look of innocence on his face.

“Just a friendly warning, huh? Then where was Michelle last night?” Matt raised an eyebrow at Brian. He watched the guitarist heave a heavy sigh. “Look man, you’re one of my best friends. But she’s my sister-in-law… And I don’t want Val to kill me. Just don’t be stupid about whatever you end up deciding to do. Alright?” Matt pleaded with a grimace.

Brian just nodded as Zacky thought back to the night before.

Val had gone to the bar to get their drinks. She had said something about looking around for Michelle to which Brian had coughed slightly and looked away. Zacky glanced at Brian waiting for him to say something to Val about the fact that Michelle had left. Or at least, that’s what Brian had said to him when he came back to the table earlier. He hadn’t seemed upset about Michelle leaving, but he was somewhat sulky about something else. As had been evident when he came back with a pretty much empty bottle of beer.

“Michelle didn’t come with you?” Matt asked, his eyebrows knit together in confusion.

Brian looked over at him and shrugged his shoulders. “She said she still had to get ready and that she would meet me here.” He lied easily. “I wasn’t about to fight her on what she wanted to wear or how she looked.” Zacky scoffed and then started coughing to cover it up when Matt looked at him.

“Sorry, choked on my beer.” He lied as he gestured to the half empty bottle. “So, you think Val will find her?” He asked Brian with a slight smirk on his face.

Brian shot his friend a glare and then spoke up. “Maybe she’ll have invited Meaghan.” He smirked at the dark look that came across Zacky’s face. “The breakup still a sore subject?”

Before Zacky could come up with a retort, Val had returned with a tray of beers and the two girls who had stirred up a bit of trouble with their reappearances. “Look who I found hanging out at the bar!” She exclaimed happily.

“Hey guys!” Tori stated with a warm smile and a wave.

“What’s up?” Raelyn asked with a businesslike smile, glancing from each member of the band to the next until she ended up on Zacky.

“Not much. It’s nice of you to join us.” Matt smiled at them, and moved out of the way so Raelyn could get into the booth he was on. Johnny and his girlfriend, Lacey, had moved out of the way for Tori to sit next to Brian. All eyes were on them, waiting with bated breath to see if their seats would cause a problem. The two girls shared a look, shrugged and slid into the booths.

“I remember Val bringing the girls back to the table with her. We were all expecting Tori to randomly stab Brian.” He answered with a chuckle. Matt nodded with a laugh of his own. “But something tells me you mean later on in the night?”

Matt nodded. “I mean the stuff we didn’t witness. I just don’t want to read an interview somewhere that says we were total assholes… You know?” Brian and Zacky nodded in agreement. Even when they were out, they had to try and make sure they didn’t cause any kind of scandal. Whoever said any publicity was good publicity was a complete moron.

“So what do you remember?” Zacky asked Matt suddenly, maybe if they knew what he had seen they could give him what he wanted to hear without sounding like lustful assholes.

Matt shook his head at Zacky’s dumb question. “I remember convincing the four of you that coming back to the house was a better idea than one of you driving. You both seemed pretty plastered, but the girls were most definitely worse for wear. Now get talking.” He growled out.

“You walked away to hang with Val,” Brian spoke up, a slightly disgusted look on his face. “I have no right to talk about the making out part and making comments cause me and Michelle have been gross… But hot damn… Don’t do that shit in public!” He shuddered. “I had a few more beers… And when I noticed some guy being an asshole I went and helped Tori out…” He shrugged it off like it was nothing.

“I bought Raelyn another drink. And we just talked.” Zacky admitted as he thought back to the previous night again.

“Soooo, you’re not having a horrible time tonight?” He asked her with a slight frown. Usually Raelyn avoided them like the plague. But she’d been friendly and talking with all of them, she seemed to especially like their new drummer, Arin and his girlfriend.

Raelyn giggled, “Noooo.” She stretched her arms above her head and then finished what was left in her glass before looking back at him. “You guys aren’t thaaaaaat bad.” She giggled again after she hiccupped. The giggling seemed to be something she did when she was drunk, or at least that’s what his intoxicated self was deducing at the moment.

“So we didn’t ruin your night by being here?” He asked again, as he started to feel relieved at her answer.

She looked at him thoughtfully before shaking her head. “Nope.” She stated popping the ‘p.’ “Not many guys willingly load me up with this much liquor when they don’t know whether or not I’m going to let them in my pants…” She paused and started to giggle when she realized that didn’t apply to her in the dress. “Or dress I guess… Ooooh I’m rhyming… I’m totally trashed.”

Zacky chuckled, “Yeah, just a bit.” She went on to giggle again. “You have a cute laugh.” He smiled as her cheeks heated up. The only reason he could tell was that the blush rose to most of her face since her cheeks were already flushed from being drunk. “Am I embarrassing you?” He asked with another chuckle.

“N-no.” She spoke up too quick, and her voice came out in a higher pitch than before. He started to full on laugh and she pouted. “Don’t laugh at meeee.” She whined. As he continued to laugh she moved to cover his mouth with her hands. Her eyes widened in shock as he licked her hands. “Ewww! Did you just lick me?!” She asked incredulously. “I don’t think I’m drunk enough for that.” Raelyn said with a shake of her head.

Zacky laughed at her comment. “Are you sure you can handle another drink?” She shrugged her shoulders and glanced down at her empty glass. “I can order you another one if you really want it. But you said it yourself, you’re pretty trashed.” He took a swig out of his beer as he waited for her response.

“I dunno. Probably not… Everything’s kinda blurry.” She admitted with another giggle. “Maybe just some water…” Her voice trailed off as she saw a waiter walking by with a blue cocktail, the color having her intrigued. “I wonder what that tastes like…”

Zacky shook his head. “You want one?” She looked over at him like he was a saint and nodded with a childish smile. “I’ll be back.” He stated with a small smile before heading towards the bar. He returned a few minutes later with another bottle of beer for himself and a blue cocktail that looked just like the one that had just walked by. He set the glass down in front of her and then took his seat across from her. He watched as she took a long sip and then smiled blissfully. “That good?”

“Oh god, yes. I don’t know what it is… But I think I’m in love…” She closed her eyes happily and he swallowed nervously as he eyed up her lips. She took another sip before looking back at him with another smile. “Thank you!” She leaned her elbows on the table so she was about six inches away from him. “Tori woulda cut me off by now.” She slurred. Zacky shrugged as he swallowed again. She shivered slightly as a waiter turned on a nearby fan and pouted.

“Cold?” She nodded and then looked like she got an idea. Before he could offer her his hoodie or ask her about it, she had slid out of the booth from across from him, nearly falling when she got to her feet next to the table. Her left hand coming out to catch the table. He went to catch her waist, but she had managed to slide into the booth next to him, and was now sitting in his lap with her right arm wrapped around his neck and her legs laying across the booth to his left. “What are you-” She cut him off by placing her lips on his, turning slightly so they were chest to chest.

“I feel much warmer now.” She admitted with a small smile when she pulled away.

Zacky’s eyes widened as he remembered their drunken actions. “What is it, man?” Matt asked, looking concerned.

“Nothing… Just some of the shit she talked about was… Deep…” He mumbled, not wanting to get into anything that would make him think deeper into it. She had been wasted… Probably didn’t remember it… Or wouldn’t want to. “But yeah, I only know what happened with Raelyn… Brian was the one who was up close and personal with Tori.” He stated wanting the attention off of him.

Matt turned to look at Brian who was grumbling. “All we did was dance.” Brian stated with a shrug as he let himself think back to the night before. It was blurry, but he was pretty sure he remembered almost everything.

He had managed to get the guy to back off. So when Tori asked him to dance with her, he had glanced around and realized there were other guys looking at her and decided that why not give her one dance. They had danced for nearly an hour before heading to the bar to get another drink. The two took a seat and she did a couple of shots before speaking up. “We coulda been really happy.”

“You didn’t want to be happy with me.” Brian grumbled after downing the shots that had been placed in front of him. “You left me.” He glared down at the bar top like it would change the truth.

“You hurt me. I was hurt when Jimmy died too… But I didn’t get into bed with other guys over it...I didn’t get into bed with one of my exes. You did. And it hurt. Nothing in the world would have gotten me to stay at that point.” She sighed as she ordered another drink.

“Not even if I had proposed?” Brian asked, suddenly the question that had eaten away at him for years coming to the surface. “I mean obviously you knew that was coming since you snapped at me about proposing to Shelly with the same ring.”

Tori sighed and downed the rest of the drink. She wasn’t numb enough for the conversation at hand. “If you had prop-” Her sentence was cut off by a hiccup. She placed a hand to her chest for a moment before speaking again. “Proposed… I would’ve been more hurt.” She responded before clamping her mouth shut as she hiccupped again. He sighed when he realized that was all he was going to get out of her until the hiccups stopped. It had amazed him that she was able to keep that habit to her even when drunk.

“Can we get a couple of glasses of water?” He requested from the bartender as he watched her body jerk again, his eyes drifting to the way her dress hugged her chest. He swallowed as his mind went to dirtier thoughts.

“We talked after dancing and that’s about it before you and Val came up and said it was time to go.” Brian shrugged.