Fall From Grace

“Spencer is totally into you,” Jessie said as she pulled her car up to curb outside my house.

“He is not. We just met today, crazy,” I argued, getting my things together to exit her car.

“Why’d he give you his number and insist that you call him then?” She had a look on her face like she’d won the argument.

“There are certain things that you go through with a person and can’t help but become friends afterwards. I’m pretty sure him pretending to me my boyfriend is one of those things,” I said and shrugged off her words.

Jessie just shook her head and called me an idiot as I climbed out of her car and shut the door. She honked the horn three times in her signature way as pulled back out onto the road.

~x~

I let myself in the house and went straight upstairs to my bedroom. Closing the door behind me and dropping my bags to the floor before shrugging out of my hoodie. I was just started to turn around when Zacky spoke.

“Since when do you have a boyfriend and not tell me?”

I let out an embarrassingly high-pitched scream and stumbled backwards into the closed door.

“What the fuck you bitch? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” I nearly screamed at him.

I expected him to laugh, but instead he had an unreadable expression on his face. I crossed my room and sank down onto the bed next to Zacky, willing my heart rate to return to normal.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he said pointedly, not meeting my eyes.

“I don’t have a boyfriend, Zacky. You know that you would be the first to know if I did,” I said. What did it matter to him anyway?

“What about the cashier guy at the mall that Brian was telling us all about earlier today?” he asked. He was really starting to irritate me. Why didn’t he just believe me?

“Oh, him. Brian was being a dick to me in the store and the guy told me to play along. He pretended to by my boyfriend to make Brian get off my back. That’s all it was,” I explained.

“Next time you lie to me, make sure there weren’t witnesses. You kissed him. I know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t just kiss some random stranger,” he said as he suddenly got to his feet. Without another word, he left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Well that was fucking weird.

~x~

I was in the middle of putting a fresh coat of black nail polish on my fingernails when the sound of my ringtone filled the room. I closed the bottle and flipped open my phone, not bothering to see who it was first.

“Melanie, you might want to come meet me,” Johnny’s voice said through the earpiece.

“Why would I do that?” I asked, disinterestedly blowing on my nails to dry them faster.

“Zacky’s drunk off his ass and he keeps insisting that you betrayed him. He won’t listen to anyone and he refuses to leave the bar. He might respond better to you," he said and I could Zacky slurring out his words loudly in the background. He was telling Johnny to hang the phone up.

“What’s the address?” I asked with a sigh. What was up with him today?

~x~

When I got to the bar, Johnny was waiting for me outside the door. “She’s with me,” he said to the bouncer as the rather large man nodded and opened the door for us.

“What was that all about?” I asked, wondering how they’d even managed to get in a bar.

“Our band plays here a lot and we’re all in good with the employees. They know we’re underage, but say nothing,” he explained.

Whatever response I had in mind slipped away as my eyes fell upon Zacky. To put it simply, he looked like shit. He was leaning all over some poor girl who looked more than a little creeped out. I gave her an apology and insisted that he wasn’t usually like this. When I took Zacky by the arm, she gave me a grateful look before taking off.

“What’s gotten into you, Zacky?” I asked.

“Get away from me,” he slurred, trying to pull away from me, but only managing to fall on his ass, knocking over three different barstools on his way down.

“Let’s get him out of here,” Johnny said as he came forward and helped me pull Zacky up off the ground. Together, we managed to get him outside and into my car.

“I’ll go get my car and meet you at his house.” Johnny started to walk away but I called him back. I had no choice, really.

“I’m not strong enough to manage him by myself if he freaks out again. Just sit back there with him; I’ll bring you back for your car.”

Without another word, Johnny climbed into the backseat and closed the door. The ride to Zacky’s was silent except for the snores emanating from Zacky after he passed out with his head in Johnny’s lap.

When I pulled in the driveway, Johnny shook Zacky until he awoke with a groan. Working together again, we got him out of the car and through the front door. The stairs were the hardest part, but we finally managed to get Zacky safely to his bed.

“Wait downstairs, I need to talk to this idiot,” I said. Johnny nodded and left me alone with my friend.

“What has gotten into you, Baker?” I asked quietly as I pulled the blankets up to tuck them around Zacky’s body.

“Nothing new,” he slurred, batting my hands away and throwing the blankets back off of him. He sat up quickly and looked at me strangely.

“Do you need a bucket or something?” I slowly started backing away in case he felt the need to vomit. I didn’t need it all over me.

He said nothing, but instead grabbed my arm and pulled me down practically on top of him. He roughly pressed his lips to mine, not letting me pull away. When he released me, I just pushed him back onto the bed and covered him with the blankets.

“Just sleep it off,” I muttered absently as I flipped off his light and left the room.

This was so not good.