Whiskey in the Jar

Matt was sitting on the sofa with his bleach blonde wife on his lap while thinking of one of his best friends, Brian. Matt and his wife, Val, were surrounded by all their friends and family so the house that the couple owned was busy and loud. It was full of life and still Matt couldn’t help but take a moment to think of his friend who was more like a brother to him. As if Val had telepathic capabilities she looked into Matt’s eyes and stroked his face,

“Why don’t you give him a call? Ask him to come over?” She like Matt cared for Brian and wanted him back.

“What’s the point when he’s not gonna show up? He doesn’t listen no matter how hard I try.” Matt shook his head and sighed. He knew that asking Brian to come would be a lost cause. The man had isolated himself and no matter how much Matt and most people that loved Brian had tried to help him, he just isolated himself even further.

Val had nodded her head in agreement with Matt and tried to come up with a better idea “text Jordan” Matt furrowed his eyebrows in thought and got his phone out of his pocket “tell her that we’re having a cookout and that she should try and convince Brian to come.” So Matt did exactly what Val said.

“I hope that he listens to her. More than he listens to me anyway.” Matt said as they both waited for a reply from Jordan.

====

Brian sat on a stool in his kitchen staring at a bottle of expensive whiskey that stood on the white counter tops that his dead wife chose. He was thinking about the things that Jordan told him the other day, about making Becca proud and the more he thought about the more he was convinced that he should at least try for Becca’s sake. But then the more he looked at the bottle the more he thought that it would be easier to just give in and devour all that whiskey. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Jordan’s steady footsteps coming closer.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” she gestured to the bottle. Her piercing green eyes were shining with need and her teeth were showing as if she were a hunter looking at her prey.

“I want to be better.” Brian said this so quietly, Jordan thought she imagined it. She stared at him for a second, her brain processing his words and then she looked back at the bottle.

“Take this bottle and pour it down the drain.”

Brian hesitated but took hold of the bottle nonetheless and headed to the sink. As he opened the bottle and the strong scent entered his nostrils, his senses were overpowered and for a split second he saw himself drinking and losing his mind. Jordan moved next to him so she could be there in case he couldn’t do it but surely enough Brian tilted the glass bottle and the contents were going down the drain. As the last drops left the bottle, Brian dropped it into the sink and exhaled the breath that he didn’t know he was holding. In that moment Jordan engulfed him into a tight hug showing how proud she was of him.

The hug was something that Brian needed, he felt like she gave him a reason to hold on. Someone once told him that a simple touch carries more meaning than a thousand words do and the moment that her skin touched his and her hair tickled his neck, she gave him the will to want to move on with his life. He was latching on to her support and strength for him that was slowly but surely empowering his recovery and he was beginning to believe that he found himself a new addiction. He grabbed onto her tightly and lost his breath for a short second just as his mind became a whirlwind of emotions that he couldn’t even begin to understand. Jordan was getting comfortable when gripped in his embrace so when she remembered her fourth rule that Brian was upset about she quickly backed away from the embrace and checked her phone that buzzed.

As she was reading the text message she received from Matt, Brian sat by the grand piano that was stood by the double doors leading to the beach and stared at the keys. Jordan sat next to him on the leather stool and began to play the first notes of Beethoven’s Fur Elise. Her notes were choppy and out of time but it erased the silence that was becoming awkward.

“I’m proud of you for being able to get rid of that bottle.”

“It was hard”

“It will get easier” In that moment Brian raised a shaky hand and began to play a simplified melody of a song that was unknown to Jordan.

“What song is this?” she asked softly.

“Victim. Matt wrote this when we lost our best friend Jimmy. At the time I didn’t know that I would lose two soulmates.” Jordan didn’t say anything and instead just listened to the piano filling in the silence of the house.

“Why not spend the time you have with your other friends? Matt misses you, you know?”

“No he doesn’t. They all hate me. When they found out what I did, they couldn’t even fucking look at me. It’s only a matter of time until they kick me out of the band.” Jordan was shocked to hear these words.

“That’s not true”

“What would you know about it, anyway?”

“Well first of all, if they all hated you then I wouldn’t be here and tell you what, Brian, my phone keeps blowing up every day because everyone’s just constantly asking how you’re doing.” This time it was Brian that was shocked at her words.

“Who the fuck is everyone?” He couldn’t think of one person that would give a shit about him.

“Your parents, your bandmates and random friends of yours that I’ve been introduced to-”

“So you’re like best friends with everyone in my life now? Is that what you do when you’re not around? You just go and see my friends and talk about me?!” Brian’s face was getting red from his anger and he felt sick.

“Calm your shit, Brian, for fucks sake and why won’t you just understand that these people just want to make sure that you’re alive and well?”

“Well why haven’t any of these people come to see me? But instead they sent a stranger who knows fuck all about my life?!” Deep down Brian knew that he did push away the people that cared most about him but he couldn’t help but blame everyone else. He saw the hurt in Jordan’s eyes when he called her a stranger and felt bad for hurting another person in his life. He knew that he made her think that they still haven’t progressed with each other but he also knew that, that wasn’t true because in the space of a few days he improved so much more than he could in a rehabilitative facility.

“I’m sorry” he said quietly and lowered his head.

“I know a way you can make it up to me” Jordan said mischievously with a smirk on her face in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“How?” Brian asked apprehensively. He wasn’t sure he was ready to hear what she had to say.

“Matt is having a cookout right now, we could go over there and you can see everyone!” Jordan said this with a huge smile on her face in order to make it sound appealing to Brian but instead of matching her facial expression he cringed as if he experienced physical pain and stood from the piano stool so that he could pace around his home.

“No way”

“Why not, Brian?”

“I just told you, Jordan. They hate me!” He threw his arms in the air as he was still pacing around.

“And as I just told you, Brian. They don’t hate you!” Jordan mimicked his arm actions as she twisted around the stool to face his pacing body.

“Don’t get smart with me, now.” He stopped moving and pointed a finger at her. There was a hint of playfulness in his words that made Jordan’s heart beat faster. She felt like she was doing her job really well and she was proud of herself.

“Look, if you feel uncomfortable at any time, we could just leave and come back here.” She tried to argue with him.

“I’m feeling rather uncomfortable now actually.” He mocked her.

“Don’t get smart with me!” She mimicked him again and earned a short laugh from him. The sensation felt strange to Brian as it felt like forever since he genuinely laughed. Although it didn’t last long, the laugh was still there and it rang in his ears. He didn’t want to admit this but he missed laughing and of course he felt guilty about it.

“Please, Brian”

“Fine!” He gave in before he could even think about it and the second he opened his mouth he already regretted it.

Jordan jumped out of her seat clapping her hands and ran for the stairs to get ready leaving Brian alone standing in the middle of his open plan home. He raised his eyebrows and shook his head at her enthusiasm before he went into his bedroom downstairs to also get dressed. Unlike, Jordan who knew what she was going to wear, how she was going to style her hair and do her make-up, Brian was struggling to find something decent to wear. He then looked at the mirror that was attached to the wall in the corner of the room and was completely displeased with what he saw. He must have stared at his reflection for a good half hour because Jordan came flourishing down the stairs dressed in a cropped black Adidas top with the classic white stripes on the short sleeves and black skinny ripped jeans. She wore a dark red lipstick to compliment her straight black shoulder length hair and her John Lennon style sun glasses. Jordan saw that Brian’s door was opened so she knocked on the door even though she was already half way in the room. She took off the sunglasses and cocked her eyebrow at the freshly showered half naked tattooed man that stood in front of her.

“Why aren’t you dressed yet, man?”

He turned away from the mirror to face her and gave her a look that insinuated the answer to her question was the most obvious thing.

“Because I look like shit, duh!” Jordan sighed and grabbed his hand dragging him to the bathroom.

“You need to shave.” She said as she handed Brian a razor. Brian stared at the razor in his hand as if it were a foreign object. “Well go on.” She nudged him when he wasn’t reacting.

“Do I have to?”

“No but if you’re not gonna then stop complaining you look like shit.” Jordan shrugged her shoulders and popped her bubble gum.

“Fuck me, you don’t take any shit do you?” Brian’s eyes widened at her reply. She laughed as she got comfortable by sitting in the bath tub and began to watch Brian in action. Watching him shave was mesmerizing for Jordan; the concentration that took to make sure Brian got every spot was attractive to her and the more hair he shaved off the more she saw what Brian really looked like. Brian was fully aware of Jordan’s eyes on him but fully ignored her and put more concentration into his shaving. Once he was fully done, he felt a lot better. He felt like his old self a bit more and he looked at Jordan for her opinion but she was silent. She didn’t want to him to know how much she enjoyed his face.

“Let me fix your hair.” That was all that she said before she started looking for a pair of sharp scissors. Once she had everything set up, Jordan made Brian sit on a chair and started working on his hair. It was coarse and too long; it needed fixing. She slowly worked through his hair piece by piece.

“Are you nervous?” Jordan asked as she saw Brian’s leg bounce.

“Fuck yeah! I can see it already, everyone just ganging up on me.”

“It will be fine, I won’t let anyone ‘gang up’ up on you.” She mimicked his voice and rolled her eyed at him “Trust me, Brian. They don’t hate you.”

Jordan cut the last piece of Brian’s hair and brushed it. “You’re ready.” She dusted off her hands as Brian stood from the chair and went to the mirror. He was looking like his old self again; his weird looking beard was gone, his hair was feeling like hair again and he noticed that the bags and bruises under his eyes were gone too since he stopped drinking and slept like a normal person.

“I still need to find something to wear.”

“Let’s raid your wardrobe then.”

“All my nice clothes are upstairs though.” Brian said this sadly. He didn’t have the gull to go into his walk in closet that he shared with Becca. Jordan guessed this so she went into the downstairs bedroom and started looking at the available options. Throwing random clothes around the room as Brian stood there still half naked watching her, she managed to find a clean black V neck top and a pair of grey jeans.

“Get dressed, I’ll wait in the car.” Jordan left him to get dressed.

Ten minutes later a freshly dressed and clean looking Brian walked out the front door. Jordan watched him as she leaned against the hood of her car feeling very proud of her work. She couldn’t deny that once cleaned up he was one good looking mother fucker.

“Let’s take one of my cars!” Brian shouted as he was walking towards the garage that contained a small number of cars Brian owned.

“Which one you want to drive?” she asked hoping that he would pick the convertible classic Mustang.

“How about you pick? I mean you’ve done all this shit for me the least I could do is let you pick a car.” Almost instantly she pointed to the Mustang.

As they were driving to Matt’s house, Jordan texted Matt to let him know that they were on their way. She turned her head to look at Brian who was looking at the road and couldn’t help noticing this physical attraction towards him that was growing inside of her. Shaking her head as it that would get rid of her thoughts, she distracted herself by turning the radio on and looked for a decent channel to listen to. Once she found him, she turned the volume up and enjoyed the wind that swept through her hair only to be met with silence. Brian had turned the radio off which caused Jordan to roll her eyes and think to herself ‘who cares if he’s hot as fuck when he can be such a dickwad’.

As they parked in Matt’s driveway and walked past the house and into the back garden where everyone was having a good time, Brian had felt a shock go through his body when his eyes met what was waiting for him. As if on instinct he grabbed Jordan’s hand and his eyes widened.

“What the fuck?!” he managed to shout before everything went black.