Love on the Brain

Brian’s eyes glared over at his amp, unable to focus on the riff, as he hit the wrong note again, this time causing Jimmy to start lashing out on him.

“God fucking damn it, Gates!” Jimmy all but yelled at his guitarist, sending his drumstick flying across the room, and watching as his mate just barely managed to duck under it. “Get your fucking shit together!” he sneered.

“Yeah, fucking hell,” Zack agreed. “You look bored,”

“Okay, let’s take five,” Johnny suggested, watching as the lead-guitarist all but stormed out of Matt’s basement and helped himself for a cigarette.

Matt sighed, before he rubbed his temple with his meaty fingers. He soon went to join Brian outside, knowing that he had to talk to his friend before the other band mates literally murdered him.

“Spill it, Gates,” Matt requested, fishing for his package of his cigarettes, meanwhile he watched as Brian lightened up his own stick.

“What do you mean?” he spoke with the cigarette dangling from the tiny gap of his lips.

“Come on, fuckface. You can’t hide it,” Matt quipped. “Val wants to fucking murder you for whatever you did to Jade,”

“What I did?” Brian half-snapped, sounding offended, as the singer all but rolled his eyes at him.

“Jeez. Come on. Get your fucking head out of your ass. What happened between the two of you?” Matt parted his lips and exhaled the strong smoke.

“We just had a little argument,” Brian shrugged.

“About?” Matt cocked his eyebrows, obviously not letting go of this.

“About how she doesn’t wanna sacrifice something for our relationship,” the guitarist muttered, before he brought the smoke out of his lips and tapped the end of it.

“I need more details than that,” Matt told his friend.

Brian sighed, and ran his free hand over his face. The whole week had been exhausting. Jade had avoided him the whole time; finding a new spot in chemistry class next to Michelle, who was constantly comforting her friend. Val and Michelle had been ignoring Brian ever since the argument, and told the others that they would not lunch with Brian before he got his shit together.

“She’s going to Yale,” Brian sighed.

“I thought that was her plan all along?” Matt asked, inhaling another drag.

“Well, yeah, or I don’t know. Her parents have been telling her that Yale is the best option, and I think she’s just too scared to stand up against them,” the long-haired guitarist shrugged.

“That sounds like bullshit, Syn, and you fucking know it,” Matt answered, meanwhile he pointed his smoke at his friend. “That chick has been rebelling against her parents ever since you guys started dating. She fucking dyed her hair red, snuck out of the house and stood up for your relationship. She’s been a fucking fighter the whole time,”

“It certainly doesn’t feel like that when she’s now moving away in order to attend college. She knows that it will be impossible for us to maintain a relationship from fucking Connecticut,” Brian responded bitterly.

“Are you kidding me?” Matt let out, shaking his head in disbelief. “Bri, she’s done so much in order to maintain your relationship, but you can’t seriously expect her to throw all of her ambitions out of the window in order to satisfy your dick,” he told his friend.

“I’m not expecting that either!” Brian argued.

“Oh, but you are! Going to Yale has been a big deal for her the entire time, and she hasn’t kept that a secret either. I think you have weird expectations, man,”

“I don’t!”

“You expect your girl to become a trophy chick, Syn. Of course you have weird expectations,” this time it was Johnny who spoke, as he had gone out to grab a cigarette himself.

“I don’t expect her to be a trophy chick!” Brian frowned his eyes at the bassist.

“You really fucked up, man. Yale is important for her, and you should be proud that you have a girlfriend who’s that ambitious and independent,” the bassist continued. “I’d be furious with you if I was Jade,”

“Fuck, I would’ve chopped your dick off if I were her,” Matt agreed.

Their words settled inside Brian’s mind. What if they were right? Did he have stupid expectations? Jade had in fact always been open about the fact that she was aiming for Yale, and her braveness had always been something that made her so attractive in his eyes.

Fuck my life, Brian thought to himself.

He didn’t want to admit it, but it was a huge possibility that his friends had a good point. Brian had been open about attending a college that was far away from hers, and he had never been as open about as Jade had been with her choice. He had been aware of her pattern all the time, and shaming her for it now, was just unfair and cruel.

“Fuck you guys,” Brian muttered, before he stepped on his cigarette, instantly feeling new nicotine withdrawals.

“We’re right,” Matt sniggered. “You better talk about it with her tomorrow,” he said.

“Yeah, before you do something even more stupid,” Johnny agreed.

“Brian doing stupid stuff? Well, that’s nothing new,” Zack sniggered, meanwhile he earned himself a nice view of Brian’s middle finger.

“Fuck you!”

“And fuck you too! Let’s go back to practice, yall! And Syn, if you fuck up, I will make you choke!” Jimmy told the lead-guitarist, pointing his finger at him.