Almost Easy

Matt’s POV



“Matt!”

Liz’s voice carried through the bus as I crawled from the bunk we had fell asleep in together, I could smell burning rubber and there was smoke blurring my vision, “Liz?! Lizzy!” I shouted and stumbled over bent metal, “Liz!”

I could hear her shouting but no longer heard her words, I looked behind me suddenly and as if I’d been walking for days the bus was in flames behind me. I was far enough away the heat was barely reaching me, “Matt!”

I turned around as Zack ran towards me, “Where is she?” I asked, trying to rub the smoke from my eyes as he ran past me, “Zack!”

“Matt!” He screamed and continued running, I shook my head and felt something on my shoulder, I turned around and in to a small set of arms.

“Oh baby, babe!” Liz’s voice muffled in to my chest, her hair smelled the same as it always had, her perfume was strong as it hit my nose. I pulled back to look at her but her face wasn’t there. I felt my hands get cold.

“Lizzy, what happened? Liz? Baby, Liz, what’s going on?!” I could feel her arms beneath my fingertips as she swayed gently against my grasp.

“You didn’t save me, why did you run to me?!” She was crying tears were falling down her face but she had no eyes, I couldn’t stop shaking my head.

“Fuck! Liz I tried so fucking hard!” I shouted and felt something in my left hand, looking down I was suddenly holding a glass, “Where the fuck-”

“You were drunk!” She cried and pushed back from me this time, and when I looked from the mysterious glass in my hand to her again, her face was back. She was sobbing and bloody tears were falling down her cheeks, “You were so drunk you couldn’t save me!”

“No, babe, I... I don’t even know-”

“Matt!”

What the fuck? I turned around, holding on to Liz’s arm so that hopefully somehow, I wouldn’t lose her this time, but she was pulling against me as someone ran towards us, “What the fuck...” I couldn’t help dropping Liz’s hand as Val ran towards us from the bus that was still somehow burning in the distance.

“Matt! Matt where did you go?!” She stopped in front of me and I blinked, trying to clear my foggy eyes and make sense of what was going on, what was this? A nightmare that’s what. I couldn’t move more than a foot as Val lept in to my arms, “You helped me get out but you left!”

I turned back to face Liz and she was sobbing again, “You ran to save her and not me!”

“No, Liz, no!” I reached out for her but she was just further than my outstretched hand. Val was holding on my opposite arm, the one holding the glass, “Let go of me, fucking let go of me!”

“Stay, stay right here!” She shrieked, “Don’t go to her!”

“Matt you fucking chose your life,” Liz bit her lip as I felt wetness on my face, “You fucking chose her and booze over me! You let me go.”

“No, Liz, no.. No!” I shouted as she began backing up towards the bus, Zack running and screaming towards her now out of nowhere, “Lizzy no!” I yanked against my arm. I looked behind me and I was holding on to the glass still but my leg was cemented to a post, “Liz stop!” I shouted as she fell backwards in to the fire, my heart wrenched from my chest as Zack screamed.

“No!” He shouted, “Fucking no! Stop!” He was so loud but still running away from me towards Liz, “Stop it! No!”



I felt more wetness on my face and sat up, slamming my head in to something hard and threw my hands out in front of me, waiting for the heat to tear up my palms but there was nothing. I opened my eyes and fell out of my bunk, three sets of feet in front of my face. I looked up at Zack, Jimmy, and Jason. Zack was holding my X-Box and Jimmy had a bucket in his hands.

“Dude,” Zack hoisted me up and grabbed me by the shoulders, “You almost caught your fucking bunk on fire you fucking idiot.” He thrust the scorching hot console at me, “You fell asleep with the damn thing on again, I told you to fucking shut that shit off before you torch the bus one of these nights!”

I shook my head and dropped the console, watching pieces of it fly over the hallway, “You need to stop drunk playing Call of Duty, you were screaming in your fucking sleep like you were fighting something.” Jimmy set the bucket down, that’s when I realized there was water everywhere, “You didn’t wake up the first two times I doused you man.” He looked down at my bunk, “You can sleep in mine, I’ll take the couch-”

“No,” I shook my head, realizing how coarse my voice was now, “No it’s fine I’ll sleep out back.”

“Uhm,” Zack grabbed the bottle of Jack from my bunk and looked at me, “We should go talk out front though.”

“Are you sure?” Jason asked Zack, looking at me skeptically.

“I’m sure.” Zack nodded, “He can try to burn us all drunk we can tell him drunk.”

“I swear I didn’t drink much,” I shook my head, the nightmare still pulsing through my veins. I could still smell the burning but I assumed it was probably the fact my X-Box console was still hot as fuck under my feet. I could still hear Liz’s voice ringing in the back of my head and looking at the bottle of whisky I knew she was right. I took it all over her, “Give me that.” I grabbed the bottle from Zack with force and trudged to the sink in the front of the bus, noticing everyone else was awake and out there. I opened the cap and let the amber liquid flow down the sink.

“Alright then.” Brian muttered sleepily, “What are we talking about first? Why Matt was losing his shit in his bunk, how we’re going to deal with it, or why Zack and Jason have been up all night out here whispering like school girls?”

“The latter.” Zack gestured for me to sit down, “So we dug.”

“In to what?” Johnny asked, averting his sympathetic look from me before he thought I could notice it.

“Jason’s brain.” Jimmy yawned, “They didn’t even go to bed last night, they stayed up until Jason remembered.”

“Remembered what?” I asked, walking to the fridge and getting a bottle of water and taking a long drink.

“So we’ve all decided,” Brian rolled his eyes, “We don’t hate you as much as we want to. As much as we should, and we’re going to track Liz down.”

“So what did Jason remember?” I asked.

“That’s the part I need you to relax for.” Jason gestured for me to sit down beside Brian. I squinted at him and followed his lead and he set a laptop down on my legs, “This is what we found.”

My heart stopped in my chest as the name echoed in my eyes across the screen, “This can’t... this can’t be right.”

“It is. She as a super restricted profile on Facebook, so all we have is a picture of her for her profile picture. But...” Zack clicked on a button which brought up a man, “Her husband’s profile is significantly less restricted.”

“She got married.” I whispered and let the computer slide through my fingers, down the decline of my legs and Jason caught it before it hit the floor, “She’s.... She got married.” I wiped at my eyes before the tears started, “Liz Heely?” I looked up as they nodded, “Liz Heely...”

“So... Uhm, his location says Greensburg, Indiana.” Zack crouched in front of me, “We have a stop in Indy, I know this is a lot, I know she might lose it on us and it could get really ugly and bad really fast.. But I googled the last name with the town and there’s a dental office owned by that family.”

“We can’t just go to their family business, Zack.” Brian sighed, “We have to do something different.”

“Like what?” He asked, “Let her slip by again?”

“I... Can I see that again?” I took the computer from Jason as he carefully stood behind it to make sure I didn’t drop it. I looked at the face of the man whose last name Liz had taken. Instantly I hated him, instantly everything about his picture I hated, “This is what I pushed her to?”

“Let’s put the computer away for the night-… Morning.” Brian corrected himself, “We’re going to be at our next show soon and we should all really get some sleep.”

“Yeah,” Zack nodded, “We just needed to tell you guys that and... well and stop Matt from burning down the bus.”

“I’m done drinking.” I shook my head, “I’m done drinking because that pushed her away.” I looked up at Zack and shook my head, ”She’s gone, she’s long gone. But I can definitely get over it.”

“Jesus we should have found out she got married sooner.” Brian kicked my leg, “Get some sleep scratchy voice, the kids will hate you tonight if you sound like shit.”

I nodded and disappeared to the back of the bus, burying my face down in to the spare blankets I had taken from my bunk with me, tears streaming down my face instantly. Heely. Elizabeth Heely.

Fuck.