My New Obsession [BxB]

Chapter Nineteen [Part One]- The Beauty That I'm Faking

 The journey to the venue was going to be a long one, three hours or so depending on the traffic, and we were scheduled to stop at every other roadside service station. I wasn’t surprised when Jake announced that he was cracking open the first bottle of Jack Daniels. In fact, the only thing that surprised me was that he hadn’t done it sooner. He glugged down some before handing it to Rich, who had possibly the smallest sip ever before handing it to Bryan. By the time Bryan passed it on the level of liquid had dropped by a considerable amount. I frowned as George took a rather large drink. It wasn’t good for him. But, then again, it wasn’t good for any of us. This thought didn’t stop me in having a fair amount myself, however- and then I paused.

 “C’mon, guys,” Matt said, his arm outstretched. “don’t do this.”

 I looked to George who was sat between me and his brother.

 “I don’t know, Matt…”

 “I don’t have a drinking problem! And even if I did, it’s not like any of you could judge me for it!” he snapped.

 “Matt…” George sighed. “Fine, you can have a bit- but only a little, and it’s your only drink for the day.”

 Matt rolled his eyes as he snatched the bottle out of my hands and started to drink. After a moment or two George tried to prise the bottle away from his mouth, but Matt clung onto it. I was about to smack the glass bottle away when he finally lowered it and put the lid back on, smiling to himself as he handed it back to Jake.

 “See? Fine.”

 I went back to staring out of the window and tried to focus on the Nirvana playing instead of the banter going on between the guys. As Nevermind was my father’s favourite Nirvana album, if not his favourite album of all time, the music on it was very important to me and ignoring it seemed rude. George squeezed my hand and I turned my attention to him.

 “You okay?” he asked.

 “Yeah.”

 “You’re quiet- are you nervous?”

 “I’m trying not to think about it too much.”

 “Me too.”

 He smiled and we went back to being silent.

 Even if Nevermind hadn’t been one of my dad’s favourites, it would certainly still be one of mine. Nirvana were definitely one of my favourite bands. Their music had strange twists, happy melodies with melancholy lyrics, melancholy melodies with melancholy lyrics, and no-one could disregard the punk energy on songs like Territorial Pissings.

 I looked to Jake who was busy laughing and throwing crisps at Rich, and wondered what his father’s favourite album would have been. And his mother’s.

 Then I got to thinking about all of our families. I didn’t have a dad, but I had my mum. It was strange how much I missed her already. But Jake didn’t have a mother or a father. Did he ever wonder what his life would be like if they were alive? Did he ever wonder if they would be a tightly knit unit or if they would argue or if his parents would be divorced or if he would have siblings- those were the kind of things I wondered about my own family.

 The Foster family. What was going on with George and his father? Should I ask? Would it be too painful for him to talk about? If his father was mad at him, was he still seeing Matt?

 Bryan had a strange family. His parents liked to keep up appearances, his mother especially, but I could tell that his father wasn’t really into it.

 The only person with a normal family was Rich.

 The indicator ticked on and my eyes focused on the world outside the window. We were turning off, into one of the service stations.