Wild Ride - The Alternative Version (Book 2)

Chapter 19~And The Storm Continues

2 YEARS LATER

"Abigail, your father's here to see you." I stood in the door to Abigail's room, leaning against the door frame with my arms crossed over my chest. Abigail sat in the middle of her bed with her guitar, the one Brian got her. She alternates between my old guitar, which I'd given to her after she proved her dedication over time, and the Synyster Gates Custom guitar depending on which one she felt like playing.

Abigail looked up at me with a scowl on her face. "Too bad he won't see me."

Abigail and Jimmy's relationship has been pretty broken for the last two years, that's really the last time she ever really saw him and actually spoke to him. The last time she saw him was the first week she'd gone to stay with him ever, during her summer vacation two years ago. After she'd left to come back with me for a week, Jimmy had fallen into a depression. I don't know exactly what happened, but the guys told me that it had something to do with Jasmine but Jimmy wouldn't specify, and he'd broken out the alcohol and drank himself away most of the time. After that went on for two months or so, and the guys couldn't seem to get through to him, they took him to see mulitple professionals to help him sober up and overcome his struggle with depression, but nothing ever really seemed to work for an extended period of time. He'd be ok, and then he'd succumb to being drunk again. He'd gotten into trouble too, and was arrested a few times. He told me himself that he didn't want Abbie around him while he was in that kind of a state, and I agreed with him. She didn't need to see him like that because she adores him so much. Or should I say, she once adored him.

Abigail had been looking forward to spending another week with her father again until I'd sat down with her the night before she was supposed to go, and told her that she wouldn't be going to stay with him for a while. The way that her face fell when I told her will be forever inked into my mind. She asked for how long it would be that she wouldn't be able to stay with him. I told her at the time probably one or two months. I turned out to be way wrong. Jimmy's depression took a whole year for him to overcome and become sober again, excluding parties and all that, but that's different. Then, after he got better, Avenged Sevenfold went on tour for nearly five months, having to make up for some shows missed as well that had to be cancelled due to Jimmy's unstable state.

By the time the first year was over, Abigail stopped waiting for him to call or to show up. She used to get all excited when the phone would ring in the hopes that it was him, but it never was. Every time a car pulled up unannounced, she'd race to the window to see if it was him. Again, it never was. When the second year without her father started, she stopped waiting to see if every phone call was him, and she stopped racing to the window to see if it was him pulling up in his car. She changed back into using her full name instead of being called 'Abbie', because that had been the nickname Jimmy had given her. I guess she thought that if he wasn't going to be around, then she wasn't going to use it anymore, even though I tried to explain to her how he just needed some time to himself, and then he'd be back again. She wouldn't listen, she didn't want to hear it. She'd waited too long. She thought the least he could've done was at least send a letter or call, but since he couldn't be bothered with her then she wasn't going to bother with him anymore. That's what she told me, and that broke my heart because she didn't understand. Jimmy had been in a very difficult time for him, and he was protecting her by not letting her see how bad of a shape he was in.

After Jimmy came back from tour, he came over to see her for the first time again, but she refused to even look at him. She completely ignored him, even when I warned her to lose the attitude and talk to him, but she didn't care. That didn't effect her at all, and she continued to ignore him until he finally gave up on pleading with her and left, more heartbroken than ever. He'd had tears in his eyes when he left, and I had prayed like hell he wouldn't fall into another depression, but he didn't. He continuously tried to get Abigail to come around to good terms with him again, but she absolutely went against all of it and refused to forgive him for having to be away for so long.