Afterlife (A7X)

Chapter 16: Jumping Ship

~~~~CHAPTER 16~~~~

Jumping Ship~~~~

~~~~Matt's Point of View~~~~

"Look Matt, she can help; Jimmy seems pretty sure she can."

I just shrugged as we walked down the sidewalk away from my house, a couple of kids running past. I just kept my hands in my pockets as we walked and when I didn't say anything in response, Brian glanced at me.

"Just hear her out, ok?" he said as I just shrugged again and we kept walking at a slow pace. "I can see you're irritated with her being around, but what harm can it do to have a bit of help? We're not getting anywhere with just the five of us; we have no idea what to do. What's your problem with her anyway?"

I came to a halt on the sidewalk, the shade of the tree on the side just reaching us.

"My problem with her? You really wanna know?"

Brian gave a nod and shifted his weight, crossing his arms as he basically stared me down.

"Sure do; speak up," he said. "Tell me what's wrong man; we tell each other everything, right?"

I sighed and gave a nod, readjusting my snapback as I avoided his gaze before looking down.

"Alright, seeing as you gotta know," I said. "I don't wanna involve another person; she's just gonna get in the way and she could get hurt because of this. I don't wanna be responsible for someone else getting hurt."

"You feel responsible for Zacky getting hurt?"

I gave a shrug. "Deep down I do I guess; shouldn't've agreed to go along with Jimmy's stupid idea in the first place. Every time we've gone on one of his expeditions, something bad happens afterwards, and now we're being haunted."

Brian gave a nod.

"I know it's frustrating, but we're working on getting this...issue...solved, ok?" he said as a couple more kids ran past us.

I gave a nod and sighed.

"Alright well let's just keep walking for a bit," I said.

########

~~~~Zacky's Point of View~~~~

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Johnny asked as he sat next to me and watched as I just kept playing different notes; I was bored and Jimmy was basically chatting up Jessie. "It's been nearly an hour and a half."

"I'm sure they know what they're doing," I said mindlessly. I paused and looked over to Jimmy who was leaning against the wall casually as he talked to Jessie. I whistled to get his attention and they both looked over. "Figured out what we're doing about this yet?"

Jimmy gave a shrug and looked over at his drum kit, clearly contemplating practicing again; it was hard to get him away from that sometimes. I watched as he sat down at his drum kit and indicated for Jessie to hand over the drum sticks; she still had them for some reason.

"So anyway Baker," Jimmy said as he completely ignored my previous comment and started up with some simple beat he always began with. "You know where Matt and Brian have gotten to?"

I shook my head and went back to playing different chords to match his beat.

"Dunno; Johnny was just sayin' they should be back by now."

Jimmy gave a sigh of annoyance and looked over to Jessie, his focus on her now as he didn't even miss a beat.

"Just give 'em a bit and they should be back; we can talk inside about this properly. I don't think Matt wants to miss out on what we're doing to get rid of this prick."