I Know It's Hurting You, But It's Killing Me (A7X Fan Fiction)

Chapter Seventeen: The Gift

            The first thing Johnny noticed when he woke up was that someone else’s clothes were thrown across his room. He smiled to himself, remembering bringing one of the girls from the party home with him. Tossing the covers off of himself, he pulled a pair of clean boxers on before making his way down to the living room.

            He knew the girl from last night had to still be here, considering her clothes were still upstairs. Looking in the living room first, he was surprised not to see her in there. Next, he checked the kitchen, and what he didn’t expect was to see her hovering over the stove, cooking breakfast.

            As Johnny stood there, studying this mystery girl (who was wearing a pair of his boxers and the tank top she must have been wearing last night), he found it quite odd that in some ways she reminded him of Zack’s sister. They were about the same height, standing at around 5’ 6”.  He couldn’t tell how long this girl’s hair was, cause it was up in a bun, but she oddly enough had the same shade of auburn hair that Lyric has.

            In the split second that he realized she had ink on the back of her neck, his heart stopped and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Silently and slowly, he walked up behind her and ran his thumb across the words written on her neck.

            She shivered under his touch, then turned the stove off and turned to face him. “Please tell me it didn’t happen,” she pleaded, a hurt look flashed in her eyes.

            Johnny ran a hand through his blonde and brown hair, sighing. “Wish I could,” he muttered and looked down at the floor, no longer able to look her in the eyes. Turning to sit at the kitchen table, Johnny started walking away.

            Lyric grabbed his wrist and pulled him back so he was standing in front of her once again. “Listen, no one has to know. As long we didn’t get too friendly at the party, we could just tell them I slept on your couch, because surely at least Zack had to noticed that I went home with you,” she said.

            He could hear the panic in her voice. If anyone ever finds out… “Fine, but what if we did get too friendly at the party? I don’t think we did, but I don’t exactly remember…” He lied. He might have been drunk, and he might not have remembered it was Lyric he slept with last night, but he did remember how after their cake fight, he kissed her once on the lips. Thankfully no one had seen and she mentioned something about going back to his place.

            With the alcohol clouding his mind, he managed to get them both safely back to his house and in the next moment, her lips were all over his neck before his brain could register exactly who he was about to sleep with.

            “Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t even remember coming home with you last night. The last thing I remember was the cake fight,” she told him.

            Over breakfast, Lyric and Johnny came up with the story of what they would tell the guys if they asked. And once they had their pretty believable story down pat, Lyric awkwardly said goodbye to Johnny, and left to go home.

            Later that day, around dinnertime Lyric got a call from Brian, asking if she wanted to come over to his house for dinner. To her advantage, he didn’t say anything about her leaving with Johnny. She didn’t know if it was because he either didn’t see, didn’t care, or because he was going to say something to her about it when she came over.

            The whole time she was getting herself ready to go to Brian’s, she couldn’t get Johnny out of her head, and not in a good way, either. She was so afraid that someone was going to find out that they had drunkenly slept together last night, especially her brother. She knew he definitely wouldn’t approve and the last thing she wanted was to get into another argument with him.

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            At 5:59, Brian was rushing around in the kitchen, trying to get everything exactly right for when Lyric came over for dinner at 6. He had lost track of time earlier and was late putting the steak on the grill. The mashed potatoes were thankfully done, and he had a cake in the oven.

            “Table set? Check. Icing ready to go on the cake? Check. Fridge stocked with alcohol? Double check,” Syn rattled off to himself. “And last but certainly not least, gift? Triple fucking check,” he half-sang to himself, his mood suddenly increasing.

            “Brian, dinner was delicious! Thanks so much!” Lyric exclaimed as she finished the last bit of her meal. She didn’t know he was such a good cook.

            “Thanks, but dinner’s not even the best part,” he said, quickly getting out of his seat to grab her present.

            Coming back, his eyes wide with excitement, Brian cleared their plates before gently placing a neatly wrapped gift in front of her.

            “Oh, Bri. I can’t accept any gifts from you,” she told him, a small blush creeping up her cheeks.

            “Too bad you already gave me permission to get this for,” Brian smirked, knowing Lyric was going to hate him for the gift.

            “Oh really? Wh… Oh… this isn’t what I think it is, is it?” she questioned, the pieces of the puzzle finally coming together.

            “You’ll just have to open it up and see,” he told her, returning to his seat and folding his hands on top of the table.

            Slowly, Lyric unwrapped the box. Tearing the tape off the box and pulling the gift out, she gasped when she saw a new laptop, all five of their deathbats and “seize the day” etched into the black lid.