Social Norms (Synacky)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Over the course of the next week, Brian managed to avoid his family, calling them once to say he’d be spending some time with Jimmy. He stopped to get clothes when his dad was at the studio, worked on his solo for To End the Rapture, and he considered the week to be a success. Brian and Zacky planned a date tomorrow night, and things were going smoothly at practices. They showed Brian their logo, and he had to admit that it was pretty badass. A skull with bat wings, and Micah spared no expense on the detail. They didn’t have a name for the creature yet, but they pooled some money together and were going to get the band name and logo printed onto stickers to plaster everywhere once the album was out.

And Brian had sat by and watched them speak animatedly about it, sighing and adjusting his capo.

But today, everything was different.

“I don’t fucking want to practice today.” Zacky admitted to everyone as he pulled his neck strap from over his head. “That’s all we’ve been doing lately and it sucks. Who wants to go to Central and play baseball?”

“I didn’t know you were into sports, Zacky.” Matt mused, “You like baseball?”

“Hell, yeah.” Zacky replied, “I’d try and get into the major leagues if we weren’t in the band. I bet I could, too. I’m a fucking machine when it comes to pitching.”

“Well, I’ve got an old mitt at home, I could run home and grab it.” Brian offered, “I think it’d be fun to go play baseball. Could you bring a case of beer, Justin?”

“You bet.” He replied, “It sounds like a good idea.”

“But guys…” Jimmy whined, frowning at them from behind his kit, “We’re getting so close to finishing this thing. We’ve got what, three songs left? Every day we spend not practicing is just wasted time that we could have used to get this album finished.”

“C’mon, Jims, Zacky’s right.” Matt replied. “All we’ve been doing is practice. Let’s take today off, then we’ll be right back here tomorrow, okay?”

“If we go today, I’ll work hard tomorrow morning and get my solo done by practice tomorrow.” Brian added. “Or at least good enough for you guys to listen to it.”

Jimmy sighed, twirling his drumsticks as he glanced around at the guys. “Fine.” He grumbled. “But I’m batting first.”

~*~

They didn’t have enough people to actually play baseball, so it turned into one person batting, another pitching, and the other three running around trying to get the batter out before he could get around all the “bases.” Central Park actually had a baseball diamond, but it was overrun with a group of little league kids, so they settled with an empty field and bases consisting of one of Jimmy’s shoes, a tree, a boulder, and Matt’s shirt.

Zacky wasn’t lying about his pitching.

He had a fastball that could peg a face to a tree if he wanted to. They all struggled to whack it before it whizzed past their noses. They had a good time playing around, stopping when they were tired and hot to drink some of the beer Justin brought. Brian lay down into the grass and Jimmy flopped down on top of him, causing him to groan in protest. “Ugh, god, Jimmy, get off!”

Jimmy just laughed, “I think I’m just gonna make myself comfortable.”

“Fuck you!” Brian shouted, but it was playful. He really didn’t mind Jimmy doing that, and he knew damn well that the drummer would do whatever the hell he wanted.

Jimmy rolled off of him, staring up at the sky. “This band is gonna be fucking huge, Brian.” He sighed, “I can feel it. We’ll have drugs and girls and cars and we’ll tour around and play for thousands of fans. It’s gonna happen.”

Brian smiled, “Yeah, you guys are gonna be big.” He agreed, watching a single cloud in the sky meander slowly above them, periodically casting a shadow over them.

“I want you in the band.” Jimmy said softly. “I don’t think we’ll get very far without you.”

Brian frowned, pushing himself up on his elbows to look at Jimmy. “Really?”

“Yeah, I talked it over with Matt and Justin. Lots of bands have a lead and rhythm. And Zacky’s getting better, but how great would it be if we had two awesome guitarists? You could do lead, he’d be our rhythm. I know he wouldn’t mind, you guys are pretty close, right?”

“Yeah…” Brian looked over at Matt, Zacky, and Justin, who had picked up the bat and ball and were playing some more. “You should’ve fucking let me join in the first place.”

“You’ve gotta understand though, you used to hate Zacky. He used to be scared to death of you. We couldn’t let you be in the band and have you guys fighting all the time or just not talking. But now it’s different. You can have a solo on this album, and be official on the next one.”

Brian pretended to mull it over, even though they both knew he’d accept Jimmy’s offer. A small part of him wanted Jimmy to pay for turning him down in the first place, or at least to appreciate him more if and when he accepted. They were best friends for Christ’s sake, Brian should have been included in this. But he also understood why Jimmy had done it. He would’ve done the same thing had he been in his situation, and Jimmy did really appreciate him.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll do it.” He agreed. “It isn’t like much will be changing anyway.”

“Yeah, and you can play Zacky’s parts when we tour and stuff. And I’m going to be getting a job soon so we can start putting money towards the album. You know, funding demos for some record labels and manufacturing CD’s and stuff. It’s all coming together.”

“When do you think everything will be finished?”

“By the end of the summer for sure. Then it’ll take another few months to actually record the demos, and we’ll send them off to labels. We should have an album out by next year, and we could probably start playing shows before then.”

“Where are you gonna get the money? You having a job making say, minimum wage, that’s not gonna be enough to put out an album anytime soon. You’ll need like three thousand dollars or something.”

“We’ll find a way.” Jimmy replied, “We’ll hold it off as long as we need to until we get the money.”

“Well, I’m in. And I’ll do what I can to help.” Brian agreed.

“I knew you would.” Jimmy winked at Brian before calling to the other guys, “Hey everyone! Guess who’s joined Avenged?”