A Rock and a Hard Place

Before We Can Finish

Taze shoved a half-gone forty ounce bottle of beer at me. We'd been sipping back and forth, but at this point I was ready to chug the whole thing. When he didn't immediately grab it from me after I tried to hand it back, I took it as a sign and tilted the bottom to the sky.

The three of us, Juan, Taze, and I, watched as Jerry sauntered around the party. He was the least drunk I'd ever seen him, but it was only ten p.m. That girl from the last party I'd seen him at, Laurie or whatever, clung to him like she was afraid he'd ditch her. To be fair to her, the scenario wasn't that far out of the realm of possibility.

"What's he doing here?" Juan muttered.

Neither of us answered. We didn't have the answer to that. All of us felt uneasy, however, watching him weave through groups of people. People loved him, and it felt like he was rubbing that in our face. He'd occasionally glance at us, giving us knowing smirks. Eventually he turned his back to us, and I took the opportunity to break our hateful stare.

"Alright, boys, alright," I said. I pulled them in so we all stood facing each other. "Jerry's here, but that doesn't mean shit. We kicked ass the last three shows. They moved us up a slot for tonight's bill. We're doing great."

"He's here to piss us off," Taze growled.

"It's working," Juan threw in.

"Okay, enough!" I shouted. I looked at both of them. "I get that you two have a deeper history with him than I do, but that means you should be looking forward to wiping that smug smirk off his fucking face." They glanced at each other before looking back at me. I continued at their silence. "Look, Jerry was your friend and then he fucked you over. He's just trying to get a rise out of you. He doesn't actually care about either of you. Has he even tried to talk to one of you?" Juan looked down and I knew I'd struck a chord in him. I felt bad, so I rubbed his arm. "My point is that he's trying to sabotage us. We can't let that happen. We've been more excited than ever to play shows now that we've got our own thing going. I'm not letting Jerry ruin my night. What about you two?"

Taze cleared his throat, pausing his words but nodding immediately. "Well said, Ron," he stated. I hated the nickname, but he was the only one who used it so it had become somewhat endearing to me. I patted him on his arm and he headed off, saying something about finding a drink.

Juan and I turned back to face the crowd, scanning over the party. He still hadn't said anything and I knew I couldn't push him. I'd known him long enough to know I couldn't get him out of his funk on my own.

I met Juan in the seventh grade, but we didn't really start hanging out until high school. We'd gotten pretty close over the years, having jam-out sessions and sleep overs and study "dates." We'd kissed once and knew immediately that it would never happen again. Our bond was strong and we really clicked with each other. I was glad he was my friend. Having been his friend for so long, I also got a front row seat to his friendship with Jerry and I'd always hated it.

Juan met Jerry in elementary school, and from what I'd heard they were best friends from the day they met. They'd done everything together for the first several years of their friendship and started the band our sophomore year. They stayed close, but Jerry started branching out to other high schools' parties and bands and stopped making time for Juan. I guess Jerry started getting cocky when Goths At the Beach started gaining popularity, deepening the rift between the boys. By the time I'd joined the band their relationship seemed more professional than brotherly.

I knew it hurt Juan to watch a friendship he'd so deeply cherished get flushed down the drain by his best friend. I didn't know exactly when Jerry had stopped caring about Juan, but I had a feeling it started when Jerry saw how close I was getting with him. Jerry's never been good about sharing.