The Usual: A Jonathan Brandis Fanfiction

Nine

The day before Jon's birthday

  "Ben! Stop!" Brittany squealed as her new boyfriend picked her up and threw her in the ocean. Ben laughed and gave an Eskimo kiss to her as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down in the water with her.
  Jon shook his head and smiled, sipping a Sprite and laying back in his beach chair. "Young love birds," he sighed.
  "Oh come on! At least she's done flirting with Ryan," I laughed, eyeing down Ryan, who was playing a game of beach soccer with Rachael.
  "Why don't we join them?" Jon suggested.
  "Rachael was the star soccer player all through school. Can't you see she's beating Ryan's ass right now?"
  "Alright," he stood up and grabbed a volleyball. "How about this," he served the ball, nearly hitting Ryan.
  Ryan turned around fiercely, smiling. "Ah man, you have no idea what you got yourself into!" he jogged up to the volleyball net. "Let's do this!"
  "Boys!" Rachael called out, leaning her super toned-in shape body against the net. "This wouldn't be fair without a bet."
  "Rachael's right," I smiled. "When Jon and I win, what do we get?"
  "Oh! I think you mean when you guys lose, we, the winners, will get $20," Ryan wrapped his arm around Rachael,  showing off their super toned bodies nonchalantly.
  "Hear that, Abi? We get $20 tonight!" Jon grabbed my hand as he walked to his position.
  "We'll see about that," Brittany smirked as she strutted onto Rachael and Ryan's side and Ben joined ours.
  Jon served the ball and with a few back and forth turns, we ended up scoring.
  "So what? You made one point. Let's see you do it again!" Ryan jumped and served it.
  The game carried on for over an hour, and when it finally ended, our team won with a 10 point lead.
  "Pay up, Ry," Jon stepped up to Ryan, who reluctantly handed Jon three $20 bills.
  "It's pay day, my friends!" Jon handed Ben and I our fair share.
  "Hey, why don't we head inside and wash up before dinner?" Ryan suggested.
  "What? You don't want my stinky sweaty body all over you?" Rachael jumped at him.
  "I'll pass," he laughed, picking up his towel and the volleyball. Him and Rachael headed up to the gate to his backyard, followed by me, Jon, Ben, and Brittany. We all threw our stuff in the mud room and went up to the rooms we were staying in, which were all the same as our previous visit there. Jon showered first as I sat in the bathroom with him, keeping him company and talking to him.
  "Are you having a good birthday weekend?" I asked, sitting on the bathroom floor.
  "Hell yeah," he answered. "Especially that volleyball game. Honestly, it wouldn't have killed my pride losing to the athletes. They played a hard game," he laughed.
  "Ryan and Rachael are in shape, that's for sure. I've never seen a girl that toned. Or a guy that muscular."
  "I could probably use some muscle," Jon noted. "To say I'm lazy is a big understatement, though."
  "A huge understatement," I joked. I stood up and looked at my body in the mirror. Thanks to Jon, my bulimia was getting a little bit better. I don't eat a lot of foods, but I don't throw them up afterwards either. But the way my body looked in that damn mirror... gross. I had been eating way too much. I started to feel nauseous. I ran to the toilet and threw up every possible thing in my body.
  Suddenly, Jon's shower turned off and I heard him rushing over to comfort me. "What happened?" he demanded.
  "I just got sick. No big deal. Probably all the heat," I stood up to brush my teeth.
  "Drink some water," he grabbed a paper cup by the sink and filled it up for me. "Here."
  "Thanks," I smiled. "You still have shampoo in," I laughed, secretly in pain.
  "I wanted to make sure you were okay," he rubbed my arm. "I'll be out in a minute," he kissed my cheek.
  I stepped in the bedroom and sat on the floor so as to not get the bed wet. I felt so emotional and depressed, but to make sure Jon's birthday was okay, I pretended to be okay. After about 5 minutes, Jon was done showering and I hopped in. Once I was done, him and I got dressed and ready for dinner. I put on a casual sundress and Jon put on a big t-shirt with baggy jeans.
  Before we left our room, we took a minute to lay in our bed just to cuddle and be in each other's arms. To appreciate each other's existence.
  "Abi," Jon mumbled to me, stroking my hair with his hand.
  "Yes?"
  "You do promise, even if SeaQuest blows up and I get even more famous, you'll stay by my side?"
  "Of course," I looked into his eyes. "Why?"
  "I just don't want the fame to be too much for you," he sighed. "Sometimes it's too much for me."
  "I can see why. Especially with your mom being so picky about your roles. Then there's the whole teen idol thing. That's gotta be weird when you're 18 now."
  "It is. I couldn't be happier about where my career is. I just wish it didn't feel like the weight of the world."
  I rolled over Jon and stretched my legs on either side of him, sitting on him straddled. Then, I leaned down and kissed him long and passionately. "I love you," I whispered to him, kissing his neck. 
  "I love you," he felt up my dress, kissing me back. We messed around and had our fun until we heard loud music. After our fun, we cleaned up and headed downstairs to join everyone else. Jon, Ben, and Ryan went out to grill while us girls sat inside to chit chat. Eventually, I pulled out a ukulele and plucked a few chords until all of us girls were singing in harmony. Once the dinner was done on the grill, we all fixed a plate and sat at the wicker table on the deck.
  "Hey Ryan, what are the odds you'll jump from the deck to the pool?" Jon asked as he ate a fry.
  "1 in 20," he answered. "Halfsies."
  "Ooh," Jon inhaled. "Alright. Rachael, count us down."
  "3,2,1-"
  "FOUR!" they both shouted.
  "Damn!" Ryan threw his napkin on the table and stood up.
"Babe, be careful," Rachael pleaded.
  "No worries. I've done it a million times," Ryan noted as he pulled his tank top off. He climbed over the railing and jumped right into the pool.
  "I'm next!" Jon jumped over and joined him. Ben walked down the stairs and jumped in from the poolside. Rachael, Brit and I peeped over the railing to watch the boys, who were splashing around and  being dumb.
  "Ladies care to join?" Ben called out to us.
  "Let us clean up the mess you guys made," I joked. We threw out all the used paper plates and the red solo cups, put up all the food, condiments, and sides. We all changed into our swimsuits and joined the boys.
  Jon wrestled with Ryan and Ben while us girls started an aggressive game of basketball.
  "Abi!! You better slaughter them!" Jon hyped me up as I struggled to get the ball from Brit. Ryan started doing a crazy scream for Rachael and Ben hyped Brit up. Finally, we all ended the game and dipped in the hot tub, the guys sipping beer and us girls sipping Smirnoff Ices.
  "Jon, my man, you'll finally be an adult tomorrow," Ben raised his beer can.
  "Finally, old enough to buy alcohol and smoke a cigarette with us," Ryan announced, punching Jon in the arm jokingly.
  "That is true. As if I'm not already doing that shit," Jon smiled. He had his arm around my shoulder as we all chatted. Between Ben and Ryan's huge, muscular bodies and the tough guy talk about hiking, playing sports, and working out, I could sense Jon's discomfort in his skinny body. I looked at him and smiled, patting his knee. He sighed and started a new conversation, holding me even closer.
  "So, are you guys excited for graduation?" he asked Brit and Ry.
  "Yes, duh. I am so ready to be done with calculus. I hate Ms. Dunford," Brit rolled her eyes and sipped her Smirnoff.
  "I'm ready to travel," Ryan sighed. "Not ready to leave you guys behind but it's part of life."
  "You'll only be gone for two years, then you work from home. It won't be too long," I assured him.
  "I'm thinking of joining the Army," Ben stated quietly, making us all go silent and turn his direction, stunned in disbelief. Brittany choked her drink and turned to him.
   "Are- are you serious?" she exclaimed, scooting away from him in disbelief.
  "I mean, babe, it's been my dream. I'm not going to school anytime soon, I'm 21, what else would I do?"
  "I didn't think you'd leave me!" she exclaimed.
  "It's serving my country," he raised his voice.
  "I know you guys aren't doing this on Jon's birthday," Rachael raised an eyebrow.
  Brit and Ben went silent. Finally, Ben sighed and stood up. "It's getting late. Why don't we turn on some music, or a movie, or anything?"
  "Jon, what do you want to do?" I asked.
  "It doesn't matter to me," he mumbled quietly as he stood up.
  "Jon," I grabbed his arm as he started to walk away.
  "I just need a minute," he sighed as he walked off. I sighed and sat down against the hot tub.
  "Why is he being so dramatic? It's not like you're ditching him to go to fucking war or anything. God, it's like we didn't throw an entire beach party for him," Brit rolled her eyes and stormed off. Ben chased after her, apologizing to us first. Ryan and Rachael looked astonished at everything that went down.
  I ran up to mine and Jon's room to grab Jon, or at least talk to him. So many thoughts ran through my mind as I ran through the mansion. One being, why was he so upset? I knocked on the door and opened it to see him just sitting on an arm chair by the window, staring out with a blank expression. He had changed from his swimming trunks to a dry t-shirt and shorts.
  "Jon," I walked over. He glumly turned to look at me. "What's wrong?"
  "Nothing," he said quietly, looking down. Even without seeing his eyes, I knew their sad, blue shimmer. The sparkle wasn't there.
"Oh," I said quietly. I felt defeated, I felt like the entire weekend had been ruined. "Do you wanna go downstairs with the rest?"
  "I'll be down in a few," he sighed and stood up, walking over to me.
  "Jon, I'm sorry for everything that's happened. I-"
  "Absidee, stop. Can you just get out? I need to be alone," he sounded choked up and sad.
  I nodded, grabbed a t-shirt and shorts, and walked out. Instead of going back to the basement, I walked to Rachael and Ryan's room to change. Tears fell out of my eyes slowly. I kept wiping them, sniffing, but nothing would stop them.
  As I stepped out and walked past mine and Jon's room, I peeped through the door and saw Jon sitting on the bed. Then, he thrust his fist against his leg, cursing quietly at himself. It was so hard that if I saw a bruise there later it wouldn't surprise me. It hurt to watch, but I was terrified of what he may do if he knew I saw. I knew he wouldn't hurt me, but I was scared he would do to himself. Seeing Jon do this to himself made me think about his perspective. Did he hurt like this when I cut myself?
  I looked down at my wrist- all the scars and recent cuts. Did it anger him to see me hurt myself? It hurt really fucking bad to see him hurt himself.
  I ran downstairs and decided against confronting Jon. I slowly trudged to the basement to find Ryan and Rachael sitting on the couch close together while Ben and Brit were noticeably still angry, sitting on opposite sides of the room remaining quiet.
  "What's Jon doing?" Ryan asked, trying to hide his concern.
  "He's getting dressed in clean clothes. You know his pet peeves," I lied, sighing as I sat in a big arm chair. Ryan looked at Rachael, who shrugged, and grabbed the remote to turn the TV on. We were about five minutes into a re-run of some dumb show when Jon came downstairs, smiling as though nothing had happened.
  "Hey babe," he kissed my cheek as he sat with me in the huge armchair. I threw my legs across his lap, confused as to how all of a sudden he was in such a good mood.
  Ben stood up and broke the awkward silence. "Guys, it's almost midnight," he walked towards the chest freezer behind the bar. "You know what that means," he smirked as he grabbed the finest bottle of alcohol he could find. "Come on, Brando."
  "What do you want me to do? Take a shot?"
  Ben looked at Ryan, who laughed. "No Jonny boy. At midnight, you chug it for 18 seconds since you're turning 18," Ryan explained. "Remember when we made Brit do it?"
  Jon shrugged and glanced at his watch. "Five minutes 'til," he shrugged as he sat on a bar stool.
  "How about we all chug something at midnight?" I suggested, grabbing a bottle off the shelf.
  "She's right. Let's all get fucked," Brit stood up. Ben eyed her down and rolled his eyes as he handed her a bottle. All of us had your average everyday brand, while Jon was straight chugging a bottle worth more than his life.
  We all waited until midnight, and when the clock finally struck 12, it was bottoms up. After only a few seconds, Brit had to put the bottle down and run to the bathroom to throw up. Rachael and I grabbed hands as we kept chugging, and Ryan and Jon downed it like men. Ryan grabbed mine and Rachael's bottle to tell us it was time to stop chugging.
  "That's my baby!" Jon grabbed my face and started to make out with me. While Jon and I made out, someone turned on the stereo while Ben poured shots for everyone. We drank and danced for a good hour or so until the alcohol really hit us.
  "Holy shit," Rachael laughed and sat down on the couch. "That shit hits fast." Ryan plopped sloppily beside her and they started to make out. Jon was standing behind me, holding my waist as I took another shot.
  I turned to face Jon, interrupting him as he kissed my neck. "I- I'm, I'm g-gonna give you birthdaaaay sexxxx," I slurred as Ryan and Rachael continued to make out. I saw Brit roll her eyes and storm upstairs as Ben rolled his eyes and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels. He went to the other downstairs bedroom while Jon and I went to the basement master bedroom and had our fun.