Chapter 54

"I think I forget something at the studio." Jon said after a couple minutes of driving down the highway. "I'm pretty sure I had a jacket this morning."
"Do you want to stop and get it or just get it in the morning?" Richie asked, who was enjoying not having to drive.
"Actually," Jon paused, "would you mind if I don't drive back to the city?"
Richie frowned, thinking. "Yeah, I guess I was planning on taking a cab back anyway."
"I just don't want to drive all the way back and then drive back here in the morning again. May as well just stay here."
Richie nodded, he did make sense. "Yeah that's true. I can just take a cab back here tomorrow morning too then."
"You could also just stay in my guest room." Jon pointed out.
"Good point."

They made a quick stop at a nearby grocery store before heading back to Jon's house and studio.

Their conversation took many turns while Richie texted his daughter, getting an update on how her day had been going and he gladly informed her about his as well. He made sure she was in a better headspace than a few days ago before wishing her a good night. He knew she was 4 hours behind timewise but also knew she'd be texting other people for the rest of the evening.

When they arrived at Jon's house, Richie offered to help carry some of the groceries into the house. An improvised breakfast was on the menu for the morning and they needed snacks while rehearsing. Snacks were always good.

"So what do you want to do?" Richie asked after Jon had put everything away in the kitchen. "Or do you want to turn in early?"
Jon left out the snacks he wanted to take to the studio tomorrow. "We could watch a movie." He suggested.
"Sure, sounds good and not sit on your couch." He ignored Jon's scowl. "Which movie?" He knew the answer.
"Godfather." They said at the same time.
"Sounds like a good plan." Richie said, grabbing a bag of chips and heading to the formal living room. Big screen or nothing.

He flipped the switch to make the big screen rise up as he knew Jon could get the dvd started for them.

"You better be sharing those chips." Jon said as he walked into the room, carrying drinks.
"Never. I claimed these by grabbing them."
"I claimed them by paying for them." Jon countered.
"Okay fine." Richie said as he sat down on the couch. "You can have all the air."
"Fuck you."
"Be nice or I just may sit on your 130 year old couch."
"Stop bitching about my couch."
"It's just," Richie started, trying to sound serious again, "who buys a couch to never sit on?"
"It's a 130 year old couch."
"Then what's the point in it?"
"Shut up and watch the movie."

Richie did as told and opened up his bag of chips as he watched the opening scenes to the movie. He had seen it so many times, he was sure he didn't need to actually ever see the movie again to know every scene. It was most likely engrained into his mind forever. Most of the times he had watched it, it had been with Jon so he was sure it was the same for him.

"You're doing it again." He said.
Jon paused the movie as soon as he spoke. "What?"
"You're saying all the lines." Richie pointed out.
"So?" He asked as he rewinded the movie just a tad before Richie had spoken.
"I'm trying to watch a movie and you're talking over it."
"I'm not. I'm saying the same lines."
"Yeah, but I like to listen to the actors say their actual lines instead of you saying them. Otherwise I could just listen to you doing all the lines yourself without watching the movie."
"Whatever. Can we just watch the movie?"
"We could."

In all honesty, he missed bugging his friend. He hadn't realized how much he had until he could again. Two weeks ago he wouldn't have thought he'd ever tell Jon to not repeat movie lines again but here he was. Being here today made him feel and realize what he had missed. It was just nice to have a friend he had known for so long and had such a long past with. To have that friend again, right now, meant so much to him.

"Remember that one time we watched this movie? It was ages ago." Richie asked him as a scene in the movie reminded him of that night.
Jon paused the movie again, he wasn't going to miss a second of the movie even if he had seen it a hundred times. "What time? That time we were drunk off our asses?"
Richie laughed, remembering it as well. "No, I was thinking that time I was here to write and Dorothea was out so you were watching your kids for the night. We figured we'd put everyone to bed, watch a movie, relax. Then Jakey, he was still so little, cried for hours."
"Oh God." Jon groaned. "That was horrible. He would not fucking stop."
Richie laughed again. "And you were no damn help. Kid is all upset for who knows what, you're all frustrated 'cause you want to watch a movie and can't figure out what your kid wants so he could go to sleep."
"You were no help."
"The joys of parenting."
"I prefer the time we were drunk."
"Oh yeah?" Richie asked. "Shamelessly re-enacting the entire movie?"
"It was very good acting." Jon laughed, knowing full-well it had been horrendous.
Richie laughed as well, remembering how they both re-enacted scenes from the movie, critiquing each other on their lines. "If you want to call slurred words good acting."
"The best acting is done confidently."
"I'm confident we were way too drunk that night."

Richie sighed, glad to remember silly but fun times. He watched Jon rewind the movie again. He knew Jon knew this movie by heart but still would never miss a second of it. It had always been like that, just like he had no issue with having a conversation over it, as long as he wasn't too invested in what he was watching. They differed in many ways like that but in other ways they had so much in common, even when the differences seemed to overpower the similarities. Some friendships just worked that way. After so many years he could just be comfortable around Jon, he didn't have to worry about being judged about his thoughts or opinions because he often knew how Jon would react to them before he even expressed them. Which also meant he knew which thoughts and opinions he could or should not express.

He munched on his chips as his thoughts wandered from the movie.

"You know what?" He asked, waiting for Jon to pause his precious movie.
"What?" Jon asked, looking over and wondering where the conversation was going to take them next.
"We've seen this movie too many times."
Jon scoffed. "Impossible." He said.
"I've seen this more than any other movie."
"Never enough."
"I don't know." Richie said. "I think once you can say the lines to a movie, you may have seen it too often."
"Are you saying we've played our songs too often too then?"
Richie laughed out loud. "No, 'cause you still forget lines."
"One time that happened." Jon became defensive.
"One time per tour leg, sure."
"Oh fuck you, like you're perfect." Jon countered. "I remember our promo tour last year in London and you short circuited the place."
"How's that my fault?" Richie asked innocently.
"You were playing the guitar."
"Yeah but it isn't my fault their crappy electrical wiring couldn't handle my awesome guitar skills."
Jon laughed at that. "Yeah, sure." He reached over to Richie and grabbed the bag of chips from his hands. "I thought you were sharing."
Richie stammered for words, shocked by the theft of his chips, before coming up with an intelligent sentence. "I said you could have the air. There was plenty."
"And I told you to go fuck yourself." Jon said promptly as he started eating chips.

Richie waited for Jon to start the movie again, this time he didn't rewind the last minute and just resumed where they had left off. The end of the movie was approaching and so was midnight. It had become dark outside, partly he was still on California time, he would still have time to talk to his wife before going to bed but that would be after the movie.

In the moment he fully enjoyed watching a movie with his best friend, regardless of how often he had seen it and how annoying Jon could be, which made it easier to bug him. Having a friend was simply better than not having that person.

Past midnight the credits started rolling on to the big projection screen.

"Classic." Jon said, satisfied with his movie watching experience.
"It's a good movie." Richie agreed with him.
"Good? It's legendary, it's much better than good."
Richie shrugged. "It's also just a movie."
"Just a movie?"
"Alright, it's legendary. Best movie ever." He gave in.
"Thank you."
He checked his phone for the time. "I think I'm going to head upstairs and give Sarah a call."
"See how you kid is doing." Jon told him, as if he wasn't going to ask her.

They got up from the couch, tidied up the room and headed upstairs.

He had always thought Jon's mansion was interesting, it was full of useless furniture but it still had a home-y feel to it. The upstairs hallway with all the family pictures. He had known Jon's children their entire lives and had memories that matched the ages they had in the photos just as well.

He stopped at the room he would be staying in and wished Jon a good night before he would head further down the hall.

"Hey Jon?" He said, waiting for Jon to look at him. "I missed this."