Don't Go, Just Stay

The next morning I woke up to the sound of drums, guitars, and bass flowing through my house.

I let out a groan, before throwing my blankets off of me and getting out of bed. I threw a pair of sweatpants on over my shorts, and pulled my hair up before walking out of my room.
Once I made my way downstairs, I realized that the sound was coming from the basement. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and made my way down into the basement.

When I reached the final step, I was met with four familiar faces, and two new ones. I realized that this must have been the band Garret was talking about, and I held my breath a little.

I watched as John poured his heart into his singing, and how everyone else put their heart into their instruments. I decided not to disrupt the practice, so I took a seat on the stairs, and pulled my knees up to my chest.

Once the song was over, I stood up, and took a seat next to Danika, who was already sitting on the couch.

“Hey,” I said realizing she hadn’t noticed me.

“Holy shit, don’t scare me like,” she said clutching her chest, “But hey Tare Bear, what’s up?”

“Just trying to figure out why these boys decided to take me up with their band,” I said laughing, “And why you’re here and didn’t wake me up?”

“Well, see that guitar player over there?” she said pointing to the guitarist with darkish brown hair, “Well, he’s fucking gorgeous!”

I started laughing at how loud she had said her last comment, considering the boys were now looking at us. She immediately started blushing, causing me to laugh even harder. When I finally had my laughter under control, I looked up, and immediately regretted it.

It was just my luck to have to lock stares with him.

I immediately felt my chest get tight, and a few tears come to my eyes. Garret must have noticed because he cleared his throat and put his bass down.

“Hey, why don’t we go get some lunch? We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Garret asked looking towards the other guys.

They all nodded their head in approval, minus John, and starting making their way towards the door. Danika shot me a small smile, before hopping up from the couch and following suit. John stayed behind, and sat on the opposite end of the couch from me.

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever, when he finally decided to speak up.

“I’m sorry,” he said looking up and making my gaze, “I told you I would never leave you, and look what I did? I walked out on you. I mean, I just left you, crying. I honestly don’t even know why. I guess I was scared. But as of right now, I regret every single second of what I did yesterday.”

“You hurt me so much John,” I said on the verge of tears, “I thought that I could trust you, and then you just left me. It took so much for me to just not completely break. I can’t do this alone John, I really can’t.”

My voice cracked at the end of my short speech, and I felt tears start to pour down my face. I didn’t want John to see my cry yet again, so I grabbed a pillow and buried my face into it.

“Baby, please don’t cry,” I heard John say as the couch cushions shifted, “Hey, look at me.”

I felt him pry the pillow from my hands, so I replaced it with my hands. He placed his hands over mine and moved them down from my face. I finally put my arms around my middle, and I felt his thumb wipe away some of my tears. I sniffled a little, and felt a smile start to grow on my face because of the affection he was currently showing me.

“I’m such a mess,” I said trying to wipe away the mascara smeared on my cheeks, “I don’t deserve you right now John. Look at us. I mean, you’re 18, you’re not ready for kid. You can do so much better than me. I mean, I’m a fuck up. You know that.”

“Tara, you are not a fuck up what so ever,” he said pulling my chin up so I could look into his eyes, “You are perfect and beautiful and you mean everything to me. No matter what, we are going to be together forever. And one day be married and have a perfect family. I’ll always be here as long as I can wake up next to your perfect face.”

“Promise?” I said looking him dead in the eyes.

“I promise,” he said wrapping his arms around me.

I, almost eagerly, I wrapped my arms around him as well, and nuzzled my face into his neck. I breathed in his scent, and realized that this was exactly where I needed, and wanted to be.

“We better get up there before they think we’ve killed each other,” John said loosening his grip a little.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said leaning back.

“I hope you know that I love you,” John said as he stood up and offered me a hand.

“I love you too sweetheart,” I said leaning up and kissing him on the cheek.

He sneakily turned his head and caught my lips in a breathtaking kiss. I smiled into the kiss before grabbing his hand and leading him up to the kitchen.

“Is it alright?” Garret asked once we got upstairs.

“Yeah, I think it is,” I said smiling at him a little, “Now, who are these two? I don’t think I’ve ever met them before.”

“This is Jared, our lead guitarist,” Garret said pointing to a ginger kid, “And this is our rhythm guitarist, Kennedy.”

“Nice to meet you guys,” I said waving at them a little, “So I’m guessing this is the band you and Pat were talking about a while ago?”

“Sure is,” Pat said smiling, “And before you ask, we are The Maine.”

“Wicked,” I said smiling, “Now, I remember hearing something about some lunch.”

“Calm down girl, we’ll feed you,” Danika said laughing, “I can go pick up some fast food if you guys want.”

We all decided on getting McDonalds, and wrote our orders down.

“Wait, I’ll go with you,” Kennedy said as Danika went to walk out the door, “I mean so you don’t get stuck with all of that alone.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Danika said walking out the door, “We’ll be back.”

We all said some form of goodbye before turning and looking at each other.

“They’ve got it so bad already,” we all said in unison.

We all started laughing, and making random comments about how they already had it bad for each other.

Once we had finished acting like middle schoolers, we made our way into the living room, and flipped on the TV. After much debating, we settled on watching Talladega Nights