It's Really Happening

Time had passed since I had found myself in the company of good friends, and as always, good times had to come to an end. The crazy quartet of All Time Low had to leave us around the same time my fiancé, each headed for some real musician work.

Alex and the others headed down to southern California to write and record their new album while Josh headed back to Michigan to begin the same process with Dave and their other bandmates. Sadly, this left Eris, Tiffany and myself without our respective boy-toys.

Tiffany, on the other hand, did not have to leave us. Thankfully she had graduated from college a semester early and was now simply killing time before starting grad school. Luckily for Eris and myself, she was our rock throughout the wedding process: eager and willing to discuss and plan every aspect.

Sadly, Josh being on the other side of the country made our wedding plans so much more difficult, especially since it was becoming harder and harder to get a hold of him. His phone was always busy, and when I called him at home, I would always get our answering machine. Even half of my texts to him went unanswered. It was never this bad, not even when he was on tour!

I never doubted his love for me, not even his want for us to be married, but with call after call going unreturned, I was beginning to doubt that he actually wanted this wedding. I was starting to think that he'd be just fine with a shotgun wedding in Vegas.

This particular day, I was on try number six with attempting to reach Josh. For the first time that day, the line had not been busy and was actually ringing. Though for some reason, I was nearly sent to voicemail.

"Hi!" Josh sounded energetic but distracted and I immediately rolled my eyes. Tiffany and Eris saw this, and the both of them sighed heavily, knowing this was going to be a difficult conversation.

"Hi, I've been trying to reach you for ages."

"Yeah, sorry, it's been hell around here. What's up?"

"I have some things about the wedding we need to talk about, are you free?"

"Uhh...jeez, Abby, I don't know." I sighed and tapped my foot as Josh hesitated. "Can we do this later?"

"When? I can never get a hold of you anymore!"

"I'll call you tonight, I promise!"

"If you don't want to help with the wedding, just say so," I snapped.

"Abby, that's not what I'm saying." Josh sounded shocked, which was partly the reaction I was hoping to get.

"Well that's what it sounds like! It's as if you don't care at all! You'd be fine with some shitty chapel in Vegas!"

"I'm just not big on planning, Abby. Isn't the most important part that I want to marry you?"

"Yes..." I sighed. "Of course it is. But I'm just frustrated and tired and you're not here and it's driving me insane."

"I'm sorry I'm not there. I really want to be. But, ugh, I have to go. I'll call you tonight, okay?"

"Okay," I answered dejectedly.

"I love you."

"I lo-" The line went dead before I could finish, "love you too." I nearly threw my phone against the wall in frustration, but had a moment of clarity and simply tossed it onto the couch cushion instead.

"Everything okay?" Tiffany asked. I shook my head as I sank down onto the couch next to her. She wrapped her arms around me as Eris jumped up.

"That's it! No more planning today!" She began scooping up our plans and notebooks and even the whiteboard, taking all of it out of my sight as Tiffany kept me pinned to the couch.

"What are we doing instead?" Tiffany asked as Eris sat back down.

"Good question." Eris sighed and looked at the two of us. "Well, I doubt we're going to go anywhere else tonight, so why don't we have a movie marathon?"

"What kind of movie marathon?" Tiffany asked.

"John Cusack?" I proposed. Eris rolled her eyes.

"You always suggest him."

"What? I like John Cusack." I shrugged.

"I don't even have any of his movies!"

"I do!"

"You don't seriously travel with a John Cusack movie collection, do you?" Tiffany asked.

"Maybe." Eris and Tiffany burst out laughing while my cheeks turned bright red.

"Alright, go get it!" Eris ushered me out as I hopped up to retrieve my collection. I didn't own all of his movies, and most of my copies were pirated, but I had all the good ones.

"You are so weird." Tiffany shook her head as she browsed the DVDs. Eris peered over her shoulder and looked at them as well.

"Let's narrow this down. Which are your favorites?"

"You're not seriously asking that, are you?" I asked. Eris rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Okay. We'll pick three, then. Randomly."

"How?" Tiffany asked.

"I don't know! Just pick!"

"Okay, okay! High Fidelity, Say Anything and..." Tiffany trailed off.

"This one!" Eris picked one up. "Runaway Jury!"

"Sounds good to me," I replied. Tiffany jumped up to put in one of the DVDs and Eris joined me on the couch, taking over in the pinning. I sighed heavily and laid my head on her shoulder as she patted my head.

"It'll be okay."

"You mean if my fiancé stops being a dickhead?" Eris snickered.

"Yeah. That."

"He'll realize he's being an idiot soon," Tiffany said as she sat down on the couch. "You two are so crazy-retarded-in-love that it'll all be fine."

"Thank...you?" Tiffany grinned as High Fidelity began. The three of us watched the movie, occasionally commenting on the hilarity of Jack Black and John Cusack fighting with each other constantly.

The movies went by without much concentration on my end, mostly because I was too preoccupied with what Josh could be so busy with. I didn't want to turn into the suspicious girlfriend but I was having a hard time being anything else.

If we were really as "crazy-retarded-in-love" as Tiffany and everyone else seemed to think, then why was it so easy for him to ignore me? There had been times like this before, but it had never gone this long with the lack of communication between us.

Tiffany kept getting texts from Rian during the movies, and I started feeling guilty when her phone would vibrate and she wouldn't check it in front of me. I didn't want to keep her from being happy just because my relationship was on the rocks.

After the third movie was over, I was fed up with being on the couch and not even my love for John Cusack could tempt me to watch another movie.

"Okay, let's get out of here!"

"And go...where?" Eris asked as she and Tiffany stared at me blankly, as I had jumped up off the couch pretty suddenly.

"I don't know...somewhere? We'll get food or something."

"Food! Sounds good to me!" Tiffany agreed. She and Eris stood up and began getting ready to leave as I did the same. I picked up my phone and saw that I had no new texts or missed calls, and I sighed again.

"No word from His Tallness?" Eris asked. I shook my head as I slipped my phone into my pocket.

"No...but I'm not going to let it get to me. Let's go!"

The three of us ended up at a small restaurant down the street from Eris' apartment. There weren't too many other people there since it was somewhat late at night, but it was rather nice. The three of us got a corner booth in the back and ordered a ridiculous amount of food, far more than any three girls should eat.

"I don't think I've ever been this hungry," Tiffany said as our waitress brought out our food.

"I can't believe we went through three movies without eating," I commented as I began eating some fries.

"Too distracted by John Cusack," Eris teased.

"Or by some other tall boy," Tiffany added.

"Hey, let's not talk about him, kay?" I asked with fake cheer. The other two looked at each other for a moment before nodding. "Thank you."

"So, what are we going to do after we gorge ourselves?" Eris asked after polishing off her BLT.

"More movies?" Tiffany suggested. I shook my head.

"Let's do something spontaneous."

"Like what?" Eris asked. "Dye your hair blonde?"

"God no. Something better than that." I laughed.

"Something spontaneous..." Tiffany mumbled to herself as she munched on her toast. "Like...take a trip?"

"Yeah! Like that! Drive all night or something."

"Where?" Eris asked.

"LA," Tiffany joked. We looked at her and she stared back. "What? I've never been." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Eris signalling to Tiffany to shut up, but I pretended not to see. The more I thought about it, the more the idea grew on me.

"Yeah. Let's go to LA."

"Seriously?" Tiffany asked. "I was only kidding."

"Well I'm serious. Why not?"

"Because it's like 400 miles away?" Eris countered. "And where would we stay?"

"Like I said, drive all night. And we'll figure that out when we get there." I smiled. "Come on, what have we got to lose?"

"Our sanity," Eris muttered.

"Like we have any." Tiffany laughed.

"Besides, since when do you pass up an opportunity to see Zack?" I asked.

"Uh...well, never, I guess." Eris sighed. "But-"

"Then it's settled," I interrupted before Eris could protest again. "Tonight, we're going to LA."

"Woo hoo!" Tiffany cheered.

After the three of us finished our enormous meal and paid the bill, we headed back to Eris' apartment to pack. By the time we were almost ready to leave, it was well after midnight but I wasn't going to let anyone talk me out of this.

Eris had been giving me worried looks ever since we left the restaurant but I ignored them while I packed up my stuff. Just before I left the bathroom with my toiletries bag in hand, I overheard Eris and Tiffany talking.

"I'm worried about Abby." Eris sighed.

"Because we're basically helping her run away from her problems?" Tiffany replied.

"Yeah. I really don't think this is the right idea."

"Maybe not, but can it really be called running away when he's on the other side of the country?"

"Be serious!"

"Okay!" Tiffany sighed. "I think we just need to let her do this. Maybe the change of scenery will do her some good."

"Fine. But I'm calling you-know-who if she's not better in two days."

"Fair enough. He needs to wise up, anyway. Jesus."

"Amen."

I waited until they had stopped talking for a while before coming out of the bathroom. Next thing I knew, we were at a gas station stocking up on energy drinks and plotting our course.

"It's pretty much a straight shot." Eris shrugged as she folded up our map. "We'll be there by 9 or 10 if we drive through the night."

"Sounds good," I replied. "So we'll take shifts?"

"Yeah. Tiffany said she wants to drive first. Then I'll go, and you have the home stretch."

"Sounds good," I repeated. I curled up in the backseat for the first shift and Eris took shotgun. I slept off and on for the few hours Tiffany drove, sometimes listening to the two of them talk or sing along to whatever song was playing.

When they switched, I took shotgun and kept Eris awake as Tiffany passed out in the back.

"You're okay, right?" Eris asked softly. I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders slightly.

"Maybe we're not ready. Maybe he's scared."

"Maybe. But if he is, he shouldn't avoid you. He's man enough to tell you straight out."

"Are we talking about the same Josh?" I asked with a laugh. Eris chuckled.

"You know what I mean. He loves you."

"I know." I sighed. "Sometimes it's hard to remember that."

"I know," she replied as she put her hand on mine and squeezed it. "Believe me, I know."

When it was my turn to drive, the sun had already risen. Eris fell asleep in the back almost immediately, and Tiffany was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"You can sleep for a while longer. I'll be okay."

"You sure?" she asked with a yawn.

"Yeah," I answered with a laugh. "I'll wake you in a few hours."

"Okay," she yawned again before settling in and closing her eyes.

As I drove, I scrolled through the music on my iPod, trying to pick something I wanted to hear. I settled on The Beatles, beginning with the album Let It Be. Since it was set to shuffle, Dig A Pony came up first and I listened to the lyrics as I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel.

I dig a pony
Well you can celebrate anything you want
Yes you can celebrate anything you want
Ooh

I do a road hog
Well you can penetrate any place you go
Yes you can penetrate any place you go
I told you so

All I want is you
Everything has got to be just like you want it to
Because-

Getting an idea, I rummaged through my pocket in search of my phone. Ignoring the fact that no one had sent me anything, I opened a new text message and addressed it to Twitter. I knew Josh was a bit of a Twitter-addict, and this was as direct as I could be without sending it to him.

Just as I passed the LA county line, I pressed send on my message:

All I want is you. Everything has got to be just like you want it to because...