It's Really Happening

After Eris and Zack had left to go to the grocery store, the five of us all shuffled back into the living room and collapsed on the couches. Or in Jack's case, having been the last to enter, fell onto the floor at our feet. I rolled over, ignoring the fact that I nearly kicked Alex in the crotch, and stared at Tiffany.

"Where the fuck have you been?" She lifted her head from Rian's lap and slightly winced as she looked back at me.

"I don't know, I woke up in the bathtub. Fuck you."

"...what bathtub?" Alex asked as he picked up my feet and moved them so he could lie down on the couch next to me.

"The one over..." Tiffany trailed off and pointed in the direction across the room, indicating down the hallway where the nearest bathroom was.

"Oh." Alex looked extremely embarrassed and I turned towards him.

"What did you do?"

"I went in there before I came into the kitchen." He cleared his throat and shifted his eyes around the room.

"YOU PEED WHILE I WAS PASSED OUT IN THE TUB?!" Tiffany shrieked, thereby giving herself a worse headache and collapsed back onto Rian.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were there!"

"This is why we can't have nice things, Alex." Tiffany's voice was somewhat muffled because she had covered her face, but the effect remained the same. I began to snicker and the three boys in the room stared at me with the blankest of blank looks. I shook my head and covered my eyes as I said,

"Never mind. It's silly."

"I'M HUNGRY!" Jack yelled suddenly and I reached down to pat him on the head.

"Eris and Zack will be back with food soon. Calm down." Jack huffed and crawled along the floor for a minute or two before finally getting up and sprinting out of the room. Instead of questioning his motives, which most of the time proves to be utterly useless, the four of us simply watched Jack in his movements and stared at the doorway once he disappeared.

A few minutes later we heard a victorious "YAHOO!" from the kitchen and that was our motivation to get up to see what was going on. At least, for Alex and myself. Tiffany and Rian remained on their couch as the two of us went into the kitchen and saw Jack dancing around the oven.

"What the fuck is going on?" Alex asked as he leaned on the counter. Jack whipped around and had a huge smile on his face.

"Motherfuckin' pizza rolls!" Jack held up a bag of Totino's Pizza Rolls and resumed his dancing. Alex and I looked at each other and shrugged before beginning to dance with Jack. For a moment I paused and wondered what the hell I was doing, then I remembered who I was with and realized this was normal behavior for them. Then it all seemed perfectly fine to be dancing without music in the middle of a kitchen.

By the time the oven had warmed up and the pizza rolls had cooked, Eris and Zack stumbled into the house and came into the kitchen with their arms full of bags. The moment Eris set the bags down on the counter and looked at the giant plate of pizza rolls in front of us, I immediately knew what she was going to say.

"Where the fuck did you find pizza rolls?"

"...in the freezer," Jack answered in mid-bite.

"And you're having them for breakfast?" she asked. Jack looked around shiftily and frowned.

"I was hungry," he groaned. Eris rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I was going to make you breakfast!"

"You still can! I'll still be hungry after all of these!"

"What makes you think I still want to cook you breakfast?" Jack pouted.

"What about me?" Alex asked. "I still want breakfast!"

"Hey!" I interjected. Everyone turned their heads to look at me, including Jack with a half-eaten pizza roll now in full view in his wide-open mouth. "What's the plan for today?"

"There isn't one?" Alex replied with a shrug. I slammed my palm against my forehead and sighed. A moment later I slid off the stool I was sitting on and pounded my fist on the table.

"I think it's time for us to go."

"Go? Go where?" Jack asked. I looked at Eris and she nodded.

"Back to San Francisco."

"B-But you just got here!"

"Well you guys have work to do." Eris began busying herself with making a farewell breakfast and I walked back to the other room.

"Oi! Get up!"

"Why?" Tiffany whined.

"We're going home." Tiffany's head popped up and she looked at me with her bottom lip sticking out in a pout.

"But...but my fuck puppet!" I gave her an extremely strange look until a moment from the night before popped into my head and it all made sense. In a moment of extreme drunkenness, Eris got into a debate with Tiffany about her relationship with Rian and among other ridiculously strange terms of endearment, "fuck puppet" was one that definitely stood out.

"Speaking of..." I looked around. "Where is Rian?"

"Bathroom," Tiffany answered as she got up. "...I think."

"Anyway," I continued. "Gather up your shit 'cause we're leaving after Eris finishes making breakfast for the idiot twins."

"Fair enough. What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?" I asked as I started looking for my shoes.

"When we go to the moon. In San Francisco!" Tiffany rolled her eyes.

"Oh. Umm...I don't know." I looked under the couch and sighed. "Dammit where did it go?!"

"Near the pool table." I looked at her before walking to the pool table and finding my shoe stuck under one of the legs.

"What the hell?" I mumbled to myself as I wrenched it free.

"Remember? Jack was convinced the pool table wasn't level because Rian kept beating him."

"Ohh right." I nodded as more memories of the night before flooded back. I put my other shoe on and patted down my pockets, realizing my phone was missing. "Aw shit. Eris!"

"Yeah?" she yelled back from the kitchen.

"Do me a favor and call my phone?" I waited for a minute and listened intently for the sound of my ringtone. So far I hadn't heard Alex's dulcet tones so I moved around the room, hoping that my phone wasn't on vibrate or silent.

Convinced my phone wasn't in the living room, I headed back to the kitchen where Eris was busy cooking and the other three were busy doing...nothing. Eris' phone was left on the counter so I picked it up and called my phone again. This time, I heard Alex's voice...coming from inside Jack's pants.

"Jack, your pants are singing." His head perked up and he put his hand into his pocket and chuckled.

"Well so they are." He pulled out my phone and tossed it to me, still ringing, and Alex chuckled.

"Nice ringtone."

"Thank you," I answered smugly as I turned off "Jasey Rae" and slipped my phone into my pocket. Tiffany wandered into the kitchen a few minutes later and trailing behind her was Rian with a cowboy hat on top of his head. He leaned on the counter and tipped his hat up with his thumb as he spoke with a heavy Southern drawl,

"Howdy, lil lady." Eris and I stared blankly at him for a moment before she spoke up and asked,

"Rian, why are you Southern?"

"Because I can pull it off?" He shrugged. I shrugged as well and let out a sigh.

"Better you than me."

"We all know how well you do voices," Tiffany remarked. I elbowed her in the side and she yelped.

"It is not my fault I can't put on fake accents!" I huffed and crossed my arms. "The only accent I can do is British. And even that I can only accomplish after watching at least two British films." The others turned to stare at me and I suddenly felt extremely awkward. "What?"

"Nothing," they all answered simultaneously. It was then, with that sudden outburst of too many minds thinking alike at once, that I knew it really was time for us to leave.

An hour or so later, Tiffany, Eris and I were standing around Eris' car as we said our goodbyes to the boys. Zack and Rian were currently holding tightly onto their respective squeezes, which left me with Alex and Jack. Neither of whom I particularly wanted to hang on to me, because I knew that would just add to their opposition of us leaving.

After many hugs and lots of assorted goodbyes, the three of us made it into the car and pulled out of the driveway, heading off into the midday sun. Eris took the first driving shift and Tiffany was riding shotgun as I sprawled out in the back.

"I miss Dexter." Tiffany turned around to face me and nodded.

"I miss the little ball of fluff too."

"He'll be extremely happy to see you when we get home," Eris remarked. "I'm sure he's driven Giselle batshit crazy by now." I chuckled as I adjusted my sunglasses from slipping down my nose.

"It'll be weird going back and having just the three of us."

"Yeah! Where will we roadtrip to next?" Tiffany asked as she turned back around. Eris caught my eye in the rearview mirror and chuckled.

"We're not roadtripping to Michigan. It's far and it's fucking cold there." I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms as if I were actually angry.

"Fine," I mumbled. In actuality, I'd rather have him come here even though I knew it was highly unlikely at this point.

"Nevada!" Tiffany shouted as she quickly punched Eris in the arm.

"Dammit!" Eris laughed. "I'll get you back!"

As the two of them began arguing about the rules of the license plate game, my mind wandered back to thoughts of my fiancé and our lack of communication. It was at that moment that I realized I had shoved my phone into my bag without even looking for missed calls or new texts.

I found myself frantically searching through my bag a moment later, letting out a "yes!" of success once I finally located my phone. I needed to learn to carry less shit in my bag, but that was a lesson to be learned another day. I cleared the missed call from Eris and saw that there hadn't been any others, and that made my heart sink a little. I then saw the text message icon and got my hopes up as I checked my inbox.

There were a few new messages, one from Tiffany that was probably sent the night before amidst the drunkenness, one from my sister and I made a mental note to call her back later, and then one from Josh. My heart leapt into my throat as I clicked on it and waited for it to load.

Call me when you're back in SF.

As quickly as my heart had leapt, it sank right back down. I had never received such a short, suspicious text from Josh before and I couldn't help but feel worried about what he meant behind it. I wanted to reply back asking what he meant, but I had a feeling he wouldn't answer. I would have to bite the bullet and wait until the three of us made it back to San Francisco. Hopefully the car wouldn't explode.

By the time we reached Eris' apartment, it was eleven. Meaning it was two in the morning in Michigan, which might have proved to be a bad thing if Josh wasn't a well-known insomniac. As the three of us trudged up the stairs, I kept taking my phone out of my pocket and putting it back in since I still wasn't sure if I should call let alone if he would pick up.

"Stop being a pansy!" Tiffany said as Eris attempted to unlock her door. A moment later the door swung open wide inwardly and on the other side stood Giselle.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't think you'd be back yet."

"No worries," Eris answered after a moment. "Where you off to?"

"Out," she replied with a smile. "Don't wait up!" She sauntered by and headed for the stairs, leaving the three of us extremely confused.

"That was..." I began, but Giselle turned around and cleared her throat.

"There's something for you, Abby, in the living room." She smiled and waved before disappearing down the stairs.

"...weird," I finished.

"What's inside?" Tiffany asked as she and Eris headed inside before me. After a few steps they paused and stepped aside to let me see what they saw. What I saw took my breath away: two vases full of yellow roses, my favorite.

"There's a note!" Eris pointed out as she nabbed it from the second bunch and handed it to me.

"What's it say?!" Tiffany demanded. I rolled my eyes as I ripped the envelope open and took out the card.

"What do you do with a girl like you? Giving everything and getting nothing back," I read and my heart swelled. Josh had a way with words, even if they didn't seem to mean anything to anyone but me.

"Aww! You two are sickening," Eris remarked. I elbowed her and Tiffany smacked her upside the head before she squealed.

"You need to call him!"

"But it's so late!"

"So?!" Tiffany and Eris said together.

"Musician equals no sleep." Eris crossed her arms. I rolled my eyes as I took out my phone.

"All right, fine." I dialled his number eagerly, no longer caring about the time difference.

"Hello?" Josh's voice sounded croaky, as if he had just woken up, but I could tell he was relieved that I had finally called.

"Hi," I answered.

"Did you get my gift?" I felt my cheeks redden even though he was 2,000 miles away.

"Yeah, I did. They're beautiful."

"You're beautiful. I love you." I inhaled deeply before answering,

"I love you too."