It's Really Happening

"Packing…I am packing! Packing…I hate packing." I danced a half-jig around the bedroom as I tossed things into a suitcase. I sat down on the bed and blew hair out of my face as the bedroom door opened.

"Well hello there, beautiful." I smiled as Josh came in and walked over to me. As he leaned down to kiss me, he also tried to push me onto my back.

"Hey, hey," I chuckled. "None of that."

"What? We've got some time to ourselves…for now."

"Soon we'll have lots of time to ourselves." I smiled again and Josh pulled me up and into his arms.

"You know, we could still elope…"

"And have our family and friends hate us forever for not having a ridiculous party?" Josh thought for a moment and then sighed.

"You're so smart." He smiled and kissed me. "Just another reason why I'm marrying you."

"Good to know." I chuckled. "Are you all packed?"

"Babe, I live out of a suitcase. I'm always packed."

"Fair enough." I sighed. "Finish my packing."

"Kay." Josh closed my suitcase and looked back at me. "Done." I rolled my eyes and chuckled.

"You are such a butthead."

Before I knew it, we were at the airport with Dexter, going through unnecessarily annoying lengths to get him on the plane. I had originally told Josh to take care of it, but unfortunately he had never brought a dog onto a flight before, so he didn't have a clue about what he was doing.

So, instead of doing what I was supposed to do – i.e., find Tiffany – I had to talk to about four different airline representatives to get our shit together.

By the time we made it through security, Tiffany had already made it from her flight in from Toronto to the gate for our flight to LA. Originally, we were supposed to meet her for lunch, but then things got out of hand.

"I see how it is," Tiffany remarked as Josh and I collapsed into seats next to her.

"And how is it?" I asked, double-checking the time on my phone against the time we were supposed to board our flight.

"You love your silly mutt more than me!"

"I'm no mutt!" Josh protested. I laughed and kissed his cheek.

"Yes you are. But she was talking about Dexter."

"No, actually, I was talking about Josh. I fuckin' love Dexter."

"I see how it is," Josh muttered, a smile hinting on his lips.

"I love my mutt. Both of them." I smiled as I laced my fingers with his. "You too, Couch."

"Love you too!" Tiffany grinned.

Josh spent most of the flight taking a nap while Tiffany and I talked about girly things. Moustaches, the unnaturally high number of overweight people on the plane, what awesome things we would sell in the in-flight catalogue if we ran our own airline. The usual stuff.

"You two are so weird," Josh murmured.

"But you love me." Josh nodded and pulled me towards him so he could kiss me.

"I do. S'why I'm marrying you."

"I still can't believe you two are getting married. So soon!" Tiffany laughed. "You're both like five years old as far as I'm concerned.

"Hey, I'm seven." Josh protested. "Get it right."

"Sorry, Mr.-I-Drink-Out-Of-A-Sippy-Cup." Tiffany rolled her eyes. "Away with you."

By the time we off the plane, out of the airport, and to the hotel, most of our friends had already gotten there as well. Eris, Tiffany and I were sharing a room while Josh was bunking with Dave and Jimmie, as usual. As I had been told by not only Eris and Tiffany but my sister as well, apparently Josh and I weren't allowed to share a hotel room until after we were married.

As we parted ways, Josh took Dexter to his room while Tiffany and I headed towards the room Eris had already taken over.

"Have I mentioned that you guys suck?" I remarked as Tiffany and I entered the hotel room.

"Oh shut up, soon you'll be sucking a lot more than we do."

"WOW TOO MUCH INFORMATION!" Eris practically yelled.

"As if you expect anything less." Tiffany beamed as she leapt into Eris' arms.

"True. I'm nearly used to it by now."

"This is a nice room," I commented, quickly changing the subject.

"Isn't it?" Eris added. "The beds are quite comfortable."

"Comfortable, or fuckable?"

"Come again?" I asked.

"That's what she said!" Tiffany snickered.

"Wow. You are really on today." Eris laughed.

"In other news, where are the others?" I asked, changing the subject yet again.

"Around," Eris replied, shifting her eyes. I raised an eyebrow and decided to turn the tables.

"How was your flight?"

"Fine…"

"You and Gaskarth join the Mile High Club?" Eris' eyes went wide, as did Tiffany's and I couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"You….are a bitch." Eris laughed.

"Well, did you?"

"No!" Eris sighed. "Christ!" I shrugged and sat down on the bed.

"After our last conversation about him, I thought something might've actually happened."

"Well…that's not entirely false." Eris shifted her eyes again and Tiffany and I both stared at her.

"Go on." Tiffany cocked her head to the side, listening intently.

"He…might've…accidently…kissed me."

"Might've?" Tiffany asked.

"Accidently?" I added. "Bullshit. Alex never does anything on accident."

"True, but doesn't change the fact that it happened." Eris groaned. "And definitely doesn't change how annoyed with him I am."

"Annoyed, or sexually frustrated?"

"Couch!"

"What? It's an honest question!"

"Well, shit, if Josh and I hadn't met first I might've gone after Gaskarth myself." I paused, realizing what I had just said was out loud. "Don't tell him I said that."

"So long as you don't tell Zack that I didn't tell him to fuck off right away."

"Deal." I sighed. "Our lives are so fucking weird."

"Dude, right?"

"Well-" I began but I paused when my cell phone buzzed. I checked it quickly, my eyes widened slightly as I read the message and then cleared my throat.

"Abby?"

"I'll let you explain, Eris, while I…go get a soda!" I backed up to the door and slipped through it before the other two had a chance to react.

Just as I had said I would, I headed down the hall to the vending machines. What I hadn't mentioned is that there would be someone there waiting for me. Not that I had done a particularly good job of hiding it, but the text had been from Josh.

Vending machines in five?

The first few times I had gone on tour with Every Avenue, the only times Josh and I were able to be alone was for about five minutes at a time. Most of those times were in hotel hallways at a vending machine, as strange as that sounds.

When you're crammed in a van with six guys with little to no personal space, you learn to take what you can get when you can get it. The first few times we snuck away, the other guys barely noticed we were gone because most of the time, they were either too tired or too drunk to realize how long we'd been gone.

After a while, they caught on to what Josh and I were doing. Mostly because Dave found us once or twice. Or every night for a good week and a half, to be specific. After that happened, they stopped wondering where we went.

"Hi," Josh said softly as I turned the corner and found him.

"Hi," I replied. He pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips against mine as if we'd been apart for days.

The only problem with our vending machine makeouts was, as we had learned when Dave found us multiple times, we really didn't pay attention to the world around us. At all.

"GET A ROOM!"

"Seriously, guys, we're in a hotel. There are tons of rooms you could have."

"Obviously not because we weren't allowed to have our own room," Josh remarked as we turned towards Tiffany and Eris. "I just wanted some alone time with my fiancée."

"Yeah well, soon you'll get all the "alone time" you need." Tiffany rolled her eyes.

"Do you have a suggestion for a better way of spending our time, then?" I asked.

"Booze! Lots and lots of it!" Tiffany grinned.

"As if we all aren't going to be drunk enough over the next week."

"Drunk enough is never drunk enough." Josh laughed.

"Unless we're talking about the hangover. Then drunk enough is way too fucking drunk." Tiffany shrugged.

"Unless you're me!" Eris grinned. The three of us turned and glared at her.

"Eris?"

"Yes, Tiffany?"

"Suck my dick."

Upon getting taken back to the hotel room, Eris and Tiffany decided how we were going to spend the rest of the night. I, on the other hand, had little to no input. Which, to be honest, I didn't really mind.

"Just as long as I can wear something comfortable, I'm down."

"Pfft, like hell you are!" Tiffany laughed. "You are getting dressed up!"

"Whaaaat?" I groaned. "I didn't bring anything like that!"

"The hell you didn't!" Eris and Tiffany immediately began tearing through my suitcase, looking for anything they would classify as "dressing up". As per usual, I packed one thing that they deemed acceptable.

"As if I have to tell you both again, I am really bad at packing."

"Yes, but this is at least progress."

"Are the guys dressing up?"

"They'd fuckin' better." Tiffany scoffed. "I put the fear of Couch in them."

"Don't you mean the fear of God?" I asked as I was given my outfit for the night.

"No, I mean the fear of Couch. Do not mess with the Portuguese!" Eris and I looked at each other and shrugged.

"Fair enough."

As we left the hotel, we met up with the guys, who had dressed up as much as they ever would (excluding the wedding day). A button-up shirt and a pair of clean jeans, and they were good to go. And as per usual, the males vastly outnumbered the three of us girls.

Jimmie and Dave had flown in with Jack, while Zack and Rian had opted to drive to LA the following day. And with Alex on the same flight as Eris, that brought the men to women ratio to five to three.

I would've preferred to switch Jack with Zack and save myself from any possible bad situations or awkwardness, but then I would be putting both Tiffany and Eris in a possibly uncomfortable situation. As much as I loved all of us being together, we had some really fucked up problems.

Tiffany had never actually mentioned what happened between her and Rian, but Eris and I had taken the hint and left the topic alone. Whatever they were, we were fairly certain it had ended and we didn't want to be the ones to bring it up. We would leave that to the man without any tact whatsoever, Jack Barakat. After all, it was only a matter of time before he would say something someone would end up regretting.

We ended up at a club somewhere in downtown Hollywood, and the moment Eris and I reached the bar, we both knew this night was going to go on a downward spiral: they were serving bourbon milkshakes.

"Excellent! We'll take four."

"Four?" I asked. Eris looked at me and shrugged.

"For now, for us."

"Fair enough." Just before we were given our drinks, I questioned aloud, "Should we have left Tiffany alone with the guys?"

"Perhaps not." Eris shrugged again as she picked up a glass and clinked it to another. "Bottoms up!"

After the third bourbon milkshake, things became a little blurry. It may have had something to do with the number of shots in-between the milkshakes, but I have and will always maintain that my friends are a terrible influence.

Dave and Jimmie had long since disappeared into the crowd of the club, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves. Not that we had to do much, considering Tiffany, Eris and Jack had gone to the middle of the floor to dance (Tiffany had dragged Eris, and Jack had tagged along). This, oddly, left me with Josh and Alex.

Josh excused himself to grab a new round of drinks, and I was facing a rather awkward interlude with Alex. If nothing else, it would be a very silent few minutes in an otherwise obnoxiously loud club.

"Does Josh know about you and Jack?"

Or not.

"What?" I turned to Alex and moved closer so that if anyone were to come back, they'd be less likely to hear what we were saying.

"Does he?" I took a deep breath and tried to tell myself that Alex was drunk and might not know what he's saying.

"Does Zack know you kissed Eris?" I replied.

"Everyone knows I'm a whore." Alex chuckled. It took every ounce of strength in me not to deck Alex in the eye.

"You're not saying this to call me a whore, are you, Alexander?" He chuckled and put his head down on my shoulder for a moment.

"No, no, Abby. I like you." I chuckled. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"You're the one who's going to end up hurt, Alex."

"I'm just looking out for my friends." Alex looked at me and put his arm around my shoulder. "That means you too, y'know."

I let out a sigh and chuckled, putting my hand on Alex's reassuringly. He was a complete idiot most of the time, especially when he was drunk, but Alex's heart was in the right place. Sometimes.