They Can't Protect Me From Loving You

“Eloise! Get your beautiful booty down here now!” Eloise heard Jimmy yell from downstairs as she finished getting dressed.

“I’m coming!” she yelled back.

“Too much information!” he yelled back.

She giggled and checked herself in the mirror before skipping joyfully down the stairs. As she reached the bottom the front door opened and she was greeted by Johnny and his girlfriend Lacey.

“I have brought a 40 for each of us and two bottles of JD.” Johnny said as he and Lacey walked through to the kitchen.

“Ok, I like you already.” Eloise said grabbing one of the beer bottles and opening it.

“Everybody does!” Johnny replied cockily.

“Dream on short shit.” Jimmy said trying to ruffle Johnny’s short hair.

“Get off me you lanky piece of crap.” He retorted as Jimmy walked over to Eloise and pulling her into a hug.

“Children! Behave!” Eloise warned as Brian walked in from the backyard. He made his way across to Eloise and placed a kiss against her temple.

“Matt and Val are on their way.” he said taking the bottle of beer out of Eloises’ hand and drinking some.

“Now, are you guys coming out by the pool?” he asked, lacing his fingers with hers and tugging her gently out of Jimmy’s arms in the direction of the door.

She followed Brian out to where Zack and Gena were already sat with a drink in their hands. Brian sat down and pulled Eloise into his lap, wrapping his large, tattooed arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. The other’s joined them, followed shortly by Matt and Val.

“You know it’s weird. Watching you two with each other as if you’ve known each other for years.” Johnny said as he looked over at Eloise, who was blushing as Brian softly kissed the crook of her neck.

“Johnny, we have known each other years.” Eloise replied.

“Yeah I know that, but for me, I’ve only met you once before, it’s like you two have only been together for a week.” Johnny replied.

“She’s back where she belongs.” Brian mumbled against her neck.

“Yeah, and didn’t I tell you that you’d find each other again?” Val said cheerfully.

“Yes Val, you were right.” Eloise chuckled at the sight of Val’s triumphant face.

“Right, before we all get too drunk to remember this – I want to say a big welcome home to Eloise.” Jimmy began loudly.

“We’ve all missed her over these past four years and are ecstatically happy that she is back where she belongs; with us, in Huntington Beach, back with Brian.” He continued and Brian’s arms tightened around Eloise’s waist and his lips found the crook of her neck again.

“I love you.” He mumbled against her neck causing goose bumps to rise over her body.

“I love you too.” She whispered back.

“Anyway, welcome home Eloise.” Jimmy yelled lifting his Jack Daniels in a toast.

“Welcome home Eloise” everyone else cheered, raising their drinks.

“Thanks guys, I’ve missed you guys too, more than you can imagine and it feels so good to be back here, with the people who mean the most to me.” she replied smiling broadly at each of her friends.

“Now where’s the absinthe Jimmy brought over?” Zacky yelled.

“We need to get her hammered!” he added with a cheeky grin as he found the bottle he was looking for and started to pour some shots out.

Eloise’s eyes widened at this suggestion but took hold of the shot glass regardless.

“I’ll take it if you’re worried about the pain killers.” Brian whispered as Eloise hesitantly held the glass in her hand while the others all quickly knocked theirs back as soon as they were handed them.

“One won’t hurt.” She replied quietly. “You can have the rest of them though.” She added before quickly throwing the drink down her throat, grimacing as it caught the back of her throat and burned its way down to her stomach.

“I’d only been in the school a few weeks and hadn’t really made any real friends, just people who were desperate to find out about the new girl in town. None of us were paying any attention to the teacher as he rambled on about French verbs, it was the last hour of the day with a long weekend starting as soon as the bell rang.” Eloise began to tell the guys a story from after she moved.

“I noticed the girl in front of me, who turned out to be Sophie, begin to fidget in her seat and realised that she was trying to dodge a bee that had found its way through the open window.
Anyway, this bee must have smelt her fear as it would not leave her alone. Almost everyone in the class was now more interested in the bee than the teacher and we all watched as Sophie began to get more and more freaked by the bee. Finally it moved away from her and flew onto the window beside her. The next thing I know, Hannah who was sat next to me had rolled up her jotter and jumped up screaming ‘I’VE GOT IT!’ and slammed the book against the bee and the window. There was an almighty smash as the glass in the window pane shattered and fell to the floor!” Eloise concluded.

“Everyone screamed but then began to laugh nervously. Hannah just stood there biting her lip, looking between the window and the teacher who was walking over to her looking really pissed. He started yelling at her so I tried to defend her, as did Sophie. We all ended up in detention together and that’s when we all became friends. We’ve been together ever since.” She added as she finished telling the story as everyone listened.

For the past hour everyone had been exchanging stories from the last four years that they had been apart for. On finishing her story of how she’d become friends with Sophie and Hannah, Eloise relaxed back into Brian’s arms. She smiled as he gently pressed his soft lips onto her shoulder and took a sip of her drink.

“Oh, I know someone tell her about Jason’s sandwich.” Lacey yelled from Johnny’s lap.

There was a chorus of moans from the girls and laughs from the guys as they all understood what story Lacey was talking about.

“Ok, so we’re on tour about a year ago.” Zack started as Eloise watched him with Brian giggling quietly behind her.

“ We were about to go and have something to eat when JB came out of the dressing rooms laughing, and I mean clutching his stomach, belly aching, laughing. In his hand he’s got a plate with what looks like a sandwich. A lovely steak sandwich with tortilla chips and everything.” Zack continued as Eloise grimaced, unsure of where this was leading to. She looked around the group again to see the guys still laughing with every word as the girls all cringed at the thought of what Zack was about to reveal.

“But, then he made us look at it closer. It was in fact a poop sandwich.” He said.

“A what?” Eloise asked telling herself that she must have miss-heard what Zack had just said.

“A poop sandwich.” Jimmy repeated for her with a laugh as she frowned, scrunching up her nose.

“A poop sandwich?” she asked slowly, still hoping that she’d heard him wrong but everyone nodded.

“Yeah, our beloved JB had a shit and when he, for some unknown reason, noticed that it would fit perfectly into a sandwich roll, he did just that. He put it in his roll and placed tortilla chips around it. It did look like an edible sandwich. So Jason decided to take it into the cafeteria where everyone was sat having lunch. He marches straight over to the table where the opening band were sat and placed it on the table in front of them all and just walked away.” Jimmy continued with the story.

“What did they do?” Eloise asked trying to make up her mind whether she wanted to laugh at this story or be sick.

“They just looked at it at first and then they started jumping up from the table, their hands over their mouths and calling Jason all the names you can imagine.” Jimmy added.

“Yeah, but the best part was when the cleaner came over to clear the tables. She screamed blue murder and made JB clear the table.” Zack concluded.

Eloise gave out a small laugh. “Oh my God, and this is the guy that I’ve been encouraging one of my best friends to date!” she said.

“Yeah, you may want to warn her about how disgusting he can be before she goes on another date with him.” Gena suggested and Eloise nodded.

“He’s not the only one who’s disgusting, Brian ate his toe nails.” Johnny laughed.

“Ew, you eat your toenails?!” Eloise grimaced as she turned to face Brian, a look of disgust on her face.

“No!” Brian protested.

“Jason’s toe nail!” Matt reiterated with a chuckle. Eloise’s jaw dropped open, utter disgust on her face as she turned once again to face Brian, who was glaring at Matt.

“Please tell me he’s lying!” she asked as Brian’s gaze returned to her. He looked at her silently for a moment, visibly biting the inside lip, contemplating his answer.

“Dude, you can’t lie, it’s going to be on the DVD.” Jimmy said with a chuckle. Brian glanced quickly over Eloise’s shoulder at him and quickly back to Eloise who was still looking expectantly at him.

“Urgh, men are disgusting!” she exclaimed turning around in his arms.

“Babe, don’t be mad.” He whispered pleadingly as he tightened his grip around her waist, burying his face in her neck. She smirked as his lips brushed against her neck, gently nipping it.

“Just don’t expect me to kiss you if you ever do it again. Not until you’ve scrubbed your mouth anyway.” She said leaning back into him.