Paradise Lost

“So where’s Chels?” I asked Matt, noticing he had been awfully quiet so far.

“Uh, we got into an argument. She’s pissed and left our apartment.”

“What happened?” I asked, hoping Matt didn’t think I was prying.

“She said she can’t handle me being on tour a lot. That everything is great when I’m here but that just makes things worse when I have to leave.”

“I’m sorry, Matt.”

“It’s ok.”

“Why don’t we all go out for drinks tonight?” Jordan asked, receiving a cheer from everyone else.

Five hours later I was leaving a bar, buzzed, leaning on to Jay’s shoulder, who was also drunk but able to walk ok.

“Fu-uuuck. How are we gonna get home?” I asked in my slightly drunk state.

“I’ll call a cab.”

“Here, you guys can ride with us.” Scarlet said, taking me by the hand. She was the only sober one.

“We have my big ass SUV so me and Aron can take six other people with us, and Nat or Em, just sit on one of your guys’ laps.”

It was times like this that I was so glad that Aron got himself a girl that was sober-I normally was ok enough to drive, but tonight Jay just kept putting drinks in front of me and I kept drinking them.
Our house was the first one Scarlet got to, so I just told everyone to crash here for the night. They took me up on my offer and we all filed into the living room behind one another. Dillon and Emily took the guest room, Aron and Scarlet settled down on our loveseat, George took the recliner, and Matt and Jordan just fell down in the floor, forties still in hand. Jay and I retreated to our room after I took Bandit for a walk and we passed out soon after. I must say, I love my friends.

I woke to a loud thud coming from the living room downstairs and got up, grabbing a Tylenol out of the cabinet and heading down to see what had happened.

I laughed when I realized that Scarlet had shoved Aron off of the love seat and he had landed in the floor next to Jordan. He was slowly sitting up, holding his head.

“Holy fuck I’m dizzy.”

“Here, have a Tylenol.” I said, handing him the pill and a bottle of water.

“So what are your plans for the day?” Aron asked, moving from the floor and going into the kitchen, searching through my freezer for the Ego waffles we kept for him.

“I really just want to be with Jay for the day. Things have been going good the past few days, and I just want to spend some time with him.”

“Sounds good, me and Scarlet were actually planning on doing the same.”

“Ok, well help me farm the rest of these guys out of here, then.”

“Easy.” Aron said, smiling at me, and then walking back into the living room, waffles that he made in one hand, his water bottle in the other. He got positioned directly over Matt and Jordan and poured his water over their heads.

Jordan’s eyes flew open and he glared at Aron.

“I’ll give you two seconds, you scrawny asshole.”

“That’s all I need. Come on, Scar. Get up, quick. I’ll be in the car. Bye Nat!” He yelled, running out the door and hopping into his car, locking the doors.

I laughed while Jordan still glared at me, and then I shook Scarlet awake, telling her that Aron was in the car and that we needed to get everyone else home because they rode with her.

“What the fuck...I was asleep.”

“Sorry Scar, I can’t help it. Aron’s waiting in the car already.”

Slowly, the other four men said their goodbyes and walked out the door. As Dillon left I locked the door behind him and turned to see Jay standing in his boxers, yawning.

“Everybody gone?” He asked, walking up to me and wrapping his arms around my middle and resting his head on top of mine. He then moved to where his forehead was resting against mine and stared into my eyes.

“Yeah, they are.” I said, my voice quieting.

“Good. Come back to bed.”

“Sounds good.”

I followed Jay upstairs and into our bedroom, laughing at the sight of Bandit sleeping at the foot of the bed, rolled over on her back, and then crawled under the covers beside him and scooted closer, to where my nose was nuzzled into his neck. He pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head, and we drifted back to sleep for a few more hours.

I was woken up by the feeling of the mattress shifting as Jay stood up.

“Go back to sleep, babe. I was just going to the bathroom, then I’m coming back to bed. Screw doing anything today, let’s just lay in bed. We can even order food and everything. No one is going to do anything today.”

“Sounds good to me.” I said, rolling over.

Days like this were what I loved being with Jay for. It didn’t matter if we were doing anything- we didn’t have to constantly be active. For us, just having each other around, especially now, was fine. Come tomorrow, Jay would be in the studio and I would be writing an article to send in to Brett. Then, we were going out with the guys and probably wouldn’t be home until late. Relaxing days were rare, and so Jay and I took advantage of them while we could. I smiled as he crawled back into bed and for the second time that day, we fell asleep together.