Carry Me

“Why?! Why must you leave me?”

Levia laughed as Jerry held onto her, dramatically of course, and refused to let her go.

Jacoby scowled and pulled on his bandmate, “Let go, man! You’ll see her in another month anyway!”

Jerry reluctantly pulled away, Tony taking his place and hugging Levia tightly.

Levia still wasn’t used to the feeling of a guy hugging her, even if it was just in a friendly way like the Papa Roach guys were.

Jacoby huffed and tried to pry Tony off, “Not you too! I’m losing my entire band to her!”

Levia laughed again, this time snorting, causing all of the guys to laugh and Tony to let go.

“Yes! Finally!” Jacoby cheered, eagerly shoving Levia out of the door before the guys had a chance to hug her again.

“But I didn’t get a hug from Tobin!” Levia whined, pouting at Jacoby. He stared at her for a few seconds, trying to resist, before sighing and giving in.

“Alright. Go hug Tobe. But you better be fast or I’m leaving without you!”

Levia playfully rolled her eyes, knowing that Jacoby wasn’t going anywhere, and approached Tobin. He grinned at her and held his arms open, giving Levia a normal, non bone-crushing hug.

“Bye, Levia. Don’t let Coby Dick over there do anything inappropriate to you on the way home, m’kay?”

Levia nodded, trying to be serious, but the light pink tint to her cheeks gave her away, “I won’t.”

“She will,” Tony ‘coughed’ at Jerry. The two laughed and Jacoby narrowed his eyes at them.

“I’m not like that!” Jacoby defended.

Levia walked over to rejoin Jacoby and her bags, Tobin not far behind.

“Sure you aren’t, buddy, sure.”

Jacoby shot him one last non-hostile glare before walking out the door.

Levia waved, “Bye, guys!”

The three remaining guys chorused, “Bye, Levia!”

Levia smiled at them before walking out and joining Jacoby in his SUV. She couldn’t believe how fast the days had gone by. Here it was, already Thursday, and she had been here for almost a week. Addison was getting anxious to have her back for the final three weeks until her and Matt’s wedding.

Levia couldn’t believe a month had gone by, and her time in California was already half gone. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, and Levia didn’t want it to end.

Not only had she met two of her favorite bands, but she practically lived with one and just spent a week with the other.

Life was good.

The one thing that bothered Levia, though, was her attraction to both Jacoby and Zacky. The Papa Roach guys had been so absorbed in getting to know her and show her around that she never did get that date with Jacoby like she had planned.

Much to her disappointment.

A few miles down the road, Levia felt herself getting tired again and rested her head on the window.

Jacoby chuckled, “Tired again?”

Levia nodded sleepily, “You should know this by now.”

It was true. Over the past 6 days that she had spent with Papa Roach, she knew way more about the four and their previous drummer than she cared to know. They also knew too much about her, in Levia’s opinion. She had also gotten to know Kelly, who it turned out lived on the opposite side of town, and was just dropping off the kids at Jacoby’s for the week. The boys were more than happy to play with Levia, since they saw her as a new playmate, and she enjoyed joking and playing around with them. It was like playing with the half siblings she never had a chance to be with.

“Oh I do. And I know so many more things about you, Miss Wallace.” Jacoby said, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Levia sighed. Jacoby had so much dirt on her now it wasn’t even funny. She had already built up a decent alcohol tolerance just from her week with the PR boys alone. Jacoby didn’t care to drink anything alcoholic, which made it that much easier for him to get things out of Levia when she wasn’t in the right state of mind.

Jerk.

“Oh, but I know a few good things about you too, Mister Shaddix.”

Jacoby visibly cringed, “That sounds so weird. You make me sound like some creepy 60 year old pedophile that works as a janitor at the local high school.”

Levia laughed, “Why could I see you doing something like that?”

Jacoby shrugged, “Maybe because I did. Only I wasn’t 60 and I was never a pedophile.”

Levia eyed his suspiciously, “Sure you weren’t.”

Jacoby sighed, knowing that this little banter would never end, and decided to change the subject to something he found more fitting.

“So how about that date of ours?”

Levia shifted, “I dunno. I have no idea when Zacky is taking me out and I don’t know when you’d be back down to Huntington again.”

“You make it sound like we’re seeing each other behind Zacky’s back.”

Levia shrugged, “I feel…guilty…for some reason.”

Jacoby glanced at her, “Why?”

“Well, here Zacky is asking me on a date and then five minutes later I make a date with you. I feel like a whore.”

“You’re not a whore,” Jacoby said sternly.

“I sure feel like one,” Levia mumbled.

“You know, if you want, we can just put off the whole date thing and pretend it never happened? Maybe it would make things easier?”

As much as Jacoby hated to say it, it would help. Sure, he wanted to go out on a date with Levia, but Zacky did ask her first.

“All is fair in love and war,” Jacoby said jokingly.

Levia, still pondering over her answer, shook her head, “No. I’d still like to go out on a date with you, if that’s okay.”

Jacoby tried to hide his grin, “Of course that’s okay, Gorgeous.”

Levia took a deeper breath, “Alright then. If it doesn’t bother you, I’ll go on that date with Zacky when I get back, one of these days, and see where it goes from there. When would you like that date to happen?”

Jacoby shrugged, “If things with you and Zacky go good, then we can put off the date until…things aren’t good. Whenever that may be.”

Levia raised a brow and Jacoby stumbled over his words.

“I…uh…um…I meant that…you know…I hope everything would go good but….I mean…just in case…”

Levia giggled, “I know what you mean. And that sounds like a good idea, actually.”

Jacoby smiled at Levia, taking his eyes off the road for a second, “Then it’s a plan.”

Levia reached over to the radio and flipped it on a rock station that was currently playing Avenged Sevenfold. Levia smiled and closed her eyes, ready to let sleep overtake her.

Jacoby’s mouth turned down a bit at the corners, “How fitting.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I better get going. I hate driving at night, and if I don’t head soon it’ll be dark before I even leave,” Jacoby chuckled.

Matt nodded and gave Jacoby a ‘man hug’, “Nice to see you man, even though you kept Lev a little longer than we would’ve liked.”

Jacoby smiled sheepishly, “What can I say?”

Brian walked over and put his arm around Levia’s waist, “You can say that you won’t be keeping our precious Lev-Lev away from us for that long ever again!”

Levia snorted, “Lev-Lev? The fuck are you smoking?”

Jimmy’s head popped up from behind the couch, “Some craaaaaazy shit, man! You should try it!”

Levia laughed, “Maybe later, Jimmy.”

Brian let go of Levia as Jacoby approached. He had already figured out that Levia and Jacoby had grown pretty close, and knew that she liked Zacky too.

He could smell the drama already. And it wasn’t pretty.

Jacoby, knowing that Zacky was in the room along with the rest of Avenged, kissed Levia on the cheek, lingering a little longer than necessary, before giving her a grin and walking out the door.

“Bye, Gorgeous.”

She tried to hide her blush, knowing she failed when she heard Jacoby’s chuckle, “Bye, Coby.”

“Bye, guys!” Jacoby called.

Everyone said their goodbyes to Jacoby, Zacky’s more of a grumble, and he left.

Addison turned to her sister, “Have a fun time up in Vacaville?”

Levia smiled brightly, “Yeah! The guys showed me around, we made some retarded music, played games, you know, a lot of awesome and fun stuff.”

Addison smiled, knowing how her sister loved Jacoby and probably enjoyed her time more than she should have. She also knew of Levia’s upcoming date with Zacky. The whole band knew, much to Zacky’s displeasure.

“So when’s that date of yours with Zacky gonna happen, Levia?” Matt asked, a mischievous smile on his face.

Zacky groaned and put his head in his hands. Matt had no tact whatsoever.

Levia’s face turned hot and she turned away from everyone. By now they all knew she was blushing, and proceeded to laugh.

Assholes.

If there was anything Levia had learned during her week with the Roach boys it was to not get embarrassed so easily and to stand up for herself.

Levia turned around and faced everyone, blush and all, “Tonight, actually.”

Zacky’s head shot up as he looked at Levia in shock, along with everyone else, whose mouths were wide open.

Levia crossed her arms and looked at everyone critically, “You’ll catch flies if you leave your mouths open for too long.”

Brian shook his head and set his jaw, “I see your time with the boys changed you.”

Levia held her head high, arms still crossed, “Yep.”

Addison smiled proudly and ran to engulf Levia in a hug, “That’s my sister!”

Levia laughed and uncrossed her arms, hugging her sister back, “I missed you too, Addi.”

Matt snuck up behind Levia, and although Addison could see him, she said nothing. He suddenly wrapped his arms around Addison, effectively mashing Levia in the middle of the two. Levia, startled, jumped only to smash her chest against her sister’s, which was not only gross but painful, and her butt against Matt’s junk.

Wonderful.

Levia sighed as the rest of the guys, including Matt and also Addison, laughed, “You know, at least they didn’t do stuff like this to me all last week.”

Matt and Addison allowed Levia a chance to escape from their death hug, which she gladly accepted.

“Oh? And what did they do to you?” Zacky asked, casually putting an arm around Levia when she sat next to him on the couch.

Levia looked away, “Well…”

Brian, curious as to what happened, stood in front of Levia and poked her, “Yes? What happened?”

Levia gave Brian a strange look before clearing her throat, “Well, my first night there we all played Twister and ate a lot of snack food-”

Addison giggled, “Let me guess, you ate it all, didn’t you?”

Levia shifted her gaze around the room, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You did! You snack whore!”

Matt laughed, “Snack whore?”

Addison nodded, “Yep. Don’t give her any kind of snack food, like crackers or cookies or anything. She eats it all.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold up. Twister?” Brian asked.

Levia nodded, “Yeah…”

Zacky smirked, his arm still around Levia, “This I gotta hear.”

Levia turned away from Zacky, not really wanting to tell him everything that happened during that Twister game.

“Nothing really…I just got a face full of four guys’ junk and ass and a hand full of dick. No big deal-”

Brian laughed, “A hand and a face full of dick and ass?”

Levia nodded, a small grimace on her face, “Yeah. Wasn’t pretty.”

Zacky tightened his hold on Levia, which didn’t go unnoticed by her or anyone else. He didn’t want to think about anyone’s…anything…anywhere near her.

Unless it was his.

Brian seemed to sense this and sent a knowing look at Zacky, who sighed in return.

“So about that date of yours,” Jimmy said, suddenly appearing from behind the couch and putting his arms around a surprised Levia and annoyed Zacky, “where ya going?”

Zacky and Levia looked at each other, and Zacky spoke, “I dunno. Where do you want to go?”

“Not Olive Garden,” Brian mumbled, moving away from the two and going over by the window instead.

Levia shrugged, “Wherever you want, Zacky.”

Zacky pursed his lips together in thought. His eyes lit up when he realized he knew the perfect spot.

“I’ve got a place.”

“What is it?” Levia asked.

Zacky tried to hide his smile, “Oh, just a little place. It’ll be a surprise.”

Levia smiled. She liked surprises. Sometimes.

It depended who they were from, really. She wouldn’t mind a surprise from Zacky.

Not at all…