Here, Here, and Here

I rush back over to our table and as soon as I sit down I thrust my hand in Reaghan’s face.

“Cool, I’ve got one too” she says, showing me her left hand which has a ring saying ‘The Bird’ on her middle finger. I could tell she wasn’t getting, but then again I suppose she doesn’t know.

“Avina that ring better not be on the finger I think it is!” Bill practically shouts at me. I nod my head furiously in response. “Oh mein gott” was all he said as he put his head in his hands.

“You’re not happy? I thought you’d be ecstatic” I say confused and worried that Bill didn’t approve.

“Oh trust me I’m happy, I’m just more relieved that he finally did it” Bill says looking up with a smile on his face.

“Okay now I’m seriously confused, will someone please explain to me why it’s such a big deal the Eibhlin has a ring on her left middle finger?” Rea shouts over the music, her tone a little frustrated.

“It’s such a big deal because it means Tom proposed” Georg explains to her.

“Ava, honey, I think Tom put the ring on the wrong finger. You see, an engagement ring goes on your left ring finger, that’s why it’s called a ring finger” she says taking my hands like I was ignorant about the whole tradition.

“Yeah in world tradition, but in the Shail family we put engagement rings on the middle finger. The tradition goes back over a hundred years” I explain with a chuckle.

“Why?”

“It’s a long story involving a forbidden engagement, poverty, and running away” Tom says making the story sound more interesting then it really is.

“What ever, I’ll ask for the full story tomorrow ‘cause it’s a long plain ride” Rea says as she pulls on Georg’s arm. I raise my eyebrows and give her a puzzled look. She turns around and pauses, “Right now I am slightly drunk and I want to dance way too much to care to ask.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!!”

I groan awake, a little concerned about my rude awakening. As I get my bearings I remember last night. I pull my left hand from under the warm comforter and stare at the diamond ring on my left middle finger. I smiled. What makes me so happy about Tom and I getting married wasn’t the fact of the wedding it’s self but the fact that once Tom and I were married we wouldn’t have to hide, anything, anymore.

Through my eyelashes I spot something moving past the end of the bed and back again. I look up and se Tom pacing, angry. I make a move for the foot of the bed and Tom notices that I’m awake. He sits one the bed just before I reach him.

I rest my chin on his shoulder, leaning my head towards his. “What’s wrong?” I calmly ask.

“This!” he exclaims, turning the TV on, “Look at this shit!!”

So I looked. It was one of those shows that were about recent pop culture stuff like new music, concerts, tours, movies, shows, and celebrities. It seemed like they were just ending a segment about some tour that was kicking off in week. Then it cuts back to two people sitting in a living room style studio in front of a huge screen TV.

“And now” the female host, who was wearing way to much red lipstick, said, “it’s time for Celebrity Dirt.”

As I was about to tell Tom to turn it off because I didn’t care to see what the latest prima donna had bought a picture of Tom and I outside the Ratsweinkeller after dinner popped up on the screen. My haw dropped slightly, but I didn’t say anything because the host was speaking again.

“Our main dirty celeb today” she said dirty in wannabe seductive way that was enough to make me gag, “is Tom Kaulitz and his very long night last night” she said long in the same tone.

She continued, “It started not in Hamburg, but in Magdeburg” as she said Magdeburg another picture popped up on the large TV screen. This photo made me feel like my personal space was so violated that I wanted to be sick. It was a picture of Tom and me outside the house on the ground. It was taken right before we left for Hamburg. I was prepared for a photo of anyplace else, just not my house.

“Tom and a . . . friend were pictured early yesterday afternoon outside of Tom’s parent’s house before leaving in Tom’s Escalade.” All I could think about was how thankful I was that Simone and Gordon’s house looked very similar to mine.

“We next see Tom dropping the same girl off at his apartment, but instead of following her, in true Tom style, he leaves” I roll my eyes again at the fact that everyone seems to think I’m Tom’s one night stand.

The female host continues, all the while changing pictures that go with the scene she’s describing, “Then we see the same girl exiting the building a few hours later, dressed and ready to impress, with the reported girlfriend of Georg Listing -” The show continues to show pictures of the entire night, right up to when Tom and I left the club and returned to his apartment, the entire time commenting and describing each picture. They finish with a close up of my face and say, “And it looks like Tom’s mystery girl is none other than” she pauses for an unnecessary dramatic effect, “Ava Kristia!” A picture of me outside at one of the meet and greets the boys did shows up right next to the close up shot of Tom and I.

As they move on to the next celebrity the wheels in my head start turning. I barely notice Tom turning off the TV still flustered, or should I say pissed as all hell. I’m quiet as I’m thinking and my nerves start to calm as I come up with better and better excuses and side stories to throw off the tabloids.

Apparently my calm facial expression and posture irritate Tom because he shouts slightly in a frustrated outburst, “How the hell are you so calm? They all know now! They know that we’re together!”

“Calm down” I order grabbing his shoulder in a tight hold, “Them knowing we’re together isn’t and never was my biggest concern. As long as they don’t know that Caoimhe is your daughter we’re fine.”

“I’m still not following” Tom says calming down but still uptight.

“Right now they know about our not even half of our present” I say explaining it to him, “They have no clue about our past or our future. Hell Tom, they don’t even know my real name!”

“But now that people know we’re an item they’ll want to know even more about you than before” he’s still not giving up, stubborn ass, “They’ll dig and even if they don’t know your name Eibhlin there are pictures out there from school and someone is bound to make the connection!”

“A: I always made it a point to be absent on picture day and B: by the time someone finds something it’ll be too late” I roll my eyes at him.

“How will it be too late?”

“By that time my stomach will be huge and their time-line of us getting together won’t match the baby time-line and if they know about one baby then they’ll have to know about the other!” I say knowing I’ve won. That’s one of the perks of having a Marine for a father; you’re always thinking three steps ahead of the first five.

“Now call your parents and make sure they’re on time. We have a plain to catch and I’m not missing a chance to go home!”

Let’s just say I’m very happy and excited to be going stateside again.