You Only Get One Shot Do Not Miss Your Chance to Blow

“Hayley!” I heard as Hayley stepped in the door after shopping. Luckily I was behind her because as soon as she stepped in she was dog piled on. Her bags crumpled under the four immature boys’ weight.

“AW! FUCK!” I heard Hayley’s muffled scream. I took my chance to dash out of sight and I ran to the kitchen before one of them saw me.

I jumped up in surprise when I saw someone sitting there.

“Oh! Sorry, you scared the shit out of me,” I laughed and set my bags on tiny two person table.

“Well hello to you too,” Cassie joked.

I laughed, “So, what’s up?”

“Well, I went to Spencer’s place, ‘cause that’s where Jon staying, and Jon was going to make me dinner, but the power went out.”

“Oh really? Wow. Well you all can stay here,” I smiled.

“Yeah, Brendon already kind of invited us here, for you,” she said questioningly, hoping for my approval.

“Oh, well then!” I laughed, she seemed uneasy about staying here, like I would be mad at her, but I really didn’t care. It made me wonder what she thought of me. I’m not the kind of person who usually cares what people think about me, but the way she spoke to me made me feel like I was under some sort of test or something. “I’m going to be gone most of the night, but you guys can definitely hang here.”

“Emmy!”

“Uh-oh,” I muttered, as I heard Brendon voice in the other room headed toward the kitchen. Cassie chuckled and got up from her chair and went out to the living room.

I got engulfed in a hug from behind, “Hey, missy,” Brendon whispered.

“Hey, mister,” I whispered back and turned around to peck him on the lips. Brendon took the peck a little further and started full on making out with me. It took me by surprise, his lips usually were gentle with little urgency, like he was enjoying the kiss and savoring it. But this was a kiss filled with passion and fervor, like he needed me. I liked the feeling of being needed.

I pulled away and smiled at him and he quickly kissed my nose before we walked out to the living room where everyone else had settled into a chair, couch or floor.

Hayley was sitting by Ryan, huddled up against him. I smiled at her and wiggled my eyebrows and she blushed.

“Brendon, you know we have a date in…” I looked at my phone, “exactly one hour and 13 minutes.”

“Yeah, well.”

“You’re picking me up,” I pointed out.

“Fine, I’ll just leave ten minutes before it and then come back!” he threw a fake fit and pouted. I just laughed.

“Well, I’m going to go take a shower so--”

“You guys have a date?” Spencer finally spoke up.

“Yeah, you jealous, drummer boy?” Brendon asked, kissing me on the cheek.

“No!” he sneered at Brendon. “I was just thinking, Haley is coming and we were going to dinner--”

“Uh. No! We are not!” Hayley declared. Everyone else laughed at her. Hayley and I were the only ones in the room who weren’t in on the joke. Even Ryan was laughing at her.

I just gave a baffled look to Brendon, but he was cracking up and slapping his hand to his leg.

“Uh, excuse me?!” Everyone stopped laughing and looked at me, “What’s so funny?” They all started snickering again.

Hayley and I just looked at each other, very confused.

“Haley *laugh* Haley is *laugh* Spencer’s *laugh* Spencer’s girl!” Brendon said trying to hold in his laughter.

“Well why didn’t you just say that!” I exclaimed and smiled.

Hayley crossed her arms, “I didn’t think it was that funny.”

“Yeah! *laugh* your face was priceless!” Jon joked.

Hayley pouted. “Awe, don’t worry about it, cutie,” Ryan said, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

“Anyways! I’m going to shower,” I said.

Brendon wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I rolled eyes at him and smiled. That made him pout, “Come back okay?”

“Sure thing, chicken wing!” and I left to the bathroom.

The entire time I was showering and in the bathroom I could hear all of them out in the other rooms but mostly I could hear Brendon’s thunderous laugh over all of them.

---

“Finally!” Jon shouted to me as I came out of the bathroom. “Someone has been going crazy. Ow!” Jon joked, but then got hit by Brendon’s flying water bottle.

I headed to the kitchen to get a glass of water, “What the hell?!”

Everyone silenced.

“What the hell happened to the kitchen?!”

“Brendon! *whack* you said you cleaned it up!” I heard Hayley say from the other room.

I exhaled and left the overflowed sink and water all over the floor and went back out to them, “Well I have to go dry my hair, so somebody better clean it up, because I sure as hell am not.”

Brendon exhaled in defeat and walked to the kitchen with his shoulders slumped and arms dragging. “Fine.”

I gave him a quick kiss, which he tried to keep going like before, but I backed away and went in the bathroom and got out my hair dryer.

I wasn’t in there more than 45 seconds before I heard a knock on the door. “What.”

“Uh, Emmy?”

“Yes, Brendon?”

“Well, I need help. ‘Cause I don’t know how to do it,” Brendon said in a whiney kids voice.

“Just tell Jon to help you. I need to get ready, Brenny!” Then I heard his stomps fade out to the living room.

I stared drying my hair again. But again, I had only gotten a minute or so when there was a hard knock on the door.

“What.”

“Emily?”

“What, Jon.”

“Brendon said that you said that I had to help him!”

“Hhhh! Can you just do it?

“No,” he whimpered.

“Ugh, then go tell Spencer to do it, I don’t care.”

“Sure thing, chicken wing!” I heard him skip away from the door, instantly happy again.

“Hey! You stole that from me!” I yelled at him, but he was too far to hear me, so I turned on my hair dryer again and attempted to finish drying my wet hair.

There was another knock, 30 seconds later. “What!”

“Emily? This is so unfair!” It was Spencer.

“Oh my God you guys! You are such babies!”

“Well, it’s just. I didn’t make the mess. It was Brendon,” he said. They all sounded like little kids tattling on each other.

“Well, get Ry to help then. I don’t care!!”

“Fine.” He muttered.

It had been two minutes since the last interruption and I was still drying my hair, I had Ryan and his maturity to thank for that.

Then I heard a soft patter on the door. I had spoken too soon.

“LOOK! I DON’T CARE, RYAN! JUST CLEAN THE DAMN WATER UP!”

“Um.”

My eyes bulged out of my head; that wasn’t Ryan. It was a girl’s voice.

I quickly set down the hair dryer and ran to the door and unlocked it and swung it open.

Cassie was standing there smiling in amusement.

“S-sorry.”

“Don’t worry about, Em. Oh, and someone is on the phone for you,” she smiled. She looked so much more mature than me. Her heart shape face was flawless, just like her make-up. Her hair was amazing and her eyebrows were perfect, along with her teeth, smile, lips and nose.

“Okay thanks. I’ll be out in a sec.” I shut the door and was about to turn on my dryer so I could try to get at least my hair a little less damp. But by the rate I was going, it would probably air dry before I could blow it dry.

Before I could hit the ‘ON’ switch, there was big pounding on the bathroom door, “Emily! Phone! Come out now,” Hayley yelled. I laughed to myself at her forwardness.

“Can I jus--”

“No.”

“But I--”

“No.”

“Fine.” I made my way out and into the kitchen where the phone was. When I entered, I saw a hilarious site. Four grown men, take that loosely, were bent down on all fours, trying to clean up the flooded floor.

Ryan had on an apron on and his hair pulled back into a pony tail. He couldn’t really put back all the hair, but his scruffy long hair mostly fit into one of Hayley’s binders, his headband was helping him keep the rest back. He actually looked like he was enjoying himself. He was whistling to himself and shaking his scrawny ass, which was in the air, to the beat of his melody.

Brendon had on oven mitts. I had no idea what he was doing.

Spencer was sitting cross legged, obviously annoyed that he had to do this. He was picking up his soaked towel and dropping it again, picking it up and then dropping it with a pout on his face.

Jon was on his fours too, whistling like Ryan, but he wasn’t enjoying it. Ryan was like a little kid trying to impress his mom, and I think Jon was the only one who looked like he knew what he was doing. He was the only one that was being normal. Though, all of them were too distracted to notice I entered.

Hayley and Cassie were leaning up against the counter with their arms crossed, supervising.

Hayley had a smirk on her face as she watched the boys work below her, but when I entered the smirk disappeared and was replaced with a look of sympathy. That confused me. She nodded her head in the direction of the phone and I was careful to avoid the wet spots on the floor as I went to get the phone.

“Hello?”

“Oh, Emily dear? Is that you?”

“Uh, yeah? May I ask who this is?”

“Oh of course. It’s Jane!”

“Oh!” I was really surprised and I looked at Hayley and she was looking at me worried. “R-right, uh, how are you?”

“Oh honey, I think the right question is, are you okay.”

I looked at Hayley with alarmed eyes and she still had her face of worry on. She made her way over to me. “Um, yeah. I guess I am. Why are you calling? How did you get this number?”

“You know me, Emily! I’m good at being a mother!” She still had her happy, over ecstatic voice, like always.

“Ha ha, right.” I was started to realize why she was calling, and I think Hayley knew too. I decided to take this call into a different room.

The boys were still working, but one of them popped their head up in alarm as I exited the kitchen.

His big brown chocolaty eyes were sparkling with concern and worry. It was as if he knew that I was really scared, even though I didn’t show it.

Hayley started to follow me and she saw that Brendon started to stand up to follow too, but she waved him back and shook her head, so he craned his neck to try to see me as I left, now his eyes only holding alarm.

“Okay, Jane. I don’t mean to be hostile, but what do you want.” I entered my room and slammed the door before Hayley could follow me in and locked it. I knew that wouldn’t stop Hayley though, she would probably sit outside of the door and listen in, all day if she had to.

“Honey! Everyone is worried about you! Where are you?”

“Who would be worried about me? There is no one there that wants me.”

“Well, I-I, miss you,” she said sadly.

“And who else, Kevin? I’m sure he’ll survive without me,” I said dryly, taking a seat on my made-up bed.

“You’re forgetting one important person.”

She was silent, letting me think it over, but I never answered. There was no one back there that would have given a second thought about me if I left, beside Kevin and his mom.

“Your mother.” I stayed silent, my bottom lip quivering as she said that.

“Hmm.” I said dryly again.

“She needs you, Emily.” I couldn’t believe she just said that to me, she knew my mother just as well as I did and she knew that wasn’t true. Didn’t she? “She can’t live without you,” she added.

“Yeah, well. I can’t live with her.” I slammed the phone down.