All These Things

The test is practically burning a hole in her pocket. The time she has until the end of the concert is dwindling, and she feels like she’s going to faint. From the side of the stage, she watches the boys put their all into the show, joking around and insinuating that they have sexual relations with each other somehow. Zack seems so carefree, so calm.

“Ready for the after party?”

Kaydence turns, coming face to face with Matt Flyzik, All Time Low’s tour manager. “Oh, yeah. It’s gonna be fun.”

“Yeah… More so than usual.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, since Boys Like Girls are leaving tomorrow-”

“Oh! Right… Forgot about that.”

He smiles and pats her on the shoulder before hurrying over to a group of people a few feet away. Her heart sinks as she realizes that Martin is leaving her. She’s so used to being around him that she’s absolutely terrified to think about what it’ll be like when he’s gone. He’s one of her best friends, and she knows he’d do anything for her, just as she would for him.

She’s in the middle of thinking up a plausible excuse to have Martin stay on the tour when Zack is suddenly standing in front of her. She grimaces at the sweat covering his body as he hands his bass over to one of the techs.

“How was the show from the side of the stage?” he asks, walking with her towards the dressing rooms.

“You guys were so great, as usual,” she assures him, putting her hand on the small of his back.

Zack opens the door to the dressing room that the two bands share and they find Alex digging through his bag for some clean clothes and each member of Boys Like Girls on their personal laptops. When Martin looks up and sees Kaydence, he sends her a worried look. She ignores it and sits down on the couch beside Paul, the band’s guitarist. She knows that Martin just wants to know if she told Zack yet – he’s going to have to wait.

*

The bands go to a diner after the show – Alex complained of having no food on the bus, so they figured they should at least feed him before letting him have any form of alcohol later on. They’re sitting at a large table, making so much noise that the waiters are probably getting pissed off.

“Are you okay? You’ve been spacing out all night – is there something you want to talk about?”

Kaydence shakes her head at Zack’s question and attempts to start a conversation with Rian who’s beside her, but then she sees Martin giving her ‘the look’ from where he’s sitting at the table. She shakes her head and looks away. Zack turns to see where she’s looking, and when he sees that it’s at Martin, he stands up and pulls her with her.

Once they’re out of sight from the rest of the group, he looks down at her and asks, “What the hell is going on? Every time Martin looks over at you, you blush like crazy and ignore it. I have never felt threatened by your relationship with him – until now,” He tells her, his eyes holding a pained expression – almost as if he doesn’t even really want to know the answer.

“Zack, it’s really not like that –”

“Then what’s it like? Because seriously, I think that I’ve been pretty good about the whole ‘you share every single little thing with Martin and not me’ thing.”

“You have! You’re amazing, and I couldn’t ask for anyone –”

“So then please, tell me what’s going on.”

She feels Zack’s eyes on her as she reaches into her pocket, pulling out the pregnancy test. When his brain registers exactly what it is that she’s showing him, he’s stunned.

“I’m so sorry, Zack,” She chokes out, fighting back the tears and trying not to make a scene out of this. “I found out this morning when you were at the gym. Martin bought me the test and I – I just –”

“Why didn’t you tell me after I got back?”

“I was – still am – afraid of what you’d say,” she says, shoving the test back into her pocket.

“Afraid of what I’d say? What, you mean you think I’d leave you over this?” He asks in disbelief – he could have sworn she knew him better than that. “I would never – you should know that, Kay.”

“Well – this isn’t something that’s normal, okay? This is huge – You’re going to be a dad, Zack. In less than nine months, there’s going to be a baby in the picture and I just wasn’t sure if… if you’d like the idea of that.”

He wraps his arms around her for a hug and kisses her forehead. “It’s not ideal, that’s for sure. But…I don’t think it’s the worst thing you could have told me. We’ll get through this, I know we will.”

“How do you know? How do you know that this isn’t going to ruin what we have?”

“How can it ruin what we have? A baby isn’t going to do that… I’m going to support you no matter what, and you just have to trust me on that. Okay?”

She nods and wraps her arms around his waist, pulling him close. “I should go home.”
“Yeah… You’ll need doctor appointments and all of that, I guess…”

“Well yeah, and I have to inform my parents. That’s going to be just great.”

“Right…” Zack frowns, “Well, it’ll all be okay. I know it will. We just have to wait it out.”

“I’ll go home with Martin and the guys tomorrow… I hate being on planes by myself, you know that.”

“I’ll ask Flyzik to get you on their flight… I’ll have to tell him why, though.”

“Yeah, that’s fine…”

They remain silent for a minute, holding each other in the empty hallway – until Zack finally pulls away.

“We should get back to everyone. They’ll wonder where we went.”

He holds out his hand to her and she laces their fingers together.

“What happens when the fans find out about this?”

“We deal with everything as it comes – I don’t want to worry about something like that if I don’t have to yet. Besides, they’ll probably just stalk you and want to take pictures of your baby bump – no big deal.”

“Well, then I can’t wait for that,” she says with a laugh, and the sound alone makes his heart swell.