Somewhere in the Middle

Today, Uncle Matt and Aunt Val were taking Hayley and me to get our tattoos. I was so excited!

“Alright, so what do you want?” Uncle Matt asked us. I looked over at Hayley and we looked through the book that had all of the tattoos in it.

“I like…this one,” Hayley said, pointing to a tattoo. She said she wanted it on her side and they took her back into one of the rooms.

“What about you?” The guy asked me. I bit my lip and pointed to a design.

“This one,” I said.

“Alright, follow me,” he said, leading me into a room. I laid down on my side and described to him how I wanted the tattoo. He told me to take off my shirt and put some rubbing alcohol on my side and began the tattoo.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

After two agonizing hours, the noise of the needle finally stopped and he wiped my side one more time. “Done,” he announced and covered tattoo. I looked down at it, and grinned.

“It looks amazing, thank you so much,” I gushed, smiling like a complete idiot. He smiled at me.

“It’s no problem,” he said and we walked out at pretty much the same time as Hayley. We looked at each other, and hugged.

“Ow,” we both whined and pulled away, grasping our sides. We looked at each other and laughed. “Dumb ass,” we said in unison again.

“So, how do they look?” Aunt Val asked. Hayley and I lifted up out shirts and showed her the tattoos on our sides.

“Holy fuck, those look fantastic,” Uncle Matt commented. We smiled. We all walked up to the cash register and I almost had a conniption when I saw how much they cost. I tried to argue, saying it was too much, but they both just gave me this ‘shut your face’ look.

“These tattoos are our present to you. You don’t get a say in the cost,” Aunt Val said. I raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

“Good point,” Hayley and I laughed.

“You girls want some ice cream before we head home?” Uncle Matt asked.

“Yeah!” Hayley and I shouted, running out to the car. Uncle Matt and Aunt Val followed us while laughing. We drove to the ice cream parlor, and Hayley and I ordered some chocolate and vanilla swirl, Aunt Val ordered vanilla, and Uncle Matt ordered strawberry. Ha ha, odd man out.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

When we got home, Hayley and I laid down on the two couches in the media room with two, huge bags of ice on our sides. Hayley was flipping through the channels when we saw what the weather was going to be like the next day. Rainy. Perfect weather for the mood we were going to be in. Hayley and exchanged glances.

“We should leave when the guys are in the studio. Ya know, that way we don’t really raise suspicion,” Hayley said. I nodded.

“I agree,” I yawned. “Come on, I’m tired. Let’s go on the roof and watch the stars or something.” Hayley agreed, so we turned off the TV and walked up stairs to our rooms. I got changed and slipped on my white high top Uggs. I walked out of my bedroom at the same time as Hayley. We grinned at each other and walked into the spare bedroom with the easiest access onto the roof. I went first and climbed up onto the roof.

“A little fucking help would be nice, my dear Skittlez,” Hayley yelled. I poked my head over the side and saw her dangling. I laughed, and offered her my hand.

“Here you go my dear Monster,” I said as I helped her up.

“Thanks,” she grumbled. We laid down on the roof, looking at the stars for a few hours.

“Smurfette? Pinky?” Someone was yelling.

“Up here, Uncle Brian!” I yelled. We listened as the door to the guest bedroom opened up and the window opened. A few seconds later the window was shut and we saw Uncle Brian climb up there with us.

“What are you two doing up here?” He asked, sitting down in front of us. We shrugged.

“Thinking and star gazing,” Hayley answered. He looked at us for a couple seconds, his warm, brown eyes staring into ours.

“What aren’t you telling me?” He asked softly. Hayley and I looked at each other and sighed.

“It’s tomorrow,” I said quietly.

“What about tomorrow?” He asked, moving in between us to wrap his heavily tattooed arms around us in comfort.

“Tomorrow is the anniversary of our real parent’s deaths,” Hayley whispered. Uncle Brian didn’t say anything; he just pulled us closer to him. I laid my head on his chest and noticed Hayley doing the same. We needed this comfort; we needed someone to talk to; Uncle was the perfect person to do both. Hayley and I ended up falling asleep with him on the roof.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

The next morning, I woke up in my bed, utterly confused. “What the fuck?” I asked myself quietly, slipping out of bed. I looked at the calendar and sighed. I walked to my window and looked outside. None of the cars were there, except for mine and Hayley’s, so I figured they already left. I went into my bathroom, stripped off clothes, and stepped into the shower. I stood in there until the water ran cold, and got out. I got dressed into a outfit for the cemetery and grabbed some fake flowers I bought a few days before off my dresser.

I walked out of my room and knocked on Hayley’s door. A muffled ‘come in’ was heard, so I opened the door and stepped in to see Hayley slipping on her boots.

“You ready?” I asked her. She grabbed her bouquet and nodded.

“Ready,” she said quietly. This was the only day you would ever see us quiet. We walked down the steps and got into my car.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

Hayley and I stared down at our parent’s graves. The silent tears were streaking down our faces and we didn’t make any moves to wipe them off.

“You two would love Jimmy and Leana. They take such good care of us. We love them so much. And the guys…they’re all amazing. The best family we could’ve asked for,” Hayley ranted while I stayed quiet. Last year, I was the one that summed up the year for them. We switched off most of the time. “And we got into a fight with three bitches, I mean…yeah bitches. One of them accused us of flirting with her boyfriend. We don’t even know what her boyfriend looks like! Anyway, we got suspended for a week.

We made some pretty cool friends. There’s Barbie and Giana. They act just like us and are two of the coolest people we have ever met. Then, there’s Ace and Aiden,” she said and stopped suddenly, a smile forming on her face. I could feel the smile on my face at the mention of Aiden’s name. “They’re…amazing. Cute, funny, nice, everything we could ever hope for in a guy,” Hayley finished. The smile stayed on my face the entire time.

“We totally have crushes on them,” I whispered. I felt the blush creep on my face when I realized I said it out loud. Hayley laughed slightly.

“She’s right. We like them,” she admitted. Ever since our last serious boyfriends, we’ve kind of been…distant from guys. Our last relationships didn’t end well, and we got pretty fucked up. Emotionally and physically.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

We stood there for a few more hours, talking, singing, whatever we could think of doing that would make them happy if they were still here. My phone started ringing, and I looked at the caller I.D. MOM.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Where are you and Hayley?” Mom’s worried voice flooded through the phone. I chuckled.

“We’re at the cemetery. We’ll be home soon,” I said.

“Why are you at the ce-” She cut herself off. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. Take as much time as you need,” she said, her voice laced with sadness.

“Don’t worry mom, we were gonna head home soon anyway,” I said.

“Alright, I’ll see you soon. Love you both,” she said.

“We love you too, mom, bye,” I said and closed my phone. “You ready?” I asked Hayley. She looked over at me and nodded.

“Yuppers, let’s go,” she said, and then grabbed my arm suddenly. “Dude, I’m starving. Let’s stop at In and Out and get something to eat,” she suggested. I heard my stomach growl and blushed.

“Agreed, let’s go,” I said and we ran to my car.

After we got some burgers, fries, our drinks, we called the guys and asked if they wanted anything since we were out. They all yelled different things at us, so I grabbed a random piece of paper that I pulled out of the glove box and wrote down what everyone wanted. We ended up going to at least five different places before we got home. We grabbed everything we could, which was mostly everything, and walked through the door.

“DINNER!” Hayley screamed so everyone in the house could hear. Rushing footsteps came towards us and everyone grabbed for their food. Uncle Zacky was the last person standing there, empty handed, with a wounded look on his face.

“Where’s my food?” He asked, staring at us me with his big, green eyes.

“Right here, Uncle Zacky,” Hayley said, holding the bag of food in one hand, and his drink in the other. A smile lit up his face, and he ran towards her, got his food and drink, and ran away. I laughed, and walked back out towards my car to mine and Hayley’s food. I bent down and got the food. “Need any help?” I screamed out in shock, whipping around to see who was behind me.

“Jesus Christ, Hayls. You just scared the shit out of me,” I breathed, placing my hand on my chest. She had a flashlight out, since it was dark, and we parked in the garage, which wasn’t connected to the house. We both heard a twig snap somewhere in the woods behind our house, and screamed. Hayley pointed the flashlight in the direction that the snap came from.

“What the fuck was that?!” Hayley whispered, holding onto my arm. I scanned the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of a raccoon or something.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back. We heard another twig snap and jumped, slowly walking backwards towards the house. We ran into someone and screamed again. God, we screamed a lot that night.

“Whoa, calm down. Are you two alright?” Uncle Matt asked, staring down at us with a worried expression.

“Uh, yeah, we’re fine. We just heard some twigs snapping, but I guess it was just an animal,” I said, trying really hard to hide the fact that my voice was shaking. Uncle Matt wrapped his arms around us protectively, and led us back into the house. After we got done eating, Hayley and I were sitting on one of the couches in the media room, curled up with blankets, popcorn, monsters, and snacks, watching Alice In Wonderland, the new one, and Scream 3. We figured that Uncle Matt told everyone else what happened when he found us, because everyone, especially dad, was watching us, and always had an eye on us. During Scream 3, Hayley talked quietly.

“Riles, that was too loud to be an animal, and if it was, it was something big,” Hayley whispered. I sighed.

“I know, I just don’t know who it could’ve been. Paparazzi would’ve been taking pictures, not creeping around our backyard,” I said. We talked a little bit longer, until we both fell asleep.