I'm All Yours Somehow

The next morning, two things were certain before I even opened my eyes. One, I was extremely hungover, and two, I was naked and curled against someone. My face was buried against warm, bare skin. I kissed the skin and smiled when I recognized that it was Garrett.

I groaned as I started to open my eyes. I shivered, pressing myself against Garrett more. I dared to open my eyes and was nearly blinded by the early morning sunlight that was streaming through the windows of our bedroom. My head was pounding and the bright light only amplified it like crazy.

Finally, I braved the light and opened my eyes fully, before sitting up. Sure enough, Garrett was beside me, naked as well with his head buried under a pillow and there was a small, thin blanket draped over his waist. The other part of the blanket, I was holding against my chest.

"God damn," I said under my breath, rubbing my temples tenderly. I glanced at the clock across the room that informed me that it was nearing noon. The longer I sat up, the less my head pounded, thankfully.

I looked over to Garrett and my eyes traced the contours of his chest and arms. I sighed quietly and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I sat there like that for a moment before standing up and groaning. I barely remembered anything from the night before, but I knew for a fact that Garrett and I had had a lot of fun, judging for the pain between my legs. I grabbed underclothes and one of Garrett's shirts that was laying on the floor before retreating to the bathroom.

With my head still pounding slightly, I turned on the water of the shower before looking in the mirror. I had about three purple hickeys along the surface of my neck and collar bone. My eyes were red and bloodshot and there was a faint bruise on my hip that looked like a hand. I showered quickly, washing the smell of booze off of me thoroughly before brushing my teeth and gargling Listerine until it felt like my mouth was bleeding.

By that time, the pounding in my head had completely ceased and I returned to the bedroom, wearing only my underclothes and the t-shirt. Garrett was now sprawled out on his stomach completely, the blanket twisted around his waist. I crawled back into the bed and I leaned against his back.

"Gare," I whispered to him, running my fingers over his back softly, watching him shiver slightly. I moved the pillow from over his head and raked my fingers through his sleep matted hair. I kissed the back of his shoulder, repeating his name softly. Finally, he shifted slightly and grumbled something. "Baby, it's time to get up."

"No," he groaned, swatting a hand blindly. I rolled my eyes, kissing the side of his neck slowly, hoping to get some reaction out of him.

When he simply laid there, I left the bed and shut all the blinds, closing the curtains as well. With all light blocked, it was nearly pitch black in the room. I returned to the bed and managed to turn his face to mine. I pressed my lips against his and finally, he mustered up the movements to kiss me back.

"Why's it so dark?" he asked quietly, letting out a quiet breath as he rolled onto his side to face me.

"I closed the curtains for you. It's noon by now, Garrett."

"What the fuck happened last night?"

"I have no idea," I told him with a quiet laugh. "All I know is that I have three hickeys, a bruise on my hip, and I'm hella sore."

"Damn, sounds like we had a great time." Even in the dark, I could see his smirk.

"How's the hangover?" I asked, pushing the hair off of his forehead.

"In the dark, not insanely bad." He shrugged and I scooted closer to him. I smiled softly and brushed my lips over his.

"Good morning," I said quietly, pressing my lips to his again.

Garrett smiled, putting his arms around my waist and pressing flush against me. He slipped his hand up the back of the shirt I had stolen from him and kissed my neck softly. A giggle passed my lips and he kissed me roughly. He leaned over me, pushing my shirt up. I lifted my shoulders up and he pulled it over my head. He kissed me again and I pressed my fingertips to the stubbly surface of his cheek. Our tongues fought for dominance as he leaned down further, pressing his chest against mine. I arched my back into him and he took the opportunity to reach around and unhook my bra swiftly.

As he pulled the fabric away from my body, excitement boiled in my stomach. His lips pressed to my collar bone and I groaned softly as I dragged my nails down his back. His hands brushed over my waist before settling on my hips, toying with the band of my panties.

"Gare," I said under my breath, putting a hand against his chest as his lips captured mine again. I smile as he gently tugged my bottom lip with his teeth. I giggled as he kissed the tip of my nose once. "I'm sore, and you need to shower and shave. No sex now, later," I told him, having to push him away. He tried to hold onto me, protesting.

Collecting myself, I slid out of the bed and walked over into the closet and opened up a variety of drawers. I grabbed out a pair of Garrett's boxer-briefs, his favorite jeans, and a random t-shirt. I took the clothes back into the bedroom, where he was still lying motionless in the middle of the bed, and tossed the clothes at him.

"Tallulah," he whined as I returned to the closet and changed into clothes for the day.

"What, baby?" I questioned, padding barefoot over to the bed. He wrapped an arm around my waist and I squirmed free of his grasp. He pouted, reaching up to further tousle his hair.

"I love you," he said, suppressing a yawn. He reached out and took my left hand, kissing the knuckle of my ring finger once. For some reason, a heat rose up the back of my neck and I smiled softly, pressing my lips together.

"Shower," I told him before walking for the door.

I twisted the knob and the first thing I saw when I started down the hallway towards the kitchen was a person passed out in the hall. I rolled my eyes, stepping over the snoozing drunk and continued on my way. There was a few people laying in lawn chairs on the back deck, I realized as I passed the back door.

Sarah was in the kitchen, putting the two halves of a bagel in the toaster. She jumped slightly when I tripped over my own feet, slamming into the counter.

"Someone's still a little drunk," she teased, sending a wink back my way.

"How drunk was I?" I asked, opening the refrigerator and rolling my eyes when I realized the it was mostly empty. My nose curling slightly, I reached for a yogurt before checking the expiration date on it. When I realize it was still good, I shrugged before sliding onto a stool at the island.

"It wasn't the worst I've seen you, but it was decently bad. Garrett was much worse though. I had to round the two of you up and put you to bed."

"Well, when you put us to bed, we didn't go directly to sleep," I said with a laugh, getting up to grab a spoon.

"Trust me, we could all hear what was going on," Sarah assured me and a hot blush colored my cheeks.

"Why were you even here last night? You don't even party," I said, licking the foil top of the yogurt before dipping my spoon in.

She rolled her eyes. "Kennedy called yesterday and said that it was just going to be a 'welcome home' party. And of course we came. And of course it wasn't a welcome home party, it was Kennedy being a dumb ass. Once we got here, Brian decided that he was going to do a few shots, and in the end, he was plastered and I couldn't get him out to the car. And we might have gotten busy in the downstairs bathroom."

I laughed, taking a bite of yogurt. "I need to go find Kennedy soon and whoop his ass for all of this chaos. He's cleaning this up."

"I think he slept in the bath tub with Em," Sarah informed me as the bagel popped out of the toaster.

"Em?" I asked, confused.

"This girl he's been seeing for a few weeks. She's nice, I suppose. They go at it like rabbits, not even kidding."

I gave her a strange look. "How do you know this?" I questioned, unsure if I wanted to know the answer.

"I came over her the other day to get something, I don't even know what, but they were going at it on the basement stairs," Sarah explained. My jaw dropped, disgusted, and I looked toward the stairs and shuddered. "Yeah, no kidding."

We talked as we ate and at that point, people were waking up and walking through the kitchen to the front door. Occasionally, if it was someone I knew, they'd mumble, "Great party," as they walked by, squinting and hungover.

Garrett came into the kitchen a while later, his hair wet, as was the collar of his shirt. He put his arms around me from behind and I leaned back against his chest. He kissed the side of my neck and my temple before releasing me and walking to the refrigerator.

"Why is the fridge empty?" he asked, frowning as he opened the pantry.

"Because we were gone for nearly two weeks," I told him, smiling at his disheartened expression. "Do you want me to make you something?"

"Nah, I'm good," he said with a shrug, pulling a granola bar out of a box and tearing it open with his teeth. I nodded as he sat down on the stool beside mine. He slipped his hand into mine under the counter. I smiled, glancing over him.

"Myrtle Beach just made you guys more disgustingly cute," Sarah said, her nose scrunched up in disgust.

Garrett smirked, looking over at me. "Have you told her yet?"

"Hmm, told me what?" she asked, her interest peaked.

"We're engaged," I told her with a nonchalant shrug. I help my hand out to her, displaying my ring.

"God dammit, you guys too?" she cursed angrily. "Congrats, but dammit."

I smiled at her anger and withdrew my hand. We made small talk for a while until Brian entered the kitchen, severely hungover and Sarah decided to take him home.

Once we were alone, Garrett sighed, leaning towards me. He pressed his lips against my hair and I laughed, leaning away from him.

"What is with you?" I asked, looking over at him.

"What do you mean?" He smiled innocently.

"You can't keep your hands off of me lately," I teased, pushing my hair out of my eyes.

He shrugged, his cheeks blushing pink. "I can't really help it, I guess," he said, pressing his lips against mine softly. I smiled, leaning away.

"I need to go find Kennedy. This place needs to be cleaned up," I said with a sigh, leaving my stool and Garrett behind.

Sarah had said that Kennedy was in a bathtub. I searched the bottom bathroom and found no trace of him. Walking down the main hall, I passed the second bathroom and heard a noise from within. I pushed opened the door and regretted it.

The glass shower didn't hide anything, especially Kennedy and a girl I assumed to be Emily going at it. I squeezed my eyes shut, the image seared in my mind.

"Kennedy," I said rather loudly, making my presence known.

There was an awkward pause. "Oh, morning Lu," he said, his voice sounding tight. I heard Emily giggle and my cheeks flared even redder.

"You've got a lot of cleaning to do, you know?" I reminded him.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that," Kennedy said back, clearing his throat.

"Don't forget to bleach the shower walls," I told him, reaching for the door knob and escaping the awkwardness of the bathroom.

"What happened?" Garrett asked, still on the stool, when I returned to the kitchen.

"Remind me not to use that bathroom for a while," I told him, rolling my shoulders as I shuddered. He laughed, not even bothering to ask why. "I'm going grocery shopping, if you want to come."

He curled up his nose, weighing his options and when a loud moan was heard, and he jumped off his stool, grabbing my keys off the counter. "Let's go," he said, already half way out the door. I laughed, checking my bag for my wallet before following him to my car.

I had forgotten why I usually do the grocery shopping on my own until Garrett started complaining ten minutes into shopping. His ADD was kicking in and he was tossing random things in the cart, hoping a full cart would mean we were done shopping.

"Gare, I'm going to send you to the car if you don't calm your ass down," I told him finally as he threw a tin of anchovies into the cart.

"It's not my fault this is boring," he whined, leaning into the cart.

I rolled my eyes and was about to spout out a comeback when my phone rang. I searched through my bag as I took a few useless items out of the cart.

"Hello?" I asked, anchoring the phone between my ear and shoulder, swatting Garrett's hand away from a jar of baby food.

"So you are alive," Mila said on the other end of the line with a quiet laugh. "What's the need to even tell your only sister that you're going across the country for two weeks? I had to find out that you were on vacation from John, do you know how weird that was?"

I laughed, starting to push the cart further down the aisle. "Well, I'm sorry. Garrett just kind of whisked me away," I explained.

"Ahh, the blissful life of not having a child," she said with a dreamy sigh. "Are you busy now, we need to do dinner or something?"

"We're - well, I'm grocery shopping right now, Garrett's trying to keep himself entertained, but we'll be done within an hour or two," I told her, guesstimating the time.

"Two hours?" Garrett exclaimed, putting his arms around me from behind. I rolled my eyes, shrugging him off.

"Okay, perfect, that'll give me time to run Abigail to John's mom's so we can have some grown-up time, trust me, I'm in desperate need of it," she said with a quick sigh.

"No, bring her, please," I told her with a laugh.

"If you insist," Mila joked. She paused and I could hear Abigail babbling in the background. "Okay, so I'll let you finish your shopping. Just call me when you get home and we'll call around to see who has an open table."

"Sounds good, I'll talk to you later," I said, hanging up and dropping my phone back into my purse. I looked around and had no idea where Garrett had run off to, so I sighed and started to push the cart forward.

I found Garrett ten minutes later, wandering aimlessly.

"I'm going over to Pat's," he told me, tossing a box of wheat thins into the cart.

"Are you serious?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Yeah, he's picking me up here in a few minutes."

I pursed my lips, letting out a quiet sigh. We hadn't even been home for twenty-four hours and it was too quick to argue. "Fine, whatever," I told him, not even wanting to put up a fight.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sensing my tension as I continued down the aisle.

"Nothing, Garrett," I told him, leaving him standing behind me.

"Tallulah," he started, coming after me.

"Gare, I'm fine. I just don't feel like arguing. Go have fun with the guys, I'll be out with Mila anyway," I assured him, stopping for him to catch up. He frowned, raising his eyes brows. "Just don't stay out all night."

The corner of his mouth upturned. "I won't," he said quickly, pressing his lips to mine before talking off. I sighed, watching him walked towards the exit. I couldn't help but smile as he tripped over his own feet slightly and looked around to make sure nobody had seen.

I finished my shopping forty-five minutes later and checked out, loading up my car with a bit of difficulty. I returned home where Kennedy was piling a dozen trash bags into the garbage cans.

"Done!" he exclaimed, putting the lid on the last can as I stepped out of my car.

"Good, now you can help take in the groceries because you ate all of our food," I informed him, opening the trunk as he groaned.

We got the groceries into the house in three trips and when Kennedy started to put the crackers in the freezer, Emily stepped in.

"Is it just me, or are all guys in bands completely inept when it comes to any sort of house work?" she asked with a laugh as Kennedy took a seat at the island, watching on with a care-free smile.

"They all are, trust me," I answered, laughing as well.

We all had a beer as Emily and I got to know each other a bit. I called Mila a bit later and we set up a place to meet. Kennedy said something about going to meet up with Pat and Garrett and Emily said she had school work to get to. They left together and I went and changed into dinner clothes before testing Garrett quickly to tell him that I was getting ready to leave.

Mila and Abigail were already at the restaurant, waiting for our table to be ready when I arrived. We hugged like crazy, and I took Abigail from her. The toddler's face lit up and she babbled as I kissed her chubby cheek. Our table was ready soon and we ordered a bottle of wine as we waited for our appetizer.

"How was South Carolina?" Mila asked, looking me over. "You're tan."

I laughed, nodding. "That's what happens when you spend hours upon hours in the sun," I said, toying with my engagement ring.

"Wait, what the hell is that?" she demanded, leaning forward to catch another glimpse of the ring. I bit my lip and smiled, showing her the ring in full. Her eyebrows shot up and she looked pleased. "About damn time, too."

My cheeks went a little pink and I smiled, looking down at the ring again. "He said he's had this for years. He...he said that he took Mom with him to go pick it out."

"It looks like something she would pick out," Mila said thoughtfully. "But he's really had it for that long? Wow."

A chill ran down my spine and I smiled. "Yeah," I said quietly, nodding.

Dinner went quickly and Mila did most of the talking. She was determined to plan my wedding as our mother had planned hers. She insisted on meeting with both Garrett and myself the next day to do preliminary planning for the wedding so that everything would be all systems go by the time that the guys got back from tour in a couple of months. We finished dinner and we went back to her house where she loaded me up with all of the booklets and pamphlets her and my mother had collected when planning her wedding two years ago.

I got home at nearly ten and Garrett still wasn't back. I sighed, walking around the empty house for a few minutes, Sammy following me. I slouched down in an arm chair in the basement and I sighed. Sammy put her paw up on my thigh and I smiled.

"Hey, girl," I said, scratching behind her ears as she panted. I slid down onto the floor to be closer to her. "Did you miss me?" I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. I played fetch with her for twenty minutes before she got tired of it and walked toward her doggy bed and laid down.

I stood up and stretched my back out, groaning as it cracked several times. I went back to the main floor, taking a bottle of wine out of the wine cooler and a glass off the rack before retreating up to my bedroom. I set the bottle and the glass on the counter in the bathroom, pouring a glass before turning on the bath water.

I poured in bubble bath and as I waited for the tub to fill, I took a few sips of wine. I tied my hair up in a bun, getting it off the back of my neck. I slipped out of my clothes, and set out a towel on the edge of the tub. I brought the bottle and my glass over to tub and stepped in. I slid in up to my neck, feeling my entire body relax in the hot water.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, the smell of my pomegranate bubble bath filling my nose. I let myself soak, and I could feel the knots in my back untangle. I reached out and grabbed my glass, taking a long sip.

Ten minutes later, I heard a noise in the kitchen, followed by Sammy barking. I rolled my eyes, sure it was Garrett arriving home.

"Tallulah?" he yelled from the hallway. I didn't answer out of laziness and his footsteps came towards the bedroom. "Babe, are you in here?" he asked after I heard the bedroom door open.

"Yeah," I said, just loud enough for him to hear. He pushed the bathroom door open and I heard his shoes on the tile floor.

"Hey," he said softly. I opened my eyes and he closed the toilet seat, sitting down on it.

"Hello, handsome," I responded quietly, sighing as I sat up a bit in the tub. I smiled over at him and he stood up, peeling off his shirt. "What are you doing?" I asked, laughing quietly as he kicked off his shoes and took off his socks.

"Scoot up," he instructed, undoing his belt and pushing his jeans down. I bit my lip and smiled, my stomach fluttering as he struggled to get his jeans off before pushing his boxers down.

"You're going to smell very feminine if you get in here," I warned him as he stepped into the water.

"You're worth it," he said, sitting down behind me. He put his legs on either side of me and I leaned back against his chest.

"How was hanging with Pat?" I asked, swirling my finger in the water.

"Great. Kennedy came by too and we ordered out. How was dinner?"

I laughed before answering. "Mila flipped a shit when I told her the news. She's decided that we need to get together tomorrow to start planning for the wedding."

"So soon?"

"It's Mila, what do you expect, Gare?" I joked and he laughed quietly, kissing my hair. "Did you tell Kennedy and Pat about everything?"

"They kind of forced it out of me," Garrett informed me, putting his hands on my shoulders. "Pat almost started crying and he wouldn't stop hugging me."

I smiled to myself, leaning my head back onto his shoulder and he put his arms around my waist underwater. I sighed, leaning forward again as he started to rub my shoulders. I groaned as his fingers kneaded against my tight muscles. He kissed the back of my shoulder, followed by the back of my neck.

"How do you manage to do this to me?" I asked, curling my toes underwater as his touch sent a shock wave down my spine.

"Do what?" he answered with a question, his words muffled by the skin of the curve of my neck.

"Make me want to do dirty, dirty things to you after only kissing me twice," I said, my voice low as I turned my neck to look back at him. He smirked in triumph and kissed me full on the lips.

"I think it's time to head to bed," he whispered, our lips brushing together.

"What's wrong with staying right here?" I tempted, sliding my tongue along his bottom lip and reaching up to take the elastics out of my hair.

He let out an aroused sigh and settled his hands on my hips. "I really love you, you know that, right?" he asked, clearing his throat as best he could.

I smirked, biting my lip before pressing my lips against the hollow of his throat. He let out a throaty groan and I moved my lips to his collar bone. I changed positions, straddling his hips, and pressed my lips against his.

"I love you," I whispered to him, our chests pressing together.

"I know, I love you," he said back, tangling his hands in my hair.