This Is a Reason for Broken Wings

Zacky's POV
I instantly knew by the expression on Johnny's face that something was up.

"Hey, where are Matt and Lauren?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice casual.

"I, um, Matt and Lauren?" Johnny asked shakily, giving the door he was standing in front of a somewhat frightened look. "They went down to-"

"They're not ... " I trailed off, glancing at the door, praying that I was just misinterpreting Johnny's strange behavior.

"What? Huh? No." He said quickly ... too fucking quickly.

I shoved Johnny out of the way and turned the handle, hesitation for a moment before I flung it open.

I stared for a moment in shock at the sight of Matt and Lauren standing in the middle of the room, their complexion a bit flushed, frozen on the spot. One look told me exactly what they had been doing minutes before.

I narrowed my eyes at Matt, watching him trying furiously to swallow down the lump in his throat.

"Matt I swear I'm gonna kick your fucking ass!" I yelled.

I stormed inside of the room with one thought and one thought only running through my mind: castrate the son of a bitch. As I took another step closer to him I saw the color drain from his face and he backed nervously away, the back of his legs running into the couch behind him.

"Dude, Zacky, I-"

I cut him off by connecting my fist with the side of his face, putting all my upper body strength into the punch. His legs buckled a bit but he managed to stay on his feet, clutching the right side of his face, looking at me in shock.

I reared my arm back once more to hit him again but someone grabbed a hold of my arm to stop me.

"Zacky, stop it." Lauren said weakly.

I whipped around and glared at her, tearing my arm out of her grasp.

"It wasn't his fault." She said, looking up at me. "I came on to him, alright, I admit it."

I don't know if that statement was supposed to make me feel better or something but it just made me want to kick Matt's ass even more. I shot a glare at Lauren for one last time and turned around, punching Matt in the exact same spot, this time making him fall to the couch.

"Damn it Zacky!" Lauren yelled, trying to pull me away from Matt but my 'big brother protectiveness' was taking control of me and my actions.

"Zacky, just stop it right now." She said, grabbing one of my arms with both her hands, trying to pull me out of reach of Matt. "We were drunk, that's all it was, alright? Zacky, damn it just knock it-"

"Damn it, just shut up you little slut." I snapped, jerking my arm away, turning to shoot her down with the daggers in my eyes.

As soon as I saw the hurt flash in her eyes I wished more than anything that I could take back those words. I softened my expression and reached out to grab her hand.

"Don't touch me." She snarled, pulling her hand out of my reach.

She stared down at the ground, her eyes glazing over with her jaw set in such a fashion that I knew she was determined not to cry; at least not in front of Matt and Johnny. This upset me even more because Lauren never cries in front of anybody apart from me unless she was really fucking hurt.

"Lauren, I-"

"Just shut your fucking mouth." She hissed, glaring at me as her eyes because dangerously watery.

She turned on her heal and made a move for the door but I caught her hand, grasping it tightly in my own. She didn't try to yank it away but she didn't wrap her hand around mine either.

As soon as I was sure she wasn't gonna make a run for it, I turned back towards Matt and narrowed my eyes at him.

"Tell anybody that you did my sister and I will castrate your fucking bitch ass." I spat and then turned to Johnny.

"And if you run your fucking mouth off to anybody about what happened I'll make sure you'll never get laid again as long as you live."

The color drained from his face and he nodded his head furiously, reassuring me that he'd take this 'secret to the grave' with him. I glanced back at Matt one last time and pushed Lauren out the door, following right behind her.

"Lauren, I-"

"Is that what you fucking think of me, Zacky? I'm just a little slut who can't do anything right with her life?" She mumbled, not bothering to look at me.

"Lauren, I'm sorry." I said weakly.

She let out what sounded like a snort of disbelief and pulled her hand away from mine, heading towards the front of the bus.

"Sure you are." She said, disappearing down the steps.

I sighed and took off after her; I knew if I let her go she'd just end up in some bar, drinking herself into oblivion ... I know because it's happened before.

I got to the bottom of the steps and I flung the door open, nearly taking Jimmy out with the damn thing.

"Dude, what's up with Lauren?" Syn asked, looking back at her walking down the darkened sidewalk by herself.

I shook my head and pushed past him and Jimmy, jogging after her.

"Go away Zacky." Lauren sniffed as I slowed to a walk beside her.

"Lauren, stop, please." I said gently, placing my hand on her shoulder.

She came to a halt and turned to look up at me, the tears falling in a continuous line down either side of her face.

"Sister, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. I was mad because I found out that one of my best friends just banged my baby sister." I said, trying my best to wipe her tears away.

"It still hurt though." She mumbled.

I bit my lip and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug, rocking her gently. There as a question burning in the back of my mind but I was too scared to ask it ... scared because I wasn't sure whether or not I'd like the answer.

"So ... When you, er, yeah, when you and Matt, d-did, well, you know ... You didn't mean anything by it? Did you?" I asked nervously.

"What?"

I pulled away from Lauren and placed a hand on either one of her shoulders, staring down at her.

"Do you have feelings for Matt?" I asked.

"Zacky, we were drunk." She said, shaking her head. "That's all it was ... you know how those things go."

I nodded my head and pulled her back into my arms, kissing her forehead.

"Are you still mad at Matt?" She whispered.

"Well, yeah, of course I am. But ... I don't know. It's just weird. I-I guess ... Well, are you sure you guys didn't mean anything by it?"

"Yes."

"Okay ... I guess, since you guys didn't mean anything by it, that ... I can pretend this whole ... 'thing' ... didn't happen." I mumbled.


I ended up packing Lauren back to the bus and as soon as I walked through the door I got questioning looks from JB, Jimmy, Syn, and Taylor. Johnny was sitting in the front as well but from the clueless expression on everyone else's faces, he kept his mouth shut.

"Where are the girls at?" I asked.

"They're still at the bar with my dad." Syn said, cocking his head sideways, eyeing Lauren's tear stained face.

"Okay." Was all I said and I continued on to the bunks.

I saw the curtains shut on Lauren and Matt's bunk so I knew that he was already up there. I wasn't ready to let my sister share a bunk with him after ... yeah. Don't get me wrong, I was still gonna let them bunk together because like she said ... They were just drunk; people do all kinds of crazy things when they were drunk, right?

I kicked my shoes off and climbed into me and Amber's bunk, pulling my sister in after me.

"Good night Lauren." I whispered, kissing her cheek softly.

"Good night Zacky." She whispered back, cuddling into my chest.

As I lay there, rubbing her back slightly to help her to go sleep, I had so many different things running through my head.

I know that I shouldn't be so damn hard on Lauren and so protective over her. I mean, there was a point in my life when I acted just like her ... er ... about the partying and the sex that is. But eventually I met Amber and I settled down.

Maybe that's what Lauren needed ... Someone for her to settle down with. But Lauren ... she's something else. I wouldn't be so hard on her if she knew how to 'love' like everyone else but ... she just didn't know how to. She didn't know how to entrust her heart to someone else.

How was I going to make her realize that some of the stunts she pulls (like the random one night stands) could actually be hurting the person she was doing them with? How was I going to make her understand that there just might be someone into her for more than just her body? I don't know ...

I heard Lauren's steady breathing and I knew she was asleep.

"Lauren Amber Baker." I whispered, closing my eyes and readjusting myself into a more comfortable position. "When are you gonna learn to love?"

I closed my eyes and felt myself drifting off to sleep.

"Never." She whispered back, tightening her grip onto me.

Eh, that's what I was afraid she'd say.
End of Zacky's POV

The next morning I woke up with my head resting in someone's lap, lying on a couch in a room that I didn't recognize. I heard faint voices coming from a part of the room I couldn't see, nor did I really care because at the moment my head was pounding like a motherfucker. I rolled over a bit and put my hand to the side of my head, hoping that my headache would subside with my mere touch ... ha, yeah right.

"Here." Someone said holding a couple of Advil's in front of my face.

I took them and popped them into my mouth, sitting up to find that it was my brother's lap I was resting on. He handed me a glass of water so I could wash down the pills and I handed it back to him, closing my eyes to rest it against the back of the couch.

"Where the hell are we?" I mumbled opening my eyes to squint in the bright daylight.

"We're at a hotel in Atlanta." Johnny answered, taking a seat on the other side of me.

I nodded my head, remembering that the guys had a couple days off, and readjusted myself to be a little more comfy but stopped short, hissing in pain a bit when I felt myself a little tender ... eh ... down below.

"And that would be from Matt's huge horse cock slamming in and out of you repeatedly for a long period of time." He added, only loud enough for me to hear.

"Fuck off." I snapped, punching him in his arm as I stood up, leaving him and Zacky in the room.

Taking a look around the rest of the place, I realized that we were in a suite and it was pretty fucking cool if I do say so myself. I wandered over into a kitchen around and found the rest of the gang in there (minus Matt), arguing about what to order for breakfast.

"Good morning my little ray of sunshine." Amber grinned, flashing me a little wave.

"Howdy." I said flashing a peace sign.

"What would you like for breakfast? The guys are saying pancakes while us cool chicks are saying French toast. You're the tie breaker."

"Tie breaker? But there's more guys than girls." I said, getting a bit confused.

"We're only counting the guys in the room with us ... Zacky, Johnny, and Matt don't get a say because they're not in here with us."
I laughed a bit about how serious they were taking this little matter.

"Let's have French toast." I said, smirking at Syn because he once admitted to me how much he hates French toast.

"Good fucking deal." Lissa said, smirking up at Syn as well. "We'll give room service a call then."

I let out another little laugh and took off, searching for the bathroom, running head first into Matt right outside of the kitchen. I felt my face flush as his eyes connected with mine. I tore my eyes away from his and cursed at myself in the back of my mind.

"H-Hi Lauren." He stuttered.

"Hi Matt."

We stood there in a few seconds of silence before I decided that now was a good time for me to get out of there but Matt's soft hand found it's way around my own. I looked up and found myself lost in his eyes once again ... except they were a lot closer than before, as was his lips ... Damn those lips.

"Lauren, can I talk to you?" He asked nervously.

"Er ... What about?"

"Us."