Such a Surreal Place

“Okay, so, rehearsal date is the day before our wedding?” Brian asked me, confirming what we’d just had an hour long conversation about.

“Yup. Once in the morning, once at lunch, then we go and relax for the evening,” I told him and he wrote it down.

“And you’re okay with Good Charlotte being our band?” he questioned me gently. This was a pretty big thing. We could either get his friends in (who were coming to the wedding anyway) to play for free or a cheaper price, or we could hire some cheesy professional wedding band.

“If they want to be,” I replied with a shrug.

“I’ll call them now, okay?” Syn asked, but I couldn’t reply because he already had his cell out and was already dialling Joel. He put it on speaker and rested his phone on the table.

“Hello?” Joel answered after 6 rings.

“Hey man, it’s Syn,” Brian said, trying to sound cool by (obviously) using his stage name.

“I know, dude, I have caller ID,” Joel said with a laugh. “And don’t worry – I’ve already taken time off from the 18th to the 21st. You know I won’t miss it!”

“Oh sweet as, that’s great news,” Syn said with a smile to me. “Hey listen, I just wanted to run a wedding idea by you, if that’s okay?”

“Go for it!”

“If it’s no trouble for you and the rest of GC, would you mind being our wedding band?” Syn asked kindly. “It just means you’ll get some time off from drinking and have to play some corny love songs.” They both laughed while I rolled my eyes. Men never understood the deeper meanings of love songs...

“Well, I’m gonna have to run it by the rest of the band...” Joel started.

“You really don’t have to if you don’t want to do it,” I quickly butted in. “No pressure or anything!”

“I see I’m on speaker...” Joel muttered and we laughed again.

“It’s just we’d rather have some decent rock music instead of some lovey dovey shit that we and our guests can’t stand listening to,” Syn explained.

“Yeah, I totally understand. Look, like I said, I’ll have to run it by the rest of the guys, but it seems to be a cool idea,” Joel said really positively.

“And, just wondering, how much would you like to be paid for that?” I asked him and Syn slapped his forehead.

“I’m sorry, dude. She wasn’t meant to ask that,” he said loudly, majorly hinting to me that I should shut up. I gave him a weak smile. I just wanted to sort things out...

“It’s okay. You would’ve had to ask sometime anyway. How about just free accommodation at the venue?” Joel suggested and we agreed. “Okay. I’d better get going then. Gotta work hard so I can take those days off!” We said goodbye and then hung up.

“Okay, Good Charlotte: possible band,” Brian said to himself as he wrote it down neatly. “Okay, one of the last major things – our photographer.” I sighed.

“I wouldn’t have a clue, babe,” I admitted and I slammed my head into his chest.

“Ow,” he said sort of sarcastically and I groaned.

“Sorry... This wedding stuff never ends...” I mumbled into his chest as he ran his hand through my hair.

“We’ll get there...” he soothed me and I picked my head up off his chest, resting it on his shoulder instead. His straightened hair fell over my eyes as he moved his head slightly and I left it there, enjoying being close to him. “I bet I can whoop your arse at that new playstation game we got yesterday.” I giggled, picking my head off his shoulder.

“You cannot!” I said, slightly happier. But then reality sunk in and I frowned. “Besides, we still have way more stuff to plan...”

“But we just got 2 major things out of the way, so let’s take a break,” he countered as he stood up. He had left my head hanging, so I dramatically fell over sideways onto the seat. “Right! Let’s go!” He grabbed my waist and lifted me up over his shoulders in one swift movement. Damn! He had gotten good at that! He must be doing heavier weights with Matt...

“Rape!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as Syn walked off with me down to the back of the tour bus.

“You know nothing I do to you is rape! You love every single bit of it!” he exclaimed as we reached the back of the bus.

“That’s true...” I admitted as he sat me down on the couch. He picked up a controller for me and him and put the new game in. While we waited for it to load, he snuggled up into me, putting his arms around me so his controller was basically sitting in my lap. “I’m disappointed that no one came to my aide when I yelled ‘rape’.”

“It’s because they know it’s me who’s ‘raping’ you and you like it,” Syn said then poked his tongue out, looking totally cute. “That kinda came out wrong...” We laughed as the game finished loading.

“I’m gonna kick your sexy arse,” I joked as I selected my player.

“I’d like to see you try!” he said competitively and we pressed start. I think he let me win. But it doesn’t matter. Because at the end he gave me the most passionate kiss he’d ever given me. Then said he loved me. And it meant the world to me. 3 simple words that proved he was totally ready for this whole wedding thing. But was I ready? I’d begun to doubt myself, even though I was head over heels for him. I hoped I wasn’t making a wrong choice by going ahead with all this.