I Saw Your Heart as It Overtook Me

I looked at the worn shoes the employee placed in front of me and huffed a bit. I mean seriously, I don't know who else has worn those shoes ... what if they had some sort of foot fungus? Honestly people.

I heard my brother sigh impatiently beside me and before I knew it the shoes had been shoved into my chest rather forcefully. Zacky gave me a dirty look before he turned around and led our party to our set of bowling lanes.

I spat a few choice words towards my brother as I brought up the rear of the group and made a note to my self to kick his ass as soon as we got back to the bus. Once we got to our booth sort of dealio we split off into two 'teams'; Zacky, Alyssa, Jimmy, and JB versus me, Matt, Syn, and Johnny.

"Hey, that's no fair." JB whined. "They got both Matt and Syn on their team. They're gonna spank us."

"Eh, I would be too sure about that. Don't forget they also have Lauren." Zacky replied. "She sucks at bowling so it evens out." He smirked.

I narrowed my eyes at him and showed him my middle finger before we split off to go grab our bowling balls and such. I followed Matt and he helped me pick out a ball just right for an amateur bowler such as myself. By the time we got back to our spot everybody else was already lacing up their shoes. Matt and I sat our balls on the holder type dealio and took a seat to put our shoes on as well.

"Dude, these shoes are lame." I mumbled, causing Matt to let out a little laugh.

"Alright, so the losers have to dress up in a speedo ... or bikini set for that matter ... and ... I don't know ... take a stroll downtown I guess." JB proposed.

"Or, how about the loser with the lowest score has to do our laundry for the rest of the tour and wear a sign that says 'I'm a dirty douche bag.'" My brother suggested.

I show him a death glare and clenched my jaw shut tight, trying my hardest to ignore him. I knew, of course, that the only reason why he said it was because he knew I was the one most likely to get the lowest score out of all of us. I didn't really care to argue with him anyway because I knew there was no way in hell that they'd get me to do their damn laundry.

"Whatever." I mumbled. "Let's just get this thing started."

Zacky flashed me his smirk and I fought the greatest urge to slap it right off his damn face.
We got our game started shortly afterwards and everything went ... somewhat well. Our team was winning, despite my numerous gutter balls I threw, and my brother was PMSing even more than he usually was.

"Alright Lauren, it's your turn." Matt said, nudging me a little to hint for me to let my lard ass up.

I sighed heavily and stood up grabbing my ball.

"Yeah, it's your turn to throw another gutter ball." Zacky mumbled.

"Fuck off you fucking snatch." I retorted, giving him my evil eye.

I made a move to walk past him to get to our lane when he suddenly stuck out his foot, making me trip over it. I stuck my hand out to try and break my fall and, well, it worked, but the bowling ball I had been carrying came down right on top of it. I could literally hear a couple of my fingers breaking underneath it.

"Oh. My. Fucking. Fuck ... " I said slowly from my spot on the floor.

"Holy shit ... S-sister are you alright?" Zacky asked hesitantly.

I didn't reply but rather reached over with my freehand and moved the object that was currently smashing my hand. I stared at my hand that was already starting to turn black and blue for a couple of seconds before I stood up and dusted myself off a little bit. I turned to my brother, who had a very frightened look about him, and slapped him as hard as I could.

In any other place I would have punched him but seeing as how we were at the bowling alley, a nice slap would have to do.

"I-I'm s-sorry." He stuttered. "I-I didn't think that you would actually fall and-"

"Zacky what the hell did you think the main purpose of tripping somebody is?" I said through clenched teeth.

I let out a little growl, trying my hardest to block out the pain that was pulsing through my hand just then and let Alyssa examine my hand. I muttered some more curse words underneath my breath and continued shooting daggers from my eyes at my brother every once in a while.

"Well hun." Alyssa said. "It's definitely broken. We should probably head on over to a hospital so you can get it fixed up."

"Fine then." I mumbled as Matt pulled me down into his lap.

"I'll uh ... go call a cab." Zacky said weakly.

He knew he was definitely in for a beating later on ... if not from me then from Matt at least. I let Matt help me take off my ridiculous shoes and while he went to go take them back to the counter I slipped back into my own pair of black suede Etnies [dude I lost one of my black Etnies in the middle of the AFI concert and I hella went back and found it after the show, lol].

When Matt came back he had one of those bags of 'portable' ice packs. You know, the kind of you bust up and it becomes all cold for you, yeah, that's the fella. He put the bag over my hand as soon as it was cold and I winced a bit.

"Oh, I'm sorry baby." He said hurriedly.

"No, that's okay Matt." I said softly. "It's just that it's real ... tender right now."

He gave me an apologetic smile as he helped me up and together we made our way to the door. Everybody was already waiting outside for us, well, minus Jimmy who was in the bathroom. He joined us a couple minutes later packing my purse with him.

"Oh, hey, thanks Jimbo." I said, taking it back from him. "I didn't even realize I left it in there."

"Oh yeah, no problem hun." He said, going to stand with Alyssa.

We stood around for a few minutes while waiting for our taxi during which Johnny, JB, Jimmy, and Alyssa decided to just head back to the bus. They left Syn with us just to sort of act as a buffer between Matt and Zacky ... not that they needed a buffer but just in case, you know.

Finally the damn taxi came and picked us up. Zacky was sitting up in the front seat, leaving Syn, me, and Matt to the back seat. About ten minutes later the taxi came to a stop in front of the hospital and after Zacky paid the driver we walked around to the emergency side of the building.

Matt went with me to sign in, seeing as how I wasn't really able to write at the moment, and about thirty minutes later the nurse called me into a room. Matt went with me, leaving Zacky and Syn behind in the waiting room with a bunch of little kids that had a cold. The nurse led us down a series of hallways, taking a left here, taking a right, and another right, finally stopping in front of a room.

"Alright sir." She said, turning to Matt. "I'm going to have to ask you to wait out here for a couple of minutes."

"But-"

I cut him off by pressing a finger to his lips and pointed to the sign that said 'X-Ray Room.'

"Oh." He said, blushing a little. "Well, I'll just be out here."

I gave him a little smile (which was all I could muster at the moment because of the fact that it felt as if my hand had to be amputated) and followed the nurse into the room. She directed me to take a seat in a chair next to the X-Ray machine and I did so while she sent everything up. Ten minutes later after having to sit through some intense pain caused by the nurse when she twisted and rotated my hand in absurd ways to snap an X-Ray of my hand from different angles, the nurse led me back out into the hallway.

I saw Matt waiting anxiously with his back against the wall and I grabbed a hold of his hand as I walked by, following the nurse into a nearby room. Matt laced his fingers with mine, holding my hand tightly as we walked into the room and took a seat.

"So, your X-Rays should take about thirty minutes to process and then the doctor will take a look at them and be by to see you." The nurse said. "If there's anything either if you need before then, there's a nurses station right around the corner here and someone will be able to assist you."

"Alright, thank you." Matt replied as he carefully brushed the stray strands of hair out of my face.

The nurse took off leaving me and Matt in the unnaturally quiet room.

"So." Matt said slowly, clearly disliking the silence around us. "Looks like my plans for taking you to dinner tonight is out of the picture."

"You were going to take me to dinner tonight?" I asked, smiling a little.

He nodded his head.

"Yeah ... It just seems like it's been a while since we went out to a nice dinner and I thought that I'd take you out tonight." He said softly.

"Aww, well ... we can still go." I said hopefully.

Matt smiled softly.

"Yeah, but you'd probably be all strung out on your pain medication." He grinned. "And plus you'd be stuck using your right hand so that might just be for the better if we wait a while."

"True." I laughed.

He sighed a little before reaching over to lock his lips with mine. I felt him slowly tracing my lips with his tongue and smile a little into the kiss.

"Lauren." He mumbled against my lips. "Open your darn mouth."

I only pressed lips together even tighter and shook my head, trying my best not to break the kiss. Matt growled a little and placed a hand on the back of my head, forcing his tongue into my mouth. We sat there for a few minutes like this; Matt slowly massaging my tongue with his own while I let my 'good hand' roam aimlessly through his soft hair. Its moments like this that I wish would never end because it's in these few precious minutes where everything seems so perfect.

But sooner or later, there's something that brings you brutally back down to earth and makes you realize that no matter how much everything seems perfect, the world around you is anything but.

*******************

I followed Matt up the stairs of the bus sporting around my lovely air cast I had received at the hospital. It turned out I had broken my ring and middle fingers, as well as a couple other bones in my hand, and had a hairline fracture on my pinky finger. Yes, I'd really like to thank my brother for all this right now but the codeine the doctor had given me was making me feel a bit ... off.

"Hey." Johnny said as soon as he caught sight of us at the top of the steps. "What'd the verdict?"

"Hands fucked, gotta wait for the swelling to go down, and then they'll give me some other thingy." I sighed, slowly making my way to the couch.

Matt kicked JB off of the couch and sat down before helping me take a seat as well. I stretched out and rested my head on Matt's lap.

"Baby?" I mumbled, feeling the medicated sleep tugging at me.

"Yeah?" He said softly, caressing the side of my face with his soft fingers.

"Could you do me a favor and kick Zacky's ass later?" I slurred, my eyes drifting in and out of focus.

"Babe, I would if I could, but we have a show to do tonight." He said, laughing slightly.

"But Matt ... " I whined, struggling to keep my eyes open. "Please?"

"Shh." He cooed, kissing my lips softly. "I'll see what I can do."

I gave him a little smile before closing my eyes and letting the sleep consume me.

Matt's POV
I sat there watching Lauren sleep peacefully beside me as I continued to caress her cheek. Although I knew I shouldn't have, I let out a little laugh thinking about this whole ordeal. These two were always at each other's throat about something and sometimes I would wonder how far Zacky and Lauren would push one another before they got physically hurt like this. I swear I didn't know what to do with these guys half the time.

After a few minutes JB put on some sort of movie called 'The Gods Must Have Been Crazy' and it was indeed a crazy movie. Sort of one of those crazy funny movies, the kind that leaves you saying 'what the fuck' every other few minutes.

As time passed by the gang split up; Jimmy, Alyssa, Syn, and JB heading to the bunks to take a nap leaving me, Lauren, Johnny, and Zacky out in the front room. My hand had long since moved from Lauren's cheek and down to her promise ring hanging on her necklace.

Every time I saw it I couldn't help but smile because I always think back to that night she confessed to me her dreams ... she confessed she wanted to settle down ... to get married ... to start a family ... and do all this with me. I know that our relationship is still 'young' but I honestly can't wait to settle down with her. To tie the knot, get married, whatever you guys want to call it. I couldn't wait at all.

About a couple hours later, Lauren finally started to stir from her slumber. She opened her eyes and looked up at me, blinking a couple times before pulling herself into sitting position. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to me, letting her rest her head on my shoulder.

"Damn, how long as I out?" She asked, letting out a little yawn.

"Eh, maybe three hours or so." I replied.

"Oh."

She stood up and stretched, rubbing the back of her neck as she walked over to the table and sat down. She looked down at her air cast and frowned a little before grabbing some chips to munch on. I snickered a little when she looked across the way to shoot Zacky an extremely dirty look.

Zacky's cheeks flushed a deep red color and tore his eyes from his sister, looking around the room.

"Do any of you guys have a lighter?" He asked casually as he tried to avoid the cold stare Lauren was giving him. "Mine's out of lighter fluid." He added when I raised an eyebrow.

"Mine's in Lauren's purse." I said, nodding to where it was sitting on the table beside her.

"Er ... can you hand ... never mind, I'll get it myself." He said, standing up to snatch the purse quickly as if he were expecting Lauren to lash out at him if he came too close to her.

Zacky took a seat beside me as he started to dig through Lauren's purse, looking for my lighter.

"No, not y-"

He stopped himself short and suddenly an unreadable expression flew across his face. I gave him a funny look in return and eyed his hand as he slowly pulled something out of the bag. I felt my breath get caught slightly in my throat when I caught sight of the baggie of coke clutched in his hand and quickly turned to look at Lauren, as did Zacky.

"What?" She asked, seeing the looks on our faces.

Zacky held up the baggie for her to see and I could literally see the color draining from her face.

"Care to explain this Lauren?" He asked angrily.
End of Matt's POV