Tasting Fame

FAST FORWARD EIGHT MONTHS TO AUGUST 23 - JIMMY'S P.O.V.

"Damnit, Jimmy. Help me!" Acey screamed in my ear.

I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. 6:30 in the morning. I looked over at her and she was struggling to get out of the bed. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Laugh all you want, you piece of shit. Now help me out of the bed so I can take a piss!"

I climbed out of the bed and walked over to her side of the bed and held out my hand to help her up. It took more effort than usual, as she had gained about 55 pounds since December.

Once she was free of my grip, she hurried as fast as she could to the bathroom. I waited about 10 minutes before she finally waddled out of the bathroom. I helped her get back into the bed, then climbed back into bed myself.

"Jimmy, I don't think it's ever gonna fucking come out of me," Acey said to me as she stared at the ceiling.

"Babe, yes it will" I said with a small laugh.

"My due date was August 20, and today is August 23!"

"And your point is?" I asked, turning my head to look at her.

"That means there's a three-day-old human being inside of me!" she said, raising her voice and pointing at her stomach with both her hands.

She lifted her night shirt over her stomach to reveal the large bump that was housing our child.

"Eww! What happened to your belly button?!" I exclaimed.

I noticed that her belly button had become a dark brown color, and was now a large outtie, instead of an innie. I poked it, and she just slapped my hand away.

"Babe, it'll be fine. It'll be out of you soon enough. Now go to sleep."

I gave her a kiss, and then pulled the covers over us, and tried to get back to sleep.

God, I can't wait until she has this kid. She's driving me insane.

NEXT DAY - BECCA'S P.O.V.

Time to bring you up to speed as to what has been going on over the past eight months. Johnny and I are still going strong. We have our little road bumps here and there, like when he drinks too much and gets belligerant, but it's never anything major. Nothing that we can't ever work out. We love each other now more than ever, as cheesy as that may sound.

Zacky and Aileen aren't doing too well right now. In ways unknown to mankind, Barry found out where Aileen's mom went, and followed her to South Carolina. They ended up getting back together..... again. And he beat the shit out of her..... again. So Aileen went out to South Carolina, which pissed Zacky off. I am not sure if they broke up, or if they're just 'taking a break'.

Matt and Sarah are still as good as ever. Matt said something to me yesterday that involves Sarah, and it shocked me. But it's a good thing. I know something Sarah doesn't know!

And then there's Brian and Kaitlyn. They're like a highschool couple. Brian gets all giddy and boyish every time she's around, and her giggling when she's with him is cute, although very much nausiating. And let me just say that it's a wonder they're not expecting their own children.

And last, but certainly not least, Jimmy and Acey. Acey originally wanted to wait until the birth of their baby to find out what they were having. But Jimmy was being an annoying douchebag, and wouldn't shut the hell up, so Acey finally gave in and they went to the doctor a month ago for another sonogram. Jimmy squealed like a little girl when he found out they were having a boy. And they finally decided on a name: Seifer Remy Sullivan. Jimmy got to choose the first name, and Acey chose the middle name. They fought for at least an hour over that.

It's now 2 in the afternoon, and we're all sitting around the living room in our shorts and wife beaters, fanning ourselves with magazines and those little pieces of cardboard that's attached to a stick that they give out at baseball games.

"It's fucking hot in here!" Zacky whined.

"Well, if you and my fucking brother, and my wonderful garden gnome over here, would've paid attention while you were playing baseball, you wouldn't have broken the outside air conditioning unit," I said.

"Yeah, well, we were bored," he said again, in his own defense.

We sat in silence once again, until Zacky decided to open his mouth again.

"It's hot in Topeka. It's hot. Hot, hot. Hot, hot, hot. It's hot in Topeka. It's hot in Topeka. It's hot in Topeker. Toe picker. I'm a hot toe pick. I'm a hot toe picker. Pick my toe, it's hot! Pick my hot toe, pick it! My toe is hot ..... pick it."

We all just stared at him with dumbfounded looks.

"Zacky, did you snort a line before you came downstairs this morning?" I asked.

"No. I'm not sure where the hell that came from. Fuck. I think this heat has fried my brain," he said as he pulled his wifebeater off.

"I'm gonna wrap you up in that wool blanket over there if you don't cover your hairy-ass chest," Brian said as he stood up off the couch.

Zacky scoffed and pulled his wifebeater back over his head.

"The water in the pool is even too hot to go swimming in. It's like swimming in fucking bathwater," Jimmy said as he poured some of the cold water that was in his water bottle over his head.

"Then go take an insanely cold shower," Acey said.

We all just sat around, staring at nothing and sweating our asses off, when Acey suddenly sat up with a shocked expression on her face, clutching her stomach.

"Acey, hon. What's wrong?" Jimmy asked with concern, taking her right hand in his left.

Everyone sat up as she looked around at us all, keeping the same expression glued on her face.

"My.....my water just.....broke," she said.

I assumed that she had a contraction right after that as she started screaming and grabbed Jimmy's hand. You'd think that Jimmy would be able to handle it, but she grabbed it fairly hard, as he started biting his lip and tearing.

I grabbed my keys off the table in the living room and threw them to Johnny, as he, Zacky, and Brian ran to the door to put on their shoes and then head out to the driveway to start the cars. Zacky got into his truck, Kaitlyn rode with Brian, and Sarah jumped in with Johnny.

While Matt and Jimmy were getting Acey up so they could take her to the car, I ran upstairs to grab Acey's bag out of her and Jimmy's room. I ran out the door, shut it and locked it, then got into the car with Johnny, Sarah, and my brother.

"Who's driving Jimmy and Acey?" I asked as I buckled my seatbelt and Johnny sped out of the driveway.

"Zacky is."

The rest of the ride was silent except for the sound of my voice as I made a few phone calls. I called Jimmy's cell phone, and he was too freaked out to call ahead to the hospital, so I did it for him.

We pulled into the hospital parking lot about 15 minutes later, and got spots fairly close to the front, then hopped out of our cars. There was already a couple of nurses waiting at the front with a wheelchair to take Acey to a room.

When we got inside, Jimmy had to stay back to fill out all Acey's information. He was shaking slightly, and was trying to talk, but was just mumbling, and was making no sense at all.

"Jimmy, give me that and I'll fill it out. You go back there with your girlfriend. She needs to back there with her," I said, taking the papers from Jimmy.

He just looked at me with his mouth open, nodding his head slightly. A doctor came out and asked for a James Sullivan, but Jimmy was in too much shock to notice.

I guided Jimmy over to the doctor, and he took Jimmy to put on some scrubs, and get into the room with Acey. The rest of us just took seats around the waiting room as I began to fill out Acey's paperwork. When I was finished, I took the papers and gave them to the receptionist, then reclaimed my seat next to Johnny. This was going to be a long night.

We've been sitting in the waiting room for the past four hours, and we haven't heard a word from Jimmy or any doctors.

"Somebody go get some fucking food, please. I'm starving!" Zacky whined.

"Why don't you quit your bitching and go down to the fucking cafeteria, man?" Brian asked, as if it were the most obvious solution in the world.

"Hospital food fucking sucks. I want rea food. Not this nasty, powdered, all-you-gotta-do-is-add-water shit that they serve here," Zacky said as he took a drink of his pepsi.

"If it'll make him shut the hell up, I'll go get him some damn food," Matt said, standing up. "But I'm choosing the place. So if you're picky about what you want, get your ass up and come with me."

Zacky, Kaitlyn, Matt, and Sarah all went to get food. Matt knows what Brian likes, and they all know that Johnny will eat anything. I just told the girls to get me whatever they got.

Fifteen minutes after they all left, Jimmy slowly walked into the waiting room as he pulled that little mask off his nose. The three of us that were left stood up and walked over to him. He had his head hanging down, and it was a few moments before he looked up and spoke.

"Jimmy, is Acey alright?" I asked with concern.

"Yeah, she's fine," he said quietly.

"Then what's wrong, man?" Brian asked with concern in his voice for his friend.

"It's just.....the doctor made a mistake on the sonogram....." he trailed off.

"So you're having a girl instead?" Johnny asked.

"Kind of."

We all just stared at him blankly. How could someone kind of have a baby?

"Jimmy, what do you mean, kind of?" I asked.

He just shook his head and smiled. Now I was more confused than ever.

"We're having twins. A boy and a girl!" he said with excitement.

We all just smiled and I gave Jimmy a kiss on the cheek, then he got one of those manly-hug things from Johnny and Brian.

"The doctor said that you could come and see her now. She's dilated about halfway, and she's just gotten her epidural, so she might seem a little loopy."

I couldn't help but laugh to myself at his comment. Acey's always been a little loopy.

The three of us walked back to her room, guided by Jimmy, then walked in as she was shoving a piece of ice into her mouth.

"Hey guys," she said with a small smile.

"Jimmy just told us the news, Ace. That's awesome!" I said, giving her a hug.

"Yeah. I kinda had a feeling about it. I thought I was a little big for only one kid. Plus I've gained about a bazillion pounds since my last check-up," she said, chuckling to herself.

"Where's everyone else?"

"Zacky was being a little whiny bitch cause he was hungry. So he went with Matt and everyone else to get some food. They should be back in about half an hour or so," said Johnny.

He pulled up a seat for himself and a seat for me as Brian and Jimmy pulled up chairs for themselves, and we all took seats around Acey's bed. There was silence in the room except for the beeping coming from Acey's heart monitor.

"So, how ya feeling?" I asked.

"However a pregnant chick is supposed to feel, I guess. Everyone's healthy, and I'm just ready for these little bastards to get out!"

We laughed, and Acey had just started to tell us how the doctor made the mistake on her sonogram, when the rest of the gang walked through her door.

We all sat around talking and having somewhat of a good time when Acey's obstetrician came in a made everyone, except for Jimmy, leave the room so he could how far she was dilated. About 10 minutes later, we were all let back in.

"She's got two more centimeters to go," the nurse said to us with a smile as she exited the room.

The monitor that beeped when she had a contraction started beeping rather rapidly, and since her epidural was starting to wear off, and Jimmy was on the other side of the room talking to Matt, I took her hand to help get her through it.

Let me just say that I think she broke my hand. Okay, maybe I'm being a little bitch, but it still hurt!

Here we are, an hour later, and we're all waiting outside the delivery room. We could all hear parts of things Acey was yelling as she pushed.

"James, we're never having sex again!" she yelled.

Either Jimmy didn't say anything, or we couldn't hear him over our own laughter.

"When we get home, I'm going to sever your balls and pin them to your forehead!"

That made all the guys cringe while us girls doubled over in laughter. It definately sounds like something Acey would do.

After what seemed like an eternity later, we heard the cry of baby number one, followed by the cry of baby number two ten minutes later.

We could all see the top of Jimmy's head over the curtain, and he had the widest smile I've ever seen planted on his face. He was actually crying! Jimmy never cries. Which, in turn, made all us other girls cry, and the guys to roll their eyes. After about 20 more minutes, Jimmy came out into the hallway, and told us that we'd be able to see Acey once they got her into a recovery room and everything. So we all made the familiar trip back to the waiting room.

"Man, I'm hungry!" Zacky whined again as he layed his head back on the chair.

"Dude, you just ate an hour ago, and you're already fucking hungry again?" Brian asked.

"Whatever, fucker."

We finally got back to Acey's new room, where she was just finishing feeding the little boy. All the guys fought over who got to hold the boy, and us girls fought over the little girl as well. Jimmy got tired of everyone fighting over them, although you could tell he was extremely proud.

When Jimmy had finally had enough of everyone fighting over his children, he shooed us all out of the room. We all said our goodbyes, then made our way back home. We didn't actually pull into the driveway until almost 1. We were at the hospital for almost nine hours. And I'm fucking tired.

I went ahead of everyone else into the house to take a shower. I heard the sound of multiple footsteps coming up the stairs behind me, and I knew that everyone else was heading to bed too. Jimmy stayed at the hospital with Acey.

I got into the bathroom and started the shower, then stripped and stepped into it. The warm water relaxed my muscles as I just stood underneath the stream of water for a few moments.

As I started to wash my hair, I heard my bathroom door open. I pulled back the shower curtain to see Johnny standing with his back to me, taking a piss.

"Why couldn't you use one of the other bathrooms?" I asked with a small laugh.

"I had to piss, and I was here. So I pissed here," he said.

After finishing, he jumped onto the counter, and waited for me to get out of the shower, and I did about 10 minutes later after he handed me a towel from the shelf underneath the sink.

I wrapped the towel around my body and made my way over to the sink to brush my teeth. Johnny jumped off the counter and stood behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. Since I was taller than he was, his head barely reached my shoulders. He kissed my bare back, then sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked after I spit my toothpaste into the sink.

"Can we have sex now?" he asked with a voice like a little kid asking for a cookie before dinner.

I just laughed.

"No, we can't. Not tonight, anyways. I'm tired. It's been a long day for me, as I was up before everyone else. I just want to sleep right now."

I cleaned my mess in the sink, then exited the bathroom after turning off the light, Johnny still attached to me.

I put on a clean pair of underwear and a bra as Johnny stripped down to his boxers, and we climbed into bed.

"Johnny, I wanna cuddle," I said, reaching out my arms.

"No," he said turning his back to me. "You won't have sex with me," he said with fake hurt in his voice.

"Johnny," I whined.

He laughed a small laugh then turned around and we scooted together, intertwining our legs, and he pulled as close to him as possible. He looked at me and stroked my face and leaned in for a kiss. It's weird: we share a kiss every single time we're getting ready to sleep.

fter about 10 minutes of tonsil-hockey, we pulled apart from each other. He looked at me again, and I noticed that he was thinking about something. He was frowning slightly, and he always frowns when he's thinking.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"About stuff," he said.

"What kind of stuff?"

"Just about everything that's happened today. It kinda just got me thinking about..... you know..... starting my own family."

That wasn't exactly the response that I was thinking he was going to give me. I thought he was stressed out about how the band was going to finish the album in the next two months, and how he wasn't happy with what he'd done on it so far. I certainly didn't think our conversation would be like this.

I just looked at him, hoping that I didn't look terrified at what he said.

"Rebecca, I want to have kids." He stroked my face again and gave me another, yet smaller, kiss. He looked at me once more, and said, "I want to have kids..... with you."