A Cherry Sunset

“I fucking love you, Emily!” Matt screamed at the top of his lungs, making me crack a smile. “I don’t want this tour to end so soon.” He pouted and came over to wrap me up in his arms. I giggled into his shoulder and tried to squeeze him just as hard.

“I’ll miss you too, Matthew.” I mumbled and then squirmed until he let me go. It was hard to believe tour was already over. The last show had been amazing and everything was packed up for the last time.

The boys had also pitched together and rented a room for the night. No one was planning on heading out until tomorrow afternoon so the alcohol was flowing through all of us plentifully. I glanced around and smirked as I found Alan looking around slightly terrified.

“Hey kid!” I yelled to him and gave him a reassuring smile. “Why aren’t you drunk yet?” Everyone else in the room was, and I was half way there.

“You guys make it look pretty scary.” He laughed nervously as his eyes glued to Zack. I cringed as I also watched the poor guy nursing the lump on his forehead while still downing whatever was left in his cup.

“It’s not that bad.” I shrugged and turned back to him. “It’s like tradition. You’re supposed to get completely fucked up before you go home.”

His eyebrows rose at me. “You do this after every tour?”

I bit my bottom lip before sighing. “Okay, so this is the first time I’ve done this in a while. Happy?”

He chuckled. “You’re not really the partying type, Emily. I knew it before you admitted it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Still, I’d prefer it if you drank with us.”

“So you don’t look incredibly ridiculous by yourself?”

“You read my mind.” I winked and we both laughed.

“I’ll have a few drinks, but one of us has to be able to drive tomorrow.”

“That’s what Advil and sunglasses are made for, doll.”

“I am almost positive I’m going to regret this.” He commented before going to make himself a drink. I sipped on mine, watching over the chaos in the room. My mind got nostalgic for tour, as it always does when it’s over.

My heart was in a completely different mindset however. It couldn’t wait to get back to Oliver. Honestly, my whole body was missing him. I wanted his embrace, his fingertips skimming over my skin, his even breaths on my shoulder. I wanted him more than I could bare in that moment. A sob escaped my constricted throat, to which I quickly covered my mouth in response.

“Emily!” Zacky’s yell brought me from my awful trance. I didn’t have or need the chance to cover up my sudden sobs because he quickly tossed me over his shoulder. My face was hidden in his back perfectly as he carried me from the outskirts of the party to the center. “You have to dance with me, Em! Pretty please?”

I managed to wipe my few tears on his shirt as he not so gently put me back down on my feet. “I can’t dance, remember!” I shouted back at him and giggled. I wasn’t sure how I’d gone from crying to giggling, but my mind wasn’t clear enough to sort anything at the moment anyway.

“Just fucking move, Em. It doesn’t matter!” He threw his hands up and started to thrash in only a way a highly drunk person could.

My head fell back as I laughed hysterically. Eventually though, I did break down and moved along with him. I saw Alan again at some point and dragged him to join us. But honestly, the rest was more of a blur. I ended up back in the hotel room.

The room was empty, thankfully. I was sprawled out on one of beds, trying to figure out how I’d gotten there and where the other person who’d driven me here went. I rolled over onto my side and attempted to decide whether I was going to officially throw up or not. Then my phone started to ring somewhere.

I stumbled around the room, fumbling for the annoying source. Once I finally found it, I giggled as I placed it on speaker. “Oliver!” He started to chuckle too. The sound gave me chills as I closed my eyes and pictured him oh so perfectly.

“Emileh?” He questioned but I was too busy giggling to reply. “Wha’ the ‘ell ‘ave yeh gotten yehself inteh now?”

“I drank a little at the end of tour shin-dig thing.”

“I thought partehin’ wasn’t yeh scene, Emmeh.”

“Oh, it’s really not.” I shook my head fiercely but then cracked up again. “I just couldn’t help it. We don’t have to leave until tomorrow afternoon and there was so much alcohol and the boys were all talking about how they were going to miss the tour and showing off their tattoos and there was a lot of complimenting and I just couldn’t take it. I miss you and I miss home and I drank some to fill the emptiness.” It just flowed all out.

I cringed as I finally finished. I hadn’t meant to let it flow the way it did. In fact, I hadn’t even known my thought process was going to go that far. I wasn’t so worried about Oliver knowing the truth; I just didn’t want to make him feel as awful as I did because of it.

“’S jus’ fine, Emmeh. Yeh’ll be ‘ome soon enough. I’ve alreadeh got yeh plane ticket booked.”

My heart swelled. “Really?”

“I’m a littel anxious teh ‘ave yeh ‘ome too. We all miss yeh, Em.”

I giggled. “Tom and Dee are there with you, aren’t they?” He chuckled too.

“I love yeh, Emileh!” December’s voice shouted in the background while Tom’s laughter was easily heard.

“They won’t leave meh alone.” Oliver grunted as I’m sure he threw something toward one or both of them.

“I miss you guys so fucking much. I think I’m just going to come home now.” I dropped my head to my knees and heaved air into my lungs. Tom laughed again.

“Yeh’re vereh drunk, Emileh. Yeh should jus’ get some sleep an’ then yeh’ll come see us in the mornin’.” Tom was always so level headed. Oliver was level headed most of the time, but not like Tom. Tom made sense all of the time.

“My head’s going to hurt really bad in the morning, isn’t it?”

All three of them laughed. “Jus’ get tha’ rest love, an’ we’ll see yeh soon.”

“I love you guys.”

“We love yeh too, Em.” Tom was still chuckling. “We’ll leave now too, so yeh can say yeh’re goodbyes the Oleh.”

“But I want teh ‘ear all the,” December’s words were cut off with some shuffling and then a thud that I supposed was a door closing.

“Yeh still there Em?” Oliver’s voice came out lower than before, giving me chills.

“Yeah.” I whispered out and laid back down on the bed.

“I love yeh, Emileh.” And I melted.

“I love you too. I can’t wait to get back.”

“I’ll see yeh soon, love. Go teh sleep.”

“Night, Oliver.”

“Good nigh’ Emmeh.”

The phone clicked and my whole body felt heavy suddenly. I glanced around the hotel room. Things were a bit blurry but it seemed clear, as clear as my epiphany about love only a little of a month ago. I was in an empty hotel room, drunk and most likely high. The man I was desperately in love with wasn’t beside me and the thing that got me here was starting to kill my soul.

This had to change.