Seize the Day

He stood up and held out a hand to help me up off the ground as well. We walked back through the house and out the front door, which he locked behind him. He handed me the keys when he finished. “The lockbox was just a show, just in case you decided you didn’t like it. Since the deposit and rent are already paid, it’s actually already your place.”

I dropped the keys in my pocket, and reached for his hand. “You’re pretty goddamned amazing, you know that, right?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” he laughed. We drove the couple of blocks to his house, grabbed a blanket from the garage, went straight down to the beach. We laid there almost silently, cuddled up on the sand for a good two hours, watching the sunset and then listening to the waves.

“So wait,” I said finally, “it’s Saturday night, and the infamous Avenged Sevenfold doesn’t have previously scheduled partying engagements?”

“The guys all went out, yeah,” he admitted, squeezing me.

“And you didn’t want to go?” I asked.

“Nah, rather do this. With you.” He looked down at me, and grinned. “Although, if you’re in a drinking mood, I’m sure we can catch up with ‘em. It’s still early for them.”

“You’re right, this is better.” I snuggled back into his lap and stared into the ocean. Luckily, it was a full moon, so the light was bouncing off each and every wave as they crested and crashed.

“You ok?” he asked, noticing my blank stare.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Better than fine, actually,” I said, squeezing him back. “It’s just that this is literally only the second time I’ve seen the ocean, so I’m still a little bit in awe. I was so busy living like a rockstar the last time I was out here, I never got closer to the water than your patio.”

“Really? Only the second time?” he asked.

I sighed lightly. “Yeah. The first was when I got married,” I said quickly and quietly. I turned my head and buried my face in his shirt.

“Oh,” he whispered.

“Sorry,” I said just as quietly.

“Sorry for what?” He kissed the top of my head and snaked his fingers around mine. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Just for bringing it up. However, if it’s any consolation, this is way, way better than any time I spent on the beach there.” I brought our hands up to my mouth and kissed his. “And I’m not just saying that.”

“I guess we’ll just have to replace those beach memories with other ones, huh?” he asked. He smiled, taking my breath away yet again with his dimples.

I giggled and tried to look away before I got too overcome by that smile. “Yeah, I guess we will.”

We sat for a little while longer before I realized that we’d never gotten anything to eat. “Sweet god, man!” I exclaimed. “Don’t you ever eat anything? I always have to beg you to feed me!” I slapped at his hand playfully.

“Just preoccupied, I guess,” he grinned and winked. “Want to go out and get something?”

“Nah, how about we just order pizza or something and watch movies? I don’t feel like being out in public tonight.” I gestured down at my totally casual, not at all glamorous outfit.

“Oh, I see. You’re embarrassed to be out and seen as M. Shadows’ girlfriend, aren’t you?” he teased.

Oh shit. He used the “G” word. “Yeah. That’s totally it, doucher.” I smacked his hand again. “I just think for tonight, I’d rather be Matt Sanders’ girlfriend, if that’s ok with him and Mr. Shadows.” I ducked my head lightly. Saying the word girlfriend had thrown me for a loop. I haven’t been called anyone’s girlfriend in a long ass time.

“I think that both of us are ok with that.” He leaned down and kissed me. “I mean, if you are.” He left the end of that statement open, almost more like a question. I knew exactly what he meant.

“Absolutely,” I said, and sighed. “Wait, you don’t have multiple personalities, do you?” I widened my eyes. “Like you don’t slip in and out of your stage persona randomly, do you?” I softened my expression and winked at him then.

“Ha. No, ‘Shadows’ is pretty much only unleashed when I have a microphone in my hand,” he replied. “And maybe for an hour or two after a show, riding the high from the crowd.”

“Unleashed, huh?” I said, winking again.

“Unleashed,” he repeated grinning. “He’s a fuckin’ beast, you know.” He added a wink of his own. “But nope, for tonight, it’s just Matt, and it’s a pizza and movies night. Promise.”

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We rolled up the blanket and headed up to the house. He got my bags out of the car, and took them up to the room I’d stayed in the first night I met him. We ordered a pizza and watched a couple shitty-fantastic horror movies we found on Netflix Instant View. We both fell asleep, curled up on his sofa, and slept there until the sky was barely starting to get light. He stirred slightly, which woke me up as well.

“Hey, I do have beds in this house, you know,” he said quietly. He took my hand and helped me stumble up the stairs. I wasn’t sure if he was expecting me to follow him into his room, or go back to the room where I’d slept before, so I let him lead. He hesitated for a split second at the doorway to “my” room, and glanced at me questioningly. I shrugged slightly, but it was enough. He continued leading to the end of the hallway, to one of the rooms I hadn’t seen during my first stay in the house.

The room was decorated almost exactly like I’d picture a rockstar’s bedroom would be. The furniture was black, the walls were a deep grey. There was a large red-shaded lamp in the far corner of the room, casting a reddish glow over everything. The wall decor was tasteful, yet definitely right in tune with Matt’s Avenged style. Skulls, celtic designs, and lots of red and black were the main focus.

I shuffled into the room, still half asleep, walking straight to the bed. I fell forward, flat on my face into the amazingly soft mattress, and giggled. He laughed at me as I heard him shed his jeans and t-shirt. “You really gonna sleep in that?” he asked.

“Mmhmm,” I mumbled into the bedding.

“Are you at least going to actually get into the bed, or are you just going to lay across it so that I can’t either?” He poked me in the shoulder blade, trying to get a reaction. I just shook my head. He kept poking, and then started trying to tickle me again.

Finally I looked up at him. “Doesn’t work on me, remember? I’m not ticklish!”

“Well, you are. I just need to find out where.” He poked me one last time just for good measure. “I’m pretty sure that it’s not safe to sleep in a hoodie, you’ll strangle to death.” He pulled on the hood of my sweatshirt to emphasize his point.

“I’ll only strangle if you keep doing that,” I squealed, slapping at his hand. “Besides, you’ve got it refrigerator cold in here, man!” I didn’t add, however, that I slept much better in cool temperatures. I was just trying to hide the fact that I was still a little leery of being even remotely undressed near him.

“Um, hello,” he said. “If you’d get off the top of the blankets, we could be under them, and thus not cold.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, forcing myself to stand to pull the sweatshirt over my head. I also shimmied out of the yoga pants I was wearing as well, leaving only the tank top I was wearing under the hoodie and my boy-cut underwear. “Better?” I asked shyly.

“Much, now get over here,” he said.

“Who are you, fucking Scorpion?” I asked, allowing my full nerdiness to shine. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the joke. He just looked at me. “Really?” I asked. “You don’t know who Scorpion is?” I mocked a couple of punches. “You know, Mortal Kombat? Scorpion? Get over here!” I did my best Scorpion impression.

His face changed from confusion to amusement. “Yeah, I know,” he beamed. “I just wanted to see how far you’d take it, you big geek.”

“Shut up,” I growled, pouting.

“You really are damn cute when you pout.” He motioned me to the bed with his index finger. “But then again, you’re always damn cute.”

I went over to the bed and slid under the covers next to him. “Cute as I may or may not be, I’ve got nothin’ on you,” I almost mumbled.

He sighed. “I wish you’d fucking stop that.” He pulled me close and kissed my cheek. “If you weren’t crazy adorable, do you think I’d have gone over to the bar specifically to talk to you? Hell no. Do you think you’d have caught my eye if you weren’t sexy as hell? Fuck no.” He kissed me again.

“Thanks,” I sighed. I curled up, facing him, and nestled my forehead against his chest. “Remember, you’ve got literally millions of screaming girls telling you how gorgeous you are, every day of the year. I’ve just got two exes and a couple of random dates here and there to go from.” I hadn’t moved my head at all, so I was talking into his skin and into the bed. “Take into account being the chubby handicapped girl most of my childhood, and I was a little bit starved of affection.”

“Wait, what?” he asked softly.

“Nevermind,” I mumbled. “I’m sleepy.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” he said, lifting my chin to look at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Which part? The two exes? Or the chubby handicapped part?” Damn it, V. He doesn’t give a crap about your pity party stories.

“Um, both, I guess,” he said. He started stroking my hair.

Just being around him calmed me so much. “Well, the two exes part. I married the first person I ever dated, and he was cheating on me through our entire relationship. The end. Then I dated this girl who was great, but moved. I couldn’t handle the long distance thing, so I ended it. The end.” I took a deep breath.

“Really? Wow,” he breathed.

“Yep, really.” I wiggled around in the bed for a second, and then took his hand. “As for the handicapped part,” I started, as I placed his hand on my hip, “I had surgery in high school, twice. Feel that lump? It’s a metal plate. There are four of them total.”

His eyes got wide. “Are you serious?” he asked.

“Nope, making it all up. I put that chunk of steel inside my thigh just to weird people out when their hands are there, because that happens so often,” I laughed. “Yes, I’m serious, doofus!” I moved his hand slightly. “The other ones are here.”

“Whoa.” That was all he could manage.

“Yeah. So, anyone who bitches and moans about how much high school sucked can lick a wiener, in my opinion. I went to my junior prom on crutches, for shit’s sake. I had to beg my mom to let me leave the house without the brace on. The white plastic girdle like totally clashed with my black and red dress.” I smiled, and steeled my expression, like I’d willed myself to do so many times in my life. “But that which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger, right?”

He grinned back at me, flashing his dimples, realization blazing in his eyes. “That’s what it is.”

“What’s what what is?” His statement, though short and simple, had me thoroughly confused.

“That’s the attitude I noticed in you from the first second I saw you. I couldn’t quite figure it out until just now.” He kissed my forehead. “You’ve been through so much, you just don’t care what anyone else thinks of you.”

“Well, I like to think that’s the case,” I admitted. “But sometimes I still care way to much what other people think. I just try to forget about it, and I guess I’ve gotten pretty good at the façade.” I put my head down again. “Ok, can we stop talking about me? Tell me something about you. Something that I don’t already know.”

“That’s just it. You already seem to know quite a lot about me,” he said. “I don’t know much at all about you.”

“I know stupid stuff about you,” I said. “I know the stuff that you care to let literally everyone in the world to know about you, only the stuff that you tell the reporters. I know that you guys as a band pride yourselves on coming off as ‘real’ to your fans, but I also know that there has to be a side of you that’s just you.”

“You really are a know-it-all, aren’t you?” He wrapped his arms around me. “What do you want to know about me? But you have to tell me something about you in trade.”

“Fair enough. And that wasn’t the deal. Just tell me something that you think is important about you, that the rest of the world hasn’t been told.”

“I hate sushi, I love Brussels sprouts, my favorite color is red, my least favorite color is yellow, I secretly love the movie That Thing You Do!, and I don’t care what anyone says, Pearl Jam is not a good band.” He finished this mini-rant with a huge grin.

I giggled. “Well, along those lines, we’ll get along nicely,” I told him. “I also hate sushi, along with all seafood. I just can’t handle it. Brussels sprouts are weird, but I can eat them if they’re cooked properly. I actually loved them as a kid.” I saw him eying me. “Yeah, I know. I was a weirdo.” I got a chuckle from him out of that. “My favorite color is purple, but green, blue, and red are all close behind. I used to tell everyone that ‘rainbow’ was my favorite color. That Thing You Do! is probably one of my top five favorite movies ever, and I most certainly hate Eddie Vedder, his sheep voice and the rest of Pearl Jam with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.” I shot him a grin nearly as big as his own.

“Ok, good to know all of that.” He re-adjusted our position so that we were still cuddling and wrapped in each other’s arms, but in a more conversational way. “I know what food you don’t like, but what’s your favorite food? Favorite band? The other top four favorite movies? When’s your birthday? Siblings? Parents? Family?” he chuckled.

“Sheesh, 20 questions!” I took an exaggerated deep breath. “I don’t really have a favorite food. I’m kind of a fat kid when it comes to food -- anything other than the previously mentioned seafood, and I’ll probably eat it, and enjoy it.” He shot me a glare when I used the word “fat,” but I ignored him. “Favorite band depends on the day. The Beatles always rank up there, as does GNR, Metallica, and that one band.” I paused to tap my chin with my index finger, mocking deep thought. “I don’t remember what they’re called. Revenge Centerfold? Something like that. Whatever. The lead singer is pretty hot, so that’s all that matters.” I winked at him. He laughed and kissed my cheek as I continued. “You heard my iPod. My musical taste is crazy eclectic.”

I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed my iPod, turning it on shuffle to prove my point. The first song was “Beer on the Table” by Josh Thompson. I rolled my eyes and pressed the skip button. Next was “Not a Pretty Girl” by Ani DiFranco. “See? Even lesbian folk music!” I said with a laugh, before skipping again. Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana” started up, and I nearly choked on my laughter. He gave me a confused look, so I explained. “Diana is my middle name. There was actually a point in high school that I tried to go by Diana, because I was rebelling or something stupid like that. I got called 'Dirty Diana' more than once! This is my jam!”

“Wow, some nice friends you had, there, huh?” he asked.

“Oh, if you only knew!” I skipped to the next song. As usual, it was like my iPod shuffle was reading my mind. The next song on the list was The Misfits’ cover of “Diana” by Paul Anka. I giggled again as I showed him the display screen.

“How many songs about yourself do you have on there?” he asked.

“Well, there’s just the two. And sadly, I don’t know of any songs about ‘Vivienne,’ so I like the ones that at least use ‘Diana.’”

He took the music player out of my hands to listen to the song. “I don’t think I’ve heard this Misfits song. Which is odd, considering how much Zack listens to them.”

“It’s a cover of an old, old, old song, and was on one of the newer albums, the one with all the 50s and 60s songs, obviously,” I explained. “My sister found it one day and started singing it to me, even though she never called me Diana. I thought it was hilarious, and she has it set as my ringtone on her phone now.”

He sat quietly listening to the song for a few moments and grinned.

“You and I will be as free
As the birds up in the trees
Oh, please stay by me, Diana.”

“Oh, hush,” I scolded as he started singing along with the choruses. “Anyway, to answer your questions - the other four movies are A Nightmare Before Christmas, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Labyrinth, and Fantasia. Today, anyway. That changes too. Birthday is January 8th, same day as The King, Elvis Aaron Presley. I’m the oldest of four kids, my parents are still married, even if I don’t know why my mom puts up with my dad, and I have more cousins than I can count.” I sighed. “Whoo. That’s a lot of info!”

He hugged me tighter. “In response, you’re not a fat kid. You’re gorgeous, and perfect, so stop that.” I hid my face so he couldn’t see me blush. “The Beatles, Metallica and Guns N Roses are my faves too, but you already knew that. Those movies are all awesome, if not a, um, varied selection. Winter birthday, nice. Sharing a b-day with The King? Even better. And big families are great.”

“Well, the birthday thing is sort of cool. Kids with summer birthdays always whined about having their parties rained out. Mine? We always got snowed in, to the point that not even my grandparents could make it. But I miss my Ohio snowstorms! And I hated for the longest time having the birthday with Elvis, because TNT and TBS would show Elvis movie marathons the whole week.” I rolled my eyes, showing my distaste. “As talented a singer and songwriter as he was, he wasn’t much of an actor.”

So we spent another two hours or so going back and forth, taking turns sharing tiny insignificant bits of personal information. After a particularly large yawn escaped my mouth, I remembered how much sleep I hadn’t gotten that night. “This jet lag is going to kill me. I really need to stay on one side of the country or the other.” I snuggled closer to him to emphasize the comment I was about to make. “I think I like this side better.” He chuckled, and with that, we were both asleep.

We awoke at almost one on Sunday afternoon, when Matt’s phone rang. He fumbled for the phone on the nightstand, looked at the caller ID, shut off the device, and rolled back over to me.

“It’s too early to deal with Gates,” he rasped, the husky sexiness in his voice again from sleep. He closed his eyes, and held me close again.

“Um, baby,” I said, before I caught what I was calling him, “it’s hardly early. It’s already after noon!” I kissed the tip of his nose, since it was the only movement I could manage. I wiggled enough to roll over to my other side, so he was lying behind me, spooned against my back. “At least I can breathe this way,” I scolded him.

He laughed and nuzzled his face into my back. Unfortunately for me, my plan backfired again. When he snuggled closer, his face was between my shoulder blades, just over where my constellation tattoo is situated, his breath warm on my skin there. Knowing that this was not going to end well for me, I tried to fidget again and change my position. His arms were wrapped firmly around me, so I couldn’t move at all. I tried to relax, and not think about anything but the fact that the one spot on my entire body that was actually ticklish had been located. “You ok?” He’d noticed my strange posture.

“Um, yep, I’m good,” I said through nearly gritted teeth. I attempted again to turn, still with no success.

“What are you doing?” he asked, almost giggling. As he spoke, his lips brushed the skin in that spot, making me squirm.

“Nothing,” I gritted again.

“Oh shit!” He started purposely breathing heavier, emphasizing the air on the back of my neck. “That’s where it is, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I blurted, through giggles, still squirming fiercely.

“Ha! I knew I’d find it. I knew you were ticklish somewhere.” This time, he made sure his lips were touching my skin as they moved.

“Ok, ok, ok!” I resigned. “That’s the one place I am ticklish. Now please fucking stop it!” I tried as hard as I could to elbow him in the side, but I literally couldn’t move my arms. He continued kissing and caressing the nape of my neck, sending me into an uncontrollable fit of snorting laughter, trying to thrash my way out of his grip. Eventually, he stopped when I threatened that I was going to pee in his bed if he made me laugh any more. When I could breathe again, I rolled over to face him again, and he just looked at me, with that gorgeous smile.

“I guess I see why not many people know where you’re ticklish,” he said, still grinning.

“Yeah, it’s pretty much only found just exactly how you just found it. Since I’m not in that particular position too terribly often, no one knows about it.” I kissed him. “And now that you know about it, you’ll never do that again, right?” I begged.

“Oh, never,” he said sarcastically. “Not ever.”

“Fuck you,” I giggled.

We were interrupted by my phone ringing. I’d finally changed the ringtone from Matt’s screaming vocals of “Nightmare” to the opening bass groove from “Tension.” “Aww, did you get tired of my voice already?” he asked.

“God no. Never,” I said with a wink. “I just figured you would, if I was around you much more.”

“Oh, so you replaced me with Short Shit?” he teased.

“Yes, Johnny’s replaced you in every way, shape, and form,” I deadpanned. I looked at the phone’s display. Synyster Fucking Gates calling. “It’s Brian,” I told him. “Probably got sick of you not answering yours.” I kissed the tip of his nose. “Bonjour, comment ça-va ce matin?” I said into the phone.

“I have no idea what you just said, so I’ll ignore it. I was beginning to wonder if you’d made it back to Cali, Princess!”

“Nah, you were just wondering how much more of your best friend’s Sunday I was going to commandeer.” I winked at Matt. “And the answer is all of it.”

“Aw, come on! We want to hang out!”

“Um, you’ve seen him literally every day since like 3rd grade or something, ass. Can’t I have him for one whole day to myself?”

“You’re right. But, no. You can’t. Zack and I are already on our way over there.”

“Dude, you better be joking,” I said into the receiver. I looked at Matt and said, “Gates says they’re on their way.” I turned my attention back to the phone. “You can come over here if you wish, but we’re totally not getting out of this bed.”

“Shit, don’t say things like that,” Matt said, as Brian laughed. “You think Thing 1 and Thing 2 over there have any issues with just crawling into the fucking bed?”

“Good point,” I sighed. “Fine, how long?” He didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, I heard the doorbell.

Matt yanked the phone out of my hand. “Hey douchenozzle, the purpose of a fucking ‘we’re on the way’ phone call, is to do it when you’re actually on the way, not standing on the step! We’ll be down in a couple minutes. And I swear to fucking everything, that if I see you before we hit the bottom of the stairs, ‘Chelle will be mopping up pieces of you.” Of course, he was still chuckling through this entire exchange, and as he hung up the phone. “Sorry about that,” he said. “We’re kind of always together.”

“It’s cool, I just like giving Brian shit,” I grinned. “No problem. I missed the guys too while I was gone.” I pulled him back close to me again. “Not as much as I missed you, of course, but that’s not the point.” We kissed for a moment before he broke away.

“We should really get up and out of here before they barge in again,” he laughed.

After getting dressed and meeting the guys downstairs, we took them over to my new place for a tour. Brian was already making all kinds of ridiculous plans for my housewarming party. We decided that I was going to need some sort of furniture for everyone to sit on, as well as some decor. Everything I was having moved from Kentucky would very likely fit in one of the upstairs bathrooms. After a lengthy argument over them wanting to help pay for furnishings for my new home, an argument that I lost badly, we called the girls and the six of us all went on a shopping trip to Ikea and Pier 1, which were barely a 20 minute drive away. Being that I was still technically an employee of Pier 1, my discount was still valid. Along with furniture for my patio, dining room, and a couple of accessories and gadgets for my kitchen, Michelle and Gena also talked Brian and Zack into a couple of purchases as well. Luckily, no one knew who the guys were while we were shopping, save for one young girl who was too shy to say anything. I saw in her eyes that she recognized them, and winked and waved to her as we walked around.

As us girls were finishing up our purchases, we sent the boys out to rent a U-Haul, since neither of the cars we’d driven (Matt’s tiny BMW and Brian’s only slightly larger Land Rover) would fit the furniture that had been bought for me, nor the enormous hutch cabinet that Michelle had fallen in love with. Gena’s merchandise selections were generally smaller accessory items, but we loaded those into the trailer as well. We stopped and grabbed some beer, and spent the evening setting up my patio furniture, then testing it and the fire pit, hanging out on my new patio.

Finally, around 10pm, I reminded everyone that I had a new job to start in the morning, and that I was still jet-lagged from the day before. “Thank you all,” I said as they started to leave. Michelle, who was standing closest to me, looked at me slightly confused. “Thanks for helping me find a place to live,” I continued, “thanks for befriending me so quickly, and thanks for letting me stick around.”

“Of course!” Brian wailed, as he almost shoved Michelle out of the way to hug me. I looked at her over his shoulder and rolled my eyes. He stepped back and let me go. “In all seriousness, though, we’re all glad to have you around. Not many people take the opportunity to get to know us as well as you have, even so quickly.” He put one arm back around my shoulders, and was now addressing the rest of the group as well. “On the other hand, we don’t usually go around hanging out with fans for extended periods of time. I mean, we love our fans, we really do, but most of them just get annoying after 15 or 20 minutes. It took me like a whole 45 to get annoyed with you!” He paused to grin at me, while I slugged his arm.

“Anyway, that makes you double special -- that you can put up with us, and we can put up with you,” Zack finished for him. “And then there’s the fact that this guy,” as he pointed across from him at Matt, “seems to want to keep you around, so that’s good enough reason for us.”

Gena even chimed in. “They’re right. We’ve all known each other forever, it seems. It’s not very often that someone new makes their way into the group. It takes something double special, like Z said, to get your foot in the door. But with you,” she went on, “it’s like you skipped the foot part and just pushed your way on in! But nicely and politely, of course.” She grinned at the end of her metaphor. “It’s nice to have a new face around, and one that doesn’t mind to give the guys as much shit as they can dish out!”

All this time, Matt was just standing by, listening, that grin on his face. “What are you cheesin’ about over there, mister?” I asked him.

“Well, for about half a second last week, I was worried that everyone would think I was crazy for asking you to move out here, that no one would like you. Then I saw how you got along with the guys, and knew they would be fine with it.” He walked through the center of the group to stand next to me. “Then, I was really mostly worried about the girls.” He looked at Michelle and Gena who seemed a little shocked. “Not that I didn’t think you’d love her, just worried anyway. But now I see that she’s got everyone wrapped around her little fingers, maybe she doesn’t like me after all.”

“Damn, ya got me,” I sighed, over-dramatically. “I just wanted to hang out with the Avenged Sevenfold for awhile. So you know, I came to Cali, stalked around until I happened upon the bar they were hanging out at, and reversed kidnapped myself so that they had to keep bumping into me. Then, I packed up and moved across the country, just for shits and giggles. And I’m such a great fucking actress, I made all of your friends fall madly in friend-love with me, so that I can steal them all from you. What you don’t know, Matt, is that we’ve already planned to run off to Tahiti together - Me, Zack, Gena, Brian, Michelle, Johnny, Lacey, all of us. Except you!” I ran behind him and jumped on his back, as everyone else was laughing manically, especially Brian. He seemed to think my little rant was particularly hilarious.

“Yeah, right,” Matt said, trying to shake me off him.

“Of course I like you, goofball,” I said as I kissed his cheek. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

Brian, through his laughter managed to speak. “Dude, if you don’t want her, can I keep her? She’s a fucking riot!” Of course, this garnered an evil stare from Michelle, but he completely ignored her.

“Anyway,” I said, sliding off my perch on Matt’s back, “I’m glad we all get along so well. And I’m glad that I can call you all friends, too.”

“Us too!” Gena and Michelle both squealed and lunged to hug me simultaneously.

After a long, giggling embrace from the girls, we finally decided it was time to head home. Well, for everyone else to head home. I was, of course, at home, but didn’t have any belongings to speak of there. So after everyone else left, Matt and I followed suit and went to his house.