Seize the Day

Monday came and went uneventfully, other than starting my new job. My boss was amazing, super nice and very chill. I knew right away that it was going to work out nicely. Early Tuesday morning, the truck with all of my belongings from Kentucky arrived, and the guys all went to my new house to unload and set it up. I worried all day about the shape the place would be in when I got home, but it turned out to be unfounded. Mostly, I was excited about having my own car back, so that I didn’t have to rely on Matt for transportation every day. The other three guys, and their girlfriends, stayed there, unpacking, setting up, and stocking my house while Matt came to pick me up from work. He covered my eyes as we walked in the door, wanting to surprise me with their efforts.

Surprised I was! They had melded all of my new furnishings with the old stuff that was shipped across the country perfectly. It was set up almost exactly how I’d have done it myself. All the dishes had been re-washed and put away into the cabinets, my bedroom set up, as well as one of the bedrooms set up as an office/study. The other bedroom was a guest room, ready for anyone who needed to crash. Each of the bathrooms had been stocked and readied, along with the entertainment console in the living, with all my video games, DVDs, and other fun.

“Oh my god!” I squealed as I took in the sight. All of them stood around the living room, beaming like they’d just won the spelling bee.

“You like?” Michelle gushed. “We did the best we could!”

“I love it!” I ran over to hug her, and the rest of the group. “Get in here, guys,” I called, asking for a group hug. And that’s exactly what I got. I was enveloped by the four men and three women as if they’d never hugged anyone, ever, before. “Ok, kinda can’t breathe, guys!” I yelled finally from inside the huddle.

They broke apart, all laughing. Matt took my hand and guided me, once again, through my new house, showing everything they’d placed, set, and decorated. The new loveseat and extra armchair and ottoman we’d bought a couple of days earlier looked better with my existing sofa that I’d imagined. Even the walls had been finished, in a lot of cases with artwork and posters that I hadn’t previously owned. When he caught me eyeballing one particular painting, a black and white zombie scene, similar to the VU Marilyn Monroe design, hanging over my sofa and flanked by large mirrored sconces with skull candle holders, Zack spoke up, smiling. “It’s one of mine. I mean, I didn’t paint it, but it was in my house. I thought it’d look great with your sofa, and it does. So it’s yours now.” When I didn’t respond, other than a blank mouth-open stare, he continued quickly. “Shit, it’s too much, right? Not for the living room? Fuck. You hate it!” He looked seriously upset.

I finally managed to snap out of it and I ran over to him and tackled him in a hug. “ZeeVee! I love it! It’s perfect!” I squealed as we fell over onto the sofa.

“Oh, ok,” he said, after he caught his breath from my hug. “Good. I thought you’d like it!” Even his huge green eyes were smiling.

“Thank you!” I pulled back from our hug to make sure I wasn’t shouting in his ear, and then kissed him on the cheek.

“So that you don’t do that again, I’m going to go ahead and tell you,” Gena said, “that all of us contributed something of ours or something to remind you of us. There are more of those little bits and pieces all over the house.”

“There was way too much wall space in this fuckin’ huge place for the like 4 pictures that you had.” Johnny gestured at the massive wall in the dining room, that was now adorned with a huge canvas print of the cover of their City of Evil album. “That one was a backdrop when we were on tour for City of Evil. I stole it after the tour, and it’s just been sitting in my garage ever since. I couldn’t bear to throw it away, but I didn’t have any use for it, really.”

The dining room had been set up, with my tall pub table and chairs, but decorated with a centerpiece that wasn’t mine. A black glittery candelabra held white candles that dripped “blood”, and was surrounded by a couple of smaller black glittered skulls. The bar separating the living room and dining room was fully stocked, and looked ready for a full-on party. The kitchen held all of my black and red appliances and accessories, and was organized exactly how I’d pictured I would do it myself.

The first room at the top of the stairs had been converted into an office/study. There was an old antique-looking table that had been set up as a workspace, on it perched a Macbook computer. My eyes lingered too long on that piece of equipment and Lacey piped up. “Don’t freak!” She rushed over to me and grabbed my hands. “It’s not brand new. Johnny just bought me a new one, simply because a newer model was released, and this one is perfectly fine. You can have it if you want it!”

“Thanks, Lace!” I trilled, hugging her tightly. As I broke our embrace, the artwork in this room caught my eye. There were several framed Avenged posters from various magazine covers, tours, and ads, but in the center of the wall behind the desk was a large shadow box frame. I walked over to it so that I could examine what was in it.

“That’s from me too,” Lacey said softly.

“She’s a scrapbooker,” Gena added. “She does this kind of thing all the time, and wanted to make one for you!”

The shadow box held a piece of a live show from each of the guys. One of Zacky’s “Yay 4 Me!” guitar straps and a pick, a couple coiled up broken strings and a pick from Johnny’s bass, the horned head stock from one of Brian’s Schecters, a bandana and pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses from Matt, and a pair of Jimmy’s used, splintered drumsticks. The items were arranged atop a large Deathbat print, with three dimensional lettering and logos. Each piece was captioned with the date and location of the show that they were collected from.

“Things get broken, and for a long time, we couldn’t bear to part with some of the stuff as souvenirs,” Lacey explained. “Then we realized just how destructive these guys are and that there would always be bits and pieces floating around!” Each of the guys shot a “hey!” and a glare her way as she made that statement. “Anyway, each of us girls has one of these in our house. It’s a way for us to stay close to them, even while they’re gone.”

“Aw, Lacey, it’s amazing! Thank you!” I gushed.

The smaller bedroom without an attached bathroom was where all of my bedroom furniture had ended up, plus a new second full-size bed that matched. The walls had been painted a light grey with black pinstripes. There was another large canvas that wasn’t mine hanging here, between the two beds, this time of a very familiar-looking Deathbat skull.

Brian piped up this time. “This room is my favorite. I figured we’d all be partying here, so I wanted the guest room to be cool enough for one or all of us to stay in when we crash!” He was grinning ear to ear. Then he followed my gaze to the Deathbat print. He was still grinning, but it was a little different. Instead of the mischievous child-like grin from earlier, it was now like that of a proud parent. “Obviously, you know this, but that’s Jimmy’s Deathbat. Cam drew one up representing each of us. That one’s from me, it’s a copy of the one hanging over the drums in my studio at home. This way, he’s keeping an eye on whoever stays here.”

“Brian, it’s beautiful!” I rushed over to hug him like I had Zack earlier. “Thank you!” When everyone hung in this room for another extra second I continued. “I’m a little confused, though. Firstly, how did you have time to get all of this painted today, as well as the furniture set up, and secondly, why is my bedroom furniture in this room?”

Matt wrapped his arm back around my waist, still standing behind me. Everyone else just looked at me expectantly. “Well, the girls have been busy little elves yesterday and today. They wanted to help you and show you how just how much a part of the family you are, so they decided to do all the painting yesterday. As for the furniture, like Brian said, we needed somewhere for these idiots to sleep when they crash here, because we know it’s going to happen. Not to mention...” He cut off his words.

It was then that I noticed another person has joined our group. “Sara!” I yelled. “You knew about this too?”

“Well, duh,” she scoffed. “Like I was gonna let Gorgeous 1, 2, and 3 over here take all the credit!” She motioned across the group at Michelle, Gena, and Lacey, who all just giggled. “We were here all day yesterday painting, and then we decided that not only do these jackasses need a place to crash, but I did!”

“So Sara and I went furniture shopping today, and we bought a bed to match the one you had for here, and a new set for your room.” Matt finished Sara’s story and looked at me proudly. I started to glare at him, but he went on. “I know, I know. You hate having things done for you. But that’s the way we work around here, so you’re going to have to fuckin’ deal with it!” He shot me that famous dimple-dazzling smile again, and I had no willpower left to argue.

“Thank you!” I squealed, launching myself at Matt and Sara in a hug. I had barely let them go before I launched at Lacey, Michelle, and Gena as well, yelling out another “thank you!” They all hugged me back, tightly. “Thank you all so much for this. It means a lot to me to have friends like you all!”

“Ok, ok, if you’re done being all huggy-kissy, we got some more a-splorin’ to do!” Zacky grabbed my hand this time, and dragged me out into the hall.

“I’m coming, sheesh! You don’t have to break my fuckin’ arm off, Z!” I yelled.

He stopped at the door to my bedroom, and Matt put his hands over my eyes. Zack opened the door, and Matt guided me into the room. When he took his hands off my eyes, I gasped. The room was painted a deep crimson red, with black stripes of varied widths running floor to ceiling all the way around. The furniture was the black and red wood set I was ogling at Ikea when we’d gone in a couple of days earlier. The bed was a king-sized black upholstered leather sleigh bed, with a gorgeous silver sateen striped comforter with black and red damask toss pillows, and a black and red floral rug underneath. My own red-shaded floor lamp, eerily similar to the one Matt had in his bedroom, looked great in this room with all of the other new accessories.

“It’s perfect,” I sighed. I looked around to thank everyone again, only to realize it was only Matt and myself standing in the room, and that the door had been closed. “Where did,” I started to ask.

“This room is my gift, if you will, so they all decided I should show it to you alone. They’re going to go get things ready for the party,” he answered before I could finish my question. “I planned out this room myself. While the girls did a lot of the work while I was furniture shopping, I picked everything out.” He scooped me into his arms. “I hope it’s ok,” he breathed into my ear, sending that familiar shiver down my spine.

“It’s better than ok,” I said softly. “Especially if you did it. It’s like you can read my mind.” I held him tighter and lifted my chin closer to his. “Thank you,” I said as my lips searched for his. “It’s perfect.”

A knock on the door broke us apart. “Yeah?” I asked quizzically at the door and whoever was on the other side of it.

“Hey, sorry to, uh, interrupt,” Michelle said, peeking her head around the door. “I just wanted to show you Gena’s and my gift before he made you forget.” She winked at me and Matt cleared his throat.

“There’s no way there’s anything left! And you girls did all the hard work, with the painting and arranging, you didn’t have to do anything else!” While I was of course loving the attention, the old me was hating every second of it, and every dollar that had been spent on me.

“I know we didn’t have to, that’s why it’s a gift, bitch!” Michelle giggled. She unnecessarily squeezed between Matt and me to get to the closet on the far side of the room. “Neither of us are very crafty, nothing like Lace is, and we didn’t have any extra furnishings lying around either. So we decided to provide you with a wardrobe!” Her voice had gradually gotten louder and higher until she was shrilling the last couple of words. “After the pool party at Matt’s and the clothes Brian had brought for you the first night, I knew you were about the same size as me. So Gee and I went shopping and bought a bunch of cool stuff for you.” Her excitement faltered for just a second. “I mean, not that your clothes aren’t cool, but you know, for parties and stuff. Totally different vibe, you know?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “I know what you meant. And it’s amazing. Mostly because my clothes aren’t that cool anyway. I mean, I’m from Kentucky. Really?” I threw her a huge grin. “Tell you what. Let’s send the boys on to get the food going, and you and the girls can come up here and we’ll have some girl time. I’ll try all this stuff on, and we’ll have a little fashion show!” This was totally not my style, to be all girly-girly, but I knew that Lacey, Gena, and Michelle lived for this kind of stuff.

“I’ll go get them!” she said as she trounced out the door and down the hall.

“You sure you’re ready for that?” Matt asked as he crossed the room to me.

“No, but they did all this for me, I can grin and bear it for awhile to pay them back.” I hugged him tightly. “Thank you again, for all of this. It was completely not necessary.”

“Of course not. Like Michelle said, it’s not necessary, that’s why it’s a gift.” He kissed me hard, and we both started staggering backward toward the bed behind me. “Don’t you even want to test the bed?” he half growled into my mouth, snickering all the while.
When I finally hit the back of my legs on the bed, I sat down, and he finally broke the kiss. He sat down beside me, and smiled his dimpled, impish grin. “So, what do you think?”

“Well, it depends, if you’re still talking about the bed, it’s a Tempur-Pedic, so yeah, it’s fucking awesome. If you’re talking about everything in general, I’m a little shell-shocked. Grateful, of course, but totally taken aback.”

He put his hand on top of mine. “Everyone wanted to let you know how much they consider you a part of the family. I just want you to know that everything that was done, with the exception of the furniture in the spare bedroom and this room, they did. It was Zack’s idea to have everyone chip in something of theirs to you, so that you knew just how much you meant to them.”

“But I’ve only known them, well, and you, for barely a month! And I was gone for two of those weeks!” Even still, I know how highly I think of them all, so I assume it’s reciprocated. I flopped back onto the amazingly comfortable bed.

“I know, but I have a feeling you’ve gotten as attached to them as they have to you,” he said.

“Damnit!” I hissed playfully.

“What?” He’d been completely unprepared for that comment.

“There you go, reading my mind again!” I trilled. “It’s really weird!”

He just laughed. “Guess I just know how you work.” With that, I heard voices out in the hall.

“Out!” Lacey squealed at Matt when she reached the door. “We have girl things to do!”

“Aye-aye, captain,” Matt saluted. “Don’t let them go overboard, Vivienne,” he told me with a wink. He filed past the girls and out into the hall.

Here goes my stint as a Barbie doll, I thought to myself, steeling my facial expressions so they didn’t betray my true feelings on girly clothes.

After an hour and a half of trying on clothes, which were actually not nearly as girly as I’d imagined in my thoughts, of scoffing at Sara making faces at me, since she knew just how into this I was not, and of Gena fiddling with my hair, deciding that it needed cut and dyed, Brian and Johnny came thumping up the stairs to let us know that food was ready. I slipped on one of the more casual new outfits, a pair of distressed jeans and a black short-sleeved button up shirt and my black Chucks, and we all headed downstairs.

I hadn’t been outside to see the patio and yard during the second tour of my new home, but when I stepped outside I realized there was quite a bit different from the night that we’d all sat around the fire pit drinking beer. Of course, the fire was roaring. I expected no less from this group of pyromaniacs! The patio furniture we’d bought that first night was here, of course, but now there were strings of lights hanging from the lattice cover. There were also candles on the large table, and along the brick fence. The whole backyard glowed warmly orange. A large silver grill was standing in the corner, and Matt was hovering over it, tending to the delicious smelling steaks and hamburgers. I snuck up behind him and snaked my arms around his waist.

“Hey gorgeous,” he purred, turning his head over his shoulder so I could kiss his cheek.

“Thank you again,” I whispered, barely knowing what else to say to anyone for the duration of the night. “Everything is perfect.”

“Good, I’m glad you like it. Even though I knew you would.” He had a very smug smile on his lips, but I knew that he was right.

“Of course you did,” I scoffed lightly. “You’re the only person I know who’s right as much as I am!” I kissed his cheek again. Pulling away slightly, I asked, a little louder, “So when’s all this food ready?”

“Yeah!” Zack yelled. “I’m starving over here!” He rubbed his stomach.

“It’s ready, god!” Matt huffed, in a Napoleon Dynamite tone. We all burst into laughter, and grabbed plates and grubbed down.

After a delicious dinner, and several drinks, we were all just lounging around the patio, enjoying the company. Most of us girls had resigned to flopping across the boys’ laps, except for Michelle and Sara. After a couple more vodka-tonics than she should have had, Michelle was sprawled out face-up in the soft grass. Brian had gone over to sit next to her, and they were chatting softly, giggling occasionally. I was draped across Matt’s legs, beer in one hand, discussing Scarefest with Johnny and Zack, as they hadn’t really heard the gushing the first time I went on about it. Sara was sitting in the chair closest to the fire, poking at it with a stick, while she chimed in an opinion here and there. At about 11:30pm, Brian managed to haul Michelle up off the ground and decided it was time for them to head home. Sara, Johnny and Lacey followed suit quickly. Zack and Gena stuck around just a little while longer, as Gena and I talked about when she would get to do my hair. Obviously, as a stylist she did this to everyone, but she seemed intensely excited about my hair for some reason. I promised to call her to set up an appointment in the coming week.

As they helped us pick up trash strewn about by a bunch of slightly intoxicated rockstars and their girlfriends, Gena caught my hand. “I really, really hope you realize how much we all love you.” She had the most sincere smile I’ve ever seen. “Obviously, we all know how Matt feels about you, but even if he didn’t, we’d want to have you around anyway.”

“Thank you, Gee,” I said softly. I hugged her, keeping the trash bag full of bottles and paper plates away from her. “For everything, and for that. I love you guys too!”
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V’s Bedroom Furniture
Bedroom rug
Bedroom furniture (In black & red)