Seize the Day

Matt had also wrangled to get me out of work on Wednesday, so we could finish up my house, and more importantly, so that we could sleep in after the small party the night before. I am never going to get used to this schedule, I thought to myself, slowly dragging my eyes open the next morning. We’d decided to stay at my place, after all, what’s the point in having such a lush home, if you’re not even going to stay there? I woke up with Matt curled up against my back, arm slung over my hip. This, I could get used to though, I thought lazily. I glanced at the clock to see that it was just after 7:00am. I had some serious retraining ahead of me if I was going to get my internal clock in check. He noticed my movement and stirred slightly, only to pull me closer to him. I gave in and relaxed, cuddling backwards into him even more. He sighed lightly, and smiled a tiny sleepy smile. Since Matt had threatened the other guys within millimeters of their lives if they were to call before we called them, we slept in peace until nearly noon.

When I awoke for the second time, I had that momentary panic I’d been expecting for awhile. There was no Matt, it had actually all been a dream. Slowly, however, as my eyes focused, I realized that I was in the bedroom that he’d shown me yesterday, he just wasn’t in there with me. Then I heard a loud clang from the kitchen. I giggled softly, imagining him trying to find his way around the kitchen to cook. Before I could get up to check on him, though, I heard footsteps in the hallway. He opened the door slowly and entered, carrying a tray in one hand.

“Hey,” I grinned. “I was just getting up to check on you. I woke up and you weren’t here, and I thought I really had been dreaming this all up!”

He set the tray on the nightstand next to me, and sat down on the bed, reaching for a hug. “Nope, I’m still here. And not going anywhere.” He kissed the top of my head and smoothed my hair, which I’m positive was sticking up everywhere. “I made breakfast!” he chimed, and then glanced at the clock. “Well, brunch. Or lunch. Whatever, I brought you some food.” I looked at the tray on the nightstand next to me and giggled. He’d made French toast, pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, oatmeal, and Lucky Charms, as well as brought butter, syrup, jelly, milk, orange juice, and peanut butter. “I realized that I’d never eaten breakfast with you, so I didn’t know what you liked. So I brought some of everything!”

He was grinning to beat all, like a kid on Christmas morning. He was obviously very proud of himself. “Well, I don’t really eat eggs, so you can have those. Bacon, I’ll eat a ton of. French toast, however, is my favorite!”

“And now I know,” he said, still beaming. “I’ll eat whatever you don’t want.” We sat on the bed, enjoying our food, which was all very good.

“I didn’t know you could cook,” I told him as I finished the last bite of French toast I could hold.

“Yeah, I’m good with certain things. Breakfast? I’ve got it. Things like lasagna or whatever? Not so much.” He was still shoveling pancakes and scrambled eggs into his mouth.

“Good to know. Takeout it is,” I beamed.

“You don’t cook either?” He finished the bowl of Lucky Charms off as he awaited my reply.

“Oh, I can cook, I just usually don’t.” I pointed to the bowl of marshmallowed milk he was downing. “I mean, unless you want to live off of Lucky Charms. Which I’m totally ok with.”

As we got dressed and ready for the day’s activities, which were still unknown to me, we discussed travel plans to Kentucky for Scarefest.

“The show runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but we have our final walkthrough Thursday evening, and there’s a kickoff party at the bar. Then even though we don’t open the doors until 4 o’clock, I’ll need to be there at 7am Friday morning to help check in vendors and get them set up. So I’ll have to fly out Thursday sometime.” I was in full-on business brain mode again at this point.

“What do you mean you’ll have to fly out Thursday. Aren’t we all going together?” he asked.
“Well, I mean yeah, if you guys don’t have anything else going on, I just didn’t want to assume that you’d want to hang around in podunk Kentucky for an extra day and a half if you could help it!” I told him. “There’s not a lot to do, and I figured you might want to wait as long as you could to get there.”

“Nah, we’ll all go out together, and I’m sure we can find something to occupy our time. We’re good at that, you know.” He shot me a smile. “Especially if there’s a party. You know Brian and Johnny won’t miss that.”

“Whatever you want. Just don’t whine at me about how lame a town Lexington is.” I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “So, Thursday it is. Are the girls coming?” I added, as we headed downstairs.

“Actually, I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything. Maybe a band meeting? We need to get our setlist planned out anyway,” he shrugged.

“Sounds like a good idea to me. Not like they’d let me spend any time with you alone, anyway.” I slugged his arm lightly. “Will they ever get over that?”

“Not ever,” he laughed, as we piled the dishes from his fantastic breakfast into the sink.

“Ok, so long as I know ahead of time.”

We flopped down on the couch, and he pulled out his phone to start calling the guys. Everyone, the girls and Mike Portnoy included, were at my new house within the hour. It was the first time I’d gotten to meet Mike. Believe me, my fangirl nervousness came back, knowing that the legendary ex-drummer of Dream Theater was going to be sitting on my couch. He was sweet as he could be, and completely like the boys’ cool uncle, and excited that he was going to be able to play with Avenged again, since it had been awhile since the Nightmare After Christmas tour and the couple of European festival shows they’d played through the summer.

It was decided that Michelle and Gena were coming with us, but Lacey had to stay because of work stuff going on. In a week, we were all flying out early Thursday morning, hanging out Thursday evening, and then they were on their own in Lexington for Friday, until about 2pm, when they’d have to come get set up.

“We’ve got you guys in for sure on Friday evening and all day Sunday,” I explained to them. “You’re more than welcome to sit at your booth on Saturday as well, but anytime you need to get up and move, that’s cool too. The show that night, and the kick-off party Thursday, will be down the street a bit at a kickass bar called Buster’s. We’re running shuttles from the convention hall to the club, so that no one has to walk in that sketchy-ass neighborhood. Pretty small place, but it’ll still be a crazy crowd. So whenever you all need to jet to get set up and ready for the show Saturday, that’s cool. That’s why we didn’t schedule you to be on the floor for sure on Saturday, I didn’t know how much setup time you’d need. Buster’s has plenty of parking lot space for the trucks and vans of gear, and will be open anytime after 11am for you all and/or the Berrys to get in.”

Brian and Zack exchanged glances while I talked. “What?” I shot. “Impressed that I know what I’m doing?”

Zack snorted and nearly choked on the gulp of beer he’d just taken. “Well, a little, yeah, to be honest,” he admitted. “Sorry.”

“Good. That means I’m doing my job, Vengeance. They didn’t promote me to entertainment coordinator after just one year volunteering for nothing!” I grinned at the group. “Anyway, before I was interrupted, I was explaining how things will work. We’re expecting your tables’ lines to be the longest, so we put you all the way at the back of the floor, sort of in the corner.”

“Nobody puts Synyster Gates in a corner!” Brian shouted. Michelle smacked the back of his head and glared at him.

“Ahem, I put Synyster Gates in a corner, all of Avenged Sevenfold actually, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” I told him, smirking. Michelle reached over to high-five me, while Matt just cracked up.

“You’re not going to help me out, here, Shads?” Brian asked Matt.

“Ha, no way, fucker. You’re on your own.” Matt put his hands in the air. “She’s in her business person mode, and I’ve learned quickly that there’s no bargaining with her when she is.”

“Damn straight!” I nearly yelled. “Someone’s gotta make sure shit gets done, right ‘Chelle?”

“Exactly,” she agreed. “However, that being said, Matt’s kinda right. I just hope I don’t get on the opposite side of a buisness deal with you.” She ducked her head slightly. “Ever.”

“Ok, enough of the personal attacks on my attitude,” I fake-scoffed. “You’ve got three booths worth of space, so if you want to bring shirts or cds or posters or whatever to sell, you’re more than welcome to. Zacky, I was thinking maybe you could even do a bunch of VU shit. I’m sure that it’d sell really well here, especially if it’s actually bought from you personally, rather than a website.”

“Wow, that’s actually a really good idea,” Zack said.

“I’m just full of surprises, eh?” I asked, elbowing him in the side. “We could probably set it up so that VU has it’s own full booth out of the three, if you don’t mind cramming into two. Should still be plenty of space.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll check inventory levels when we get home and see what I can scrounge to bring.” He turned to Gena and added quietly, “Uh, can you remind me to do that, babe?” She rolled her eyes and nodded.

“Good. We’re all on the same page, then.” I stood up and headed toward the kitchen.

“Getting another beer, anyone want anything?” Of course, everyone in my living room answered with a resounding “yes!” I chuckled and collected eight bottles of Miller Lite. “Oh, remind me to buy you guys some Bourbon Barrel Ale while we’re in Lexington!” I called into the other room.

“Some what?” Johnny squeaked, his interest piqued by the mention of beer and bourbon in the same sentence.

“Bourbon Barrel Ale. Lexington is in the heart of bourbon country. You wouldn’t have bourbon whiskey without Bourbon County, Kentucky. The limestone water is the best for making it.” I saw his eyes almost glaze over at the discussion as I emerged from the refrigerator. “Anyway, there’s a brewery back home that ages their beer in bourbon barrels, and it takes on the taste. It’s awesome. It’ll knock you on your ass, but it’s tasty as fuck.” I handed out the bottles to everyone.

“Dude, sounds fuckin’ sweet,” Johnny breathed respectfully.

“That it is. Good stuff.” I rasied my bottle in a toast. “Here’s hoping that I don’t die of exhaustion before Scarefest is over!”

“Fuck that, here’s to meeting Freddy Fucking Krueger!” Johnny yelled, raising his bottle as well. The rest of the group laughed, and clinked the necks of their bottles together.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A little over a week later, I was packed up to fly across the country yet again for Scarefest. As Matt watched me gathering my last minute things from his bedroom, I started pouting. “Matt, after this, can we promise not to go anywhere further away than an hour drive for a looong time? I can’t stand this flying 2000 miles at a time every two weeks!” I put on my best puppy dog eyes and pouted my lips as best I could.

He chuckled. “Yeah, you have been traveling a lot lately. But I promise, no more for awhile, especially if it’ll get you to stop making that face!” He pulled me to his chest in a hug. “We’ll stay right here. At least until we go on tour,” he added.

“Wait, what?” I trilled. “Tour? When is that happening?” I pulled back so that I could see him.

“Well, it’s nothing official yet, but all these new songs we’ve been working on? We’ve been talking, and we’ve almost got enough to start recording a new album. And of course, with a new album release, comes touring,” he said. “We’re actually going in to talk to the execs when we get back from Kentucky about the new record.”

“Matty, that’s great!” I threw my arms back around his neck.

“Matty, huh?” he laughed. “New nicknames?”

“Oh. Sorry,” I said, slightly embarrassed.

“Don’t be. It’s cute. I don’t call you Vivienne very often anyway. No big.” He kissed the top of my head. “You can call me Matty anytime.”

Time to change the subject, I thought. “Anyway, I think we’ve got everything ready to go. All the merch has already been shipped to the hotel and should beat us there, and we’re all packed up, so let’s roll. Play us off, Johnny!” I started shuffling toward the door in vaudevillian style. From the corner of my eye, I saw Matt pause, stare at me like I had grown tentacles, snort a laugh, and continue walking.

The guys had called Gerald to drive us all to the airport, in a large van rather than the limousine I’d seen him drive previously. We hauled all of our luggage out to the driveway, where everyone else was already waiting.

“You guys ready for this? I’m warning you, it’s a huge nerd-fest for the most part!” Everyone laughed. “No, really. Horror movie fanboy heaven.” I was shaking my head. “Anyway, let’s get out of here and get movin’ yonder toward ol’ Kentuck!” I finished in a thick, exaggerated accent. “And no, not everyone talks like that there. Promise. Most of us even wear shoes! Usually. Sometimes. On holidays.”

“Man, I love this kid!” Brian yelled, clapping me on the back, guffawing loudly.

“She’s way funnier than Johnny,” Zack added, while Johnny shot him a glare. “I think we’ll keep her.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” Matt sighed.

“Ok, here’s the game plan.” I filled everyone in on the day’s schedule of events once we got the signal that we were ready to land in Lexington. “We’ll pick up the rental cars, head to the hotel and get checked in, then I’m going to need to see Alex at some point today. She’ll shoot me if I don’t.”

“Does she always want to kill you? First strangling, now shooting?” Zack asked.

“Yeah, it happens. Mostly when I find out I’m coming back to our town with her favorite band. She gets a little anxious,” I said flippantly. I looked at Zack and rolled my eyes. “Oh! Wait! I have an idea!” Everyone looked at me, waiting for me to speak again. “Neener,” I said to Gena, calling her by the nickname I’d given her while drunk one night that had sort of stuck, “can I borrow your boyfriend?”

“Hey!” Zack piped up. “I’m not to be dealt or borrowed!”

Gena patted him on the head and grinned at me. “Of course you can, Bluegrass.” The same night I started calling her “Neener,” she decided she was going to call me “Bluegrass.” Johnny and Mike had started using it on occasion as well “Well, I guess that actually depends on what you need him for,” she added with a wink.

“Alex!” Johnny and Brian managed to blurt out at the same time. “He’s her favorite!” Brian explained. Matt and Mike started laughing while I could have sworn Zacky almost blushed.

“Yes, Zeeves is her fave, and she’d absolutely shit herself if he was the first one of us she saw. I need to find out if she’s working today or not. That would be even better!”
I high-fived Brian and Michelle, and Johnny gave me a thumbs-up. “Good plan,” Short-Shit smirked.

As soon as we got off the plane and claimed our baggage, I sent Alex a text message.

-- We’re set to get into Lex about 5pm. You working today? --

Of course, this wasn’t at all true, as it was just past 2 o’clock and we had already gotten off the plane, rounded up all of our luggage, and we on the way to our rental cars.

-- On my way in now - 2:30 to 8 tonight. --

“Yes!” I pumped my fist in the air, and picked up my walking pace a bit to catch up with Zack. “So, Zeeves, you in?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Where does she work, anyway?”

“Fucking Starbucks. I’ve been trying to get her to find a ‘big-girl’ job, but she likes it.” I locked my arm around his neck as we walked. “Pwetty, pwetty pwease, Zacky?” I gave him my best pouty face.

“Oh, god! Matt, how can you deal with this shit?” he said, looking away. “She’s a better pouter than Gates, and that’s sayin’ somethin’!”

Matt laughed. “Yeah, I know. Almost makes you forget your name, doesn’t it?” he replied, poking me in the kidney, before rubbing my back gently.

“So, can we do this? It’ll be fun, promise. She’s quite the reactor!” I knew exactly how she’d react. There would be squealing, blushing, jumping up and down, and then, the kicker. She’d very likely jump on him, as if he were the only man left on the planet. I’ll have to remember to remind Gena of that part, I told myself. Zack doesn’t need to know, though. My internal voice giggled maniacally.

“Fine, I’ll do it. But I don’t know why I am,” Zee finally resigned.

“Because you love meeeeeee!” I squealed. I kissed him on the cheek, let go of his neck, grabbed Gena’s hand and took off skipping ahead of the group. “Thanks, Neener, for lending me your Zackykins,” I said, still loud enough that everyone else could hear.

“You’re welcome!” she sang, as she skipped along with me to the rental car lot.

“Um, they’re weird, guys,” Brian said. Michelle scoffed at him, ran a couple of steps to catch up with us, and joined our skipping. Very much like a dancer, she turned around, continued skipping backwards, and stuck her tongue out at him, before turning back forward, all without missing a beat.

“And I think you’re all stuck with them,” Mike said with a laugh. “Good thing though, they’re quite entertaining!”

With that, all three of us mocked Michelle’s earlier movement, turned around to walk backward, stuck out our tongues and giggled. “You love us!” I trilled again, before signaling the other two girls to turn back front. We locked arms and continued skipping and dancing up the walk, like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. Suddenly, Gena screamed. Michelle and I stopped to turn and see what had happened, only to start screaming ourselves. Zack, Brian, and Matt had all snuck up behind us and grabbed us by the waists, spinning each of us around. Mike and Johnny just stood by with all of the luggage, which we’d all left with the boys to carry, cracking themselves up.

We finally got to the cars that were to be ours, split up, and loaded our stuff. Zacky, Gena, Matt and myself were in one shiny black Escalade, while Brian, Michelle, Johnny, and Mike were in another. Matt was driving, while I was navigating from the airport through downtown Lexington to the hotel and convention center, leading Brian behind the wheel of the second car. We’d decided to get checked into the hotel before going to surprise Alex at work.

After everything was unloaded, we were checked in, and everyone had a chance to use the bathroom and change clothes, we piled back into the cars to head to Starbucks. Once we got there, I asked someone who was coming out of the store who the main barista behind the counter was. I was hoping that Alex hadn’t been stationed on drive-thru, as she only rarely is, and her manager didn’t disappoint. She was zoned at the register, first contact of the customer. Perfect, I thought. Her store was set up in such a way that our group was situated off to the side of the main entrance, just out of her eyeline. We could still see her, once she stepped away from the cash drawer just a bit. Of course, everyone wanted to be able to see her reaction without the lot of us ruining the surprise. We sent Zack in for the kill, if you will.

Alex didn’t disappoint us, either. Zee slowly sauntered into the store, hands in his pockets, like he was nervous about something. He walked up to the counter, and I saw him glance at her nametag, as if he was making sure this was indeed the correct person. Not that there should have been much doubt in his mind -- my sister looks very close to identical to me. She started to open her mouth to go through her usual customer greeting, noticed who exactly was standing in front of her, and choked on her breath. I heard the squeal from outside the door where we were watching and laughing our heads off. Zack put his palms up in a shrug, and just grinned at her. “Um, hi?” he said, with a chuckle.

“Uh, guys, we should go on in, before something terrible happens,” I giggled. I led the rest of the crew in through the front door.

“YOU!” Alex screamed as she saw me. She had started to run around from behind the counter toward Zack, just as I’d expected her to, but changed her course when I entered the store. She launched herself at me. Luckily, they weren’t busy at the time. “I didn’t think you would be here for another couple of hours!”

“Yeah, well, I lied, didn’t I?” I said, hugging her tightly. “Alex, I’d like you to meet my new friends!”

Realization hit her all of a sudden. She obviously had seen Zack and fangirled for a moment, but that was forgotten when she’d seen me. Now that I stood quiet, she remembered that there were six other people standing in her store. “We’ve got Zacky V. here, and this is Gena, Brian and Michelle over there, Johnny Fuckin’ Christ and Mike Portnoy behind me, and this is Matt.” Everyone made a small wave or other gesture as we went around the group. “Everyone, this is Alex.”

“Whoa, dude. She, uh, kinda looks just like you,” Johnny said over my shoulder.

“She really does,” Michelle added.

“I know. It’s creepy,” I said. “But we have fun with it.” Alex just smiled. She hadn’t actually said much at all up to this point. “Right kid?” I asked her, nudging her with an elbow. She managed a nod, while Brian stepped toward her. Leave it to him to turn the conversation to the one thing that Alex and I could go on and on and on about to bring her out of her star-shock.

“God, tell me you don’t act like her too?” he asked, grinning. “I cannot handle two of that!” He pointed across the group at me. “She’s mean to me.”

“Fuck that, dude,” Alex and I said at the exact same time.

“You think she’s mean,” Alex started.

“She’s worse than I am,” I finished for her.

“You can’t possibly be serious,” Johnny said. “She’s the mean one? What the hell are you? Glinda the Good Witch?”

“You have no idea,” we said in unison again.

“Ok, seriously,” Matt said with a heavy chuckle. “That is fuckin’ weird.” Everyone laughed again.

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” I chimed, while Alex shook her head vigorously.

She turned to look at me. “Wait til we go all Doublemint Twins on ‘em, sis,” she giggled.

“They’ll never know what hit ‘em,” I answered. I gathered her into a hug. “I missed you, kid.” It was then that I noticed that Zack had mysteriously disappeared. “Hey, Neener, where’s Zeeves?”

Alex looked at me like I was crazy. “Hey who where’s what?”

I laughed as I explained Gena and Zack’s nicknames. “We’re a nicknamey bunch. They’ve got their fancy stage names, but I had to come up with names of my own!”

“Yeah, and we’ve got names for her, too,” Brian said, rubbing his knuckles on the top of my head. “Right, Princess?”

“Fuck you, Gates,” I hissed. “I fuckin’ hate it when he calls me that, but he always does,” I told Alex.

Just then, Zack emerged from around the counter, a massive grin plastered on his face. “Put yo’ apron up, lady,” he yelled at Alex. “You’re hangin’ with us!”

“Uh, what?” Alex said. “I...Uh...Work...” It was all she could manage with her jaw hanging open.

“Zack’s right,” came another, slightly familiar voice. Alex’s manager, Ryan, had come up behind us as well. “We’re not busy today, and Casey will take the extra hours. Go have fun,” he told Alex.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “V, is that ok?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m just navigating. Zack says you’re with us, and what I’ve learned about these guys is you can’t get away from them once they’ve made up their minds, right?” I winked at Matt.

“Damn skippy,” he murmured.

“Yes” Brian yelled, pumping his fist in the air. Michelle rolled her eyes toward me once again.

“Don’t mind this one, he’s a little retarded,” she stage-whispered to Alex, who giggled like a schoolgirl.

“You’re really excited about hanging out with both of us, Syn?” I asked, playful warning in my tone. “You think you can handle us both?”

Zack and Johnny “ooooh”ed at my threat, but Brian simply started walking over toward me. Before I knew what had happened, he made an abrupt turn, picked Alex up and threw her over his shoulder. “Let’s go! We’ve got things to do and places to be!” He sashayed out the door into the parking lot, Alex pounding on his kidneys and screaming.

“Come on, I need to go save my kid sister,” I sighed. “Thanks, Ryan. I owe you one.” I threw him a wink and a wave, and followed the crew outside.

We got to the cars to find them standing there, having a fully civil conversation, each smoking a cigarette.

“Hey, fuckers, where the shit have you been?” Alex scolded. “We’ve been out here waiting for like fuckin' ever.”

“Dude, she’s got more of a potty-mouth than V does, even,” Michelle observed.

“Where do you think she learned it?” I said.

At the exact same moment, Alex grinned. “Where do you think I got it from?”

We looked at each other with our trademark “stop stealing my words” look, and laughed.

“Do you do that often?” Mike asked, shaking his head.

“Allatime,” Alex and I said together.

“I said it once, and I have a feeling I’ll say it again,” Matt started, “but that is fuckin’ creepy!”

“Oh hush.” I pulled him into a hug. “So, I have 4 hours before our convention center walkthrough. What’s the whats?”

“You tell us. It’s your town,” Matt said. “What is there to do here?”

“Nothing,” Alex and I answered.

“Sorry, sorry!” I said quickly, catching Matt’s smirk. “We can’t help it, really. It’s an on-going joke that between the two of us, we share half a brain.” We both giggled. “You know how when someone’s just really dense, people say that they weren’t around on the day god handed out brains?”

Michelle at least was with me. “My grandpa used to ask me and Val that all the time, why were absent that day.”

“Well, our story goes that when this one was born,” I said as I cocked a thumb to my right where Alex was standing, “there weren’t any brains left to give. So “god” took half of mine to give her.”

“Problem is, this one,” Alex mocked my tone and cocked her thumb back to me, “only had half a brain to start with!”

“So yes. We always finish each other’s sentences, and talk at the same time,” I finished. “It’s almost like that twin thing I hear about so much.” I glanced at Michelle, really not wanting to put much thought to her twin right now.

“Except that there’s eight years and two other siblings between us!” Alex continued.

“So anyway, what is there to do here? This early in the afternoon, not much,” I said. “The mall is pretty much out, unless we all want to be mobbed.” Matt squeezed my hand as I said this, remembering my last trip to the mall here. “Bowling?”

“Wait, I’ve got it!” Alex yelled. “How would you guys feel about a tribute to Jimmy? I know of a great spot, with some stallion fucking ducks. 40s in the park?”

For just a second, everyone hesitated. I knew the guys would love the idea, it would just take a second to process. I also knew exactly the place she was talking about, as we’d had our own little Jimmy vigils there more than once, chasing the “ducks” (which were, of course, actually geese), drinking beer, and being idiots on the swingsets. After a quiet moment, Zack’s face started to light up. Johnny’s followed suit quickly, and Matt and Brian started laughing.

Zack rushed over to Alex and scooped her up in a hug. “Can I just go ahead and tell everyone, sorry Gena, that I love this girl!” He kissed her cheek, since that’s about as far as he could reach, being that Alex is sort of Amazonian in height. She flushed bright red and giggled nervously.

“We’ve done it before,” she explained, pointing between herself and me. “Just thought it would be something different. We can go out and party tonight, though!”

“I think it’s a great idea, kid,” Matt said. He hugged her as well, and ruffled her hair like a big brother would. I could tell she started to get offensive, like she always did when I called her "kid," but decided that Matt being who he was, she'd be ok with it.

I looked over at Michelle, who was smiling through misty eyes. I winked at her, glanced at Matt and Alex, and she got my point. “Group hug!” we both screamed and bum-rushed the group. The rest of the guys were more than willing to join in, very nearly smothering Alex as they’d done to me on more than one occasion.

“So, where do we get the liquor?” Johnny asked.

“There’s a convenience store up the street, on the way out of town to the park,” I told him.

“But you’re sure as hell not the one going in,” Alex said. “We want the bottles to make it back to us in one piece!”

Johnny’s face dropped, while everyone else started all out laughing. “You’re right!” Zack said. “She’s way meaner than V is!”

Alex was simply beaming. “Told you so,” we both said.