Some Say This Can't Be Real.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was still in the same position, and looked at the clock to see it was three in the afternoon. I groaned as I rolled over, sat up and got off the bed and headed for the bathroom. I fixed my hair and wiped my smudged glasses before entering the living room and flinging myself onto the couch next to Zack.

“Morning, sunshine,” he said, wrapping an arm around me.

“'Sup?”

“So how'd everything go this morning?”

“Good. It took a while, but it went smooth. He looks just like Jimmy that it's almost crazy. She decided to name him after daddy too because it just felt like it should've been done.”

“That's good.”

I nodded, once again losing myself in the thoughts of wanting my own baby. I knew I couldn't spring this on Zack yet because there was a lot going on in our lives, especially with the upcoming tour. Not to mention, we weren't even close to being married yet, so to spring this on him would be horrible. The two of us watched TV for a while until I received a call from Leana asking if we wanted to visit. Zack was more than happy to go, and it was just the two of us there. She looked happier than I had ever seen her since I had been back, which in turn made us feel better. She and I both talked a bit while Zack was walking around holding the baby. He started making baby talk at the him until he started crying.

“Way to scare him, Zacky,” I joked as he placed him back in Leana's arms.

We stuck around for a few more minutes before leaving her to rest. I also had arranged some time with Karlee and Amy to do some rehearsing of the songs we put together, so I needed to go meet them. Zack stopped at a drive-through on our way back and after we ate, I told him what was going on and that I was about to head out before he stopped me. “They sprung this on us last night...” he started. “We're having a show Tuesday for the album release, and we were told that we can have an opening band if we could find one. Interested?”

I looked at him with wide eyes for a second. “Umm...yeah! Let me run it by them tonight and I'll get back to you.”

“Cool. Also, this is just for you, and pertains to both Tuesday and the tour coming up. We want you to come play drums for us for our encore. Tuesday is just gonna be one song, and the tour is gonna be two songs. The thing is, you'll have to teach yourself the songs since they're off the new record. Mike said he'd help you if you wanted to.”

I blinked at him, trying to absorb what he was telling me. I then began looking around. “Am I being Punk'd or something? Candid camera? Are you actually serious right now?”

“As a heart attack. Come on, babe, you know that we'd love for you to do this.”

“Of course. Just get me the drum tabs and I'll start teaching myself. I gotta go now. I'll be back later.”

The whole drive to meet my friends, I was going over the situation in my head. I couldn't believe what Zack had just asked me to do, and I couldn't be more thrilled to do it. Once I had gotten to our rehearsal spot, I ran the idea past them, and they agreed to it. It was only going to be four songs, versus the seven we had for the actual tour.

Neither of us could believe what was actually happening. We knew that this was our chance to try and do something, and we needed to make it count. Our songs had to be perfect, and we needed to know what to say to the crowd onstage. The downside was that we didn't have demo CD's or merchandise to sell, but we had a solution to that which we hoped would work.

After our two hour rehearsal, we went out to get some ice cream with Arin who had joined us halfway through. I had told them about Leana having her baby and everything before we got into band and tour talk. Traveling was going to be difficult since we were just taking a car and following the guys. They had extra room in their trailer for our equipment so that wasn't an issue. Our concern was how often they were going to stop between venues since we'd be traveling during the night and early morning hours. They had everything they needed on the bus to where they didn't have to stop, but if we did we'd have to make it quick. It was going to be a pain, but we knew we were going to make it work, and we knew we were going to have a blast.

Our conversation switched subjects for a while until my phone began vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out to read the text message from Zack. I got the stuff for you. Also, there's a naked dude in bed asking about you. I burst out laughing at the message, getting questioned by my friends. “Zacky's being his strange self. I'm gonna head home now actually. It's been a long day for me.”

When we parted ways and when I got back home, Zack was laying in bed watching TV, fully clothed. “So what happened to the naked guy?” I asked as I changed into something comfortable.

“I told him he had to go because I'm the only dude allowed to be naked in my bed.”

“Oh really? What about naked girls?” I asked as he left himself wide open for me to mess with him.

“No limits to that. Plus, I wouldn't be sitting here like this if there were naked girls in my bed.”

I knew he was joking, but I still tried to act like I was upset. “Hmm, I see. What about ten naked girls ready to get it on, and a fully clothed girlfriend who wanted no part?”

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, arching an eyebrow. “The ten girls of course!” Still knowing that he was joking around, I gasped, trying to keep myself from laughing. “Babe, I'm joking,” he turned to grab me in his arms, pulling me to lay across his lap. “There are only two people allowed to be naked in this bed.”

I laughed. “I know.” I grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him towards me so I could get a kiss. I laid on his lap for a while watching TV with him until he said his legs were falling asleep, so I moved myself to sit next to him. “Amy and Karlee said they'd love to do the opening on Tuesday. Also said if you guys wanted to get together with us tomorrow or Monday, we could let you guys listen to what we have.”

He nodded. “Awesome. We'll call the guys up tomorrow and ask. I'm sure they'd love to hear you guys play.”

“I also need to start learning the song then.”

“It's a slower song and the drum tracking is extremely simple, so you can probably learn it in like two hours. Mike had it down in an hour and that was before we had it completely done. It's the song 'Fiction.'”

“Oh that's an easy one.” I knew it would be easy to learn to play on the drums, but as far as being emotionally stable enough to actually play it was the battle. It was the song Jimmy had written before he passed away, and if they actually played the recording of his voice, it would be hard for me to keep from crying.

After the show we were watching ended, we called it a night and had gone to sleep.



During the morning and early afternoon, we made the arrangements for the guys to come by our rehearsal spot and listen to us. Before that, we all met up for lunch and talked about what was going on for Tuesday. They followed us to our spot and sat around while we set up and began to play the songs we had. Having them watching us was intimidating at first, and after a few mistakes during the first song, it had gotten better and the next songs went much more smoothly.

After getting some feedback from a more professional point of view, they all said they had enjoyed it, and mistakes were something that comes with live music. “Shit, I still mess up lyrics during shows,” Matt said with a laugh. “Just try not to shit bricks and you'll be fine. Of course the first few times will be shaky, but it gets better. For being a new band and getting these songs together in a few weeks though, you have your shit together.”

I felt more and more relieved and excited about the upcoming weeks. They all went to hang outside while Mike stayed back with me so I could teach myself the song. Just like Zack had said, I had it down pretty well in just under two hours. There wasn't a lot to it, and if I played it a few times back to back, I'd have it. Matt pulled out a CD and popped it into our radio before grabbing the microphone. Brian grabbed Karlee's guitar and tuned it while Matt was messing with the radio. “Let's see if we got this,” he said right before the piano intro started.

I realized that he just had the piano recording of the song and wanted to do a test run. I was a bit shaky at first, but ended up just about nailing the song. “It sounded weird to me though,” I said.

“Because I don't have my own guitar that's tuned for the song better,” Brian said. “You did great though.” He smiled before giving Karlee her guitar and apologizing for messing up her tuning.

The guys had given us some advice before we took off to get dinner. After dinner, it was time to play the waiting game for forty-eight more hours. The vibe between all of us was a nervous excitement, but I could only imagine how the guys were feeling. I knew it had to hurt them thinking about how they were about to take the stage for the first time without Jimmy. I could tell by their expressions that it was killing them, but they didn't want to give up doing what they loved, especially after all the support from the fanbase had inspired them to keep going.