This Masterpiece Will Fall Apart

Zack had suddenly become very serious about recording his EP. Zack had been over at the house constantly throwing ideas back and forth with Josh. I really liked how they were getting along. Josh and Zack had never really talked, except when he had come over to the house, and they usually ended up saying a few words to one another. I had never actually seen Zack that animated about anything in his life. Josh actually seemed pretty excited about it too. Zack even asked Josh to record some vocals on a track or two, and Josh was more than willing to.

I was sitting in the living room with the twins and Finley (who was watching Spongebob Squarepants) while Josh and Zack were yet again in the basement bouncing ideas off one another. I had letters and papers layed out in front of me and I was going through them all. Autumn and Kodiak were on the floor next to Finley. I would look up occasionally to see if they were still alright, or when Finley would laugh at the TV. Autumn been sitting up on her own for a few weeks, and Kodiak hadn't quite gotten there.

“No!” I heard Finley whine. I looked up from a letter and saw that Finley was holding his cereal bowl away from Autumn. Autumn had tried to grab at the bowl or the spoon, I wasn't sure what one.

“Finley, be nice.” I said, looking back down at the letters, my glasses slipping down my nose.

“But...” Finley started, but I peered over my glasses at him.

“No 'buts' mister. Unless you want me to smack yours?” I asked.

“No mummy.” Finley bowed his head and turned back around to the TV. I chuckled to myself. It still threw me off when Finley spoke with an accent. It wasn't very strong, but it wasn't entirely subtle.

“Oh, it is so hard to stay mad at you when you're so adorable.” I looked down at the letters again and read a few more before Finley spoke up again.

“Mum! Look at Kodi!” I looked up again to see that Kodiak had pulled himself up and was sitting up. I leaped off the couch in excitement and knelt down next to Kodiak. Kodiak looked highly proud of himself and was smiling widely. I jumped up and ran to the stairs leading to the basement.

“Josh! Josh, come here!” I yelled at him.

“What do you want?” I heard Josh yell back.

“I want you to come here, that's what I want!” I told him.

“But we're busy!” Josh whined at me. He appeared at bottom of the stairs. “We're creating awesomeness.”

“The awesomeness can wait for five minutes Joshua.” I folded my arms over my chest. Zack appeared at Joshes side, and Josh pouted.

“Fine. Five minutes. Then back to the man cave.” Josh said, trudging up the stairs. Zack followed close behind him.

“The man cave can also wait.” I said. Josh frowned at me. I led him into the living room, and Kodiak was still sitting up in the same spot. “Look at your son” I squealed excitedly. Josh looked down at the floor and a surprised, but pleased look on his face.

“He's sitting!” Josh said.

“No, really? I couldn't tell.” I told Josh. Josh narrowed his eyes at me and shook his head.

“You just ruined a sweet moment, you know that?” Josh motioned to our son. I laughed at him and shook my head. Josh smiled and knelt down next to Kodiak. “Oh, look at you.” Josh gushed. I giggled at him. It was absolutely adorable to see Josh interact with kids. As much as he hated screaming children, he was still a great dad. Josh looked up at me when I giggled and smiled. I looked over at Zack, who was smiling. Josh scooped Kodiak into his arms and stood up, holding Kodiak close to his chest. Josh swayed back and forth slightly on his feet.

“Well, I better get going.” Zack clapped me on the shoulder. “I have a double date with Bianca tonight.” Zack said.

“Oh, you're still seeing Bianca?” I chirped at him. Zack walked over to get his coat.

“Every once in a while.” Zack said. “She's a busy college student, and I'm a lazy musician who, until recently, was living with his mother.” Zack threw his coat on.

“Wait, did you say double date?” Josh asked. “Double date with who?”

“Oh, it's me and Bianca, and Matt and Stephanie.” Zack said.

“Matt and Stephanie? They're dating now?” I asked, absolutely flabbergasted.

“I don't know. Bianca and Stephanie have become pretty good friends. Bianca kind of brought the idea up to me yesterday afternoon. And Stephanie's boyfriend...guy-friend...person of the male gender that she's kind-of sort-of seeing...” Zack seemed to trail off. I raised an eyebrow at me, and he caught the stare. “Anyways... this guy cancelled his plans on her, so I guess Steph and Bianca were talking, and that came up.”

“They should date. They're cute together.” I said, flattening Zack's collar on his jacket. “I mean, after all the shit Matt's been through in the past couple of years...” I paused, suddenly making myself remember Jazz. “Well, Matt really deserves as great of a girl as Stephanie. Now, go have fun.” I said, patting the lapels of Zack's jacket down. Zack laughed at me and waved goodbye at me and Josh. “Make good choices!”

“Don't worry, I wont follow your lead.” Zack winked at me. I picked up a pillow from the couch and hurled it at his head. Zack ducked and raised his eyebrow at me. “Okay, okay! Point taken!” Zack laughed and said goodbye. I walked over to the door and picked up the pillow, bringing it back to the couch. Josh was still holding Kodiak close to himself.

“Josh?” I asked. He looked up at me.

“Yeah?”

“You're cute.” I smiled at him. Josh smiled back and kissed the top of Kodiak's head.

“I know that Josline.” Josh said. I walked over to Autumn, who was trying to pull herself up on the TV stand. I sat back down on the couch and looked over at Josh. “What is it?”

“I have to go to England.” I told him.

“Oh? When?” Josh asked, sitting down on the couch.

“In two weeks...” I said. Josh nodded, but then stopped and looked at me.

“Wait, in two weeks we're supposed to be going to Hawaii.” Josh said.

“I know, but one of my childhood friends, Morgan, he finally got his record deal, and he wants me and Airin to work on some tracks, so we need to go, and then we're playing a couple of shows too.”

“But...Hawaii, Josline!” Josh said. “You couldn't of said no to that?”

“Oh, yeah, because I can just completely stop work.” I said a bit more bitterly than intended.

“We've been planning this trip for months, Josline.” Josh said. Kodiak started to get antsy, so Josh put him on the floor, and he crawled over to Finley, who was too focused on the TV to notice his brother was pulling at him.

“I know, I know! Can't we just re-plan or something?” I asked.

“We already bought the plane tickets.” Josh told me.

“We've had to cancel plans before because of work conflicts. We had to cancel our trip to Mexico because you had to go play that show in Toronto!” I told him. Josh struggled to find something to say, but instead, he just frustratedly stood up and walked away. I sighed and pressed my hand to my forehead. He always did that when he was upset, and it was actually the one thing about Josh that pissed me off. I put Autumn back on the floor and told Finley to make sure the twins didn't start climbing on things. Finley only nodded at me. I walked into the kitchen and Josh was starting to wash the dishes, which was something he rarely did. “Josh, please listen to me.” Josh didn't look at me. “Josh, come on. Don't act like this.”

“You know that we've been planning this trip for months.” Josh said. We really had been planning to go to Hawaii for months. Josh surprised me with the tickets for Valentines day; I had mentioned maybe twice in our entire relationship how I'd like to go to Hawaii, and I guess he finally listened to me.

“Josh, you don't think I know that?” I asked. “I'm sorry, but I can't just tell my friend that he needs to push back the release of his album because my fiance decided to be a sweet guy and plan a trip for me.” I said. Josh looked at me strangely. “Okay, that came out wrong, but you know what I mean.”

“No, I don't know what you mean Josline!” Josh snapped at me. I was taken back by his tone, and it frightened me.

“Don't fucking yell at me Josh! You of all people should know understand.” I said. “Just because your career is taking off and you're releasing music in the states and collaborating with mega-stars, and mine is still stuck in little old Canada, doesn't give you any reason to get all pissy-faced with me.”

“This has nothing to do with our career differences. It's just...” Josh huffed. “I don't want to talk about this anymore, okay?” Josh turned back to the dishes.

“Josh...”

“No, I don't want to talk about this.” Josh said firmly. I turned away and walked back into the living room, completely giving up on the situation.