This Masterpiece Will Fall Apart

I absolutely hated planes. I curled up in a miserable ball next to Keith, put my earbuds in, turned the music almost all the way up on my iPod, and tried to sleep, but it was useless. I maybe got two hours, at the least, of sleep. Keith had passed out almost instantly, but he was like that whether he was in the van, on a plane or in a bus. Zack's legs wouldn't stop bouncing (he was sitting behind me) because he was so excited about going to England, and since he had such long legs, they kept hitting the back of my chair. Marque nearly read his book for nine hours, and I didn't know if he actually slept at all. Airin would go back and forth between napping and asking Marque if we were there yet. Every time Airin would ask, Marque would say, “No dear, go back to sleep”, and Airin would do just that.

All of us checked into our hotel, and we all went right to sleep, even though it was seven at night. I was sharing a room with Zack and Keith, like I almost always did; Keith was sleeping on a little couch, because he was strange and wouldn't share a bed with either one of us (I understood not sharing a bed with Zack, because it felt weird when his leg-nub touched you). Morgan came and greeted Airin and I in the morning and took us to the studio he was working at. It wasn't a big studio, but it was decent. Morgan showed us his tracks (he was a hip-hop artist), which were completely instrumentals at the time, and then showed us the lyrics he had for the songs. I was honestly blown away by how well they were written and how powerful they were (the song Airin had to record made him feel very emotional, so he really had to calm himself before he recorded his part). The song I got to record was more bad ass; it sounded like it would fit in real well in an fantasy-action movie.

We had gotten out of the studio at around 9:30 that night, and Morgan offered to take us (including Zack, Keith and Marque) to dinner. We stopped off at the hotel and picked up the other guys and we all went out. Zack was going through a bit of a culture shock due to the cars being on the opposite sides of the roads, and he wasn't used to being around more than two people with English accents. When Zack tried to order something to eat (he wanted a simple cheeseburger and fries) I had to translate to the waiter that Zack wanted 'chips'.

“He looked at you like you were completely nutters.” Morgan said after the waiter had left with our orders. Zack looked at him strangely.

“That means crazy, Zack.” I told him.

“Man, your slang is so weird.” Zack said.

“So's yours mate.” Morgan pointed out.

“Not all Canadian slang is like Zack's though. He's from a different part of Canada that has their own kind of language.” Keith mentioned. “When one would normally say, 'how are you', Zack says,” Keith then motioned to Zack.

“ 'Ow she cutting dere by'e.” Zack said. I giggled at him. That was one of the first few things he had ever said to me.

“That just sounded like a heap of shit.” Morgan said. “How do you blokes understand him?”

“We've known him for four years. It wears off on you after a while.” Marque said.

“What are some other words from Canada?” Morgan asked.

“Canuck.” almost all of us said unanimously.

“What the bloody hell is that?”

“It means Canadian.” I told him.

“Bleedin' weird terms you have.” Morgan told us.

“Fucking weird ones you have.” Zack retorted.

“You both just said the same thing.” Airin said. Zack and Morgan looked at one another, and then shrugged.

Morgan seemed to be getting along just fine with everyone else, and I was glad. Morgan had always been a very personable guy. Zack and Morgan were teaching each other their “slang” through out dinner, and it was amusing to see Morgan's reactions to Zack every time Zack went into “Newfie mode”. After dinner, everyone was getting really tired, but I wanted to hang out with Morgan a bit more, so I said goodnight to everyone and headed over to Morgan's apartment. It was really small, seeing as it was a studio apartment, but it was still nice. He showed me a bunch of tracks he had been working on and showed me a bunch of pictures from when we were younger.

“Jesus, I used to look like that?” I pointed at a picture of myself from the third grade. I was really short (for a nine-year old), had super short hair, and was, like I always had been growing up, chubby. “Why were you ever friends with me?”

“Our mum's were friends. We were kind of forced to hang out with one another.” Morgan said, nudging me in the side.

“Well, look at you! Not exactly a looker, were you?” I nudged him back. Morgan had hit puberty a lot earlier than most kids our age. He was very lanky for a ten year old, and was already starting to develop acne. “You kind of cleaned up. Just kind of.” I joked. Morgan glared at me slightly. He got up from his couch and walked over to his fridge, he pulled out two bottles of beer, showing one to me. “Oh, no, I'm a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. Two of those and I'll be completely pissed.” I told him.

“Ah, one will do.” Morgan smiled, bringing the bottle to me anyways. He popped the cap off and handed it over to me. “I gotta warn ya, this beer's a bit strong.” I took one sip of it and he was right. I coughed slightly and shook my head. “Told ya.”

“I'm not really a beer drinker.” I admitted.

“I've got vodka.” Morgan started to stand up again.

“No, no. Vodka is what caused me to have three kids.” I said. Morgan nodded and smiled.

“Speaking of your kids, tell me about them. Do you have pictures?” Morgan curiously asked. I smiled.

“I do, actually!” I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture of Finley, who was making a “squishy face” at me. “This is Finley. He's 6 now.” I explained.

“He's adorable.” Morgan said. “Looks a lot like you.” I smiled at him and showed him a picture of the twins.

“This is Autumn and Kodiak.” I pointed to each one of them. “They're about 10 months old now.”

“Wow, that's a big age gap between them.” Morgan pointed out.

“Josh and I tried to have kids closer in age, but, things didn't work out the way we had hoped.” I said, with a hint of sadness in my voice.

“What do you mean?” Morgan asked.

“About a year after we had Finley, I got pregnant. Maybe a month into the pregnancy, I ended up having a miscarriage. We were a little apprehensive to have kids after that.” I told him.

“Well, they're beautiful kids.” Morgan said. “Kodiak really looks like you too.” he said.

“Both of the boys seem to look like me. Autumn definitely looks like Josh.” I said.

“Do you have any pictures of him for comparison?” Morgan leaned in slightly. I nodded, before trying to find a decent picture of Josh (I mostly had pictures of him doing something stupid). I found a picture from when the twins were born, and he was holding Autumn. It was probably my favourite picture of him, because he just looked so natural holding her, and he had never been like that with kids before. “Oh, he's a looker.” Morgan said. “How'd you pick that one up?” I laughed slightly. “Oh, is this a funny story?”

“It kind of is. You see, I transferred to his school when my family moved to Canada. I was his main target for being picked on every day; he would call me 'Chubs' and once he called me “Porky” but it was just that once. And then, on the last day of year 7, Airin punched Josh in the face for picking on his sister. Now I have three kids, and I'm engaged to him.”

“That is pretty funny.” Morgan said. “What's he like?” Morgan asked. I took a swig from the beer bottle.

“He's extremely creative and passionate. Kind of a git at times though.” I said with a sour face.

“Okay, was that the beer or something else?” Morgan asked, in response to my face.

“Oh, it's nothing. We got into a bit of an argument before I came over here.” I said. Morgan looked at me as if he wanted more information. “He had planned a trip to Hawaii for us this week, and I ended up cancelling it after you had called me.”

“You didn't have to cancel your trip!” Morgan said.

“I made a promise to you, though.” I said.

“But...Hawaii, Josline!” Morgan exclaimed.

“You sound just like Josh.” I said.

“Is that a bad thing?” Morgan asked.

“I don't think so.” I said. I downed the last of the beer I had, and then waved the bottle at him. “You know, I might take you up on a second.”