Shooting Star

“Matt, baby,” Val said as she walked into their bedroom, “You need to get up!”

Matt groaned in frustration, wishing he could sleep a little bit longer, but Val had already told him he couldn’t. They had a million things to do before tonight, and Val needed his help with pretty much half of it, but that wasn’t exactly stopping him from being stubborn and ignoring her wishes for him to get up.

“I’m going! I’m going!” His voice muffled against his soft, fluffy pillow.

She sighed and rolled her eyes at him. “Stop being a baby, Matthew. It’s already nine thirty. I’ve let you sleep for as long as you possibly can today, but now you have to get up. We have way too much to do today for you to be clowning around.”

“Fuck,” He muttered, “Baby, I’m not clowning around!” He protested as opened his eyes to look over at her. “I’m simply tired. Can’t you understand that? I mean fuck, Val, I just got home from tour not even three days ago and I haven’t gotten a bit of rest.”

“You can sleep tonight, Matt,” Val told him, “Hell, you can sleep all day tomorrow. Just please get up and get in the shower.”

“Alright, alright.” He rubbed his eyes as he pushed the covers off of him. “I’m going right now.”

Val gave him a soft smile. “Thank you. I really appreciate you helping me today.”

“Yeah, I know,” He nodded as he stood from the bed and stretched his muscles out. He walked over to her and pressed his lips against hers for only a moment. “Give me ten to fifteen minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”

She nodded, “Okay. Thanks, babe.”

Matt dismissed her thank you and walked past her to the bathroom. He dreaded having to leave the house today and do a bunch of shit before the engagement party tonight, but he knew he didn’t really have a choice. Val would be pissed if he left her to do everything without any of his help, which he wouldn’t for that very reason. He didn’t need a pissed of fiancé.

-x-

“Damn it,” Val cursed as she sighed in frustration.

Matt looked over at her as he set the last of the grocery bags down on the floor beside the counter. “What’s wrong?”

“We forgot to get more beer,” She said, “I don’t know how, but we did.”

Matt refrained from groaning out loud. How did they forget that? Out of everything Val had listed that they needed, they forgot the beer; the one thing that was pretty much a necessity for a party with the Avenged family.

“Don’t worry about it,” Matt licked over his bottom lip. “Brian is on his way with Michelle. We’ll run out and get the beer when he gets here.”

Ten minutes later Brian and Michelle walked through Matt and Val’s front door with grins and smiles stretched across their faces. The two of them were ecstatic that Matt and Val were finally engaged and getting married after so many years of dating. Michelle immediately went to help her overwhelmed twin sister, while Brian and Matt took Matt’s SUV down to the store for beer.

“I don’t understand why we had to come here,” Brian grumbled and shook his head as the two of them walked through Walmart.

Matt laughed, “It’s cheaper here than it is anywhere else.”

“Who cares if it’s cheaper?”

“Val does,” Matt licked over his bottom lip.

Brian couldn’t help but laugh that time. Val liked to save as much money as possible when buying groceries and beer, that way they had more money for other important things. Not that it really mattered since Matt and Val could both live comfortably with what Matt makes while being apart of Avenged Sevenfold. Matt, however, did appreciate the fact that she did try and save money, instead of just blowing it like a lot of women would do if they were in her shoes.

“Whoa,” Brian muttered to himself all of the sudden as he stopped walking and stared at the petite brunet who was standing just feet away from the two older men.

Brian couldn’t believe his eyes. Not only was he staring at Layton, but he was also staring at a little girl standing next to her who liked a miniature version of his best friend. Was it possible that little girl could be Matt’s daughter? Brian wasn’t sure. Matt had never mentioned to him or anyone else for that matter if Layton had been pregnant. Brian was sure he would have remembered specifically if Matt had told him that or not.

Matt turned around and sighed in frustration at Brian who stood several feet away from him, instead of walking next to him like he was originally doing. “Brian, man, what the hell are you doing?” He questioned as he walked over to him.

“Dude,” Brian breathed out as he nodded his head towards Layton.

She hadn’t noticed them yet as she stood in front of the little girl. The two seemed to be arguing over something, or at least that’s what it looked like to Brian. The little girl had her arms folded across her chest with a pout tugging at her lips, while Layton was scolding her for something.

“Holy shit…” Matt trailed off as his eyes went right to Layton.

He couldn’t believe who he was looking at. Gena had told him she was back in town, but hearing about her being back and seeing her back was a totally different thing to him.