Come Back To Me

I ran around my new living room, trying to make sure everything was exactly where I wanted it. That was a lot easier said than done because I’m very picky about how things look in my living quarters. The couches were all centered around a cherry wood coffee table and had a nice view of the flat screen television that was less than five feet away. Garrett and Brian had helped me move things around to my liking—even though that meant moving things like ten times—all without any complaints. I took a step back so that I was standing in the doorway to the kitchen and smiled. It looked great. The kitchen was stocked with plenty of food thanks to Jess, who had come over early to help and meet me before the other guys. Brian hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that she would be happy to have another girl to hang out with. The two of us had clicked instantly and we acted like we’d known each other forever. Yeah, totally cliché, but hey, I’m a people person and it’s easy for me to befriend people.

The bedroom furniture had been harder for me to arrange because my room has to be perfect. If something doesn’t feel right about my room, I will move thing around until it feels right. My room has always been my sanctuary—no matter what house I live in—and it only makes sense that it should have the right vibes for me in it. I didn’t want to go overboard with moving things around just yet but I also didn’t want to have to worry about moving them around later. Jess said she’d help me move the things around later tonight—if she could stay over—which I was more than willing to agree to. We made Brian and Garrett carry the big furniture up while we got the smaller things like end tables. The guest room was next on my list of rooms to organize, followed by the dining room and the library. The library was going to be a bit void of books for a little bit since I only had a small handful with me. Once I got a job though, the shelves were going to be filled with all kinds of books.

I ran back to my bedroom with Jess close on my heels as I went to check on the boys. Garrett had placed the vanity directly across from the big window in my bedroom because that was how it used to be in my old home. I had always liked the way the sunlight reflected off the glass and I was the slightest bit surprised that he had remembered that. He and Brian were currently struggling to fit the bed into the alcove by the window and failing—it was funny watching them try to stuff this giant bed into an alcove that was obviously meant for a smaller bed. Eventually, Jess and I convinced them to put it against the wall behind the door so that the sunlight wouldn’t wake me up too early in the morning. I hate being woken up early in the morning just because the damn sunshine streams through my window and hits me in the face. In fact, it pisses me off.

When my bedroom was finished, the four of us walked back downstairs and collapsed onto the couches while we waited for the others to get here. The Summer Set already knew who I was because Brian had told them. The Maine didn’t know who they were coming to see, only that I was someone from their past that they hadn’t seen in a while. It would be great to see the looks on their faces when they realized who I actually was. Garrett was sitting next to me with his arm on the back of the couch behind my shoulders while Jess and Brian sat on the couch that was next to us. We talked quietly amongst ourselves about things like music tastes, whether I liked their music, if I would ever tour with them and most importantly, where we all saw ourselves later on. I personally think I’ll be a mom at that point if I’ve found the right guy. When I was younger, I had always thought that the right guy would be Garrett, but I wasn’t sure anymore. For all I knew, he had a girlfriend already and was just treating me so nicely because he hadn’t seen me in years. Jess and Brian both agreed that they hoped to be in stable relationships five years from now. Garrett, however, said nothing when we asked him where he saw himself five years from now. Out of all of us, I figured he’d be the one with it all figured out. He had always had a plan for everything from the zombie apocalypse to the Maine not taking off like they had. To see him speechless and unable to think of anything worth saying was shocking.

Just then, the doorbell rang and I looked over my shoulder at it. Looking at the other three, I sighed at got up. Lazy fucks, I thought as I peered out of my peephole. Outside my door were Pat and Jared, both looking around with curious expressions on their faces. I opened the door and stepped behind it before they could see me. This was part of the moment I had been waiting for and I knew I was going to be attacked by Ratboy before the night was over because I left without saying goodbye to him. But for now, surprising them would be fun. I watched the two of them walk over to Garrett as I shut the door behind me and grinned. They looked up at me and I could see the confusion on their faces as they tried to figure out who I was. Did I really look that different with red hair? Giggling, I walked over to the back of the couch and rested my hands on Garrett’s shoulders.

“Do I really look all that different with red hair, Gare?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s the hair. I think it’s more along the lines of they haven’t seen you in five years and don’t know what to say yet.”

If the pair didn’t know who I was by my nickname for Garrett, then the five years thing gave it away. In less than a second, I was on the ground with Jared on top of me yelling about how much he had missed my hugs and why the hell hadn’t I told them I was leaving. It was funny how much the boy talked because everybody thought that he was the quiet one. As if. The two of us lay on the ground for a few as Jared continued rambling on and on about how he had missed having someone to play video games with because he was convinced that John and Pat both cheated. I finally put my hand over his mouth and shook my head as he looked at me with a confused expression.

“Calm down, Jared. I’m gonna be living here, so you’ll have plenty of time to rant to me about how much John and Pat cheat.”

He nodded and stood up, offering me his hand. I looked at it for a second before looking up at Pat. He hadn’t said anything yet and I knew he wanted to. The poor kid actually looked like he was trying to decide whether he should yell at me in anger or in joy. The joy seemed to be winning at first glance but when I looked into his eyes I saw Ratboy. This wasn’t going to end well.

“How could you?! You’re so cruel, fucker!”

I backed away from Pat as fast as I could while he continued yelling at me about how mean I was to leave him behind without saying goodbye and without anything to tell him that I was okay. He was swinging his arms around like a drunk boxer and yelling at the top of his lungs like there was no tomorrow. When I came to the bottom of the stairs, I turned around and ran.

“Garrett! Jared! Get him away from me! I don’t want to die tonight, I’m too young!” I screamed as I ran through the hallway upstairs with Pat on my tail, pun intended. He chased me back to the top of the stairs and I thought I was safe as I started to run down them. Boy was I wrong. He tackled me at the halfway point and we both flew through the air before hitting the wall at the bottom of the staircase. I groaned and rubbed my head as I sat up and looked at Pat. He was panting heavily as though he’d just run a marathon but he seemed to be okay otherwise, which made sense since I’m the one who hit my head on the wall. Pat had just managed to hit both of his knees on it and crushed me up against the wall even more than I already had been. Garrett and Jared ran over to see if we were severely hurt, followed closely by Jess, Brian and the rest of the Maine, who had arrived once Pat chased me upstairs I’m guessing.

Garrett grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet as Jared did the same for Pat. I went to rub my head but Garrett swatted my hand away so that he could look at it. There was going to be a lump on my head and I knew it because I had hit the wall pretty damn hard. He sighed and looked at Pat, who was looking at me like he’d shot somebody. I know he didn’t mean to hurt me and that he felt bad, but damn it hurt. I guess it’s true; love hurts… though I never expected the pain to come from someone like Pat Kirch. Garrett led me into my kitchen and grabbed some ice from the freezer, dropped it into a Ziploc bag and wrapped the bag in a paper towel before handing it to me.

“Hold that on there for a few, I’m going to go make sure Pat doesn’t hurt anyone else.”

“Gare, don’t. He didn’t mean to and you know it. Ratboy just… gets out of hand sometimes, but Pat always comes back if somebody gets hurt.”

I watched the tension seep out of my best friend as he took into consideration what I had just said. He knew that all of it was true because he’d been friends with the boy longer than I had and he also knew how I felt about him fighting with the others about anything. Gare finally nodded and turned back towards me with a small smile on his face. He wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me from behind with his head resting on my shoulder so he wouldn’t hit the arm holding the ice.

“I’m just glad that you’re not seriously hurt. But you’re not drinking any alcoholic beverages tonight.”

“What?! That’s not fair! This is my house and I’ll drink if I want to!”

“Not with a lump like that on your head you’re not.”

“Bitch, please.”

“Hey now, who said I’m your bitch?”

“I did just now. Do you need me to repeat it? You, Garrett Daniel Nickelsen, are my bitch.”

We stared each other down for a few before laughing and heading back into my living room. I hadn’t gotten the cable guys to come out today, so we were stuck with a DVD player, a bunch of movies and whatever games we could make up off the tops of our heads. As I looked around the room however, I realized that the guy to girl ratio was way off for any of the usual party games. So I decided to call up a few friends I had made while in Chicago. Anissa and Alexia Rodriguez were sisters and both were in a band called Eyes Set To Kill. The band started in Tempe and I’d seen them multiple times in Chicago which had spurred our friendship. The girls liked Tempe, so they stayed around when they weren’t touring or recording, so I knew they probably weren’t too far away. Both agreed to come as long as there was beer and plenty of people to talk to.

The count was still off though because there were four girls and nine guys. If we were gonna play any kind of games, I wanted the numbers to be a bit closer. Explaining the scenario to Jess, she called a couple of her friends to come over and the numbers were even. My mind was put to ease for a little bit knowing that the numbers were all evened out. I went to grab a beer from the fridge and groaned as someone took it out of my hand and replaced it with water. Garrett winked at me before ushering me out of the kitchen and back into the living room. Everyone else was on their third or fourth beer by this point, leaving me the only completely sober person in the room.

“Hey… let’s play Seven Minutes In Heaven!” Jess cried out.

“Oh, god why?”

“Because I haven’t played it in years and it’s funny to see how freaked out people get when they get locked in a closet together.”

“While that may be true… I don’t know how I’d feel being locked in a closet with some of you aha. No offense, but I just met 8 of you today and then there’s 6 of you who I haven’t seen in years. Anissa and Alexia are the only ones I’ve talked to on a regular basis.”

“You’re just being a big baby. We’re playing Seven Minutes In Heaven and that’s that. So ha.”

“What is it with everybody telling me what to do in my own house?!”

“That’s how we break in houses around here, darlin’. Now guys, I’m gonna give you my hat and I want you to put something in it that will be recognizable as yours. So go into the kitchen and put something into the hat,” Jess said as she handed her hat to Stephen. I watched all of the guys go into the kitchen and then looked at the girls.

“You’re all lucky bitches. I want one beer and Garrett won’t even let me have that because I hit my head earlier thanks to Pat. It fucking sucks,” I said with a soft chuckle.

“You aren’t missing out on anything special and you know it, Merry. Besides, you’re used to doing shots of Jack and Tequila, not drinking beer.” I looked at Anissa and grinned, knowing she had a point. I hardly ever drank beer because I wasn’t very fond of the general taste of it. We sat in silence for a few as the guys finished putting their objects in the hat and came back into the living room.

“Alright, now who’s going first?”

“I think you should, Jess. It was your idea after all.”

She stuck her tongue out at me as she closed her eyes and reached into the hat. When she withdrew her hand there was a king of clubs card in her hand. We looked at each other from opposite sides of the circle, eyebrows raised, as we waited for the owner of the card to stand up. John stood up and offered her his hand before leading her into the giant storage closet I had a few feet away. I started the timer on my phone and we all quietly listened to the two of them talking quietly. When it became too silent we all moved quietly to stand around the door. They were in there making out like no other and it was kinda funny because I knew it would happen as soon as John stood up. Jess had already admitted to me that she liked him and that she doubted anything serious would happen between them. As soon as their seven minutes were up, I pounded on the door and waited for them to open it. Jess and John both had messed up hair and Jess was grinning like a fool. Shaking my head, I went back to the circle and sat down once more.

Alexia was next and she pulled a gold dollar out of the hat. When Stephen stood up I couldn’t help but giggle. We followed the same routine we had for John and Jess and I was becoming more and more anxious. Why? Because after Alexia picked Anissa did and after Anissa picked one of Jess’ friends did. Meaning there were only five of us left—four of Jess’ friends and myself. My heart beat sped up when Jess shoved the hat towards me and told me to pick something from the hat. Closing my eyes, I reached in and grabbed a random object. When I pulled it out and opened my eyes, I saw a very familiar object in my hand. It was the key I had given Garrett years ago before I moved away. It had been the key to my back door so he could come in if he had to when we weren’t home. I bit my lip and looked at him before standing up and slowly heading into the closet with him following close behind me.

We closed the door behind us and looked at each other with matching expressions of awkward. I cleared my throat and sat down with my back to the wall, wondering what I could say to make this not awkward. My heart was racing a hundred miles a minute and I knew why. I was with Garrett in a small, confined space and still loved him after five years of hardly any contact. We sat there in silence for what felt like hours even though it was only a few seconds. Looking over at Garrett, I could see him trying to figure out something to say as well. I was sick of this being awkward so I crawled over to Garrett and curled up against him with my head resting against his shoulder. This was my best friend and the guy I loved so there was no reason for it to be awkward between us. He exhaled quietly and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing gently as if to reassure himself that I was actually here and he hadn’t been dreaming all day.

“Merry? I’m really happy you came back to Tempe. You have no idea how much I missed you when you left. It was hard trying to keep a cover up that day when the guys were asking where you were. Pat knew something was up because I just wasn’t myself. I tried so hard to be happy for you and remember the promise you had made but it just didn’t help. Thinking of you being so far away depressed me for a while. I wanted you to be happy and I thought that as long as you were happy I’d be happy. But I realized that the selfish part of me just wanted to bring you back as soon as you left. You’re everything to me, Merry. You’re my best friend; you’re always there for me—even when we fight and… I honestly think I care for you as more than a friend.”

I looked at Garrett with wide eyes and shook my head a bit. This was all so crazy and I didn’t know how to reply. After all of these years Garrett was admitting that he had feelings similar to mine. Combine that with all of the excitement of today and you had one very mixed up Meredith Survenal. I bit my lip and looked down, which must have given Garrett the wrong idea because he sighed and shook his head.

“Forget I even said anything. It must be the beer getting to me,” he said quietly.

“Garrett, don’t lie to me. You’ve never gotten drunk or tipsy from three beers. I’ve known you for too long to actually believe that load of bullshit. It’s just… a lot for me take in. All of this is. I moved back, found my best friend, got a house and made a bunch of new friends all in less than 24 hours. Now add on top of that the fact that my best friend pretty much told me he likes me as more than a friend and think about how I must feel. I’ve waited for over five years to hear you say that and it just seems… so surreal that you actually said it. Gare, I’ve loved you since I was fifteen years old and you came to see me every day for a week because my mom wouldn’t let me out of the house due to my broken leg. You were the only person that came to see me because you were the only one willing to stand up to my mom and force your way into the house. I’ve loved you for so long and to finally hear you say something like that… well it blows my mind. I’m happy that the feelings aren’t one-sided but I don’t want to take you away from someone else if you’re committed. “

“What are you talking about? There isn’t anyone else, Merry. Do you really think anyone else will put up with my stupid ass and be able to deal with the fact that I’m not home often because I tour a lot? You’re my Merry, the only person I want to see after a rough day of recording. You’re the only person I want to talk to after a long show and I’m stuck on the bus with a bunch of nimrods that are family to me. What made you think there was someone else?”

“I don’t know. I just showed up and completely surprised you and then felt as if things had gone back to normal between us. But the more I thought about it, the more I assumed you already had a girlfriend because really Gare, you’re handsome and charming. You are one of the sweetest people I know and you won’t hesitate to tell someone the truth, even if it hurts. You’re always straightforward about your feelings and you won’t hesitate to take matters into your own hands when things start to get out of control. How could you not have a girlfriend?”

“All the girls ever want from me anymore is sex so that they can say that they slept with someone famous. They don’t want long-term relationships because they know that getting attached to someone famous will only get them hurt. It’s not worth my time to hook-up with someone if all they are is attractive.”

I smiled at Garret and kissed him on the cheek right as the door opened up. Scunching up my face, I groaned quietly because it had been nice and dark in the closet. The living room was so fucking bright looking now. Garrett stood up and pulled me with him. We both walked back to the circle and I sat next to him and leaned my head on my shoulder as we watched the other girls draw objects from Jess’ hat. I didn’t really know any of the girls but they all seemed really nice. If Jess trusted them, then I figured I had no reason not to. My eyes were starting to get heavy from the golf-ball sized lump on my head and the events of the day. All I wanted to do was go to bed but it was so far away. Instead, I curled up against Garrett and closed my eyes. He’d keep me safe, just like he always had.