If It Means a Lot to You

“I can’t believe you agreed to hanging out with A Day To Remember all week,” Rachel said for the thousandth time as we got ready.

“Jeremy asked if we would like to so I agreed,” I replied for the thousandth time. We were getting ready to go with the guys from A Day To Remember to the San Diego Zoo.

“You and Jeremy were getting pretty cozy last night.” I looked at her for her choice of subject. “What? It’s the truth. Kevin and Josh thought so too.”

“Please, Miss Flirts A Lot. You and Neil were flirting like no other. I saw Alex teasing you guys about it.”

“At least we were with everyone else!”

“Well Jeremy wanted to sit there and I wasn’t going to turn down an offer.”

“Because you want to rape him.” I rolled my eyes. “And don’t say that you don’t and I just want to rape Neil. I will gladly say it. I want to rape Neil Westfall.” I laughed as I shook my head. I gave my hair one final scrunch to bring out the natural curls in my wavy hair. My phone vibrated, the screen flashing that I have a new text. Before Rachel and I had left, Jeremy had asked me for my number so that he could text or call me when they were going to pick us up.

“Jeremy said they’re outside the hotel,” I told Rachel. I grabbed the room key, my sunglasses, and my money as Rachel grabbed her own things. She shut the door behind her as we headed to the elevators.

“I’m so excited!” Rachel squealed. I laughed at her excitement.

“Just be glad we got over our fan girl shyness.” After we had spent awhile with the guys, Rachel and I warmed up to them, losing the nervousness we felt. We exited the hotel, unsure of what car we were looking for.

“Rachel! Rose!” we heard someone yell. We looked to our left and saw Alex waving to us. We walked over to the van as he swung the door open.

“Hey,” Rachel and I greeted in unison.

“And how are you ladies today?” Neil asked, turning around in the passenger seat.

“Good,” we chimed together.

“How are you guys?” I asked in return. They returned their own various forms of good.

“Where exactly are we going?” Jeremy asked, looking at me through the rearview mirror.

“San Diego Zoo,” Rachel answered. We took turns giving him directions, getting mixed up a couple of times.

“Thank God we’re finally here. That is why women should never give directions,” Kevin joked as we climbed out of the car. Rachel smacked him. “Ow!”

“No sexist jokes, mister,” she chided.

“Seven tickets please,” I requested once we reached the window after waiting for a few minutes. The lady giving me the tickets eyed me, looking at Jeremy and Josh who were next to me. Thank God she didn’t get a look at Neil with his plugs. She handed me the tickets after I paid. We filed past her, each of the guys waving to her.

“We’ve known you for a total of twelve hours and I can already tell you guys are dorks,” Rachel laughed.

“They are. I’m not,” Jeremy said. I rolled my eyes.

“You tell yourself that,” I said.

“Panda bears!” Kevin exclaimed when he was looking at the map.

“Monkeys!” Alex added. Rachel and I looked at each other.

“Don’t worry guys. We’ll be able to see all the animals you guys want to see,” I assured. “And have time to eat and re-see some animals.”

“We’re almost there, guys,” Rachel said. It was sunset and we were getting ready to leave. All of us were tired. We were hiking the highest hill of the zoo to get to the gondolas that would take us all the way to the bottom of the zoo.

“God I fucking hate the zoo,” Neil whined.

“Oh suck it up,” I shushed. We eventually made it to the loading area. Since there was no one else, the people operating the gondolas let us get on however we wanted. Josh took one for himself; Neil, Rachel, Alex, and Kevin took another. That left me riding with Jeremy. I sat on one side of the gondola with Jeremy sitting opposite of me. “Did you have fun?” I asked him, smiling a little.

“Yeah, I did,” he answered. “If it weren’t for you guys, we probably would’ve gotten lost trying to find whatever place Google suggested to us.” I laughed. I glanced behind him at Rachel’s gondola.

“Neil’s certainly comfortable around Rachel.” Jeremy glanced back, looking at the rhythm guitarist and red head. Neil had thrown his arm behind Rachel.

“He does have a crush on her. You should’ve heard him after yesterday. I was about to smother him to be quiet about how excited he was to see ‘that really pretty girl that was really nice.’” I laughed again, shaking my head. “You and Rachel became comfortable around us pretty quick too.” I shrugged.

“We’ll be hanging out with you guys all week, aren’t we? Might as well get comfortable. Besides, I don’t think you guys want two crazy fan girls around you guys.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, I’d rather not have two crazy fan girls,” he agreed. He leaned back. “So where are you girls taking us tomorrow?”

“Sea World,” I replied. “After tomorrow night, Rachel and I are headed home to Huntington Beach. We could fit you guys in our apartment if you wanted to come up with us.”

“You make it sound like it’s a small place.” I shrugged.

“It’s a comfortable sized house. You guys would have to make due with the living room though. Rachel and I could share a room so two of you guys could have the other room if needed.”

“Now we wouldn’t make you guys do that. It’s already nice of you guys to agree to showing us places to go and to offer us a place to stay.” I shrugged again. “You shrug a lot, you know that?” I smiled sheepishly.

“One of my many bad habits.” I glanced down at the bag by my side. In it was a panda that Jeremy had insisted on buying me when he saw me show it to Rachel. “Thanks again for the panda that I insisted you didn’t buy for me,” I thanked.

“You’re welcome again for the panda I insisted on giving to you,” he playfully retorted. I smiled. The gondola started heading down. I jumped a little when it give a small shake. We all rejoined at the exit before heading out to the parking lot. The ride to the hotel was quiet; most of us had decided to take a short nap. Jeremy pulled up in front of the hotel. Neil got out of the passenger seat and started to wake up Rachel as I climbed out of the van.

“Thanks for the ride,” I whispered to Jeremy before shutting the door.

“Rose, wait,” he stopped. He climbed out of the car. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly. “Good night. See you tomorrow.”

“Night.” My voice was quiet. I was thankful for the darkness; it hid the bright blush on my face. I went around the van in time to see Neil pulling away from a hug with Rachel. I waved to him as we started into the hotel.

“What a night,” Rachel sighed as we entered our room. I didn’t say anything. I was too busy thinking about the butterflies that had erupted in my stomach when Jeremy had hugged me. I shook my head. It was just a fan girl crush; the butterflies were because I was overreacting to a hug from one of my favorite singers. It was nothing more than a fan girl crush.