Let The Walls Break Down

Jared started driving and we were all singing to some Britney Spears songs on a CD Garrett made. I don't know why. At three, everyone was asleep and at six, we arrived in somewhere outside Cleveland to get food and switch drivers. Pat and Jared slept in the back, Gare and Kenny occupied the middle, and John drove while I sat in the passenger's seat.

"I can't wait to meet your parents. Do they know we're coming?"

"Yeah. And my friend Maria will be at my house so she can meet you guys too."

He looked frightened. "Is she a crazy stalker type?"

"No, she's cool." I avoided the conversation we would have had if I told him who she was dating. "She's been my best friend forever."

At around 1:30, we were in Milwaukee and pulled up to my house 15 minutes later. John had his arm around my waist when we walked through the door with Pat and Gare following closely behind. Jared and Kenny lingered. When we stepped inside, a thousand people screamed, "WELCOME HOME, HOLLY!" I forgot to mention I just came back to get some more of my stuff. Maria choked me in her hug and my parents rubbed my shoulder and kept glancing at John for an introduction.

"Mom, Dad, this is John. John, these are my parents." He shook their hands and smiled his adorable smile. They seemed pleased. My mom gave Pat and Garrett a hug and my dad awkwardly greeted them. "And this is Jared and Kennedy." It was at this time I looked around and noticed who was here. I saw Jack, Alex and even that guy Zack, but not Rian. John and the rest of the band followed Pat into the kitchen because they always ate and I sat next to Alex. "Rian?"

He shook his head. "He couldn't make it. He didn't want to see you until October."

"What is with October? What is happening?"

"Didn't John tell you?" Jack said in his lisp. "We're going on tour with them."

"No. He forgot to mention that detail." I hunted down John and pulled his arm into the hallway. "Why didn't you tell me you guys were going on tour with All Time Low?" I succeeded in hiding the annoyance in my voice.

"I wanted it to be a surprise. I knew you liked them."

"John, I really wished you would have told me."

His expression changed. "What's going on? What happened?"

"About a year ago, I had some kind of relationship with Rian, but he stopped talking to me, so I've kind of forgotten about him, and that's going to be hard to continue to do if I'm going to be around him all the time."

"Why did he stop talking to you?"

"I don't know. He told me he was going to tell me in October and I asked Jack what was in October and that's when I found out."

"Wait...Jack's here?"

I nodded my head and bit my lip like 'I can't believe you didn't notice earlier.' "They all are except for Rian."

"I'm sorry...I wish I would have known...Does this mean you won't be our merch person anymore?" He looked at me with puppy dog eyes and pouted his lip and swung our arms around.

"Of course I will." I stuck out my lips and he bent down and kissed them for a split second and smiled.

A couple of hours passed and the only people left at my house were Alex, Jack, Maria, Zack and the band. My parents sat down on one of the couches in the living room and the 10 of us occupied the rest of the free space. One by one, Pat, Kenny, Gare and Jared went into the two vacant rooms upstairs to go to sleep, leaving me and John on the couch. Alex, Jack and Zack went back to Maria's house after watching the last episode of America's Funniest Home Videos of the night. I gave John the eye to get out of here so I could talk to my parents.

"So...what do you think about him?" I asked once I thought he was out of hearing distance.

"He's very handsome and very polite," my mom said, still stunned.

"Isn't he that boy that used to make fun of you when we lived in Arizona?" Mr. Pessimist, I mean my dad, said.

"Yeah. But Dad, he was like 13."

"How old is he now?"

"He turned 20 less than a month ago."

"Well Patrick and Garrett have certainly blossomed into good looking young men," my mom said. I'm pretty sure all she could think about was their looks. "And Kennedy's a looker too."

"Yes, they're very attractive. Now, tell me what you honestly think about John."

"He seems respectable. I think he'd put your feelings ahead of anything else. And he's very handsome." Geez, Mom be quiet already. I could just picture John standing around the corner just laughing. "How do you feel about him?"

My dad took the cue and got up to go to bed. "Honestly, I love him. We've got to spend a lot of quality time together this whole time on tour and I just adore everything about him." She was smiling. She thought it was just another one of my flings. I don't know if you noticed this, Mom, but I've had like 2 boyfriends my entire life span. "And I don't think that's enough right now. I think I should go live in Arizona for a while."

She kind of laughed. "You're not going to live in Arizona for a while. No way in Hell."

"But Mom, it would only be for a couple of months until the next tour they go on."

"Are you going on that tour, too?"

"Yeah."

"So...you want to go live near John, tour with John, and leave John after the tour."

"Pretty much. It might have a little more detail than that."

"Well, I'm not totally a-go on this plan, but it sounds okay. College?"

"I'm taking online courses so I can do them when I'm not hanging out with the guys or selling stuff."

"Where are you staying?"

"Pat's. His parents said it was cool."

"Are you going to be safe?"

"Mom!"

"Holly! I'm serious."

"Yes, Mom. I don't think he would even think about it. He's kind of old-fashioned."

She smiled again and held my hand. "I'll talk about it with your father."

The next morning, I didn't know where I was because John didn't sleep in my bed. I was utterly lost. I smelt hash browns and sausage cooking dowstairs and remembered 8 band members were in my house. I didn't allow my mother to cook eggs or bacon. John was sitting on one of the bar stools and I went over to him and he kissed my cheek. Pat, Kenny and Jared were sitting at the breakfast table while Gare, Alex, Zack, Jack and Maria were watching Spongebob reruns. My dad got the next batch of toast out of the toaster and looked at me. I guess my mom told him I wanted to go back to Arizona. We went away from everyone else (I don't know how, they were everywhere) and he just kept staring.

"Your mom told me you want to live in Arizona for a while."

"Yes, sir-ee."

"Well, personally, I'm alright if you go. I think it would be good for you to experience things and make mistakes on your own. Besides, you're going to go anyway, regarless of what we say." Thanks for pretty much saying this is a mistake. I appreciate that. I gave him a hug anyways. "I can see the way he looks at you and how you look at him. It's very rare. I can tell that he really...loves you." It sounded like he had to force that out of him because he didn't want to admit that his only child was growing up.

"I love you, Dad. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Sweetheart."

I walked over to John again who was drinking milk. Cute. He had on this black, long sleeve henley-type shirt with dark skinny jeans. This guy... I nestled my head by his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around me and rested his head on mine.

"What's up?" he asked.

"My dad said I can go live in the A. Z. for a while." I think he forgot where he was because he immediately kissed me with my parents watching. But I really didn't care. I got to spend even more time with John.

****

"What are you doing?" I heard on the other end of the line.

"Finishing this assignment for algebra. I hate algebra."

"It's easy. Do you want me to help you?"

"No. I just submitted it anyway. You can come over now." I pushed the end button on my BlackJack and decided to put on this shirt John gave me last week. I went downstairs and Kenny was the only one here besides Pat and he was playing some AC/DC song on his acoustic guitar and trying to watch Killer Klowns From Outerspace, Gare left it here last week, at the same time. Lisa just pulled out some mini corn dogs from the oven and Kenny and Pat devoured all but 5 before I got to them. The front door opened and John came into the kitchen -- no one bothered to ring the doorbell or knock.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked me.

"Aye-aye Cappin'."

We got in his car and he showed me around like I had never been here before. After dinner, he drove to some mesa and we got out and climbed it. For future references, I never know why I'm doing something. It was right before sunset and John put his arm around my waist. "Are you ready to go on tour again next week?" He pulled me closer than we already were.

"Yep. I'm going to try to make college work, but it's going to be tough."

"Well, we'll have sound check and other stuff for a while during the day...and when you're not selling anything...we'll figure it out."

I stood in front of him and wrapped my arms around his neck as best as I could. "John, I love you so much. I'm so thankful to Pat for bringing us back together." He smiled and kissed me until the sun went down.

"I love you, Holly." We ended up in a hug and he was kind of swaying. I could picture the rest of my life with him. I hope he could too.