Only In It For A Minute

I woke to faint snoring next to me but chose to ignore it and threw the sheets over my head. I had no idea what time it was, but the pounding in my head told me it was too early to be awake. After laying there under the covers for a while, I realised I wasn’t going to get anymore sleep so I pulled back the covers and looked at the guy next to me and smiled. My head wasn’t allowing me to remember too many details from last night, but I definitely remembered what happened in this hotel room. Watching his chest rise and fall as he slept, I couldn’t help but notice how he still looked just as good asleep as he did any other time. I guessed he probably wouldn’t be awake for a while longer yet so I got out of the bed and picked up my underwear and my dress from the floor and pulled it all on. I grabbed my bag and went to the bathroom. The bath and shower really were amazing, just a shame we wouldn’t get to use them. I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself. My hair was all over the place, my make up was smudged around my face and I looked as if I’d had about 30 minutes sleep. I opened my bag and quickly tried to clear up my face and tame my hair, unfortunately there was nothing I could do about the lack of sleep. Once I decided I looked half decent I walked back into the room and picked up my shoes.

“I thought it was normally the guy that snuck out after sex,” I heard John say.

I looked over to the bed and saw him sat up and smiling at me.

“I didn’t think you’d be awake yet and I thought I should probably check in with the girls,” I told him.

“Sure you weren’t just sneaking out to avoid all the awkward morning after bullshit?” he grinned, which instantly made me melt inside. “Besides, you shouldn’t leave a guy on his birthday.”

“Oh my god, it’s your birthday today?” I asked as I walked back towards the bed and sat on it. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“When?” he laughed. “When we were having sex or when we were on a winning streak in the casino?”

“Maybe when you asked me to come to Vegas for the weekend?” I laid down on top of the covers but all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and stay there all day. My head was throbbing, I thought I was going to throw up any second and all I wanted was more sleep.

“If you don’t mind me saying so, you don’t look so good, Barratt,” he said, as I laid face down.

“Shut up, O’Callaghan, I’m fucking hungover and now you’re probably going to tell me you want to go out again tonight,” I said with out looking up.

About ten minutes later, John got out of the bed and pulled his clothes back on and the two of us left the room. We walked back to where our friends were and once we got outside my hotel room, John pulled me to him.

“I really did enjoy last night, you know,” he smiled down at me. “I can’t remember the last time I had a night like that. I’ll come knock on your door in a few hours and we’ll all do something,” he told me, before leaning down and kissing my lips.

“Happy birthday!” I called as he walked away and smiled to myself. He turned round and flashed me a smile before continuing down the corridor.

A few hours later, after we’d all showered and found some new clothes to put on, there was a knock on our door. I opened the door to find John stood there in his skin tight jeans and white t-shirt.

“Hey you,” he smiled as he saw me open the door. He leant down and kiss me briefly before I pulled him into the room. “Morning girls!”

“Good morning birthday boy!” they both chorused.

“Thank you!” he smiled back. “So what do you three say about going out again tonight?”

“How can you possibly be thinking about going out again already?” Lizzie asked.

“Easy, it’s my birthday and I want to celebrate it properly.”

“Fine, but no disappearing this time you two,” she told him, pointing her finger between him and then me.

“Whatever, just get me drunk!” Lucy laughed.

“That’s the spirit!” John cheered.

John called the guys to come join us in our hotel room and we spent the next couple of hours talking. By early evening, the guys had gone back to get ready for another night and we also began getting ready. About an hour and a half later, we had just finished getting ready when there was another knock on our door and Lucy opened it to find seven boys all dressed up smiling back and they were all bearing alcohol.

John walked straight over to me and handed me a bottle. “I wasn’t sure what you girls wanted so I thought I’d bring you this,” he said as he leant down and kissed my cheek.

“John, you didn’t have to bring us anything,” I said, looking down to see it was a bottle of rose wine. “But thank you!”

We all began drinking our drinks and us three girls began dancing around to the music that was playing. I was sat on the bed drinking, watching John do a stupid dance with Kennedy as Lizzie sat with Garrett and Max. Jared came and sat next to me and I smiled at him.

“You’re good for him you know,” he said, turning back to look at John and Kennedy. “I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time.”

“It’s his birthday, of course he’s going to be happy, he has a reason to drink!”

“John never needs a reason,” Jared laughed. “But that’s not what I meant. It’s like he’s come out of this shell he’s been in for a while.”

“But he barely knows me,” I said quietly.

“That’s what I mean, you’re good for him.”

“Jared, can I asked you something?” I asked, turning to him and he nodded. “Does he do this a lot?”

“Drink? I think you know the answer to that!”

“No...girls,” I said. “Is this like a regular occurrence for him?”

“I like you, Tash, so I’m not going to lie. There have a been quite a few girls with John while we’ve been touring,” he told me. “But not one has he asked to meet up with in another state and spend the weekend with. He couldn’t wait to finish Warped the other day just so he could come here and spend some more time with you.”

I felt a smile come over my face which I tried to hide. I never wanted to get my hopes up. I had it in my head the whole time that this was nothing but a holiday romance for me and I was just going to be another girl in John’s bed for him. But hearing Jared say this made me feel better.

We all left the room and went downstairs, all feeling quite drunk already. We met up with all the guys in A Rocket To The Moon before John suddenly looked out of the entrance to the hotel.

“Oh look, our ride’s here,” he announced. Me and Lucy turned to see a stretched Hummer outside.

“Yeah, very funny, O’Callaghan,” Lucy scoffed turning back to her conversation.

“I’m serious, we booked it when we booked this hotel,” he told us. “Gotta celebrate 22 in style, right?”

“Oh God, you didn’t...” I said and before I could say anything else, I was being pulled outside by John and everyone was also making their way out.

We drove around for a while with all of us drinking the champagne that was in the cooler.

“Fucking 22, man! 22!” John said, wrapping an arm around Kennedy. “And you’re next!”

John had decided he wanted to go to Caesar's Palace for the night. No gambling this time, just drinking and having a good time. Walking in, I couldn’t believe how big this place was. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. We went straight to a bar called Shadow and the drinks continued. Lizzie, Lucy and I were drinking cocktails and we’d brought it upon ourselves to try as many as we thought we could handle. We watched as the barmen grabbed spirits, shook tumblers and poured drinks, while the guys downed shot after shot. Halvo and Jared had bet John to do 22 shots by the end of the night.

“Hey, you’re pretty,” I told John as he came to stand next to the stool I was sat on. “I like you.” I giggled.

“Yeah you’re kinda growing on me too,” he laughed and leant down to give me a sloppy kiss.

“Ew, you smell of whiskey!” I said, scrunching up my nose.

“I wanna go dance,” Lucy moaned for the millionth time whilst drinking some more of her cocktail.

“Then let’s go party!” John announced, making us all finish of our drinks. We all made our way out of Shadow and headed upstairs to Pure, a nightclub within Caesar’s Palace. As soon as we got in, us three girls pulled John, Halvo, Justin, Nick and Kennedy with us and headed straight for the dance floor where we stayed for a while. Eventually, after Eric and Kennedy had tried to dance with every girl around us, we decided to find the rest of the guys because Nick looked like he wanted to be anywhere other than the dance floor and John and Justin were singing over the top of everyone else around us.

We got to the guys and we suggested moving on and eventually found another place that looked like we could have a good time in. It was a karaoke bar.

“We have to have a go!” Lizzie and I said, excitedly.

“Oh god no!” Garrett answered.

“But it’s my birthday!” John protested but Garrett just shook his head. I honestly couldn’t wait for the night to be over so he could stop using that excuse for everything. Ignoring this, Lizzie, Halvo, John and I rushed to sign up. Not long later, John and Halvo’s names were called and they went straight up and their chosen song began. They had chosen Surrender by Cheap Trick and both of them were so drunk by this point that they were getting most of the lyrics wrong.

Next up was me and Lizzie and we’d finally settled on Joan Jett’s I Love Rock N Roll. We both grabbed a microphone and began to sing. Usually, I wouldn’t dream of doing anything like this, but I was in Las Vegas, I was drunk and it was John’s birthday. It seemed like a good idea. We began singing and I was enjoying, although whether that was the alcohol or not, I couldn’t decide. It was encouraging seeing everyone else we were with clapping and cheering from our table.

It was fun, or at least that was until me and Lizzie got a bit carried away.

“And next we were movin’ on and he was with me, YEAH ME,” Lizzie and I sang together. The next thing I knew, we were both stood on tables, dancing away as we sang. “Next we were movin’ on, he was with me, YEAH ME, SINGIN’ I LOVE ROCK N ROLL...”

John and Garrett got up and came over to the tables that we were each stood on and got up and joined us. The four of us danced away and the boys helped us sing the song.

“Well that’s certainly something I’ll never forget,” Lizzie said once we got back to the table. The four of us kept laughing about it for ages and we also watched other people on stage. Before I even knew what was going on, I heard mine and John’s names being called to sing again.

“John, you did not put me down again?” I asked, my eyes going wide.

“Sure I did, we’re doing a duet, come on!” he said, pulling me out from the table as the other guys cheered us on. We looked through the list of songs but nearly all of them were soppy love songs. Eventually, we picked the Dirty Dancing classic, Time of My Life. We sang it as cheesy as we could but I realised whilst singing it the lyrics were partly true. On this holiday, I was having the time of my life and as cheesy as it sounds, I really did owe it all to John. As we neared the end of the song, me and John ended up singing facing each until the very end where John leant down and kissed my lips firmly as we finished and a smile formed on my face.

The night continued in the early hours until John had had far too much to drink and was about to end up embarrassing himself.

“So, John can barely stand up, I think it’s time to go?” I suggested to the guys as me, Lucy, Nick, Justin, John, Kennedy and Halvo made their way back to the table. Kennedy and Halvo were stood on either side of John, helping him stand up. Tim and Jared took John and all 14 of us headed out of Caesar’s Palace. We got outside and found the Hummer and all climbed in. Once we got to the hotel and all got out, John stumbled over to me and threw his arm around my shoulders as we walked back to our hotel rooms.

“You’re fucking hot, did you know that?” he breathed in my ear. He reeked of alcohol, but then again we all did now. “Don’t you want to stay with me tonight?”

“John, you are so fucking drunk right now,” I told him. “You need to go to you room and sleep this off.”

“Nooooo! I don’t wanna sleep yet!” he protested. He smiled widely at me and I knew what he wanted. That smile could break a million hearts but right now it was making me crazy.

“Goodnight John,” I said, with a quick kiss to his lips before disappearing into my room behind Lizzie and Lucy.