Polaroid Cancer

As Casey had predicted Jayde was enormous, or as Oliver had so kindly put it: the size of two humpback whales tied together. Tom, Oliver and Casey couldn’t stop breaking out into random hysterics after that comment; though Casey felt terrible at laughing about it.

Jayde kept asking them, “What is so damn funny?”

Casey, gasping for air, replied, “Nothing, nothing, just something funny that happened earlier… it was one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments!”

Caleb strutted in shortly after Tom, Oliver and Casey had arrived to his and Jayde’s modest house. He grinned like a proud little devil, “Finally having me a baby, Caseyfish, aren’t you proud of me? Probably never thought that was going to happen, did you?”

“Not really, to be honest. And of course, I’m very proud of you. I’m proud of the both of you!” Casey said, hugging him tightly in his midsection, “My best friend is finally all grown up and out of his whoring days!”

“Hey, hey now,” Caleb says in a mock worried tone, winking at Jayde who is standing there with her hands on her hips, “We don’t want the wife to know that, do we? Honey, I love youuu.”

“Yeah, I love you, too,” Jayde smirks, rolling her eyes, “So who all is hungry? I got a fruit salad for everyone, steak for the carnivores and a bean casserole for the herbivores.”

“I’m fuckin’ starving,” Caleb announced, pouncing on the plate at the very top and shoveling fruit salad and bean casserole onto it. He then stabbed a steak and plopped that onto his plate and made himself comfortable out in the living room. Everyone else followed pursuit once they all got their plates full.

It wasn’t everyday that everybody got to sit down and enjoy each other’s company like this, so they all were in high spirits for the rest of the day.

ooo

Matt Nicholls and Matt Kean left the day before while Jona and Lee had left a day after Oliver, Tom and Casey did. They all wanted to bring their girlfriend’s along for the next tour coming up, so everyone departed in small groups, rather then one huge one. Thanks to Bring Me the Horizon’s super fandom, they could afford more then one bus for the load of people coming with, so there weren’t any major complaints. The only biggest complaint was voiced from Oliver Sykes who really just wants Casey to come with him, at least once.

“Please, Casey? It’s only for four months,” Oliver is literally on his knees, pleading for his fiancée to join him.

“But… Jayde and work- Chum!” Casey blunders out, gripping her hands in tight fists, “I can’t just leave them.”

Oliver bows his head, and when he looks back up, Casey can’t lock eyes with him, “I can take care of yeh, don’t you realize that? An’ Jayde, she has Caleb. He’s takin’ a two month leave off of touring t’take care of her an’ I already talk to both of’em and they’re willing to watch Chum. Casey, yeh don’t need to work anymore. I ‘ave plenty of money for the both of us an’ then some.”

“You don’t understand… I need to feel independent,” Casey says bluntly, tears are beginning to blur her vision, “What if something happens and then I have absolutely nothing…?”

“Love! Nothin’ is going to happen between us. I wouldn’t ‘ave proposed t’yeh if I had had any doubts,” Oliver looks bewildered, but there is understanding his voice, “I know yeh scared, but so am I, ‘ave yeh thought of that?” Casey shakes her head solemnly, still not meeting her gaze to his, “Marriage is a massive leap for me. Honestly, I never thought I would ever be thinking of marriage in me life. Seemed a bit of a waste of time to me. But meetin’ yeh changed that. It changed my entire thinking on life, an’ I want t’spend it with yeh, Casey. So please, please come on this one tour with me? If you don’t like it, you don’ ever ‘ave to go again. An’ I won’t even bother asking.”

Choking back a sob, Casey jokes, “I’m such an emotion rollercoaster, I don’t know how you can stand me…”

Oliver laughs lightly, grabbing her hands, “Because I love you.”

“Alright… I’ll go. I love you, too.”

ooo

The next morning Casey called into work announcing to her long time boss, Mr. Morrison, that she was quitting, much to his disappointment. She had always been his favorite employee and would be gladly welcomed back if she was ever in need of a job again. Casey was extremely pleased to hear that.

She decided to spend the rest of the day with her blue-heeler, Chum. Oliver went off to make preparations with his band members, or whatever they did before a tour; Casey wasn’t entirely sure even though Oliver has explained it to her quite a few times. It kind of just flew over her head every time he did tell her.

“Good boy, Chum, a nice clean dump!” Casey cheers, as she is picking it up with a bread bag. “Looks healthy. At least now I know Caleb hadn’t been feeding you table scraps while we were in England…” Chum jumps up and stretches himself along her legs, panting happily at her. Casey scratches his head and bends down to kiss him on the forehead, “Good boy, here’s some yogurt.”

They sit down under a shady tree in the park and she pops open a lid for the yogurt and lets Chum lick it out. Casey then begins unpeeling a banana and breaking off four small chunks and nudges them toward her dog.

“Soon, you’re going to have a new friend, Chum,” Casey says, taking a bite from the banana, “I hope you two like each other, Matt is supposed to bring it over to Jayde’s tonight. God, I really, really hope you two get along. That dog seems like such an asshole. Not at all like my wonderful dog, right boy?”

Chum wags his tail excitedly, quickly licks his owner’s hand and returns back to the empty yogurt container.

Casey’s phone chirps in her purse and she digs it out, wondering who is texting her.

It was from Tom, much to her surprise, and it read:

I am so fucking bored and everyone else is out doing shit.
Can we hang for a bit?

Not the nicest way Casey has ever been asked to spend time with someone, but she didn’t mind the company. Plus, he would be her official brother-in-law soon, might as well get to know him. Casey texted back with:

Sure.
I’m at the park only two blocks down from my apartment.
It’s pretty obvious.(:

Casey wasn’t sure if she should have added the smiley face, but she didn’t want to seem like she was coming off as sarcastic with the last comment. A few seconds later, her phone chirped again:

Wicked, see you soon. ;)

Shrugging, she shoved her phone back into her purse and pulled out a tennis ball. Chum instantly brightened up at the sight of it and bounded to his feet, his tongue lolling out in excitement. Casey tossed the ball and he went leaping after it, his back legs splaying out weirdly.

“Guess we’re having company soon,” Casey says, taking the small, round object back from him.

Chum barks, staring wide eyed at the ball clutched in her left hand.

Twenty minutes later and Tom is walking toward them from the other side of the park. He spots them almost immediately, and perks up, waving at Casey enthusiastically as she waves happily back. Casey is pouring water into a plastic bowl for Chum to drink out of.

“Yo, Case,” Tom says, as they give each other a high-five.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Casey replies.

“So yeh excited t’go on tour?”

Casey nibbles at her bottom lip, trying to pass off her hesitation with being busy on dumping the last of the water in Chum’s bowl. “Well, yeah, of course. It’s weird though, because when I was younger I always dreamed of being whisked away on tour with my favorite band, but I honestly never thought it would happen.”

“Aye, it can get a bit ‘ectic, an’ be prepared for some jealous fan girls. Oliver gets them a lot more often then th’other members.” Tom is smiling at her reassuringly, “But m’sure you’ll be fine. Oli has been nattering like a bird for months ‘bout yeh comin’, he gets awfully glum when ‘e sees Matt with his girlfriend, Maudie, an’ since yeh said yes to going with he ‘asn’t shut up.”

The smile can’t be contained, a blooming warmth of comfort draws itself tightly in Casey’s chest. For some reason she can’t help but feel happy that Oliver talks about her to the others, she never really was sure if he ever did. Though, guiltily enough, Casey never spoke a whole lot with her old employees at Quik-Stop or to Jayde or to Caleb about him. She bottled up a lot of her feelings about Oliver in case everyone would get sick of her talking about him all the time.

“Are yeh nervous?”

“Well, a little, I mean who wouldn’t be when you’re gonna be surrounded everyday by a bunch of guys who smoke pot and drink?” Casey laughs, crouching down to scratch Chum’s head.

“Nooo, abou getting married to me brother?”

“Sort of, but if feels right, ya know? Ergh, I guess you wouldn’t know, I’m sorry…” Casey’s face contorts, her brows push together, “Um, so, any girls that catch your eye?”

“Aye, but she doesn’t ‘ave an interest in me, an’ never will,” Tom says, shrugging his shoulders.

“How could she not? You’re awfully handsome and have really pretty blue eyes,” Casey says, standing up and stretching, “It’s getting late and I should probably start packing some clothes since we’re leaving tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah,” Tom replies with a smirk, turning to look at her, “Make sure t’pack light.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Casey grins and goes over to give him a hug, “See you tomorrow, Tom.”

“See yeh,” He says as a set frown appears on his face once her back is turned to him.