Crossroads

I cursed to myself as I adjusted my glasses on my nose. I lost a contact while I was outside with Dribblez and had to settle for my glasses. I then proceeded onto changing my lip ring, putting on the ring Aden and Lucy had gotten me, and a black chain bracelet that Zacky had gotten me with a ‘J’ charm and a heart charm that perfectly matched my ring.

I let my hair do its normal wave instead of straightening it and put it halfway up, letting my bangs fall to the sides. I fastened the top button of my shirt and headed downstairs to join Aden in the den for a quick match of Left 4 Dead.

She sat on the far end of the couch, feet up on the ottoman. She had the XBOX controller resting on her huge stomach and she was ready. “It’s about time penis jockey! Let’s kill these bitches!” I smiled at her and took a spot next to her and let the zombie killing ensue.

“AHH!! FUCKIN BOOMER!” Aden and I both screamed as we tried to see the horde through the boomer bile.

“Wow, isn’t this hot? All dressed up, waiting to have dinner with our parents, and they’re killing zombies. What’s hotter than that?” we heard Brian say.

“Nothin hotter than that.” Zacky replied. Aden and I were on the same brainwave and we both made a kissy face at them without looking away from the screen. However, our attention was pulled away a moment later when we heard the doorbell ring and the dogs start barking.

“JOANNA! ADEN! CHECK THIS SAUCE!” we heard Lucy scream. Brian and Zacky headed for the door while I ran and Aden waddled into the kitchen.

I ran over to the sauce just as we heard the boys greet Brian’s parents. Lexi had spent over 2 hours preparing for this. She always loved Papa Gates, and now that we were going to be meeting him, she had to look perfect. We couldn’t even imagine the gushing that would be coming out of her.

I tasted the sauce and noticed it needed more garlic. I walked over to the fridge but before I got to it I was hit with a pair of oven mitts. I looked over to see Aden staring at me with puppy dog eyes.

“Why the fuck did you throw those at me?!” I snapped.

“I can’t take the Spanakopita out of the oven.”

“Murr.” I said as I picked up the mitts and put them on.

“Don’t murr her Jo, she’s too pregnant to get it.” Lucy said pointing a spoon at me.

“She couldn’t take it out even if she wasn’t, she’s afraid of taking things out of the oven.” I replied as I pulled the Spanakopita out of the oven.

I set it on a place mat and ran to put some more garlic in my sauce. I grabbed a clove along with the cutting board and starting cutting and dicing a portion of it.

“Girls? This is my mom and dad.” Brian said walking in. We all turned around and smiled and said hi.

“Hi, I’m Lucy.” Lucy said walking up and giving them hugs.

“Ah yes, your Matt’s squeeze.” Brian Sr. said. Lucy smiled and nodded.

“Hey, I’m Joanna. I’d come give you a hug but I’m kind of covered in garlic juice.” I said giving a small laugh.

They both smiled and said hello.

“Hey, I’m Aden.” Aden said walking over to them. “I’d hug you but I’m not sure if your arms are long enough to get around this beach ball under my shirt.”

Suzie and Brian Sr. smiled so wide I thought we would need another opening in the kitchen. “It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. How are you and the baby coming along?” Suzie asked.

“Ah, he’s fine. He’s pretty active actually, always kicking me in the ribs. We actually argue.” She said with a smirk.

“Yeah, they do. She’s not even joking. Jude is just as stubborn as she is. Always has to have the last word, or kick in his case.” Brian said.

“Jude?” his father asked.

“Yeah, Aden picked it.”

“That’s a nice name.” Suzie said with a smile.

“Thanks.” She replied returning the smile, “If you would excuse me though, I have to help these two cook. That’s the one good thing about being preggers, I don’t have to clean up.”

A few minutes passed and I finally got the sauce the way I wanted it, so I stirred it as I let it simmer for a minute when the door bell rang again. I then heard the baby monitor crackle a bit before we all heard Alaina start to cry. Lucy nodded to Aden and I as she went upstairs to get her. Johnny and Katie were out of town for a few days visiting her brother who had just found out he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant, but would actually be returning home tonight around 11.

I was laughing at something Aden said when I felt a pair of arms wrap around me. I jumped and turned to see Zacky in my face,

“Why hello there?” I said with I confused look.

“Joanna, these are my parents.” He said moving out of the way to see the two responsible for creating the beast next to me.

“Hi, I’m James.” His father said to me holding out a hand. I took it and shook it. “Ah, nice grip you have there.”

I giggled. My father always told my brothers and I that if we were to shake someone’s hand, to give them a good grip. It shows that you’re not a coward and that your confident and all that jazz.

“And I am Maria.” His mother said with a smile. She held her arms out and I gave her a hug.

“I’m, Joanna obviously. It’s nice to finally meet you! Only took a little over a year.” I smiled.

“Yes well, you all are always so busy. Touring and entertaining your fans.” James said.

I smiled to reply when Lucy walked into a room with a different shirt on. She didn’t look too happy. “What happened?” Aden asked.

“She spit up on me. And she keeps going ‘Jaa Jaa’. You know what that means.” She said turning to me. I sighed and took her from Lucy. For some reason the baby liked to come to me when she first woke up from a nap if Katie or Johnny weren’t around. I think it was just because I always made funny faces and noises even when she wasn’t around.

Next was Matt and Jimmy’s parents. Matt’s parents are Kimberlyann and Gary, they are extremely sweet and caring people. Jimmy’s parents are Barbara and Joe. His mom kept asking him when him and Lexi were going to reproduce. The thought scared the rest of us.

Apparently Aden, Lucy, and I can cook really well. Something we already knew. All the parents enjoyed the food; even Alaina was enjoying her food. Well she wore more than she ate. Lexi ended up sitting next to Papa Gates. To our surprise, she was really well collected, she barely glomped him. She brought up once how much she loved him back in high school.

“So, who wants to see some competitive Italian women?” Matt asked at the table, more to the parents.

“Oh no.” Brian said as he and Zacky smacked their foreheads.

“Break out Clue!” Aden demanded.

I smiled as Zacky and Brian sat in their chairs looking down and shaking their heads. Lucy smacked Matt in the arm playfully and notified him that he had to play since it was his idea. He protested at first but then finally gave in when his mom said he had to. Go Mrs. Sanders.

We set it all up and dove right into it.

“I’M MR. GREEN BIT!” Aden yelled grabbing her piece.

“Fine, I’m Professor Plum!” I yelled back grabbing my piece.

Papa Gates decided to play and he was Colonel Mustard, and Matt played as Mrs. Peacock, silly man.
The game grew intense. Aden was the master at this game and I was second in line. We thought long and hard about our moves and were very strategic in the way we played. Aden and I grew competitive because I learned all the ways of Clue through her.

Aden rolled the dice and got a 6. She moved to the kitchen and, since we had to be visual, put the candlestick in along with her piece. She looked at Papa Gates and stroked her imaginary moustache and spoke in a British accent.

“Well Papa Gates, what do you have for me?”

He hesitated for a moment and held up the candlestick card. We made notes and continued on.
The game got down to the nitty gritty and I had an idea of who did it with what but I was stuck between two weapons. But as always, Aden had her chance to jump at the answer before I did.

“I say, it was Ms. Scarlett, in the theatre, with the rope.” We all looked at her, I knew it was either the rope or the lead pipe. And I was positive it was Ms. Scarlett.

She grabbed the envelope and opened it looking at the cards. She looked at the cards, to me, back to the cards, to Matt and Papa Gates, and back to the cards before we got an answer.

“FUCK YEAH WE WIN!” she said jumping up and lightly high fiving her huge stomach. We all laughed and put the game away.

The guys parents shortly left after the game. And we all got into our pajamas to hang out in the living room. The guys decided to head to bed since they had to be in the studio around 10 to record some new tracks.

I pushed up my glasses as I started to read a book with Alaina laying on my stomach and chest, starting to finally doze off. I don’t know what it is about a baby falling asleep on your chest, but for some reason, it always made me tired and I too soon fell asleep.

-Lucy’s POV-

Thunder crashed outside lighting up the room. Joanna, Aden, Lexi and I were sitting on the huge squishy sectional couch in the living room with blankets and pillows and huge bowl of popcorn on the coffee table in front of us. Katie was sitting in the armchair with Alaina resting in her lap, sucking happily from a bottle. On the huge flat screen TV in front of us ‘Stay Alive’ played on the TV.

It had been raining since about 8 the previous night. It was now a little after 7 at night now. None of us had bothered changing out of our pajamas that day. It was chilly and they were warm. I wore a pair of pink pajama pants with black polka dots, an Escape The Fate T-shirt and pink skull socks. Next to me Lexi wore a sleep shirt that said ‘Sleep When You’re Dead’ and skeleton leggings, her leopard print slippers kicked off under the coffee table.

At the other end of the couch Aden wore a baggy pair of Brian’s sweats and a A7X Nightmare tee which was stretched taut across her large belly, her rainbow toe sock clad feet (which she had stolen from me) were propped up on the coffee table. Leaning on a pillow beside her was Joanna who had decided that it was time to deck herself out in Angry Birds gear. Her pants were blue with red birds, her t-shirt had the full bird arsenal on it and it read ‘Vengeance Is Mine’ (the shirt had been bought just because it said that) and her legs were hanging over the edge of the couch and were tipped with red Angry Birds slippers.

Katie wore a pair of blue pajama pants, a blue shirt and tan slippers. Since she had let me dress Alaina that morning after she’d spit up the baby wore a purple onesie with a bat on it and skeleton print socks. I thought she looked adorable. When Matt had seen her before him and the others had left for the studio he had told me she looked like Halloween. I had told him to go to hell and laughed my ass off as I kicked him the seat of his pants as he walked out of the nursery.

Thanks to the fact ‘Stay Alive’ was one of Joanna’s favorite movies and we’d seen it copious times I was on my laptop while I watched it out of the corner of my eye. I was cleaning out the million and one bookmarks I’d accumulated over the time I’d had my laptop I came across one for an old fan fiction site. It was a writing site called Mibba and it had been years since I’d even touched my account. Back in the day all of us had dabbled in fan fiction but when the band had gotten serious it had all fallen to the wayside.

I quickly logged onto the site, my username and password falling off of my fingers almost of their own accord. Smiling I scrolled through my old stories, stopping to read a chapter here and there.

“What are you all smiley about?” Aden asked.

“I’m looking at Mibba.” I replied smirking at her.

“Holy shit I haven’t thought about that forever. Lemme see!!!” Joanna said scrambling up from her position and plopping down on the arm of the couch beside me.

“I was just switching over to the fan fiction section to see if there’s any stories about us.” I replied.

“Oh god…this should be good.” Lexi laughed leaning in closer.

I went to the search section and typed in ‘Shattered Halo’ before selecting ‘search tags’. When the page popped up there were over 800 hits.

“Damn!” I replied and randomly clicked one opening up the first chapter.

My eyes began to scan over the story but a few moments later I regretted it.

“Ew! Ew! Ew!” I screamed and began to back click like my life depended on it.

“What happened?” Katie asked.

“Orgy…all five of us….whipped cream….just…no.” I said shuddering.

“Agreed!” the others replied.

I continued to scroll through the stories however I made sure that I read the summaries more closely. There were a lot of them with us and the guys, a few more involving the lot of us in intimate situations with each other which made me want to barf, and a few of with us with other guys or in odd situations. Aden had found out she was Ray Toro’s long lost daughter and went on tour with MCR, Katie made Johnny dress up a gnome in bed, Jade had cheated on Zacky with Syn and Lexi and I were a vampires who sparkled.

The movie was long forgotten as I continued to read the outlandish stories our fans had written about us. I was half way through a particularly funny one where Katie and I got cabin fever on a bus, lost our minds to the point we were convinced it was the final battle at Hogwarts and we were witches and we ran about the bus attempting to curse our bandmates when the guys walked in. I quickly closed the laptop, setting it on the coffee table before turning to look at them.

“Hey baby.” Matt said and leaned over the couch to kiss me.

“Ah! You’re all wet!” I laughed.

“It’s pouring down rain! Did you think I’d be dry?” he laughed.

“No but you’re getting the house soaked! All of you go change! Now! Before you ruin the carpet!” I said pointing at the stairs.

“Yes mother.” Jimmy smirked but not before walking over and shaking his hair like a dog splashing all of us with water.

“Jimmy! Go change!” Lexi laughed.

“Only if you come with me!” he said and before she could say anything he grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder running up the stairs almost sending the others tumbling in the process.

“Damn it’s almost 9 at night. I’m hungry.” Aden said.

“Wait are you hungry or is the fetus hungry?” Joanna asked.

“Who the fuck cares? One of you penis jockeys come over here and help me up!” she said.

Joanna and I got up and walked over, grabbing her hands and pulling her up. The three of us headed to the kitchen while Katie headed up to change Alaina. We decided to go ahead and make sandwiches for everyone. The guys got everything in the fridge, Lexi and I got Peanut Butter and Jelly, Joanna got Turkey, Ham, and Swiss with honey mustard on a roll and Aden got Italian with bell peppers.

We could already hear the guys talking in the living room by the time we got all the food done so we gathered drinks and all the sandwiches and headed in there.

“You fuckers had better love us! We made you foodies!” Joanna said as we carried the plates in.

I had just sat down Matt, Lexi and I’s plates when I noticed that Matt was on my computer.

“What are you doing?” I asked looking at him.

He smirked, “Reading.”

My eyes went wide, “Gimme that!” I said grabbing for the computer.

“Uh-uh! What is this? Matt smiled down at me with those gorgeous dimples. I could hear the fans on the other side of the curtain chanting for an encore but he ignored it…ignored it all for me. He locked his beautiful hazel eyes on my blue ones for a moment before he pressed his lips softly to mine. “I love you Lucy.” he whispered pulling back a moment later. “Even if I’m just a fan?” I asked. “You’re not just a fan. You’re mine. My life. My heart.” he replied.”

“Oh my god! Give me that!” I yelled my face heating up as he read the words I’d written years ago when dating him was something I thought would only be a dream, not something fully possible.

“Nope!” he laughed and jumped over the back of the couch.

“Asshole!” I laughed and ran at him.

“Hey Zee listen to this one! Joanna wrote it! ‘I looked at the rose petals on the floor that spelled out ’MARRY ME?’ . In the middle of it sat a box with a glittering ring. I turned around and looked at my green eyed prince who was smiling at me. Before I could say yes he scooped me up in his arms and lay me on the bed. “You don’t need to say it. Your eyes say everything.” And then-’ Damn Zacky I didn’t know you were so flexible!” Matt laughed.

“Matt Sanders you’re fucking dead!” Joanna yelled and joined me in the chase.

“Whoa what’s going on?” Lexi asked as she and Jimmy emerged looking a little bed raggled but smiling wide.

“Matt has my laptop! He’s reading our fan fiction!” I screamed.

“What?!? NO!” Lexi yelled and there was a third person chasing my boyfriend.

“Hmm…let’s see what Lexi wrote! Jimmy’s lips left hot trails on my skin as his hands roamed my body. I could feel him pressing against me rock hard as we hid in the dark corner of the club. My hands tangled in his dark hair as his hand slipped under my skirt sending tingles up my spine.” I think I’ll stop there for the sake of the innocent ears.” Matt laughed.

We continued to run around the house when suddenly Aden appeared and stuck her foot out tripping Matt. He tripped and landed on the floor, my laptop landing a few feet away, thankfully on a random pillow that lay on the floor. Joanna ran over and scooped it up while I tackled Matt who was half way off the floor.

“You Mr. Sanders are never to speak of what you just read.” I said looking at him, my hands twisted in his shirt.

“Oh am I?” he asked smirking.

“Yes you are. If not you’re done getting anything from me for the next year.” I said glaring down at him.

“A year?” he asked the smirk gone.

“Yes. A year. And don’t think I’ll go back on my word. We have a guest room. I will move in there.” I replied.

“That’s a little harsh isn’t it?” he asked in a slightly whiny voice.

“No. Now what did you read?” I asked.

“I read nothing….at least nothing that I will ever speak of.” he replied.

“Good.” I replied and for good measure grabbed a pillow from the couch and smacked him with it.

“What was that for?!?” he asked.

“That was for hacking my computer account.” I replied getting up.

The moment I did however Joanna, Katie, Aden and Lexi attacked him with pillows as well.

“What the fuck?!? I swore I wouldn’t say anything!” he replied.

“You swore to Lucy and that was only because she threatened to withhold sex! You still have to pay for us.” Lexi yelled.

“Babe! Help me!” Matt yelled.

“Uh…no.” I replied and picked up my sandwich and sat down to eat it and watch my friends beat the fuck out of my boyfriend.