I Don't Want to Be Alone This Christmas

Johnny was sitting on the bus watching the scenery go by. He sighed as he glanced towards the others. Matt was sitting with Meghan curled up in his lap and Zack was cuddled up with Brianna on the other end of the couch, Brian was laying back in his bunk with Alana asleep beside him. Even Arin had Courtney. Johnny glanced at the little tree they had all set up in the middle of the dinette table so the girls would have some semblance of the holiday. Christmas was in three days and they were going to be spending it away from home. Which meant Johnny was away from Desirae. But she hadn’t been able to take the time off to come out with them for the week like the other girls. Johnny watched as they pulled into the hotel that they would be staying at for the next three days, since they had a show that night and a signing the next day and then Christmas Eve and Christmas were theirs. If he wanted to Johnny could go home for those two days, but traveling during the holidays was a bitch and he wasn’t even trying to get a flight. He stood and grabbed his things. They were all going to be sharing a rather large suite, with rooms for all of them and Zack who wanted this to be a Christmas that they all remembered had already asked that a tree be in the living area of the suite when they got there.

Johnny was the first off the bus and he just crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for the others. When finally they had their things and were headed in he sighed as they were all given keys. He lead the way up to the suite and unlocked the door. They walked in and the first thing any of them noticed was the tree.

“Wow.” Brianna, Zack’s four month pregnant fiancé said staring at it. She turned to Zack, knowing it was his idea and wrapped her arms around him after she dropped her things. He pulled her closer in a hug and smiled as she cuddled into him.

“Tree was definitely a good idea Baker.” Brian said as Alana smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. Meghan sighed as she looked at it.

“I really love it. It’s so pretty.” Matt shook his head and wrapped an arm around his girlfriend of ten months. Courtney just smiled and leaned her head on Arin’s shoulder. Johnny rolled his eyes at the couples and moved from the room to find some place to crash. He tossed his things in the first room he came too. It really didn’t matter who took what room. He lay back on the bed and sighed. He missed her so much. He hadn’t seen her in two months and sure they talked but that wasn’t the same as her being there. Especially since the other girls were there.

----

Desirae sighed as she walked out of work that night. It was three days until Christmas and she was stuck here because she couldn’t get lucky and be given the holidays off. No, that was everyone else. She hated her job right now, which was saying something because she loved tending bar. Especially at Blackout. She turned when her boss called her name and groaned when he walked out to her.

“Desirae, the others and I got you something for Christmas. We thought that we would go ahead and give it to you a few days early.

“Thanks.” Desirae said and took the envelope that he handed her. She looked at it curiously when he waited for her to open it. She slipped it open and when a plane ticket was suddenly staring her in the face she looked up at her boss.

“You leave first thing in the morning.”

“You’re serious?”

“Go, have fun.” He said and she hugged him before running to her car and slipping behind the wheel. She started the engine and was smiling as she blasted the radio as she made her way home. She pulled into the driveway and looked up at the house she shared with her boyfriend of two years. She got out of the car and walked inside she shut the door behind her and glanced towards the living room towards the tree Johnny had insisted she put up so that she had something for the holiday. He had even called his parents and told them to help her. Putting it up had been a lot of fun, but knowing he wouldn’t be there to spend Christmas with her made it hurt. She shook her head and darted up the stairs and grabbed a duffel bag from the spare room. She shook her head when she realized it was her old duffel bag from high school.

When she was done tossing enough clothes for the next couple of days she was debating calling Johnny when her phone rang. She glanced at the read out and raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah?” She asked her boss.

“I forgot to tell you. You’re off until the third.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah have fun and tell him we said hi.”

“Thank you! Oh my god thank you!” Desirae said and hung up the phone. She glanced at her duffel bag and frowned. All her shit wouldn’t fit in it. Plus she had to take Johnny and the guys their Christmas presents to. She grinned and grabbed the suitcase form the spare room and ended up packing the presents in that, thanking whatever higher power that there was that none of the presents were breakable. She almost forgot the ones for the girls so she just lugged the suitcase and her now full with everything she would need duffel bag downstairs and added the last of the presents to the suitcase. She glanced at her parents presents and Johnny’s parents presents. She picked up the phone on the end table and called them.

----

Johnny sighed as they sat at the signing the next day. It was nearing three in the afternoon and he wasn’t looking forward to the next few days. He wanted his girlfriend. He glanced sideways at the other guys and shook his head. They were happy. Johnny wanted to be that happy. But his girlfriend wasn’t there. Looking around now that he was thinking about Desirae he realized that the other guy’s girlfriends weren’t at the signing. He just shrugged. That was good news to him.

Matt glanced over at his friend and just shook his head. He knew that Johnny was missing his girlfriend. He knew that it didn’t help that the other girls were here. Matt himself wanted to know why they decided to stay behind at the hotel. He glanced at the sky wondering to himself, if they had to be away from home on Christmas, couldn’t they at least taken the girls somewhere that had snow. He knew for a fact that Meghan had never seen snow before. He was pretty sure the other girls except for Brianna hadn’t either.

Matt glanced up almost three hours later as he heard the unmistakable laughter of their women. He smiled when he saw Meghan and he glanced Johnny’s way to see that Johnny wasn’t even paying attention to them. Matt shook his head and glanced back at his girlfriend only for his jaw to drop. He watched the brunette walk towards Johnny. She was shaking her head as he obviously ignored the group of girls that were headed towards them.

Desirae rolled her eyes as she watched Johnny briefly glance in their direction upon hearing them and slipped behind Meghan and Alana. Brianna and Courtney moved just a little to hide her from his view. She broke away from them when he looked away and it was obvious that he wasn’t going to glance their way again. She watched like the other girls as they finished up the signing and then moved the rest of the way into all of their line of sight. She knew Matt was the only one that had seen her. She walked up to Johnny and all Courtney could do was shake her head as a moment later Desirae spoke.

“Hey Johnny.” He turned quickly around and just stared at her and she tilted her head sideways and smiled up at him.

“Des…Desirae?” he said not believing what he was seeing. A moment later he pulled her to him and lowered his lips to hers. When they pulled back she snaked her arms around his neck and grinned up at him.

“Hi.” She said smiling.

“How? I thought you had to work…This… this is. I can’t believe you’re here.”

“It’s our Christmas present from Blackout.” She said and he grinned.

“Really?”

“Mhmm, you have me until the second.”

“You’re serious?” Johnny asked as the others walked over.

“Yeah. I am.”

“I love you.“ He said as he pulled her against him and held her close.

“I love you too Johnny.” She said as she stood there in his arms.

“So, you girls knew about this?” Matt asked. Meghan just grinned. Matt shook his head as Brianna spoke.

“We knew last night.” Johnny turned his head to look at them and then to Desirae.

“You didn’t call me?”

“I wanted to surprise you.” She said and he shook his head.

“Well I’m surprised.”

“Merry Christmas a few days early baby.” Desirae said.

“Yeah, it most definitely did come early.” Johnny said and lowered his lips to hers once more.