Right Here Waiting

Eliza’s birthday passed with quietness. She received calls and gifts from Val and some of the guys, David took her out for dinner, and a group of friends all went out with her as well. Val had sent her a ring with music notes all around it. She wore it on her pointer finger everywhere. The guys had sent her a music note necklace that was plastered on her neck, as well. As Katie promised, November brought her birthday present.

“Why won’t you tell me?” Eliza asked, as she stood in her bedroom on the phone with Katie.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“All you’re telling me is that I need to look great, pack some clothes, and be ready to leave soon.”

“Exactly. Just pack and hurry up and get here. We need to leave like now!”

“Fine. I’ll be there in like thirty minutes.”

“Okay, see you then!”

Eliza pressed the red button on her phone and stared at her bed. Clothes were strewn everywhere on the bed and in the closet. She knew she needed to go ahead and clean before David came home or else she’d be in some serious trouble. The only hint Katie had given her was that her work clothes wouldn’t cut it, so she dug into storage to find the boxes of clothes she wore before she got the job with David.

She was shoving clothes back into boxes when she came across the black dress she had worn with Brian on the beach. Sitting down on the bed, she held the fabric, smiling wistfully. A few minutes later, she realized how dumb she was being, and she tossed it in the box as well. Shutting the box, she placed them back in the closet.

She zipped the suitcase up and made sure she had everything she needed before walking out the door and getting into her car.



“This is the airport. Why are we at the airport, Katelyn?”

“Help me find a spot, Liz,” Katie said, driving down an aisle.

“Katelyn, we’re at the airport. Where the fuck are we going?”

“Oh, I see one! Never mind, I don’t need your help.”

“Katelyn, I’m warning you.”

“Just shut up, will you? We’re not going to California.”

“Then where the hell are we going?” Eliza asked as she unbuckled her seatbelt and followed Katie out of the car.

“Will you just chill out? Seriously, this is your birthday present. We’re not going to California. We’re staying on the east coast, okay? Now, do you have all your shit so I can lock the doors?”

“Yeah, I’ve got my stuff.”

Eliza made sure she had her phone, purse, and suitcase before Katie pressed the lock button on the door and shut it. They made their way through security before Eliza saw the sign that said “BOSTON TO NEW YORK”.

“We’re going to New York?”

“Yes, we are. I figured you could use some time away, and we haven’t really hung out much.”

“Oh, alright, then.”

“So you’re okay with my birthday present to you?”

“Yes, I am,” Eliza said and smiled at Katie.



Hours later, they checked into their hotel, and Eliza collapsed on one of the beds.

“So what are we doing now?”

“Anything you want to. We can go get dinner, we can go get drinks, we can party, we can get strippers; I don’t care.”

“Seriously? We can get strippers?”

“I was joking about that part, Liz.”

“So why New York?”

“We haven’t been here since our sophomore year, and I figured you’d want a change of scenery from Boston.”

“Yeah, it does feel great to get away,” Eliza said, closing her eyes.

“You want to grab dinner?” Katie asked, unzipping her suitcase.

“Absolutely.”

Eliza plugged her phone up and started playing music as they both got ready. Before long, they were out on the town, having dinner and drinking. The night passed too quickly for Eliza’s wants and they ended the night back at the hotel.

When they woke up, Eliza got dressed, ready for another day out.

“Eliza?”

“Yeah?” she said, not looking up from her laptop, checking her emails.

“I have a few errands to run.”

“Okay, well I’m almost ready, so just give me a minute.”

“No, I mean I have a few errands I need to run by myself.”

Eliza looked up to see Katie standing near the door with her purse.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“Go get some coffee or something?” Katie suggested with an awkward smile.

“Right, because that will be loads of fun. So you brought me to New York to desert me.”

“I shouldn’t be gone more than two hours, and this has to do with another part of your present, so take your panties out of the wad they’re in.”

“Alright, fine. Just text me in a couple of hours and I’ll let you know where I am.”

“Okay, love you!” and she was out the door.

Eliza sighed and slumped back in her chair. It came on all of a sudden, the sickness. She rushed into the bathroom and emptied her stomach contents. Brushing her teeth and regretting the alcohol the night before, she moved back to her chair.

After sitting there for a few minutes, she got up and got her stuff together. Not really thinking, it hit her, and hard. She reacted to her thought as if she’d been struck and realized what it really meant. She put her laptop in her bag, grabbed her wallet and made sure she had her room key before leaving the hotel, ready to leave those thoughts behind.

She walked all around the city, as much as she could, before ending up at a coffee shop where she decided she needed caffeine. She pulled out her laptop after taking her drink and sat down in one of the plush chairs.

For the first time in months, she pulled up a web search of the band. She read different articles on them, and she read every one she could pull up. She hadn’t been able to get Brian off of her mind since the week before when he showed up at the restaurant. She’d thought about what he said, and how it wasn’t true. She shook herself from her thoughts as her phone rang. She replied to Katie’s text asking where she was and then went back to her articles.

The tour was going great, apparently. She browsed through different pictures of the guys, and her heart clenched as she came across a picture of Brian playing his guitar. She looked at his facial features, noticing the hair growing there. His face was looking out over the crowd and he looked bored. He never looked bored while playing guitar and she sighed heavily. Closing her laptop, she took another sip of her coffee. Katie sat down in a smiling heap in the chair opposite of her.

“How was your day?” Eliza asked.

“Pretty great. I found some old friends, though.”

“That’s good,” Eliza said, taking another sip of her coffee. “Who?”

“Cheese!”

Eliza almost choked on her coffee. She whipped around to see Jimmy, Johnny, and Zacky standing behind her. She set her coffee down before running to hug them.

“Oh, my God, you guys! It’s so good to see you!” she said, pulling away from Zacky.

“We missed you too, Eliza,” Zacky said.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Johnny asked.

“Working, really.”

“All work and no play takes our Cheese away,” Jimmy said.

They all laughed.

“What are you guys doing here?” Eliza asked, as she sat back down. The guys took seats around her.

“We’re doing a concert nearby and wanted to come into the city,” Johnny said.

“That’s great! How are things going?”

“They’re okay,” Johnny started, stretching. “Everyone’s real excited for the tour.”

“Yeah, I’ve been doing some reading and saw it’s going great. By the way, thank you guys for the CD and DVD. I really am glad I was able to get a copy of the CD. The interview really meant a lot to me.”

“Well, you really helped us out with the album, Cheese. It was the only thing we could really do to thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me, guys, really. I was honored to help. It was a lot of fun.”

“We miss having you around, Eliza.”

It was the first time Jimmy had called her by her name in a long time. It got her attention quickly.

“I miss being around, Jimmy.”

“Brian misses you.”

“Yeah, I bet he does,” Eliza said, rolling her eyes.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He wouldn’t even apologize for the shit he did to me, Jim.”

“Eliza, they bet on him breaking up with Amber.”

“What?” Eliza asked, confused.

“The bet you saw was a video of him betting with Matt about breaking up with Amber. It was taken when we were in Los Angeles that day for a signing. She came in looking for him, found him, and then when we left an hour and a half later, he broke up with her before we left. He broke up with her for you.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No, I’m not. She also had a video of you and Val talking about some guy. From the way she had it taken, it sounded like you were talking about Brian and how annoying it was when he came over to your house, but Val cleared that up and explained who you guys were talking about.”

“Joseph?” Katie asked, looking back to Eliza. “You saw Joseph?”

“Yeah, he was in the bookstore Val and I went to after dropping the guys off at the airport. I can’t believe she would do something like this. How did you guys find out?”

“She confessed everything to Brian. She pretty much called off the wedding and then explained it to him. He kicked her out of the house, saying something like if she ever came back, he’d get a restraining order against her.”

“He did not say that, Jimmy,” Zacky said, rolling his eyes.

“Close enough,” Jimmy mumbled.

“You’re saying that Amber single-handedly ruined my life?”

“Yes, pretty much,” Jimmy said, nodding.

Eliza exhaled as she sat back in her chair. She closed her eyes against the pain she felt, all because of that stupid bitch. She had yelled at Brian for no reason, gotten mad and left him for no fucking reason at all.

“Oh, my God,” she said, leaning forward to put her face in her hands.

“Tell me about it,” Johnny said.

“What the fuck have I done?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Eliza,” Katie said.

“How do I fix this, then?”

“We’ll think of something,” Jimmy said in a promising tone.

“What about tonight?” Katie asked, her face perking up.

“What are you talking about?” Eliza asked.

“Your birthday present is their concert in Manhattan, which is why they’re in town.”

“You were going to drag me to a concert before I knew all this shit?” Eliza asked, astonished.

“Well, you always said you wanted to see them live. I wanted to see Zacky, you could see them live, and I figured we could kill two birds with one stone.”

“What if he doesn’t want to see me?” Eliza asked Katie. She turned to the guys. “Does he seem mad or anything?”

“No, not really as far as I’ve seen. He seemed confused when he got back to Boston before the tour. Now he just seems kind of quiet and stuff,” Zacky said.

“Well, let’s see how tonight goes,” Eliza said and they all nodded.

She just hoped that the night went okay.