Somebody That I Used to Know

Sunday morning, I woke up at five o’clock. I ran around the house happily, taking all the time to get myself perfect. I got ready slowly, carefully applying my makeup and picking out my outfit . When I finally finished getting myself ready, caring for my pets, and grabbing something to eat, it was half past nine and I was walking out the door. The all too familiar drive seemed to drag on for hours as I sat on the edge of my seat and when I finally arrived, I parked my car right outside the gates instead of in the parking lot or around the corner. I stood there, waiting, my fingers fidgeting with the hem of my long tank top that showed off just enough of my new tattoo and my big green eyes were frantically looking around, too excited to settle on one spot in particular. The cat calls and inappropriate remarks only grew louder as I stood in front of my car. Without warning, Victor walked out, Ronnie impatiently trailing behind him.

I watched as Ronnie’s eyes found their way to my own, locking on them as he walked over to me. Victor stopped hallway down the way, Ronnie and Victor stopping to talk for a minute. Ronnie’s eyes looked over to the yard full of his former inmates and his deep brown eyes turned to a glare. Victor took the handcuffs off of Ronnie and they gave each other a stereotypical man-hug before Ronnie turned towards me. I ran towards him, my legs wrapping around him as his newly found muscles held me up easily. I moved my face from where it was buried deep into his neck and placed my lips on his. Our lips moved against each other’s as an unexpected chill ran down my spine.

Ronnie and I pulled away from each other and he placed me back on my feet, completely aware that the once loud yard was silent as they all watched Ronnie and me.

“I missed you.” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“I can tell.”

“Are you ready to go home?” I asked him.

“Yeah, just one last thing.” Before I could ask Ronnie what he meant by that, he placed his lips back to mine, his tongue slipping into my mouth to catch my tongue ring.

I returned the kiss with just as much passion and warmth, the two of us earning cheers from the yard.

“Now I can go home.” he said grabbing my hand and leading me back to my car.

I rushed home with Ronnie toying with the radio like a young child. When I parked in the drive way, Ronnie jumped out of the car, running to the front door. I got out of the car, also closing the door he had left open and walked up to the doorway where he was. I unlocked the door and watched happily as Sailor and Smudge were all over him, just as happy to see him as Ronnie was to see them.

“I missed you guys so much! You both got so big!” Ronnie said to them.

“You’re such a fucking creep! What do you want for dinner tonight, RonRon?” I asked as I put my hair up in a high ponytail.

“Oh, I was thinking maybe we can go have…did you get a tattoo?!” he asked.

“Yeah, I actually got it for you. Do you remember when we were little and you used to call me Angel?”

Ronnie nodded his head as he walked over to me, propping himself up to sit on top of the kitchen island.

“I went to Alex’s place and we were talking and we came up with this idea.”

“Can I see?”

I nodded my head and turned around, pulling my shirt up over my head and exposing my back to him.

“Annie,” he began, “This is gorgeous.”

I shivered slightly as his fingers moved to trace the outer edges a bit.

“So, what do you want to eat?” I asked when I pulled my shirt down again.

The rest of the night passed by quickly and Ronnie was in the shower as I sat in my comfortable pajamas in my room with my laptop in front of me as I sat on my bed. My two pets were most likely upstairs in the family room where they spent most of their time. I turned off my laptop, the funny videos on YouTube no longer interesting me, and I looked at the time to see that it was only a quarter to ten and I was still a bit tired. I turned on my TV and cuddled up with the large stuffed animal that I have had since I was younger. I pulled the blanket up around my body and closed my eyes, hoping to find sleep easily.

Through my light slumber I heard the shower stop and after what seemed like just a few seconds, I felt a warm, muscular arm wrap around my waist. I turned slightly and opened my eyes to see Ronnie’s own deep brown eyes mix with my eyes.

“What are you doing in here, RonRon?” I asked groggily.

“I haven’t slept next to you in years, I miss my cuddling buddy.” he said, nuzzling his head into the back of my neck when I turned to face away from him.

I chuckled a bit and cuddled my back into his chest to the point that we were spooning and there was no space between our bodies. Ronnie placed a kiss on my right shoulder and pulled me just a bit tighter to him.

“This reminds me of when we were teenagers and I would sneak into your bedroom in the middle of the night to make sure you were okay.” Ronnie said.

I chuckled a bit at the memory.

“I feel like things were so much easier then, it was just me, you and Max. There was no real drama yet, well aside from the obvious.” I said.

“Annie, what happened with your dad wasn’t your fault.”

“He left my mother because he thought I was going to end up going nowhere in life. He didn’t want me to drag him down. My mother never fell in love after that.”

“I like to think sometimes that we were all just our own little family, my dad and brother, your mom, me and you, we’ve always been all each other had ever had.”

“Did anyone else go visit you, other than me?” I asked, curious as to if he had any unexpected visitors.

“Yeah, my friend Jacky came to visit a few times, he’s actually going to be in the new band. I think you might like him, he’s coming over tomorrow to discuss while you’re at work.”

“I’m not working tomorrow, didn’t I tell you? Jason gave me the week off to spend time with you and I got this huge raise and stuff.” I said.

“Oh, I must have forgotten, sorry Angel. I’ll take care of all of this tomorrow; you don’t need to worry about it now. Go to sleep.”

“Okay, but please don’t stress out about doing all of this, you just got out.” I managed to mumble.

“I won’t, good night Anastasia. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Good night, Ronnie.” I said, turning my face slightly to place a light kiss on his lips.

I closed my eyes again, finally able to sleep soundly after years.

My alarm clock that I had forgotten to unplug woke me up and I turned it off, getting out of bed a minute later to take a shower and get ready for the rest of the day. I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to grab a small cup of tea like I did every morning.

“Wife!” I heard Ronnie scream.

I chuckled a bit and walked into the living room with my cup still held securely in my hands to see Ronnie sitting on the couch with four other guys around him on the other couches. I leaned against the doorway and looked at him.

“Yes, my love?” I asked before sipping the warm tea.

“Meet my friends!” he said, standing up and walking over to me.

He grabbed one of my hands and pulled me over to the couch, he sat down on the edge near the armrest and I sat in the middle, his arm lightly around my shoulders.

“This is Jacky, Derek, Mika, and Ryan,” he began pointing to each person in turn as he said their names and they each said a quick greeting, “everyone, this is my beautiful best friend and sometimes nagging wifey Anastasia. If you call her that, she’ll chop off your left foot and feed it to our dog.”

“You make me sound like such a nice person; did you also tell them that I was the cause of World War II?” I joked, earning a laugh from Jacky who was sitting next to me, “And I don’t fucking nag, I’m your manager it’s my job to tell you what to do.”

“Wait,” Ryan began, “you’re our band manager?”

“Yeah, thanks to Ronnie not being able to live without me, I’m band manager, tour manager, Ronnie manager, the photographer, all that good stuff that no one else wants to do.”

“Yup, she’s like a wife but I don’t have to worry about getting her pregnant.” Ronnie said, wrapping both of his arms around me and pulling me closer to him.

“How old are you, Ana?” Jacky asked, his eyes finding my chest more interesting than anything else in the room.

“Is that a not-so discreet way of asking whether or not I’m jailbait?” I joked.

Jacky nodded his head and everyone but Ronnie laughed a bit.

“I just turned twenty-seven.” I said, mainly to reassure Ronnie who never liked the idea of me dating anyone.

“It’s not happening though, Jacky, so don’t even think about it. That goes for all of you; by the way, Ana is completely off limits, besides she’s waiting for someone special.” he said with a chuckle, knowing I wanted to forget about a certain incident.

I rolled my eyes and put my cup in Ronnie’s hands, knowing he’d most likely want the rest.

“You’re joking…” Mika said to Ronnie, as everyone stared at me with their jaws dropped open.

“I would never joke about my best friends innocence, well, she’s not that innocent but-”

“Ronnie, shut the fuck up!” I said to him, making him chuckle a bit.

“Are you really a virgin?” Derek asked me.

“Yeah, but in my defense Ronnie usually scares most of my boyfriend’s away because he doesn’t approve of them.”

“So, Ronnie’s a major cock block, that’s good to know.” Ryan said.

We all laughed a bit, except for Ronnie.

“I wish I was, she still finds loopholes around it.” he began, and I already knew where this was going.

“Ronnie, shut up.” I said to him, moving to glare at him and giving Jacky a full few of my lower back and its pierced dimples.

“She had a really special nickname in high school…”

“Shut the fuck up, Radke!”

“Well, let’s just say there’s a reason she has her tongue pierced.”

I jumped at Ronnie tackling him and pushing him off the edge of the couch to pin him on the ground.

“I hate you, Ronnie…”

“At least I didn’t tell them all the guys called you either Frenchie or loose lips.”

Everyone laughed a bit at his words and I groaned, resting my head on his shoulder as he chuckled.