Spinning.

It was bittersweet to play the last show of the tour. We took a tour picture between sound checks, managing to smash both bands and our crews all together for a nice picture and then for a funny picture. John and I had ended up next to each other for the pictures, Jared on John's far side and Alex on my other side, all our arms around each other as we grinned for the camera. The funny picture involved me carrying John threshold style, afterwards everyone laughing about how I could carry his skinny ass around. As for the show itself, it was one of the best shows we had played, everyone leaving everything on the stage knowing that we wouldn't be doing it again for a while. Signing took forever, everyone taking extra time to talk with us.

The party at Halvo's house was already in full swing by the time we had arrived. A lot of the Maine's Phoenix area friends were already there, including Eric's bandmates (who happened to be in town), and Austin and his band.

As soon as John and I arrived, he pulled me straight through the house until he found the kitchen, which was where all the alcohol was. Halvo was guarding drinks, talking with Jared and Tessa while sipping on something of his own. There were plastic cups pretty much everywhere, a couple people setting up to play beer pong.

“Halvo!” John strolled over to greet his friend, the trio's eyes darting over to us as we approached.

“Fifth!” Halvo laughed, embracing John before turning to me. “You must be Beret!”

“And you must be Halvo!” I chuckled. “I've heard about you!”

“You better have, I'm this kid's best fucking friend!”

“Besides me,” Jared jokingly scoffed.

“Fine, besides you.” Eric added.

“Bitch please, don't say hi.” Tessa smirked at me, unable to hide her grin.

“Hey girl hey!” I laughed. “Sorry boys, you all know I really just came for Tessa.”

“That's what she said.” Eric snorted, causing us all to start laughing. “Anyways, drinks are here. Pick whatever you want. Beret, as John's girlfriend you are required to play at least one game of beer pong as my partner tonight. It's practically a law.”

“Hazing me in?” I joked, finding a clean cup and making myself a Jack and Coke.

“You know it.” Halvo winked, pushing off of the counter.

“Just say when and we'll play. You'll be lucky to have me on your team.” Smirking, I took a sip of my drink.

“Did you just make a Jack and Coke?” Tessa asked, cutting into our banter.

“Why yes, I did.” I grinned, watching John make his own.

“Wow, you two really are made for each other.” She laughed, pointing to what John was doing.

“We have good taste, what can we say?” I giggled, John returning and wrapping an arm around me.

“Why do we have good taste?”

“Because we've both got Jack and Cokes.”

“Damn right we have good taste. Why would I pick a girl who didn't have good taste?”

Jared took a sip of his beer, laughing at us. “We never said you wouldn't. We were just laughing that you two really were made for each other. You even drink the same things.”

“To be fair, if there's alcohol in it, I'll probably drink it.” I chuckled. “I just happened to be feeling a Jack and Coke at the moment.”

“Hey!” Ross and Shane interrupted as they came in, high-fiving Halvo and Jared before hugging Tessa, turning to us. “We want to beer-pong it up against you. How does it sound?”

“I have to do my game with Beret, you two can take your brother on after.” Halvo jokingly grabbed my arm, pulling me over to him.

“Well then fuck that, we'll play you two! Let's go!” Shane exclaimed, grabbing himself a beer before tossing Ross a can.

“Aren't you a little young for that?” Jared teased, Shane rolling his eyes.

“Look at who my brother is! I learned from the best.” He teased, popping the top open and taking a swallow.

“Whatever, we'll kick your ass anyways. Fast track to shitfaced for you!” Halvo exclaimed, moving over and claiming the now-set table.

Grabbing the ping pong balls, he passed me one before taking aim and tossing his, bouncing it off the table and missing the cups. I took a moment to focus, wiping the water off the ping pong ball before effortlessly dropping it into the third row.

“Shit, that was just a lucky toss!” Shane exclaimed, moving the cup and pulling the ball out before drinking some of his beer.

“Alright, you keep telling yourself that.” I winked, laughing as Ross went to take his aim.

Halvo leaned down and started making faces next to my crotch, causing Ross to start laughing and completely miss. He did something similar for Shane, Shane cursing while John, Jared, and Tessa laughed from the sidelines. Halvo threw again, missing and overshooting so he hit Ross with the ball instead, sending me into a laughing fit as Ross berated Halvo. As soon as I calmed down, I took aim and sank the ball again, this time in the back corner cup. Ross and Shane's eyes grew as they realized that it wasn't just that I was lucky, I happened to be really good at beer pong.

“This isn't fair, you should have to take shots before you play this game!” Ross whined.

“Leave it to John to pick the best girl at Beer Pong in the fucking country.” Shane grumbled, taking aim and tossing his ball, missing the cups by a long shot.

“I would think that as O'Callaghans you would have at least picked up some beer pong skills. Or maybe I just took them all.” John teased, watching Ross take his shot and miss.

“Damn Beret, we should become permanent beer pong partners!” Halvo laughed, missing again.

“Oh dear, with you Halvo I have a feeling that the only way you'd win is if I was your partner.” I giggled, patting him on the back before taking aim and sinking it.

“Ouch, you're a sassy one aren't you?”

“I might have learned a few tricks from keeping my boyfriend in line.” I shot back, John huffng in protest as everyone else laughed at him.

“This should seriously be three versus Beret, holy shit.” Shane moaned, taking aim. This time he sank the ball, allowing me to take a giant drink. Ross missed again, the balls coming back to Halvo and I.

This time Halvo managed to sink his ball, and I managed to land mine again without any trouble.

“Holy shit, this game isn't going to last long.” Tessa laughed, looking between the sides of the table. “Five cups left versus nine. You guys are sucking, no offense.”

“Would you like me to go left handed?” I laughed, watching Halvo distract the brothers as they both took aim, Shane missing while Ross sank one.

“Nope, we're not taking pity from a girl!” Shane retorted, watching Halvo drink.

“This isn't any normal girl. This is my girlfriend.” John clarified, winking at me. I went again, landing another ball in the cup to the sound of Shane and Ross groaning.

“You sure have a knack for picking them.” Halvo added, landing his ball into a cup.

“This shit is rigged!” Shane mockingly complained, staring at the three cups he and Ross had left. “Since when did Halvo learn to play beer pong?”

“What the hell do you think I do with all my spare time?” Halvo retorted.

“I was gonna say, they all told me you'd suck ass at this.” I snickered, sipping my drink. I figured if I wasn't going to get drunk from Ross and Shane's horrible aim, I may as well work on the drink myself.

“Thanks for the faith there, guys. I've been working on it.”

“You know Halvo, since you're in our band, you'd think you'd spend time practicing your instrument.” A red headed, super skinny guy had joined the crowd who was watching.

“Shut it Nick.” he laughed. “Beret, the ginger you don't know over there is Nick. He's one of my bandmates.”

“Nice to meet you,” I waved, “I'm Beret.”

“Nice to meet you too,” he laughed, “Glad to see you're making our bassist look like he doesn't suck at beer pong.”

“It's the least I can do.” I chuckled.

Ross took aim, landing a ball in the cup. I took the drink again, starting to feel just a hint of buzz from my now half-gone drink.

Shane missed again, grumbling as Halvo missed and I landed mine in.

“Alright Halvo, next turn we're both landing ours and finishing them off!” I smirked, turning and high fiving him.

“You guys suck!” Ross shot, laughing as he missed. “How the hell did we end up playing you two?”

“Well you asked for it,” I pointed out, Halvo drinking as Shane landed his shot.

Halvo shot first, sinking his ball in the cup to the sound of cheering. The crowd watching us had grown drastically, people chanting as I lined up to take my last shot. I simply ignored them, dropping the ball easily into the cup as Halvo shouted “Finish them!” and did a dance. Both of John's brothers grumbled as they finished their beers, slamming the cans down onto the table as soon as they were empty.

“Anyone down for a round of fuck the dealer?” John asked, topping off his drink before taking mine and topping it off.

After rounding up a few more people, Jared found a couple shitty decks of cards for us to start our game with. It wasn't long in before people were starting to get pretty drunk, the twins picking each other as their mates and then adding more people as their mates so any time one of them had to drink, so did seven other people. It also happened that all three of the O'Callaghans picked me to be their mates, so any time one of them had to drink, so did I. I tried to keep my intake paced, using small sips and alternating with water, but I could definitely feel the alcohol in me as the deck slowly made it's way around, cards slowly being added to the table as people cheered and drank and went through each of the categories.

Tessa and I were the first to really get drunk, our small frames putting us at a disadvantage against all of the much larger guys that we happened to be playing with. Jared and John thought it was the funniest thing to watch us, both getting completely off topic from what was happening and giggling to ourselves about absolutely nothing. Mason and Ian were the next two to get totally drunk from playing, having more fun making each other drink than anything else. Ian had become the question master, nailing Mason with questions at every chance he got, but since Mason was also his mate Ian had to drink every time Mason had to. Halvo, the twins, John, and Jared were right behind them, definitely drunk but not too drunk to have fun, while Austin was the most sober of us all with a slight buzz. His reasoning was that he'd probably end up driving home, but he also seemed to be having more than enough fun laughing at all of us as we celebrated our last night of tour.

As the last card was laid down on the table, John grabbed the drink out of my hand and switched it with a glass of water, kissing my nose as I pouted at him.

“Hey, that was mine!”

“Now it's mine.. You get the water.” He grinned, taking a sip of my old drink.

“That's not fair, I wasn't done with that yet!”

“No, but you are more than drunk enough from the night. And as amusing as it is to watch you get drunk, so you don't hate me in the morning I'm being a good boyfriend and making sure you sober up a bit before you get any more to drink. You wouldn't want to get too hungover now, would you?”

“Then you shouldn't be drinking that either, you've had more than I have.” I argued, reaching up for the cup.

“Yeah, but I've got like eight inches and a hundred pounds on you. My tolerance is inherently better.”

I was about to argue with him again, but he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine before I could get out a response. Losing whatever thought I had previously held, I instead focused on kissing him back, biting his lip just to tease him. He didn't have to think twice about slipping his tongue in my mouth, setting the drink down before wrapping his arms around me, his hands sliding down so they rested on my ass. Smirking into our kiss, I reached over and took my drink back, pulling away and taking a sip of it.

“Ha, it's mine again.” I waved it in front of him, showing off my victory.

“Ah ah ah,” He switched them back again, holding the cup over his head. “You're done for the night.”

“S' not fair!” I huffed, reaching up for the cup.

“You are a very persistent drunk.” He snickered, lowering the cup so it was just barely out of my reach.

“And you're a big ol' tease.” I retorted, still trying to get the cup.

“Hmm, I've never heard that one before.” John wiggled his eyebrows at me, causing me to giggle.

“Not that kind of tease, but yeah you're that one too.”

“Let's go,” John leaned down, whispering in my ear. “I can show you what kind of tease I really am.”

He didn't have to ask twice.



The next morning I woke up with a headache, my arms wrapped tightly around John's lanky frame. He was already awake, his fingers gently brushing the hair out of my face as I finally stirred.

“Good morning, sunshine” he sang, my obvious hangover amusing him.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, burying my face in a pillow and taking a deep breath of John's scent.

“Hey, I did cut you off last night. Just think if I hadn't.” He smirked, kissing the top of my head.

I rolled over and groaned, opening my eyes. We were in John's room, the Arizona sun coating the entire room with bright light. Our clothes were scattered across the floor from the night before, the navy comforter providing the only cover for both of us.

“Do we have to get up yet?” I yawned, returning to my usual place of curled up by John's side, my head on his chest and my arms wrapped around him.

“Actually, we do. You have to get your stuff yet off the bus and we've gotta meet Nana.” John slid out of my arms, finding clean boxers and slipping them on before tossing me my bra and underwear. Rummaging through his drawers, he tossed me an old cutoff shirt and a different pair of boxers. “You may as well throw these on while we eat breakfast. I love seeing you without clothes on, but I don't know that Gibbs shares the same sentiment.”

I giggled, slipping the clothes on before finally rolling out of bed. John strolled over, snaking his arms around my waist and pressing a tender kiss to my forehead before leading me to the kitchen. Gibbs was already in there, leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee.

“Mornin',” he greeted, nodding at us.

“Hey Gibbs.” John waved, wandering over to the coffee maker and pouring two cups of coffee before rummaging the cabinets for advil. “How was the rest of your night?”

“Hilarious. I have some videos of the twins that should never see the light of day, but we were all in tears watching them last night.” Austin laughed, thinking back. “They're easily two of the funniest people I've ever met.”

“They're always the life of the party.” I smiled, popping a couple advil and chasing them with some coffee.

From the bedroom, I could hear my phone start to buzz. John and Austin continued conversing while I slipped away to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hey Beret!” It was Dave. “Where are you?”

“Oh, I'm at John's.” I casually responded, earning a laugh from the other end of the phone.

“You dog.” I blushed, knowing he saw right through my response. “Anyways, we were wondering if you wanted to go out to breakfast before we all fly back.”

“I think that should work, just the band?”

“Yeah, well that's what we were thinking anyways.”

“Ok cool, let me double check quick.”

I held the phone to my chest and returned to the kitchen, interrupting John and Austin by clearing my throat.

“Uh, John, the guys wanted to do a band breakfast before they take off.”

“By the guys, I'm assuming your bandmates?”

“Yeah.” I answered, the phone still pressed to my chest.

“I can bring you over whenever.” He shrugged. “We're not going to Nana's until this afternoon.”

“Sweet. I'm going to change then.” I kissed his cheek, returning back to John's room. Cradling the phone between my ear and shoulder, I began to pick up my clothes from around the room. “I'll be over shortly.”

“Perfect! We'll be waiting!”

“Wait!” I stopped Dave from hanging up. “Are you guys packed yet?”

“Hell no.” Dave laughed. “We're not even starting until we get back from breakfast.”

“Okay, cool.” I let out a sigh of relief. “I was going to say, I'm nowhere near packed.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“Ha. You're a funny one.” I chuckled, rolling my eyes.

“Damn right I am.” He snickered. “Alright, we'll see you soon.”

Hanging up the phone, I snuck into the bathroom and took a quick shower before redressing in last night's clothes. When I emerged, John was sitting on the couch, car keys in hand.

“Shall we?”

I nodded, waving goodbye to Austin before following John down to his truck.

“So you have a couple days here, then you go back to Los Angeles, then to Europe in two weeks?”

“Yup,” I answered, climbing into the truck. “I wish I could stay here longer, but we're shooting the next video. I don't get much of a choice.”

“Do you know what the concept is?”

“I'm not sure. They suggested a couple ideas but I hadn't heard anything concrete.”

John nodded. “When do you find out more details?”

“Probably when I get back.”

“Ah.” He nodded.

“You should come up and hang out in Los Angeles with me.” I offered. “Unless you guys have stuff going on, of course. But it'd be nice to spend a little more time together before we're on different continents.”

“When do you get back from Europe?”

“A couple days before the billboards. Talk about jet lag.”

“No kidding.” he chuckled. “Then what, after the billboards?”

“I don't know. There's talk of going on Warped tour.”

“Really?” His face suddenly lit up, turning to me as we stopped at a red light.

“Yeah... why?” I cocked an eyebrow at him, confused.

“We might be going on Warped again!”

“Wait, really?!” Now it was my turn to get excited.

“Yeah! Well, we don't know for sure. But hopefully. It's sounding like it though.”

“What are you guys doing before then?”

“I think we're going to Asia and Australia.”

“That sounds like fun!” I earnestly told him. “I'd love to tour there at some point.”

“Yeah, we've got some cool fans out there.” John shrugged, a sheepish grin on his face.

We pulled up to the bus and began to laugh at Mason, who was outside in nothing but a pair of cut off jean shorts and sandals. His lanky, pale frame was almost blinding in the Arizona sun, his tattoo sleeves providing the only distraction from his snow white skin.

“Quit stealing our lead singer O'Callaghan!” He shouted, taking a drag of his cigarette as we both emerged from the truck.

“Hey, she made me bring her back.” John pretended to pout, earning a snicker from my band mate.

“It's true, as hard as he is to resist, I returned.” I teased, walking around the truck to kiss John goodbye.

“So call me when you want me to pick you up?”

“Yup, I'll let you know.” I smiled at him, leaning up on my toes to peck him on the lips.

“Alright. I love you,” He grinned, rubbing noses with me. “I'll probably be at Nana's doing work so if you call and a little old woman answers the phone, it's her.”

“Oh, because I was totally going to assume that you had suddenly shifted into a little old lady.” I scoffed, failing to hide my amusement.

“I'm just saying.” He smirked, shrugging. “Go hang out with your band now.”

“Okay.” I kissed him one last time, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I love you.”

“I love you too!” John waved to Mason before climbing back into his truck and starting the engine, pulling away and leaving me with the guys.

I sighed to myself before entering the bus, the sigh turning to laughter as I stumbled upon my bandmates in various states of undress. Dave was sitting on the couch, seemingly the only one ready to go, while the twins were both half naked and Ian was in nothing but his underwear.

“Someone's doing the walk of shame.” Alex greeted me with snickers, realizing I was still wearing the same clothes from the night before.

“It's not the walk of shame if I'm not ashamed of it,” I shot back with a wink, rummaging through my stuff for something to wear.

“Oh shit, someone had a good night.” Ian laughed, pulling on his pants.

“I always have a good night.” I shrugged, pulling on a pair of jeans and cuffing them before pulling off my dress.

“Damn, nice hickey.” Ryan laughed, pointing to a bruise on my stomach.

My face flushed as I rushed to pull a shirt on.

“Your shirt's inside out.” He giggled, my face turning an even darker red.

“I hate you.” I grumbled, taking off my shirt and flipping it the right direction.

He smirked. “Me? No. You never could.”

I couldn't help but laugh.



Packing the last few items into my bag, I did yet another sweep of the bus to make sure my things were really all packed up. The twins were in a similar position, doing final look-throughs before de-boarding with their bags, while Mason and Ian were completely packed up and ready to go. Dave was reorganizing his suitcase for the thousandth time, trying to figure out a way to make everything fit in his bag.

Finally pulling my last bag off the bus, I pulled out my phone to call John.

“Hello?” I was a little relieved to hear it was John answering the phone-- not that I wasn't going to like his Nana, but I felt like it'd be better to meet her in person before I was chatting with her on the phone.

“Hey John.”

“Hey Ber, what's up?”

“I think I'm ready to go.” I sighed. As excited as I was excited to have a few days alone with John, at the same time I was also really sad that the tour was over. I liked the traveling, I liked the new cities, and I had really grown close with my bandmates, not to mention the Maine. I was just happier on the road.

“Don't sound so upset about it.” John chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

“I'm not upset,” I replied.

“You just sounded kinda sad there.”

“It's just bittersweet. I hate when tours are over.”

“True... But you get to hang out with me?” He posed it as a question, even though he knew the answer.

“That's the only redeeming quality of this tour being over.” I chuckled.

“Alright, alright, well I'll be there shortly. Love you!”

“Love you too.”

The line went dead and I looked at my bags again, toeing the ground where I stood.

“So... it's finally over.” Ian came up behind me, causing me to jump. “Didn't mean to scare you there.”

“No, it's fine. I just... yeah. I can't believe it's over.”

“Three months flew by fast.”

“Yeah.” I paused, sighing. “I'm going to miss this.”

“This tour specifically or just being on the road?”

“Both, I think.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Well,” I started, pausing for a minute to think. “I mean, every tour is different. The chemistry between bands, the audiences, the places you play-- they always combine differently to create a different feel. And this tour worked out so perfectly. And not even because I ended up with a relationship out of it all. Even if John and I hadn't started dating, everyone on this tour was so cool. It was so refreshing to be around them instead of the people I'm stuck with in LA.”

“Andrew and Kelly are pretty cool though.” He pointed out.

“Yeah, but until I met you guys they were my only friends in LA. Everyone else I knew was from work stuff.”

“Aww, we're your friends?” He teased.

“Don't push your luck.” I laughed. “But honestly, there's no one else I would rather to do this with.”

Ian moved to embrace me, just as the twins emerged from the bus with their bags.

“Group hug?” Alex suggested, throwing his bag on the ground.

“Why are you suggesting that?” Ryan chuckled, dropping his bag and wrapping his arms around both Ian and I. “Everyone knows that group hugs aren't suggested.”

Alex moved around the group, standing opposite Ryan as he joined in the huddle.

“Fuck, I love you guys.” Alex smiled, stretching so his arms almost made it to Ryan.

Dave emerged from the bus, Mason trailing behind and laughing as Dave struggled to carry his bag down the steps.

“Group hugging without us? Dick move, man.” Mason feigned hurt, moving past Dave to join in.

“Yeah man, thanks for inviting us.” Dave sarcastically added, finally adding himself to the group.

“Have I mentioned I'm going to miss you guys?” Ryan laughed.

“Dude, we can all hang out as soon as we get back to LA.” Ian smirked. “Well, all of us except the lead singer, but we don't need her or anything.”

“Nope, you don't need me at all.” I playfully rolled my eyes.

“Aww Beret, you know that as soon as you get back you'll be stuck with us again.”

“Three days of freedom!” Ryan teased. “Then we're taking you back. Boyfriends are overrated anyways.”

“That's obviously why none of you have love lives.” I shot back, failing to hide my amusement.

“We're dedicated to our craft.” Mason scoffed.

“Inspiration's gotta come from somewhere.” I smirked.

“Well well, aren't you all a cute bunch?”

Our attention was broken by Carolyn, who was watching us with Alice by her side.

“We're a packaged deal. Haters gonna hate.” Ryan shrugged, causing everyone to let out a few laughs.

“Well, the vans are here.” Alice gestured behind her, where two vans were waiting to take the rest of the band and the crew to the airport. “Beret, is John on his way?”

“Yup,” I nodded, “He should be here any moment.”

One of the van drivers distracted us from our conversation by hopping out and opening the back of the van, gesturing to start loading things up. Everyone started grabbing bags, essentially playing tetris to try and figure out how to best fit everything into the vans. I didn't realize John had arrived until I went to go grab another bag and he was holding the last one, whisking past me to slide it into the only remaining space in the last van.

“Wow, is that everything?” Mason turned back to where the bags had previously been, only seeing my bags left.

“I think so.” Ryan shrugged. “Dave swept through the bus one last time. And our instruments and stuff are in the trailer.”

John grabbed one of my bags, tossing it into the back of his truck. “Jesus, keep a dead body in your bag or something?” He quipped, the new weight making the back of his truck bounce.

“I killed someone just so you'd have to carry them around.” I giggled, picking up the other bag and bringing it over to him so he could toss it in.

“I wouldn't put it past her.” Alex snorted, a giant grin spread across his face.

“Asshole.” I muttered, earning laughter from the group.

John's arms snaked around me from behind, lifting me off the ground.

“Thanks for letting me steal your singer for a couple of days.”

“Oh man, we're happy to have her off our hands.” Ryan joked, earning a sour glare from me and laughter from the rest. “I'm kidding Beret, jeez.”

“I'll just make you regret that when I get back.” I smirked, John setting me back down.

“Anyways, we should probably get to the airport so we're not late.” Carolyn smiled, looking between us.

Another round of hugs and good byes later, John and I stood back while the vans drove off.

“So... this tour is officially over.”

“I guess so.” I shrugged. “It always feels so weird to be done.”

“You're telling me,” John chuckled. “I've been doing this for like five years now and I'm still not used to it.”

“So, where to?”

“Well it turns out that Nana's not up for company today, so how about we bring your stuff home and then take a tour of Phoenix?” John suggested, walking around to get in the truck.

“Sounds perfect.”



“This is it, I guess.”

Standing in front of the security checkpoint at Sky Harbor, I nervously chewed my lip while clutching my ticket.

“I suppose so.” John sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Shit, I don't want you to go.”

“I don't either. “ I mumbled, setting down my carry-on and hugging him. “Three days wasn't enough time.”

“We'll see each other soon though.” I could tell he was trying to make me feel better, his hold on me tightening as he spoke.

I sighed, pulling away from him. “I'm going to miss you so much.”

I didn't want to admit that my eyes were starting to water, and I knew I was going to cry if I wasn't careful. My eyes traveled everywhere except for John's face, not wanting to let him know how I was feeling.

“Ber... don't cry.” John's thumb brushed my cheek as he saw right through me. “It's not like we'll never see each other again.”

“I know, I just...” I trailed off, swallowing the knot in my throat.

“I know, it's hard.” He soothed, pulling me close again. Pressing a kiss to the top of my head, he held on tightly for a minute, not wanting to let go.

“I love you, you know that right?”

I couldn't help but smile, hearing him say that.

“I love you too.”

John let go, pulling away to look at me again. “You need to go so you're not late for your flight.”

I sighed. “I suppose you're right.”

John leaned down, brushing his lips against mine. His lips lingered for a moment, pausing before stealing one last kiss.

“Call me when you land, okay?”

I nodded, taking advantage of my last chance to see his emerald eyes in person before embracing him one last time.

“I love you.” I told him again, picking up my bag.

“I love you too.”

My feet slowly carried me into the line for security, winding through the dividers as people were slowly moving through the metal detectors. Occasionally my eyes would dart back to John's, his tall figure planted in the spot where we had said goodbye. His hands were shoved in his pockets, his eyes locked on me as I slowly moved through the line. If I had my way, I would have just ran back out of the line and stayed with him. Sure, people recognized us here, and people were snapping pictures of our good bye, but I was a lot happier here with John than I was in Los Angeles. I didn't even realize I had hit the front of the line until the TSA officer cleared his throat to catch my attention.

“Oh, shit, I'm sorry.” I sputtered, handing him my ticket and my driver's license.

He merely grunted, handing me back my ticket and license and gestured for me to move on. Stealing one last glance at John, I gave him a forced grin before making my way through security.

I really was going to miss him.