Come Wake Me Up

“I’m so excited to get home,” Jack sings, bouncing up and down on the couch. My foot is tapping anxiously against the bus floor.
It really sucks spending the first three months of your relationship with someone away from them. Tour got extended another month and a half, and I haven’t slept in my own bed for almost four months since the last time I was home I spent one night at my parents and one night with Virginia.
“What about you, Alex?” Rian asks, pulling me out of my reverie.
“Yeah, I’m excited to be home,” I agree.
“And Virginia?” Jack chimes in suggestively. “Are you seeing her tonight?”
I shake my head. “She’s working third shift at the bar and then straight to first shift at the coffee shop and then she’s got class. She might come over after class.”
“Holy shit. When does she sleep?” Zack wonders. I shrug. “Is everything okay, man?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I’m just ready to be home.”

The doorbell rings, and I pick myself up to answer the door. Virginia has her backpack slung over one shoulder and her hair is tugged into a bun. She has huge, dark bags under her eyes. I silently let her in, and she drops her bag next to the door, turns to me, and embraces me. “God, I missed you,” I mutter.
She takes a deep breath. “I missed you, too.”
I hold her at arms length away. “You look tired, babe. Do you want to take a nap or something?”
“I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours,” she snaps. I frown. “Sorry, that came out much meaner than it was supposed to. Yeah, I’d like to take a nap if that’s okay.”
I press my lips to her forehead. “I’ll take a nap with you.”
I think Virginia is asleep before she actually gets in bed. I’m not exactly tired, but I enjoy her head on my chest and hand lightly gripping my t-shirt. I end up falling asleep anyways. When I wake up, five hours has gone by. It’s seven at night.
Virginia stretches awake at around the same time. She rests her head back on my chest and sighs contently. “I think that’s the best nap I’ve taken in a long time,” she mumbles, her voice slightly muffled from her speaking into my chest.
I chuckle and rub her back. “I think it’s the only sleep you’ve gotten in a log time.” She lets out a small laugh and cuddles up closer to my body.
“I’m so content with staying like this for a few more hours.”
“I’m actually about to explode with energy. So, we’re going to need to compromise.” True statement. After all the sleeping on the bus and then this nap, I’m feeling restless.
Virginia pushes herself up and sits cross-legged in front of me. “What kind of compromise?”
“Let’s go out tonight! The guys want to go to the bar around ten. So, that’s three more hours to cuddle, and then the rest of the night to party.”
“You’re not counting time for me to shower and get ready in there.”
“How much time does it take you to get ready?!” I whine. Virginia laughs.
“I should probably start getting ready now.” She rises from the bed. “Do you have a towel?”

We walk into the bar, and Jack and Rian are already there. “Hey, guys!” Rian greets. “Shots on Jack!” He pushes two small glasses of a clear liquid towards us. Virginia picks up her glass and studies it.
“Tequila?” she questions.
“I guess we’ll find out,” I answer, picking up my glass and clinking it against hers. The taste of tequila burns down my throat. “Definitely tequila.”
The bar is packed tonight. Our group has claimed a spot at the bar, and we haven’t moved from it. “Oh my god, I have to pee so bad,” Virginia groans, crossing her legs in her bar stool. “And I think my ass is out, and I look like a fucking whore to the people behind me.” She covers her mouth quickly. “Shit, I didn’t mean to swear. Damn it I did it again!” She clasps both hands over her mouth and squeals.
I laugh. “Just go to the bathroom, Virginia. I’ll save your seat.” She rises from her stool and then points at it.
“You won’t let some blonde band slut take my place?” Her eyes are glassy and slightly red, indicating how drunk she really is. Actually, her swearing indicates how drunk she is.
“Only the brunette ones.” Virginia rolls her eyes and latches her fingers around the collar of my flannel shirt.
“I’m fucking serious, babe. They all want your penis.” She throws a glare to the girl who’s offered to buy me a drink twice already tonight.
Jack explodes in uncontrollable laughter, and I do my best to fight the urge better than him. I rest my hands on her waist. “Virginia, you are my only girl. Blonde or brunette, band slut or not.” Her lips pull into a satisfactory smile, so I quickly place a kiss on them and send her off to the bathroom.
“So whipped,” Rian calls out, slapping me on the back.
“I’ll drink to that!” Zack agrees, lifting another shot glass to his lips.
“Fuck you, Rian. Cass has you wrapped around her pinky finger.” I add a nice display of my middle finger to my statement.
“Left ring finger,” Jack chimes in. “But in all reality, you’re so fucking whipped it hurts.” I cast a glance towards the bathrooms. “See! You’re in this girl balls deep, man.”
The four of us fall silent before our laughter goes off like a bomb. “It’s funny because he’s actually not!” Zack howls, clutching his sides. Jack actually collapses onto his knees in laughter.
Our laughter calms down as Virginia pushes her way back towards us, stumbling over someone and collapsing onto me. Her arm is drenched in someone’s drink, and her phone that she left with isn’t with her anymore.
“You’re a mess,” I laugh, helping her off of me and wiping her arm off. She giggles innocently.
“I can’t help it. Saturday nights are my fucking nights.” She takes a sip of my drink. “It’s really warm in here.”
“Do you want to get some air?” She hands me back my drink, and I finish it off and order two more.
The smirk on her lips when she nodded should have been a good indication for what I was in for, but my slightly drunken mind didn’t quite catch hold of it until it was my back pressed against the cold wall of the bar’s alley and her lips pushed against mine.
The second this all sinks in, I lift her legs around my waist and push her to the wall. Her hands cup my face and pull my lips back to hers. I don’t know how long we’re making out for, letting our hands wander over each other’s bodies, but a light shines on us, causing me to nearly drop Virginia out of shock.
“You either need to take this back into the bar or get home,” a stern voice warns. I notice a small group of people behind the officer who came to see the show. I lace my fingers through Virginia’s and tug her back inside, muttering an apology to the cop as Virginia adjusts her shirt that I may or may not have been in the process of removing.
The crowd in the bar has thinned out a little since we left, and I try to approach the bar like nothing happened. Jack is suppressing laughter, and Zack and Rian are shifting their gaze from Virginia to me to each other.
Virginia picks up the drink I ordered for her before we left, and I down a good half of mine.
“You have fun out there, V?”
A glass shatters on the floor, and for a moment, I think it’s mine until I notice Virginia’s hand shaped as if they should be wrapped around a glass. Yet, her hand is empty.
“Still putting on a Saturday night parade, I see.”
“Leave,” Virginia hisses.
Even drunk, it doesn’t take long for the four of us guys to realize who decided to come say hello.
“Leave? Baby, I just got here, and I came specially for you.”
I don’t like the way he’s looking at her, the way he’s talking to her, and I definitely don’t like him.
Of course. He broke my girlfriend’s heart.
He broke her. He hit her. Those hands never held her hand or grasped her waist or cupped her cheeks or ran through her hair. Those hands struck my girlfriend.
“So, you’ve got yourself a crowd of men tonight? I thought that side of you was over when you met me? I guess you’re still a whore.”
“Whoa,” Jack cuts in, stepping between Virginia and Jordan. “Uncalled for, man.”
I let out an insulted laugh at my best friend’s statement, pulling Virginia behind me as I confront. “Uncalled for? Go to hell, Jordan,” I step in.
“Standing up for her? Why? Because your rep is just as bad as hers?” Jordan sneers.
“Fuck you!” Virginia chimes in from behind me. She slips past Jack and I and presses her finger firmly into Jordan’s chest. “You think you’re all high and mighty because you’re not afraid to hit a girl.” He smacks her hand away, and I immediately feel someone holding me back.
“Let her take care of it, man. If she needs you, you’ll know,” Rian assures. I frown, watching the two of them exchange horrible, nasty words.
The second he starts raising his hand, Rian lets me go, but Zack beats me to the punch. Literally.
Just one hit, and he’s down. Virginia stares at him before taking her drink, pouring it over his blacked out body, and walking out of the door.