Remembering Sundays

“Zacky!” Jack yelled loudly from where he had been standing next to his car at the arrival and pick up area outside of the baggage claim.

He smiled as he set his bags down as he saw the lanky guitarist bouncing toward him with a huge childlike smile on his face, pulling him in for a hug. It had only been a month since he had seen him but Jack acted like it had been forever. But that was one of the things Zack loved about his friend, that he was always so happy and welcoming whenever he came back home.

“Hey Jacko, I see you’ve managed to survive without me while I’ve been gone.” Zack replied as he managed to escape Jack’s bear hug and went to grab his bags again and then went to put them in Jack’s car. It had always been that Zack stayed with Jack whenever he was in town since Alex and Rian always usually had their girlfriends over and it got a little crazy with four people in the house. Not that it was all that bad, just that it was easier to have some space when he shared Jack’s apartment.

Jack had two guest bedrooms which one was actually turned into Zack’s room whenever he was there. They had a deal that Zack would help Jack with the rent whenever he was in town so he didn’t always feel like he was taking advantage of his friend and in return Jack gave him his own room and told him it was for him whenever he needed it. And it had worked out well that way ever since Zack had moved out to LA about three years ago.

“Dude, let’s go home. I’m freaking tired from flying all day.” Zack continued as Jack laughed as he got into the driver seat and then pulled out into traffic making their way back to their place.

When they got there, Jack helped Zack with his bags and got in the elevator heading up to the fourth floor where the apartment was. Jack unlocked the door and he made his way through the main room and down the hall toward his bedroom. Opening the door, he saw that it was exactly how it had been before he left.

He set his bags on the bed, not bothering to really unpack since they were leaving for the UK in a matter of days and really didn’t want to repack everything. So he just grabbed a change of clothes and then set the bags on the floor near his bed before changing and putting the clothes he had been wearing on the floor as his makeshift dirty laundry pile.

“Yo Zack,” Jack said as he knocked on the door and walked in. Zack looked up and smiled as he saw Jack standing there leaning against the doorframe. “We have to leave for band practice in five minutes.”

“Are you serious? You couldn’t have told me that when we were driving?”

“I thought you knew,”

He shook his head, “no I didn’t know. And I’m going to kill Flyzik when I see him for making this last minute practice. I’m tired. We have the whole week to prepare for tour, why now?”

“Yeah well you can complain to him when you see him. Now hurry up and grab your stuff or we’re going to get bitched at for being late.”

Zack just sighed and grabbed another pair of jeans to change out of the sweats he had just put on. Sure it didn’t really matter what he wore but if he knew his bandmates, they were going to want to go out after practice and he really didn’t want to be caught off guard and wearing sweats. So he changed into a pair of jeans and one of his Amerrickan shirts before grabbing his wallet and keys and heading out of his room towards the door where Jack was waiting for him.

The drive only took about fifteen minutes to get to their usual practice place in the basement of Rian and Alex’s house since they were too lazy to rent out a place. Their neighbors didn’t really care about the noise since the two were hardly ever home anyway so they were able to deal with a little noise every now and then.

When Jack pulled into the driveway, they both got out and walked up to the front door not bothering to knock since they knew it would be unlocked and Rian and Alex were expecting them anyway. As soon as Zack walked inside, the smell of pizza hit him like a brick wall and his stomach instantly started to growl since he hadn’t really eaten since breakfast earlier that morning. It was now going on five at night and he had decided to skip out on the airport food since it was gross anyway and really didn’t have that long of a layover to allow him any spare time to actually find any food. So now he was paying the consequences.

“Zack!” Rian yelled as they walked into the kitchen. The drummer was at the stove, pulling out some ready to bake pizza’s with oven mitts and an apron on looking like the typical housewife while Alex sat on a bar stool at the island a few feet away and watched.

Zack just rolled his eyes at his two friends before pulling the drummer in for a hug. “Hey dude, how are you?”

“Good, how was your flight?”

Zack shrugged, “it was ok. Like any other flight.”

“So basically long and boring?” Alex added as he hopped off the bar stool and hugged Zack also.

“Pretty much,” he replied just as another person entered the room. A dark haired, lip ringed, Mickey Mouse loving person who Zack was now glaring at.

But all Matt did was smile at him, oblivious to the fact that Zack was basically giving him the death glare. “Hey dude, good to see you back. How was your flight?”

“Seriously? Right after I get home from the airport you call a band practice?” Zack asked as he saw Rian giving Alex a smug look and held out his hand as Alex fished out a twenty dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to the other boy.

“We have a lot to do!” Matt defended as Zack rolled his eyes. No he wasn’t really all that mad with the tour manger, more like annoyed. He would have liked to have the night to relax before starting up all the band things that had to be done before they left.

“We have a week,” Zack mumbled, already forgiving him since he had no mean bone in his body. Matt just sighed and explained that it he would be thanking him later for scheduling it now instead of during the week so they didn’t have so much stress. But Zack just rolled his eyes again and went to sit at the island and put his head in his arms asking Rian when the food would be ready.

Everyone just quickly went on to talk about other things as Rian finished cooking. When they were all sat at the table, Matt instantly started to bring up tour things and set out to find a piece of paper and a pen so that they could discuss the set list while they ate so they could get right to practicing afterwards. They all gave a few complaints but started throwing ideas out anyway since they all knew Matt was right and the sooner they stop putting everything off until the next day, the sooner they can get done and save the last few days before tour packing and not worrying about other things.

When they were finished eating and making the set list, they didn’t bother doing the dishes or anything in favor of heading down to the basement to practice while Matt started on so paperwork that needed his attention at the moment. Zack smiled as he saw the familiar set up, much like it had been when they were still in high school practicing in Rian’s parents basement. But as soon as Rian and Alex got their house, they had moved everything over there so that they didn’t have to bother them anymore with their loud music.

Zack grabbed his bass that he usually kept there and pulled the strap over his head allowing it to rest on his shoulders. He really hadn’t touched a guitar since he had left for LA and it was nice to get back and warm up again. Placing his fingers on the frets, he strummed a few notes, listening to hear how much it would need to be tuned and adjusted it. By the time he was finished, the rest of the guys were also and he plugged into the amp behind him, not putting it up to full blast since even if the neighbors really didn’t care, they wouldn’t get too annoyed anyway.

Matt had made copies of the set list they had all agreed on and Zack taped it to the floor in front of him, looking at the first song and playing the first few notes as he waited for the others to be ready also. Rian counted them in and they all began playing and after the intro was done Alex sang the first few notes of the song.

He had to admit, they were a little rusty even though they had played than song many times before and was coming to realize, even if he really didn’t want to admit it, that Flyzik may have been right. After they finished the song, they all added their comments on how to fix it and then played it again.

This happened with each song until they had a basic grasp on how the set list would go for the tour trying to get into the pattern of playing the songs since they had never did it in that order before. So once they were done with perfecting all the songs nearly three hours later, they were all tired and sweaty and sore.

Zack’s fingers were aching a little and he flexed his fingers a little after putting his bass on its stand and grinning at his bandmates as they all talked excitedly about the upcoming tour. As soon as they got a set list down and had their first practice, everyone got more excited, making the tour a little more real to them as they started to actually prepare for it.

“Ok so now that that’s done,” Flyzik said as he made his way down the steps to the basement. He had his phone in front of him, scrolling through whatever he was currently looking at without having to look in front of him to see where he was going. Zack always gave him credit for always being able to do that since he knew if he ever tried he would run into something straight away.

“I just got done talking to the rest of the crew and they’re all wanting to get together for drinks now since Zack’s back in town and we really haven’t done anything since the last tour.” Matt continued as he looked up from his phone for the first time.

All the boys were grinning at hearing the fact that drinking was involved and instantly agreed. Matt told them to go hurry up and change into something else since they were all sweaty. They climbed the steps up to the first floor of the house and made their way through the kitchen and to the main room where the stairs leading to the second floor were.

“Hey Ri, can I borrow something from you?” Zack asked since he really didn’t prepare ahead thinking that they would actually be practicing that night. Rian nodded and nodded his head toward the stairs in silent gesture for him to follow him and Zack noticed that Alex and Jack disappeared probably to do the same thing.

When he walked into Rian’s bedroom, he shut the door behind him and stood close to the door as Rian rummaged through his clothes to find a shirt for him. They were roughly the same size, better than Alex or Jack for that matter, so it really wasn’t going to matter much if he wore one of Rian’s shirts.

“You ok dude?” Rian asked as he tossed the shirt he had found at Zack and caught it in mid-air.

Zack gave him a questioning look as he set the shirt down and pulled the current one over his head and wiped his face off with it. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Rian said with a shrug. “You just seem different.

Zack hid the blush rising on his face by pulling the shirt over his head. He knew exactly what Rian was talking about but didn’t want to tell him the reason why. It was all because of Em. Even Ben had mentioned it and even with being home a few hours his bandmates had even noticed it too. He really must not be as good at hiding his emotions as he thought. Em’s locket that he had started wearing around his neck as soon as he found it suddenly felt heavier as he shook his head at the drummer and trying to shrug it off.

“No, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” He said, adding a smile to try and sell his lie a little better.

Rian just gave him a look telling him he wasn’t buying it but didn’t press the issue. “Ok, but you can tell me if you need to.”

“Thanks Ri, I’ll keep that in mind.” Zack replied as Rian also pulled a fresh shirt over his head and stepped closer so they could head out.

They didn’t say anything else as they walked out of Rian’s room and down the hall to the stairs. Zack could hear Jack, Alex and Matt all talking as he walked down the stairs and laughed when he saw Jack jumping up and down talking a mile a minute. But he could make out the words party, drunk, and fun somehow in his jumble of words and knew that this night was going to get crazy. But maybe this would be a good distraction to all his thoughts and ideas that were constantly running in his mind. Which more importantly revolved around one thing. Em.