Wanted

Eliza stretched awake, smiling at the sunlight flooding the room. She rolled over and looked at the window. Biting her lip, she crawled from between the sheets and looked at the beautiful landscape that was Las Vegas.

Val had decided to return the favor of her bachelorette party by taking everyone to Las Vegas for two days. Katie, being the Maid of Honor, was taking care of the festivities and everything else. Eliza felt a little bad considering the guys were staying in California for Brian’s bachelor party, but it was put out of her mind as the door opened up.

“Good, you’re up,” Katie said, taking a bite of apple. “Are you ready for today?”

“Sitting by the pool, drinking all day, partying all night? Yeah, I think I’m ready,” Eliza joked.

Val, Nisa, Wiki walked in, then, their bathing suits already on their bodies. Nisa had a pair of shorts on, Val had a dress on, and Wiki had a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Eliza skipped over to her suitcase, pulled out her bathing suit and changed.

It wasn’t even noon yet but she didn’t care. She was beyond ready for this party to start. Her phone chirped from its place beside the bed and she moved to pick it up. There was a message from Brian.

“Fuck, no!”

She whirled around to see Katie stalking towards her. Her phone was yanked from her hands and she tried to get it back. She’d almost pulled Katie’s arm close to her when a movement caught her eye. She screamed just at the moment of impact when Val, Nisa and Wiki all three tackled her on the bed.

“No fiancée!” Katie yelled as she ran out of the room, typing something on Eliza’s phone.

“That’s not fair!”

“It’s your bachelorette party, dipshit! No contact with him! We all surrendered our phones and guess what, you have to, too!”

Eliza made a face at Wiki as she was told this. “Not cool.”

“You’ll get over it,” Nisa said, rolling her eyes.

“What if he gets sick?”

“The guys will call the hotel.”

“What if he’s dying?”

“The guys will call the hotel.”

“What if he’s pregnant?”

“The guys will call— Wait, what?”

All the girls burst out in giggles and Katie pulled Eliza with her onto the bed.

“If Brian’s pregnant,” Val started, moving to the window to look out. “We’ve got a major problem.”

“I think we’d have more than a major problem,” Wiki interjected. “I think Brian would have a lot of explaining to do.”

“I think Eliza would have a lot of explaining to do,” Katie said, looking at Eliza beside her.

All the girls broke out in laughter until the door opened. Amy, Matt’s sister, walked in, sunglasses on her head and her bikini-clad body exposed.

“You guys are such kids. Can we go swimming or not?”

The remaining four girls remained quiet until Katie and Eliza made eye contact. They both sat up at the same time, held their pointer fingers up and hollered. “TO THE POOL!”

Amy barely made it out of the way in time for all four girls to rush past her.



“What is the one piece of clothing you wish Brian would get rid of?”

Eliza tilted her head as she thought. They’d come in from the pool hours later, with all the girls having either gotten red or turned brown from the sun. They were sitting around the lounge area in the suite, empty glasses all around them, bottles of Jack and vodka half-empty, and the girls were all over the place. The sun was going down behind them, the city just starting to come to life.

Katie had informed them they were going to play a game with Eliza. Katie had asked Brian a series of questions before they’d come to Vegas and each girl got to ask her a question. If her answer matched Brian’s, the one asking the question had to drink, but if her answer didn’t match his, Eliza had to drink.

“Ew, he has these pair of…I don’t know what else to call them. They’re fucking capris, Katie. They’re…black and they’re not jeans but they’re supposed to be jeans…and they’re capris. Like… ew,” Eliza said, scrunching up her nose.

The girls laughed and Val took the card from Katie. She flipped it over. “You’re right!”

Shrugging, Katie took a huge gulp of her drink and burped. They all laughed at turned to Val whose turn it was to ask a question.

“Where is the weirdest place you’ve had sex?”

Eliza thought for a second before she snapped her fingers and pointed at Val. “Linda Vista Hospital, last month for the shoot.”

Five screams filled the room, causing Eliza to laugh. She leaned back into the chair she was in and laughed until tears were falling down her face.

“That’s fucking gross,” Katie said, laughing.

“Did you guys know that place is really haunted?” Wiki asked, reaching for a piece of pizza resting on the coffee table.

“Did you know Eliza and Brian are fucking sickos?” Val said, making a disgusted face.

“Drink up bitch, because I know I’m right!” Eliza said, clapping her hands as she laughed at Val.
With a quick eye roll, Val took a gulp of her drink, passing the cards on to Nisa who had her hand out waiting.

“Hey, Eliza…how come you haven’t shown us any of the wedding plans?” Amy asked, curiously.

Eliza sighed and sat up straight. “I don’t have any.”

“What?” all five girls hollered simultaneously.

Katie spoke up again. “Eliza, the wedding is literally a week away! How do you not have plans? Fuck, if you had told me, I would’ve helped—”

“No, no,” Eliza said, chuckling a bit as she cut Katie off. “The wedding’s being planned…just not by me. I don’t understand why but Brian wanted to do everything. It was his idea, actually. He said he wanted it to be perfect for me and that he wanted to plan it.”

“Are you sure Brian’s not gay?” Nisa asked, smiling.

Eliza just shrugged. “He seems to be taking care of it, though. I seem him on the phone all the time talking to someone or another. He told me the theme was black and purple, so I was able to get purple bridesmaid dresses. That’s all I know.”

“Wow, that’s….Incredible,” Amy said, sighing dreamily.

Wiki threw a pillow at her, making the girls laugh again.

“My turn!” Nisa cried, looking at the cards. “What is the one thing you would never change about Brian?”

“His eyes,” Eliza replied, immediately. “They’re like cow eyes; all chocolate brown and beautiful and yeah.”

“Fuck,” Nisa said, taking a sip of her drink. She slammed the cards down beside her.

“This isn’t fair,” Wiki said, smiling. “She knows fucking everything about Brian. We’re gonna get wasted before she does!”

“Fuck this,” Katie said, standing up.

She was halfway to her room before Eliza spoke up. “What are you doing?”

“It’s almost eight, bitch. I’m gonna start getting dressed to get you wasted.”

As if a spark was lit under each of their asses simultaneously, they all jumped up and headed to get ready for their night.

Eliza immediately set about curling her hair. Once all the tresses were up in rollers, she put on her lotion and carefully pulled up her underwear and donned her bra. Sifting through her suitcase, she found the mini leather skirt and slid it up her legs, zipping it in place.

She moved to the mirror then, applying her makeup as Val came in to sit on the toilet. A few minutes later, Katie walked in and scooted herself up on the sink beside where Eliza was working.

“Do you guys remember when we did this before? My first date with Zacky?”

Val laughed. “I told Matt he’d better take me somewhere classy, if I remember correctly.”

“I didn’t give a shit because I wasn’t going on a date,” Eliza said, smiling.

The girls laughed. Eliza’s died down first. Suddenly, tears brimmed in her eyes and in the mirror, she saw the concern written on her two best friend’s eyes.

“Guys….I’m getting married in a week. I can’t…I always thought I’d marry David, you know? I thought I’d live in some rich posh house in Philly or something, with a lawyer as a husband. I always pictured myself miserable, yet here I am… in Vegas. I’ve got my own band, I live in a small house on the beach engaged to a rock star. It’s like…”

“Completely different?” Val tried.

“Heaven, I guess,” Eliza said, chuckling. “Thank you, guys…for always being there for me. Good and bad times, you guys have been the best and so supportive.”

“Well, since you wouldn’t have sex with me, I figured being best friends was the next best thing,” Katie said, shrugging.

Eliza burst out laughing and looked at Val’s confused face, making her laugh harder.

“In college…I wanted to explore everything, you know?” Katie started. “I got drunk one night and wanted to make out with Eliza because she was hot as hell. She turned me down. She said she’d punch me in the ovary if I tried to kiss her again. I ended up puking on her shoes and we’ve been best friends ever since.”

“Classy,” Val said, nodding at Katie who shrugged.

Suddenly, a fast-paced song came from somewhere in the hotel suite. Nisa burst through the door then, her body shaking, hands in the air.

“One shot, two shots, three shots, four…take that bottle to the head and have one fucking more!” she sang along with Lil Jon. “Pour me another one! Champagne, vodka, Don Julio!”

“Okay, spaz, slow the fuck down,” Wiki said, coming in behind her.

The song quickly changed and Nisa looked at Wiki as they both smiled. They both started smiling before turning to the three girls staring at them.

Screaming “LET’S FUCKING LOSE IT!” they started throwing their heads around, head banging, before thrashing their bodies around.

“Can we just go get drunk now?” Amy asked, making her way into the room.

“As long as Sentimental Susie over here covers her tits,” Katie said, hooking her thumb in Eliza’s direction.

“I thought you’d like looking at them,” Val said, sweetly.

Katie shot her a nasty look as Eliza laughed.



Brian, Matt, Zacky and Dominic were sitting in Brian’s living room the next afternoon watching Scarface on the television. Dominic and Matt seemed to be the only two paying attention, Zacky was too busy laughing at Brian. He’d woken up with a searing headache and had fallen his way down the steps with a hoodie on, the hoodie up, and sunglasses on his face. His hair was sticking out in several places under the hoodie and he had only one sock on. As soon as Zacky had mentioned it, he ripped the thing off.

Brian wanted to sleep the rest of his hangover off, but knowing Eliza was so close to being home, he had to force himself to stay awake. He felt like ass; the guys had made him drink more than he ever had in his entire life. He was pretty sure he blacked out at some point, and judging by the bruises that had appeared on his right thigh and his foot and the fact he wasn’t sure where they’d come from, he knew that’d been true. He felt his stomach lurch and knew he could spew chunks at any second.

“Fuck you guys,” he muttered, leaning back into the couch and clutching his stomach.

Zacky laughed, making Brian clutch his head. A horn honked from somewhere and they all stood up, Brian with the help of Zacky, and walked outside to help the girls with their stuff. Nisa and Val emerged first, smiling brightly at the guys, raising hands in a wave as they moved to the trunk. Katie came out next, a pair of sunglasses on her head. She slowly turned around and held out a hand.

Even from the top of the driveway, they could all see the scowl on Eliza’s eyebrows as she was helped from the car by Katie. Suddenly, Brian didn’t feel that bad anymore because his fiancée looked like hell. Her hair was sloppily thrown into a bun underneath a Jack Daniels hat with a few strands of hair escaping from the sides. She had on her sunglasses over her eyes, her lips were turned down in a frown, and she stumbled once, using the car as balance. She mumbled something to Katie and leaned fully against the car to attempt to lift her foot to adjust her sandal; it didn’t happen.

“Fuck it,” they heard her say.

Brian couldn’t help but smile at her too-tiny shorts, her ripped Batman tank top, matching checkered shirt, and her demeanor. She was beautiful to him, but he knew he had to tread lightly. She’d never been this hungover before and he wasn’t sure how to handle it.

“So, what happened in Vegas?” Matt asked, smiling as he kissed Val on the cheek in greeting.

“You know we can’t tell, asshole,” Val said, looking at him. “’What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’, remember? You’re not getting shit out of us.”

“Damn,” Zacky said, frowning.

“How do you feel, Eliza?” Matt asked, looking at the girl as she slowly made her way to the group.

“Matt, I swear to fucking God you’re at a ten and if you don’t turn it down to a fucking two, I’m going to rip your balls off and use them as bait to catch a shark to finish you off.”

Everyone suppressed their laughter, knowing better than to set her off even more, and she pushed past them. Brian tried to grab her bag from her, his hangover completely gone now, but she shrugged away from him, mumbling about not being able to stop because she needed her bed.

With a smile, he turned to wave to everyone as they headed for their cars and went inside, locking the door behind him. Turning around, he saw Eliza’s purse at the foot of the stairs, a few things spilling out. He gathered them up and stuffed them back inside her bag before starting up the stairs. He found a few more random things, her scarf, a shoe, and her hat before he eventually made it to the top of the stairs and headed for their room. Her duffle bag was in the middle of the door way, her clothes had all been discarded and she was in the middle of the bed, the covers up to her chin.

He put all of her things together in front of the closet and looked at her. Sighing he turned to the window and shut the blinds before moving to the door to go back downstairs.

“Hey, Romeo,” he heard and turned around.

Eliza hadn’t moved. “What?”

Suddenly, her arm shot up and her index pointed to the spot behind her. “This area right here,” she said, circling her hand. “It’s cold. Fix that shit.”

“Are you saying you want me to come sleep with you?”

“I’m saying if you don’t get the fuck in this bed right now you will hobble down the aisle in a cast.”

Not caring if she got mad, he laughed loudly at her and made his way to the bed before pulling back the covers and sliding in. His left arm went on top of her and her hand rested on top of his. He curled their hands together, their fingers locked, until they were resting against her chest. His right arm snaked its way underneath her head and she scooted back into him.

“Did you have fun?” he whispered.

“I did,” she said, sighing. “I don’t remember shit, but judging by the fact I woke up with sunglasses on, it was pretty bad ass. How was your night?”

“When I woke up this morning, I thought my fucking hangover was bad…then I saw you.”
She grunted in response.

“By this time next week, you’ll be Mrs. Brian Haner, Jr.”

He watched her eyes spring open and she rolled over so they were facing each other. She looked at him, her hazel eyes melting into his brown ones.

“I lied, Eliza.”

“About what?” she asked, pulling her head back.

“I told you before that I would never try to change you; I lied.”

Her brows furrowed and her lips turned down into a deep frown. “How?”

“I’m going to change something about you,” he whispered.

Recognition hit her then and her smile was bright and wide.

“If there was anyone worth changing my last name for, Bri, it would be you.”

“I love you,” he whispered, kissing the tip of her nose.

“I love you, too,” she whispered back, closing her eyes.