Here, Darling.

Alaska had woken up the next morning with a banging headache, as though someone was stood over her bed with a sledge hammer, repeatedly beating her on the head with it. She groaned, not wanting to get up and continue with the day but knowing that with Ava that option would never be available.

The pounding in her head increased as she pulled herself into an upright position, causing her to have to squeeze her eyes together and to clench her teeth to try and surpass the pain.

Images of last night flashes before her eyes: going to the bar, seeing the guy’s, tequila shots. Why were there always tequila shots?

Groggily she climbed out of bed not bothering to change out of her pajamas as she trudged down stairs, collapsing on the couch, her head burrowing into one of the soft pillows while her hand fondled the floor, trying to capture the remote in order to put something on that would make her feel better.

This was where she spent most of her day, sprawled on the couch with Ava, watching The Notebook before having to tear herself away, having realised she was late for the tasks she has been handed with Parker and J.B. doing some mundane wedding errands that had been passed down the line to them.

Alaska rushed around her room, not bothering to shower since she knew this would only cause her to be even later and knowing that would just cause the boys to pick on her, making fun of her girly ways.

Hastily pulling on a pair of denim shorts that she had grabbed off the floor, followed by a homemade shirt that was hanging on the door handle of her wardrobe, shoving her hair into a bun as she rushed out the room, shouting goodbye to Hannah and Ava that sat watching TV.

The boys were already lounged outside the porch; their glasses perched on their nose as they leaned back onto their hands, legs stretched out in front of them, catching the sunny rays.

“You guy’s ready?” Alaska called, jogging past them, unlocking the beloved rented beatle and climbing into the passenger seat, beckoning them to get in as she buckled her seat belt, starting the engine placing her own glasses onto her face.

“So how are you feeling this morning Laide?” Parker asked, collapsing into the passenger seat, and pushing his seat back, allowing his long legs the room they needed. J.B. meanwhile sprawled out in the back tapping away on his phone keypad a small smile playing on his feet which led Alaska to believe that he was probably talking to his girlfriend.

“I could be doing so much better if someone hadn’t been plying me with practically a full bottle of tequila last night” Alaska sighed, turning to glare at Parker who merely shrugged, lifting his arms in his defence, waving off the faux anger facade that Alaska was putting on.

“Well it’s not like I forced you into drinking them” Parker shrugged, rolling down the window and hanging his arm out of it, tapping along to the beat of the radio, his eyes scanning the horizon taking everything in.

“Yeah and you did get more fun once you were wasted” J.B. chirped up, leaning in between the seats, to grin at Alaska, poking her in the ribs causing her to squirm and bat the boy’s hand away as she tried to rack her brain, wondering what else went on that night.

“Oh god, what did I do?” Alaska sighed, rubbing a hand over her face, no memories from last night sparking any recognition; it couldn’t be that bad could it? Parker sniggered, causing J.B. to chuckle from his back seat; it was definitely going to be worse than what she had thought.

“Well you ended up insisting we go to a strip club where you began telling the dancers that you respected their career choice and wondered if they were able to teach you their art, then you proceeded to get on the pole, trying to do something that seemed completely impossible and fell flat on your face, we then ended up in a biker bar, you ended up getting the whole bar to sing a very drunken rendition of ’Build Me Up Buttercup much to my surprise” J.B. began to sum up causing little groans of embarrassment to emerge from Alaska’s voice as the conversation began to progress.

“Not to mention that you drunk dialled your boy toy and told him that he was the biggest mistake you ever made” Parker added in causing Alaska to practically do an emergency stop, the car behind her hitting their brakes hard, along with the loud piercing shrill of the horn as they over took her, shouting at the girl through their window. Alaska merely waved them off, her eyebrows furrowed as she turned to look at the two boys, her mouth slack as she tried to comprehend their words.

“I called Zack last night?!” Alaska murmured, pulling her glasses off of her face as she allowed her head to fall and hit the steering wheel, clenching her eyes shoot as she squirmed into her seat.

“Yeah, gave him a right bollocking to” J.B. shrugged, patting Alaska on the shoulders comfortingly as she say up “But everything will work itself out Addie” he coaxed, carefully pulling her into an upright position, placing her hands back on the wheel and pointing to the road, trying to get her to move the car forward.

“Yeah Laide, everything will work out even if he is an arsehole” Parker smiled causing Alaska to snort, rolling her eyes is as she put the car into gear, slowly trudging forward and heading to the mall.

The job’s were done quickly, first picking up the small blue net gift bags, the pearly blue marbles, umpteen tins of blue and silver crystals mixed with glitter and finally small individually wrapped chocolates, the tops of which were engraved with the wedding couples initials.

Next to grab were the suit and the dresses for the bridal party, which seemed to take up the last small amount of space that was free in the car, leaving poor J.B to be wedged tightly between dress bags and cardboard boxes. Thankfully the flowers weren’t arriving until the next day.

“Okay do we need to grab anything else or is that it?” Alaska asked, stretching her arms above her head as they exited the mall a small slither of her stomach bared between the tops of her shorts and the hem of her shirt, J.B. busy placing the last of the purchase sin the car.

“Well I need to go if that is okay, I got a date tonight and Tiffany will murder me if I’m late” J.B. shrugged apologetically, motioning to the car in the corner where his girlfriend was already waiting, smiling and waving at the pair as J.B. approached the call, calling a farewell over his shoulder.

“So do we need anything else?” Alaska asked locking the car and shoving the key’s deep into her pocket, doing a 180 degree spin on her heel to face the remaining boy, her hands placed firmly on her lips, her eyes squinting as she looked at him.

“I still need to get them a wedding present if you want to help?” Parker shrugged, one hand burrowed deep in his pocket whilst the other was pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, back to the entrance of the mall.

Alaska nodded, following the figure back inside, one hand brushing the fall piece of hair that had fallen out of her bun out of her face, as she surveyed the shops wondering where exactly Parker was going to go to get a wedding present.

Before she could ponder that thought for to long Alaska phone began ringing from her pocket, she pulled it out with a sigh, her eyes scanning the caller id, debating if she wanted to answer it or not.

“You go ahead, text me where you end up” Alaska called, waving Parker on as she pressed the ‘accept’ button, placing the phone to her ear mumbling some word of welcome into the phone, waiting to hear what the other person needed.

“Hi A, can we talk?” Lucy’s voice rang through the phone, not its usual vibrant chirpy tone, instead something much duller, as though she was ill or under the weather.

“Sure, what’s up?” Alaska replied, trying to be chirpy but she couldn’t really pull it off, she was certain that Lucy could tell she was faking it to, but what are you meant to say in these situations, there isn’t a handbook or a rulebook.

“Look you were my friend before you met my brother, and over these last few month’s I feel like we’ve become good friends” Lucy began sighing, Alaska could picture the girl sat cross leg in her room, pausing to lick her lip nervously before continuing the conversation.

“Well what I’m trying to say is that I’m not good at making friend’s and I do not care what’s going off between you and Zack, whatever happens I’m still going to be your friend and I don’t want my foolish brother to ruin that, okay?” Lucy ended, probably sat there nibbling on her bottom lip, eyebrows furrowed in conversation as she picked away at the knee of her jeans, waiting for Alaska’s reply.

“Luce, are you really that worried about all of this?” Alaska giggled, not believing that Lucy was phoning up to confirm that their friendship was still intact, “You know that I will always believe in Bro’s before Hoe’s” Alaska joked and she could hear a sigh of relief from Lucy followed by a throaty chuckle, and just like that all the tension was lifted.

“Thank god for that, I was literally shaking waiting to hear your verdict” Lucy joked back, and Alaska felt a true smile flit on her face as she chewed her finger nails, her phone vibrating next to hear, indicating that she had a text message.

“Okay I’d love to continue this love filled conversation dear, but I got to go I’m tied up with something at the moment, but as soon as I get back to Baltimore I swear we will do something, okay?” Alaska chirped, standing up from the pillar she was leaning against, scuffing the toe of her shoe against the stone tiles on the floor.

“Definitely, I’m so going to hold you to that” Lucy yelled down the phone before quickly pressing the end call button, leaving Alaska to tap away at the keys, skimming the text that Parker had sent her, a frown forming on her face as she read the location of where he was.

Alaska sighed following his directions, out of the entire mall she did not picture that this was the shop where he would go to find the wedding gift. Surrounded by the lace and satin underwear in a variety of colours was Parker, looking as though he was having the time of his life hitting on the shop assistant that seemed to be loving the attention as much as he was.

“Parker?” Alaska questioned with a raised eyebrow, one hand brushing the stray hairs out of his eyes whilst the other was clutching her phone, to say she wasn’t amused by this situation would be an understatement.

“Adelaide?” Parker beamed, reaching over to take here by the hand, pulling her closer and wrapping an arm around his waist “This here is Misty, I was just telling her about how we were getting married tomorrow and she was going to find you the perfect underwear, isn’t that right?” he explained, kissing her softly on her cheek, making it near impossible for Alaska to refrain from wrinkling her eyebrows in confusion.

“Yes” Misty agreed, eyes narrowing as she surveyed the girl stood in front of her, clearly not approving this match as she turned on her heel sashaying through the various lacy bra’s giving Alaska time to push Parker away from her.

“What are you doing?” She hissed, pushing him again on the chest, turning to glare at the boy for making her feel so uncomfortable. Parker merely smirked, a chuckle erupting from his throat as he looked at her an eyebrow raised.

“Chill out Laide I’m just having fun, and admit it now that you’re arsehole of an ex is gone it means that you can have some fun” he smirked leaning closer his breath hitting her lip, as she stood stock still. When she woke up this morning she did not expect this to happen.

“So why not have some fun with me?” he suggested, leaning even closer if it was possible, their lips practically touching, his other hand snaking around her back, dipping lower and lower.

“No Parker, Zack’s not an arsehole but I think you are” Alaska murmured, pushing the boy away from him and stalking out of the shop, she had missed the boy but she now remembered why she hadn’t stayed in touch. She thought of him as nothing more as brother, but he definitely did not think of her platonically.

Max was out for the night, probably staying at Parker’s getting the story about how she had freaked out on his flirtatious banter, this left the three girls, Hannah Ava and herself, to finish making the goodie bags.

Endless hours spent filling the small bags with exactly five marbles, two tables spoon of glitter and gems and three chocolates, the measurements having to be precise in order to have the exact amount of bags.

Alaska was shattered, Ava had dropped off to sleep a couple of hours before, completely exhausted with the excitement of the next day, she had never been a bridesmaid before and was looking forward to all the aspects especially the fancy dress.

Hannah was practically also glowing with excitement, not seeming to have the nerves that all the brides to be in the films had, merely ready to take on the next step in her life which included Alaska’s brother.

Alaska had gotten over today’s antic, this was just how Parker was, always trying his luck on girl’s not seeming to care that he got knocked back, he used to constantly be like this before Alaska had left home, even though she was dating his best friend. To Parker it was all a game, one he did not care if he was winning or not.

It was time’s like this that Alaska had hoped that thing’s had worked out between her Zack, she was so sure that he was the one, but apparently he didn’t feel the same, it was things like this that made it impossible for Alaska to feel like she could trust people, because always in the end people got hurt.

The next day was not as hectic as Alaska had expected. In the movie’s people rushed around like headless chicken’s, flapping about mundane tasks that needed doing, completely getting bent out of shape over little details like the fact that the flowers were the wrong shade and did not match the dress.

Hannah however was the epitome of calm, sat bathing in her happy glow at the kitchen table, rollers placed in her hair as a lady fussed around her painting her face with the various make up product that were scattered across the table.

Ava was too busy running around the house twirling in her baby blue dress, her hair curled to within an inch of its life, and pinned around her ears, a small fascinator pinned onto her head making her look like a regal princess in line to the throne instead of some small town girl.

The light blue dress ticked the little girl fingers as she twirled around, seeing how high she could get it to spin around, fascinated by it all, smiling in every mirror she passed in awe as she studied her reflection. This was probably the happiest Ava had ever been.

Alaska had just spent thirty minutes in front of the bride to be, taking advantage of her great hairdressing skills, getting her to do her hair to perfection, now all she had to do was pour herself into her dark blue strapless dress and then she was ready to rock this joint.

“I think we’re ready to go” Hannah called, stepping outside and onto the path. Alaska couldn’t help but stare at the girl wide eyed. She was stunning, and she was definitely unsure on how the fact her brother had managed to score her.

The wedding dress was pure white and made of lace, the box cut top showing off her slender frame, the dress having a little bit of volume coming towards the bottom, mixing vintage and modern together, the dress was perfect for Hannah.

“Wow you look great” Alaska beamed, running up and wrapping the girl into a hug before releasing her quickly, her face contorted with worry, scared that she had somehow ruined the dress.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me” Alaska stuttered, holding her hands out in front of her as she took a step back, Hannah merely scoffed and rolling her eyes at the girl, giving her shoulder’s a playful shove as Ava zipped out of the house. It was time to get this show on the road.

The ceremony was short but sweet, the best thing about being in the bridal party was that you were able to arrive after everyone else and then you were the first to leave giving Alaska the perfect opportunity to escape her parents, although throughout the whole ceremony she could feel their eyes burning into her, knowing that they were dying to demand answers to their burning questions.

Luckily Alaska was able to slip away, Ava in tow, to go and see if the reception was to perfection. Max and Hannah decided to have it home, in the back yard, something simple and romantic that made it seem much more intimate, this meant that things could of gone awry whilst they were away, such as the window blowing and knocking the tables over outside.

Ava was busy, making sure that every place had a goodie bag whilst Alaska was ticking away at the list she had given, going over the seating plan one last time, double checking that she was sat as far from her parents as possible, after all that was the deal that was made between her and Max.

The dinner went through without a hitch, but before the desert had been brought out her parents had homed in on her, cornering her as she headed to the bathroom, Ava busy helping Hannah with her dress.

“Adelaide” her mother barked causing the girl to turn around a sigh erupting as she turned to face her parents, plastering a smile onto her face, trying to look as if she was happy to see these people.

“Yes mother?” Alaska questioned, the smile sticking to her face as they stopped in front of her, Alaska’s mother surveying her and Alaska could already tell that she was beginning to tick off the faults with her outfit in her head.

“You haven’t come over to greet us, that is rude, also who is that child that you was with?” her father boomed, it was odd to see the pair together but it looked they had joined forces, to curious to know what was going on to bat against each other at their separate teams.

“The child is Ava, my daughter” Alaska smiled, Ava turning from where she was playing a couple of feet away, running over to her mother at the sound of her name and wrapping herself around mother’s legs, laying her head against her as she gazed up at the strangers.

“Daughter?” her mother practically choked on the word, eye’s popping out of her head as she stared at the girl who continued to look at her, eye’s wide as though she was trying to take it all in, her father was silent through this exchange as though he was lost for words.

“Yes” Alaska said, trying hard to keep the smile on her face, but she could feel it slipping slightly as her hand rested on her daughter’s shoulders, trying to keep control of her anger and to keep it locked up until after the wedding.

“To who?” her father spluttered, his face turning red, contrasting against the sparse grey hairs the adorned his head, something that his current girlfriend must find attractive since he was half his age, practically the same age as Alaska.

“Joshua’s. Now if you could please excuse me, Ava and I are here to enjoy Max’s wedding” Alaska smiled sweetly, taking her daughter’s hand into hers, leading her away from the flabbergasted parents and back towards the table, collapsing into her seat, gratefully taking a gulp of the alcohol that was being carried on the tray near her.

“Mama, who are those people?” Ava questioned, crawling onto her mother’s knee, resting her head against her neck, the young girls curly hair tickling her mother’s skin.

“No one honey, no one you need to worry about” Alaska murmured, hugging the girl against her as she gave the girl a small kiss on the forehead, eyes surveying the scene before her.

“Excuse me” She heard a male voice cough behind her, causing her to turn around and try and find the person, her eye’s rolling when she came across the sight of Parker stood in front of her, a black suit adorning his figure.

“Yes?” Alaska replied, her voice frosty, she knew yesterday was nothing but she wasn’t ready to forgive him, not that she could say that with Ava stood there.

“Mama, I’m going to go play with the other kids” Ava mumbled, jumping off of her mother’s lap and running off, smiling toothily at Parker as she passed. Damn, there went her escape route.

“Look Laide, I’m sorry for yesterday. I’m just pushing my luck and I got a bit carried away with the game, can we just forget about it?” Parker asked, collapsing into the seat next to her, making it impossible for her to ignore him.

Alaska turned to take in the boy, he was one of her best friends, one of the people she looked up to and she knew he was only being harmless, she just overreacted because she was still feeling so hurt about Zack, blowing everything completely out of proportion.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for over-reacting” Alaska said, allowing a small smile to dash across her face causing Parker to release the breath that he appeared to be holding in, immediately relaxing and beaming at the girl.

“Well in that case, can I have this dance?” he asked, jumping onto his feet, bowing at her in a comical manner, offering her his hand causing her to giggle, accepting the hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet.

“You may” Alaska said in a comical voice to match his, Parker leading her to the dance floor where some other couples were gently swaying to the music, some old love song from their childhood.

Alaska was just beginning to relax into the dance when her phone began vibrating in her clutch, she carefully tried to pull it out, her arms still behind Parker’s back causing her to try and read the message over his shoulder.

Two words. Two simple words. That was all there was. No explanation, nothing else. Just those two simple words.

Here, Darling..

Alaska’s eyes furrowed as she continued to stare at the phone, one of her arms dropping from Parkers neck as she continued to stare. What did it mean?

“What’s up?” Parker asked, stopping in his place as he looked at the girl, who didn’t reply, just continued to stare at her phone. That was until she heard the sound of guitar behind her.

She whipped around her mouth dropping as there stood on the stage was All Time Low, Alex winking and waving at her before bursting into the lyrics.

“ Say goodbye to the halls and the classes
Say hello to a the job and the taxes
The weekends with old friends spilling into 9 to 5 routine
Tell me how you feel over and done with
Like your life is a map with no compass to guide

“Why do you work in the bar anyway?” he questioned, liking the fact that he was getting to know someone who didn’t care that he was part of a band, or weren’t trying to use him to get into one of the other guy’s band, he felt like he was making a genuine friend, one that he hadn’t had since high school, since before they started the band.

“Because my life was over and done with when I dropped out of College, I had no family to stick with me and no career, O’s was the best thing to happen to me. It gave me stability and made it possible to comfortably raise Ava without struggling to figure out how I was going to afford food or the rent money. Especially with all the problems with my parent’s but that’s a different story for another day.” Alaska sighed, getting off her seat and pacing the kitchen, it made her feel like such a failure to admit this to someone. She hated it that she didn’t have a steady future, a career that her daughter could be proud of.

“You’re life’s not over and done with Adelaide” Zack sighed, as soon as the name fell out of his mouth Alaska couldn’t help but jump slightly, startled, it felt different to be called her birth name instead of the one she was given at the bar.

“At the bar drinking way too much
We sing along to forever young,”


“Four beers and four shots of vodka” the one with the hair like the skunk answered, grinning at her as she nodded. Hand’s immediately reaching under the counter to pull out four bottles, popping the tops off on the edge of the counter before handing them to him. Quickly lining up shot glasses and pouring the clear spirit into it, turning back to him with another bright smile hand out patiently for the money.

“Forever young. I wanna be, forever young. Do you really want to live forever” her mouth lowly singing along to the One Direction song that was playing in the background, she hated the band but damn the lyrics are catchy.

“Forever, forever young!” the ground of boys chipped in singing loudly and excitedly, wide smiles on their faces causing her to chuckle to herself.

“I’m Jack, what’s your name pretty lady?” he asked, his lines were as corny as they came and Alaska immediately could tell that the group was harmless and would be easy for tips.

” So here we go again
Wishing that we could start again
Wendy run away with me
I know I sound crazy don't you see what you do to me
I wanna be a lost boy
The last chance a better reality
Wendy we can get away
I promise if you're with me say the word and well find a way
And I can be a lost boy
The last chance your everything better plan
Ohh Somewhere in Neverland
Somewhere in Neverland”

“Well, at least it’s better than the rest of my name” Alaska sighed, stealing one of the chips from the abandoned pack on the table, nibbling away at her as she took another sip of her drink.

“Trust me it can’t sound as bad as Zachary Stephen Merrick, I sound like such an old man!” Zack chuckled, scratching at his stubble, rolling his eyes at Alaska’s laughter.

“Nope, Adelaide Wendy Darling is the worse, It makes me feel eighty” Alaska complained pulling a face as the name fell out of her mouth.

“ Well start a life of the plane and the simple
Of great times with far better people
And weekends with our friends
Laughing about the wine that stains there teeth”

Lucy, Matt and Rian were all sat in a circle smiling widely, looking closely to each other’s faces as they expected their now wine stained teeth, giggling as they pointed to each other, collapsing onto a pile on the floor.

“ We'll talk about how your parents separated and
How you don't wanna make the same mistakes as them”

Growing up Max and Alaska weren’t allowed to drink soda, chew gum, bite their nails, play out in the street, shorten their words, eat biscuits, watch television unless it was an educational programme, read certain books in case it gave the children idea to rebel, also for Alaska wearing her hair in a pony tail or wearing any make up or nail polish was a definite no go as was wearing trousers.

And that was only a few of the mountain of things they weren’t allowed to do. When their friends came over she would give them her well known disgusted look, her eyes narrowing, nose scrunching as she pressed her lip in a thin line.

Her dad on the other hand was never at home, always constantly at work and when he wasn’t he was too busy banging his secretary to actually pay attention to his so called family.

When their mother got wind of what was happening behind her back she became even stricter, telling the pair that they weren’t allowed relationships until in their twenties and taking even more care in their appearance.

“I'll say it's all about sticking it out and trying to feel forever young”

"It's all about sticking it out Adelaide and I am always going to be here to help out whenever you need it" Zack smiled warmly, squeezing the girls hand to try and show her bow true that was. Alaska smiled, she didn’t know what she had expected to come out at the end of that conversation but it definitely wasn’t that.

“ So here we go again
Wishing that we could start again
Wendy run away with me
I know I sound crazy don't you see what you do to me
I wanna be a lost boy
The last chance a better reality
Wendy we can get away
I promise if you're with me say the word and well find a way
And I can be a lost boy
The last chance your everything better plan
Ohh Somewhere in Neverland,”

Alaska’s mouth was practically touching the floor, everything she had told Zack he had portrayed in this song, how she didnt want to end up like her parents, how he promised that he would stick it would and be with her.

This was why he didn’t call, he didnt know how to properly apologise, and this was his way of asking her for forgiveness.

“Go on” Parker urged next to her, giving her a poke in the ribs as he grinned at her, giving her a small push to the stage. Ava was already dancing with Alex, microphone in his left hand, his right hand busy twirling the girl across the stage.

Throughout the song Zack hadn’t took his eyes off Alaska, looking for some indication of what was going through her head, but not getting anything at all. It was all Max’s idea. Parker had told him what had happened and he had arranged for Zack to make this public apology to his sister, knowing that she was a sucker for things like this.

But it was beginning to look as if it hadn’t worked.

It was time for Zack to take matters into his own hands, pulling his bass from around his body he stepped forward and Alex offered him his mic, giving the boy a small smile of encouragement as him and Ava moved to dance over in front of Jack.

“ So here we go again
Wishing that we could start again
Adelaide run away with me
I know I sound crazy don't you see what you do to me
I wanna be a lost boy
The last chance a better reality
Adelaide we can get away
I promise if you're with me say the word and well find a way
And I can be a lost boy
The last chance your everything better plan
Ohh somewhere in neverland”

That was all the push Alaska needed, she began running.

“Somewhere in Neverland”
Running towards the stage, not caring that her shoes were falling off her feet as she tore up the stairs and straight into Zack’s arms, this was where she belonged.

“Somewhere in Neverland”

She couldnt help but smile up at him, everything was perfect as she leant up to kiss him.

This felt like home.