Situations Are Irrelevant Now

It really is amazing how one person can tear you down and drag you right back up again in such a short time, as if controlling a non-stop roller coaster of drastic emotions. Ronnie Radke is the only person I’ve ever met to possess such a power – and I have come to realize that I’m the coaster cart he was driving. One simple set of blinking lights from my answering machine nearly erased all that Craig and I had tonight.

“Wow, there are three missed messages? Damn, I’m popular,” I laughed to myself as I flopped down on the armchair nearby, waiting to hear my messages.

The first one was from the bank letting Ronnie know that all the transactions were complete and that the money was fully ready to be used. Well what do you know? The jerk gets another thing to work out perfectly for him.

Now, the next message was actually for me. It was from Max – and he sounded concerned. Apparently my horrible assumptions were correct…Ronnie had cheated on me, and probably more than once too. He was using me from the start and I’m almost sure I knew it all along, only I was wishing that it wasn’t true. I couldn’t fight back the tears that had wanted to pour out all day. I mean I was so entirely happy that Ronnie and I were finally together…but I should’ve known better. I shouldn’t have let myself gotten so stupid!

And all that self-hate was only making this situation worse because I knew deep down inside that I would most likely, for whatever reason, always love him. The odd thing was that Max’s voice got cut off…like he was suddenly surprised by something, or someone. What if Ronnie walked in while Max was just telling me about all that Ronnie had done? What if they got into a fight or something?! Oh God, this all my fault. I felt myself curl up into a ball.

I seemed to have forgotten that there was still one more message, which would explain why I was confused when I heard Ronnie’s voice next. His message essentially ended up being the polar opposite of what Max said. Max said Ronnie was with a girl while Bryan pretended to be him, and then later Ronnie was found in Max’s bunk with said girl. On the other hand, Ronnie said that Max was jealous of our relationship and purposely made it seem that he was with a girl just so that I would move on and dump Ronnie. Could that be it? I mean why would Max be jealous, especially since he does have a girlfriend.

Regardless of any of that, it all comes down to one major decision: do I believe Max, my best friend who had done all he could for me since I’ve known him….or Ronnie, the only guy who my heart seems to care for? My mind was almost entirely made up until I heard the final words of Ronnie’s message. ”I love you, Megan, and don’t forget it.” He sounded so entirely sincere that I was no longer sure whether it was still Ronnie speaking or not.

If he truly means what he said, and it sounded like he did, then maybe Max did lie to me. Maybe I over-reacted for nothing. Ronnie loves me, and that’s all that matters! With a smile on my face, I walked back to my bedroom and fell asleep finally after experiencing such drastic changes in emotion. Things were good again…the boys would be home soon, and Craig and his band will be spending some time here too. All I have to do is be optimistic and then everything will work out just fine…at least I hope so.

Just as my dream was getting to the good part, I felt myself slowly preparing to wake up. I was kind of in the stage half way between asleep/dreaming and awake, you know when you can hear things around you but your mind is still playing the dream? I moved around a little when I felt the bed move below me, but it didn’t seem like an important thing to notice. As I got comfortable in my position again, I heard the faint sound of my phone ringing.

Your tears don’t fall they crash around me.
Her conscience calls the guilty to come home.
Your tears don’t fall they crash –.

One missed call. I groaned when I realized that I was finally officially awake and unable to fall asleep again. Whoever the hell just called had better have a damn good reason for doing so. I stretched my arms above my head and finally opening my eyes. I screamed suddenly, startling both the person who had been hovering over me and myself. The person, who I had now identified as Craig, lost his balance and fell down on top of me with his face very close to mine.

“Well, uh this is not how I expected to wake up,” I laughed awkwardly. “I thought you’d be up by now, but when I saw that you weren’t I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity!” Wait, what time is it? I reached for the alarm clock and saw that it was already 11:23 AM.

“Usually I am up by now. I guess I must have had too much fun last night,” I said, playfully shoving him off of me so I could put on a little bit more clothing. Craig looked the other way…which was a nice change of pace, compared to how it is with Ronnie in here.

Once I was dressed and all, Craig and I walked out to the living room and I found four grown dudes hanging out under a tent made from blankets that they apparently had brought along with all their suitcases. “Damn, that has got to be the coolest tent I’ve ever seen. I take it those must be your band-mates?” I asked, feeling tempted to run in there myself and explore it.

He sighed, “Yeah, I guess they must’ve gotten bored in the time I was watching you sleep. That one to the left is Mike. The one sleeping in there is Eric. Jared is the one fixing the top of the tent. And Matt would be the one rummaging through your kitchen right now.”

Upon hearing each of their names called, they all turned their attention toward us. One of them, I think it was Jared, shouted, “Dude, that’s the chick we’ll be living with?!” I felt myself blush a little as they all stared at me with their mouths wide open. Now this is something I could get used to.

“Hey guys!” I waved, breaking them from their ‘trance.’

“Are you hungry?” I asked Craig once the others had resumed their previous activities.

“Nah, I’m fine.”

As we entered the kitchen, we found that Matt was eating out of the last box of Captain Crunch, which was also the last sign of any edible food in the house. “Oh great, looks like I’ll have to go shopping now,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry is this all the food you had? I just couldn’t help myself,” Matt gasped.

I laughed, “That’s totally fine, dude. There wasn’t much in there anyway.” He smiled as he continued to eat his cereal.

“We’ll be right back guys!” Craig shouted as he closed the front door behind us and followed me over to the car.

The drive to the grocery store was short, so we barely even had enough time to carry a conversation. Craig grabbed a cart and before he could stop me, I jumped inside it. “Push me!” I laughed, sounding like a little kid. He didn’t protest to it, so I didn’t even have to walk the whole time.

We grabbed everything in sight…chocolate, cookies, TV dinners, and Spaghetti-O’s. Needless to say, the basket was full and unfortunately that meant that I had to get out. Once we were done checking out, the cashier, instead of saying her usual “Have a nice day,” smiled at us and said, “Well aren’t you two the cutest couple ever!”

Both Craig and I turned a shade of red as we both awkwardly mumbled, “We’re…just…friends.”

“Oh I’m sorry! You two should consider changing that soon,” she said with a wink before saying bye.

If that wasn’t strange, then I don’t know what was. And the even stranger thing was…after she made that comment…I stopped to think. Craig and I did look pretty damn good together. But that doesn’t matter because I have Ronnie and that’s all I need.

All the guys helped out in carrying in and putting away all the food. This was such a nice change of pace, seeing as the other guys in ETF would never usually help me, unless they saw some food in one of the bags that they wanted to eat right then and there. Hmm maybe I should insist that these new friends of mine stay here a little longer than I week…I could use a balance between the lazy boys I’m used to living with and the considerate guys I’ve just met.

We decided that since it was a cloudy day, it would be best to just chill inside and watch a movie. Somehow, we all managed to fit inside their tent with a large bowl of popcorn too. I was directly in the middle, sandwiched between Craig and Eric. Mike was the lucky guy who got to pick the movie, and he ended up choosing Spider-Man. I don’t know if it was just because it was half-way through the movie and I was getting antsy, or if it was because it was the scene where MJ gets her upside down kiss from Spider-Man, but I found myself scooting closer to Craig so that I was leaning up against his chest with his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

There wasn’t anything to it…just a simple attempt at getting comfortable, right? Well anyway, my cell phone could be heard ringing down the hall, but there was no way I was going to get up at this point in the movie…and plus, I was too comfortable.

After the movie ended, we all just kind of chilled in the surprisingly spacious tent…some of the guys were asleep while the others were watching whatever was on TV. I thought I heard the sound of an engine being turned off outside, but I wasn’t really sure so I just ignored it. Well apparently I had been right. The front door burst open and the sound of bags being thrown all over the place followed.

“MEGAN WE’RE HOME!” Omar shouted.

Hell, all the sudden noise scared the crap out of me for a minute there. I poked my head out of the tent and smiled when I saw that the guys had come home off tour early! “Omar, what are you guys doing here?” I asked happily as I got out from under the tent and ran over and gave him a hug.

He shrugged, “There wasn’t anything left but dates set aside for partying. And we called, but I guess you didn’t get the message, so SURPRISE!”

“Yeah, I’m shocked. This is great!”

Soon Bryan, Robert, Max, and Ronnie all walked in. Bryan offered a sympathetic smile, I’d assume for that stupid prank him and Max tried to pull. Max went to go hug me, but I stepped out of the way looking at him with hurt in my eyes. Apparently, he misinterpreted my expression. “Megan, I know you’re probably upset right now. But that’s why we came back home early, so that we can make it up to you.”

“It’s going to take more than that to make it up to me,” I snapped.

“Hey, don’t be so upset, baby,” Ronnie said placing his hand on my shoulder. “Everything will be fine now.” I looked over at him and shared his smile. I didn’t even notice the severely confused and hurt expression on Max’s face.

All the guys walked further into the room, and stopped suddenly when they saw the unusual sight of not only a tent but other guys lying around. “Megan, who are these people?!” Bryan asked, almost sounding scared.

Craig was really the only one who had still been awake by the time that the guys arrived, so he crawled out of the tent and made the way over to the group. He stepped up behind me and rested his elbow on my shoulder for leaning support. Ronnie took a step forward and was suddenly practically right in front of me.

“Hi there dude. I’m Ronnie, Megan’s boyfriend. And you are…?” Ronnie’s tone of voice seemed friendly enough, but the look in his eyes suggested otherwise. I can’t believe what I’m seeing…but it almost looks as if Ronnie Radke is jealous!

Craig extended his hand for Ronnie to shake, but he ignored it. “Uh, well nice to meet ya, Ronnie. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Craig, one of Megan’s old friends from Arizona.”

“Oh I see. Well do you mind telling me what you and all those other guys are doing in my house?”

“Uh my band and I were going to take a vacation in Vegas and Megan offered us a place to stay for the time being.”

“Oh well if Megan did it, then I guess that makes it alright,” he said glaring over at me.

Alright, I knew Ronnie would give me a hard time about this all, but damn now he’s glaring at me?! Jealousy has really gotten to him now…and I think that will make this next week all the more entertaining.