Inside Your Heaven

“You guys! You didn’t have to come out here for me!” Cass gushes, throwing her arms around Alex and I.
“Please, Cass, you took care of my sorry ass for how long? I owe you one. So, win this thing, okay?” I reply. She smiles and nods, rushing off backstage. Alex and I head over to our seats next to Rian and Cass’s family. He greets us excitedly.
“I didn’t know you guys were coming out for the finale!”
“We wanted to surprise Cass, and therefore, we couldn’t tell you.” I shrug and hug him. “Nothing personal.” Alex lets out a laugh. I roll my eyes and face him. “Everything is an All Time Low joke.”
He smiles and kisses me. “You know I love you.” I smile and wrap my arm around his middle. “You look beautiful tonight,” he whispers into my ear. I look down at my dark red dress and black heels. “But, my god, I can’t wait to take that dress off of you.”
“Alex!” I lightly punch his chest, and he just breaks out into laughter.
The show starts, and we watch all the performances. Finally, it comes down to the final two—Cass and Terry.
“And the season three winner of The Voice is…” I grasp Alex’s hand and rest my other hand on Rian’s shoulders. Rian sets his hand on top of my and squeezes it nervously. Alex’s thumb rubs against the back of my hand.
Carson opens the envelope, and Rian grips my hand tighter. Alex brings out joined hands up to his lips, the back of my hand resting against them. I can feel him nervously chewing on his bottom lip. My heart is racing.
“Cassadee Pope!”
My hand joined with Alex’s flies up in excitement. Rian lets go of my hand and embraces Ashley, Cass’s sister.
Alex embraces me tightly. “I can’t fucking believe it!” he cheers.
“She absolutely deserved that,” I respond. Alex lets me go, and I hug Rian. “Ri, this is awesome.”
“I’m so fucking happy for her,” he sighs with relief. “She deserved this so much.”

“Cass, let me buy you a drink.” I sit Cass down in the barstool, and she laughs as I plop down into her lap. I grab Alex’s arm to pull his attention from his band mate. “Alex, babe, buy this winner a drink.”
He laughs. “I’m just going to get us a round of celebratory shots,” he decides, ordering four shots of his latest favorite drink—SoCo with lime.
“When the hell did you start drinking this?” Rian questions, glaring down at the shot. “This is an old man’s drink.”
“Fuck off,” Alex laughs. He passes me mine and Cass’s shot. I clink my glass against hers, and we pound the liquid back.
“Woo!” Cass cheers. “That was interesting. I’ve never had that before.”
“Alex drinks it all the time,” I inform her. “It’s kind of growing on me.”
It’s fun going out with Rian and Cass. Alex and I haven’t really ever gone out with another couple. We’ve been with couples, but there have always been singles in the group, too. I really wish this is something I’d thought have sooner.
I’m having the time of my life on the dance floor with my drink in one hand, the other hand laced through Alex’s, and my hips swaying against his with Cass and Rian right in front of me doing the exact same thing. In fact, we’re basically in a drunk grinding line, and we even decide to leave at the same time.
“Cassadee fucking Pope, I am so proud of you for winning this show. You are the best singer I know.” I loop my arm through Cass’s on the walk back to the hotel.
“Hey!” Alex objects.
“You are the best female singer I know,” I correct. I slide my fingers through Alex’s. “I can’t exactly love you more than this guy. I’m getting married to him after all.” Alex lets go of my hand to wrap his arm around my waist. “When are you getting engaged?” I push Rian’s shoulder.
He just laughs and pulls Cass against him, similar to the way Alex is holding me close.
We make it into the hotel lobby, and as soon as we hit the elevator, Alex’s lips are pressed to mine. It’s funny to drunken me that Alex, Cass, Rian, and I are all hooking up in the elevator.
We reach mine and Alex’s floor first. “You be safe, okay?” I tell Cass. She giggles and nods. I poke Rian’s chest. “Condoms.”
“Alright, babe,” Alex laughs, pulling me out of the elevator by his arm wrapped around my waist. He ends up having to throw me over his shoulder to get me back to the room, and he drops me onto the bed. “You are quite the rowdy one tonight.”
“I haven’t gone out in so fucking long, Alex. And we also haven’t had drunk sex in so long.”
“You’ve got that right,” he agrees, climbing over me and guiding me further back onto the bed.

“So, when do you guys hit the road again?” I pull the towel out of my hair. I turn to look at Alex and catch him looking me over. I wink at him, and he laughs.
“Not until after New Years. I forgot to tell you—we may or may not have rented out the bar on New Years Eve. A ton of our Warped friends are coming.”
“What? Alex!” I quickly tug on my clothes and jump on him. He stumbles a little when catches me. “I’m literally so excited.” I peck his lips. “But we’ve got a plane to catch.”
“And we’re already running late,” he mocks. “I know.”
Running late is an understatement. We’re in a full out sprint through the terminal, our shoes and jackets still in our hands. “Alex Gaskarth, Mark Granger, Virginia Lennox. Final call for flight 587 to Baltimore. The gates will be closing in two minutes.”
I tug out the boarding passes and nearly throw them at the lady scanning the tickets. “We made it,” I sigh in relief, dropping down into our chair. I pull my boots back onto my feet, and Alex laces up his Nikes.
“Thank god.” He leans back in his seat and heaves out a breath of air. “I’m going to bed as soon as we get home.” I lean forwards and stare at him. “Am I not?”
“Well, I’m going out with Grace tonight. I haven’t seen her yet.”
“Do I need to come with you?”
“You’ll at least need to pick me up.” He nods and shuts his eyes. “You feel awful, don’t you?”
“Opening up that bottle of wine in our room was both the best and worst idea ever. Do you still have that Dramamine?” I nod and fish through my purse, pulling out two little pills for Alex.
“That’s for motion sickness, though.”
“I’m trying to prevent even more sickness.”

I throw my arms around my close friend. “I can’t believe you moved back!” she gushes, squeezing the shit out of me.
“I’m home!”
“I didn’t believe the rumors. I thought you were staying out there.”
“Hell no. I needed to come home.” We pull from the embrace. “Shots?” Grace smiles and nods excitedly.
I pull out my phone to check the time. “We have ten minutes before the bar closes,” I gasp. My phone falls out of my hand. “Fuck.” When I pick it up, the newly cracked screen doesn’t really faze me. “Can you find Alex’s name?” I hand the phone to the soberer looking person to my left. The guy purses his lips and takes the phone, searching through the contacts. He presses the phone do his ear.
“It’s ringing.” I snatch the phone back, consequently sending it flying to the ground again.
“Mother fucker!” I pick it up and press it to my ear. “Alex?”
“Yeah…”
“Are you seeping?” It’s absolutely obvious given my diction how smashed I am.
“Babe, I’m having a conversation with you.” He sounds irritated.
“Why are you angry?” Grace gives me a weird look, and I shrug. She loops her arm through mine. We head out of the bar. “Alex? Helloooooo?”
“Yeah, I’m here, Virginia.”
“Wazza matter?”
“Nothing. Do you need me to come pick you up?”
“Purty p…” My sentence is interrupted by a hiccup and then a fit of giggling from Grace and I. “Yes.”
“Alright. I’ll be right there.” He hangs up the phone.
It takes him maybe five minutes to arrive. “Grace, do you need a ride?” he offers. I throw myself onto him as soon as his finishes the sentence. He smiles and presses his lips to my forehead. “You smell like straight vodka.” I giggle and lock my arms around his middle.
Grace nods and climbs into the back of the car.
“Alright, let’s go home, babe.” He pulls my arms from around him and helps me into the car.
Alex drives Grace home and makes sure she gets into her house before coming back to the car. “Turn on some music,” I whine.
Alex chuckles and pushes the CD button on his car. Blink-182 fills the silence. I watch him as he sings along. “Why are you staring at me?” he questions as we pull up to a red light.
“I know you’re a boy…like, I really know from experience, but you’re beautiful. Like as a person and you’re so fucking hot.” He looks at me with his eyebrow raised, but I can see the flattered smile creeping up his lips. “Like really hot.”
“Like really?” he teases.
I bite my lip and nod. “Really hot.” He rests his hand on my knee and squeezes it gently, but I start pulling his hand up my leg.
“We’re two blocks away from home, hon. You can wait.” He winks and puts his hand back on the steering wheel.
I groan and throw myself back into the seat. “I hate when you do this to me!”
“I know. I do it on purpose.” He flicks on the blinker and pulls onto our street. “I love making you crazy.”