Neverland

“Why what’s happened?!” I felt my body begin to shake in fear. Had something happened to one of them?

“Calm down! No one’s died or anything, there was just an accident,” I felt relief flood my body. Tears began to blur my vision. I don’t know what I’d do if something ever happened to one of them. They were my family and they’d saved me countless times.

“What’s happened then?” I asked calmly, trying to keep the tears from my voice so Zack wouldn’t know anything was wrong.

“Well, we were drunk and fucking about and long story short Jack fell and took me and Rian down with him, Jack’s dislocated his shoulder and I have a torn tendon and Rian, well Rian got the worst of it, he’s got a broken foot. So, the rest of the tours been cancelled and we’re on our way home. We’re sat in the airport now, so we’ll be there in a few hours. I just thought I’d let you know in case you saw something online and worried. They guys wanted to keep it a surprise though so don’t tell anyone else. Please pretend to be surprised?” On some levels I felt relieved. The fact that no one was dead was just; I can’t even describe how relieving that was. However, the fact they had let their fans down was gutting and not only that they were on their way home early and that meant that whatever Lisa was planning was going to be ruined.

“I hope you know this is a complete inconvenience. Zack, how could you let him be so careless?” I scolded my older brother.

“Rora, can we please not get into this on the phone? I have to go; Alex just noticed I’m on the phone! Love you bye!” With that he was gone, I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. Not only that but now I had to go home and prepare for their return instead of going to class. With that I turned around and exited the school and began my half an hour walk home. I was glad my mom wouldn’t be there when I got home. I wouldn’t have to explain why I wasn’t at school and what my idiot brother and his idiot friends had done; I’d leave that to him.

I began my walk home in silence after putting my headphones in but forgetting to press play. I always did that and I’d always end up halfway home before I even realised. Eventually I pressed play and Blink began blasting through my headphones. On the way home I thought about the fact I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone they were on their way home. I’d never been very good with secrets, especially not when I was excited like I was now, because no matter how mad I was at them for fucking up, my boys were still coming home and it meant I got to spend more time with them and that is never something I could be angry about.

Eventually I arrived home and unlocked the door. I looked at the clock, it was nearly 10 and my brother was about a four hour plane journey away. I figured they’d be back around 4, which meant I had six hours to prepare for them being home. I knew I’d need to get the next few days homework out of the way otherwise it would never get done and then I’d need to clean and hide all Flyzik’s favourite Disney movies…one day we’d actually get to watch Peter Pan first, I swear to god Fantasia was getting so fucking boring. I figured I’d bake some cakes as well, not that I ever baked, I wasn’t bad at it but it was never something I really felt the need to do.

****
It took me a while but eventually I managed to finish my homework. It was nearly 2 by the time I finished which meant I had a little less than two hours to complete my tasks. I decided on baking first, seeing as tidying before cooking was a stupid idea, everything would just get messy again. That being said so was tidying before the boys came home.

I looked at my watch again it was nearly 3:30 and the cake was ready. I decided to text Lisa and Jennie, Zack’s girlfriend, and tell them to come over. I made up some bullshit about needing a girly night…least that way one of them would bring ice cream.

Nearly twenty minutes later they were both on my doorstep with ice cream and DVDs. I couldn’t help but smirk a little, I had amazing friends.

“Hey, honey what’s up?” Jennie asked as she flung her arms around me. Jennie and Zack hadn’t been dating long. They’d started dating a few months before he went on tour, but they seemed to be going strong. She was dealing pretty well with the distance. When they had first started dating I’d been paranoid she was another one of those girls, who was just using him for fame or something, but after he’d gone on tour she stuck around and something about that told me she was in it for more than fame, she genuinely liked him.

“I just didn’t feel up to spending the night alone, I was missing the guys and I just felt a bit down. I’m sorry if you were busy or anything.” I apologised, though I wasn’t really sorry. I knew they’d be glad I had made them drop any plans they already had for this.

“No it’s fine, I was just going to sit at home and watch reruns of Friends or MASH or something anyway.” Lisa admitted.

“I was supposed to be going out for drinks with girls from work, but they don’t really matter. I didn’t really want to go anyway.” Jennie laughed, “So what is on the agenda for tonight? Well this afternoon.”

“I was thinking we should eat this ice cream and watch The Breakfast Club.” I could sense Lisa’s frustration at my movie choice. It wasn’t that she disliked the film, just that she hated watching the same film over and over again with me.

“No. Something different this time, please Rora!” She begged. Jennie had yet to be submitted to my endless John Hughes obsession.

I groaned but relented, “What then?”

She thought for a moment before finally answering, “Speed, you have to love a bit of Keanu.” She winked.

“I have never seen that film…” Jennie admitted, and with that it was decided. I felt a little bad that they were only going to get to watch half an hour of this film before the guys arrived, but oh well, I’m sure they’d appreciate the guys being home more than watching some silly film anyway.

“Then it is settled. Speed it is, let me just go grab it.” I said as I began to sprint upstairs to where I kept my DVDs. I was about half way up the stairs when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out my pocket to see the screen flash *1 MESSAGE* I opened it to see a text from Zack, letting me know they had just landed and would be home in just under an hour. I felt all giddy inside. I couldn’t wait to see my brother and his friends again. It had been too long, well in reality it had been a lot shorter than most their tours, but I missed them more than ever.

I grabbed the DVD and trekked back downstairs to put it on. Lisa and Jennie were already sprawled across the sofa, taking up most of the room; blankets draped across them.

“You guys better make room for me or I’ll just sit on you.” I warned as I finished setting the DVD player up. Immediately Lisa yanked her feet out of my way as I dived on the sofa between her and Jennie.

“You have got to stop doing that, one day you are actually going to crush me!” She yelped.

“Sorry, but if you put your feet in the way it is your fault!” I chuckled as I grabbed the ice cream off her. Cookie dough from Ben & Jerry’s. My favourite. We sat there munching away at the ice cream whilst we all drooled over Keanu for the next 35 minutes before there was loud bang at the door causing us all to jump in fright. I turned around to see a group of eleven guys all tumble through my front door. Literally all of them had decided to come back here instead of go home. I wasn’t even sure why, none of them had anything to be worried about apart from Jack who’d get a bollocking from his mom for being such an idiot.

“What the hell!?” Lisa shouted.

“Surprise?” it seemed like more of a question than a statement. Alex just stood staring at her awkwardly for a moment before opening his arms for a hug. I would never understand those two, because the second he did she leapt off the sofa and flung herself into his arms and it didn’t look like he was going to let go any time soon.

I took that as my queue to fling myself at Zack, careful not to hurt him. I knew I had to share him with Jennie now but the second I was in his arms I didn’t want to let go. I felt at home again. After nearly a minute I decided it was time to let go and give Jennie a chance to hug her boyfriend. She still seemed a little awkward around the guys, but she was doing better now than she was before. Before she could barely be in the same room as them, she’d just get flustered and unable to talk.

I stood for a moment staring around the room as everyone began to settle themselves and I couldn’t help but smile. My boys were home and I couldn’t be happier.