Inside These Arms Of Yours

"Hey Mom." I bit my lip as I spoke through the phone.

"Katie! Hey darling how are you?" Her voice was chipper so this was the perfect time to tell her.

"Well I'm great. In fact I've never been better. Um Mom there's actually something I need to tell you." I paused for a moment and she didn't reply. "Zacky proposed." There was a clunk sound made on the other end leading me to assume she had dropped the phone. A scuffle ensued and was followed by some shrill screaming.

"Oh my! He proposed! Ahhh my baby's getting married!" I could only laugh at her response as it sounded like she was now crying. I heard a click and Karissa's voice came through on the other end.

"Are you serious? Zacky proposed to you? You had better have said yes young lady!" I laughed as she spoke loud enough to be heard over our mom's tears.

"Karissa I'm not stupid. Of course I said yes!" She started squealing like a little kid and I had to hold the phone away from my ear. Zacky made his way into the kitchen and gave me a funny look. I mouthed mom and Karissa to him and he nodded as he grabbed a beer out of the fridge.

"Is he around? Can we talk to him?" I smirked at Karissa's question.

"Actually he just walked into the room. Lucky you." Zacky's head snapped in my direction as I smiled at him while holding out the phone. Begrudgingly he took the phone and started talking to my lovely mother and sister. He let out a few laughs as he spoke.

Eventually he handed me the phone back with a smile on his face. I said a few quick goodbyes to my family before hanging up.

"They weren't too bad were they?" I asked hopefully.

"No they were fine. Rather funny. You know I love your family. Your mom reacted the same way my mom did." Zacky had called his parents earlier in the morning to tell them and his mom was ecstatic. Things were going well. I just hoped they would continue to go that way.

"You gonna call him?" I nodded in reply and Zacky nodded before giving me a quick kiss. He scooted out of the room as I shakily lifted a finger to dial the number I knew so well.

"Bout time bitch." His voice held laughter to it and I knew everything would be alright.

"Hey Will. How are you?" It was so nice to hear his voice. I had tried calling so many times but always got his answering machine and then he'd call me back and get mine. It was a game of constant phone tag.

"I'm great babe. How are you and Zacky holding up? He had better be treating you well." I chuckled thinking that he had been treating me better than well.

"We're doing great Will. He's incredible. Actually that's sort of why I was calling." I chuckled lightly hoping he wouldn't freak out too much. He had always been a tad bit protective of me.

"Oh?" His response was short and scared me slightly.

"Yeah. Um Will… Zacky and I are getting married. He proposed to me." Will was silent for a minute before he spoke up once more.

"Holy shit. I'm so happy for you Katie! He must be quite the special guy." I smiled hearing the sincerity in his voice. It was a good thing I could read his emotions easily. Even from over the phone.

"Yeah. Will I've never been happier in my life. I just have one request from you."

"And what would that be?"

"You had better come to my wedding like you promised you hoe." I said through giggles. He gave a nervous laugh which had me worried. "You leave that tropical island and had better be here for it."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world hun. You know that. It's just a sad state of affairs that I can't get to meet him beforehand. I just have to trust you."

"Will, you know me well enough to know that I won't just marry any guy. Zacky is really special to me and I can't wait for you to meet him. So enough about me. What has been going on in your life?" He paused for a second before giving another uneasy chuckle. I knew him well enough to know that something wasn't right with him.

"Ahh. Me. Umm well…" His voice cracked slightly and I heard a door slam in the background before hearing a new female voice start talking to him.

"I umm… I got married Katie." His words basically shattered my heart. Did I hear him correctly? He had gotten married? Without telling me? How could he do that? He's my best friend.

"You what? Please tell me I heard wrong."

"I uh, well you umm didn’t hear wrong. I got married two months ago. Her name's Angela."

"You got fucking married and didn’t tell me? What the hell Will?!?" My raised voice caused Zacky to burst into the kitchen to see me on the verge of tears. I watched as his lips formed the words 'He got married???' to which I nodded vigorously.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you Katie. I tried calling I promise. But I just never seemed to reach you." I felt my emotions swing from shock to anger to sadness.

"And you couldn't have sent me a wedding invitation or something? Or left me a message telling me? An email? Anything? Will we promised eachother when we were younger that we'd go to eachother's weddings. And now you ruined that." I trailed off quietly and felt the tears start to trail down my cheeks. My best friend had broken his promise to me. He hadn't even told me he had a girlfriend.

"You know maybe I should just go. I'll talk to you later." I said through my tears.

"Ok. I'm sorry Kate." I could hear the sadness in his voice as I hung up the phone. Zacky was quick to pull me into his chest as the tears fell. My own best friend had failed to tell me he had gotten married. Married! The very same thing I had called to tell him Zacky and I were doing. But I, unlike him, was following through with our old promise.

"Shh. It's okay hun." Zacky's whispers helped to calm me down. I was determined not to let the situation ruin my day. It wouldn't. My breathing evened out and I pulled away from Zacky to give him a small smile.

"I'm alright." I nodded trying to convince us both.

"Are you sure?" I nodded again.

He leaned down and captured my lips in a tender kiss before handing me a box of tissue.

"You might want to keep these close today." I smiled knowing he was probably right.

It wasn’t long before I had fixed my makeup and both Zack and I were off to Brian and Michelle's house. The entire group was getting together today and we girls were going to start the wedding planning while the guys worked on the bach party plans.

"Rev! For the last time! We are doing a combined bach party! Because I for one, know what you guys get up to when you're alone with strippers and I don’t want Zacky doing something stupid because he gets drunk!" Val's screech met both Zacky's and my ears as we entered the house. We both paused to look at eachother with raised brows.

"Oh come on Val!" I chuckled lightly hearing Jimmy whine. I could only imagine the look on Val's face.

"Actually combined might be fun. We can get guy and girl strippers and watch Zacky and Katie get jealous of eachother." Zacky snickered hearing Brian back up Val which caused Jimmy to groan and huff.

"I could never be jealous. You're way better than any stripper." I felt my cheeks redden at Zacky's compliment.

"Oh stop it." I smacked his chest lightly while he took my hand and dragged me further into the house.

"I'm all for a combined one." The bickering stopped once Zacky spoke and all eyes turned to us. I nodded to confirm that I was cool with it as well.

"You serious dude?!" Leana leaned over and smacked Jimmy over the head, my guess is for overreacting.

"Look Jim, you guys can plan it all still alright? Just don't pull any stupid shit that's going to ruin it. Got it?" I love Val sometimes. She easily speaks her mind whereas I can't always.

"Fine." Jimmy's huff caused the rest of us to laugh. I shook my head before Zacky let go of my hand and followed the rest of the guys downstairs into Brian's studio. Val gave me a hug before leading me into the kitchen. There were tons of wedding magazines and such scattered all over Brian and Michelle's kitchen table. Some already lay open on pages with dresses, invitations, and flower bouquets.

"What wrong Katie? You don't look one hundred percent today." Michelle glanced over from where she was pouring several cups of coffee. I took a seat at the table and she placed one in front of everyone before sitting down herself.

"Well, I made the rounds of phone calls this morning. Both Zack and I did. I called Will. He…" My voice got really quiet and I could feel the tears starting to surface but I tried so hard to push them back down. "He got married. And never told me. When we were little we made a promise to eachother that we'd go to eachother's weddings. And now I'll never get to go to his. I didn’t even know he had a girlfriend! I guess it's sort of ironic that I called to tell him I was doing what he had already accomplished." Leana leaned over and hugged me as a few tears fell from my eyes.

"It's alright hun." I nodded and pulled away blinking back more tears. They all had sympathetic looks in their eyes.

"How did it go with your parents?" I was grateful that Lacey turned the attention away from Will because I really didn’t need to think about that if it was going to make me cry. I smiled before starting to talk.

"It went great. They were so happy. Well I only got to talk to my mom and Karissa. My dad was at work. Zacky even talked to the two of them. Talk about funny. By the time I woke up Zacky was already on the phone with his mom. I swear he half expected her to show up at the door any second after he hung up. She was ecstatic." I felt better talking about our families with the girls.

"I know Brian told his parents last night. I think his dad just about shit his pants at the fact that Zacky was settling down finally." Michelle's comment made me laugh. That was definitely something I could imagine seeing.

"That's awesome. So what is all this for? Are you guys my official wedding planners?" I picked up a magazine before flipping through the pages quickly.

"Oh hun you bet. Who needs a wedding planner when you have the four of us? This wedding is going to be the shit!" I laughed at Val's comment but figured she was probably right. It looks like they had robbed the bookstore of all it's wedding magazines.

We talked for a long time about plans. I explained how I wanted a beach wedding. Zack and I had talked it over last night and both agreed that we would do it down in San Diego. Huntington was choice number one but we figured it would be the center of attention in the small town. We were going to rent out a small cove that had a gazebo in La Jolla. There were some beach houses that were part of the cove and figured it would be a perfect place for everyone to stay.

We didn't want it to be a huge wedding but we had to make sure all the important people were present. Family and close friends were a must. As for the wedding party the girls and my sister were to be the bride's maids. I hadn’t chosen my maid of honor yet but I had a feeling it would most likely be Val. She had become my best friend and she was always there for me no matter what.

As for Zacky's side, the groom's men were set to be the guys and my brother. I had a feeling that Brian would end up as best man. Zacky hadn't chosen yet but I just had this feeling it would end up being Brian. The fellow guitarist in crime.

Since we were having it on the beach I had picked out beachy colors. Dress colors were going to be a cerulean blue. The girls laughed because the dresses would match my hair. The guys of course would be in tuxes but we were going to wait on them to deal with the specifics.

Of course, I wasn’t going to be too picky with looks. This was an Avenged Sevenfold wedding after all. That means all the tattoos, piercings and funky hair you can get. Val had mentioned that it would indeed be in the sand which meant that we girls probably shouldn’t be in heels. I figured barefoot would work. The dresses we picked out were a good length so they wouldn’t drag in the sand. I didn’t really care about what the guys wore for shoes; flip flops, boots, converse, I really didn't care.

"So what about your first dance song? Do you have any ideas?" My ears perked up at Leana's comment. I really hadn’t thought about the first dance song too much. I had a few ideas that I had put on my ipod recently so I thought I'd play them and see what the girls thought.

"Well I've got some possibilities. Let me snag my ipod." I fetched the device from my purse before returning to the kitchen to see Michelle had a cord in her hand. She took it from me and plugged it in. I told her to turn to the wedding folder and she pressed shuffle. I had failed to notice the small speakers in the corners of the room where the sound projected from.

A few songs went by but none seemed to impress anyone. My favorite had to be coming up soon. I just knew it. Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden filled the speakers and I grinned. This was my favorite so far.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!? Oh hell no Katie! I will not have some shitty band like Savage Garden playing as our first dance at our wedding." I looked up from the magazine I had been looking at to see Zacky leaning in the kitchen doorway a shocked expression on his face. The guys were all scattered around the kitchen; some grabbing food others sitting and drinking a beer.

"But Zacky! I love this song." He came over behind me and leaned down to say something in my ear.

"Umm… no." I huffed as he took a beer from the fridge and popped the top off.

"Oh you freaking suck Mr. Baker." I stuck my tongue out at him knowing this was going to be a fight I would lose.

"Yeah on your tits. I do believe the rest is your job future Mrs. Baker." The guys howled as I blushed and wrapped up one of the magazines and swatted Zack's butt with it as he walked to my side. He just chuckled and winked as he made me stand up before pulling me down into his lap on my chair.

"Then what pray tell dear do you propose we play?" He set his beer down and rested his chin on my shoulder as he looked down at one of the many magazines that were still lying open on the table.

"I already have a song picked out. But I'm not telling you what it is. It's a surprise." I groaned as he just smiled and gave my neck a quick kiss. His arms snaked around me to grab one of the magazines that had some tuxedos in it. I watched as he flipped through and stopped on a page of a guy wearing a white tux with black pants.

"I like this one." He whispered as he pointed to it. It definitely would look good on him that's for sure.

"I think that would look nice on you hun." I felt him nod his head slightly before snagging a wedding dress magazine.

"Do you have a dress yet?"

"Yes. But I'm not showing it to you." I turned slightly and stuck my tongue out at him for the second time today. I noticed he and I had been talking in hushed voices. Looking up I saw everyone giving us cute smiles.

"Aww don't they look so cute talking all hushed like that? That's such a cute couple thing to do." I saw Zacky glare at Jimmy as he spoke at us like we were two little kids.

"Watch it Sullivan." He growled. Jimmy just held up his hands in defense before continuing to scan the flower magazine that Leana was looking through.

I set the magazine down that I was holding. I left it open on a page of tuxes that were possibilities for the guys. I tucked my hands under the table in my lap before peering down at the pictures. Zacky's head was still resting on my shoulder but I smiled when I felt his rough hands grasp mine in his own. My hands fit well in his. He rubbed small circles on the backs of my hands as we both surveyed the pages of tuxes.

"I can't wait to get married to you." I loved his random thoughts sometimes.

"I'd have to say I feel the same then." I replied as he gave my cheek a kiss before removing one of his hands to point to a picture on the page.

"I like that one for the guys." I nodded in agreement. It was nice that neither of us were too picky about the tuxes and dresses. Val had taken a lot of notes on things we saw that we liked. Zacky used his empty hand to pass the magazine to Val so she could write down model numbers and such.

"Aw shit man. Why do we have to look like penguins and Zack gets to look cool?" Brian hit Jimmy in the back of his head for his comment before replying.

"Because it's his fucking wedding man." I loved the incredulous look that Johnny was giving Rev.

"Yeah but Zacky gets to look sexy." I couldn’t help but laugh at Jimmy's persistence.

"Penguins are sexy too Jim. I have a feeling you guys will look incredibly nice." Jimmy looked skeptically at me before sighing and nodding.

"And besides man. We all know I'm already sexy as it is." Everyone laughed at Zacky but I just shook my head and squeezed his hand.

"They may not think you're sexy but I sure do hun." I gave him a smile of which he returned.

Lacey turned to look at Zacky and I from her spot across the table. "Have you guys thought of any cake ideas?" Ahh the wedding cake. I had some ideas.

"Well we have a few I guess. Part of me wanted it to be beachy colors to match everything else. But then there's a part of me that wants a punked out cake."

"Dude you've gotta do a punk cake. No doubt about it. That shit would be incredible." Matt sat thinking as he spoke. You could tell he was trying to come up with cake ideas. It seemed funny seeing the big bad M. Shadows talking about a wedding cake.

Leana nodded her head with Matt before she turned to look at me. "I've actually got a few ideas for it. If you give me some time I can come up with a draft and show it to you."

Zacky and I both looked at eachother. He shrugged but nodded. I smiled and winked at Leana. "Give it your best shot babe."

The remainder of the afternoon was spent going over ideas and surprisingly the guys actually proved to be a lot of help. They were rather quick with the party planning and that scared me to be honest. Val had tried to pry things out of Matt all afternoon but he always shook his head and said she wouldn’t be disappointed. He did let slip that it would be at a strip club though. I didn’t think it was fair that Zacky knew what was going on and yet I was being left in the dark.

"Oh give it a fucking rest. You'll find out eventually. It'll be fun. Trust me on that." I sighed as he grabbed my hand as we drove home. The thing that scared me the most was that the guys and we girls had a very different definition of fun. For all I know there would be strippers galore and I wouldn’t even get to touch Zacky at all that night. Part of me also couldn’t stop thinking that maybe he would back out. Maybe he enjoyed the strip clubs enough to not want to give them up. What if I wasn't good enough for him?

The car stopped and I made a bee line for the house. Zacky wasn't far behind me as I entered the living room and plopped down on the couch.

"Hey hey hey. What's wrong? You look like you're about to cry Kate." Indeed I was. But I kept it in.

"Nothing's wrong." My answer was short and uncontrolled, therefore letting him know something was indeed wrong. He pushed me off the couch and laid down before pulling me down with him. My head was on his chest as he ran his fingers through my red and blue locks.

"Something's wrong. And all I can come up with is that you're worried about the party. You got really quiet after that." He knew me too well. But what was I supposed to tell him? That I was scared he'd back out? That I was worried I wasn’t good enough for him? What could I say?

"I just… I've never been with you guys to a strip club. I've never been to one period. I don't want to get jealous. But I know I will. Those girls are so much more pretty than I am most of the time." I hastily wiped a fallen tear from my cheek.

Zacky was quick to pull my head up so I was looking into his green orbs. "I don't ever want to hear you say that. I can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous you are. And I am so proud of the fact that I managed to snag myself a normal girl. Not one who is shedding their clothes on stage for a bunch of old men. In the past, yes we have gone to a lot of strip clubs. But since we're all more or less settling down now we've toned it down. Sure the guys will probably make me get a lap dance and I'm sure they have something in store for you as well but let me tell you every second I'll be wishing it was you there. No one compares to you. Especially no stripper." He let my head return to resting on his chest and his fingers resumed working through my hair.

"Nobody will ever compare to you Katie. I promise you that."