Inside These Arms Of Yours

Two hours later, the guys could be found sitting in their beach chairs in a circle under the awning with beers in hand and staring at me intently. I on the other hand was sitting nervously in my chair, clutching my coke afraid of what was to come next. I had been asked so many questions about myself so far that I was starting to lose track of them all. We had gotten the basics out of the way by now and I just knew Brian was going to bring up my housing situation. He kept giving me that look that said he was going to say something soon enough.

“So Katie, care to tell the other guys the lovely story about your landlord that you told me earlier?” he said while looking at me with raised eyebrows and a serious look on his face. I knew I wasn’t getting out of this one but hey I could try right? I officially hate him now.

“Ummm suuuuure. She’s a lovely lady whom I absolutely adore and would never make me move out of my place.” I said in one breath as quickly as possible.

“Nice try princess. Except you left out the fact that she is indeed making you move out and in only two weeks time. Explanation please.” He smirked at me knowing I was in a hole now and the only way of getting out was to tell them all. The guys all had shocked looks on their faces and I knew a million questions were about to come flying at me.

“Alright fine… since you insist.” I said while rolling my eyes.
Looking down at my lap I started my story.

“My landlord is an evil woman whom I hate with a passion. She is kicking me out in two weeks so that she can renovate the place. Apartments are so expensive down here and this was the cheapest one that I could afford. I’m currently only working one job because no one else would hire me due to my college major which apparently doesn’t have much value down here. I don’t have enough money to move somewhere else and my family is currently living out of the country due to my dad’s job. Certain age circumstances are preventing me from living with them. My friend and I are supposed to be going to look for another apartment later this week. But if we don’t find anywhere, I have no idea what I’ll do. I can’t live with her because she already has a roommate who makes my life a living hell when I’m around.”
Jimmy was the first person to speak up. He had guts I tell you.

“What did you major in? It can’t be all that bad can it?”

Chuckling I looked up at him and smiled.

“No it’s not bad. I love what I can do. I majored in music recording. Sadly San Diego isn’t big on that aspect I guess. There are no studios here, let alone ones that were willing to hire me on. The few I did check into suggested I move up to LA. But there came the money problem. No job means no money. No money means no move. Hence where I am now in life.”

I looked down again and shuffled my feet around in the sand a bit. I don’t know what the guys were doing but it got quiet for a while and I was eventually pulled out of my digging when a hand lifted my chin up and I stared straight into the green eyes of Zack… who else.

“Whether you want to or not you’re coming back up to Huntington Beach with us. I have an empty room in my place that you can stay in. Well actually I have lots of empty rooms but that’s beside the point.” His smile was contagious and I couldn’t bring myself to look away from his eyes.

Matt spoke up next saying “Aaaaaand you can help us record our album! Since we are doing it ourselves we can choose who to hire. And I think I can speak for us all when I say you can work with us. We’d love to have a chick’s input on the album. It’ll be great!”

“Isn’t this kind of sudden though? You guys didn’t even think about it or anything. And I mean you’ve only known me for what… three hours or so? What if I just get in the way? What if you guys don’t like me after being around me more? Oh gosh.” I looked down again but this time I was interrupted by a pair of strong arms lifting me up and carrying me back to a different chair where I was placed in the lap of the person carrying me. The arms found their way around my waist and a voice spoke out in a childish voice saying “Can I keep her Matt? Can I? Please???”

The guys burst out laughing and Matt told Zack he could keep me.

Turning me around, a very devious smirk came across Zacky’s face and I was kind of nervous of what he was about to say.

“You hear that princess? You’re now mine. Shads spoke and what he says goes. End of discussion.”

“You guys I just don’t know. I just…” when I turned back around I was faced with the four most pathetic looking faces I think I have ever seen. They all looked like lost puppies who had wandered too far from home. But when I turned back to face Zack it was then that I knew I had seen the most pathetic face on the planet. His eyes were huuuge and his lower lip was sticking out so far I could see where his snakebites went through his lip from the inside.

Sighing I looked down then back up and opened my mouth to say something when I was interrupted by five voices all talking, well more like begging, at the same time asking me to please come back with them.

I tried to say something but it just wasn’t going to happen.

“Alright!!!! I’ll come back with you! Just be quiet so I can hear myself think again.” I yelled while laughing.

Not knowing what was going on now, I felt myself being lifted up and carried out toward the water all the guys yelling and cheering.

“Time to celebrate!!!” cheered Johnny as they all followed Zacky and me.

“Ohhhh no no no no no no!!! Not the water! I still have my clothes on you asshole!” I yelled at Zacky who just smirked at me.

“Well we can change that if you’d like.” He winked. It was then that I saw Brian walk over and he unbuttoned my shorts and slid them off while Johnny pulled my shirt up and over my head forcing my arms out, all while Zack was still holding me. Suddenly I became aware of the fact that Zacky also had no shirt on and my bare skin was touching his. Chills went down my spine at the thought of the contact and he leaned into my ear.

“Am I making you uncomfortable babe?”

“Uh um no. No not at all. I’m just a little cold. That’s all.” Way to be convincing Katie… way to go.

“Well I’m sure you’ll be colder when I do this then.” And the next thing I felt was no longer the contact of our skin but the contact of my skin with the freezing cold ocean water.

Popping up out of the water I was gasping for air when I saw all five guys hunched over from laughing so hard. Zacky was the closest to me, still standing in the water after dropping me and so he was surprised when I ducked back underwater and kicked as hard as I could getting him all wet in the process. Coming back up, now I was the one laughing… that is until he looked me straight in the eyes and said “This means war babe. This means war.”