Blood

Both Marrissa and Kory had been sat on the sofa with snacks and soda since this morning, looking at different decoration examples and color schemes and even wedding dresses. Matt and the guys had arrived just after nine, with a new tour confirmed. They'd set out in three weeks to Nevada, and come back home in exactly seventy-seven days. Matt and Marrissa would discuss things over a few days after they returned, and then they'd have the wedding.

The guys had stated drinking only half past nine, and had begun to get curious as to what Marrissa and Kory had been so intrigued about a little after ten.

Jimmy plopped down next to Kory, lying his head in her lap and letting his feet dangle off of the end of the sofa. "If love's in the air, we might die. What if there's too much love and not enough oxygen?"

Kory only laughed, patting his cheek. "We won't die, Jimmy. I promise," she answered, shaking her head. "You definitely not driving home, though, that's for sure."

He just gave her a small smile. "I love you, Kory. I'm happy you're back."

She nodded. "I love you too, JimJam," she said, ruffling his hair. "Now go before I start tearing up," she added, pushing him off of her lap.

Jimmy hardly regained his balance, but once he did he made his way back into the front room with the rest of the guys.

"Either we're gonna be making a few trips tonight or we'll have to deal with five hungover boys tomorrow," Marrissa stated, laughing softly. "On the topic of the wedding, I think I have a color scheme. The one that we saw with the yellow theme? I kinda like that one. But, instead of the bright, neon yellow, we could do a calmer color, like the color that comes from twinkle lights. And we could use the lights for some decorations and even incorporate it into the actual ceremony," she said, a grin on her face. She absolutely loved the idea, and hoped that Kory would as well.

The younger female nodded. "That sounds amazing, Riss. Write it down in the document, I'm gonna go take care of this stuff and then you should come with me to Walmart. I wanna decorate cupcakes," she said, grabbing the empty snack wrappers and walking into the kitchen to throw them away. As she did, she could hear Marrissa explaining to Matt what they'd be doing. She grabbed her wallet from the bag she had brought in the living room, and checked her appearance in the reflection of one of the windows quickly, before Marrissa was slipping her shoes on.

"I think they're all gonna end up staying here," she said, laughing lightly. "Ready?"

Kory nodded and they both walked outside. "Passenger seat means I get to pick the music," she said, waiting for Marrissa to unlock the doors.

She laughed. "I know, I know. Before I forget, did you find anything out about this Sam girl?" She climbed into her car, starting it and waiting a second before backing out of the driveway.

"Yeah. I guess dad didn't tell her anything, he just said that I had had a harder time taking things the way they were when he and Nicole split up. She doesn't know anything about what happened. It's whatever, I guess," she replied, a sigh escaping her lips as she went through the dozens of mix tapes Marrissa had always had on hand.

Marrissa didn't say anything in return. She was well aware that this would be something knew for Kory, that having another female in Mason's life would be something she'd need a lot of time to get used to, but she knew she'd be fine.

Kory took only a second longer before finding an album she wanted to listen to. She placed it into the stereo, and went straight to track eleven, which she had known to be Bohemian Rhapsody. She knew that it would be stuck in her head for the next few weeks, and she'd want to listen to nothing but Queen, but it she didn't mind, when it came right down to it.

By the time they had arrived, the song had ended and both girls were disappointed, so in turn sat in the car until it had played all of the way through again. "That," Kory said, laughing, "Was truly fabulous."

Marrissa nodded in agreement. "We need to do this more often." She pulled her phone from her pocket to check the time, and said, "Alright. We have about fifteen minutes before Matt starts blowing up my phone. Let's do this, shall we, young squire?" She asked, forcing a terrible British accent.

Linking arms with Marrissa, Kory nodded. "Why yes, yes we shall."



The girls miraculously had gotten everything they needed for cupcakes in only fifteen minutes, plus an iced tea for the both of them. It had only taken ten minutes to drive all of the way back to Matt's, and as soon as they arrived they quickly got to work on the cupcakes. The baking and waiting part was dreadful for Kory, seeing as she understood nothing and was quite impatient.

As they waited, they pulled up a few examples of the color scheme and the twinkle lights to show Matt, though he seemed adamant on making the entire thing of Marrissa's preference. Kory thought it to be adorable, but Marrissa was becoming frustrated with him saying "whatever you want, babe," because she felt as if he wasn't concerned with it. When Matt finally noticed what she was feeling, Kory had taken it upon herself to "check on the cupcakes" long enough for them to talk things through for a moment.

After that, Matt gave his opinions bit stronger and made suggestions on the decorations, but it didn't last long because both Kory and Marrissa were slowly becoming tired, and the guys were trying to lure Matt back into the front room.

"Alright, let's frost these things and head to bed," Kory said, a small smile on her face. This was the part she had been looking forward to. While at the supermarket, the girls had gone a little overboard with decorations. Not only did they get three different colors of frosting, but they had also gotten sprinkles, edible pearls, and even a few random selected ornaments.

Marrissa nodded in agreement, and they began frosting. The first batch they had made was easier to do than the second; the were more alert. Kory had attempted to make a small deathbat out of the edible pearls on an orange frosted cupcake, but it hadn't turned out as she had thought it would have. They laughed for a good ten minutes at the failed attempted cupcake designs, and both agreed that they couldn't be bakers even if they wanted to.

Once they had finished frosting the first batch, they chose one cupcake that they wanted before letting the guy's pick and choose which ones they wanted. They were finished with them by the time the girls had began frosting the second batch. The frosting took way longer the second time around, seeing as they were additionally jaded by this point in time. Most cupcakes were sloppily frosted with either just a few sprinkles atop them, or more sprinkles than necessary.

They informed the guys that they'd be heading to bed, but resorted to watching Supernatural in Marrissa's bedroom. Halfway through the first episode, Marrissa looked over at Kory. nestled under the comforter, and sighed. "The topless Hollister models never came, Kor," she said, frowning.

Kory burst out into a fit of exhausted laughter, and had to wipe the tears from her eyes minutes later. "Yeah, you're right. I'm gonna have to sue them for that. I wanted my Hollister model," she frowned.

Marrissa shook her head, and laughed. After a few moments, both girls had calmed down a bit and Marrissa sighed once again. "Kory,you seriously need to sort your shit out. I love you, so take it from me before someone else tells you. You shouldn't lead him on if you're not interested, because he won't stop until you verbally tell him that he needs to move on. I know you're confused, but do you love him?"

She knew exactly who the subject was. She wasn't exactly looking to avoid it, but she wasn't sure how to go about any of it either. She was so inexperienced and lost when it came to relationships and love and anything in between."I know," she groaned. "And I do. I really do love him, but I'm just so...lost. I don't know how to go about any of it, and I don't know how I feel about feeling powerless when it comes to him. I just, ugh. I hate it."

"That's not being powerless, Kory. That's being in love. And you just have to trust that he'll be there when you actually fall, for lack of a better word," Marrissa stated, trying her hardest to help her best friend. She understood being afraid, it's expected from someone like her. But to keep her walls up this long for someone who wouldn't hurt her intentionally was ridiculous.

Kory nodded, but sighed. "I'll think about it some more later, but I'm really about to pass out. I'll talk to you in the morning, Riss," she said, pecking her on the cheek and tiredly climbing out of the bed, making her way down the hall into the guest room where most of her clothes remained. She was too tired to change out of her current clothes, and instead just crawled beneath the cold blankets and closed her eyes in attempt to sleep.

She didn't get very far, though, because as soon as she shut her eyes the door opened and, because of the blinding light from the hallway, she could only faintly make out the familiar build. Brian shut the door behind him, and laid on top of the blankets next to Kory. "What're you doing?" She mumbled sleepily, closing her eyes again.

Brian sighed, and re-positioned himself before speaking. "Sleeping. Trying to, at least," he said, nestling himself next to Kory.

"You smell terrible," she said, wrinkling her nose and turning to face him.

He laughed. "Because I'm drunk, and you're beautiful. And tomorrow I'll be sober, and you'll still be beautiful," he replied, grinning and placing a sloppy kiss on her nose.

She shook her head, but couldn't hold back the grin that formed on her face. "Brian?"

"Hm?"

"I think I love you." Half of her wished that he was sober, so that he would remember this tomorrow. But, the other half, was somewhat more satisfied that he wouldn't, even if she knew that it would make things harder eventually.

Brian grinned, and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Goodnight, Kory," he said, planting a sweet, short kiss behind her ear and pulling her close.