Pressed Flowers

Frank wasn't around when we showed up with Justin, Marie and Connor. I asked Ray and he said he was tuning his guitar so we had about five minutes left to find Acacia and introduce her to Connor and hope that they hit it off.

Acacia was busy doing her job and ordering people around. I don't think I've ever mentioned this but Acacia is a stage manager. Her job was basically to order people around and make sure we don't get killed by the pyrotechnics.

Okay, maybe there was a little more to her job description than that but you know what I mean.

"'Cacia, I have some people I want you to meet." I called as I walked onto the stage. She was standing on a chair, with a roll of duct tape and taping a small strip on the back of the stage.

"Not now, Gee, I'm kind of busy." Acacia snapped as she hopped of her chair. I glanced at the piece of tape and then back at her as if to ask 'there's no fucking way that piece of tape could be important.'

And then she responded with her own look that said, 'it's for where the stage crew can hook up some black lights so the white My Chemical Romance writing will look awesome in the dark.'

"That's going to look awesome!" I beamed and Acacia grinned. "But anyway, we met some people at Starbucks who we want you to meet." I stepped out of the way, revealing Justin, Marie and Connor.

"Hey, I'm Justin and this is my girlfriend Marie." Justin held out his hand and Acacia happily took it and shook it. She turned to Connor and smiled.

"Hey, I'm Acacia. It's nice to meet you." Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

"Nice to meet you too, my name is Connor." He shook my sisters hand and smiled politely. I shared an excited glance with Lyn-Z as we watched as the two started talking about Acacia's job.

Apparently, we both discovered that day that we have staring problems because after awhile, their conversation died down and they started shifting really awkwardly on the balls of their feet. Finally, Connor broke the silence. "Uh, do you two need something?"

"What?" Lyn-Z cocked her head, still staring. I have to admit, she has really big, unblinking eyes so if she was watching me for like fifteen minutes straight, I'd be really freaked out too.

"You guys are kind of...watching us." Acacia muttered.

Justin and Marie were having their own conversation off the side and when they heard this, they both looked up. Marie stomped over to us and started dragging us away. "Dammit, you two! Every time!"

"We've only done it like one other time!" I argued.

"What about the homeless man on the street when we were walking over here?" Justin challenged and I blushed.

"I wanted to see how he got his hair like that."

"Come on, we should probably give them some space anyway." Lyn-Z said and we all left Acacia and Connor alone on the stage. We decided to hang out in my dressing room with Ray and Bob while we waited.

Ray was sitting on the floor, in front of the TV, with a controller I his hand as he pressed random buttons. I glanced at the screen but I couldn't tell what he was playing. It was some zombie killing game.

Bob was sitting on the couch, drumsticks in one hand and fried chicken in the other as he tore into the food like some fucking predator. It was honestly a little scary to watch. "Hey guys..."

"Hey Gee, who are they?" Ray asked, not taking his eyes away from the game. Bob didn't even say anything. That's how wrapped up in his chicken he was.

"This is Justin and Marie. We met them at Starbucks." I answered. "Oh! And this is Lyn-Z! She's the bassist for Mindless Self Indulgence."

Bob started choking on his chicken as he jumped to his feet. It took a few minutes to calm him down by pounding him on his back but finally he managed to spit out what he was trying to say (with a little chicken getting spat out as well). "You're the backbender? That's so cool."

Lyn-Z laughed and even demonstrated his backbend for us, which I must say is way cooler in person. I had seen a few pictures before of it and I'm pretty surprised how I didn't recognize her immediately. But then again, I was probably just staring at the chick in a skimpy outfit, playing the guitar while she was basically upside down.

It's kind of hard to remember a person's face when there's all that going on.

We talked for another twenty-some minutes until we finally decided that Acacia and Connor had enough alone time together. Hopefully, Connor would have grown some balls and asked my sister out on a date already.

When we got back, we were in for quite the shock.

Both Connor and Acacia were there, furiously making out, but not with each other. Connor had some short girl with dyed orange hair on her lap while Acacia was straddling Frank as they sat on a pile of amplifiers.

It took me a second to fully understand what was going on, but when I did, I immediately knew that image would be permanently engraved into my mind. No amount of therapy or alcohol could delete fix me now.

But then I started to realize what this meant; Frank and Acacia were together. Her and Connor had not hit it off and fell madly in love with each other. My plan was a failure. And now, there was nothing I could do to keep the two apart.

But was I ready to give up?

Fuck no.