‹ Prequel: So Kiss Me Goodbye
You and Me, Forever Young
Chapter 9
A few days after Shelby found her dress she gave Jamie and me a day off from planning the wedding.
Instead of sleeping till noon like I would've hoped, Will dragged me out of bed and into a rental car.
Zackie was already in a car seat in the back by the time Will tied a bandana over my eyes.
"Will?"
He laughed. "It's a surprise."
I sighed and blindly felt around for my iPod, plugging it into the car after a few minutes of unaided struggle.
As a parent I should've probably been playing The Wiggles or The Doodlebops for my baby, but when you live in the music world you don't play that second rate crap for your own kids.
That's why we were listening to Led Zeppelin.
With the thought of the Doodlebops I had a quick flashback to tour when we'd have hotel rooms and all the guys would be gathered around PBS cartoons with the babies.
We'd only been off tour for a week but I was already starting to miss the road.
Silence was still a weird thing, as was sitting around for more than five minutes without having to be rushed off somewhere.
And as much as it was nice to be alone, or alone with Will, I was missing the guys more and more despite them living like fifteen minutes away.
Will took my hand in his while we drove to some unknown location, though even blinded by one of his old bandanas from the Almost Here days I could tell he was smiling.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" I asked.
"No." Will replied simply.
"Can you tell me where we're going?"
"No."
"Is there food involved?" I asked again, enjoying our game of twenty questions.
"Maybe."
"Are we going off to another surprise wedding?"
"We're already married."
"You aren't trading me to the mafia in exchange for twenty gold bricks are you?"
"No." Will said while laughing.
I sighed and leaned against the unfamiliar seat.
"You're so lucky I love you or I wouldn’t put up with this."
With a chuckle I felt Will tighten his hold on my hand.
"I wonder what else I could get you to do since you love me."
I mock gasped. "William Eugene Beckett! No dirty talk when the baby is in the car!"
Will started choking on his own spit after hearing what I was insinuating.
"Lilly!"
Instead of answering him I began humming innocently to the song that came on, one of Fall Out Boy's old songs.
The conversation was dropped from there and we drove a few more minutes in relative silence.
I stopped caring for a while about where we were going and focused on the drive.
There was something so nice about a simple car ride that reminded me of when I was a little girl and we'd go on long vacation drives.
Maybe I was always meant to travel in life since I always did enjoy it when I was young and didn’t have to worry about anything other than the end of summer.
Still, it certainly makes life easier to travel with your family and friends, something I'm sure Will could agree with.
A couple more minutes of musing and the car came to a stop.
"Are we there yet?" I asked.
Will chuckled and got out of the car. "Yep."
I heard the door in the back open and close, Will presumably getting Zackie before getting to me.
I let him help me out of the car blindfold and baby and all as he walked me forward.
"Okay now Lilly, you can take the blindfold off." Will said, taking my hand.
I eagerly ripped the piece of fabric off, finding myself in front of... a house.
"Will? What is this?"
He grinned and pulled me close by slipping his arm around my waist.
"It could be our new home."
I turned quickly and looked at him. "What?"
"I was thinking maybe now that we're off tour we could buy our house, make that dream come true." Will explained with a small smile.
Slightly confused I looked back up at him. "What dream?"
He shuffled Zackie into my arms and held me in a hug from behind.
"You, Zackie, and me moving out of the city, getting a house with maybe a couple dogs. A nice huge backyard they can play in... maybe have another kid later."
"But what about touring? It's kind of hard to do that with a house and dogs and... kids." I said, the mere mention of having another baby freaking me out.
Will chuckled. "Well we were actually thinking about taking a break. I mean we've done nothing but tour and record and tour and record for the past five years. Now we've got families we need to think about and I don't want to look back years from now and kick myself for missing this time in Zackie's life or with you."
Will's words sank deep somewhere in my mind and I began thinking about it.
And it made sense; maybe getting a house was the next step.
Instead of sleeping till noon like I would've hoped, Will dragged me out of bed and into a rental car.
Zackie was already in a car seat in the back by the time Will tied a bandana over my eyes.
"Will?"
He laughed. "It's a surprise."
I sighed and blindly felt around for my iPod, plugging it into the car after a few minutes of unaided struggle.
As a parent I should've probably been playing The Wiggles or The Doodlebops for my baby, but when you live in the music world you don't play that second rate crap for your own kids.
That's why we were listening to Led Zeppelin.
With the thought of the Doodlebops I had a quick flashback to tour when we'd have hotel rooms and all the guys would be gathered around PBS cartoons with the babies.
We'd only been off tour for a week but I was already starting to miss the road.
Silence was still a weird thing, as was sitting around for more than five minutes without having to be rushed off somewhere.
And as much as it was nice to be alone, or alone with Will, I was missing the guys more and more despite them living like fifteen minutes away.
Will took my hand in his while we drove to some unknown location, though even blinded by one of his old bandanas from the Almost Here days I could tell he was smiling.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" I asked.
"No." Will replied simply.
"Can you tell me where we're going?"
"No."
"Is there food involved?" I asked again, enjoying our game of twenty questions.
"Maybe."
"Are we going off to another surprise wedding?"
"We're already married."
"You aren't trading me to the mafia in exchange for twenty gold bricks are you?"
"No." Will said while laughing.
I sighed and leaned against the unfamiliar seat.
"You're so lucky I love you or I wouldn’t put up with this."
With a chuckle I felt Will tighten his hold on my hand.
"I wonder what else I could get you to do since you love me."
I mock gasped. "William Eugene Beckett! No dirty talk when the baby is in the car!"
Will started choking on his own spit after hearing what I was insinuating.
"Lilly!"
Instead of answering him I began humming innocently to the song that came on, one of Fall Out Boy's old songs.
The conversation was dropped from there and we drove a few more minutes in relative silence.
I stopped caring for a while about where we were going and focused on the drive.
There was something so nice about a simple car ride that reminded me of when I was a little girl and we'd go on long vacation drives.
Maybe I was always meant to travel in life since I always did enjoy it when I was young and didn’t have to worry about anything other than the end of summer.
Still, it certainly makes life easier to travel with your family and friends, something I'm sure Will could agree with.
A couple more minutes of musing and the car came to a stop.
"Are we there yet?" I asked.
Will chuckled and got out of the car. "Yep."
I heard the door in the back open and close, Will presumably getting Zackie before getting to me.
I let him help me out of the car blindfold and baby and all as he walked me forward.
"Okay now Lilly, you can take the blindfold off." Will said, taking my hand.
I eagerly ripped the piece of fabric off, finding myself in front of... a house.
"Will? What is this?"
He grinned and pulled me close by slipping his arm around my waist.
"It could be our new home."
I turned quickly and looked at him. "What?"
"I was thinking maybe now that we're off tour we could buy our house, make that dream come true." Will explained with a small smile.
Slightly confused I looked back up at him. "What dream?"
He shuffled Zackie into my arms and held me in a hug from behind.
"You, Zackie, and me moving out of the city, getting a house with maybe a couple dogs. A nice huge backyard they can play in... maybe have another kid later."
"But what about touring? It's kind of hard to do that with a house and dogs and... kids." I said, the mere mention of having another baby freaking me out.
Will chuckled. "Well we were actually thinking about taking a break. I mean we've done nothing but tour and record and tour and record for the past five years. Now we've got families we need to think about and I don't want to look back years from now and kick myself for missing this time in Zackie's life or with you."
Will's words sank deep somewhere in my mind and I began thinking about it.
And it made sense; maybe getting a house was the next step.
♠ ♠ ♠
I know... it's been a while huh?I've kind of spent the last five or so days holed up in my room going between reading Twilight, sleeping, reading Twilight, remembering to eat, and the reading Twilight again.
Though when I say that it's usually me shuffling between the four books I now hold up as my high school bible(s).
I thought it'd help my bleak outlook on writing but it seems to have made things worse... my mind is too far gone down the road of vampires.
Still, I thought you guys deserved an update for being so patient with my bullshit (though if you haven't I still totally understand).
I'll try and shift my focus now to the rest of my story, The Academy Is... new album and getting tickets for the show in October.
Oh and trying to distract myself from the inevitable, like going back to school on the twenty-fifth.
But it doesn't help that I had to go back today to get books (I'm sorry I got the days wrong Nat, I'll try to call you at a reasonable hour and not 6 am).
That kind of failed though since out of all my books I left in my locker, my Japanese book was the one that turned up missing.
Luckily it's the cheapest and I have EXACTLY enough money saved to pay it, so here's to praying my parent's don't decide to punish me (like not paying for TAI, they do weird things like that).
On the bright side I ran into my step daughter there and we both were in the same conundrum, cept her's was a History book.
I missed my step daughter...
Anyway now back to my regularly scheduled obsession (like Robert Pattinson singing *melts*)
Oh and raise your hand if you saw the school picture of William Beckett on FBR.com, I started giggling like mad.
Got the same reaction when I saw ther Behind the Video, or Guy Ripley and his Hannah Montana pen.