The Wild Ride

Matt’s POV

I looked around the lounge area. Our group took up most of the seating. But on a 2 am flight, I didn’t expect a lot of commercial passengers. The few that were here, were business people too engrossed in their work to pay attention to a group of rowdy 20-somethings.

Everyone was paired off and in separate conversations. I guess that’s natural though. Only Jason, Mattie, Rilen, Jen, Brian, Johnny, Liss, Jaci and myself are going back home. The others were taking a trip.

Jen and Jimmy were fine with this. Namely because Jen would be moving her stuff into his house while he was gone. Jason and Brian, however, did not enjoy hearing that their girls would be away from them for an indefinite amount of time. But they had to suck it up and deal because Lynds and Bee weren’t having any of their bitching.

I split my attention between those two groups in particular. Jason, Lynds and Rilen were sat on the floor- thanks to her spaztastic nature- playing a card game. I had to laugh. Rilen was winning. Not because they were letting him though; he was winning because he picked a game they sucked at. Four windows. Watching Jason’s utter confusion had Lyndsey cracking up to the point that she couldn’t concentrate. And when she did focus on the game, she just didn’t seem to have any luck. What made the situation even funnier was the way Rilen was sitting. He situated himself on Mattie, who was sleeping, with his legs crossed. He looked like a sensei.

Turning to Brian and Bee, I grimaced. I had yet to uphold my end of my deal with Mo. The temptation to put it off until I was away from Mo was getting stronger. But if I didn’t do it where she could hear it, then she would tell everyone what she had seen. To risk exposure or not. I think I can recover from her request more so than from what I did. I eyed the couple, trying to decide when to do it. They sat incredibly close; almost to the point of sharing one body. I snorted. Bee’s gotta be lovin’ that. Something I’ve learned since they got together. She hates being all couply in public. Something about it drives her nuts. Though I suppose she’s letting Brian have his way since they are soon to be separated. The things you sacrifice for a loved one.

Something wet hit my forehead. “Ok. What the fuck was that, and who threw it?”

“It was a piece of smooshed nanner.” Mo grinned at me.

“Bana- Oh! Sick Mo! You know I hate bananas!”

“BCS!” All the girls shouted at once. Bee then began singing Rafiki’s little Swahili chant with that banana line. I gagged, using part of Jimmy’s hoodie to scrub my forehead. Ridiculous. I should have known they would use that against me eventually. I thought they had done their damage when they forced me to watch the Rejected Cartoons. They had to literally hold me in place to watch the first cartoon. Stupid of me to think that some jacked up cartoon would be their form of torture.

Mo caught my attention. I frowned at her as she motioned toward Brian. She wanted me to do it now?! I groaned. For a second, I considered pleading with her to let me do this another time, but then that would just make everyone suspicious as to why I was groveling. I sent her one last look only to see a smug expression on her face. I pushed myself from my seat with a sigh of resignation. Best to just get this over with.

I made my way over to Brian and Bee slowly. I had to think of how to make this seem like some stupid random idea I had, while at the same time fulfilling my end of the deal with Mo. Shouldn’t be to hard. We all mess with each other all the time. Most of it gets put on Johnny, but we’ll get someone else every so often.

Bee smiled up at me as I approached. “Hey Beefcake! Shouldn’t you be all loved up with Jaci right now?” I

I glanced back at Jaci. Her and Mo were in a heated thumb war. “Nah... That’s actually what I’ve come to talk to you about.” Bee’s face hardened instantly. Gotta make this quick before she assumes the worst. “See, I was thinking hard-”

“Cause you thinking isn’t dangerous,” Brian snorted.

“Thinking hard a minute ago and came to the conclusion that Brian makes a very pretty lady and I think it would be best for the band if he joined your band. I mean, a girl doesn’t really fit the dynamic of Avenged, ya know?” There. Done.

Bee stared at me before cracking up. “You think we’d take him? You’re nuts. He would make a pretty woman, but he hasn’t got that edge to be in our band either. Plus he’s a bit of a diva. We don’t do divas.”

Lyndsey started singing the theme song to Pretty Woman as Liss shouted out “YOU DO A DIVA” as loud as possible. Brian started arguing with Bee about him not having “that edge” to be in their band. I grinned to myself. This was going better than planned. I turned to go back to my seat and saw Mo’s nod of approval. Everyone else enjoyed the scene in front of them, Zacky going so far as to take out a pack of Sour Skittles (for which Mo attacked him). Leaving those two to wrestle, Jaci plopped herself down on my lap .

“One of you always has to cause trouble, don’t ya.” I smiled as innocently as I could. She didn’t buy it though. She kissed me, and then cuddled herself into my chest. I took this chance to relax with her and think about what was going to happen once we got back to Huntington. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. I want her to move in with me. At first it was because of her crazy ex. But he’s dead now- which I still think the girls had something to do with. Now it’s simply because I’ve gotten used to seeing her everyday and waking up to her most mornings.

I just don’t know how to ask her. I looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, but I knew she wasn’t sleeping. Her breathing was too heavy for that. The questioned floated through my mind again as I watched her. How did I ask her to move in with me?

Rilen shrieking with laughter broke my concentration. Apparently, Mattie had woken up and sought revenge on the kid. He was tickling Ri relentlessly while Jason and Lynds watched them. Rilen, turning red from laughing so much, started trying to get to Jason.

“I’ll say ya buddy!” Jason tackled his brother. Together, Rilen and Jason teamed up on Mattie.

Jaci shifting drew my attention back to her. She smiled up at me, trying to sneak my jacket from my bag. Laughing, I gave it to her, reveling in the fact that she looked so cute swamped by my jacket. I kissed her head before once again sitting back with her.

This was cut short however by the intercom announcing our flight. Shooting a glare at the speaker, I picked Jaci up along with our stuff. I heard her mutter something along the lines of ‘showoff.’ I chuckled and continued on toward the check in line. She started wiggling before I took two steps so I put her down. “What now?”

Ignoring me she skipped over to the group that wasn’t coming back home. Oh yeah. Gotta say bye to them. Looking them over, I chose to start with the easiest ones. Since they weren’t getting separated from anyone. Mo and Zack were standing slightly off to the side of everyone else. I smiled walking over to them.

“Have fun guys. And use protection. I’m not quite ready for another nephew or niece.” Zack punched my shoulder as Mo blushed. I laughed. “Hey, I’m just kidding.” I hugged Mo. “Have as many babies as you want. I’ll help spoil em all.” This time is was Mo who hit me.

“No funny Matt. Not funny at all.” Her smile belied her words. I did a man-hug with Zack before moving on to Jimmy. I made my farewell to him short so he could get back to sucking face with Jen. Now who to interrupt first? I looked at Jason and Lynds. He was holding her while she had Rilen in what looked like a death-grip with tears pouring from her eyes. He and Mattie were trying to calm her down so I decided to leave them to that and say bye to Bee first. Not that, that would be much easier. Brian wasn’t letting go of her.

“Alright chick. I guess this is a see ya later, huh?” She snorted and motioned for help with Brian’s iron grip. I smirked. “I could just leave you like that.”

“And I could just murder you on the spot.” The blank look on her face and the fact that her voice was void of all emotion spurred me into action. It’s creepy how all the girls can say things like that and seem completely serious. It’s also what makes me think they could and would do it if pushed to the limit. It took a few minutes, but I finally freed her. She cheered, giving me a tight hug. “I’ll miss ya Beefy.” She patted my arm before going to say bye to the others. Brian gave me evils before trailing after her.

I sighed. That just leaves Lyndsey. I walked over to her cautiously. She was still crying and that was not something I wanted to deal with. I stopped short of the small group-turned-family. Mattie now had Rilen who didn’t seemed quite that phased by what was happening.

In truth, this hadn’t been Lynds idea. We all got together one night while Jase, Lynds and Rilen were sleeping and decided Lynds needs time away from being her responsible self. Looking at her now, I was about ready to just let her come home with us. Nonetheless, I gave her a hug.

“Rilen will be fine Lynds. He’s got all us to take care of him and Jason will still be here.”

“I know that you bumbling oaf. There’s something in my eye that hurts like a bitch.” I rolled my eyes. If that’s how she wanted to play this them fine. I wouldn’t be the one to call her out. I stepped back, messing up her hair in the process. She kicked me in the shin. I limped away thinking it was a fair trade.

Jaci was waiting for me at the door. She shook her head as I reached her. Shrugging in response to her unspoken comment, I followed her down the walkway and onto the plane. The others trickled on after us. Jen and Liss had tears in their eyes as they sat down. Johnny tagged along after them, joining them in their row of seats. Rilen pulled a morose looking Brian behind him, Mattie trailing behind them stifling his laughs (poorly, might I add). Jason was the last to board the plane. Seeing his bloodshot eyes, I looked away not wanting to see anymore.

The plane ride was good as plane rides go. There wasn’t any turbulence and we all slept most of the way. I did wake up at one point when Rilen ran from his spot between Mattie and Brian up to where Jason sat across from me. He climbed into the seat, cuddling up to Jason before going to sleep.

We landed around 10 am. Everyone was sluggish getting off the plane. I called for a taxi van to take us all home.

“Jaci, wanna come over?” She nodded into my chest and I wrapped my arm tighter around her. I would ask her after we slept for a few hours.

It’s been two weeks since we returned home. Today, everyone was over for a barbeque. Most of the group was in the pool playing Marco Polo- Rilen using Jason’s shoulders as a vantage point. I flipped a burger and looked into the kitchen at Jaci. She had said yes to moving in with me. To ask her, I cooked for her while she was sleeping and surprised her with a romantic dinner. Very clichéd but it did the trick. She kissed my cheek as she passed me, carrying drinks and chips to the patio table.

Jason’s phone going off cut into the noise. We all knew Lynds’ ring tone by now. Wait For Me blasted from the tiny speakers as Jason scrambled out of the pool. As I was turning back to check the food, his face stopped me. The color had drained from his face quickly as his phone dropped to the floor. Even from 10 feet away I could hear the heart stopping screams.