Booze, Boys, and Buses

My eyes slowly opened and I took note of my surroundings. I was in a white washed room with a high ceiling. My head turned to the right and I smiled when I saw Matt asleep in the floral patterned rocking chair next to my bed. The end table to my side held balloons and flowers from my friends. I picked one out of a vase and smelled it. The flower tickled my nose so I giggled. Matt’s eyes fluttered open and he looked at me.

“Hey.” He said, getting up quickly.

“Honey, sit back down. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m going to be fine.” He sighed and sat back in the rocking chair.

“I know, but you’ve been asleep for a long time.”

Just as he said that, I heard a shriek and then some continuous crying. Matt jumped up and picked Travis up from the cradle.

“I think someone is hungry.” I said, holding my hands out to take my son.

“Me too.” Matt agreed, handing the infant to me.

I took him in my arms and unbuttoned my hospital gown in the front. I let the child feed from my breast while Matt did nothing but stare at Travis. Matt had never looked so protective in his life. The way Matt looked at Travis made my heart gush. He never took his eyes off of him once while he was awake. It was almost as if he didn’t want to miss any of Travis’ childhood moments for anything.

“It’s going to be hard you know when you have to go on tour.” I said, stroking his cheek.

Matt didn’t say anything, he just began to play with his lip ring and stare at Travis. He took my hand in his and sighed heavily. I looked at him questioningly. He had something to tell me that he was trying to keep back.

“Cassie…” He began and then sighed again.

“Matt, just tell me what it is. You can tell me anything.” I stroked his face again to insure that.

“I think it’s time to be done with Avenged Sevenfold.” He stood up and looked away from Travis and me.

Travis stopped eating slowly as he fell asleep in my arms. It was difficult for me to absorb what Matt was trying to tell me. I was tempted to laugh it off like he was kidding, but I knew that this was no joke.

“W-why? Have you talked to the guys about it? Is it because of me? I don’t want to be the cause behind angry fans.” Matt took Travis from me and put him back in the cradle.

“Cass, I have a family now. Zack is getting a family. It’s going to be harder and harder to find time to go on tour.” He shook his head. “No. We can’t do it anymore.”

“Matt it’s your job! You’ve said it yourself!” I exclaimed, although I was tired, I was still shocked about the words coming out of his mouth.

“I know Cassie! Sometimes other things need to be put aside for the family. It’s not about just me anymore. I have three other people to worry about.” He got down on his knee. “Cass, I’m going to ask you again. Will you marry me?”

“Matt, I want to finish one conversation before we move on to another one.”

He got up and ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t want to have an argument right now. I was just telling you my thoughts. I understand your opinion and I will take it into consideration.”

“Why don’t you take the opinion of the other band mates too! You have them to worry about. I’m more than positive that they won’t want Avenged to be over.” I tried to relax because I didn’t want to use up too much of my energy.

“You’re right.” He sat down in the rocking chair and started playing with his lip ring.

The silence lingered in the room. We heard some shuffling outside of the door and then it swung open.

“Is she awake yet?” I heard Kacie ask.

“Yes I am.” I said.

She and Zack walked in. She smiled and waved. Matt looked a little nervous to have them around. I knew it was because he didn’t want to have to talk to Zack about his plan to end Avenged Sevenfold. I shook the thoughts out of my head. It scared me to think about things like that.

“How are you feeling?” Kacie asked quietly.

“I’m feeling okay, I’m just a little tired.” I rolled my eyes and smiled at Matt.

He grinned and then it went away quickly. He rubbed his hands together and rocked even faster in the chair.

“Honey, could you go and get me something to drink?” I asked, patting his leg.

“Of course.” He got up and walked out of the room.

“Oh that sounds good, Zack could you get me one too?” Kacie looked at me and smiled.

She knew. She knew that Matt and Zack had something to talk about. I must’ve acted weird for her to know that.

“So, now that we’re alone, tell me what’s going on? Matt looks more nervous than he did when you squeezed Travis out.” She said, chuckling slightly.

“Okay, well Matt wants to quit A7X.” Her hand came up and covered her mouth. “Yeah, so I think he’s afraid to talk to Zack about it.”

“I can imagine! Man, why would he want to do something like that?” She looked extremely interested in the conversation.

“Because both he and Zack have families now. I explained to him that I didn’t want to be the reason behind the band’s break up.”

“They could just take a break! They don’t have to completely break up!” She exclaimed, running a hand through her hair.

She sighed heavily, annoyed. Matt and Zack came back with two bottled waters. Matt handed me one and Zack handed his to Kacie. Matt had obviously spoken to Zack about it, because he seemed anxious to leave.

“We’ll come back tomorrow to help you get home.” Kacie said waving to me while Zack practically dragged her out.

“So I suppose it went well.” I said sarcastically, taking a sip of water.

He sighed loudly and buried his face in to his palms. I sat up and rubbed his back. He removed his face from his hands and rested his chin on his fist.

“I don’t know what to do. Zack told me that if Avenged Sevenfold was to be over, he would never be able to forgive me for it.”

I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. I counted the absentmindedly while trying to think of what to say. "Kacie suggested that you guys could just take a break. The whole band doesn't have to end because we have families. Just tell your fans you want to take like a year off or something."

"I suppose that could work." He smiled and took my hand in his. He kissed it and then pulled that black, velvet box out of his pocket. He placed it on my lap.

I opened the box and stared at the silver band with an array of diamonds lining it. My eyes began to water much like they had just two nights ago. I took the ring out of the box and put it on my left ring finger. I grabbed both of Matt's hands in mine and kissed his lips.

"Yes Matt, I would love to marry you."

* * *

"Oh my goodness! Kacie she's getting so big!" I exclaimed, reaching my arms out to take her small daughter she'd named Tevan Jessie Baker. The middle name was after her mother, Jessica.

"Well look at you! You're getting so small! Look at what you've done after only six months of having Travis!" She grabbed at my slender waist. "You look better than you did even before you had Travis!"

I laughed. "Thank you!"

My bachelorette party was huge. Everyone was there. My grandmother, Matt's mother, Matt's sister who I had just met for the first time tonight, Michelle, Lacey, Leana, Val, Kacie of course, Val, Kacie's parents, a couple of me and Kacie's mutual high school friends, and a few of my grandmother's friends. We were doing it at Matt's house.

I had spoken to Matt about hiring me a personal trainer so I could get my body back on track before my wedding. I wanted to look perfect on our wedding, night. I wanted it to be just like when we first met. Tonight was also the night before our wedding. Matt was a Platinum Plus, the strip club, with all of his friends. He had promised me up and down that there would be no getting drunk. I was very thankful for that. Kacie had only brought Tevan so I could see her. She was going to hand her off to her parents and then they were going to leave. A lot of people were going to be leaving. Kacie, being my maid of honor, hadn't surprised me by telling me about the stripper. "It's your last night of being 'single.'" She'd said.

"Hey, I wonder what the guys are up to." Kacie said, laughing.

Matt's POV

My dad had rented out the whole place for my bachelor party. Platinum Plus was the place to be right now. They only picked the best strippers. The ones that were guaranteed to show you a good time without hitting the bed. PP saw a lot of famous people too, so they had to make sure their strippers weren't going to maul the customers either.

"Hey Matt!" Zack shouted, coming in to the club.

"Hey!" I said wrapping my arms around him.

I was friends pretty equally with all the guys, that's why I picked my dad to be my best man. I didn't want there to be any jealousy between anyone.

"Seen any hot chicks?" Zack asked, looking up on to the stage.

"Dude, they're all hot!" I exclaimed raising my arms in the air.

I forced my mind to draw a blank. My name was Matt Sanders, I was completely single and staring at five beautiful women on stage. That was the only way I was going to have fun without worrying about hurting Cass' feelings. Besides, she probably had a stripper too.

Cassandra's POV

The doorbell rang so I jumped. Kacie got up and went over to answer it. A police officer walked in stood directly in front of me.

"Ma'am, this party's over and you are under arrest." He said, putting his hands on his gun holsters,

"Sir, there isn't anyone under twenty-one in here. Sophie went home a couple hours ago." I said, knowing full well that Matt's sister was only twenty.

"Please stand up and turn around, you are under arrest." He said, forcing me up.

"Excuse me!" I shouted, pulling back.

He put a finger on my lips and stepped back. Some hip hop music started playing and the officer started removing his shirt. Everything became clear to me all of a sudden. I laughed and sat down. Kacie started laughing at me over the loud music.

"You thought this was for real?" She asked, continuing her fit of laughter.

"Yes!" I shouted, clapping with the music.

The stripper had his shirt of and his pants unbuttoned. He pointed to me and walked over to me. He pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes. I squeaked when he picked me up and put my legs over his shoulder so my woohoo was sitting right in front of his face. I jumped when he put his mouth over the button of my pants and then pulled. My button came undone leaving just the tip of my black thong exposed.

"Oh my goodness!" I shouted, gripping his arms.

This was more intimate than I'd expected him to get. I sure hoped Matt wasn't having this much fun.

Matt's POV

I was sitting in a chair and a stripper walked right over to me. She turned around and bent over so her ass was right in my face.

"Go ahead baby! Hit me!" She shouted over the music.

I gave her a good smack causing her to groan with pleasure. I forced thoughts of Cass out of my head. She stood up and spread her legs wide. She started grinding on my lap to the beat of the music. I felt a tightness in my loins. As good as that felt, and as much as I wanted her to keep going, I kept in mind that I did have a family. I decided to play it off by standing up and slapping her butt one more time before making my way to the bar.

"Just one more rum and coke and that'll be it for me." I said to the bar tender.

Cassandra's POV

"Thank you Kacie, for everything." I said from Matt's side of my bed.

"No problem." She shut off the light.

We'd decided to share a bed for old times sake. When we lived in Maine, she used to come to my house all the time and we would have to share a bed. This was going to be one of the last times we would do that. Of course my Nana slept just down the hall from me, in the very room I'd found feelings for Matt in.