Booze, Boys, and Buses

Chapter Nine

“I don’t know where we’re going to go for the next month while the apartments are being fixed.” Kacie said over her cell phone to her mother. “No! Mom, like I said before, we can’t move back in with you guys. That’d be weird.”

“How about you guys come and live at my house.” Zacky said.

“Hold on mom, I’ll call you back.” Kacie said, hanging up. “How about we what?”

Kacie sounded a little irritated. I guess I could understand, seeing as how we were outside in twenty degree weather and we were now being told that the apartment manager was hiring people to fix the now wet carpets and walls. Meaning, we had to find somewhere to stay for about a month. No one was happy about this. Everyone had continued to give Zacky evil glares ever since we got outside.

“You could move in with me. Both of you, for as long as you need to.” He repeated.

“Uh, you mean in California?” I asked.

“Yeah, you don’t even have to pay rent. Come on, it’s the least I could do for ruining your apartments.” He said with a smile I knew that Kacie couldn’t turn down.

“Wait, what about our jobs.” I cut in.

I wasn’t too keen on going to California. I had lived in Maine my whole life. Never had I once been to California.

“It’s not like you’re staying there. It’s only one month.” Matt said.

“Yeah, but that’s not the point. When you guys had your normal nine to five, did you ever get a month long vacation? Fat chance of that. Thanks anyway, I’m staying here.” I insisted, stomping my foot on the ground.

“With who, mommy and daddy?” Matt asked, sucking his thumb.

“No.” I said, dropping to the cold ground.

Matt had no idea what I had been through. I wasn’t about to tell him either, knowing I would get unwanted sympathy, so I recollected myself and stood up. I sniffed and Kacie gave me a comforting smile. She put her arms around me. Hers were warmer than Matt’s.

“I guess I’ll be ok with going to California with you guys for a month.” I agreed.

“Awesome.” Zacky said, shooting his arms into the air.

“You can all go inside and get your clothes and any food you want, but make it quick because we’re going to be working on getting this place up and running soon.” One of the construction workers said as they pulled into the driveway.

I went upstairs and into my and Kacie’s room. I opened up my closet door looking through my clothes. I grumbled in irritation when I saw that all my sweatshirts were soaked. They had been hanging up in front of all my other clothes when the showers went off. I pushed them out of the way and grabbed all of my dry clothes. For every step I took to my bed, water squirted from the carpet. I knew that our electronics were all ruined at this point. I jumped upon thinking about this. My laptop. I grabbed it out from under my bed. Luckily my bed had proved to be a good umbrella. Kacie walked in through the door at that moment.

“So your laptop is ok?” She asked, nodding in its direction.

“Yeah, thank god.” I said, relieved.

“This is going to be so exciting.” She said, slipping out of her wet socks.

I nodded, taking off my wet jeans. I put on my dry ones and then put on a dry shirt.

“I know what Matt said bothered you, but he doesn’t know.” She put a hand on my shoulder and I looked down.

“Yeah I know.”

I grabbed all of my clothes and was about to go outside with them.

“Hey.” I heard from behind me.

I turned around and Matt was at the top of the stairs. He was holding a bundle of clothing. He walked down to the landing that I was standing on and held out a hand.

“I’ll take those. Do you have more?” He asked.

“Yeah, in my closet.” I explained.

He took my clothes and handed me a sweatshirt. I thanked him and pulled the sweatshirt over my head. I took in a good whiff and almost died. He smelled soooo good. I walked out to the hummer, I didn’t feel like driving my car to the airport this time. Zacky was already sitting in the driver’s seat waiting for us to be ready to go.

“Come on! Come on!” He yelled, honking the horn.

I hopped into the back seat so that Kacie could have the front seat with Zack. Matt got in the seat next to me and put all of my clothes on the floor.

“What are you doing? They’ll get dirty!” I exclaimed, collecting my clothes off of the floor.

“Sorry.” He mumbled.

“Yeah you should be.” I replied hastily as I scooped up my clothes and placed them on one of the vacant seats.

“Hey, if I have to be nicer to you, then you have to be nicer to me.” He said as he childishly crossed his arms across his chest.

“You guys are being nice now? Oh, Matt you finally told her that you like-.” Zacky began.

“Ow!” Matt yelled at all too perfect timing.

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing, I’m just always hitting my head on the roof of this thing when I’m trying to put on my seatbelt.” He replied with a nervous chuckle.

I forgot about mentioning to him that he wasn’t even putting on a seatbelt when he said ow. I sighed and pulled my seatbelt over my chest. Shortly after we had begun to drive, my eyes became heavy. I swam in Matt’s sweatshirt and I felt more comfortable than ever. I leaned my head against the window, but couldn’t fall asleep. The window was cold and my head was cocked in an uncomfortable manner.

“You could lean on me if you want.” Matt whispered in my ear.

I debated to myself whether or not I wanted to lean on him, but I soon decided to get over myself and take him up on his offer. He put his arm around so it was on my stomach and I nestled deep into his chest. Everything stopped, and I was soon sleeping.

“Hey, wake up.” I heard next to me.

My eyes fluttered open and I looked to my right. Matt was sitting up and helping me unbuckle. I looked outside only to realize that we were already at the airport.

“Will you answer your phone? It’s been going off for a while.” Zacky complained as we walked into the airport.

The guys were carrying all of our things. The perks of having buff guys take you to the airport. I took my vibrating phone out of my pocket and eyed the caller ID. Work was calling. I sighed and answered it.

“Hello?” I asked, clearing my throat. I had a serious case of morning croaks.

“Hi, you were supposed to come in to work today, where are you?” Obviously this was my boss.

“Oh, the fire alarm went off in my apartment and then the showers went off. My whole apartment is soaked. So now I’m at the airport.” I nervously explained.

“What are you doing in the airport?” She asked.

“I need a place to stay! A couple friends from California are taking me in.” I said furiously.

Matt explained to me that he would be right back. He was going to get a suitcase or something.

“How long are you going to be gone for?”

“For about a month. Zacky! Be nice to Kacie.” I said, just now noticing the fact that Kacie was yelling at him for pulling her hair or something like that.

This was strange. I wasn’t used to being the mom of the group at all, and here I was, barking out motherly orders.

“Well, I hope you don’t plan on coming back, because you’re fired.” She said, and the phone went dead in my ear.

“Shit!” I yelled, throwing my phone through the air.

“Hey easy!” Matt said, as the phone hit him in the stomach as he walked over to me with a small suitcase in one hand and my clothes in the other. “Here, put these in here, Zacky and I will get the plane tickets.”

Kacie and I shared the suitcase. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw two large figures running toward us frantically.

“Quick! It leaves in ten minutes!” Zacky was yelling while flailing his arms around.

“Shit.” I murmured, picking up the small suitcase and running in the same direction as the guys.

We tossed our bags onto security and then went through our selves. That didn’t take as long as they say it does. We then snatched our bags back up and ran through the doors of the plane. Made it just in time. I looked at my ticket and it seemed that I was placed ever so conveniently next to Matt. I opened one of the upper compartments in order to toss my carry on in there. I was having a pretty hard time.

“Here” Matt said, tossing my bag effortlessly.

He shut the compartment and then got into his seat. I then sat down next to him. He looked at me and then the window.

“Do you want the window seat? I travel a lot, so it doesn’t matter to me.” He said.

“No thanks. I’m all set.” I assured him.

He shrugged and stared out the window. I felt my stomach tighten from excitement. I was so thrilled that I was finally going to get to spend the time with these guys that I’d wanted to. No jerk Matt, and no drunk me. Or so we hoped. I looked over at Matt and then he looked at me and a smile formed around his lips. I blushed and looked down between my legs. I probably looked foolish, sitting here blushing like this. How could I be so silly? Matt wouldn’t be interested in a girl like me. For one, I didn’t drink very much like they were known to. There was a couple occasions, but it’s not like I made a habit of it. Number two, I was a virgin. That’s the last thing these rock stars want is a virgin girl with little to no experience. And three, I was certainly nowhere near as beautiful as Valary. I needed to get my head out of the clouds and back onto earth. Although this proved to be difficult seeing as we were on a plane. Matt fell asleep on the window shortly after takeoff. He looked so cute when he was sleeping. I just stared at him for a moment and Zacky broke my trance.

“Why don’t you just tell him that you like him instead of sitting here gawking all the time?” He asked as a smirk made it's way across his features.

“I don’t like him.” I said a little too defensively.

I knew deep down that I was starting to like this new side of Matt, but I didn’t want to let myself get too attached. I was afraid of something going wrong, I didn’t want to get hurt.

“Uh huh.” He said as he rolled his eyes.

“So why don’t you admit that you like Kacie mister?” I asked, poking his nose.

“Heyyy.” He whined rubbing his nose. “That was mean.”

“Grow some balls. Now out with it Baker, why don’t you ask her out?” I put my hands on my hips this time.

“I’m going to, but I want to wait for the right time.” He admitted to me.

Well at least now I knew that he liked her. I would be sure to let her know this as soon as she woke up. Zack turned around in his seat.

“He likes you ya know.” He said to me.

I didn’t reply. I wasn’t in shock, but I was almost screaming to myself from excitement. I couldn’t let Matt know that though. It would get to his head, and I didn’t want that at all. His ego moments were such a huge turn off.

* * *

My eyes opened wide when suddenly it felt like everything was shifting. Matt was shaking me awake and everyone was exiting the plane. I stood up sleepily and walked over to the compartments in the plane. I opened it and was about to grab my stuff when two huge arms came around me and grabbed them for me.

“Thanks.” I croaked in a sleepy voice.

He chuckled as he handed me some of my things. “Your voice is cute when you first wake up.”

“Don’t pick on me.” I demanded, deep inside being flattered by the fact that he thought I was cute.

I went to the bathroom in the airport and looked at myself in a mirror. My hair was a matted mess, and I had sleepy marks on my face. I sighed, being disappointed by my looks. I tried my best to fix my hair and not exactly succeeding in doing so. When I went back out into the airport Matt was standing next to the bathroom with two Starbucks cups in his hand.

“I don’t know what you like, so I just figured that everyone likes cappuccinos.” He said, handing me the warm beverage.

“Thanks.” I said, taking a sip.

It was dark outside, and I wondered what time it is. As if reading my mind, Matt pulled out his cell-phone.

“It’s around nine.” He explained to me, sipping his coffee.

“Ok.” I said, sipping my drink.

He was really trying hard, and I had to try to be nice to him. This shouldn’t be difficult considering that he was being nicer to me. I don’t find it hard to be nice to nice people.

“Do you want to call your parents or something to let them know that we’ve landed and all? I know how they can be about that sort of thing. I know when we first started really touring all my mom and dad did was worry about us.” He said with a grin.

A tear came to my eye, but I quickly wiped it away. My parents. I thought to myself. I ignored the outstretched cell-phone and ran into the bathroom. I hadn’t meant to be mean to him, but I hadn’t thought about my parents in a long time. He brought back some unwanted memories.

Kacie’s POV

I was talking to Zacky when I saw Cassie run into the bathroom, covering her eyes. I hoped that Matt hadn’t said anything mean to her. I didn’t want to be sent to jail today because of assault.

“What did you say to her?” I asked sternly. I wasn’t about to take any excuses.

“Nothing! I swear! All I did was ask her if she wanted to call her parents to let them know that we-.”

“Oh my god.” I said.

“What? Why is it that every time I say something to her, everyone all of a sudden thinks it was something bad?” He asked.

“No, Matt. Come with me.” I said, taking his arm.

I took him down one way and then a left. Then I took him up an escalator, and then a right. Then I took him down a different escalator and sat him down at a bench over there. Trust me, I had never been to this place before, it’s just that it seemed to me that all airports were the same.

“Ok, so why did you take me all the way to the other side of the building to tell me something?” He asked.

“Because, this is something that I don’t want Cassandra eaves dropping on. It would rip her to shreds to hear this all over again.” I explained, shifting in my seat.

“Alright, out with it.” Matt urged on.

“Ok, so, three years ago, right after graduating high school, Cassandra’s parents, well…they died in a car accident.” I said, feeling my eyes begin to well up a little. “It wasn’t good, at all. She had to go into therapy and everything. Any mention of her parents hurts. She was so close to them.”

“Oh man.” Matt said, as he ran a hand through his hair in a stressed manner.

I knew he was embarrassed now. He just sat there for a moment and sighed. He kept looking at the escalators and then his feet, and then back up at the escalators again

“I feel like such an ass right now. For everything. I am so selfish. She is such a great person to look past all that and try to help me with my problem, when her's is so much more severe than a break up. What an amazing woman.”

He put his hand up to his mouth this time. He was in shock. I knew that he wanted to go and see Cassandra now, but I wasn’t sure if she wanted to see him now or not. I didn’t want him to go up there and embarrass her even more.

“I owe her an apology.” He said, getting up and walking off.

I followed behind, only hoping that he had some sort of vague idea of what he was doing.

Cassandra’s POV

I opened the bathroom door after I had had a few moments to collect myself. I hadn’t meant to be so selfish. I looked ahead of me and Matt was standing there with a bouquet of flowers. What the hell?

“Uh, Matt?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I’m sorry for hurting your feelings. It was selfish of me to be skulking around in my problems when there are people with such worse problems than mine.” He took my hand in his. I was a little overwhelmed by the situation.

“Thank you for the apology, but were the roses really necessary?” I asked feeling a little embarrassed at the sight of Matt standing in the airport with flowers in hand.

“I feel terrible. Please accept them.” He urged, handing them to me.

I humbly accepted them with a smile. He smiled back. I felt heat rise to my face and I turned around. I couldn’t let him see me blushing. Although I knew he wasn’t naïve.

“Hey man I called a taxi and they should be here to….Hey, where’s my bouquet?” Zacky asked as he looked wildly around for the flowers he had bought as a "welcome to California" gift for Kacie.

“Right here!” Matt said, giving him the finger.

“Ugh, that’s not what I meant Matty dear.” He said with a lisp and girly voice.

I giggled. Oh my god, I giggled.

“It’s been a while since I heard that one giggle. That means you’re doing a good job Matt.” Kacie said, picking our suitcase up off the ground.

“Let me get that babe.” Zacky said, taking it from her.

Woah, had I missed something? Babe?

“Babe?” I asked.

“He won’t let me have my way unless I let him call me babe.” Kacie explained, shrugging.

I nodded and followed everyone outside. Even in Matt’s hoodie I was shivering. He must’ve noticed this because I felt some large arms snake their way around my waist as we stood there waiting for the taxi. So now it was completely apparent to me that he liked me. However, I felt like things were going a little too fast, so I gently, and as subtly as possible, freed myself from his grasp.

“I’m fine, thanks anyway Matt.” I said.

I heard him murmur an ok. I knew damn well that it wasn’t “ok” with him, but I didn’t want to just “jump” into his arms. When the taxi showed up, Zacky and Matt let both Kacie and I get in first. This was going to be a good month. I could already tell.
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Katie in posting for Tiff because her internet connection sucks. leave her comments!!!