We Change, We Wait

We all sat around Garrett’s house for around an hour just talking about the tour until a certain hyper active brunet noticed the delicate ring on my left hand. Of course Pat being Pat had to jump up from his spot on the floor and scream at the top of his lungs.

“Holy shit you guys are getting married?!” he hollered causing the entire room to fall silent and stare at John and I. My cheeks were crimson and I bit my bottom lip, a nervous habit.

“Thanks Pat, I was going to tell everyone in about five minutes… you suck,” John told him and gave him a little shove for emphasis.

“So you are getting married?” Jared questioned and smiled when I nodded at him.

“Ha, ha I already knew, so there,” Garrett said before sticking his tongue out at the other people in the room.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me when you walked in the door!” Tori said with a playful scowl shot at me and the conversation continued into wedding plans.

-

It had been two weeks since the night John proposed. Both the bands had gone back to practicing and getting ready for our tour with All Time Low. I was so excited to go back on tour that I could hardly stand it. John and I decided that we wanted the wedding to be before tour so it was scheduled for two weeks before we left. The wedding was going to be in Los Angeles on the beach. All Time Low was flying in for it and the bands were going to spend the two weeks there since our first show was there anyways. John and I were going to Hawaii for a week on our honeymoon and then we were coming back to L.A. We had a wedding planner and we were going to meet her at four today. Both of us had been working on a guest list but we decided to keep the ceremony small and have a big reception. The reception was going to be at a music venue not far from where we were having the wedding. Our agreement was that I got to plan the majority of the wedding ceremony and he could plan the majority of the reception. John hadn’t been home all day; he had been out with the boys. Tori had decided that she was throwing me a bachelorette party whether I wanted one or not. A knock sounded on the door and I heaved myself off the couch to answer it.

“Hey girlie,” Tori grinned. Lacy and Maria followed her in. Lacy sold merch for the Maine and she was dating Kennedy and Maria was dating Garrett. Lacy was a petite blonde with blue eyes and bubbly personality. Maria was a slender brunet; she was a Latina with a delicate face and deep brown eyes. The three of them were my best girl friends. “Ok so here’s the deal. Your bachelorette party is going to be at the hotel since all the girls are staying in the suite on the top floor and all the guys and staying in the suite below us. Maria, Lacy, Kara, Stacy, Lisa, and Natalie are all going to be there,” Tori explained. Just so you know Kara is dating Rian from All Time Low, Stacy is dating Zack, Lisa is dating Alex, and Natalie is dating Jack.

“Sounds like a good time,” I commented.

“It will be,” she grinned. John came through the door then and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Hello ladies, hey baby girl,” he greeted us and kissed me on the cheek. Tori awed like her usually obnoxious self.

“Hey, did you have fun?”

“Yeah, it was cool to just chill with the guys again,” he replied. He disappeared into the bedroom and the girls all three mysteriously had to leave.

“You guys have been here for like ten minutes,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, well, we just… um… Bye!” Tori stuttered before darting out the door with Lacy and Maria hot on her heels. I frowned but closed the door none the less. When I turned back around I nearly ran into John.

“Oh my god, you can’t sneak up on me like that,” I scolded. He merely grinned and kissed me for a moment.

“How was your day love?” he smiled as we sat on the couch.

“Boring, I pretty much stayed here all day. I was going to try to write some lyrics but I just wasn’t in the mood for it you know? So I just sat and watched Rachel Ray reruns,” I shrugged.

“Sounds exciting,” he joked, “so I’m assuming you’d like to go out somewhere since you’ve been cooped up here all day.”

“You would assume correctly. Let me go change and then we can go,” I smiled, kissed his cheek and went to the bedroom. I changed into skinny jeans, instead of sweat pants, and a blue We the Kings shirt. I slipped on my black converse and pulled a brush through my hair before returning to the living room.

“Ready to go?” he questioned and I nodded. We spent the night walking around Tempe. It felt amazing to have my hand in his, to catch him watching me, to see his smile, to glance down at the ring on my finger and know that soon I would be his.

-

We landed in Los Angeles and all I wanted to do was sleep. John kissed me goodnight and headed to his suite with the boys when we got to the hotel and Tori drug me to our suite. I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow. I dreamt of the coming day. My wedding day. It still felt odd to say that, odd to think that the following night I would be on a plane to Hawaii and then in a hotel there with my husband. It was odd to think that tomorrow I would be Annie O’Callaghan not Annie Jensen. Tori woke me up and made me shower and then she blow dried my hair. The stylist she had found showed up right on time and got to work on my hair. After that she did my make up. It was simply foundation and light eyeliner with a soft white eye shadow and a little blush. I wrote her a check and she was on her way.

“Come on we’ve got to go,” Tori said and the girls made a circle as they lead me from the room. Once in elevator you could not see me from the outside. They wanted to make sure that if the boys left at the same time as us and the elevator stopped at their floor that John wouldn’t see me and I wouldn’t see him which was entirely unfair. What’s worse is the elevator did stop and John, Garrett and all the guys were waiting.

“Is she in there?” John asked.

“Yes, and you can’t see her,” Tori told him.

“Annie, I love you baby!” he called as the door closed.

“Love you too!” I yelled back hoping he heard me.

-

We pulled up to the beach where we were having the wedding. There was a gazebo on a deck that had stairs that went straight down to the beach. High tide came all the way up to the stairs according to our wedding planner who’d recommended the spot saying she had done weddings there before and that it was wonderful. I was transported from the limo to the building and straight into the room where I would be trapped until it was my turn to walk. Tori made sure my make up and my hair were both still intact before Kara and her helped me into my dress. The clock would not move fast enough. Garrett came in about twenty minutes after I was dressed with a small box that he said was from John and so I handed him the box with the gold chain inside it that I had gotten for John. He left and I didn’t see any of the guys after that. When I opened the black velvet box I gasped. A string of pearls sat nestled into the black satin inside the box.

“Don’t you dare cry Annie,” Tori scolded which made me laugh but I still had to choke back tears as she hooked the pearls around my neck. A knock sounded on the door and it was my dad which told me that it was time to go…