“What the hell is wrong with you people?” you heard a familiar voice shout.

At the voice you felt Zacky drop his hold of you and step about five feet back. Your head snapped around to him and then when he didn’t meet your eyes they snapped the direction of the voice you recognized. You saw Jeph in full rain gear standing under a giant over sized umbrella. He was looking on at the seven of you like you had all lost your minds. Which from an outside point of view you probably had.

“We’re trying to understand fish better!” Katie called out happily mid puddle jump.

Jeph simply raised an eyebrow at Katie like she had lost her last marble. You scowled a bit at him, taking slight offense at his reaction to your friend. It’s not like she was the only one out there doing this, you all were. Including the guys. And at that you turned around to see where Zacky had gone, the five feet of space he had put between you now doubled to that of ten as he stood next to Johnny. You frowned a bit but shoved it off as you began to shiver. You were finally getting cold. Guess it was time to go inside and dry off.

“Time for towels and hot coffee and Jack!” you announced loudly as you made your way towards the Avenged bus.

You opened the door and as you took the first step onto the bus you heard a collective awww go around, mostly from Katie. You smiled sadly at the bus stairs, you didn’t want to feel like Jeph had killed the party by showing up but you still felt it. Maybe there was something behind when Matt always mentioned family. And no matter how much Jeph was close friends with all the guys, and no matter how much you felt yourself in love with him you couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe he wasn’t it. And the thought made you sad. Family had always been one of the most important things to you, ever since you had noticed how your own parents didn’t want anything to do with you and only with Matt. Ever since your grandfather had become your family when you were little. Ever since the guys had become your chosen family. The idea of Jeph not fitting in as actual family made your mood slip a little as you squashed and puddle dripped your way down the hallway to get a towel.

Towel in hand you grabbed all of the ones there, even a few mostly clean ones and brought them to the kitchen area for everyone else. You smiled as you watched your best friends scramble onto the bus laughing as thunder clapped loudly outside and a bright flash of lightning tore through the sky. Everyone thanked you for the towels you had brought off and went about peeling clothes off that they could, dropping them in one wet pile on the tiled floor. You had figured the tile floor would be easier to clean than soggy carpet farther back in the bus. You caught Zacky’s eyes and watched him give you a small half smile before averting his eyes. You sighed as you began the tedious labor of peeling off your wet clothes.

Soggy items dropped in the pile and in nothing more than your bra and boy shorts you wrapped your towel around your waist and made to grab the bathroom first. You shut the door and shed your under garments and went about drying off the rest of the way as you got out Syn’s blow dryer, yes Syn’s blow dryer, and made to dry your hair. You figured if you got it dry it would re-soak you by dripping all over the dry clothes you would change into.

Body and hair finally dry you wrapped the towel around your bare body and made your way to where your stuff was held, in mind to grab clothes for both you and Katie. You had no intention of sending her back out into the rain to the tech bus in the weather just to get re-soaked all over again. You snagged old sweats and your oldest A7X shirt along with undergarments and jumped into your bunk. Pulling the curtain closed you got dressed there, leaving the bathroom open for others to dry off in.

Clothes on you jumped out and went in search of Katie, dry clothes for her in hand. You found her sitting on one of the kitchen booths with a towel wrapped around her hair and another wrapped around her mostly now stripped body. Matt must have sacrificed his towel since she had two and he had none. You grinned at her teeth chattering form, it really was cold once you got back onto the bus and out of the rain. Especially since the AC was on and blasting.

“Here, dry clothes so you don’t die of pneumonia. I plugged in Syn’s hair dryer so you can dry your hair in the bathroom. You might want to change in my bunk though, bit easier than changing in the probably now wet bathroom,” you said as you handed over the rainbow stripped pajama pants and Gir shirt with undergarments.

“Oh thank goodness,” Katie said between chattering teeth as she took the dry offered clothes and stood to go to the bathroom next.

She walked the way of the bathroom as Jimmy held the door open to the bathroom for her. She nodded her head thank you and went in. You took paper towels down and got a trash bag, figuring to place all the wet clothes in the bag till they could get washed and dried. The paper towels being to dry up the booth and sitting area, you figured to use your towel to mop up the floor. You looked up when someone placed their hand on yours holding the plastic bag. Zacky wasn’t meeting your eyes but he took the bag from your grasp when you unfolded your fingers from around it and then he went about opening it and depositing the wet clothes in it for you. You felt the corner of your mouth lift a little in response, like it wanted to smile at the sight of him in soaking wet boxers picking up the mess. But you sighed silently instead at how he wasn’t meeting your gaze. Was it always to be like this? Drastic ups and downs and no in-betweens? No stable ground?

“Uh Kales? Which one is your bunk?” you heard Katie ask, teeth no longer chattering.

You looked up from drying the kitchen booths and saw her standing in one of the towels, now devoid of her remaining clothing and with newly dried hair and skin.

“It’s,” you began to say.

“You can use my bunk,” Matt jumped in from behind you where he had been standing.

He walked away from the counter where he had started brewing the coffee and made his way towards her. He gently placed and hand on her upper back and directed her towards his bunk further down the hall. You grinned as you watched the brightest of all reds creep into Katie’s flesh as he showed her the way.

“I hope he has the decency to come back here once he shows her his bunk. It will be bad enough for her knowing she’s completely naked and changing in his bunk that we don’t need her dying on us thinking he’s outside it standing,” Jimmy said with a chuckle as he munched on something that smelled like a slim jim.

You chuckled at his statement and went back to finishing cleaning.

Sitting area and floor finally dry once it was void of all wet clothing you went about finding the Jack and other whiskeys for the coffee that was now done. You got down mugs but figured people were old enough to pour it themselves, you were not going to play complete maid. Your poured a cup for yourself and for Katie, adding a liberal amount of Jack to both before going to find her out back with everyone else.

“Here ya go,” you said as you handed Katie her mug which she took gratefully from her spot in-between Matt and Johnny on one of the couches.

The television was on and some movie was starting, even though the lights were still on.

“Hey where’s mine?” Johnny whined as you sat down in the spot Jimmy vacated on the ground to go get his own.

“None for you, you’re too short,” you said cheekily at him, grinning like a fool.

Johnny simply made a face at you and then groaned as he got up to go get his own. Or to see if Jimmy would make one for him. Which would be a lost cause. You smiled as you blew across the top of your coffee, loving the smell of the hot coffee mixed with that of the hot Jack floating in it.

Notes

Can it last?
Can it really, really last?

Course the idea of a soaking wet Zacking in nothing but soaked boxers is not a bad image. . .