You Think You've Got It, Don'tcha?

It was nice to be with Ryden again. It was the best thing to happen in a while. After what we did this morning, and it being one of the first times we've done anything like that, it was great. I wasn't really used to seeing her naked, but I wouldn't mind getting used to it at all. I had woken up to the sunlight leaking through the window and I looked over to the clock on my wall. It was about 1PM. I looked down at Ryden, who was soundly sleeping on my chest. She had shifted positions and crawled onto my lap, then laid her head on my chest sometime during the night and just stayed there.

"Good morning, Princess." I whispered, running my fingers through her hair. She groaned softly, nuzzling her nose against my chest.

"Mmm.... I don't want to get up right now..." She whined quietly. I smiled, brushing her hair from her face. "I wanna stay in bed.."

"We can do that." I nodded. She looked up at me and kissed my chin.

"I hope I didn't bother you sleeping like this." She said, rolling off of me. She curled up into the blankets. I pulled her and the blankets close to me.

"It's okay. Sleep however you want to." I replied. She nodded sleepily and closed her eyes.

"I wanna make you breakfast." She pouted, resting her hands on my chest. "That's what I'm
gonna do."

"It's past noon, Kitten." I insisted. "Let's get ready and go out for lunch. How's that sound?"
"Mmmsounds good." She nodded and got up. I had forgotten that we were still naked, and when she had gotten up I gasped quietly.

"Beautiful." I said under my breath. I heard her giggle as she walked to the bathroom and I heard her turn the water on. I got up, walking to the bathroom and snaked my arms around her waist, pulling her back against me and I kissed at her neck, listening to her giggle. "Room for one more?" I asked.

She nodded, opening the shower curtain. "Of course I do." She said, taking my hand. She stepped in, leading me inside with her. The water was warm and it felt amazing against my skin. A few minutes later after we had gotten comfortable, we started washing ourselves off, and we got out and dried off. Ryden had her towel wrapped around her chest and I wrapped mine around my waist and walked to my closet. I stood there and debated whether I should wear one of my button-downs or if I should stick with a band shirt.

"Babe?" I called to her. She was blow-drying her hair so there was a possibility that she couldn't hear me. "Babe!" I shouted. I heard the blow-dryer power off and she leaned her head into the doorway.

"Yes?" She asked. I grabbed a button-down and a band shirt and held them up for her to see, raising my button-down then raising the band shirt.

"Which one?" I asked.

"Wear them both." She shrugged. "Wear your - Wait. Don't. Hold on and I'll be out to help you with your fashion crisis." She said, holding up a finger before she went back to her hair. I sat at the edge of the bed, waiting for her to finish. A few moments later, she came back out and walked over to my closet, pulling out one of my red and white plaid shirts and she tossed it to me, along with a white tank top to go under it.

"Wear the first few buttons unbuttoned so people can see that sexy chest tattoo you have." She said. I smirked, walking over to my drawers and I pulled out a pair of boxers and a pair of pants. She was the best when it came to picking out my outfits. I probably couldn't dress myself to save my life.

"You think my chest tattoo is sexy?" I quirked my eyebrows. She nodded, grabbing a flannel shirt from my side of the closet and then picked up a pair of shorts from her side of the closet. What was mine, was basically hers as well. She made everything look good.

"Of course." She said as she got dressed. She shimmied on her shorts and slipped on one of my shirts. It was black and white, and I honestly don’t know where it came from. I had never worn it before. After she had gotten dressed I walked over to her and wrapped her arm around mine.

“On y va?” I asked. She cocked her head to the side slightly.

“Is that French?” she asked. I nodded.

“It means, ‘shall we go?’” I said. She nodded slowly and then chuckled.

“Ahh… Gotcha.” She said. She adjusted the sleeves of her shirt and pulled her arm from mine for a split second, then wrapped it back around mine. “Lets go?” She asked. I nodded, and made my way down the staircase and out the door with her. The weather was beautiful and the sun was high, shining over the beach.

“Where are we going again?” I questioned. She shrugged, running her free hand’s fingers through her hair.

“Uh.. Well.. I don’t know.” She said honestly.

“Have you heard of James Republic?” I asked, she shook her head. “It’s an American bistro, and I don’t think it’s open yet.. But we can see. it would be really nice to go there for dinner, don’t you think?” I asked again. She smiled, nodding.

“Let’s walk on the beach, baby. I haven’t been shown around here completely. And I didn’t want to do it while you were away because I didn’t want to get lost.. And I don’t know our address by heart.” She looked ashamed. It wasn’t a big deal. Sometimes I forgot the address too. No biggie.

“Walking sounds good. We can check if that place is open and if it is, we can eat there and then we can walk around and I’ll show you around. And I can cook you dinner when we get home instead of going out again. Yeah?” I asked. I looked around as we walked down the street. I missed this city more than ever when I was gone. Sometimes the guys and I would go on trips out of state, or just out of town. When Brian decided to have a new start and move to Nebraska, he would occasionally come by to see how we were doing. Too bad he never really vaycayed with us. It was only about twice every six months that he could come stay with us.

"Yeah." She repeated. "I need to go shopping soon. My old clothes are starting to get small because I'm gaining some weight." She chuckled. I watched the way her chest, no, not her boobs. Her actual chest. I watched how it rose up and down when she chuckled. It was interesting to me.

"You look fine. I haven't noticed." I said nonchalantly. She playfully smacked my shoulder.

"Is it not noticeable? I've gained almost 15 pounds since you've been gone from eating so much."

"It's good that you're gaining it. You were like.. A toothpick when we first started dating. I like that you're gaining weight, honestly." I confessed. She stayed quiet for a while, and looked down. For a moment we walked in silence.

"You didn't like that I was skinny?" She asked. She stopped and looked up at me, pulling her arm from mine. I widened my eyes, waving my hands in disagreement.

"That's not what I meant at all, Ryden. I-"

"You what?" She asked. She had her arms crossed at this point, and her eyebrow arched.

"I'm trying to say that I like you skinny and big. I mean it wasn't fun trying to cuddle with a stick."

"I wasn't that skinny!" She half yelled. She looked hurt, and I instantly regretted saying anything about her weight. I sighed, running my hand through my hair. There wasn't a way that I would be able to get out of this one.

"I'm not saying that you were- Just forget it, forget I said anything. It was wrong. Okay." I said. I pinched the bridge of my nose, sighing again. She shook her head, then turned away to walk off. I reached out, grabbing her arm and I pulled her over to me and into my chest, wrapping my arms around her. "It doesn't matter what your weight is, okay? I'm going to love you just the same either way. Even if you get all fat.. And ugly.. I'm still going to love you. Okay?"

She nodded into my chest and looked up at me. "Okay." She repeated. "I'm sorry.."

"It's okay. Let's just go get something to eat and let it be that." I said.

*Matt B's POV*

"Can you believe this?" I asked, scratching at the back of my neck. "He's wanting me to fill in for him.." Jimmy looked over at me, messing with his labret piercing.

"I dunno man maybe it's not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be." Jimmy said, shrugging.

"Like.. You'll meet girls. Or guys. You aren't gay are you?"

"I'm as straight as a board, man." I said, shaking my head. Matt looked over at me and snickered.

"So is spaghetti until it gets hot." He stated.

"I swear to god.." I mumbled, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Does he still have his guitars here? I'm legitimately panicking right now it's not funny."

"Yeah, yeah. Everything's here. All you gotta do is just play it." Brian said, leaning back and opening his beer bottle. Michelle was on his lap like always. If she wasn't on his lap, her hand was on his thigh. She was always touching him.

"Alright.. Because I already know it, I just didn't know anything else." I said. "Pass me a beer." Matt passed me one and I opened it, taking a long drink. "This is crazy."

"It is crazy. You'll get used to it. Just don't choke like Zack did his first show." Brian laughed. "It was the most embarrassingly funny thing I've saw. We were in the middle of playing and he just stopped."

"Does sound embarrassing..." I agreed, taking another drink of my beer. I sat my beer down and adjusted my bow tie. That was my business, making bows. I always wore one. Never really left the house without one on.

"How are you and that girl you've been seeing?" Brian broke the ice. I stiffened, shifting in my seat uncomfortably.

"We uh.. Didn't work out." I mumbled. I took another long drink, feeling my mood drop to just about a negative five. I didn't like to talk about Morgan. Even though what had happened only happened last week; it still made me uncomfortable.

"I assume you don't wanna talk." Brian guessed. I nodded.

"Yeah, man.." I agreed quietly. The mood in the room shifted quickly, and everybody had gotten uncomfortable.

"Well.. To celebrate your first show with us tomorrow, we should all go out for drinks." Jimmy suggested. Leana giggled on his lap and she nodded.

"I would say drinks on me, but we're not in Long Beach anymore." She pouted. Jimmy chuckled, tightening his grip around her waist.

"Yeah. We need to get home soon. I'm starting to get homesick." Brian said. "I wanna sleep in my bed. Not a crappy hotel or van like we've been doing for the past 3 months. Zack's real lucky he didn't bring Ryden. He wouldn't have gotten to go back if he didn't."

"She's sick, Brian." I stood up. "Ryden is sick and she has no one there to help her."

"I wasn't told she was sick, man." Brian said, holding up his hands defensively. "I was just told he was going home to see her. Not help her. Even though the girls could probably do it." He shrugged. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah yeah." I said. "Whatever. Pretty soon we're all going home. I don't understand why I decided to come on tour in the first place. All you guys do here is complain. That's not what I'm about."

"If you don't like it, get yourself a bus home." Brian said. I looked over at Jimmy, waiting for him to step up for me. But he didn't. Neither did Leana, nor Matt.

I nodded slowly. "I see how it is here." I said, then I tossed away my beer can, then walked towards the hotel door. I paused before grabbing the door handle to see if anyone would stop me. But I was wrong. I sighed and I walked outside, looking around. "I need to find a fucking bus station or something..." I mumbled, running my hands through my hair. Maybe if I kept walking, I'd find one.

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