21. Zack
I’m Hanging By a Moment With You



-She always wanted to see the ocean, meet me at the beach. I’ll have my jeep, you’ll see me.- Sent to Brian


-okiedokie, shortcake and studmuffin on the move. Drop off at about 11:30. Out.- Brian
I rolled my eyes, I loved Brian but he was ridiculous sometimes. I got my jeep, something I liked a bit more now that I’ve lived in Wyoming for that very short stint – it kind of reminds me of there. Bailey mentioned her dad had a jeep and that she’s always wanted one, but hauls too much for it to be practical.


Children of Bodom flowed through my speakers as I drove to the beach, parking my jeep halfway up to the water before getting out a blanket I had and a few snacks and sandwiches because I had told Brian to take her to breakfast. I heard brian’s car pull up but I didn’t look back I just stayed leaning on the front of my jeep watching the water.


“Hey.” She smiled giving me a hug. “Brian said he was too busy to visit but said hi.”


I chuckled, he wasn’t busy he was just leaving us alone. I’m surprised he didn’t insist on coming and being the third wheel – he has had no problem in the past with doing that.


“I was gonna take you to a restaurant but you had said you’d never seen the ocean.” He smiled. “It’s a beautiful day, I figured…”


“Thank you, it’s beautiful.” She said watching the waves crash. She looked at me, then the water then at her feet before taking off her boots and running towards the water. I laughed as she ran into the water and twirled around, reaching down to grab the water and throw it into the air. “This is amazing!”


I walked down to the edge of the water, not really wanting to get wet. You ever walk in wet denim? Ever walk in wet skinny jeans made out of denim?


“Be careful.” I said pointing to some of the bigger waves. “You don’t want them to knock you down and drag you out… you don’t wanna get caught in a riptide.”


“This is amazing.” She said going in up to her knees in the water. “Thanks for this.”


“You’re gonna hate me by the time you get back to the jeep. You’ve never dealt with sand, it’s about as bad as glitter.” I laughed as she came back to sit on the blanket.


“California isn’t what I expected.” She said. “Brian took me out for breakfast and … I didn’t see much of LA but it’s definitely not what I expected.”


“Do you like it?” I asked showing her the snacks, water and small sandwiches I had packed.


“I mean, it’s barely been a whole day so it’s weird still, but maybe you’ll show me around.”
She shrugged. “I know Johnny won’t.”


“I can do that.” I said taking a bite of my sandwich. “What all do you wanna see?”


“First, I wanna see your house. I wanna see the normal things for you. I wanna see where you go out to eat. Everything.” She laughed. “You’re my tour guide, Baker.”


“Let me call and make sure Johnny doesn’t have any plans for you, then we’ll start the tour. Are you done at the beach? I didn’t think to bring your bathing suit.”


“We can always come back another day, more prepared. Maybe a swim day. I thought you broke your phone?” I laughed lightly, it was like a child going to Disneyland and I loved it.
Maybe I would take her to Disneyland as well, it wasn’t too far from here.


“I had to get it fixed, too many interviews and shit for me to have a broken phone… Same number though. Same phone too.” I said waving the plain black Iphone around before texting Johnny.


-taking Bailey on a small tour, probably bring her back tonight- Sent to JC

-ok- JC


I knew we had had a small argument the other night, which had caused me to leave in a bit of rage. I broke my phone, another thing I had to do before meeting back up with Bailey today. I was surprised he even let her out with me after the things that were said… but I think he realized it wasn’t just a fit of rage, at least I that’s what I was hoping.


She put her hair up into a messy bun before getting into my jeep, we started our journey in LA doing things like the Walk of Fame. Surprisingly she was more surprised by the people and the buildings rather than the walk of fame itself. We took a drive down Sunset Boulevard and the Sunset Strip, told her when she’s older and legal for drinking we’ll have to come back at night – that’s when the real time to see it.


“There are so many buildings and so many people!” She said practically leaning out of the window. “You’ve lived like this your entire life?”


“Well I’m from Huntington Beach, I mean it’s not the sunset strip…. It’s more surfers and tan beach go-ers. It’s a bit slower paced, I guess.” I smiled looking at her. She was in complete amazement and wonder.


I drove to Huntington Beach, showed her all our old houses… where we grew up. I showed her the school we all went to. I showed her all our favorite places, we were laughing so hard at all of the different stories I was telling her about growing up with Matt and Brian.
“We would come to this park, and we would drink.” I laughed. “You could hear Brian’s mom off in the distance calling for him and we’d be having too much fun to really care. We’d be smoking fucking dirt ass cheap cigarettes we had paid a friend to get us. Drinking 40s because that’s all we could get our hands on.”


“Oh wow. That’s crazy. You know it’s so different I mean, I’m from a farming town which if we had went into town you’d’ve probably seen maybe 20 people on a busy day. But here, my god.” She sighed letting her hands fall to her lap. “It’s shocking.”


“I get that, we went on tour and to see all the different places is just weird.” I nodded. “No place like home.”


“Do you think you’ll always live in California?” She asked.


I hesitated, not really sure about that answer. I mean we weren’t serious enough right now to even worry about that answer, but it did occur to me that she was a long way away… I would have to choose whether to make her move here because this is where my band was and the studio, or to move here with her and forget the band.


Maybe I wouldn’t have to forget the band, maybe we would just travel here for the summer while we recorded? We could figure this out. Couldn’t we?


“I don’t know.” I said finally. “I loved Wyoming, but the work is here. What about you? Do you like the big city?”


“I mean it has its charm, but I feel like that wears off.” She said quietly. “I could adapt, I guess. If I had to.”


“Well, it’s getting late. I have one more thing to show you.” I said taking her hand, I fell back into talking about the old days. What she was like in high school, which was like last year for her. We forgot quickly about the distance and the impending problem that we would have to deal with at the end of the week when it was time for her to go back to Wyoming.

Notes

Bit of a filler. Will be updating again tomorrow, you've been warned ^-^ (:<3