Eternal Blossom

A month passed in the blink of an eye. Aiyana and Brian were rarely separate when they had any kind of free time. They spent a lot of their time together at the beach enjoying the last of summer, or at the bar hanging out with everyone. Matt and Kristy were back together, and arguing in public or hanging on each other, whichever seemed to be the mood of the day.

It was the first of October, and so the weather would soon mellow at night as much as a fall in Huntington could. The days, though, were still scorching hot, so Brian and Aiyana decided to have a beach day with their friends.

Rayne and Zacky were the first to show up, and had brought along a cooler. Aiyana stood to greet her best friend and Zacky, noting that as usual, where one was, the other followed.
She would have been concerned about it, but she and Rayne had managed to keep their weekly girls nights a thing.

Brian hugged both of the new comers, and told everyone that Johnny had just pulled up. When she looked over to see him and Lacey walking down to them she noticed that in addition to the guitars and coolers, there were now going to be a couple of large picnic blankets. She loved that Lacey was always so thoughtful in the small ways.

Once the blankets were spread out, the group sat back on them, each couple respectively curled up together, and they began to talk about starting the new album in January. They all seemed okay with getting back into the studio, as they’d each been working on some things independently that they wanted to see if they could make work as a whole when they came together.

Eventually, Kristy and Matt showed up, their arrival announced by them bickering back and forth all the way across the sand to meet up with everyone else. When they finally stopped, Matt apologized for them being late and took the beer Johnny offered him before sitting down beside Rayne and Zacky.

Aiyana watched the display, and bit her bottom lip. She didn’t do well with arguing, and was hoping that now that they were in a group setting things would calm down between the two. She felt Brian nudge her shoulder, so she turned her head to look at him. He gave her an arched brown as he looked from her lip to her eyes, wordlessly telling her to stop. Her teeth let go of her lips as they slid into a soft smile, and she curled into his side when he put his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m telling you, the next album needs more bass,” Johnny was saying loudly from across the blanket.

“And I’m telling you nobody needs more of your ass, Johnny. You already put it on display enough,” Zacky informed him with a laugh.

Aiyana joined in on the laughter, and looked over at Lacey, motioning for a set of beers. Brian accepted his, and joined in the conversation as to if they should go ahead and start meeting at Matt’s to start putting things together before they went to the studio in January.

“I don’t care if ya’ll come over, but make sure it’s after noon. I need my beauty rest,” Kristy informed the group in her whiney voice.

Aiyana rolled her eyes until she heard Rayne mutter, “All the sleep in the world won’t fix that face, honey,” which caused her to nearly choke on her beer with laughter.

Brian had heard the comment, and to move the attention from Aiyana’s outburst of laughter, got up and grabbed his board. “Who’s with me,” he asked everyone with a big smile.

“Well damnit, Gates! You let a girl down! If you had told me you were going to surf, I would have brought my board,” Rayne huffed out before Zacky wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss to her temple.

Matt stood up and motioned for Brian to wait as he finished his beer. He walked slowly back to the car to get his board, and by the time he made it back, Brian was anxiously tapping his foot.

“And ya’ll say I’m the diva of the group. Damn,” he whined playfully before heading for the surf with his friend.

Aiyana smiled after the two and watched them paddle out. It had taken a few weeks of her and Matt being around each other in a friend capacity for things to not be snippy, but she was glad that they could be friends now. She was pretty close to Matt, and they text or talked at least twice a week.

Kristy wasn’t able to keep her mouth shut, and turned on Aiyana with a growl, “You need to keep your damn eyes off my man.”

“Who says I was watching your man? Didn’t you see mine walking with yours,” she answered quickly, already used to Kristy’s theatrics.

“That’s what I thought, and you better keep them on yours. I know you still have a thing for Matt,” Kristy replied with her nose in the air.

“Bitch, how about you worry about your own relationship and let Aiya worry about hers,” Rayne informed Kristy, always quick to jump to Aiyana’s defense.

Aiyana smiled over at her friend and placed a hand on her knee to let her know she had control of the situation.

“Look, I know we don’t always come off as the power couple, but I assure you we are better than you playing house with Gates,” Kristy sneered, “it’s only a matter of time before he drops you like he has all his other hoes.”

“Kristy, how about you worry about your own dysfunctional relationship and stay the fuck out of my perfectly good one,” Aiyana smiled back at the other girl, her words coming out sweet as sugar cane.

Rayne smirked, and watched Kristy cross her arms over her chest in a huff. Aiyana looked over at Lacey to see a grin on her face, and Johnny and Zack looking anywhere but the two girls that had been arguing, and trying to hide their own smiles.

“Rayne, Lacey, I think I’m going for a dip. Would you girls like to join me and leave this douche canoe alone before she capsizes,” Aiyana asked, her smile never faltering as she got to her feet.

Lacey and Rayne stood and walked with Aiyana down the beach to the water. They laughed and splashed for a while until Lacey swam close to Aiyana, and hugged her.

“For what it’s worth, you’re different than any other girl he’s brought around. I don’t think he’s going to do that,” she said reassuringly to Aiyana.

Aiyana gave her a weak smile and hugged her back. She was confident in herself, but she wasn’t blind to her boyfriend’s previous track record. She just hoped that things really were different for her and Brian than his past showed. She hadn’t witnessed his prior relationships, but she’d heard about them plenty.

She looked up to see Matt and Brian riding a wave in towards them, and she motioned to the girls that they should turn around and check it out as well. When they’d finished that wave, the boys came up to greet the girls in the water.

Matt looked around and didn’t see Kristy, so he looked up the beach for her to see her still pouting on the blanket.

“Who pissed her off,” he sighed as he tucked his board under one arm and took Brian’s from him as well.

“That would be Aiya,” Rayne said matter-of-factly, “but you should watch your girl, Matt. She’s got a mouth that’s going to overload her ass one day.”

Matt rolled his eyes when he heard that Kristy had been starting drama again, and sighed loudly before heading up the beach to put the boards down. Aiyana watched him try to talk to her only for her to continue to pout, now looking like a scolded child.

Aiyana squealed as she was suddenly hugged from behind and tossed into the water, the move effectively distracting her from the drama on the blanket. When she resurfaced she scowled over at Rayne and Brian.

“Which one of you did it,” she asked the pair.

They both looked at her as innocently as possible and pointed at the other. Shaking her head, she turned back around to see everyone except Kristy heading their way. Her eyes went wide, and she turned back to Brian.

“I didn’t mean to cause shit, hon,” she cringed at Brian as she wrapped her arms around him.

Brian just chuckled and whispered in her ear, “Kristy can start shit anywhere. Don’t let her get to you.”

Feeling a little better at his reassurance, she shoved off the ground and effectively knocked Brian and herself into the water, knowing that surprise was the only way she would get him down, and return the dunking she’d gotten earlier.

When he stood back up, he looked at her, and growled low, “Oh, if you thought you got it before, you’re really going to get it now.”

She jumped up and yelped for help as she ran to hide behind Zacky as he got into the water.

“Nope. Not your savior,” he said as he ducked out of the way with a laugh.

Aiyana’s eyes grew bigger as she saw Brian still coming towards her, and she spun, only seeing Johnny and Matt as possible help now. Johnny was as short as she was, so it would be nothing for him to be over powered. Therefore, she chose the more solid option, and ran for Matt through the knee deep water.

“Save me,” she giggled as she skidded to a stop in front of him.

Matt looked over her shoulder to see Brian heading straight for them. With a grin on his face, he slid in front of her, and crossed his arms over his broad chest.

“Hey, Haner,” he said, just as jovial as could be.

“Hand her over, Shads. You don’t have to be caught in the crossfires, man,” Brian tried to bargain.

Matt looked over his shoulder at Aiyana and winked before he felt her slide closer behind him, her shoulder pressed to the middle of his back.

“I don’t think I could do that. You see, I’m a gentleman, and when a woman comes to you for rescue, you rescue her,” he joked at Zacky’s expense.

Brian scoffed and tried to shove the other man to the side. When that didn’t work, he reached around Matt, and tried to grab Aiyana’s arm. When Brian reached around him, Matt pulled Aiyana to the other side, where she clung to his arm, just glad to have a savior from a boyfriend meant on dunking her.

Brian stood back up and watched as Aiyana held tight to Matt’s arm before giving her a playful sneer.

“Alright, so you’ve got the big man on your side. He can’t protect you all night, my dear,” he said before cackling like a villain and rubbing his hands together maniacally.

As soon as he turned around to walk back to Zacky and Rayne, Aiyana hugged Matt.

“Thanks for saving my life,” she laughed.

Matt hugged her back until he heard a shrill scream of his name from up the beach. He sighed loudly, letting go of Aiyana so he could turn to see Kristy with fists at her side, still yelling something they couldn’t quite make out.

“What happened between the two of you anyways,” he asked Aiyana.

“She accused me of watching you walk off, and then started in on my relationship, telling me Brian’s just going to get tired of me. I may have called her a douche canoe, and then invited only Lacey and Rayne to the water to get away from her,” she shrugged in response.
Matt laughed and raised an eyebrow.

“Douche canoe? Really, Aiyana,” he laughed before heading up the beach to his still yelling girlfriend.

After a few steps he paused and looked at Aiyana over his shoulder.

“It’s okay if you watch me walk away this time, I know I have a nice ass,” he said with a smirk as he resumed walking in Kristy’s direction.

Aiyana laughed and turned around to the rest of the group to tell them what just happened, but was met instead with Brian’s face right in front of hers.

She let out a scream of surprise that was quickly followed by curses as she ended up dunked in the ocean again. When she came up again, she frowned at Brian, but was only met with a smile as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m glad you stood up for yourself,” he chuckled.

“Oh, so you heard all of that and still decided to dunk me,” she retorted as she brushed the hair out of her face.

“Well yeah, but a promise is a promise, gorgeous,” he said as he kissed her temple.

“Hey, love birds, why don’t we take this back to our now bitch free blanket and play something for these ladies since the sun is setting,” Zacky asked as he passed them on his way to the blanket, Rayne protectively tucked into his side.

Brian nodded, and they all quickly made their way to the blankets that Matt and Kristy had already vacated as they argued all the way back to the car. Brian and Zacky sat close together and pulled out a pair of guitars. Johnny and Lacey cuddled up on one side in front of the pair, and Aiyana and Rayne curled up next to one another beside Johnny and Lacey.

After playing through a few songs, Aiyana’s face lit up when she heard Brian start singing Seize The Day as they began to play it. She leaned her head onto her cousin’s shoulder, and her eyes didn’t move off of Brian for the duration. Rayne was likewise smitten when Zacky began singing the next song; Dear God.

Afterwards, Johnny decided he and Lacey were going to head home, as the air was beginning to cool, and the wind coming off the waves was giving them both a chill. Everyone agreed with the sentiment, said their goodbyes to one another, and dispersed from the beach.

Notes

A little drama for your Sunday morning.

Please comment!