The slight breeze in Los Angeles today was calming, to say the least. I had been viewing the day through my sunglasses as the sun shone brightly. I heard loud crunching as Benji was sitting in front of me, eating the croutons in his salad. "Could you possibly chew loud enough? I was happily enjoying the scenery, but your crunching ruined it." I furrowed my eyebrows, making him laugh loudly and a wide smile to grow on him.

"Sorry. Maybe that's why girls don't like me? Because I chew loud."

I rolled my eyes at his comment. "I wouldn't be surprised, Madden. I need to find you a lady. No more of these slores!" I pointed my finger at him as he smiled innocently. "I'm serious, Benj. You need to get laid by a lady, not Hollywood's Next Skank."

"I feel like I'm just the single type, ya know? I mean, I'm usually in a relationship at least every year, but not this one."

"Tal said it's because you hang out with me too much." I chuckled, twirling my black straw around in my cup full of iced tea.

"That could be it. You're killin' my game, Luce."

"Shut the fuck up, dick." I laughed, picking up the rolled up straw wrapper and throwing it at his face. "Speaking of hanging out with me, what are you doing for the next seven days?"

"Um, nothing. Why?"

"Well in two days, I'm going to New York to go see Mike for a few days. They have two back-to-back shows there this tour, then when he leaves, I was gonna spend two extra days there just to hang in the city. I wanted you to come with me because you're my only friend."

"Sounds, cool. Where were you gonna stay?"

"The guys have a hotel and Mike got a room specifically for him and I, but I was thinking you could stay at Josh's and we could spend some time with him, too. I haven't seen him in a while."

"Yeah, I'm down. I have nothing else to do. Might as well go and see the big bro."

"Great, this is gonna be a fun little vacation." I grinned sweetly, excited to not only see Mike, but to have Benji there too was gonna be awesome. Especially with Austin being there and all.

"Has Mike mentioned anything about Austin, yet? The tours been going on for a couple of weeks now, right?"

I nodded,"Yeah. There's about three more weeks left. He says that Austin hasn't said anything to him in his face, but that he'll catch him looking at him ugly and Alan will tell Mike what Austin says on the bus on that day. I honestly have a really bad feeling about when I go. I feel like Austin's gonna start something. Especially now that Mike and I are engaged."

"Oh fuck, I forgot about that. I mean, I didn't forget because that ring fucking blinds me everyday, but you get what I'm saying. Well, as long as I'm there, nothing will happen. I won't hesitate to beat some ass for you. I mean, I don't want too. But, you get what I'm saying." He stuttered and repeated himself, making me laugh. I can always count on Benji to make me laugh about things I worry about. Everyone should have a friend like that.

"I guess we'll see when we get there. Because I'll be surrounded by my haters; AKA, Austin and his fans." I said causing Benji to almost choke on his drink, laughing.

"Well, this should be fun. Cheers to the haters." He nodded holding up his iced tea, and I held up mine clinking them together.

---

My laptop was making a noise as it waited for Mike to answer my iChat video call. I was packing up my stuff, and some stuff he wanted me to bring. "Princess!" He shouted as his scruffly face came on the screen.

I smiled, admiring his features. I missed him so much. "Hey, baby! Have you played yet?"

"Nah, we have a couple of hours before we go on. What are you doing?"

"Packing my things so I can see you. Hey, do you need anything?"

"Chones. Like always. Um, I think that's it, though. Everyone has stuff too, so I think we're good."

"Okay," I folded up one of my outfit choices. "Benji is tagging along by the way." I mentioned causing him to smile. Benji and Mike had grown really close since we had got engaged. They were basically the same person and they always had a good time around each other. Mike approved of Benji as my right hand man, and Benji approved of Mike has my husband-to-be. It all worked out.

"Oh hell yeah! Damn, it's gonna be fun with us three. Is he gonna stay with Josh?"

I nodded, "Yup. Josh is coming to one of the shows, too. So, I have some company now when you play. Besides Alan and Tino." Alan was the one person I was closest too in Of Mice and Men. I'd remained friends with Tino, Aaron, and Phil, but they were busy with their girlfriends often.

"We could see the city together. Hey, wanna know what Austin said about me today?" Mike joked, laughing at himself.

"Shut up, you're stupid, dude." I laughed, rolling my eyes. "Your son misses you, by the way." I mentioned as I looked over at Ludo who was always a little sadder when Mike was gone. He was curled up on Mike's pillow and had a little blanket over him. He looked over to me when he noticed I was staring at him.

"Aw, I miss him too. Where is he?" Mike asked sadly.

"Right here, hold on." I adjusted the screen on my laptop and set it where Mike could see Ludo.

"Hey! Ludo!" Mike shouted loudly causing Ludo to sit up and wag his tail happily. Just hearing Mike's voice made him happy. I understood where he was coming from. "I wish my future wife missed me half as much as my dog does."

I chuckled looking back at the computer screen, sitting on the bed. The screen revealed Mike and his famous smirk. "You don't think I do?"

"I don't know, do you?"

"I miss you more than anything, babe. Counting the days until I see you." I smiled, my nose scrunching up slowly.

He said nothing but smiled happily as he looked at his screen, showing me. It felt like he was looking directly at me like he was here. It felt extremely real.

---

Benji and I had arrived in New York City, at JFK International Airport. We slugged around the couple of bags we had and we tried hard to stay close as seas of people were crowding us. I followed his lead as he'd been around JFK way more than I had, so he took us to the cabs. I was happy to be here, in the lovely and perfect cool weather of New York.

Benji had hailed our cab and we headed to the hotel where I would be staying with Mike, and seeing everyone else. As I watched the city go by in my window, I saw the hurriness of the city that I had seen a year or so before. I smiled softly as things never changed and I was glad. I looked down at my ring and frankly that was the only thing that had changed; I was engaged to the love of my life and it was so perfect. I looked down at my ring a lot, not because it as beyond beautiful but it reminded me of Mike. I couldn't contain how excited I was about seeing him.

"Do I look okay? Do I look like I just got off of a five and a half hour flight?" I asked Benji, digging into my purse so I could touch up my makeup.

"You look great! Stylin'." He made an 'okay' sign with his fingers making me laugh. He was good at that.

"Thank you, Benjamin. Hey, maybe we can get you laid this week."

He chuckled, letting out a small snort. "Thanks, we could pencil that into the schedule for this mini-vacation."

I laughed, looking into the small mirror of my facial powder, examining my makeup. I touched up a little then put everything back into my purse. Benj and I made small talk as we drove to the hotel. Once we had arrived, we got off and lugged our stuff into the building. I went to the front desk, "Room for Mike Fuentes?"

The front desk lady smiled, then nodded as she typed his name. Her blonde curls bounced as she did so, I couldn't stop looking at her Shirley Temple curls. "Ah, here we are." She reached somewhere near her and pulled out a room key. "Room 346." She grinned.

"Thank you." I said before grabbing my bag then walking with Benji to the elevator. I pulled out my phone and called Mike.

"Hey baby, what's up?"

"I'm on my way up, so hide your hookers." I said jokingly, then looked over to Benji whom had rolled his eyes at me.

"Doing that at the moment. I can't wait to see you, Luce. I miss you so much!" He shouted.

"I miss you too, Mike. And by the way, Benj is with me at the moment, so you can't open the door and fuck me as soon as I walk in." Benji burst out laughing saying, "Oh my god, Lucy."

"Alright, got it."

The elevator dinged at we were on the third floor. "Okay, I'm gonna find the room right now, so I'll see you in a minute."

"Alright, bye sucka." He said before hanging up on me before I could say anything back.

Benji and I walked out of the elevator and looked for the sign that said the rooms for 340 and up were to the right. We carried all of our luggage towards the hallway we needed to go. "I hate carrying luggage."

"Remind me when we get to the room to call Josh so I can tell him I'm here and him and I could meet up."

"Okay, I shall Benjamin." I nodded, smiling. Soon enough we reached the room and I knocked a bunch of times on purpose to annoy Mike.

Seconds later, the door opened and Mike stood there with a huge smile on his face. "Lucy Garcia!" He shouted and picked me up. I threw up my arms, dropping my bags and leaped into his arms, hugging him so tightly. "I missed you so much baby." He kissed my entire face it seemed, returning the tightness of the hug before putting me down and kissing me on the lips. "Sorry about that, hey Benj!" He said, hugging Benji who was standing behind us smiling.

"You guys are too cute." He said, smiling and walking passed us into the room.

"Call Josh, Benj." I shouted as I reminded him. "I'm so happy that I'm here with you, babe." I said as Mike picked up all of my bags and lugged them further into the room before dropping them on the ground.

"I know, me too. I can't wait to spend the next couple of days with my fabulous lady." He picked me up and tossed us onto the bed. "Ring check." He said picking up my hand and making sure I was wearing my engagement ring.

"She never takes it off, dude." Benji said, getting off of his phone and sitting on one of the chairs.

"Good! She shouldn't." He grinned, kissing my nose.

"Is Josh coming?" I asked, sitting up and looking over at Benji; trying to not make him feel like the third wheel.

"In like ten minutes. He's in a cab on the way over here. So, I'll be making my way down so you guys can finally bone."

"Aw, thanks darling." I said, jokingly. "Oh! Mike, during this trip, I'm making it my mission to get Benji laid by a nice NYC girl."

"Ooh, I can help guys. Luce and I will scope out the ladies and get them prepped for you, Benj."

"Wow guys, thanks for the help. Well, I'm off. I'll see you guys at the show tomorrow! Have fun, y'all." He smirked then left the room.

I looked up at Mike and just admired his features for a moment as he was plugging in his phone so it would charge. I felt like his appearance had changed, even though it really hadn't. His once shaven face was now the scruffled beard that I loved and he still wore a hat at all times, and cutoff tees more than anything. I smiled to myself that this man was mine, that I didn't have to miss him anymore. Not for a couple of days, and I enjoyed that.

"What have you been up too, princess?" Mike asked, wrapping his long arm around me and bringing me into his chest. "Tell me everything that I've missed."

I found myself telling him a lot of stories that have happened since he left; work, home, Ludo, stuff that Benji would kill me if he found out I told Mike. And, he told me his exciting adventures about what's been going on in his world since he's been away. I liked this about us. I liked that I haven't seen him in weeks and the first thing we did was talk about everything going on instead of going straight to having sex.

That's how I know that somehow, Mike and I can make it and be happy.


"I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone." - Jonathan Safran Foer

Notes

I FINALLY UPDATED! I hope you all don't hate me too much for taking 10,000 years to get back to you guys. Once again, I wrote like three versions of this and I didn't like any of them. Writer's block has been my sworn enemy since I wrote the last chapter and it's been killing me not to be able to update you guys. BUT,

I FINALLY DID!

I know it's short and pretty boring but exciting things will happen in the next one. I promise, you all that.

I love you and thank you for still reading and being so patient :)

Love you forever,
Amber