All Apologies

Ain't It The Life

A few days have passed, and Abi is waking up on Christmas Day, still staying at Dave's with Taylor. She rolls over and looks at the clock on the bedside, 8:02 am. Her sleepiness is automatically washed away as a massive smile strikes her face. Abi jumps out of bed and rushes down the hallway to Dave's room. She bounces onto the bed, landing between Taylor and Dave. "TAYLOR! DAVE! WAKE UP!" she yells, shaking the boys awake. The boys roll around, expecting to see a panicked kid, but when they notice that she is fine they only stretch and groan. Abi was used to seeing them sleep in the same bed, they did it all the time. She jumps onto Dave, shaking his shoulders and trying to push him off the bed. Dave gives in quite fast and swings his legs over the side of the bed to sit up. Abi crawls across the bed towards Taylor, grabbing at his arms and trying to pull him up. "Taylor!" Abi wines, "Yeah Taylor!" Dave whines, slightly mocking the girl. Taylor groans and tries to roll away, but Dave rips the covers away and pulls Taylor off the bed by his ankles. "DAVE! OH MY GOD! I AM UP!" Taylor screams as Dave pulls him. Abi giggles and jumps off the bed, "Santa came, Santa came, come on!" she says as she runs out of the room, yelling for the two to catch up. Dave turns to the blonde who looks like he is still struggling to get up from the ground. "Come on T, Santa came!" Dave says reaching out a hand. Taylor grabs the hand, rolling his eyes, and Dave helps him. "Bloody 'Santa' didn't want to be up at fucking 8 in the morning," Taylor says as he is being lifted from the ground.

The three had finished the pancakes Dave made and were starting to clean up when Franz and Nate turned up. It was roughly 9:30 am when they came in to have Christmas with the whole band, "Dave! We're here," Nate's voice echoes down the hall as the front door creaks. The boys walk into the kitchen while holding Christmas presents, but Nate looks like he brought a significantly larger amount than Franz. They gesture them to Dave, and he points towards the tree, already surrounded by presents. Abi rushes down to the lounge room and starts crawling around the tree and she starts reading the names on them, Santa, Taylor, Dave, Nate, and Franz. By the time she reads out the name on every present and who they are for, the whole band is sitting on the couch. Before Abi gets up to move to the sofa, Taylor says, "Do you want to hand out the presents B?" Abi's smile widens and her eyes glow with happiness even more. Taylor thought he would have never been able to make her so happy while she was mourning her mother, and a smile struck his face too.

The last present Abi pulls out from under the tree is addressed to her by Taylor. The girl turns around to see Taylor who is smiling at her. She turns to Dave who is doing the same, Nate and Franz however look just as intrigued by what it is as Abi. She sits between Taylor and Dave, hesitating before ripping the paper. Inside is a small box. Abi looks up at the blonde, tilting her head in confusion. "Open it," he says quietly as his voice cracks. She lifts the lid and inside is a stainless-steel necklace with a silver hawk pendant, the same hawk silhouette as Taylor's tattoo. Her eyes widen as she takes the necklace out, admiring it in the light. "Do you want me to put it on?" Taylor asks, holding out his hand with a matching smile to the girl. She nods and hands him the necklace as she spins around. Taylor does up the necklace to a setting where it won't come off but isn't ridiculously long and turns the girl back around. She grabs the pendent and admires it, "Do you like it?" Dave can tell Taylor is nervous by the way he asked her. Abi stares up at Taylor, still in absolute awe. "Do I like it? Yes, I do!" the blonde sighs with relief. "I love you, Taylor. Thank you," she says jumping into his arms and he smiles at her, pulling her into a hug, "I love you more than you will ever know Abi."

After presents, gossiping, and jamming, Taylor starts to wrap up. "Abi, Dave, and I have had an amazing time, but we got to go to my parents." The boys all start to get up and Abi farewells Franz and Nate before being led outside. After putting Abi to bed last night, Dave and Taylor set up a little fort of blankets and a handful of pillows on one side of the back seat so she could be comfy on the long drive. They had stacked some things next to her and at her feet, so it looked like she had a mini bed to curl up in. Dave had been convincing Taylor to allow him to come with them so he would be safer on the road for the past 2 weeks, and Taylor had finally agreed that he should come the night before. So, the night before, the boys had to be extra quiet but were stumbling over everything and giggling. 

When Dave locked the front door after Nate and Franz had left, he climbed into the front seat. Abi gives a confused look to the two men in the front, "I thought it was just us T?" Taylor turns to Dave, overthinking again about Dave coming along, "Dave is coming with us, is that all good?" The girl smiles and nods, snuggling into the warmth of the blankets, "Yes! I love it when Dave comes with us anywhere."

The two boys take turns driving, 2-4 hours on and 2-4 hours off. Both blast some of their favorite music; The Beatles, Queen, The Knack, Led Zepplin, Guns N' Roses, Pixies, and the same few Nirvana and Foo Fighters songs on repeat for Abi. Abi sleeps for a fair amount of the trip, and the boys sleep on their 2-4 hour breaks. During the day, they don't sleep necessarily and only talk. Taylor was worried that this ability to sleep whenever would muck up Abi's sleep schedule, but Dave assured him that she would be completely okay by telling him that it wouldn't and that she already could sleep anywhere at any time. The 3 spend the whole trip reminiscing and having a good old laugh together, getting mainly McDonald's at food stops.