It's a Jungle, Baby

Surprises

We walk up the stairs to our building for the first time in a month.

"They're going to be pissed." Queenie says as we reach the third floor. "They wanted to pick up is at the airport."

"But surprising them a day early will make them happy." I say.

After losing our last game we hopped an earlier flight and got in at about eleven. Knowing the boys, they're in our apartment drinking and having fun. None of them would be asleep, passed out drunk but not asleep.

We make it to the door and no light escapes it, maybe I was wrong. We open the door to our dark apartment and see the tv on. The boys sit on the couches, watching the tv intently, I can tell by the demonic Plymouth Fury that they're watching Christine, my favourite movie . I can't make out who's who, but I know it's them due to the overwhelming smell of cigarettes and alcohol. I close the door quietly, Queenie flicks on the lights and they all jump. 

"I thought only teenage girls watched scary movies in the dark?" Chelsea says as they look back.

"Did you braid each other's hair to?" I wonder and Duff smiles.

He steps over the couch and Steven yelps in pain, Duff doesn't stop though. He picks me up and starts kissing me. God I missed him, I missed him so much. I kiss him back and he pulls away studying me.

"You're real, right?" He asks me quietly.

"Yeah, Sweetie, I'm real." I say and he kisses me again.

"I missed you so much." Duff mumbles as he kissed me.

"Mhm, I missed you to, baby." I mumble. He pulls away from me and puts me on my feet, Duff looks me in the eyes.

"Don't leave again." Duff says quietly and I nod.

"I won't." I say and he kisses my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you, Taylor." He mumbles into my hair.

I hug everyone else and tell them how much I missed them before we all sat on the couch and finished watching Christine in the dark. Duff had pulled me into his lap shortly after we sat down, holding me as close to him as possible. Izzy sat with Chelsea in a similar way. Duff watched the movie over my shoulder, stopping to kiss my neck or shoulder blade once in a while. I played with his fingers mindlessly, that were laced with mine.

When the movie finished we caught up over vodka and other variations of alcohol.

"Was Italy pretty?" Slash wonders.

"What we saw of it, when we weren't on the pitch we were sleeping." Queenie admits.

"He was that hard on you?" Steven wonders.

"Yeah, I mean he was insane. At one point he grounded the team for partying too much the night before a game." I explain.

"But the coach didn't like you to start with." Duff reminds me.

"Yeah, I'm sure that didn't help." I admit and he laughs.

"When we were in Minnesota, the one girl took us to her family's cattle farm." Chelsea starts. "It went well until her dad showed us the cattle prod."

"What the hell happened?" Axl wonders with a face that tells me he's both sickened but curious.

"We ran around zapping each other with it." I explain.

"Is that even safe?" Steven wonders with the same look as Axl.

"I'm not sure but I got a wicked burn on my stomach." Chelsea lifts up her shirt revealing the prong marks.