Far From Here (A Marianas Trench FanFic)

Chapter Eight

I grabbed the CD player from the living room and brought it with me to the kitchen, and plugged it in on the counter. It was already loaded with the CD from Fall Out Boy, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out With Your Girlfriend. I cranked my favorite song on the entire CD, which was Pretty in Punk, and sang along as I cooked up a bunch of pancakes and brewed my extremely addictive coffee. As I did every morning, I eyed the scars that decorated my arms, reminding myself to stay strong and never let myself get that low again. I grinned as I thought of seeing Fall Out Boy live once we moved to Chicago, which was going to be a reality, as it was their home town. Their lead singer, a real cutie by the name of Patrick Stump, fascinated me, and he had a truly great voice. Pipes of platinum, as the joke went.

"Someone's happy today!" Josh said as he strolled into the kitchen. Katie came in soon after, a big smile on her pretty face.

"It's a good day." I replied, handing him a plate piled high with pancakes. Josh's smirk spread across his face.

"It's going to be even better when I take you to your surprise with Katie." Josh announced, before dashing to the fridge and digging out the syrup, butter, and orange juice (he hated coffee, and so did Katie). I looked at Kate, confused, and she shrugged. I wasn't really worried, though, I knew Josh too well. We all scarfed down the hot pancakes, listening to music and talking in a way that was ritual to us. We'd spent countless mornings doing this very thing, sometimes with Matt, more often without. This had been how Josh and I told Katie about the addictions, how I first revealed how I felt about Matt to Kate, how Katie had told me about her feelings for Josh, and vice versa. About an hour later, Katie and I kicked Josh into the living room while she and I went up to my room to change from the loungey-pajama type clothes we'd fallen asleep in to normal clothes. I slithered into my favorite pair of grey destructed jeans, and yanked on the Fall Out Boy top I'd ordered a while ago for myself as a graduation present. Katie was soon wearing black jeans and a Nickelback shirt, and we tugged on our Converse at the same time. We danced around the room, with me singing Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes off of Fall Out Boy's first album, Take This to Your Grave. Patrick's voice was pure gold, and extremely unique. I loved it, and was dying for that concert. We shimmied down the stairs, somehow managing to avoid falling. Josh laughed as we entered the room, still looking comfortable in his sweats. I shook my butt to the beat of the music coming from the kitchen, singing the lyrics to Calm Before The Storm in perfect harmony with Patrick. I was honestly a bit surprised at how well our voices gelled; it was almost a perfect match. Josh just shook his head and left.

"I'll be right back, I'm just going to go change." Josh said as he was heading out the door. We waved and yelled goodbyes, knowing he'd be right back here in a few minutes. Josh was strongly punctual, and we had to go meet Ian Casselman today. I was right, in about the next ten minutes, we heard the rumble of Josh's car parking in my driveway.

"Why'd you bring the car, sweetie?" I asked when he came back inside. He just grinned devilishly.

"Unless you want blood on that shirt, Kris, I'd change. You too, Kate." He chuckled and made shooing motions with his hands while swinging his hips with the music. I just shook my head, before running upstairs to grab a couple of tank tops for Katie and I. I yanked on the purple tank that matched my hair, and tossed the neon blue one to Kate as she came in. She smirked and we raced downstairs again.

"Ok, where the hell are we going?" Katie puzzled as Josh grabbed my CD out of the player and shoved it into the one in his car.

"The tattoo parlour." Josh replied, and I stopped dead. The tattoo shop?

"Why?" I said, poking Josh in the ribs, as I climbed into the backseat.

"Why else? I'm taking you guys to get tattoos." Josh chortled, and Katie and I screamed. We'd been wanting to get some tattoos, since Katie's 18th birthday had just come around in March. We just never went for it, since we were hopefully moving. We knew what tattoos we were getting too, and it was going to hurt like a bitch. I was going to be rolling dual, if Josh would let me. I grinned, I was so excited!

"Woo hoo!" Katie whooped. I put a hand to the front seat and she low-fived me. We danced in the car for the half an hour it took for the trip. As soon as we pulled up, though, I saw an all-too-familiar Pinto.

"Why is Matt here?" I snarled, hoping he couldn't hear me over the music.

"So he can say goodbye. He does love you, you know." Josh said solemnly. I glared at him.

"This wasn't nice, Josh. I don't think she's ready, not after yesterday." Katie drawled, patting his arm. He laughed, and shook his head.

"I'm sure she can handle it. He just wants to say goodbye, publically. He's not getting any tats, it's just the three of us, like it used to be." Josh drawled, tossing an arm over her shoulders. I growled at him, then straightened my shoulders and emerged from the car. Matt was leaning against the hood, and when he say me, he nearly fell off. I rolled my eyes, he's seen me in less than this. Meaning a bikini.

"Um.. Look, I'm sorry about this. I just wanted to say that I'm really going to miss you when you're in Chicago. I know it means a lot to you, going. So I won't make some ridiculously clichéd speech about how you should stay so I can love you, or so I can make you love me too. I know you already do, and I'm willing to wait. I will wait for you." Matt muttered, as he straightened up.

"Shush for a minute, Matt. Why would you think I was even that kind of girl in the first place? I don't do romantic crap like that, I'm simple. It does mean a lot to me that you knew it wouldn't work, and that you still cared enough to admit you thought about it. I do love you, but I don't want you to wait for me. Be happy with someone else while I'm away, because I'm going to be away for a few years. I don't ever want to diminish your happiness again, not after all I've done. Give me some time for atonement. Please, Matt, that's all I want." I said, smiling at him. He took the three steps that separated us and kissed me hard and deep. It was a kiss that spoke volumes to me, feelings of discontent, adoration, longing, desperation, and pure lust. I pulled away after a short while, looking at him pointedly.

"Oh, right... I need to stop kissing you, before you really don't ever leave me. For you, Kris, I'll try with someone else. Only for you." Matt said, kissing my cheek and then climbing into the car and driving off. I stood there dumbstruck for a moment. Then I burst into a flurry of joyous movements, spinning and head banging, and I don't even know what else. Katie joined in pretty quickly, then we both dropped to the ground weary.

"Well, now that you've got the crack out of your system... Can we go get these tattoos now?" Josh teased, and we sprinted past him into the shop.