I slowly opened my eyes and observed my surroundings. I was lying on my stomach with my arm tucked under the pillow holding my head. My eyes stung slightly from falling asleep with my contacts in. I blinked a few times to bring the glowing clock numbers into focus. 2:17. I moved my left leg to scratch the back of my right calf when I realized not only was I still in my jeans and jacket, but I still had my flip flops on too. Apparently I had fallen asleep waiting for Lex to get back to the hotel.

Just as I was debating whether or not to get up and put my pajamas on, or just kick my flip flops off and fall back asleep, I heard muffled sounds. Let me tell you, it’s a pretty scary thing to wake up in a hotel, not knowing exactly where you are and then hear muffled noised. Luckily, after a moment I was able to define it as Lex and two other people who had just walked into the room. I rubbed my eyes and watched them walk into the small hotel room Lex and I shared with Topher, The love of belladonna’s guitar player and his girlfriend Annie.

“Hey there, sleepy smile,” I heard Lex say as the bed I was laying on sunk and shook beneath me. Still in a half sleeping state I gasped and clenched the mattress beneath me. “You remember Zac, right? And this is his wife, Kate.”

I rubbed my eyes and looked at Kate. Instantly I recognized her as the girl from the balcony. She smiled warmly and waved.

I decided to be classy and grunt back at her, before using all of my upper body strength to push myself up to a sitting position. Then I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and yawned. After clearing my throat I choked out a raspy “hey.”

Zac and Kate took a seat on the bed opposite of me and picked up in their conversation as I excused myself to the bathroom and made my way through the obstacle course that was our room.

Lex and I were sharing it with Annie and Topher, and even though we’d only been there for one afternoon it was already trashed. Before we left for the show earlier Annie was insistent on wearing her favorite pair of jeans. Apparently, those jeans were the very last item of clothing she had in her bag, because everything else was thrown out of the bag, and now scattered all over the floor. I can understand maybe having a pile of clothes on the floor, or having a small area covered in clothes, but Annie managed to track her clothes from the bathroom door all the way over to the windows on the far wall.

That’s Annie though. She’s a very loud person. I don’t mean she’s just loud in volume, everything she does is loud. Her hair is loud, her clothes are loud, and her movements are loud. She gets it from her mom. Her mom is a free spirit, and passed it on to Annie. When she was little her mom would let her pick out her own clothes, so most of the time she’d wear something bizarre, like a Tutu with rainbow colored socks and cowboy boots, or something with lots of sequins. It would be a lie to say she’s outgrown that . Honestly, I think that if it was socially acceptable Annie would wear a tutu, rainbow colored socks and wings everyday. She compromises with society though by only wearing her tutu and rainbow colored socks every once in awhile. That’s why I love her. She’s brave and confident and always the first one to jump head first into new things.

Once I was in the bathroom I closed the door behind me, flipped on the lights and stared blankly in the mirror for a few seconds still yawing and trying to wake up completely. I looked like I was just hit by a train. My eye shadow had smudged while I was sleeping, leaving dark smudges all around my eyes, and my hair looked knottier than normal. I rubbed the area around my eyes trying to get rid of the smudges the best I could. After most of the smudges were gone I dug through my book bag that was sitting under the counter until I found the bag with my contact case and glasses. I removed my contacts and slipped on my glasses, then took the rubber band that was around my wrist to pull my hair into a sloppy bun.

My hair was finally starting to grow and look semi-decent. I dye my hair whenever I’m bored which is about once a month, and consequently it isn’t that healthy anymore. For now my hair was dark brown with a little bit of bleached blonde in my bangs, but it has pretty much been every color under the sun. I started dying my hair when I was 15, I think. My mom said that it had to be a “normal” color, meaning that it had to be a color that they sold at a drug store. I started out dying it a “normal” red, and gradually got more daring with the color, and once my mom was used to the color I would go a little brighter. After a little while I bought a jar or Manic Panic in Pillar box red, and that was the door to other unnatural colors. By that point I had worked my mom up to being okay with the color.

I did the same thing with my piercing. I would start off small and simple, and gradually work my way up to something more drastic. It started with stretching my ear lobes a little. At first my parents didn’t even notice, and then as they got bigger my parents noticed. They were mad for a little, but they got over it.

A few weeks after my 18th birthday I got my nose pierced, but didn’t tell my parents for a few days. They didn’t even notice until I told them, “I accidentally got my nose pierced.” They didn’t find that as amusing as I did. After my nose I got my Monroe done. Once again they were mad, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. After they got used to that one, I got my lip pierced. Once again they were mad, but I had worked them up to it, so it could have been worse.

My poor parents. Don’t get me wrong, I'm a good daughter, I stay out of trouble for the most part. Okay, I stay out of legal trouble. I’ve done some stupid things, but nothing involving breaking laws. I don’t do drugs, I don’t have sex, and I don’t make fun of old people. Surprisingly, we get along really well, and I, unlike my 2 older brothers, actually enjoy spending time with them.

I looked in the mirror one last time before turning off the light and walking back into the room to join the others. I sat down on my bed and pulled my feet up under my body. I waited for awhile trying to figure out what their conversation was so that I could join in. After a minute Kate caught sight of my engagement ring and reached across the gap between the beds for my left hand.

“Oh my goodness, will you look at this thing?” she asked turning back to Zac. He wasn’t as impressed as her, so he just shrugged his shoulders. “How does your arm not fall off carrying this thing around?” she asked turning back to me, then she looked at Lex and asked “How the hell did you afford that? You’re sleeping in a sleazy hotel, but you can afford those rocks?”

“Kate, babe, manners. Remember those?” Zac asked placing his hands on either side of her hips and bringing her back toward him to their spot on the opposite bed. “Let’s not rip off her arm.”

I looked down at my engagement ring which consisted of three rather large circular cut diamonds each surrounded with smaller diamonds. “My uncle owns a jewelry store in New York. He designed it after I told him kinda what I wanted and then gave Lex a major discount,” I explained, but was practically cut off by Lex.

“Yeah, but it still cost me a fucking arm and leg. It’s a fucking ring, Jovie. You better not loose that shit,” he said in classic Lex Style.

“Love you too, babe,” I said rolling my eyes. “If you keep that up our kids first words are going to be ‘mother fucking asshole,’” I continued, glaring at him. Zac apparently was amused by my last comment and started laughing.

“I’ll be so proud,” replied Lex pretending to wipe a tear from his left eye.

We hung out for a little while longer while Lex and Zac talked about how much each other had changed. Zac couldn’t seem to get over Lex’s tattoos and piercing, but seemed enthralled by them. The boys caught up on their careers and how much fun this summer is going to be. Their sound was different considering Lex was in a ska band, and Hanson is, well Hanson, but they figured it would be fun anyways.

Finally around 3:15 Annie and Topher came stumbling in the room drunk. The two giggling idiots didn’t seem to care about the two strangers in sitting on their bed, and threw themselves on the bed with them. Kate’s eyes grew huge as Annie and Topher felt up each other.

“Zac, I think its time we go,” Kate squealed as she jumped off the bed. Zac nodded in agreement as he stood up.

We made plans to meet tomorrow at noon in the lobby. There wasn’t a show tomorrow because technically Hanson’s tour didn’t start until the day after, so we had the whole day to see the city and the boys could catch up. I stood up with Lex to walk Kate and Zac down to the lobby, yawning the whole way. When we reached the front door Kate rolled her eyes noticing the 3 girls standing outside of the doors.

“It’s freaking 3 in the morning, who in their right mind stands out in the cold like that?” she asked.

Lex looked at the girls looking in though the front window and nodded, “It must be nice, at least you’ve got fans.”

I pushed my hands into my pockets and crinkled my nose. Zac, Kate and I exchanged faces before Zac reminded Lex, “It’s 3 o’clock in the morning, Lex.”

Lex shrugged his shoulders before Zac pulled him into a hug.

“Oh you’re a hugger,” I said seconds before Zac pulled me into a hug too. I didn’t have enough time to pull my hands out of my pocket so I stood there awkwardly with my arms pinned to my sides. “Goodnight, sleepyhead.” He said as he pulled away. As if on queue I yawned again.

“Be safe” Lex and I said in unison as Zac and Kate walked out through the revolving door. The three girls outside rushed over to Zac and Kate turned around and made a face at me and Lex. I laughed at Kate, relating to her.

“I think I like her,” I said as I wrapped my left arm around his right before we turned around and walked back to the elevator, then added, “Even if she was gawking at you earlier”

“Eh, she’s alright. I’m just fucking stoked to see Zac again.” Lex replied.

“God, your mouth is terrible.”

“Actually, it’s Lex.” He replied as the doors opened. We stepped inside and pushed the button for the 7th floor.

“You guys are so much alike.” I said resting my head on his shoulder. I was so comfortable around him, I couldn’t help but smile. The rest of the ride up was in comfortable silence. We got out of the elevator and walked down the hall with our arms still linked. When we got to our door it was wide open with clothes laying in the door frame. I rubbed my temple with my free hand and braced myself for he sight inside the room.

Annie was laying face down half naked on her bed covered partially by a sheet and Topher was sprawled out in nothing but his socks on our bed. By this point Lex and I were too tired to fight with him. I sighed as I took off my glasses and laid them on the nightstand before I helped Lex roll Topher off the edge of our bed, and with a loud thud Topher was laying on the ground. Still wearing my jeans I climbed over him and kicked off my flip flops. I’m pretty sure one of them landed on Topher’s head, but it served him right. Lex followed suit and crawled into bed next to me after he turned off the light.

“Love you” I whispered as I shut my eyes.