Chapter 14: He's Obsessed With His Hair

When I ran back downstairs, Matty was sitting right where I left him. His carefree attitude from earlier had disappeared, replaced by an air of nervousness. It was obvious that his mind was elsewhere. All the signs were there in his body language. Matty was biting down on his lip, his fingers hastily shredding napkins.

There was a lost look in his eyes before he looked up at me. "AIMEE! Is everything okay? I didn't mean to cause any trouble."

"Yeah, everything's good now." I smiled, plopping down on the floor next to Matty. "We had a bit of a nasty fight, lots of screaming and yelling. But we worked it out."

The tension eased from his features. "Thank god! I felt terrible. Absolutely terrible. Still, I'm sorry. I honestly am."

"Don't feel bad, really! You couldn't have known. There's no need to beat yourself up. Ignore anything that Benji said. He was just upset at the time."

His green eyes fell upon my hand. "Damnnn... that's one huge rock. I could buy a new car with that ring."

"I know, but it's so pretty though. I know you might not have a good opinion of him, but everything Benji did tonight was really sweet."

"How am I supposed to compete with that?" Matty teased. "I have a total of about $27 in my pocket."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

"Come on, let's run away together. We can get hitched in Vegas."

"Hmm, as tempting as that offer is, I'll think I'll have to decline. I don't think Benji would like that."

Matty winked at me. "It'll be our little secret."

"Oh, shut up." I pushed him. "Chill out, lover boy. Maybe later. We'll see how things work out. For now, let's just get you settled upstairs."

We grabbed Matty's bags and made our way to the elevator towards the center of the house. All the way there we exchanged a playful banter that seemed to flow naturally between us. We were standing outside the elevator doors waiting for it to reach our floor, when Mitch turned up in the conversation.

"So, did I mention that I met your boyfriend, Mitch?" I said, a smile finding its way onto my face.

"Oh, god." Matty groaned and shook his head. "I hope he didn't say anything too embarrassing about me."

"Haha, nothing too bad, I promise. He did say some really funny stuff about you barging into his tour bus every night at 3 AM— all because you wanted to IM me. That's so cute!!"

Matty rubbed his cheeks in an attempt to hide the heat rushing to his face. A fact that made the whole situation even more adorable. I was now pretty sure that what Mitch had said was true. "Shit. Don't listen to that damn Mitch. It wasn't every night. More like 3 or 4 times a week."

There was a ding as the elevator doors slid open. I shrugged. "It's okay. Don't be embarrassed, Matty. I think it's sweet. I like that you're such a nice guy. That's why I'm friends with you."

Matty smiled and followed me into the elevator. "You know, I talked to Mitch on the phone a couple days ago about you. He said, and I quote, that you're 'so fuckin' hot'."

I raised my eyebrows. The elevator started to travel upwards and I tilted my head to look at him. "Oh. Really?"

I wasn't all that surprised to hear what Mitch had said about me. I don't mean that in some conceited way. It's just that Mitch wasn't unlike Benji on the pervert scale. Granted, I now viewed Benji's pervertedness as obnoxiously cute, but Mitch was of the sleazy, big-headed rock star type. Whenever he talked to a girl, his first words were always, "Hey, baby. Did you know I'm in a band?" He'd used that line on me the first time I met him. Mitch had laid the charm on thick and was on the road to hitting on me before Benji had intervened.

Matty nodded. "Yep. Don't worry though, I defended your honor."

"There's no need. Benji had a talk with him at The Basement. Besides, Mitch and Tiff seemed to be hitting it off tonight."

"Tiff?" Matty's nose crinkled in thought and he scratched his head with his free hand. "Ahh!" His mouth formed an 'o', realization lighting up his features. "I remember her. She's the crazy blonde girl, right?"

"Yes, that's her. She's dating this ghetto white guy, but I have a feeling it's not going to last much longer. Tiff's been dating him for over a month, so they're due for a break-up."

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it if I was you. Their fling won't last. Mitch is pretty much the male version of Tiff. He's not one for commitment. " Matty reassured me.

"Tiff changes boyfriends every two weeks. They're perfect for each other then." I hiked the strap of Matty's duffel higher up on my shoulder and gestured for Matty to follow me out of the elevator.

"What's up with this?" Matty asked in mock-outrage. "Everyone is coupling up except me. I'm probably going to end up like a crazy cat lady."

"Be quiet, Matty. Last time I checked you were a rock star. I bet you have tons of groupies after you. Girls go psycho for that kind of stuff."

Matty sighed, wistfully. "Not the girl I want."

I eyed him, carefully, unable to resist the urge to pester him about the subject. I might not be attending high school any longer, but I was still a sixteen year old girl. "Ooo, does Matty have a crush?"

The little smile he tried to keep from showing was an answer in itself. "Oh, stop." Matty said and rubbed his neck.

"Aww, you do! That's so cute!!"

His eyes bored into mine, an intense green that seemed to shimmer in the dim of the hallway. "Yes, I do. There's a girl I like." Matty replied and shot his hand out to muss my hair, effectively breaking whatever spell he had been under.

"Soo? Aren't you gonna say more? Who is she? Did you meet her at one of your shows?" I urged. It was obvious that he wasn't going to say much more on his own accord.

"Yes, I did meet her at a show. One back in my hometown." A light red appeared on his cheeks and he wouldn't meet my eyes. He was clearly embarrassed.

I nudged him, playfully as we made our way down the hallway. "Hmm. What's this girl's name, Matty?"

"It's not important." Matty insisted. "Well, we should go set these bags down."

His comment was a blatant change of subject, but I decided not to press the issue any further. I knew he'd talk about this mystery girl eventually.

I started to lead Matty to one of the empty bedrooms on my floor of the house. As Matty followed closely behind me, my mind was stuck on Benji. I felt like I was floating on clouds and my stomach had light flutters at the thought of his trademark smirk and the way his arms fit perfectly around me. It wasn't love. We had known each other for only a short period of time and love was too strong of a word to throw around unless it was in a joking manner. I liked what we had. I was infatuated with Benji and I was pretty sure he was obsessed with me too. I had to remember to thank my parents for setting me up with this insane german boy.

I set the duffel at the foot of the bed and let out a shriek as something grabbed my foot. A furry gray paw was sticking out from the bed skirt and when I knelt down, I could see a tiny face staring wide-eyed at me. "SPAZ! What are you doing in here, boy?" I scolded, lightly, scooping up the crazy fuzz-ball. "You aren't supposed to be in here."

"Oh, is this the kitten you were telling me about?" Matty lifted a hand to scratch the cat behind the ears. "How old is the little guy?"

"About four months. I'd be careful if I were you, he can be a bit of a handful at times. He'll attack anything." I warned and handed Spaz to him.

Matty peered curiously at Spaz. His eyes crinkled at the corners with amusement as a gray paw came flying at his face. "Nah, I think he's harmless."

"Don't let his cuteness trick you. I'll take him back to my room. I wouldn't want him bugging you all night."

"It's okay, really. You can leave him here. Spaz can hang with me so I don't get bored." Matty shook his head. "See, Aimee? I'm already on the lonely road to becoming a cat lady."

I laughed. "Wow, you are so strange. I love you, Matty. I'm glad we're friends."

"Friends..." Matty looked at me for a moment before a grin eased onto his lips. "Yeah, me too."

"Well, tell me if you need anything. I'm right down the hall." I smiled and my thoughts turned back to Benji. "I got to go now. I promised Benji that I'd head over to his room once I got you settled in."

"Oh." He said, his voice tight. "Yeah, you'd better get going. Wouldn't want to keep Benji waiting." He turned his back to me and set Spaz down on the bed. "You two have fun— I mean it."

I sensed that Matty was acting a bit off, but I just attributed it to the fact that the boys' first exchange hadn't been all that pleasant. In all truth, things had gone downhill fairly quickly. "I really hope you and Benji can get along. You'd probably like each other if given the chance." An idea flew into my brain and out of my mouth. "You should hang with me and Benji tomorrow."

Matty hesitated. "I don't know. After all that's happened, I think I should steer clear of him for a while."

"Come on, please!" I gave Matty my best puppy-dog eyes. "For me? I promise I'll talk to Benji about how he was treating you."

"Ahh, fine! I will." He replied and started to dig around in his messenger bag for a notebook and pen. "If it makes you happy. Just stop making that sad face at me."

"YAY! Thank you, Matty." I clapped my hands, happily. Perhaps the guys would become somewhat civil towards each other. I wasn't expecting them to become BFFs or anything, but any semblance of friendship was a hope. "Are you sure that you're okay in here?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I've got my new little friend to chill with." Matty answered, patting Spaz on the head.

I said 'good night' to Matty, only leaving after I'd sufficiently asked if he had everything he needed three more times. Part of me felt kinda bad dumping Matty alone when he'd shown up to surprise me, but in a way, I owed Benji. Even though we'd decided to forgive and forget, the remnants of the fight still remained. I couldn't stop thinking about how upset Benji had appeared. All the yelling and anger showed me he cared. Maybe we weren't perfect. After all, we were just recently going to try to work things out. However, as different as we were, I had a feeling that we could be a good match.

When I opened the door of Benji's room, he was no where to be found. His bed was empty and his Harry Potter cloak thrown over the back of a chair was the only sign that he'd recently been in the room.

I took a few steps into the room, letting the door softly click behind me. "Benji? Where are you?"

"I'm in the bathroom, babe." Benji called out, his voice muffled behind the cracked open door. "Come on in."

I approached the bathroom with a cautious stride. Now that Benji was in my life, I was unable to go near any bathroom without thinking about Benji with his hand down his pants. Sure, the incident had occurred over a month ago, but it still caused me problematic effects. I paused right outside the door. "Benji, are you decent? I'm not going to open the door if you are getting off in there."

The door swung open at my words and Benji stuck his head out. "Hey now! Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm just washing up." He gave me a very thorough once-over and bit down on his lip ring. "Though, if you want, I could start right now. I could give you your own private viewing."

"Eww, you are so gross." I shoved him in the chest, but to my annoyance he barely budged. "You can keep your self-servicing to yourself."

He smirked and held his arms out for me. "Mmmm, come here. It's so sexy when you try to push me around."

"No."

Benji got closer to me and I backed away. "Come on, Aimee. You know you want to."

I fought a smile from showing on my lips. "No! Stay away, Benji."

"Oi, don't make me take you down, girl." Benji warned with a grin. "Surrender now and I'll make it easy on you."

I met his eyes and we stood there like some kind of western show-down, neither of us breaking eye contact or making a move. After what seemed like an eternity, I broke off into a run. I squealed as Benji chased me around the room. Because of a split minute of shock on his part, I had a brief heads-up on him.

"Is this a challenge?" Benji called from somewhere behind me, seemingly not out of breath. "Well, I accept."

I didn't answer him, too winded from the running to form any words. My heart beat was pounding in my head and I could hear the sounds of his footsteps connecting with the carpet. My glory over him was short-lived. Unfortunately, my short legs were no match for his long stride and he easily caught up. I was scrambling across the bed to get to the door when Benji tackled me, rolling me over so I was flat on my back. He was straddling me, his hands firmly enclosing my wrists and pinning me down.

Benji looked at me smugly before leaning down to whisper in my ear. "I win."

For a moment, I just stared up at him, chest heaving from exertion. When I finally got a hold on my breathing I spoke. "No, you didn't. You cheated."

"What?!" Benji exclaimed, eyes wide from behind the curtain of his bangs. He had cleaned off all the eyeliner while he was in the bathroom, but there was still a smoldering quality to his eyes. "How did I cheat?"

"You're taller than me, so you can take bigger steps." I pointed out.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, that just means I have skill. I won. Fair and square. Now admit that I am fucking amazing."

"No."

"Now now, I'll make it easy for you. Just say 'Benji is a fucking sexy beast of a man'."

"NO! I'm not saying that."

"You know, I can sit here all night." Benji said and proceeded to make himself comfortable. "I have no problem doing that."

"Still not saying it..."

Benji sighed. "You leave me no choice then."

He released my wrists only to attack my sides with his fingers and I fell into a fit of laughter. "Benji. BENJI! S-stop! I can't b-b-breathe!"

"Say it!"

"Fine!! I'll say it!"

Benji pulled his hands away from me. He crossed his arms over his chest as he waited expectantly. I exhaled, using the reprieve from his attack to take in some much needed oxygen. "Benji is a sexy beast. There, you happy?"

He scrutinized me. "Hmm, close enough. I'll let you get away without the 'fuck' this time."

"Well, I said it. You can get off me now." I suggested.

"Nah, I think I'll stay here awhile."

I tried to shove him off, but he just rolled his eyes at my attempt. He may have had a slender physique, but he was still a boy. And a strong one at that. "Benji, get off! You're too heavy." I complained. "Besides, I need to talk to you about something important."

Benji raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? This 'important' talk wouldn't happen to involve us taking our clothes off, would it?"

"Oh, GOD, no!"

"About what, then?" Benji murmured, moving his head down to press his lips against mine.

I was surprised by how playful he was behaving. Just an hour ago, Benji had been pissed beyond belief, but at the moment, he was anything but that. Sometime during the time I was with Matty, he'd switched back to the flirty, perverted Benji that I'd become accustomed to.

"It's about Matty."

Benji stiffened and sat back on his haunches. "Matty?" He repeated. "What about Matty? I thought you dumped that douchebag in a room somewhere."

I ignored his jab at Matty. "I know you didn't mean to overreact like you did and considering the circumstances, I understand. I truly do. It's just that, well—"

Benji sighed and rolled off of me, most likely deeming that he wasn't going to get any form of action. "Well, what?" Just hit me with it. There's no need to dance around the subject."

"Well, you, it's just— you kinda...rubbed him the wrong way."

"Oh my! Did I hurt little Matty's feelings?" Benji asked, sarcastically. "Well, tough shit because last time I checked, he was the one that fucked up the night."

I sat up, so heated that I didn't even bother brushing the hair from my face. "See? That's what I mean. Don't talk about him that way. Matty feels terrible enough about what happened."

Benji nodded. "As he should."

"He didn't mean to. He apologized the minute I walked down to talk to him. And that's why I think you should give your own apology. You did say some pretty rude things to him, you know."

"Hah! Not gonna happen, babe." Benji scoffed.

"Benji, stop being so stubborn."

"I'm not being stubborn."

"Well, you're going to have to be nice because I told Matty he could hang out with us tomorrow."

"What the fuck?!" Benji exclaimed, brown eyes growing wide. "Why the hell would you do that? I already gave in when you told me he was sleeping here for god knows how long. You told me he was going to stay the fuck out of my way."

I leaned over and grabbed onto his arm. "Benji, please. Just apologize."

He eyed me, carefully. His hair was a mess and he was wearing a pair of boxers with cartoon dinosaurs on them, but there was something serious in his gaze. "If I must." Benji relented, finally giving in. "But you owe me."

I released my grip on his arm and attacked him with a full-on hug. "Thank you, Benji. Really, that's big of you."

He smirked, clearing basking in my praise. After knowing him for a couple of months, it was obvious that he was an attention-whore of sorts. "Ja, ja, egal." Benji drawled, a hint of euphoria trickling into his tone. He was trying to come off as annoyed, but he still wrapped his arms around me as well.

"Benji, uh— can you let go now?"

"No." Benji murmured, burying his face in my hair. "I like you right here."

"I'm tired though. I hung out with you, okay. Now, I want to go to sleep."

"You could always spend the night here." Benji offered with a rogish grin. "Besides, your parents are going to be gone all weekend."

I eyed him warily. "I don't know." The thought of spending the night beside Benji was very appealing, but I was cautious of his motives. Who knew what type of things he'd try to talk me into.

Benji nudged me. "Please? I'll let you use me as a pillow. Plus, if you stay, I won't be drunk and puking like last time."

"Well, how could I say no to that." I said, sarcastically and grinned.

After a quick run to my room to wipe off my crazy, 'Benji' make-up and change out of my clothes, I went back to his room. Benji had been fairly convinced that once I left I wasn't coming back and he seemed pleasantly relieved that I had. I climbed into bed with him and it was nice. All we did was talk. Honestly. Of course, Benji tried to get things started a couple times, but he wasn't successful. I really liked talking to him though. There was something strange about us. One minute we'd be talking about something random and then we'd break into some playful bickering about who knows what. And the next thing you knew, we were back to calmly chatting. It went back and forth like this with half-hearted arguments and telling lame jokes to the point where I was cracking up so much that I couldn't breathe. I didn't want to admit it, but I kind of liked the banter we had.

I'm not even really sure when we fell asleep. All I remember was Benji clicking off the light and me cuddling up to him under the covers. His arms were placed protectively around me, but he was whispering pervy Benji-type lines into my ear. I smacked him a couple of times and he just laughed it off. Now that I was here with Benji and all our feelings had been placed on the table, I just felt so happy. I wasn't confused anymore. I liked Benji and he liked me too. Part of me was still unsure of why I was so attracted to him, but I brushed the thought away. We clicked and that was all. I didn't care anymore. I was content to bury my head in the front of his t-shirt and hope that things were going to work out.

I awoke the next morning to dead quiet. My eyelids fluttered open and I was greeted with Benji's face close to mine. He wasn't awake yet and I could see his chest rise up and down with each breathe he took. Pieces of hair hung in his eyes and somehow in his sleep he'd reached out to grasp my hand. He looked so peaceful, not at all loudmouthed or perverted as he normally was. I didn't want to leave and go back to my own room, but I was dying for a shower. From a quick glance at the clock, it was already 12:37 PM and the longer I stayed and watched him the more I started to verge on stalker.

Trying my best not to disturb Benji, I peeled myself away from him and got off the bed. At first, I thought I'd woke him up. But thankfully, he just stirred a bit before snuggling into the covers around the spot where I'd been laying. I made it to the door with no major difficulties. The only problem being the time I tripped over a pile of colorful sneakers thrown randomly onto the floor. I only allowed myself to breathe once I was safely in the hallway, Benji's door softly latched behind me.

Once I entered my room, I'd jumped into the shower in a matter of seconds. I wasn't a total germaphobe, but the scent of booze and cigarettes seemed stained into my t-shirt and my long brown hair was a mass of tangles. It felt so good to cleanse myself of everything that happened last night.

I had just finished blow-drying my hair when I noticed my phone was buzzing. The phone vibrated against the counter top, filling the bathroom with a terrible clanking sound. I flipped it open and was thrown off guard by what I saw. Apparently, someone had been trying to reach me. There were 27 missed calls and three voicemails. I wondered what tragic event had occurred to make people swamp my phone like that.

The first message was from my mother. From the second her prim, feminine voice floated out of my speakers, I knew it had to do with wedding stuff. For a total of three minutes straight, she lectured me on the specifics of wedding invitations. A large white package had been left on top of my dresser along with a note informing me that our choices would have to get her approval upon my parents' return.

I hit the 'next' button and braced myself for the other two messages. I loved my mother, but I couldn't possibly listen to her chide me about picking the right ink tone or the appropriate paper sample. On the previous message, she had lasted the whole voicemail recording time. She only had ten seconds left before she crammed in a hasty 'be safe this weekend'. She appeared to have much more to inform me about when she got cut off. I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that she'd left the other two messages in order to finish her speech.

A rush of relief flooded through me at the sound of Tiffany on the other end. "Heyyy, A! You have to call me back ASAP, girl. I'm like soooo damn excited for you!! Uh, not that I know of anything mega-important or exciting that's gonna happen. But, ohmigod! CALL MEEEE!!" *beep*

Next message— "Aimee Berkley, ohmigod!! Answer your cell! I'm like totally freaking out. You so need to pick up. It's already 12 and I've tried calling you like a million times. I'm like dying over here! I don't know if you know by now, but we have to talk about the whole Benji situation from last night. Fer real. Text me already, bitch. I'm like seriously about to drive over to your house if I don't hear from you soon..."

That was Tiffany Levoure for you. She was nothing if not persistent.

The voicemails were followed by a slew of texts. The majority of them were from Tiff. A few were from my mom, stating very curt reminders about being safe on Halloween and later on, threats of disownment if Benji and I forgot to work on wedding things in her absence. The rest were from various friends, along with a couple of texts from Greg that said things like 'gettt it gurl!'.

I decided to put Tiffany out of her misery and dialed her number. She picked up the phone after barely two seconds. "Bitch! It's about time you called me back."

"Sorry, sorry."

"Well, why the hell didn't you call me back?" Tiffany demanded.

"I just woke up and jumped in the shower. I slept in Benji's room last night, so I didn't have my alarm clock. We were both exhausted after last night."

It was quiet on Tiff's line for a couple seconds and the silence stretched before she finally spoke again. "Ohh, I see." Tiffany snorted. "You guy played a little doctor, huh?"

"Eww. God, Tiff, what's wrong with you?" I sputtered into the phone. "It's nothing like that. I had to defuse the mother of all fights last night."

"A fight? Between you two?" Tiffany asked, her voice growing louder. She was always such a sucker for gossip of any kind. "Give me all the juicy details!"

I gave her a quick run down of everything that had transpired last night. From the moment we arrived home to the moment I woke up. Since it was Tiffany, I didn't feel embarrassed to tell her any of this. Although, I left out a few of the more personal details.

"Awww, that is sooo cute!!" Tiffany squealed once I'd finished. I could practically hear her jumping up and down on the bed in excitement. "Ohmigod, Benji told me he was going to propose before you guys left the party."

I smiled to myself and thought back to all the effort he'd put forth to execute the whole ordeal. "Yeah, it was. I never knew he had that type of side to him."

"But, back to the whole Matty thing." Tiff reminded me. "Like, what the hell? Why would Matty show up at your house? That's weird."

"Yeah, Benji was being a total crazy douchebag." I frowned.

"Talk about terrible timing though, haha. No wonder he was pissed."

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's all cool now. We stayed up all night talking."

"Well, congrats, you two survived your first fight." Tiffany teased. "So do you think things are going to be okay between the two of them?"

"Hopefully they'll play nice. Matty is such a sweetheart. It's Benji I'm worried about." I confessed, my fingers absentmindedly pulling at a loose string of my towel. "I convinced him to apologize, but I don't know."

The joking tone in Tiffany's voice eased off a bit and when she replied, she seemed a bit more serious. "Hmm. I sense this might not go so well. From what I remember, Matty seemed really nice. Benji's a total alpha— he's going to eat Matty alive."

I grimaced. "I hope that doesn't happen." I fell back onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. "Sometimes boys are so stupid. How's your boy Harlem doing?"

"Ughh...we broke up. Actually, I dumped him. I like just wasn't feelin' it." Tiff said. Her words flowed out easily and she didn't sound at all upset about saying 'goodbye' to Harlem. In fact, she seemed almost happy about it.

I wasn't all that surprised that she'd finally got rid of him. She'd stayed with Harlem longer than most of the other guys she dated and Tiff had a bit of a short attention-span when it came to anything with a penis. "'Cause you were too busy 'feeling' Mitch? Am I right?"

"Shut up, Aimee!" Tiffany replied. I couldn't see her, but judging from how she'd acted around Mitch, I had a feeling she was blushing. "It has nothing to do with him. Harlem and I— well, we were just growing apart."

"Yeah, whatever." I rolled my eyes. "You were practically drooling over him at the party."

"Well, Mitch is alright." There was a pause. "Who am I kidding? He's amazing." Tiffany admitted. "He's like so cute!! Can you believe he's a rock star? I've never been with a rock star before."

Tiffany was somewhat of a serial-dater. I think she has dated every type of guy possible. There were the sporty jocks, like Devon the basketball player or Eric the golfer. She'd gone out with gorgeous male models like Massimo and she'd even dated a quiet, nerdy boy that she found at the library. When it came to boys, Tiffany rarely discriminated. She never really got with any musicians. The closest Tiffany had gotten to a rock star was this one guy named Blaize from last year. Blaize was one of those kooky artistic boys that played in coffee houses. He wrote these disturbingly angsty lyrics that he set to the tune of nature sounds. Let's just say, Blaize and Mitch were in different leagues.

We chatted for a few more minutes about Mitch and how incredibly sexy Tiff thought he was. She was very adament that they hadn't done anything except exchange numbers. They were just 'hanging out', which I wasn't all that sure I believed, but I decided to let it go.

"Hey, before I forget." Tiff interrupted. "Do you wanna like meet up at your house today? Greg's leaving tomorrow for Rome. So I think we should all chill together. He's gonna be gone for like a whole month, I think."

"I'm sorry. I can't right now. My mom's threatened us into picking out wedding invitations."

"Oh, bummer." Fortunately, Tiffany wasn't mad. She had witnessed first-hand the nightmare my mom had become when planning my sister's wedding, so she understood. "It's cool. How long will it take?"

"I don't know for sure. I can text you when we're done over here and we can plan something out." I offered.

"Yeaa." Tiff replied happily. "That's fine. Don't forget though! Text me, A..."

For such a confident boy, Benji Schechter was extremely self-conscious of his hair. The fact that he dyed it such a wide variety of colors and slaved for hours teasing it into an appropriate style were obvious clues. He could pull off every shade of the rainbow, whether it be neon greens or shades of pink that no normal boy would willingly go near. But the one thing Benji didn't do was average. I'd never seen him with one simple hair color and if he did it would most likely be his natural black. Benji just wouldn't be himself without some form of outrageous streaks or dye throughout his hair.

I was surfing around on the net, perusing Orlando Bloom pictures when I heard the screaming. It sounded like something straight out of a horror movie. At the sound my mind started going off on a crazy rampage of thoughts of axe murderers and serial killers. I followed the distinctly male shrieking to Benji's room, not bothering to knock on his door, choosing instead to barge right in.

Why waste time on politeness? Benji was in there screaming bloody murder. For all I knew, he could be dead in a matter of minutes. "BENJI! What's wrong?!" I banged on the door, only relenting once he unlocked the bathroom door he had barricaded himself behind.

There were two things I took notice of. The first was that Benji had recently showered. The air had a thick feel to it as the steam heated up the mirror he was standing in front of. And secondly, he looked really good with just a towel wrapped around his waist. While I was happily shocked by the view my eyes granted me, neither were reasons as to why Benji was freaking out.

His eyes were wide as he paced back in forth. "Oh my god, I need a store now..." He mumbled under his breath a bit longer. He only said a few sentences before he switched to german ramblings.

I blinked. There were no scary men wielding knives or chainsaws. Only a scantily clad Benji in a steamy bathroom. "Uh...Benji? What's wrong?"

"OH MY GOD, LOOK AT IT!" Benji shrieked, tugging at the strands of his wet hair. "It's HIDEOUS!"

He went on for quite a bit longer before I had to smack what happened out of him.

I stared at him blankly. "Really? You can't distinguish between permanent and temporary hair dye? You dye your hair all the time. Shouldn't you be able to know the difference by now?"

"Oi!! Don't look at me like that. How the hell was I supposed to know what all the different words on the box meant? My english is fucking amazing, but even I don't know every damn word in the english language. Let's see you try to read labels at a german store and we'll see how well you do"

"Stop snapping at me. I wasn't the one who bought something without knowing what it actually was."

Benji groaned, running his hands almost obsessively through his brown hair. "Oh scheisse, scheisse, scheisse! This color is so damn boring! Was zum Teufel soll ich machen?!!" Out of nowhere he spun around and grabbed me by my shoulders. "Aimee, I got it!"

I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. It was so absurd that he was going so crazy because of a stupid hair color. I personally thought he looked fine. A little more subdued than normal perhaps, but he didn't look terrible. By the way he was acting, I would've expected that someone had shaved all his hair off.

"Babe, can you get my emergency stash?" Benji asked. "I didn't want to use the good stuff yet, but I don't care. I'll get my dad to ship me some more."

I left Benji behind and walked back into the bedroom. "Where is it?"

"It's the blue pinstriped bag under my bed."

I kneeled on the floor and dragged out the suitcase. When I flipped open the lid, there was a huge pile of beauty products stuck inside. Rainbow shades of eyeliner, shadows and hair mousse. There were three different brands of hairspray and many other tubes and bottles that I didn't even know what they were. Everything was in german with foreign script slapped on their labels. The hair dye was carefully packed in the back corner of the luggage. There were five or so boxes, all some high-end german brand.

"Hey, Benji! What color do you want?"

"Umm, ich will..." Benji's voice trailed off in thought. "Uhh, schwarz und grün."

"English, Benji." I called back.

"Oh sorry, schatzi. I asked for the black and green one."

I shuffled around the boxes, picking out the correct hair dyes from the pictures on the front. "Eww, please change your mind on the green. It's going to look like you have radioactive snot in your hair."

Benji poked his head out of the door and gave me narrowed eyes. "Fine, fine. No green. Again. Just give me the black and purple then. I guess I'll redye it to how it was before. Oh and grab the bleach while you're at it."

"Here you go."

"Dank." He wasted no time ripping open the 'black' box and dumping out its contents.

"Wow, you seem super excited now." I noted.

He was furiously mixing the bowl of hair dye like it was Christmas morning. "Obviously. I can't go out looking so boring. The tabloids would be all over me back in Germany."

I thought he'd stand out enough just by the clothes he wore, but I decided not to say anything. "Once you're done, let me know. My mom left us wedding stuff to do."

"What is it?" Benji asked, absentmindedly.

"Wedding invitations..."

Benji's face pulled into a grimace. "Eww, oh god. Well, I'm sorry to inform you that I'll be at least two hours in here."

My jaw dropped. "Two hours? What are you going to be doing? Playing Monopoly?"

He paused from where he was sectioning off parts of his hair. "Hey now! I'm working with two colors here. You're lucky I can go that fast." He waved his hands around his head. "See this? This is my moneymaker. I'll be laughed out of the modeling work if I'm stuck with some fucking ugly hair."

"You need to hurry it up though. For real." I said and started to leave. My mom had practically threatened my life when it came to taking this wedding seriously. I didn't want my mom to yell at me when we were unable to finish the invitations because Benji was having a hair crisis. She seemed to think he was adorable for some reason. For the time being, he was a guest, so of course the blame would go to me.

I just hoped that he'd finish before the day was over. Once I witnessed him spending three hours in front of the mirror to style his hair. So, who knew how long he might take today.

It was already 2:50 by the time Benji pranced into my room. I looked up at him before returning my attention to the brochure I was idly reading. "It's about time."

Benji plopped down onto the bed beside me and flipped inky black bangs from his eyes. "So, what do you think? Sexy, na? It would've been better with some neon green, but I guess purple will have to do."

I nodded. "Yeah, I like it."

He was back to his natural black, but there was still a pop of color. Nothing super dramatic like the neon green he'd been set on, but the deep purple highlights were something I could handle. Pretty much anything was better than the traffic cone pink he'd been sporting when I'd first met him. Benji's hair was pretty much back to what it'd looked like pre-Halloween catastrophe, minus the blonde streaks.

"Good." Benji smirked and sprawled out on his side. "Now what is this business matter that we have to take care of?"

"This." I answered, waving my hands at all the papers cluttered on my sheets.

Benji picked up a thick packet of paper and started to leaf through it. "What the hell is this?"

"It's paper samples."

"Wirklich? Are you serious right now?"

I set down the brochure. "Yes, I am. Now, help me figure this out."

Benji groaned. "Do we have to do this? Who's going to care if our wedding invitations are made of rice or vellum?"

"My mom will and she's going to kill me if we don't even attempt to sort this thing out. I don't know if you remember, but my mother can turn into a total psycho when it comes to weddings." I pointed out and handed Benji a swatch of scented papers. "Which one do you like best?"

"Ohh, do they have vodka?" He started frantically flipping through the papers, his eyes only skimming over the names at the bottom of each page. "What the fuck is this shit? There's nothing good in here. Lavender and vanilla? Why don't they have liquor and ice cream. Those two would be a whole lot better than this pansy shit."

"Benji, come on. Help me do this."

"Fine." Benji grumbled and grabbed another packet of samples. "But we better do something fun after this."

We managed to go fifteen minutes before Benji began to protest again. Only a short amount of time had passed and in all honesty, we hadn't gotten much done except bicker. Benji's choices all looked like something a mental patient had slapped together and he thought all my choices were way too tame for a wedding of a Schechter man. It was a never-ending cycle of arguments. And it wasn't over anything important. It was fighting over stupid things like whether or not we should have glitter or confetti pop out of the invitation envelopes.

"Aimee, I'm bored. This shit is so lame." Benji exclaimed. "We should just pick random pieces and call it a day."

"No. We have to finish this." I repeated for what seemed like the fifth time already. "And by the way, the sooner you stop complaining, the faster we can be done with this whole thing."

Benji winced. "Ouch. You're no fun." He got up from the bed and turned to look at me once he was standing in the doorway. "I'm gonna go get a drink. You want something?"

I gave him a shake of my head and he left the room. I tried to make my mind go blank and attempted to hunker down and finish these wedding invitation designs. The longer I spent poring over these packets, the more and more I felt myself going crazy. There were only so many fonts I could look at before my brain exploded.

My door knob started to turn and I opened my mouth to yell at Benji. He sure had taken his time on the way to the kitchen. "Benji, it's about ti—" I stopped short when my eyes flickered upwards and I saw Matty standing in front of me.

He had taken about two steps into the room before he froze and gave me an awkward smile. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know if you'd be in here. I just wanted to put Spaz back." He explained, gesturing to the gray kitten in his arms. "The little guy pooped in my bathtub, so I would kind of like to return him now."

I clapped my hands over my mouth. I was torn between laughing at Spaz's antics or embarrassed that Matty had witnessed it. "Oh god, sorry about that. Just set him down anywhere."

Matty placed Spaz on the ground and the kitten scampered to my side of the bed. Spaz tilted his scruffy head up towards me and let loose a string of pathetic meows.

"Hey, hush, boy. What do you want?" I said and reached down to scratch behind his ears. My hand got a few inches from him before he leaped away and ran off towards the empty food dishes beside my dresser. "Aha, he's hungry." I told Matty and got up after Spaz.

Matty wandered over to my bed and sifted through the mess of papers. "Wow, this looks like some pretty official stuff. What are all these pamphlets for?"

"Wedding stuff." I answered dryly as I poured some cat kibble into Spaz's bowl.

"You don't seem so happy about that." Matty noted.

I sighed. "No, I'm fine. Benji and I are making invitations and the whole thing is turning out to be a pain. We can't agree on much of anything about designs. Nothing really has been accomplished and it's stressing me out a bit."

All I wanted to do was finish this work and call up Tiffany. If Greg was leaving tomorrow, we were going to have to make the most of what remained of today. It wasn't like Greg was going away forever, but I still wanted to hang out with him and the others before he left. Sure, Tiffany, Greg, and I had other friends, but the three of us were a close knit trio. Greg thought Tiffany was a boy-crazy freak. Tiffany thought I was high-strung. And I thought Greg was a naked drunk, but at the end of the day we all loved each other.

Matty's eyebrows furrowed and he scanned the room. "Where is Benji? Shouldn't he be helping you?"

"He was, but he got up and left a while ago. He said he'd be back, but I wouldn't put it past him to skip off and hide in his own room." I went back to my spot on the bed and picked up yet another boring booklet about the importance of picking a good font.

It was quiet for a minute and I could feel Matty's eyes weighing heavily on me. "You know what, forget Benji. I'll help you out then."

I gave him a skeptical look. "I appreciate it, Matty. But do you even know anything about wedding planning?" Matty wasn't a super macho guy. He was a bit more on the sensitive side, but even I couldn't see him spending his spare time arranging flowers or assembling homey scrapbooks.

"Hey!" Matty teased. "I took Home Ec three years ago. My sewing project got a 24 out of 25. I think I can handle a few pieces of paper."

I raised my hands in mock-surrender. "Ok then. If you're sure."

Matty took a seat beside me and grabbed a pile of samples. We dove right into it, starting with paper type, ink, font, and so on. I didn't expect to do any better than my try with Benji, but with Matty's help we managed to power through things. Our design wasn't a masterpiece by any standards, but it was good enough to appease my mother. We were working out the last few aspects of the invitations when my bedroom door swung open.

"Well, well, what's going on in here?"

I knew just from the sound that it was Benji. Matty and I were huddled over the crap load of papers my mom had dumped on me and I couldn't help but notice that Matty froze upon hearing Benji's voice. Part of me didn't blame Matty. He was probably still on edge from their fight the previous night.

When I looked at Benji my eyes zoned in on the case of beer he was toting and the open bottle he clutched in his free hand. "Why are you drinking already? It's only 3 in the afternoon."

"Actually, it's 3:32." Benji answered with a grin. "And for the record, I'm not getting wasted. I'm more creative when I'm slightly drunk. So in a way I'm trying to help you out." He took long strides until he was in front of me. The case fell onto the bed with a dull thud and Benji sprawled out in the empty space beside it. "Besides, I'll need all the alcohol I can to get through this boring ass invitation crap."

"It's about time you came back." I snapped half-heartedly. I wasn't really upset, but I was more than a little miffed that he'd taken so long. "Matty and I have almost finished the invitations."

Benji shrugged and took a swig of beer. "My bad. I got a bit distracted."

"Hi, Benji. What's up?" Matty said cautiously. He was testing the waters, trying to feel out Benji's mood. It was like he thought Benji was going to jump him for being in here.

"Hey, Matty." Benji said in an extra chummy tone. "Well, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about last night. Things kinda got out of control, huh? Though let's be honest, it was mostly your fault."

Matty was taken aback and his green eyes steeled. "Is that supposed to be an apology or an insult?"

Benji's face turned serious. "Insult." A few awkward seconds passed and then he burst out into laughter, smacking Matty lightly on the shoulder. "Apology, of course. I'm just messing with you. I was a bit of a dick."

"Oh, thanks." Matty's expression eased up. "It's all good, man. I'm sorry too. I really am. We both overreacted a little. I just wanted to surprise Aimee. I swear I had no clue I was breaking into the middle of something. It wasn't my intention to turn the night sour."

"Ok. Apology accepted." Right when I thought things were going a little too perfectly, Benji's silly demeanor disappeared and he glared at Matty. "But seriously though, don't pull shit like that again. I have nothing against you as long as you keep to your space. You do that and we're cool."

Matty glanced at me quickly, seeming unsure how to react to Benji's words. "Uh, that's fine. I get it."

"Good. You can go now." Benji replied and waved at Matty with his hands. "I can take it from here."

"I guess that's my cue to leave." Matty said, grabbing his discarded cardigan from the back of my computer chair. He didn't look mad really. Maybe just mildly annoyed. But then again, who knew?

He made to to the door before I called out to him. "Are you going to be in your room? Cause Tiff and a bunch of others are going to hang out downstairs in an hour or so. You should join too. I can go get you once everyone's here if you want."

"Yeah. That'd be fun. If it's ok with you of course." Matty emphasized with a pointed look Benji's way.

Benji sat there pained. From what I knew about Benji he most likely wanted to tell the other boy to 'fuck off', but just last night he had promised me that he'd let Matty to hang out with us. Eventually my words overtook his anger. "Of course." His lips curled up into a predatory smile and I could tell it was taking all his self-control not to make some sick comment about how he'd rather stab himself. "Na klar! I couldn't think of a better way to spend my time."

Gahhh...finally finished and i know you all probably hate me. yeaa i am a terrible douchebag when it comes to updating quick. this month and last has been rough for me though. my household is once again having familial problems and to add to my stress, i've been having mini-panic attacks. so not good AT ALL.

Aside from that, the major reason it took so long was because i sat down and i mapped out how everything in this story is going to play out. i've always had the plot in my mind, but i need some type of structure and outline so i don't go trailing off and writing the randomest crap ever (which i started to do when i first posted this story 2 years ago). now that i have all the main points laid out hopefully it'll help me to write faster. i'm not going to bother promising a quick update though because i never end up fitting into the deadlines i set for myself haha. but just know that whenever i take months to write i actually am writing and i haven't forgotten this story...

reviews and critisicm welcome! :) by the way, if you guys see any mistakes or words running together can you tell me? i looked over it, but i was in a hurry to post so i might have missed somethings

hope you guys enjoy 3 i tried to make it longer since the last chapter was short as hell. i like parts of this update, but i thought some scenes were a bit 'mehh' so i apologize....