Side by side Monica and Lance trudged up the ramp towards the gate, each pulling their rolling suitcase behind them. As they emerged into the airport they were greeted by their two friends’ smiling faces. Justin and Keeley walked over to their friends and gave them hugs before reaching out and taking the couple’s bags.
“Wow, you two look exhausted!” Keeley exclaimed as they made their way to the monorail that would take them to the parking lot.
“Gee thanks!” Monica said as she made a pathetic effort to roll her eyes. “We didn’t get much sleep last night, and there was no way I was going to sleep on that plane!”
Justin turned to her and Lance with an evil smile on his face. “A little too busy to get sleep eh!” He exclaimed as he reached out with his free arm and nudged Lance in the ribs.
“We were too busy worrying about my dying friend!” Lance bit out. The realization of what he’d just done hit him when he saw the completely startled look on Justin’s face. He remembered he hadn’t told Justin about Ashleigh the night before on the phone. “I’m sorry man, I didn’t mean to yell at you. I just found out that my friend Ashleigh has cancer.”
“Oh wow, I’m so sorry. So, she’s dying?” Justin said with wide eyes. He remembered Ashleigh from back in the day; she was a cool girl. He couldn’t believe that she had cancer.
“Well, not exactly,” Lance replied. “But I’m not sure exactly how well she’s doing. She’s been going through Chemo and it’s taking a lot out of her.”
Keeley finally joined the conversation, “Lance, who’s Ashleigh?”
“She’s…” both Justin and Lance spoke at once. Justin blushed fiercely and looked away letting Lance continue. “She’s someone who I used to live down the street from. She was one of my best friends growing up…she still is,” he added quietly.
The group continued on in silence. A couple minutes later they all emerged in the humid outdoor parking garage. Lance and Justin quickly shoved the bags into the back of his SUV and hopped in the car, turning the air conditioning on full blast.
The ride to their neighborhood was mostly silent. Lance and Monica had fallen asleep in the back seat. Keeley turned to Justin and smiled as she motioned to the sleeping couple behind her. Lance was softly snoring and Monica’s mouth had dropped open in her sleep.
When they arrived at Lance and Monica’s house Justin and Keeley got out of the front and opened the doors to the back seat. Keeley reached in and gently shook Monica’s arm.
“Mon, wake up. You’re home,” she said as she tried to wake her friend.
“Shut up Sonic, it’s too early to wake up,” Monica mumbled in her sleep.
Keeley shook her arm a little harder and again spoke to her friend, “Monica, get up, you need to go inside now.” She was completely taken aback when Monica’s hand flew threw the air and hit her squarely across the face. Keeley’s eyes grew wide with surprise, but they quickly narrowed in revenge. “Oh no you didn’t!” She exclaimed through clenched teeth as she reached forward and grabbed a half-empty bottle of water. She quickly unscrewed the top and aimed the opening towards her friend’s face and squeezed. Water sprayed out of the bottle all over Monica and Lance.
Two sets of eyes flew open when they got doused with the water.
“What the…” Lance exclaimed as he looked back and forth trying to figure out where they were and what had just happened.
Monica looked at Keeley and scowled at her. “What’d you do that for? You could have just shaken us to wake us!”
Keeley’s eyes grew wide as she exclaimed, “I’d been doing that for like 5 minutes! You sleep like the dead girl!” Monica looked at her friend suspiciously as she eased out of the seat.
A few minutes later their bags were safely inside the house and the group was saying their farewells.
“Hey, you want to go shopping tomorrow morning?” Keeley called back to Monica as she walked towards the car.
“Sure, just come on over when you’re ready,” Monica replied before hastily adding, “Just not too early ok!”
Keeley smiled at her friend, “No problem, see ya then!” Monica waved at her friend before closing the door. She then turned around and looked at her husband and gave him an evil grin. She started walking towards him. Once there she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I don’t know about you,” she paused to lick her lips, “but I’m going upstairs to take a nap!” she laughed and took off running up the stairs.
‘That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day,’ Lance thought to himself as he ran up the stairs after her.
Knock, knock
“Hang on!” Lance called from the living room. He quickly got out of his chair and made his way over to the door. He opened it to find Keeley with a huge grin on her face.
“Girl, I know you’re a happy person and all but geez it is too early to be smiling that big.” Lance informed her and then moved over and invited her in.
“Well I’m glad to see you too. It’s great to know that you’ve recovered from your trip,” Keeley replied laughing. “You know what I think it is? I think Monica and Justin are getting to you!” Lance chuckled at her comment. “Besides I’m going shopping! I have the right to be happy!”
“Women,” Lance mumbled under his breath.
“So where’s Monica. She better not still be in the bed!” she said as she put her hand on her hip.
“No, no. She’s up. Cheerful as usual,” sarcasm evident in his voice.
“So! That’s why you are in such a good mood,” Keeley said as she poked him in the ribs. Lance just nodded.
“She upstairs getting ready. Being a typical woman…taking all day.” Just as soon as he got the words out of his mouth, Monica came bouncing down the stairs.
“Keeley! You ready to get our shop on?” Monica laughed when she saw her.
“Heck ya! You know I was born to shop!”
Just as soon as Monica stepped off the stairs she ran over to Lance and hugged him. “Bye baby. Be home later,” then she grabbed Keeley’s arm and drug her out of the house, forgetting to shut the door. Lance stood and looked at the open door and shook his head. He walked over and shut it.
“Women,” he mumbled, still shaking his head.
Keeley and Monica opened the door to the mall and stepped inside. Both looked around with a smile on their faces. Their eyes looked like a child's in a candy store.
“Where to first?” Keeley said as she rubbed her hands together.
“Any place that has clothes!” Monica laughed.
“Damn it, where is the phone,” asked to no one in particular as he searched the living room. He had been trying to unpack some of the boxes and had succeeded in only making a bigger mess. Lance finally found the phone inside the entertainment center hidden among the videotapes. ‘I don’t even want to know how it got there,’ he thought to himself before answering the phone. “Hello?” he said before collapsing on the floor. Soon Justin’s voice filled his ear.
“Yo, Lansten man. I was beginning to wonder if you had fallen in the toilet or something.”
“No. I couldn’t find the phone.”
“Well as many times as the phone rang I figured I was going to get your machine, but it never picked up. Don’t you people have an answering machine?”
“We used to!” Lance laughed. “Neither one of us have found our answering machines yet!"
“Are you two ever gonna get unpacked?” Justin asked his friend.
“At this rate? No! So what’s up?”
“Lance, can you come over here for a little while, while the girls are gone?”
“Now? J, man I am in the middle of unpacking.”
“Please?” Justin whined.
“Why?” Lance groaned. He was tired, depressed, and was currently sitting in the middle of a disaster area. All he wanted to do was go to bed. He couldn’t get Ashleigh out of his head and her words still haunted him.
“I need your help with something.”
“Can’t it wait Justin?” Lance sighed.
“No,” Justin replied matter-of-factly.
“Fine, but when Monica comes home and flips out when she sees this mess I am blaming it on you!” Lance informed him. Justin just laughed at him.
“Whatever. Just get your ass over here!”
“Ok, ok. Be there in a minute,” Lance said and hung up the phone. ‘Maybe living across the street from them wasn’t such as good idea,’ he thought to him and then stood up to look around the room. “Monica is gonna kill me,” he laughed before throwing the phone on the couch. Lance walked into the kitchen and wrote Monica a note on the message board. He then grabbed his keys and walked outside. It was a beautiful day outside. He stood and enjoyed the sun for a few minutes before locking the door and walking over to Justin’s house.
The two friends sat in the food court each holding their fruit smoothie. A mixed look of exhaustion and contentment could be seen on both girl’s faces.
“So, where to next?” Monica asked between sips of her peach flavored one. She looked up at her friend with an evil grin, her eyebrows arched, “Where have we not done any damage to yet?”
Keeley looked toward the ceiling deep in thought. “Hmm, well we could go look at jewelry. I haven’t done that in ages!”
“Ooh, I know the perfect store! Let’s go to the one where Lance bought my ring,” Monica exclaimed as she held her left hand up displaying her wedding ring.
“Sounds good,” Keeley exclaimed. The two stood up and gathered their shopping bags and left the food court, Monica leading the way.
Lance knocked on his friends door and was greeted a moment later by Justin who was smiling fiercely.
“Come on in,” Justin said as he opened the door wider. Lance walked in and turned to look at his friend.
“Ok, so what was so important that I had to rush over here in the middle of unpacking?” Lance asked as he put his hands on his hips.
“Well, you know how we just finished the new album?” Justin said as he looked expectantly at Lance.
“Yeah,” his friend replied, unsure where the conversation was going.
“Well, I was thinking that we should throw a party to celebrate!” Justin said as he beamed.
“You mean to tell me that you dragged me over here to tell me you want to throw a party? Damn it Justin, I don’t have time for this. Monica’s going to be home soon and she’s going to kill me when she sees the mess I made! I can’t believe…”
“It’s not just going to be any party, its going to be special,” Justin interrupted before Lance could continue ranting. Lance closed his open mouth and stared at Justin waiting for him to continue his explanation.
Justin continued as he led Lance into the kitchen, “I asked you to come over because I need your help. Now here’s the deal…”
“Ooh my gosh I want that ring,” Keeley exclaimed as she tapped her finger excitedly on the jewelry case in front of her. Both girls had been fantasizing about their dream rings, well Keeley mostly, Monica had been able to guide Lance in the right direction when he’d chosen hers so she was very happy with the rock on her hand.
“The one in the middle?” Monica asked her friend as she tried to see which one Keeley was frantically pointing to.
“Yeah, the second one from the left.” Monica peered at the platinum ring. In the center was a one-carat princess cut diamond, with a princess cut diamond on each side totaling ½ carat. It was a very traditional and simple design, but Monica knew from all of Keeley’s other jewelry that that was how she liked it.
“That’s beautiful!” Monica exclaimed. A moment later a salesman walked up in front of the two and flashed them a toothy grin.
“Do I hear wedding bells in the air?” The man asked with raised eyebrows.
Both girls looked at each other with amusement written across their faces.
“Actually, just doing a little dreaming,” Keeley replied as she stared longingly down at the ring.
“Would you like to try it on?” He asked as he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the case.
“Well, it couldn’t hurt,” Keeley replied as she watched the man pull the ring out and set it carefully on top of the glass case. He gently pulled the ring from its white case and held it out towards her hand. Keeley extended her left ring finger and allowed the man to slide it on.
“It’s a perfect fit,” he exclaimed as he looked appreciatively at her hand.
Keeley was only able to stare at the ring in amazement. This was the ring that she’s always dreamed she’d get when she got married. She slowly turned her hand to let the diamonds catch the light. They glittered and gleamed.
Monica reached out and grabbed her friend’s hand. “Wow Kee, it looks like it was made for you!”
“Yeah,” Keeley said with a far off dreamy look in her eyes. A moment later she shook her head to bring herself back to reality. She reached down and pulled the ring from her finger and placed it in the box. “Well, thank you,” she said as she smiled to the man.
She turned to Monica, “Well, I’m beat. Wanna call it a day?”
Monica looked at her friend and nodded, “Yeah me too. Besides, I think I need to go help Lance with the unpacking. I’m sure he’s made a total mess of things!” She smiled at her friend and the two made their way out of the mall to find their car.
“Wow,” Lance exclaimed as he sat back on his chair in amazement. “That’s awesome!” Justin had just finished telling Lance his plans for the party.
“What’s awesome?” Keeley asked as she and Monica rounded the corner and walked into the kitchen. The guys hadn’t heard them come home. She walked over to the counter next to Justin and set her bags down. She leaned over and gave him a kiss before looking back at Lance expectantly.
“Oh uh, Justin was just telling me about this car he saw yesterday,” Lance replied, saying the first thing that popped into his head. He looked over towards Justin, whose eyes were wide with a mixed look of fear and guilt.
“Yeah babe, I saw this awesome Dodge Viper cruising down the road,” Justin said as he walked over to Keeley and put his arm around her. She looked up at him with suspicion. He was acting awfully strange.
“Really? What color was it?” Monica asked as she walked over and sat down in Lance’s lap.
“Blue,” Lance said.
“Red,” Justin said at the same time at Lance. Both exchanged looks as the girls burst out laughing.
“Ok, what are you two really up to?” Keeley said. She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms across her chest.
Justin looked at his girlfriend, realizing they’d been caught. “Well, we were thinking about having a party next week to celebrate the album being finished.”
“Really? That sounds like a great idea!” Keeley exclaimed. “Can we help?”
“Nope, we’ve got everything covered. In fact, Lance and I need to go run some errands.”
“Lance, what about unpacking?” Monica asked suddenly. She just remembered about the dozen or so boxes sitting in the middle of her living room.
“Oh uh…” Lance started to reply, but Keeley interrupted me.
“It’s ok Lance, you go with Justin, I’ll go help Monica for a while.”
Lance looked at her gratefully, he didn’t want to be there when Monica found his mess, “Thanks. Ok, well we’ll see you two later then.”
A moment later both girls were sitting alone in the kitchen. Keeley looked at her friend with a look of confusion and suspicion, “You know, I wonder why they didn’t just tell us about the party in the first place. Why’d they make up the story about the car?”
“I have no idea,” Monica exclaimed as she raised her hands in the air. “I don’t understand half the things those two do!”
“Men!” The two exclaimed at the same time as they both broke into fits of laughter.
Lance laid on his bed and listened to the phone ring for the fifth time. He was sure an answering machine would pick up any moment. Finally after the next ring he heard a familiar voice answer.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Ash!” Lance said with a smile. “I thought you were going to call me and tell me when your flight is!” He chided her playfully.
“Oh my gosh! I’m sorry! I totally forgot! I made reservations yesterday. I’m flying out next Thursday, is that ok?” She replied. She laid back on her bed against a huge mound of pillows. She twirled the phone cord through her fingers as she listened to Lance.
“Actually that’s perfect! Next Friday Justin is throwing a huge party so you’ll be able to come!” He exclaimed excitedly. He knew that everyone was anxious to see her again, this would be the perfect opportunity.
“Cool, what’s the party for?” She asked as she stared at her fingers. She noticed her purple nail polish was peeling on her pinkie. She began to pick at it.
“Well, the girls think it’s to celebrate the album being finished, but Justin has a little surprise up his sleeve,” Lance replied with a chuckle.
“Really,” Ashleigh said mischievously. “Anything I can help with?”
“We just may take you up on that,” he replied as he began to tell her about the surprise.
An hour later Lance glanced at the clock. He couldn’t believe they’d been chatting for that long. “Well Ash, I should let you go.”
He heard her yawn as she replied, “Yeah, I should go too. It was great talking to you. It was like old times!”
“I know what you mean!” Lance chuckled. “Ok, well I’ll see you next Thursday then.”
“Yep, I can’t wait!” She exclaimed. She was getting really tired. She began tossing the extra pillows off her bed before climbing inside and pulling her blankets up tightly around her. Her eyes drifted shut lazily.
“Bye Ashleigh.”
“Bye Lance,” she said softly before reaching over and turning out the light.
Lance stood outside the gate that Ashleigh told him she would be arriving at. The plane was late and he was getting antsy. He checked his watch again…20 minutes late already. ‘Why is it planes can’t ever be on time?’ he thought to himself. Just then Ashleigh’s flight was announced over the intercom. “It’s about time,” he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Ashleigh was one of the first people off the flight. She ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck. He picked her up and spun her around.
“Lance!” she squealed.
“Excited much?” Lance asked when he set her down.
“Man, excited doesn’t even begin to describe it. I barely slept a wink last night,” she told him. Lance gave her a stern look.
“Ashleigh, you need your rest,” he scolded her.
“Lancie, you sound like my mother,” she said as she playfully hit in the chest. “Now come on, I wanna see this new house of yours. And that wife of yours too. I liked picking on you with her!” Ashleigh grabbed his hand and began to drag him towards baggage claim. Lance groaned and shook his head. He knew he was in for a long weekend.
A few minutes later the two had Ashleigh’s bags and were loading them in the back of Lance’s 4Runner. The two chatted on the way to his house. They talked about how she had been since he had seen her last. He really wanted to talk about the whole God thing, but he didn’t want to start her visit off with a disagreement. Monica and he had talked about it the night before. In fact they had spent hours talking about it. They both decided that it would be best to wait, even though they both knew in their heart that it needed to be done soon. They both knew that all they could do right now is pray for her.
“I’ve been ok,” Ashleigh told him. “Just glad that I am in between treatments,” she laughed. “So how are you?” Lance chuckled before he answered.
“I’m lucky to be alive!
“What? Why?”
“You know how I told you we have been unpacking?” Ashleigh nodded. “Well I was in the middle of unpacking and Justin called and wanted me to come over so we could discuss the party. I didn’t have time to clean up. Monica about had a heart attack. I about had to sleep on the couch that night.” Ashleigh looked at him and then burst out laughing. “I’m go glad you find it funny.”
“So how did you get out of it?”
“I…um…did some major sucking up…”
“Sucking up my ass. I don’t even want to know what you really did,” Ash told him as she continued to laugh. Lance turned a deep shade of red, which made his friend laugh even harder.
A few minutes later they pulled up in front of Lance’s house. Lance ran around the car and opened the door for Ashleigh. She hopped out and looked around.
“Wow, Lance! It’s beautiful!”
“Thanks!” Lance said with a smile on his face. “We really like it. I’ll like it even more when I don’t trip over boxes every time I turn around!” he told he while he got her bags out of the back.
“Didn’t you say Justin lived around here somewhere?”
“Yeah, he and Keeley live right there actually,” he motioned to the house across the street.
“Wow, it must be nice to live that close to your friend.”
“It can be,” Lance chuckled before he led her up to the front door. He opened the door for her and then shut it after he entered. “Monica! We’re here!”
“In here baby!” Monica called from the kitchen. Lance set Ashleigh’s suitcase down by the stairs before showing Ashleigh the way to the kitchen. There were dirty pans everywhere but the wonderful smell of chocolate filled the air. Monica was leaning over pulling yet another pan out of the oven. She set the pan down on a pot holder she had set out on the counter and then looked up and saw Ashleigh and Lance standing in the doorway.
“Ash!” Monica said as she ran over and hugged her new friend. “How are you? I’m so glad you are finally here!”
“Thanks Monica. I have been looking forward to this since you two left!”
“Hey sweetie!” Monica said to Lance and reached up to kiss him on the cheek. She then walked back over to the counter she was working on and began to ice one of the cooled cakes.
“Mony?” Lance asked as he walked over to the counter beside her looked around the kitchen in confusion. Ashleigh walked over the other side of island and propped herself up on her elbows watching the couple.
“Yeah?”
“What in the world are you doing? I know you said you were making something special for supper since Ash was going to be here…”
“Lance?” Monica interrupted. “What is tomorrow?”
“Um…Friday?”
“And what happens tomorrow?”
“We are having the party…”
“Right. Do you want to eat while you are there?” Lance meekly nodded. “Then leave me alone silly. Justin asked me to make cakes for the party.” Suddenly it donned on him.
“Duh,” he said and smacked the side of his face.
“That’s ok, Lancie. It’s hard to be blonde!” Ashleigh cracked.
“Hey now!” Monica cried. “I resent that!”
“Well you married the dumb lug!” Ashleigh laughed.
“Can I plead temporary insanity?” Monica asked with puppy dog eyes. She broke into a grin when Lance turned to stare at her dumbfounded.
“Remind me never to have the two of you in the same room again!” He said as he threw up his hands in defeat. The girls exchanged satisfied smiles.
“So, what all’s going on at this party tomorrow?” Ashleigh asked Monica as she glanced over at Lance and gave him a knowing smile.
Monica talked as she busily smeared the icing on another cake, “Well, its just a party. All the production team and management is invited. So is family and friends, so basically everyone will be there. It should be fun. Justin hired a DJ so there’ll definitely be dancing and stuff.”
“Sounds like fun,” Ashleigh said, as her grin grew even bigger unbeknownst to Monica.
“Sonic, I swear if you drop that cake you will not live to see the party,” Monica threatened him as they walked out the front door. They were on their way over to Justin and Keeley’s to help set up.
“Woman calm down. I know how to carry a cake across the street.”
“So you say. You weren’t the one who spent hours baking them! I would like them to make them across the street in one piece.” Lance chuckled at her. He knew there was no way to win the battle. A couple of seconds later they were standing in front of the door to their friends’ house.
“Hmm…y’all? How are we gonna knock?” Ashleigh laughed when she realized that all of their hands were full. Lance groaned in response before speaking up.
“I have an idea,” Lance told them. “JUSTIN! JUSTIN!”
“Lance you are such a moron. Why didn’t you just knock with your foot or something?” Monica asked her husband giving him a questioning look.
“I don’t know…seemed like the right thing at the time,” he shrugged. About that time the door opened and Justin and Keeley appeared in front of them.
“See honey, I am so good the neighbors even scream my name!” Justin laughed before taking the cake out of Monica’s hand and turning to take the cake to the table that held the rest of the food.
“Well good to see to see the boy is still full of himself,” Ashleigh laughed when Lance rolled his eyes.
“Please ignore him. The rest of us have learned to!” Keeley told her before taking the cake out of Ashleigh’s hands. “You must be Ashleigh. I’m Keeley by the way!” she smiled to the new girl before following Justin. Lance, trailed by Ashleigh and Monica, followed Keeley so he could put down the cake he was holding. Justin had just turned around when Ashleigh walked into the room.
“Ashleigh! Girl I didn’t even see you!” he exclaimed as he rushed over and hugged her. “How are you? It’s been ages!”
“I’m doing good,” she said with a smile.
“Good!” Justin realized that he hadn’t introduced Ashleigh to Keeley yet. She had just set the cake on the table when Justin reached out and spun her around and then pulled her to his side. “I want you to meet my other half, Keeley.”
“He means his better half,” Monica told her. Keeley’s face broke into a giant smile. Ashleigh tried to stifle a giggle, but was unsuccessful.
“Watch it girlie. Don’t make me sic Lance on you,” Justin told Monica. He then turned to Ashleigh. “Same goes for you too,” he told her before poking her side. Ashleigh rolled her eyes as she continued to laugh.
“No! Please don’t do that. Lance is so big and mean. He might hurt me!” Ash pretended to plead with Justin.
Lance scoffed at her before speaking to Justin. “See I get no respect from these two and now they have teamed up against me.” The rest of the group laughed. They stood and talked for a few minutes before Keeley decided they needed to get to work.
“Ok people, this party is not gonna take care of itself!” They worked for several hours until everything looked perfect. They were now all sitting down out on the back porch admiring their work. They had set up a table with refreshments on the patio and another table towards the corner for the DJ. The patio was lined with tiki torches and little lanterns for when it got dark later that evening. The company with the dance floor had already come and gone and they had set up a wooden dance floor next to the pool. They were all pleasantly surprised and very pleased with themselves. Everything had come together quite nicely.
Lance glanced over at Ashleigh who looked like she was about to fall asleep. ‘This was probably all too much for her,’ he thought to himself. He was exhausted, he could only imagine how she felt. Lance glanced down at his watch and decided that if they left now Ashleigh would have time to take a nap before she would have to start getting ready for the party. She was going to need it. The party was going to be crazy.
“Well guys if you don’t need any more help I think the three of us should get going,” Lance told Justin and Keeley.
“Nah man, go on,” Justin told him.
“Thanks for much for all of your help,” Keeley told them. A couple of minutes later Ashleigh, Lance, and Monica was walking back in their house.
“All right you. Nap time,” Lance said pointing to Ashleigh. She looked at him like he was crazy but made no move to protest. She knew she needed the nap or she would never make it to see the party.
“Yes father,” Ash yawned and then went up to her room. She decided to unpack her things before she took her nap. She carefully took her clothes out of her suitcase and laid them in the dresser in her guestroom and hung up her outfit for the party that night. By the time she had finished she could hardly keep her eyes open. As soon as her head hit the pillow she was out.