We've Got Unfinished Business

One year later

I sat in the kitchen looking at the flyer telling us it was time to renew our lease. After spending a year in New York I still didn't like it. It wasn't just the homesickness, I was used to being away from home, I just didn't like New York. It was always crowded and the people were sort of rude. The only thing I did like was my nursing school. My classmates were nice and I felt like it was doing a great job preparing me for what being a nurse would really be like. Kellin was actually going to the same nursing school as me, it was just in San Diego. When we talked on the phone he told me that he loved his school too and he loved San Diego. He said it was chill and beautiful, it kinda sounded like a dream when he described it to me. I hadn't seen Kellin in six months. We spent Christmas together and with our families, but we had to split up again afterwards.

I stared at the flyer thinking of a way to tell Alex I didn't want to stay here another year. We didn't necessarily have to go back to Baltimore, but anywhere that wasn't New York would be fine by me. I'm pretty sure he knew I was miserable here. I cried for a week straight when he had to leave Aubrey and me and for his tour for three months. I was pretty depressed the entire time he was gone and he felt horrible about it. He even got his fans to tweet nice things to make me feel better.

I was starting to give myself a headache thinking so hard about all of this. I stood up and went to the refrigerator to find something to make for dinner. Alex and Aubrey were in our bedroom taking a nap so I thought it would be nice for them to wake up to food.

I didn't see anything to make in the fridge or the freezer. I walked to pantry and all I saw were cans of soup, canned fruits and vegetables, and noodles. I walked back to fridge to check again. We literally had nothing to eat, we didn't even have simplest things like milk and eggs. It was time to go to the grocery store.

I walked to Alex and my bedroom to ask him if he wanted to go grocery shopping today. When I walked in he was whispering to Aubrey and pointing to his IPad screen. He quickly closed it when he noticed I walked in.

"Why are you two being so sneaky?" I chuckled.

"We were just having daddy daughter time. Did you need something?"

"Yeah do you want to go grocery shopping? We're out of a lot of things."

"Um we shouldn't get them now, we can go next week." He said nervously.

"Next week?? Alex we need basic things like milk and eggs." I told him.

"Ugh okay, I wanted to surprise you over dinner with this but. . . I bought us tickets to San Diego." He said and I gasped.

"Oh my gosh really?!?" I asked and he nodded.

"We leave in two days."

"Is that what you have been sneaking around doing?"

"Yeah I had to see when your break from school ended so I could know how long we could stay. We're going to stay with Vic and Kellin for a week."

"I love you so much!" I went over and kissed him.

"You're welcome." He chuckled.

I couldn't believe I was actually going to California to see Kellin. I'd never been to California so that was exciting too. I leaned over to kiss Alex again because I was so happy.

"I need to go pack!! And we need to find Aubrey a bathing suit!!" I exclaimed.

"Sure we can do all of that tomorrow!" He promised.

***

We had just landed in San Diego and got our luggage. Now we were outside waiting for Kellin and Vic to come pick us up. I was taking pictures of the palm trees outside of the airport.

"It's not hard to impress you is it?" Alex joked and I chuckled.

"Shut up. I've never seen real palm trees before." I said and he laughed. I held my phone out in front of me and took a picture of Aubrey, Alex, and I.

I was starting to feel more like myself just being in a different city. Plus the weather felt great and it just looked happier. Everything Kellin described I could see just standing outside of the airport.

"Jack!!!" I heard someone shout. I turned around and saw Kellin running at me. I smiled and opened my arms.

"Oh my god I missed you so much." I told him. We held each other tightly for a few minutes then we heard Vic hunk the horn.

"Guys this is a pick up line, I can't stay here forever." Vic chuckled.

"Sorry." We both apologized.

Kellin let Alex get in the front seat with Vic while we sat in the back together with Aubrey. We spent the whole drive to their house just talking and laughing about how great it was to finally spend time together and what we'd been doing since we last seen each other. Vic drove into a gated community and stopped in front their house.

"Your house looks gorgeous from out here." I told Kellin and Vic.

"Thanks! Come on I can't wait for you to see inside." Kellin said.

We all got out and followed them inside of the house. Kellin showed me around the house while Alex and Vic went to the backyard. We ended the tour out there and I saw why they went out to the backyard so quick. They had a nice pool and Jacuzzi plus a bar next to the table and chairs.

Kellin and I took Aubrey back inside and sat in his living room. I gave her the bag of toys I packed and she sat in the middle of the floor playing by herself.

"She's getting so big." Kellin said and I nodded.

"Yeah. It's hard to believe she's going to be two next month."

"Aw what are you guys going to do? I'm going to tell Vic we have to come to her second birthday party since we missed her first."

"Um I don't know yet. I haven't had time to think about that." I sighed.

"Are you still trying to tell Alex you don't want to live in New York anymore?" He asked. We talked on the phone literally every other day while we were apart. So I would cry on the phone about how much I hated it.

"Yeah." I mumbled.

"Jack just tell him. Don't stay in a place that's making you miserable. Tell Alex that you hate it there and you want to move somewhere else."

"But what if he really likes New York? I don't want to force him to move somewhere that's going to make him miserable."

"You two need to compromise on a place to live. That way you won't drive yourself crazy trying to make him happy."

"Yeah that's true. I'll try talking to him before we leave. That way we can discuss what to do next."

"You better." He said and I nodded. "Aubrey I bought you something." He told her and her head shot up, she loved gifts. Kellin went into his room and came out with a bag. Aubrey walked up to him and waited for him to hand it to her. She always remembered Kellin because he always gave her toys when he saw her.

"Here you go, sweetheart." He gave her the bag.

"What do you say?" I asked her.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed. She opened it and pulled out toys to use on the beach. There were buckets, shovels, other toys to mold the sand, and a bathing suit.

"Daddy look!" She ran over to me with the toys.

"I see! Maybe we can go to the beach tomorrow so you can play with them." I told her.

"Pleeeease pleeeease!" She begged, wanting to go now.

“I don't think so baby. The time difference might hit us hard. It's six here but its nine in New York so you should be sleep now." I explained, but she didn't fully understand of course.

"Daddy!" She whined.

"I promise we'll go to the beach tomorrow." I said and she crossed her arms and pouted. I sighed and Kellin picked her up.

"Your dad is being mean to you isn't he?" He asked her and she nodded. "How about we go get Popsicles then?" Her frown was quickly replaced with a smile. Kellin took her to get a banana Popsicle from the freezer and she forgot about the beach for now.

Alex and Vic came in a few minutes later. They were both laughing at something and Alex came to sit next to me.

“You look like you’re enjoying yourself.” I said and he laughed.

“I’m always enjoying myself when I’m with you.” He said happily with alcohol on his breath.

“Or when you’ve had a couple of drinks?” I teased.

"Shut up! Are you loving California so far?" Alex asked me.

"Yeah there's no traffic noises outside of the window and it's pretty." I said and he smiled.

"What about you Aubrey? Do you like California too?" He asked Aubrey and she nodded. She would like any place as long as she got Popsicles while there.

Soon it became later and I was struggling to stay awake. Aubrey had already fallen asleep by seven like I predicted, but now it was ten pm. Meaning it was one am in New York and usually I would be in bed at this time.

"You are not seriously sleepy right now." Kellin told me as I yawned.

"It's one am in New York right now. I should be in bed asleep." I laughed.

"I don't even remember what it feels like to be in that time zone." Vic said and Kellin agreed.

"Eh I'm used to time changes from all the touring we do. Three hours isn't that bad compared to the six or more hour differences over seas." Alex said.

"Well I'm tired." I yawned.

"Yeah we should go to bed. We have a long day tomorrow." Alex said. He and Vic exchanged looks before Vic agreed.

"Oh yeah we will have a long day. Kellin lets go to bed." Vic said.

"Fine." Kellin said not catching on to their sneakiness.

We told each other goodnight and went to our separate rooms. Alex carried Aubrey to a guest room and we took the last room. I was going to ask him what he and Vic were up to but I forgot as soon as my head hit the pillow.

We woke up the next morning and Alex asked me to shower with him. I said yes under one condition; no sex. I didn't want to be sore while we were at the beach.

We showered and put some clothes on. I went to Aubrey's room to wake her but she wasn't in there. I walked around until I found her in the kitchen with Vic. He was cutting the pancakes on her plate and she was smiling at him.

"Thank you." She said shyly. She actually said it without me having to ask her to.

"You're welcome!" He told her. "Hey guys." He said when we walked in.

"Hey, thanks for feeding her." Alex told him and he brushed it off.

"She was keeping me company. Kellin usually sleeps in so I have to eat breakfast alone." He chuckled. "There's more next to the stove. Help yourself."

"Thanks." Alex and I told him and went to get breakfast.

Kellin came out after we were finished eating and finally ate his food. Then we went to change into our bathing suits and I helped Aubrey into hers. Then we got into Vic's car and he drove us to the beach.

Once we got there we found a nice area and put down two large umbrellas and beach towels for all of us. A few minutes later Mike, Jaime, and Tony showed up with their girlfriends. We all hugged and they set up their things next to ours.

"She's so big now." Mike said about Aubrey.

"Yeah she'll be two next month." Alex told him.

"Wow already! Do you remember me?" He asked her and she shook her head no. "Wow my feelings aren't hurt." He joked.

I noticed that Tony's girlfriend was pregnant. He helped her ease to the ground and kissed her and her stomach before going over to the guys. She smiled and waved until Tony turned around then her face fell and she rubbed her stomach. I definitely did not miss my pregnancy days.

"I would sometimes walk around when she was too hyper in my stomach and it would lull her back to sleep." I told her.

"Oh thank you!" She exclaimed. Alysha, Mike's girlfriend, helped her up and walked to the bathroom with her.

"You're an expert." Kellin joked and I rolled my eyes.

"Aubrey come here so I can rub some sunscreen on you." I said and Aubrey walked over. I rubbed the sunscreen on her exposed body. We never had to worry about this problem in New York, but I was really worried about her getting sun burn here.

"Okay go play!" I told her.

She grabbed the toys Kellin gave her and went to try to build a sand castle. She filled the bucket up with sand and tried to flip it over, but all of her sand fell out before she could get it on the ground. I tried not to laugh but the look of confusion on her face was so cute. Vic and Jaime walked over and kneeled down to help her. She smiled at Vic as he helped her fill the bucket with sand again and this time he flipped the bucket without the sand falling out of it. He sat it on the ground and pulled the bucket up to reveal one part of the castle.

"I think she has a crush on him." I told Kellin.

"On who? Vic?" He asked and I nodded.

"I can tell by the way she looks at him."

"Well I guess she took after you cause she likes guys that are way too old for her." He joked.

"Fuck you." I laughed.

Vic and Jaime had to leave Aubrey and go play football with the rest of the guys. She sat and tried to build the rest of it alone so Kellin and I went out to help her. We helped her finish it and I took a picture and put it on Facebook for her. We went back to the umbrellas and watched the guys run each other into the ground trying to catch the football.

"Aubrey let's go get in the water!" I exclaimed and she shook her head. "No? Why not?"

"Sharks." She mumbled.

"Sharks? Aubrey there are no sharks this close to us. They're all at home eating dinner so they won't mess with us." I told her so she wouldn't be scared. She looked at the big body of water and still shook her head.

"Why is she so afraid?" Kellin asked.

"Because Alex watches those stupid animal shows about sharks with her." I shook my head.

"Okay Aubrey we're going to go in the water, bye!" Kellin told her and we walked to the shallow part of the water. She followed us and stopped before she could touch the water. Every time the water would wash over her feet she took a step back.

"Look baby there's nothing here. It's just water like a giant bath tub." I told her.

"Why isn't she going in?" Alex asked as he walked over.

"Because you scared her into thinking sharks are going to get her." I said.

"Oh god. Aubrey nothing's going to happen. Look." He stepped into the water. Everyone else started to come over to and get in. They were going out deep into the water but I wasn't going to let her go out that far.

Aubrey took a step closer and put her toes in the water. Then she slowly stepped in. She stood right at the edge not going any further.

"You want to build sandcastles instead, baby?" I asked and she nodded. "Okay come on." She held my hand as we walked back to her toys. I wasn't going to make her conquer her fear of the ocean today.

We walked over to the umbrellas and sat down. I helped her try to make more sandcastles while watching everyone play in the ocean. Alex came out minutes later and sat with Aubrey and me. We barely talked and just enjoyed being outside enjoying the weather, something we could barely do in New York.

An hour later everyone was ready to go. It was pretty fun just being outside and enjoying the beach. Aubrey enjoyed building sandcastles and looking for seashells. I think we both didn't like being in New York.

"Daddy!" Aubrey exclaimed showing Alex the seashells she found in the sand.

"That's so cool, baby!" He told her.

"Aubrey did you show Vic your seashells?" Kellin chuckled and she shook her head no.

"I wanna see!" Vic exclaimed. Aubrey walked over, while turning bright red, and showed Vic the seashells she found. "They're so pretty!" He told her.

"Thank you." She giggled.

Alex looked at me confused and I shrugged. I wasn't going to tattletale that she had a crush to her dad.

"I'm hungry." Mike said and everyone agreed. We had been on the beach almost all day so we needed a break.

"How about we all go shower and meet up somewhere?" Alex suggested.

"Yeah, we can just text in the group chat." Tony said.

They agreed to do that and we went back to Vic's car so we could go get cleaned up. He drove us back to their house.

I gave Aubrey a bath while Alex went to go shower. Then I took a shower next. Kellin came in told me we were going to wait an hour and a half before going to eat with everyone. I decided Aubrey and I could take a nap during that time. I put her in the bed with me and she quickly fell asleep. She wore herself out at the beach.

"I'll wake you up when we're ready to go." Alex told me.

"Do you want to take a nap with us?" I asked him.

"Nah I'm not really tired. You two rest up."

"Okay." I laid down and fell asleep too.

Alex woke us up an hour and a half later like he said he would. "Babe it's time for dinner." He shook me.

"Alright." I mumbled.

I got up and put Aubrey shoes on for her. I went into the bathroom to fix myself up so it didn't seem like I just woke up. Then we walked down stairs with Alex.

"Kellin and Vic are going to take Aubrey to dinner with them. While I take you out with me." He told me.

". . . Okay." I said suspiciously. I wonder what he was planning.

He drove Vic's to a nice restaurant and Vic drove Kellin's car. We were at a nice Italian restaurant and we had a reservation so Alex had planned this. He pulled out my chair for me at the table and sat down next to me. I looked at him waiting for him to talk and he gestured to the menu. I rolled my eyes and quickly looked for chicken Alfredo to make sure they had it. Once we ordered Alex finally started talking.

"So our lease is up next month right?" He asked causally.

"Yeah. I've been meaning to talk to you about that." I told him.

"Go ahead. I'm listening."

"Um okay so I kinda don't like New York...like at all...I actually hate it. I want to move away from there Lex. I'm not happy in that city." I whined.

"I know babe and that's what I was planning on telling you. I think we should move somewhere else. Somewhere that's close to another one of my record labels and somewhere where you can continue school."

"Where were you thinking?"

"...Here." He mumbled.

"Here?? You want to move all the way to California??" This was so far away from Baltimore. At least New York was only a two and a half hour drive. I had no choice but to fly back to Baltimore from here.

"Yeah. You said it yourself you love it here."

"Well yeah but that didn't mean I want to move here."

"So that's a no?" He asked sadly and I sighed.

"It's not a no. I just need to think things through. This is so far from home."

"Yeah but we'd be making our own home here. Vic talked to me about some houses in the area we could go check out. The nursing school is only a few minutes away and everyone here seems nicer. I bet you would really like it."

"I-I don't know." I stammered. I didn't want to make an impulsive decision like I did when I agreed to move to New York. I wanted to actually think about this move.

"Just think it over. We can talk more about it later."

"Okay. Thanks."

"No problem."

We finished our dinner talking about everything other than moving.

***

The Next Day

Kellin, Aubrey, and I were going to look at houses today. We were just looking it did necessary mean I wanted to move here. I just thought while Alex was out with his friends we could go exploring. Kellin just wanted to help me look because he really wanted me to move here.

"Okay one story or two story houses?" Kellin asked as he drove around.

"Probably one story with like three bedrooms." I told him and he nodded as he drove into the first neighborhood. It was one neighborhood over from his.

"Let's just start here and see where we end up." He said and I agreed.

We spent the whole morning looking at house after house. I found a few that I liked, but I didn't know what Alex wanted to spend so I would have to ask him first.

We went back to Kellin's house and Alex, Vic, and Mike were sitting outside. I went over with Aubrey and sat in the pool chair next to Alex.

"Hey did you find anything you liked?" He asked.

"I saw a few nice houses, but I don't know what you want. Plus I don't if we're really going to move here or not." I said stressfully running my fingers through my hair.

"Okay how about this, we find a house and I'll rent it for a year. If you honestly don't like it then we'll move straight back to Baltimore. That way we aren't making any serious commitments."

"Really?" I asked and he nodded. "That doesn't sound too bad." I thought out loud. It would be just like testing out New York. Either I would love it or hate it, if I hated it then we would just move back to Baltimore.

"Okay! Let's do that!" I exclaimed and he kissed me.

"Good because I already found our perfect house." He chuckled and I hit him.

"Why did you have me looking for houses all morning if you already had one?" I jokingly complained.

"To distract you and just in case you hated this one. You wanna see it?" He asked.

"Yeah of course!"

We both got up and he went to Vic to borrow his keys. I picked up Aubrey and told Kellin where we were going. I followed Alex to Vic's car and he drove us to the house.

The house was only two street lights from Kellin and Vic's house. It was one story like I wanted and there was a palm tree out front. The house was made out of brown and tan stones, it was really pretty.

"I like the outside." I told Alex.

"You're going to love the inside."

We walked inside and Alex showed me around. It had more space than my home back home. There was a giant patio in the backyard, but there wasn't a pool which was fine. The master bedroom was bigger than the one in our condo.

Alex took Aubrey to see the room that would be hers. It had pink walls with navy blue borders. The room next to it was light blue also with navy blue borders. We were most likely going to turn that room into the guest room.

I met Alex and Aubrey back in the living room after we finished checking out the house.

"So what do you think?" Alex asked.

"I like it! This one is perfect for us to try out!" I said happily.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes it beautiful and it's nowhere near the loud city. It's calm and peaceful here."

"Okay I'll call the owner and tell her I we'll rent it for a year and see what happens after that."

"Perfect!" I turned around to face the rest of the living room and think about decorations.

"Maybe we should make our first memory in this house special." Alex whispered from behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed the back of my neck.

"Stop, definitely not while Aubrey is here." I chuckled.

He removed his arms from me before speaking again. "I want her to see this though." He said and I frowned.

"What are you talkin-" I turned around and was caught off guard by the sight in front of me. Alex was getting on one knee and opening a black box with a ring inside. I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming.

"Jack I lov-" He began to say.

"Yes yes yes! I will!" I exclaimed, stopping him.

“I couldn’t even get the question out.” He laughed.

Tears fell down my cheek as he pulled the ring out and placed it on my finger. He got back up to kissed me. I held onto him tightly as we made out in our living room.

Notes

I wrote and rewrote this chapter at least four times, but I kinda enjoyed writing it each time lol I hope you all enjoyed reading it just as much!