I would've married you in Vegas
Had you given me the chance to say "I do"
Could I make it more obvious, could you
Be anymore obvious

A sharp knock on our hotel door abruptly interrupted my pleasant, pre-wedding slumber. I let out a reluctant moan, scrunching up my nose as my heavy eyelids began to flutter open. The bright morning light could be seen creeping in through the curtained window, casting a special, almost golden glow to the room.

“‘o is it?” I lazily called out, rolling over slightly to see that Jack was just beginning to stir as well, letting out a heavy sigh of his own as he rubbed the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand.

“It’s Alex--” The man on the other side of the door barely finished getting the words out before another voice cut in.

“And Lisa!” Our friend’s cheery voice added. “We got here as soon as we could.”

Alex laughed lightly. “Yeah, so if you could put some clothes on and get your butts out of bed--”

I rolled my eyes, gathering myself up and out of the comfy mattress while Jack lagged, stretching out his long limbs with a long yawn. Grabbing the door’s handle, I twisted it open to reveal the bright smiling faces of not only Alex and Lisa, but Rian, Jo, Madison, and Cass as well. They all looked well rested and anxious for the day ahead. “Oh, hey guys...” I gave a quick half smile towards my friends in earnest greeting before turning towards Alex and adding, “I’m so glad you guys could make it, truly. I know it was super last minute but it really means the world to Jack and I.”

Alex brushed off my appreciation with an eye roll and a smirk, “Of course, Chris. Jack’s my best friend and in case I haven’t made this totally clear to you by now, I think you’re pretty awesome, too. There’s no way I’d miss you two get married.”

My lips broke into a wide grin, honestly touched over Alex’s simple statement. After all, he was the guy that’d been by Jack’s side for going on almost ten years. He’d seen Jack with girls who clearly weren’t right for him, ones that would just be another notch in his bedpost. Now, here we were, three years down the road and literally hours before Jack and I were going to make the biggest commitment of our lives. For Alex to basically give his wholehearted blessing like that...well let’s just say I really appreciated it. “Thanks, ‘lex.”

He just smiled, bowing his head slightly before peeping over my shoulder. “Is he up yet?”

I nodded. “Yeah, he’s beginning to stir, I think.” I glanced back over my shoulder to find Jack was now sitting up and shuffling through the clothes he’d half-hazzardly packed on our five minute stop back home before picking up Madison. It was literally just throwing some clothes in a suitcase, asking our neighbor to watch Zero for the weekend and bam, we were out the door.

“Sweet.” He bobbed his head before pushing the door I’d purposefully kept half-open aside, inviting himself in without another glance in my direction.

I let my mouth hang open slightly as the rest of the guys followed Alex. The girls, meanwhile, wisely kept their distance in hallway. After all, to them, the number of times they’d seen my fiancee naked was probably too high. All it took was one day backstage with Jack, a beer (or four), and off his pants went. I’d tried to shield them when I could, of course, but Jack was a sneaky devil once he got to his naked level of drunkeness.

“Uh, what are you doing?” I frowned at Alex as I followed him back into the room to find while I was talking to Alex, Jack had snuck into the bathroom. I could hear the sounds of water running reverberating softly through the wall.

He didn’t answer at first. Instead, he stuck his hand in the very suitcase Jack had been rummaging through minutes before and tossed a sundress I’d packed in my direction. I stumbled for a second, grabbing the flowery fabric with a confused stare. “You can change in Cass’ room, okay? We’ve got Jack for the afternoon for the bachelor party so from this point on until we meet up again, it’s dudes only.”

I couldn’t help but pout, clutching the dress tightly in my hands before glancing back at the closed bathroom door. I knew we were going to have our separate parties, don’t get me wrong. I had just expected a little more time together in the morning, that was all. At least a chance to say goodbye before we were dragged off to do whatever it was our friends had in store for us. “...but can we at least--”

“Nope!” Rian shook his head with that wide, contagious smile of his. “You’ll see him at five tonight. We’re meeting back here in front of the hotel, we’ll have a little dinner-slash-reception, and then you two are going to get married.”

As I continued to draw my bottom lip out as the idea of having our own last-hurrah-as-single people felt less and less necessary, Alex just laughed, assuring me, “Don’t worry, the girls have some fun shit planned for you, too.”

I just sighed, nodding a few times before reluctantly leaving the room. “Okay, fine. Just keep an eye on him, alright? Make sure he doesn’t get too drunk, get too naked or do anything too stupid--”

Alex huffed another chuckle. “This is Jack, we’re talking about, Chris.” I just glared at him, which caused his smile to fade almost instantly in fear. “But yeah, I promise we’ll keep an eye on him.”

My mouth crept up into a small smirk, pleased enough by his response. “Good...” I slowly made my way back out into the hall where my sister and three best friends were waiting for me.

“Try not to have too much fun without us, boys.” Cass teased, blowing a kiss to her boyfriend, who visibly blushed.

“Oh, before I forget!” Madison announced abruptly, stopping Alex from shutting the door and officially beginning the bachelor party adventures. Alex raised his thick dark brows. “Is it okay if my boyfriend joins you guys today? He just got into town and I would really feel bad if he just wandered around until five--”

“No, of course.” Alex shrugged lightly, not seeming to have an issue with a total stranger joining in on the fun. “Just tell him we’ll meet him down in the lobby.”

Madison nodded, her voice grateful that the brown haired man was so friendly. “Will do...” Seconds later she was back on her phone, shooting another text to that man of hers.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” I muttered towards my sister after she thanked Alex one last time before we finally split off into our respective groups.

She just raised a brow. “What’s that?”

“Your boyfriend joining in on the bachelor party.” I explained with an obvious stare. “I mean, he doesn’t know them and I know you love the guy but what if he doesn’t get along with the boys?”

Jo cut in, huffing, “The only asshole I’ve ever met who didn’t like the guys from All Time Low was Trace Cyrus. So unless Madison’s boyfriend is Trace Cyrus, I’d say we don’t have anything to worry about...” Jo’s dark eyes glanced over at my sister with a mix of curiosity and a bit of doubt, “He’s not, right?”

Madison scrunched up her nose in disgust. “Ew. No way. That guy’s a douche.”

We all breathed a collective sigh or relief over that one.

“I think it’s time we see a picture.” Cass’s bright eyes zoomed in on the phone in my sister’s hand, while I thought back to the blatant denial I was given to that very request the previous night.

“Fat chance.” I rolled my eyes, still a bit offended that she wouldn’t even share a picture of the guy with her favorite sister.

...granted, I was her only sister, but not the point.

“Everyone will meet him in a few hours.” Madison said, ignoring Cass’ requests completely, as I totally expected she would. “Besides, I really don’t want to spend the day avoiding questions about my boyfriend when we’re supposed to be celebrating my little sister and her big day!” She nudged me, ducking down slightly so she could link her arm with mine.
I rolled my eyes, personally feeling more into figuring out who the hell her boyfriend was already, but smiled nonetheless. I was happy, after all. I was fucking getting married in less than twenty four hours, and whether or not Madison wanted to be secretive over her boyfriend’s identity wouldn’t change that. I was on cloud nine, feeling all kinds of giddy over what was to come, though nothing against what the girls had planned, I was kinda dying for the time to fly by so I could be with Jack again.

God, I was a loser in love sometimes.

Outwardly though, I tried not to show the fact that I was already missing Jack, instead focusing on Cass as I asked her what the plans were.

“Well, we were thinking of going to the store to get you a nice dress...unless you had your heart set on getting married in that...” She gestured loosely towards the blue floral dress Alex had tossed me. “I mean, it’s cute and everything, but--”

“No, you’re right.” I smirked, shaking my head as I realized I hadn’t exactly thought of everything when I agreed to Jack’s crazy plan. “I mean, it’s Vegas so it’s not like it really matters, but I’ve gotta admit I’ve at least pictured a white dress when I walked down the aisle...”

She smiled softly, grabbing the sundress out of my hand, already deciding I could do way better than that on my wedding day, ‘official’ or not. “Then a white dress you’ll get.”

I laughed, appreciating my friend’s optimism as we approached the room at the end of the hall Rian and Cass had booked. Taking the dress once more, I told her. “We’ll see what we can find, but for now I’m just going to change into this. After all, I don’t really think I should be shopping for my wedding dress in my pajamas.” I threw my hands out, glancing down to my Batman themed shirt and shorts.

“It’s Vegas, so I’m sure they’ve seen all kinds of shit.” Jo reasoned, smirking as she added. “But if it makes you feel better, go ahead.”

I smiled back before borrowing the key card from Cass so I could quickly change into my dress. A few minutes later, I was back with the girls and before I knew it we were on our way out of the hotel and grabbing a taxi to the mall.

“I wonder what the guys have planned today.” I wondered out loud as the taxi zoomed in and out of traffic.

“Beer, strippers and food.” Jo replied without a hint of doubt in her voice. “Mostly the beer and the food, though.”

“You don’t want a stripper, do you?” Cass asked. “Because I can totally call one up if you--”

I quickly shook my head. “No, that’s okay. I mean, I joked with Jack that if he got one, I’d get one, but honestly the idea of a random guy gyrating against me feels all kinds of disgusting.”

Jo’s shoulders sunk, probably the only one who’d benefit from something like that. “Well when you put it that way, it does.”

“Oh! You know what we should do before we get the dress?” Cass bounced lightly up and down on her seat next to me. “We should all get manicures! You know, pamper ourselves a bit for our guys.”

“That sounds like fun.” I smiled, not minding the idea of getting gussied up a bit, however small. After all, I typically was one to do my own hair, makeup and nails and had only once gone to a salon to get my nails professionally done. It was a nice treat for sixteen year old me, but I had never found the desire to do it again. It didn’t help that I was broke for most of my life until I’d found a semi consistent pay check once signed onto Fueled By Ramen and let’s face it, getting my nails done was damn expensive. But today was a special day. What was the harm in splurging a little?

“Manicures?” Jo raised a brow, glancing down at her short, chipped black nails. She scrunched up her face. “Uh, I guess if that’s what you wanna do, Lawson...”

“Oh, come on!” Cass piped up before I could. “It’ll be fun!”

~*~

“So you haven’t told us yet what you and Jack have planned for the honeymoon...” Madison wagged a brow a little while later, her body reclined back slightly as the manicurist carefully painted her nails into the perfect french tip, something we’d all opted similar variations of given the occasion.

I glanced at my sister and raised a shoulder, making sure to only raise it slightly given the woman working on my left hand. “I don’t know, exactly. I mean he said we’ll stay in town for the weekend and he mentioned something about a ‘part two’, but other than that I honestly have no idea what that man has planned...”

“You’re telling me that Jack actually has more in mind than spending all day in the hotel room?” Cass chuckled, shaking her head at the thought.

Jo pursed her lips as she took in Lisa’s words. “She’s got a point. This is Jack we’re talking abo--ow!” She pulled her hand back as she scowled at the woman doing her nails.

“She’s just pushing back your cuticles.” Cass chuckled.

Jo let out a low breath, cautiously returning her hand to the professional in front of her. “...oh...sorry.”

“You know, just because Jack likes to joke a lot about sex doesn’t mean that’s all we do when we’re alone.” I rolled my eyes as ignored Jo’s mini freak out, pausing as I added reluctantly, “...mostly.”

Cass grinned widely. “Oh my God, you guys are too much--”

“We’re too much?” I laughed at my friend’s observation. “What about you and Rian? You two are overwhelmingly cute, I swear. Trust me, when you guys get married you’ll be making googily eyes at each other and Rian’ll say something totally adorable about you that will make all other guys look like assholes.”

Cass visibly blushed at the mere mention of her and Rian tying the knot. “Well...I’m not sure about all other guys--”

“Cass. Trust me. Rian has being a gentleman down to an art form.”

Her lips broke out into a smile. “Yeah, I guess he does...” She paused for a beat. “But either way, we won’t be getting married for a while. Not until our careers are more stable anyway. I mean, I’m just starting to get my name out there...”

I bobbed my head. “Makes sense.” I told her before glancing over Madison towards Lisa. “What about you and Alex? You guys have been together since high school, right? Do you think he’s going to propose soon?”

Lisa forced a laugh. “Yeah, right.” She grumbled, her mouth turning down into an oddly bitter frown. “Like he’d ever commit to something as big as marriage.”

I raised a worried brow, sharing a glance with the rest of the girls before beginning carefully, “Uh, Lis...is everything okay?”

She swallowed hard, the gears in her mind grinding away. “...um. Yeah--of course. Why?”

“Because you’re acting weird.” I responded bluntly. “And come to think of it, you’ve hardly said a thing since you arrived.”

Cass turned her attention to Lisa, tilting her head in worry. “What happened? Did Alex do something? He didn’t cheat, did he?”

Lisa quickly shook her head. “No, he didn’t...it’s just...” She took a shaky breath. “..Alex and I...well we broke up.”

“What!” I exclaimed, momentarily forgetting that we were in a public place.

“Why?!” Cass added with a justified gasp.

Lisa shrugged softly. “We just...I don’t know. We’ve grown apart, I think. He’s become a successful musician who has done all these amazing things with his talent and I’m just...me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love that you guys can do what you love and I have nothing against you being musicians, but you haven’t really had to be on the other side of that--be the other person who’s left behind for months on end and hating yourself when you think he could easily find someone better than you in every city he visits. It just...it became too much.”

“But...but you and Alex...” I stuttered for a proper response as immense guilt for asking the two of them to come to Vegas washed over me. “Oh, I’m so sorry. This must be awful timing, inviting you two here--”

“No, Chris, it’s alright.” Lisa reassured me despite her eyes beginning to tell me otherwise, her waterline brimming with unshed tears. “The break up was mutual and sure, it kinda sucks to be in the same room as him right now, but you and Jack are so important to us, we decided we can put up with one night of awkwardness to see you guys on the happiest day of your lives.”

I numbly shook my head, whatever other celebrating we had planned suddenly feeling more like bragging that we’d committed and Alex couldn’t. “I just can’t believe it.”

“I actually wasn’t supposed to say anything.” Lisa continued softly, the mood in the room verging on dismal. “Sorry for killing the happy moment...”

“Aw, it’s okay!” Cass pouted, pulling Lisa in for a hug all while minding her still wet nails.

“Yeah, you can’t control when these things happen.” I nodded, quick to come to my friends side.

She sniffed softly as Cass finally released her. “Thanks, you guys.”

I smiled. “Anytime.”

A beat passed, the dramatic moment fading into nothing but memories as we all tried to refocus our sights on the positive. “So...I have a theory why Madison doesn’t want to show us a picture of her boy toy.” Jo began once we’d all let the news of our friend’s break up sink in.

I peered over at Jo with a curious gaze. “What’s that?”

Madison stared at the guitarist as well with slightly less unamused eyes. “Yeah. What’s that?” She repeated.

Jo, unfazed, shrugged and replied simply, “It’s because it’s someone we know. It only makes perfect sense. Otherwise, why would she hide him from Chris for so long?”

Madison’s previously calm face fell into a firm frown. She didn’t have to say a word. Her expression said it all.

I gasped. “Holy shit, it’s someone we know!”

She held up a finger as she tried her best to squash the theory. “I never said--”

“You didn’t have to. It’s just so freaking obvious.” Jo teased.

“Who could it be? Is it Zack?” Cass pondered out loud. “It’s not Zack, is it?”

Madison shook her head. “No, it’s not---”

“What about Jamie? Or Vic? Or Mike?” Cass continued, her brain going into overdrive trying to think of all the guys she’d seen my sister interact with. Which, thanks to the various shows she’d gone to, Midnight related or otherwise, was a plethora of famous and non famous faces.

I rolled my eyes at the lack of imagination Cass was displaying. After all, I’d told her on more than one occasion how Madison used to go out with Vic back in the day. And sure, Vic still had an obvious crush on her, but their time had long passed; not to mention whatever feelings came about weren’t mutual. Whoever Madison was dating, I had a pretty strong feeling that he wasn’t connected to the Fuentes brothers. “Well now you’re just naming the guys in Pierce the Veil.”

Cass groaned in annoyance. “God, the suspense is killing me.” She dramatically turned towards me and bluntly stated, “Chris, your sister sucks.”

I bit my lip, the anticipation of finding out who this stupid guy on the verge of driving me insane as well, though to be fair, after finding out about Alex and Lisa I’d much rather deal with the hair-pulling frustration that was my tightlipped sister. “Can’t you at least give us a hint?”

Madison narrowed her eyes slightly in thought. “One hint?”

Cass and I eagerly nodded.

She sighed. “Fine...you introduced me to him, alright?””

“I....introduced him to you?” I repeated carefully, realizing that this narrowed down the list, but only just. “Mad, I’ve introduced you to like hundreds of people since I started touring.”

She just smirked devilishly. “I know.”

~*~

We wrapped up in the salon shortly after one in the afternoon. After that, we grabbed a quick lunch before b-lining it to the mall in hopes of finding the quote ‘perfect dress’. Cass’ words, mind you, not mine. In all honesty I was perfectly happy grabbing any old white dress off the clearance rack and calling it a day. To me, this day wasn’t about the dress. It was about me marrying the man that I loved with the people we cared about most in the world sharing that special moment with us.

Sappy? Yes.

But hey, it was the truth.

The girls wouldn’t have this, though. “You only get married for the first time once.” Cass told me adamantly as we entered a large Macy’s department store, per my request. They’d initially wanted to go to a David’s Bridal or something like that, but I really didn’t want to get too fancy. After all, this was supposed to be an intimate, small wedding. The last thing I needed was to make a statement with a fancy-ass dress. “Make it count.”

“She has a point.” Madison added, leading the way as we followed the signage towards the woman’s department. “I mean, I know you still have a second wedding planned so I get why you think this doesn’t matter, but just because this is a dress on a time crunch doesn’t mean it isn’t important, Chris.”

“I know, I just don’t really know where to start...” I bit my lip as we approached the dress department, currently filled to the brim with sequence laden dresses and various red and green shades thanks to the upcoming holiday season.

“Ooh, start with this one.” Cass instantly b-lined it to a white a-line dress with a long, flowing skirt. I nodded, not finding any problem trying it on. I scanned through the rack and plucked out my size.

“How about this?” Jo asked, pointing to another white dress. This one though, was substantially more revealing.

I scrunched up my nose. “Maybe not quite so...risque?”

Jo shrugged, not looking hurt at all that I turned down her suggestion. “Fair enough.” She quietly moved on, eyes scanning for another white dress.

We continued the search, which took substantially longer than I expected. I mean, Macy’s is a big store, sure. But we were in there for a good two, almost three hours just going through all the dresses they had available. Then, once we were sure we looked at all the options, I had to go try on all the dresses I’d given a ‘maybe’ to. Which was to say, quite a few.

Madison, Jo, Cass and Lisa seemed to enjoy the show, at least. They were all too willing to be my team of judges in hopes of finding this so called perfect dress. I mean, if a dress wasn’t flow-y enough, it was too boring. Maybe it had too much bling or too much lace. Or maybe the cut wasn’t right or the length wasn’t long enough. Maybe it was this, maybe it was that--all I knew was by the time we’d gone through all the dresses, I was absolutely exhausted. “Guys,” I sighed as I tiredly changed back into my sundress. “I don’t think we’re going to find it.”

Madison looked at me and then at all the white dresses we’d hung up on the rack to be put back. “Well...did you want to look around one last time? Maybe we missed something--”

I shook my head. “No, we looked through all the white dresses they have here. Maybe we could try a different store?” I grabbed my purse and snuck a glance at the time, wincing when I realized we were really cutting it close. “We still have a little bit of time--”

“Wait!” Jo cut in, rummaging through the rack of dresses I’d tried on. “I think you forgot one...” She paused for a second, grabbing a dress that had been hiding in between a long, overly elegant mermaid style gown and a skin tight halter that was a bit more revealing than I hoped.

My eyes widened as I took in the dress Jo had found. It was beautifully simplistic and something that, had it been any other shade other than white, I could have easily seen myself wearing all the time. The lace that adorned the long sleeves crawled up to the shoulders, gracing the scooped neckline with just a hint of its floral beauty before overlapping on top an opaque white fabric throughout the rest of the body, the skirt of the dress gracefully ending just below the knee.

It was perfect. Simple.

Just what I needed.

“When did this get in here!” I gasped, my fingers delicately grazing against the intricate lace detail.

Lisa quietly raised her hand. “I found it while you were trying on some of the other dresses. I hope you don’t mind, I just though it might look good on you...”

“Are you kidding?” I laughed, running up to her to give her a strong one-armed hug. “This is perfect! Holy shit, I have to try this on...” I could hear Madison and Cass exchange a laugh as I reentered the dressing room, stripping down to my underwear once more to try on one more white dress. As I snaked myself into the fabric, I could feel my heart pounding in anticipation. I don’t know what it was, but something about this simple white dress spoke to me. It felt right, in that moment, that that dress was what I should be wearing when I married Jack. I took a shaky breath, pulling the skirt down all the way and making sure everything was where it should be before I finally reemerged from the dressing room and walked out, arms open with silent query.

“Oh my God...” Cass gasped, pressing a hand to her mouth. “hhads oo boodiful!”

Jo frowned at Cass, not understanding her muffled speech. “What?”

The singer removed her hand from her mouth and repeated cheerily, not looking a little irked that she had to repeat herself. “I said that’s so beautiful! Don’t you agree?” She gestured towards me with a bright smile.

“It is a knockout.” Jo nodded, nudging Lisa lightly. “Guess you picked the lucky winner.”

“What about you, Chris?” Lisa asked, shrugging off the ‘victory’ in picking the dress everyone was going gaga over. “Do you like it?”

“I love it.” I replied instantly, with no doubt. I twisted around as I observed the way the dress moved in the long mirror just outside the dressing room I’d been in. I loved the way it was form fitting, yet breathable. I loved the detail on the sleeves, and the cut...I loved everything about it. “It’s gorgeous...” I smiled.

“Guess we found the dress after all.” Madison said proudly.

I smiled, transfixed by the reflection in front of me. I don’t know what it was, but the second I saw myself in that beautiful dress the reality that I was really getting married to Jack that day sunk in. Yet, unlike when I got engaged, or when I had found out I was pregnant, I didn’t freak out. Shocking, I know. Me, queen of freaking out over things for once, decided to be calm.

Thing was, getting married to Jack....well it had been my dream for so long, seeing it finally playing out in front of me seemed...right, whatever the setting. Sure, we were getting married behind our families backs and in full secrecy from the public eye, but it didn’t matter. We could be doing this in front of hundreds of people or just the seven we actually invited. It didn’t matter. What did matter was that we were finally doing this. We were finally committing to each other, for the rest of our lives. And seeing myself in that white dress with that immaculate ring Jack had given me with the knowledge that that commitment was literally a few hours away...it wasn’t scary like I thought it would be. No, it was exciting, heart-racingly so.

“Yeah,” I smiled back, more anxious than ever to meet back up with the boys. Or more specifically, my boy. “I think we did...”

Notes

Part 2/3 of the Vegas story arc. Again, it was supposed to be shorter, and apologies for once again leaving out mystery man, but hey, at least you get a hint?

And yeah, there's a lot of drama in this chapter from a few characters...but hey, not going to say anything else on that (for now) because spoilers lol.

Anyway enjoy! And happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Americans out there :)