Welcome to the Queendom

Chapter Thirty-Seven

When I finally decided to wake up, it was 11:00. Earlier this morning at around 3am, the guys and I hopped n a three-hour ride to Boston, Massachusetts. Except I didn't even know we were going to Boston until today. I immediately fell onto the bed in our new hotel room at the Nine Zero Hotel and disappeared under the covers. After some coaxing and realizing it was no use, Dean crawled into bed with me. I tried to put off sleeping as long as I could, even way after Dean had drifted off, his breathing in my ear steady. I focused on that for as long as I could, but eventually I snuggled into him more and dozed off too. But, I was tossing and turning in his arms, always kicking the covers away. Dean always woke up and put them back on us. And as soon as 11:00 hit, I couldn't take it anymore and wiggled free of Dean's arms. I didn't bother asking him why he took us to Boston instead of Lafayette because, frankly, I was too tired and too lazy to do so.
"What are you doing, babe?" Dean groaned as he felt for me on my side of the bed. He eventually stopped and turned over, his back to me.
I walked into the bathroom and immediately saw my swollen red rimmed eyes in the mirror when I cut the light on. I walked closer and examined myself.
A shower. That's what I needed. To relax my muscles under the hot water. With the water running, Dean had walked into the bathroom while I was getting a towel and washcloth. Hands on my hips, he rested his chin on my shoulder and looked in the mirror.
"You're gorgeous," he stated. "You know that, right?"
"Nope," I answered. "I look like a mess. Madison probably doesn't look this bad in the morning."
"Don't play like that," he said, seriously. "I didn't let it get that far."
"Uh-huh."
"And besides, you had a rough night," he defended as he reached and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
"Yeah," I agreed. "And I almost uppercutted you in the process."
"At least your weren't that girl on FaceBook that took up the whole bed," he said as if that made things better. "You stayed on your side and didn't kick me off."
I shook my head. "Whatever."
I slipped out of my clothes and stepped inside the shower at breakneck speed while Dean was rummaging through a small bag he placed on the back of the toilet for his toothbrush.
"How many A words do we need?" he asked as he watered his brush and put toothpaste on.
"Uh," I counted to how many we've said so far. "We have six left."
"And we can't repeat, right?"
"Right."
"Alfalfa sprouts," he said.
"Huh?"
"I don't know what it is either. I just know it's a food," he admitted.
"Okay, um, angel food cake," I said.
By the time I got out of the shower, we had finished off the A section with American cheese, alphabet soup, acorn squash, and apple jacks cereal.
With the towel securely around me, I grabbed my toothbrush from the same small bag and filled it with toothpaste while Dean leaned again the double-sink counter. He stared at me.
"You're looking better," he stated.
"Thanks," I said. "I feel better."
"The guys and I have a match tonight," he said, folding his arms across his chest. "I really don't feel like it."
"Why?" I asked around the toothbrush.
He shrugged. "I guess I'm just lazy."
I rinsed my mouth and spit before brushing again.
"Why do guys do that?" I asked as I switched the brush to the other side of my mouth.
"Why do we do what?"
"Shrug with every answer," I explained. "9 times out of 10, guys do that when they're answering a question. Why?"
He shrugged again. "I don't know."
I shook my head and spit.
My phone started ringing and I padded out of the bathroom to get it, leaving Dean in there.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hey, Chelsea." It was Mrs. Good and she sounded a little sheepish.
"Oh, hello, Mrs. Good," I greeted stiffly.
I still wasn't over the fact that she lied to Dean to get me in trouble. She was a close second at pettiness behind Madison.
"Look, I really want to apologize for what I did a couple of weeks back," she said. "It was completely uncalled for. I know you were just doing the right thing for Dean, but I didn't see it that way. I really hope we can sweep what happened under the rug and start over," she explained.
I took what she said into consideration. I'd love to start over and be in Mrs. Good life, but I wonder if Dean's willing to do the same. I heard a buzzing sound come from the bathroom and looked back through the opened door where Dean was shaving his face in the mirror.
"So what do you say?" she asked.
"I'd love to," I said quietly. "I don't know how I would sell Dean though."
"Maybe with this, next weekend Tyler and I are getting married and I want you guys to be in the wedding."
"Really!"
"Dang it, Chelsea, don't scream like that," Dean scolded. "Almost cut myself."
"Sorry," I said before going back to the phone. "That'd be awesome."
"Really? Awesome. Talk to Dean and see how he feels about it."
"Alright. What about Jackson?"
"It took a lot of talking, but he's on board, luckily. See you next weekend?"
"Even if it kills me," I replied before bidding her a goodbye and ending the conversation.
I turned around with a grin on my face. Dean looked at me through the mirror. "What are you so happy about?" he asked.
I strolled over to him and rubbed his back. "Deany," I said, wrapped my arms around his waist.
He sighed. "What'd you do?"
I frowned. "I didn't do anything," I insisted. "I just have to tell you something."
"Well, what is it?" he asked.
I slipped in front of him so that I was basically pressed up against the edge of the sink and grinned at him just as he was putting his razor away. He smelled like aftershave.
"Um, you're mom called and-"
He snapped his hand over my mouth. "Don't continue."
"Oh, come on, Dean. This is really important."
"I don't care," he said as he walked out. "I don't care about anything that my mom says. Important or not."
"Dean," I said softly. "This important is a good thing. She wants-"
"I don't...care," he growled.
As he started to scrounge around for some clothes for the day, I tried to come up with a plan to get him to listen.
"Well, fine then," I said. "I'll just go myself."
He stopped and straightened. "Excuse me?" he asked, turning around.
"I'll just go myself," I repeated.
"Go where?" he questioned.
"I can't say," I said.
"Why not?" He was getting irritated now, but I had to keep going.
"Because you don't want to hear it."
"Chelsea," he said warningly.
"Dean," I replied, matching his tone.
"Where are you going?"
"Your mom wants us to be in her wedding next week," I finally admitted.
He raised both of his eyebrows. "In?"
I nodded. "Yeah, but you kept cutting me off." I walked over to him and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Doesn't that sound nice?" I asked. "Being in your mom's wedding? She still cares about you, Dean. She still loves you, we both know that's not going away. Can we give her another chance?"
He looked out the window behind the dining table and sighed. "I guess," he finally said.
I squealed. "We're gonna be in a wedding," I stated. "Won't that be fun?"
"No," he replied with a scrunched up face. "Weddings aren't fun for guys. All the way up to the day the girls act like complete....."
He trailed off when I raised one of my eyebrows at him.
"Anyways," he said, "I just don't want to see my mom frantic and stressed. Especially with the baby."
"You're not gonna see her frantic and stressed," I pointed out, "I am. I'm gonna be spending hours with her, getting her ready."
"Oh yeah," he said. "Sometimes it's nice being a dude." I gave him a sarcastic smile. "Go get dressed. I'm taking you somewhere."
Went I walked out of the bathroom, I sat on the foot of the bed and grabbed my brown sandals from my suitcase, slipping them on. Dean squatted down in front of me and rubbed the end of strapless, pale blue dress between his thumb and forefinger.
"Nice," he said.
"Thanks."
He quickly took a shower and got dress in jeans and a white T.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"If I wanted you to know, I would've told you right off the bat, right?"
"Well, okay then, Snappy."

"Bananas."
"I knew that would be the first thing you said," Dean said. "Bread."
"Baklava."
"Bak-whatnow?"
"You've never had Baklava?" I asked.
He shook his head. "What kind of sick, cruel world are you living in?"
He shook his head again and chuckled.
"Wow, I have to take you to the International Children's Festival sometime. I wonder if we missed it," I said as I pulled up Google on my phone. "Ooh! It's April 19th, that's...." I trailed off, slowly putting my phone in my lap. "....when your mom's wedding is."
He raised his eyebrows at me. "Maybe the week after, huh?" he suggested.
"It comes once a year. I'll definitely take you next year, but maybe we can find a place that sells it. Baklava, I mean. It's really good."
"Alright, banana bread."
"Blackberries."
That's when we stopped and before I could look around, he put a blindfold on me.
I heard his car door opened and then close. A couple seconds later, he was grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the car.
We walked down a straight path for a while, the soles of my sandals slapping against the concrete. When we stopped and he untied the blindfold, I saw nothing but a gray monument. It had to be over 20 feet, topped with a women dressed as a queen with a flag in her hand and an eagle at her feet. At eye level was a mural of soldiers walking in a line through the streets of a place.
"To the men of Boston who died for their country on land and sea in the war which kept the union whole, destroyed slavery, and maintained the Constitution. The grateful city has built this monument that their example may speak to coming generation," the plaque on the monument said.
"Wow," I breathed. "You know, Chalice and Caron, my sister and brother, they had a dad who served in the military," I stated.
"Really?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." I swallowed down a golf ball sized lump in my throat. "He was awesome."
"Is he still alive?" he questioned.
"No," I replied. "He died in a car accident."
He wrapped his arms around my waist as I wrapped my arms around his neck from behind. "I'm sorry," he said.
"If fine," I told him. "It was good while it lasted, you know? He was literally the best dad ever."
"That's good."
I smiled. "Yeah, yeah it is."
I looked up at the monument again and smiled. Dean grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the side of the monument where there were thousands and thousands of miniature American flags stretching out as far as the eye can see.
"Wow," I said, looking around. "How do you know about this?"
He chuckled. "I've been on the road almost two years now," he reminded me. "I've been to Boston tons of times. I came across it one time and stayed out here for hours. It means a lot to me."
I turned around and buried the side of my face in his chest.
"Well thank you for sharing this with me," I said.