What She's Doing Now (Sequel to The Great Pretenders)

Just So You Know

By Jesse McCartney

Just so you know

This feeling's taking control of me

And I can't help it

I won't sit around, I can't let him win now

Thought you should know

I've tried my best to let go of you

But I don't want to

I just gotta say it all

Before I go

Just so you know

Lucy's eyelids flickered against the bright light filtering through the small bus blinds. A pair of strong tattooed arms wrapped around her tightly against a warm solid chest. She could feel the owner of those arms warm breath against her ear as he buried his face into her hair.

Shit, she panicked. This was so not what she needed. What could she remember?

Two beers during dinner and another 1 and a half during the last episodes of the zombie show were the cause of this disaster. She was a school teacher, damn it, not some beer guzzling groupie.

She was lucky that Charlie was so elated in spending alone time with Matt that she didn't seem to notice her tipsy mother. Instead, she curled up with Kate under the blanket and quietly gave the younger girls details of her dinner with her dad. Lucy probably should have taken that moment to usher the girls back to their bus so they could make the rest of their journey but instead she stayed glue to Brian's side laughing as they all took sips of beer every time a zombie (a walker, she reminded herself) took a head shot or if a zombie killed someone. That's where things got a little vague. Matt managed to be the responsible parent, or drinker at least, and moved the sleepy girls from the couch to the empty bunks in the back. After getting them settled, he flanked her other side. She was officially the filling of a hot Avenged Sevenfold sandwich, between Matt and Brian. But it didn't tell her whose arms were wrapped around her right now. Maybe she could look at the tattoos and tell. Brian had...damn...why didn't she pay closer attention when Charlie showed her those Tumblr pics of the guys tattoos. Wait...Brian had monsters...colorful monsters...right? Or maybe that was Zacky? Oh shit, could those be Zacky's arms? NOOO...that would complicate things even worse.

Okay...so what else, what else, what else? The hands? YES! Brian's hands said...M-A-R-L-B-O-R-O across his knuckles. Matt had a tattoo of Jimmy as a deathbat on his right hand but his left hand was blank. Okay so now to shift those warm hands into position to identify them without waking the owner. Deep breath...

"Trying to figure out who I am?" a deep gravelly voice rasped in her ear, burying his face deeper in her hair.

"What?" she said nervously "No of course not."

A hoarse morning chuckle sounded in her ear sending shivers down her spine. "You weren't just lying there wondering who I was? Just for a second?"

"I knew it was you, Sanders," she retorted.

"Are you ever going to call me by my name?" he asked, his grip on her not loosening despite her squirming to see his face.

"Maybe someday when you've earned it," she pushed against him, turning finally to face him.

"What do I have to do to earn it?" he asked huskily, his sleepy eyes searching hers. She could feel the change in atmosphere. It was almost as if they'd returned to the seemingly natural pattern of them being together. Her throat constricted and she couldn't reply.