Somebody to Love - A Joe Mazzello FanFiction

Chapter 19 - The Road Trip

2 Weeks Later

It's one week until my birthday. It always felt gloomy on my birthday because March in Chicago meant snow or slush and nothing else. But this year, I was surrounded by sun and palm trees and sand. It was a new feeling. Plus, I had a boyfriend who loved me dearly and couldn't wait for my birthday to come up.

"29 isn't that big of a deal," I told Joe while we were eating lunch at a fast food place. I liked going to places like this because it was quick and the meals were just really good.

"It's the first birthday we're having together as a couple. Of course, it's a big deal." We each took a couple more bites. "What do you want to do for it?"

"I don't know. I would like to go back to Vegas at some point for a couple of days. So maybe that?" I was grasping at straws. Vegas was always so beautiful lit up by all the lights at night. It was like Christmas all the time. Since I was a designer, I loved seeing all the saturated colors. The last time I went was when I was 21. I went with Gio and we did a lot of sightseeing and some gambling. But, I liked looking at all the lights and going on rollercoasters more than gambling.

"Oh my god. We could take a road trip to Vegas. It's not that far. Like 3, maybe 4 hours. Would you like that?" He was excited before realizing he had no idea if I would enjoy a road trip.

"Yeah," I said after thinking about it. "Yeah, I would like that. We can listen to some music on the way and stop whenever we wanted to see some sights along the way. That could be a lot of fun!" I was getting very excited. An idea that was a shot in the dark turned into a fantastic sounding vacation.

"Plus, we would be in the land of bad decisions." He winked at me and I giggled slightly before kicking him under the table. He gasped and his eyes got wide. "Maybe I could see you drunk. I've never seen it. I want to know what you're like. I bet you're a sloppy drunk."

"Why would you want to see that then?" I cocked my head at him.

"Cause. I would want to take care of you and have you sloppily fawning all over me. Telling me how much you love me while slurring your words. It would be great! But, only if you would want to get that drunk, of course."

"Yeah, we'll see," I replied. I never drank that much and have only gotten blackout drunk once. I was at a party and I had gotten kind of drunk, but then I got super thirsty and just kept drinking this drink that didn't taste like it had alcohol in it. I just kept drinking and drinking until I woke up in my bed the next morning with no recollection of the night before. After that, I pretty much stopped for a couple of years.

We finished our food as we talked about plans for the Vegas trip. We had decided that we were going to stay at the MGM Grand (as my suggestion) and we were going to go to some national parks around the area (Joe's suggestion). I liked seeing National Parks as long as I didn't need to hike anywhere.

Over the next week, we planned our trip. We looked at fun things to do. Places to see and go. We looked up all of the amusement park rides in all the hotels, along with many cool places we could spend time. I was getting very excited. I hadn't been there in years, but it was one of my favorite places to go.

When the day finally arrived for us to leave (the day before my birthday), we packed our suitcases into the back of his car and put ourselves into the correct seats. Joe offered to drive the whole way because he found driving for that long very peaceful. I had packed lots of CDs and music on my phone to play through the whole ride. I was the DJ and he was the driver. We also had snacks with us in case we wanted to eat something but didn't want to stop. We started driving and I rummaged through the CD folder I brought. Joe looked over and chuckled.