Our Forever After (Tay Jardine and Jenna Mcdougall)

Once Upon A Time

Jenna:

Time seemed to fly by us as we spent the rest of our vacation celebrating. The first night we celebrated with a bottle of sparkling grape juice (since Tay was trying to avoid alcohol) and lots of snuggling, kissing and then naked fun. The days after were spent similarly, but with some time out of the cabin to go for a walk in to the woods for a nice view or into town to get food, we would have plenty of alone time once we were home, but this was probably the only time we would get to see these beautiful sights.

Tay tried her best to spot and track animal prints to try and see more wildlife, but all we saw were lots of deers, squirrels, our cabin mouse and the occasional 'wild' house cat with their daily catch dangling from their mouth. This was probably kitty heaven, plenty of little birds and rodents to hunt, very few cars to get hit by and still having a house to run back to once they were tired, too hot or too cold. If reincarnation exists I might want to be born one of these cats in another life.

As nice as the vacation was I was glad to be home. Back to the connected world with my internet. The first thing I had to do now that I had my WiFi back was call everyone in Australia. None of my friends or family knew about the engagement; I had only told Hayley that I had found the ring. I debated who to call next. It was hard to pick. I figured I would get in huge trouble if I didn't tell my parents first.

My mom answered the phone. I asked her if dad was home as well and told her to put it on speaker phone so I could get it out quickly and move on to the next Australian, I didn't have much time before everyone would be going to bed. I let the news burst from my lips in excitement and my parents were happy for me, but they told me they already knew. Tay had called to ask their blessing just before we left for our vacation. 

Next I tried calling my best friends... no one answered. Finally I tried to call the band nerds (A.K.A Tonight Alive's other 4/5) they didn't answer either. I was really bummed I didn't get to surprise anyone with the news. Tay walked in and saw my disappointed face.

"What's wrong?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"None of my friends are answering. I wanted to have everyone make a big deal about this! It's huge! I'm going to get married, I wasn't sure this would ever happen." I replied glumly.

"You didn't think you would get married?" she asked surprised.

"Well, it hasn't been one of the things I dreamed about. Not like being in a band and touring the world."

"Not even when you were in a relationship? You didn't think about marrying me before I proposed?"

"No, I did think about it, I just didn't have it on the list of things I must do. It was all I could think about after I found the ring." I laughed at the little secret I finally was telling her.

"You had found the ring before hand? When? I thought I had hidden it pretty well!" she exclaimed in disbelief, she was even blushing a little, but luckily there was no sign of anger.

"I found it in your suitcase while we were up in the mountains. You didn't hide it very well, it was just in the middle of all your clothes." I teased.

"Ok, yeah. I didn't hide it well while we were on vacation. So that's why you weren't surprised. I should have known." she smiled. "Hey wanna go grab a bite to eat at Ihop?"

"Ihop? Sounds really romantic." I said sarcastically.

"What could be more romantic than breakfast for dinner?" she joked.

"Whatever I don't care where we go as long as I'm with you."

"Awww. I'm flattered."

We hopped in the car, Tay drove and I played DJ making sure that we had good music playing the whole time. I didn't take long to get there. I was surprised at how many cars were in the parking lot, I didn't think that, that many people would go to Ihop for dinner. Still there was plenty of parking. 

Once inside the place seemed deserted. There was only an elderly couple sitting in a booth. I didn't know where all those cars had come from, there was nothing else around that people would have parked here for. A waiter escorted us to a table by a window. We sat down and I started to look over the menu. When I glanced up I saw Tay trying her hardest to keep from smiling and I looked back at her with raised concerned eyebrows. 

Just then I felt someone tap my shoulder. "M'am" a man said from behind me. I figured it was the waiter, but when I turned around to find it was Whakaio faking an American accent and with him were all my friends. "Surprise!" they all yelled. I almost fell out of my chair, I really was surprised.

I looked back at Tay. "You almost spoiled it." I teased "You couldn't keep a straight face."

"We still gotcha! Now go say hi to all the Aussies, they came a long way to see you!" Tay replied.

I got up and gave everyone a hug. Of course Tay had already told them about the engagement, so I didn't get to tell anyone any new news, but they all were happy for me. I talked with my old friends, I was surprised they had come all this way. They made me promise I would take them around to see the town the few days they were going to be around before heading off to all the touristy cities. 

It was all laughs and giggles until Whakaio and the rest of the band pulled me aside. They all had serious looks on their faces. It wasn't like them to be like that. 

"Jenna," Whak's tone was stern and cold. He didn't seem like the fun guy I had been touring with for years. "I know you have been worried about Tay a lot lately and we gave you time to work things out with her, but now it's time we get back on the road. We have a new album to release soon and we need to get our names back out there. We haven't been making enough of a profit to live off of right now. We already have gotten our manager to book a gig with Pvris in the US. Are you going to be okay with that or do we need possibly discuss you taking a hiatus and letting us get a replacement singer?"

"Woah, guys! We don't need to go to such extremes!" I said defensively. "I understand that we need to tour and I will of course come along. Sure I may be worried about Tay, but I do believe she's been doing better. I'll miss her, but that is just one of the sacrifices I have to make as a musician. You should have talked to me sooner about this though, I am a little offended everything was planned behind my back."

"We just didn't want you to try and stop us. This is how we make a living too." Cam said a little more gently than Whakaio. "We don't want to have bad blood running between us. Whak just got ahead of himself and blurted out our plan B too soon." Cam shot Whak a disaproving look

"When do we leave? And what is going to go on with Tay while I'm gone?"

"We leave in a month. Don't worry about Tay, her boys are going to take care of her. They are trying to set up some local shows to play so that she isn't too far from her doctors, but they can get back in the game like us. They also were hoping to get some writing done so they can have a new record out." Jake piped in.

I wasn't thrilled about leaving Tay. Although I did know that she had seemed to be fine for a while now and I would talk to the WATIC guys and make sure they got her out of the house so she wasn't stuck in her house and in her own head all the time. I had to trust that everything would be alright and make the most of this month.