Iris's P. O. V.
"Wake up lovebirds!" Jack yelled shaking Zach and I. I rubbed my eyes before slowly sitting up.
"Hey, I didn't end up on the floor this time," I pointed out making Zach and Jack laugh.
"We're in Dallas," Jack said pointing out one of the windows.
Honestly, I was really nervous to meet Zach's family. They knew that I was the reason Zach was in the hospital. And the reason that he and Jazmine have problems. I hope they overlook that because I really want them to like me.
"I'm gonna go get ready," I told Zach before standing up and going to the back of the bus. Luckily Eben had reminded me to put my bag on the bus.
I put on a black crop top and jean shorts. I straightened my hair and did my makeup. Zach came in and wrapped his arms around me, hugging me from behind.
"You're so beautiful," he said kissing my neck.
I smiled then thanked him as I packed my makeup back into my bag. I brushed my teeth and went to find my vans.
I walked out and saw the guys staring out the windows with their phones. Apparently some cars wanted to skip the traffic, so they drove off road through the grass.
"That's Texas for you," Zach said as Corbyn pointed the phone at him.
"Look! They're still going!" More cars had started driving off the road.
"Texas is crazy. No wonder Zach is from here." I joked sitting in the chair with him.
"I'm Texan and I'm proud y'all," he said making us laugh.
After we finally got through the traffic, the bus turned into a neighborhood.
"We're in my neighborhood," Zach said as we passed by many houses.
"I'm warning you now. I don't know who is gonna be at my house, but it'll be more than just my parents and siblings," Zach said.
"Great." I chuckled.
"They're all gonna love you," he said kissing my cheek.
We arrived in front of Zach's house in less than five minutes.
"I'm home baby!" Zach said jumping down the steps, then falling on his butt making all of us laugh.
"I uh did that on purpose," he said standing up.
"Mhmm. Come on let's go inside," I said taking his hand. He lead me inside where our hands were immediately pulled apart.
"Zach!!" Multiple people shouted as they ran to hug him. Once the adults got out of the way a little girl came running towards him.
"Zachy!" She shouted jumping in his arms.
"Happy birthday, Reese." Zach had filled me in on the bus about his brother and sister. He kissed her on the cheek before picking her up, and bringing her over to me.
"This is my girlfriend, Iris," he said still holding Reese.
"Hi. I'm Reese. I turn six today!" She shouted.
"I'm Iris. You're such a big girl," I told her smiling. Zach put her down and I bent down to give her a hug.
"Zach, I missed you so much!" His mom came up and hugged him.
"I missed you too, mom. Oh, and this is Iris."
"It's great to finally meet you Iris. I'm Myta." She smiled and pulled me into a warm hug. His dad did the same. They really made me feel welcome.
The rest of the band came in and said hi to everyone, too. Reese seemed to really like Jack and Daniel. Zach had his arm around my waist as we talked to his parents.
"So how have you been? Zach told us about what happened," Myta asked genuinely concerned.
"I'm doing good. I just got the stitches out and I'm feeling better," I told her.
"That's good, but I meant mentally. It was a very traumatic experience."
"Um I think I'm doing fine. Every now and then I'll get a flashback of what happened and I get a little scared, I guess." Zach's arm tightened around me. "I feel a lot better knowing that he's locked up. It was very stressful and the paranoia was terrible. And with Zach being on tour I just didn't feel safe, but luckily Logan was there with me."
"That's good. I'm glad you're feeling better. Both of you." She smiled.
"Hey guys, we gotta go," Jonah said looking up from his phone.
"Okay. Bye mom, I'll see you at the show." He hugged his mom and dad, and then Reese and Ryan.
"Happy birthday, Reese," I said before walking out with the guys.
"That went well," Zach said sitting down and pulling me onto his lap.
"I guess. I didn't expect to talk about that. Don't know what that does for my first impression," I said.
"She basically already knows you. She's seen you with me, and I talk about you all the time," he said.
"Really?" I asked
"Of course. You're my girlfriend and I love you." I smiled before leaning down and kissing him.
"So has anything else happened with Jazmine?" I asked.
"No, why?"
"Just curious. I saw her at the show yesterday and she just turned around and walked the other way."
"Maybe she just doesn't want to start anything."
"Maybe." We sat and cuddled as Bill drove the short drive to the House of Blues.
***
I stood next to the photographer, August, at the meet and greet while the guys took pictures with the fans. It's so cute how the guys get so excited when they see the fans. They all look so happy.
An older man stepped up and took a picture with the guys. I guessed he was a family member, but I didn't know.
"Do you know who that is?" I asked August.
"I think that's Zach's uncle."
"Oh." He started talking to Zach about something and Zach pointed at me. I was very confused, but just went with it. I waved over at them, and they waved back. Then his uncle started walking towards me.
"You're Iris?" He asked.
"That's me. What's up?"
"These two girls helped me pay for my parking and I told them to thank them, I'd try to get them to meet Zach. Zach told me to ask you if you would mind hanging out with them backstage during the show and then they'd meet Zach and the band afterwards. Would you mind doing that?"
"No, I'd love to. Do you know where the girls are?" I asked.
"They're in the general admission line. I have a picture of them that I can show you and then you could go find them outside. Oh and their names are Sophia and Nicole."
"Okay." I took his phone and sent myself the picture before going outside to the very long line.
I started walking down the line waving to some of the fans and recording some of it for instagram and snapchat.
Towards the middle of the line I spotted the two girls from the picture.
"Hey, what are your names?" I asked.
"I'm Nicole."
"I'm Sophia."
Nicole had blonde hair, while Sophia had dark brown hair.
"I'm Iris."
"Zach's girlfriend. Yeah we know," they said obviously getting excited.
I softly laughed. "Okay, can you guys come with me? Your mom is welcome to come, too," I said noticing the woman next to them.
"Uh, okay sure," Nicole said.
"Where are we going?" Sophia asked. I knew I was drawing a lot of attention and I didn't want these girls to get like attacked or something so I gently pulled them out of the line.
"Zach's uncle said you guys helped him with something? Is that right?"
"Yeah, he couldn't figure out how to pay for the parking space," Sophia said.
"He sent me to come find you girls because you're going to get to meet not only Zach, but the whole band as well."
"What?!" Nicole screamed.
"Shhhh," I said putting my finer to my mouth.
"And, by special request from Zach, you get to watch the show from backstage."
"Oh my gosh! This cannot be happening!" Sophia gushed.
"It is. Let's go and get you girl's badges."
"Oh are we gonna be able to see Reese? We wanna tell her happy birthday."
"I'm sure she'd love that," I said showing the security guard my badge and telling him the girls were with me.
"So we can't get you into the meet and greet or sound check, but you are welcome to stay for the after party. Zach said he'd be sure to get a picture with you two," I told them as we walked through the backstage door.
"I can't believe this is happening!" Sophia shouted
"I'm glad you told him Zach was your favorite." Nicole laughed.
"Oh, and your mom can either stay back here or go down to the bar. Whatever she wants," I said. Her mom hugged the two girls before walking down to the bar area.
We walked into the green room area and saw Reese and Aspen.
"Hey guys!" I said walking in.
"Aspen, Reese, this is Nicole and Sophia. They helped Zach's uncle so they get special treatment tonight," I told them.
"Oh my gosh. Aspen I love you," Sophia said hugging her.
"Happy birthday Reese!" Nicole said hugging her.
"So how old are you two?" I asked. We had all sat down on the couches.
"We're both 16," Nicole answered.
"So who is your favorite guy in the band?" Aspen asked.
"Jack," Nicole answered super fast.
"Mine is Zach," Sophia said.
"Really? Mine is Zach, too!" I laughed.
Soon we saw the guys rush backstage.
"Are these the girls?" Zach asked pointing to them. They both stood up with huge smiles on their faces.
"Yeah."
"Alright. I can take a few pictures, but Jazmine is about to go on so if you don't wanna miss that then we can wait until later," he said.
"We can take them now," Sophia said pulling out her phone.
"Is Jack able to take pictures?" Nicole asked right before Jack walked in.
"Oh my gosh, Jack I love you!" She shouted giving him a hug. The other guys soon came in and took a few pictures with them.
"Come on guys! Let's go!" Eben yelled before running to the stage to introduce the guys. Jazmine walked backstage and I stood back talking to Myta while the girls took pictures.
"I'm sure those girls are on cloud nine right now," I told her.
"Yeah, it's crazy how lucky some people are," she said.
Myta took Reese and Ryan up to their seats while I stayed with the girls on the side of the stage. They screamed and sang and took videos on their phones, having a great time.
When the show ended, we waited for all of the general admission fans to leave before they went into the crowd for the after party. I stayed backstage sitting on one of the couches.
"Ugh, I can't go anywhere to get some privacy." Jazmine scoffed walking in on me.
"I mean you could go home. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one who'd appreciate that." I smiled.
"Alright look. I have tried to avoid you so I wouldn't get mad and start a fight. But then you say that and now you're making me mad."
"Sorry?"
"I don't even get what he sees in you. Seriously, you're ugly and annoying and you don't even have a good voice. I don't know how you got offered that record deal."
"I-"
"Like what the heck. Look at me, and then look at you. Why would he choose you? You're a pathetic little girl from a small town with a messed up, disturbed family who is half dead." She spat waving her hands around.
"Jazmine, I don't want to start a fight. But if you say one more thing about my family, you're dead," I said standing up.
"Whatever. Why don't you just leave and go help your mom with her stupid wedding. I bet this marriage will be as failing as the first."
"That's it." I walked up to her and punched her right in the nose. I wasn't going to start an actual fight, but David and Myta thought otherwise.
"Girls! What is going on with you two?!" David asked holding Jazmine back.
"She's disrespecting me and my family. Don't you think that's reason enough to punch her in the face?" I asked as Myta loosened her grip on me.
"Jazmine, I thought we talked about this. You can't mess with her just because you're jealous of her," David whispered making me smirk.
"It's not because I'm jealous, David."
"Really? Because when you were asking why Zach picked me, it kind of sounded like you were jealous," I told her.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Jack asked walking in.
"Iris punched me in the face," Jazmine said holding her nose and pouting.
"Alright, I'm gonna take Jazmine to get some ice. Then I'm gonna have a talk with you," he said pointing at me.
"What happened?" Jack asked. Myta had left with David and Jazmine.
"She started off by asking why Zach had chosen me. Then she started talking about my family. I tried to stay calm but she started talking about my mom and I just couldn't handle it. So.. I punched her in the nose."
"Oh my gosh. I knew that she would cause problems. From the first time you met. She always gave you a glare and I knew she would treat you like crap the whole time," he said
"Oh well. Tour is almost over and I'm leaving in a few days, anyways."
"But she can't just get away with that."
"Jack it's fine. The fans love her and they'd be upset if she left."
"They love her because they don't know the real her."
"Well it's not like they're gonna find out about this. No one knows what she's said. And no one will know what she said."
"I'm sorry, Iris."
"It's okay. It's not your fault."
"Hey, what's going on?" Zach asked with an arm around Sophia's shoulder.
"Huh? Oh, uh nothing. Where's Nicole?" I asked
"Right here," she came out from behind a curtain.
"Did you um, did you see all that?" Jack asked.
"See what?" Zach asked.
"Yeah. I got it on video, too."
"Nicole, you can not release that video," I said
"What video?" Zach and Sophia asked.
"No, let her post it. Let them see what happened," Jack said
"Hey! What are you guys talking about?" Zach asked standing between Jack and I.
"Jazmine and I got into an argument and I kinda punched her in the face."
"And I got it on video!" Nicole yelled showing her phone to Sophia.
"Let Nicole post it. Let Jazmine be ruined," Zach said with Jack and the girls agreeing.
"I said don't do it. But if you do, don't tell me. I'm not a part of this at all," I said putting my hands up.
"Jazmine's about to get exposed!!" Nicole shouted.
David had come back into the green room, without Jazmine or Myta.
"Iris, I know what you did was justified and I don't blame you for what you did. But tour is almost over. Do you think you can keep it under control for now?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry about everything. I'll be leaving for Pennsylvania after the Nashville show anyways."
"It's okay. Alright girls let's get you back to your mom. We have to get to Zach's house," David said.
"Aww." Nicole pouted.
"Can we say bye to the other guys?" Sophia asked.
"Yeah we'll find them on the way out."
"Oh, are you girls coming to the mall tomorrow?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, of course," Sophia said.
"I'll get you girls on the list for the meet and greet." He smiled. They both gasped.
"Thank you so much!" Nicole squealed.
"Bye girls," I said hugging them both. They hugged Zach and Jack then left with David.
"Zach that was so sweet. What you did for them."
"They helped my family. And I'd love to make the fans happy." He shrugged.
I placed my hands on his shoulders and kissed him.
"Gross," Jack said scrunching his face.
"Shut up," Zach said kissing me again. "Alright let's get back home. Mom said we'd have cake for Reese."
*****