September.
"This is complete and utter bullshit." Dinah grumbled as she loaded the luggage in the SUV.
"Dinah no matter how much you complain our plans won't change." Lauren rolled her eyes. "It's his bachelor party so what we do is his choice not yours."
"Okay I get going to a cubs game but camping?! Who the fuck even camps anymore?!" Dinah said, " we're supposed to be flying to Vegas not Big Bear Lake, California. We're supposed to cuddle strippers not each other! And the last bachelor party I attended, I wasn't being forced to bring my kid."
"Shawn didn't want to cuddle strippers in Vegas. He wanted a simple laid back weekend. And if you didn't want to have to deal with being a parent then you probably shouldn't have had kids."Lauren laughed, "and now that I know you plan on cuddling I'm definitely not sharing a tent with you."
They finished packing the car, and shut the door. "I just hate that the girls bachelorette party is going to be better than ours." Dinah admitted to Lauren as they started walking back into the house. "We cant even consider ours a party." Lauren chose to ignore that.
"Camila said they were having a pretty laid back party as well?" Lauren said, unsure of what Dinah was saying.
"Well she lied to you, Mani has the fridge stocked with penis' everything." She said annoyed. "Did you know they make penis shaped popsicle?" She looked over at Lauren.
"No Dinah I had no idea." Lauren tried not to laugh.
"Well they do! They're also going to have a pole instructor come and teach them some moves. And I'm honestly not mad about that, even though Mani is already flexible, trying out new things never hurts. I mean she can do some crazy thing with her body, one time she–"
Lauren stopped her. "Dinah I really think you shouldn't finish that story."
"Okay but you would've enjoyed it." She shrugged with a dumb grin on her face. She was definitely reliving that memory in her mind. Then she snapped out of it and went back to being mad." I listened in on Mani's phone conversation and she hired a stripper! A damn stripper!" Dinah had gone and upset herself.
Lauren chuckled, "calm down Dinah, we'll get you, your penis shaped popsicle."
Once inside the house they found the boys sharing an armchair. They were matching because it was one of those days, the only obvious tell apart sign was Cameron's glasses.
"Is it almost time to go Mama?" Cameron asked Lauren.
"Almost bud, we're just waiting for Niall and the boys to get here." She answered him, before she headed into her bedroom.
Shawn didn't want your typical bachelor party much to Dinah's dismay. He wanted to spend his last few days as a "free" man doing the things he loved the most. Baseball and being outdoors. The Chicago bears had a few games in LA and luckily for us California had the outdoors as well.
As his best "man" Lauren's duty was to plan and throw this whole thing. Instead of one crazy drunken night, it was a friends trip. They'd fly out to California to watch the game then from there, they'd make the drive back to Big Bear Lake. They weren't roughing it in tents like Dinah thought but Lauren wanted her to suffer a bit. Instead they would be staying in a big cabin next to the lake. Wednesday was a day spent on the lake, fishing, jet ski races, and canoe rides. Thursday they'd go hiking and then head back home. Friday was the rehearsal dinner and Saturday was the big day. Like I said it wasn't your typical bachelor party.
Lauren said as she entered the bedroom "Camz, why didn't you tell me–"she cut herself off once she laid eyes on Kelsea. "What the hell is that thing on her head?"
"Hey watch your mouth!" Camila smacked Lauren in the biceps. "And it's a knotted headband and they're very much in style right now."
"That thing is bigger than her head." She laughed. "If our daughter has neck problems from holding that thing up. I'm so blaming you."
"It's not that big, besides it's super lightweight." Camila said, as she leaned down and adjusted it.
"Whatever, that's not what I came in here for." Her expression turned serious. "Why did you fail to mention the giant fact that, there's going to be strippers at the bachelorette party?"
Camila pretended to be clueless, "What? Strippers? I had no–"
Lauren cut her off, "your a terrible liar."
"Okay, fine. I didn't tell you because I knew you wouldn't like it." She admitted.
"Of course I don't like it, but I know it's just for the party. I'm not mad." Camila gave her a pointed look. "Okay I'm a little mad, but I'm mostly mad that you didn't tell me."
Camila walked up and wrapped her arms around Lauren's waist, leaned up and pecked her lips, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
"It's okay." She laughed thinking about her conversation with Dinah earlier. "You can make it up to me by telling me where you guys found penis popsicle."
Camila laughed and gave Lauren a confused look. "Dinah was really upset about the fact that you guys have them and we don't." Lauren explained.
"I had no idea we even had them, let alone know where they can be found." Good Lauren was glad, Why suck on popsicles when she could suck her–"Kelsea wants attention." Camila looked over at the babbling little girl holding her arms up, wanting to be held.
"Kelsea always wants attention at the wrong times." She mumbled out, but still walked over to pick up her little girl. "Hi princess" she kissed the side of her head that wasn't holding up the giant headband thing. "Can you say Mama. Say Ma-Ma." She encouraged her but Kelsea just looked at her and smiled then she babbled baby nonsense.
"Face it, she's just not ready to talk." Camila said as she walked into the bathroom. It was strange to Lauren that Kelsea hadn't spoken an actual word. Not even a simple "no". By nine months old the boys were way past Mama and Mamí. Camila didn't find anything wrong with it, every baby was different and she thought Kelsea just wasn't ready to talk yet.
Lauren shook her head. "Come on let's go mess with aunt Dinah some more." She lightly tickle her belly and made Kelsea giggle.
—
5 hours later and they had landed in LAX. Considering the game started at 7, they had plenty of time to kill, so they got the rental SUV's and made the hour and half drive up to Big Bear.
Dinah was relieved to find out that they'd be staying in a cabin instead of a crappy tent. The cabin was huge, mansion size big. It had a movie theater room, pool table and downstairs bar. Balconies in almost every room, giant kitchen and living room and of course it had a hot tub. That was one thing none of them planned on using unless it was by themselves. 10 penis' in a hot tub sounded like the title of a porn video.
Liam and Niall were rooming together, Harry and Louis were rooming together also and Zayn was bunking with Spencer's Dad. Dinah and Will were sharing a room, his plane landed later in the day and they'd be meeting at the stadium. Shawn and the master bedroom, and Lauren had the room next to the kids because she was on babysitting duty. The twins, Spencer, Noah ( ally's son) and Stefan were all sharing the room with built in triple bunk beds.
Once everyone was settled in, and finished exploring the cabin. They had a late lunch and then began getting ready for the game. Lauren, Dinah and Shawn were the only cubs fans out of the guys so they were the ones sporting the team jerseys and hats. Everyone else had simple store bought t-shirts with the cubs logo on them. The kids all had on variously different outfits. The twins were matching for the second time that day, except Caspian had on a black bomber jacket.
The game was as you'd expect...AWESOME!! Aside from the cubs winning the game, the best thing to happen was the kiss Harry and Louis shared when they were on the kiss cam. Everyone laughed it off as a joke, but they were both acting pretty weird afterwards.
After the game they went to a sushi bar and had a late dinner. Nothing super exciting was happening that night because everyone was tired from the flight and the game.
The following day they all woke up extremely early to go fishing. They rented a big enough boat for all them and a tour guide. Since it was the beginning of fall the weather was still warm in the mornings but everyone still had hoodies on. Shawn was super excited and Lauren copied his excitement but everyone else including the kids were practically half asleep through the boat ride to the guides fishing spot.
Once they reached the spot, the guide got everyone rigged up and casting out. Most were fishing for bass because the chances of a hook up were higher and the rest were fishing for trout since it was the best eating fish in the lake. They didn't plan on eating any bass, it came with too many mixed reviews. Dinah slept through most of the fishing activities.
"We should've just left her back at the cabin." Shawn said to Lauren, as they watched Dinah sleeping uncomfortably sitting up with her mouth hung open.
"Nah, I like watching her suffer." Lauren joked. They both laughed.
"She really hates this kind of stuff doesn't she?" He shook his head as he looked back at her.
"Yeah, but I have a surprise for her tonight." Lauren had a devilish smirk.
"Do I wanna know?" He asked, giving her a uncertain look.
"No." Lauren laughed, and Shawn nervously chuckled.
After catching two big trouts, they headed back to shore and had breakfast. Fishing was the only activity the group was mandated to do together. After breakfast they split off into two different groups. Dinah, Louis, Liam, Spencer's Dad and Zayn rented Jet Ski's. Lauren, Shawn, harry, and Niall rented canoes. Will stayed on the bank with the boys because he was still sea sick from the boat. The trip was a lot harder with the kids but they had no other option than to bring them.
They spent most of the day out on the water and when they did finally get back to the cabin, they started up the grill. Chicken, fish and cow were the only things on the menu tonight.
They ate, started drinking and playing pool before they set up the poker table. After a few games and the kids were put to bed with their bedroom door locked, Lauren's surprise knocked on the door. It was a good thing everyone was pretty drunk.
A Life size polar bear, black bear and brown bear in a silk robes were standing in the living room.
"What the hell is this?" Dinah asked.
"The entertainment. You said you wanted a strippers so I got you strippers." Lauren gestured to the bears.
"I didn't ask for this bullshit." Dinah yelled out annoyed and drunk.
As much as she enjoyed pissing Dinah off, she figured she'd let Dinah enjoy one of the perks of a bachelor party. She had the most awkward conversation when booking them. Most people asked for nurse, school girl, teacher etc. costumes not bear costumes. The Things She did for her friends. Niall hit the music and the bears disrobed. Everyone cheered them on, either to be polite or because they were that drunk. What nobody expect was for the bears to remove their suits. One was in a gold bikini, the other silver and the last one had on a bright pink one.
Dinah was quick to suggest she get the first lap dance.
—
Meanwhile back home, the bachelorette party was in full swing. Normani's house was covered in pink and penis' were everywhere. Unlike Lauren and Dinah, all the kids were at Normani's parents house for the night. Cocktails were flowing and the girls were more than tipsy when the stripper cop and his cowboy friend showed up.
The penis popsicles were a big hit.
The next morning...
Everyone got completely hammered the night before, so much so that most girls didn't go home and the guys all slept on the living room cuddled up together. Look at that, they didn't even need a tent.
Dinah was sleeping next to the stripper in the gold bikini, Liam had the one in bright pink and Niall fell asleep mid motorboat on the girl in silver. While Lauren took pictures of all of it to use as future blackmail. Unlike the rest of them Lauren didn't cuddle up with them on the living room floor at the end of the night.
Normani seemed to be in a similar predicament considering she used the abs of the stripper cops as a pillow. Stacy was wearing the cowboys outfit sleeping on the floor while he slept in his bare male thong on top of the dining room table. Ally fell asleep with a penis lollipop in her hair. Camila was no better considering she fell asleep curled up the dog bed while covered in penis' stickers.
Lauren got the strippers to leave before the kids woke up but the rest of the guys and Dinah didn't budge. Since nobody woke up, she and Shawn went on the hike alone and left the kids to torment the guys and Dinah.
They took it slow because even though they weren't as bad as the rest of them, they did have plenty to drink last night.
"So how are you feeling? Get cold feet yet?" Lauren joked.
Shawn seemed to think about it for a moment. "I'm excited, and happy. I don't know how but it feels liberating. Which is strange consider marriage is the opposite of that." Lauren looked at him confused, he wasn't making any sense. "After high school everyone moved away or went and followed their dreams and I got stuck here. All my life I felt stuck, grounded to the jewelry store. I wanted to be a musician not a jewelry store owner but I allowed my parents to chose my future for me. When I first met Stacy I had this feeling that she'd be important to me. And look at us now, she's about to be my wife. She introduced me to so many new things and for the first time in a long time, I was myself. I told her about all my hopes and dreams without the fear of being judged. She's encouraging me to follow my dreams."
It was silent for a few moments.
"You get to spend the rest of your life being yourself with your soulmate by your side. I'd say that's pretty liberating." Lauren said, patting him in the back. Lauren knew Shawn had no choice but to take over the family business but she had no idea his dream was to be a musician. He never really talked about his dreams or goals and I guess that had to do with the fact that he assumed he wouldn't get to accomplish them so why bother with them.
He gave her a small smile and they continued their hike in silence.
"Just so we're clear, I want exclusive backstage passes to all your future concerts when you make it big." They weren't the touchy, feely kind of people, and they would never out right say what they felt but it was Lauren's way of saying she supported and believed in him and his dreams.
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