Haven't updated in a while, but I just had to collect my thoughts. I'm thinking that I'll only do around five more chapters for this story, because we're coming close to the end. So anyway here it is!

"Wake up!" Roman's voice cut into my groggy dream land. "Seth! Come on! It's three o'clock. Ugh, you're just as difficult as Phil…"

I rolled over and opened my eyes. Roman was standing over my bed. My bed. How did I get to my bed? Hadn't I fallen asleep outside last night? Did I walk inside before I fell asleep, but was just too tired to remember?"

"Wha…"

"Dean came back outside when you didn't come in after a while and brought you back in. Falling asleep outside? Honestly, Seth that's something I would do," Roman said. "Now get up! We're going to Garage tonight."

"What time did you say it was?"

"It's three in the afternoon," he said as I sat up. "John's over at Phil's trying to get him up. I imagine it's going much like this is going right now."

"Roman, I'm really tired, can you just—wait did you say we're going to Garage tonight?"

"Yes!" he said. He sounded extremely excited, which was odd since Roman was rarely excited. "So can you please get up and get ready? We haven't been there in forever!"

"Alright, alright," I groaned, although inside, I was pretty excited too.

Garage started out as four guys in a garage band. They never played in front of people; they just did their own thing. Then one day in the summer, they decided to play with the garage open so they wouldn't overheat since the garage wasn't air conditioned. Some of the neighborhood kids heard and went over to listen. Then, within a few weeks, everyone from the high school crowded in the driveway to hear the band, who by that time, was called the Arizonas (which made no sense since none of them were from Arizona and as far as I knew, none of them had ever been there).

By the end of the summer, the parents of the drummer, Justin, were tired of never getting any sleep because of the music and all the kids crowded in the yard, so they told Justin and the band to have practices elsewhere.

Eventually, they found an old parking lot that no cars ever parked in, which worked out perfectly. The first dozen people to arrive with cars parked in a big semi-circle around where the band was playing/where people danced around in front of them and turned on their headlights to light up the stage-area. A few other bands from the high school played at Garage too when the Arizonas were taking breaks. And although they were no longer playing in the musty garage, everyone called this event "Garage" simply because people like things to be simple.

Phil, Roman, John and I went all the time, but when we all go jobs, we had less free time to go. But now that it was summer, and we changed our hours from evening to the afternoon, it seemed as though we'd be attending Garage regularly again.

After I showered and straightened the life out of my hair, I put on a pair of grey skinny jeans and a Beatles t-shirt. Dean and Roman were waiting for me at the kitchen table when I came downstairs.

"Finally," Roman said. "I was just telling Dean about Garage."

"Sweet," I said, opening the fridge and taking out the orange juice. "Are you excited?"

"Yeah, it sounds cool," Dean answered with a grin.

I poured the orange juice into a glass. "You won't be disappointed."

"I should hope not," Dean said. "Because now my hopes are way up and if this is a letdown, I might have to go on a psycho murdering rampage. Remember, I know where you live."

I laughed. "I promise it will be the answer to all your hopes and dreams."

Roman stood up. "Alright, well I'm going to work now, and I'm off at like six. You guys better be ready by then." He narrowed his eyes at me. "And that means, you, missy."

I rolled my eyes. "Ok, master, I promise to be ready by then."

"Good. I shall see you at 7!"

After he left, I sat at the table with Dean. "It seriously is really cool. I know that we don't really do anything super interesting around here, but I promise, this will actually be worth it."

Dean smiled. "I'm not doubting you."

"Good," I said.

"So…when is Beth's wedding?" Dean asked.

"End of next month, I think," I said. "I'm not sure the exact date. Why?"

"Just wondering," he said, studying the pattern of the placemat in front of him.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

He shook his head, just looking down. "I just keep thinking about Kelly. I hope she's ok. And I really don't want her to worry about me."

"I'm sure she's fine," I said softly.

"I really hope so," Dean said. "She's 16 now. So I was thinking…it might be easier to find her now or something."

"Have you been looking?" I asked, feeling stupid. How could he not be looking for his sister?

"A little," he said with a shrug. "Your dad tried to help me but we really couldn't find anything."

"Oh," I said. "I'm really sorry."

"It's ok," he said. "I'll find her someday."

"I really hope so," I said. "And if you ever need anything, please just ask, ok?"

He smiled. "Ok. Thanks, Seth Rollins."

I smiled back. "No problem, Dean Ambrose."

Despite me taking forever to do my hair and Phil not getting out of bed until two hours after John woke him up, we ended up being one of the first cars to arrive at Garage, and we got a much coveted parking spot almost right across from the stage area.

The Arizonas were already there, tuning their guitars and fixing the microphones. That was something different about them; they didn't make an entrance when they started playing. They were just already there waiting for everyone else. Although I'm not quite sure they really cared that everyone else was there. If no one showed up, I think they would have just played like they always did because the band meant something more to themselves than it ever would to any of their fans. And that was what made Garage so great.

We all piled out of John's Ford Excursion. Phil spotted Adam and quickly excused himself so he could go talk to all his friends and hope that he would strike up a conversation with him—because talking to him himself would have just been way to easy. Roman saw a few of his friends that he hadn't seen since school ended a couple of days ago, so he ran over there to say a quick hello, which left John, Dean and I sitting on the hood of the Expedition.

"So, this is what people do for fun these days, huh?" Dean said. "And here I thought working at the bowling alley and overhearing wedding plans was the highlight of this town."

"Oh, it usually is," John said. "But today's the exception. Believe me, leaving this boring place is probably the best decision you could ever make."

"I don't know. I kind of like it here. It's nice," Dean said.

"You haven't been here during the winter," I groaned. "The snow makes you wish hibernation was an option, but then you just keep waking up every morning and realizing you have to go to school again. It's torturous."

"Well do you have plans to leave here?" Dean asked. "Like college or something."

John and I exchanged a quick glance. I was pretty sure that we'd only ever had one conversation about college at the beginning of the school year and this was how it went:

Phil: I can't believe we're nearly done high school already.

Me: Really? I feel like we've been here forever. And we still have a whole year left.

Roman: Maybe if you actually made an attempt to like people, it wouldn't seem so excruciating.

Me: Probably. Oh well. Guess we'll never know.

John: A year isn't really a long time, especially when you consider the fact that you'll probably live to be at least 80.

Phil: Exactly! We're almost done with school forever!

John: Yeah, it's kind of weird to think about, you know?

Roman: If you're upset about that you could always apply to college.

Me: Ew.

John: No thanks.

Phil: Ha!

Roman: Hey, it's three o'clock! Isn't Spongebob on?"

So when it came to our academic futures, the four of us didn't exactly have big plans.

"Uh, we've thought about it a little…" I said.

"We had a brief discussion about it," John said.

"And you decided against it?" Dean asked. You didn't have to be a genius to know that the four of us weren't exactly cut out for that kind of stuff.

"I don't know," I said. "I mean, yeah it's a nice idea and all…but first you have to find a college, apply—and pay to apply—and then once you're accepted you have to keep your grades up and everything which is sometimes hard to do...and then you have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to go there, take a bunch of classes you don't want to take, and keep your grades up again. I'll probably go in the end, but right now it just doesn't seem worth it to me."

"But it's still nice to have the option," Dean said, staring straight forward.

I looked down and then at John, who shrugged at me with a tight smile that wasn't a smile at all.

"Where do you want to go to college?" I asked Dean.

"I don't know," he answered. "My sister always talked about how awesome it would be if she was able to go to NYU. You know…in New York. She always wanted to go there."

"That would be pretty cool," John agreed.

"Yeah. But there's no way for either of us to afford it," he said. "but I think that if circumstances were different, we'd both be going there…or she'd already be there."

"Well, don't give up," I said. "There's always financial aid and you could get a job out there to help pay for it…"

He smirked. "Seth, I haven't gone to school since I was like seven. Yeah, I may have read a few textbooks in the meantime, but after…after everything…after I left, I didn't do anything. I mean, I wandered around with the few things I took from the house and then I came here and you found me. I just…I don't think you can see that it's been a year since I've been home—had a home. That's a long time to go without school. There's just no way I could get into any school at all, let alone NYU."

"Don't say that!" I said. "You could start at community college and work your way up. You're really smart Dean. Stop doubting yourself. I know it's expensive but there are always options. And you can't just give up. I know you can do whatever you want if you stop being so negative."

He smiled. "Thanks."

"It's only the truth."

Soon after that, the band started to play and the music polluted the night air, so loud it rocked the stars. I sat on the hood of John's car in between him and Dean. John seemed to be having the time of his life watching the Arizonas jump around while the crowd danced in front of us, which included Roman, who was in the crowd dancing with some cute red-headed girl I recognized from my English class.

Dean nudged me in the shoulder and pointed towards Phil a few feet away. He was standing by Adam grinning like an idiot (an insanely cute idiot, but an idiot nonetheless) as he beamed at him. I smiled and shook my head.

"He's planning their wedding in his mind," I yelled over the music into Dean's ear.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you're the best man," he yelled back.

I smiled and turned back around to face the stage. Dean laced his fingers through mine and I leaned my head against his shoulder. I closed my eyes and listened to the music and felt the bass pulse through my chest like a second, uneven heartbeat.

Perfection is how I would describe this moment. Because even if it was just a moment, there was nothing on my mind but what was happening here and now. And here and now, everything was perfect. I knew it wouldn't last forever. It wouldn't even last for a long time. But it was now, and I lived for now and moments similar to now.

Phil was smiling his beautiful melt-your-heart-into-falling-in-love smile.

Roman was laughing and dancing like his life depended on it.

John was watching the scene in front of him like he never wanted it to end.

And Dean…well Dean was just being Dean. He just sat contently as he held my hand like he never wanted to let go. I'd love to think that he never wanted to let me go. Like he just wanted to be here in Perfection with me forever, even though Perfection wasn't actually a place, but rather our own state of being.

That's how Dean was, though. He'd let me wander off sometimes into my own little world…sometimes into other worlds. But whenever I started to slip away, he always caught me at the exact right time and he'd pull me back to here—where I needed to be.

Because no matter how far I got, he'd never let me be taken away. And as I sat there, holding his hand listening to the Arizonas sing their rock and roll lullabies, I knew that he'd always be there to hold my hand to keep me here with him.

And I never wanted him to let go.

The end of this is kinda based on perks of being a wallflower, you know with the whole 'and in that moment I swear we were infinite' and I was half tempted to write that but I decided against it in the end.

Let me know what you think!

Ciara x