OMJ!! My brother is HOME! Like in NJ in my house! He wasn't supposed to be home until the 15th, but he got a 96 (meaning he has the next 96 hours or 4 days off) and my dad drove down to Viriginia (6 hour drive) at 3 in the morning to bring him home for the weekend. He walked into my dining room at like 8 oclock and I basically launched myself across everything in my way and tackled him basically. Thankfully for him, he's gotten good at catching me when I do that! So, thank you all for the birthday wishes, it was the 9th. I actually posted it at like 1 in the morning or something. This chapter is because I felt like Shane was a little too perfect to be real.

Chapter 19:

The next two weeks had flown by rather quickly. Riley was at the apartment almost every day, begging and pleading with Nicky. She was still uncertain about them, and didn't feel right lying to him about that.

Shane tried to cheer Riley up one day while Nicky was in the bathroom. "Come on, come out with us tonight. She'll come around eventually. And if she doesn't, well, it's not meant to be. She's stubborn. She'll come out of this. I promise." He tried to reassure Riley.

"Yeah, I guess. Isn't tonight your bachelor's party?" Riley asked.

Shane smirked. "Yeah. But we aren't going anywhere too bad, because Kevin's 16."

"Oh, you remembered that, did you?" I asked sarcastically from the kitchen. "Was that before or after they wanted to take you to a strip club?" I asked in a knowing tone.

"Um," Shane cleared his throat. "After?"

"Good. Including your brother means anywhere you go, there can't be an 18 or older rule. Remember that." I warned. They'd decided to just bar hop for the night.

"I know. I know." He assured me. "You have Nicky with you, so remember your own words."

"Unfortunately, she does." Nicky pouted coming back into the room. "We're going to the house and having fun there for the night."

"Are you coming home tonight?" Shane asked almost worriedly. I smiled at the word home.

Smiling brightly at him, I answered, "Yeah, I'll be home."

"I mean, here… the apartment." He stuttered slightly.

I walked over to him. "Yes, Shane, I'll be home." I reiterated, kissing him lightly.

He smiled. "Good."

Riley cleared his throat. "Well, I guess I should be going. Um, are you guys meeting at the first bar or here or something?" He asked.

"Here." Shane answered. "Shit, I have to go get Kevin from the train station." I rolled my eyes. He may have seemed really calm and laid back about the wedding, but I could tell he wasn't. It was in slight, subtle things. He would swear occasionally, he fidgeted ever so slightly, and he was constantly making sure I was near him as much as possible.

He kissed me and ran out of the apartment. Riley chuckled and followed behind him, kissing Nicky's cheek in the process. That was all she'd give him. He sighed as he waved good-bye to me.

"Nicky." I said tiredly. "Why are you doing this to that poor boy? What is still bothering you?"

"A lot." She answered simply.

"Like?" She shrugged. "Well, when you figure it out, let me know. Okay? I don't mean to lecture you. I can shut up and listen, I promise." I smiled at her slightly. "I'm going to take a shower. We're probably going to head over to the house when I'm done."

She nodded and retreated to Nate's room. I sighed watching her go. She could be so stubborn sometimes. All for her pride. Not even the principle of the matter or because it needed time to get the point across. No simply because she was scared and her pride was keeping itself from getting hurt.

I had half a mind to curl my hair, but decided to leave it straight instead. Shane was going to have enough problems at the wedding. It wouldn't be fair to tease him tonight as well. Although, he had admitted he liked my hair straight on a daily basis. Curly was strictly to be used only on special occasions when he could 'ravish' me afterward. I wasn't going to be that mean today. I did however have to curl my bangs under. I wasn't sure if I liked the side swept bangs better than my old straight across ones, but they definitely made me look older. That was something I was thankful for. It made me feel less like an insecure teenager getting married way too young and more like a mature young woman marrying the man of her dreams.

I smiled to myself as I finished my hair. I heard Kevin and Shane laughing as I left the bathroom and headed into the bedroom. While I was getting dressed, Nate and Jason showed up as well. The others were meeting Nicky and I at the house.

Satisfied with my appearance, I left the room. Nicky was waiting anxiously, I assume hoping to leave before Riley showed up. I smiled sadly to myself.

"Be good. Have fun. And remember, none of you are 21 either." I reminded them. They pouted but nodded anyway. I kissed Shane once on the lips and kissed the others' cheeks. "Have fun." I called again as I left with Nicky.

By the time we got to the house, most of the people were there already. I was greeted by Peggy, Ella, and Lola, followed by my cousin Steph and the others I'd invited. I was happy to see Nicole there and we hugged for a long time. Jayden was sitting in a corner observing.

I made my way over to her. "I hope you know you aren't just here as a reporter, Jay." I asked her. She smiled at me.

"No, I know. I was threatened by Cait and Stas." She replied. "I was just getting a general feel for everything before I lose myself in the party." She admitted. No 'adults' were there, though Mom was in the kitchen making us snacks and such.

My party was a lot of harmless fun. Mostly. We sat around playing games. They insisted I opened my presents before though. I received various forms of lingerie and a few… interesting gifts I won't mention.

The first game we played caused a few raised eyebrows and a tad bit of tension. I Never is not a game to play with people you don't want to share you deepest secrets with. Especially when these people are experienced players. However, we changed the rules. Instead of doing shots, we were playing for points, and the winner won a prize picked by Caitlyn and Anastasia. They would be the ones keeping score.

"Okay, we will begin with something easy, so anyone who doesn't know the rules can pick up on it." Anastasia said. "I never… dated a rock star." She smirked. Some of my family gave us confused looks, all well aware of the fact that we were dating Connect 3. "They aren't rock stars. They're pop stars." They rolled their eyes while Caitlyn, Nicky, and I giggled.

"Okay, Mitchie. You start us for real." Caitlyn said through her laughter.

"Okay, I never… was a cheerleader." I said, knowing my cousin was. Steph, Nicole, and Caitlyn flipped the empty cups we were using to signal taking a shot, since we weren't drinking. "What?" I laughed disbelieving. "You were a cheerleader?" I asked Caitlyn.

She nodded, blushing slightly. "When I was like… 7. My mom made me." She glared at the wall for a moment. "Okay, my turn. I never… broke a bone?"

The game kept going with random questions until it eventually turned… interesting. The questions started taking on a much more… perverse tone.

"I never… kissed a girl." Lola said. Steph was the only one to flip her cup.

"What?" She asked. "I was drunk…" She mumbled.

"I never…slept with a guy." Peggy sighed, trying to think of something to change the subject.

When Steph, Caitlyn, Nicky -who was blushing-, and a few others flipped there cups, I wasn't surprised. However, Caitlyn called Anastasia and me out. "Excuse you, you two. You have slept with a guy. She didn't say had sex."

We rolled our eyes and were surprised to see that everyone had slipped their cups, even Peggy. "It wasn't what I meant, Cait." She shrugged.

"Okay, well, I never had sex." I said reiterating the question. The original people flipped their cups and the game moved on. If I recall correctly, Nicole won.

We moved on from I Never to Truth or Dare, once I Never was getting a little too catty for my taste.

"Mitchie, truth or dare?"

"Truth." I said immediately. "I'm not doing anything that I might regret right before my wedding."

"Fine. Hmm… what was the first thing about Shane that attracted you to him?"

I thought for a moment. "I heard him playing. And it was different than the usual stuff I'd heard of his. He seemed like totally pissed that I heard him and then he apologized for it not being his usual cookie-cutter-popstar-stuff. Seeing him all riled up and protective of his music. I think I first realized I was attracted to him when we first went out on the canoe, though." A chorus of aws followed. "Okay, Steph, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" She cried out like I was crazy.

"I dare you… to… um… mix your soda with a lot of salt and chug." It was silly and inane, but she did and it was hilarious when she started coughing on it. Had she really choked, we wouldn't have been laughing, but thankfully she didn't.

We were getting a bit bored again, so someone dared Jayden to interrupt the bachelor party. Since it wasn't against the rules, I had no power over it. I rolled my eyes and let them.

"Well… that was a no on Shane's phone…" Anastasia said, dialing the next number for Jayden. After a few rings, another voicemail was given. "And for Nate. Jase, you so better answer." She said dialing the next one.

"Nope." Jayden handed the phone back. I was getting worried.

"Try Kev." Nicky suggested, dialing her brothers number.

"Hello?" A slightly drunk sounding Kevin answered. The call had been on speaker phone.

"Hey, Kevin? It's Jayden."

"Who?" He slurred.

I took the phone and took it off of speaker phone. "Kevin where are you?"

"Mitchie?" He asked. "At the apartment… duh…" He laughed.

"Kevin, where's Shane?"

"Um…" He thought. "Somewhere?" He offered.

"I'll see you in a little bit, Kevin." I gritted my teeth while hanging up. "Sorry to cut this short, but there's underage drinking occurring in my apartment and I have a fiancé to find and kill." I huffed, slipping on my shoes. "Stas." I called out to her, needing a ride. She stood up and was quickly followed by Caitlyn and Nicky.

When I arrived at the apartment, I could hear the music blasting through the walls into the hallway. My anger steadily increased. I pushed open the door and was immediately submersed in the smell of alcohol. The first person I saw was Kevin, dancing with some girl who was not Savannah.

"Kevin!" I yelled, though over the music it probably didn't sound too threatening.

"Mitchie!" He said, throwing his arm around me. "Why are you here?"

"Where's Shane?" I demanded.

He shrugged. "Um… Nate!" He pushed me toward Nate, before Nate could escape.

Nate was very afraid to see his girlfriend and her friends glaring at him angrily. "Where's Shane? And why are all these people in the apartment?"

"I have no idea and I have no idea." Nate answered.

"Find Jason, and get them out. Now. You have underage drinking going on, Nate. You of all people should know the backlash of this." I glared at him. Reality sunk in and he rushed off to find Jason. I tried calling Shane again, and found his phone on the dresser in our room.

"Nate!" I yelled.

He came rushing in. "What?"

"Where is my dog?" I demanded.

"With Shane." I let out a shaky breath.

"Okay." I felt my heart beat decrease when I realized my dog was fine and with his owner.

Almost 2 hours later, Nate, Jason, and the girls had left, taking Nicky and Kevin back to the house for me. Shane and I were in for a long night of arguing when he got back. I'd finished cleaning up the mess and sat waiting for his return, letting my anger stew.

It was almost 3 AM when he came home. "Where've you been?" I demanded when he came in.

He looked around, amazed that it was clean. "Out." He answered simply.

"Shane, do you have any idea what I came home to?" I asked. He stayed silent. "Drunk teenagers and twenty-year olds. None of them legally able to drink. Strippers and other exotic dancers shoved in here as well. And you just left. You knew I was coming home tonight. And I'm glad we called and no one answered. Who knows what I would have came home to if I left later."

He didn't say anything, still, but his fist was clenching and unclenching, trying to keep his anger down. "Where's Nicky and Kevin?" He asked.

"Oh, now you care about your brother. Who you left here, where he proceeded to get drunk and dance with some stripper who was not Savannah-" Shane opened his mouth. "His girlfriend, Shane!" I replied. "That's not the point, anyway. You left your 16 year old brother here."

"Nate and Jason could have kept an eye on him. They knew I was leaving."

"Except Nate and Jason were trying to host their party and enjoying themselves as well." I sighed. "Shane, why would you just leave?"

"Sorry for taking our dog out of the apartment when he started going crazy. And when some ass tried to give him beer." My anger spiked.

"Maybe you should have ended the party, then, Shane! Not leave and wait for your fiancé to call your drunk brother and come back early and end it."

"I wasn't going to ruin everyone else's night because I wasn't enjoy my party. I left. I thought Nate and Jason could handle it." He admitted.

"No, I had to ruin mine instead." I threw back. "And clearly, they couldn't. Not one of you was thinking clearly on this one at all. Shane, you should have put an end to it as soon as you realized there was alcohol. And that people who were underage drinking. I warned you about having Kevin with you!"

"It was easier said then done. Girls can go out and have a little hang out, not guys. That's not a bachelor's party."

"Bullshit." I replied. "We played drinking games, and guess what, we didn't drink! We improvised. What would have happened if one of our neighbors complained, Shane? Then what? Now, you have Connect 3 hosting wild underage parties with your 16 year old brother present, and you nowhere to be found!"

"Okay, so I fucked up. Forgive me. I'm not fucking perfect, Mitchie!" And finally, Shane cracked.

"What?" I stopped yelling. "What do you mean? Who ever said you were?"

"No one." He said, calming down a lot. "I just, try to be. For you." He admitted.

"Shane." I sighed. I moved closer to him. "I don't want you to be perfect. But, seriously. Think about this."

"I know. I was wrong. I'm sorry." I nodded. "Lesson learned. Promise."

I sighed. "Okay. Let's go to bed. I have my final fitting tomorrow." I said smiling slightly.

"They got it done?" He asked excitedly.

"Yup. They called Caitlyn during the party and left her a message."

"Why did they call Cait?" He asked.

"Because I told them to call her. I was still too on edge from the first dress. So when the dress was absolutely finished, they were to call Caitlyn and tell her."

"Oh." He nodded as we got ready for bed. Jacob was already knocked out in his bed on the floor. He'd gotten too big to be on the bed with us.

When I woke up the next morning, I was cuddled into Shane's chest. He was whispering in my ear, though he thought I was still asleep. "Mitchie…" He blew in my ear. "Wake up, baby. I want to tell you something. Wake up, please? Ba-by." He whined slightly. I finally smiled.

"What?" I mumbled against his chest.

"I love you." He whispered.

I groaned. "Is that really why you woke me up?" I asked, with my eyes still closed.

"No. I wanted to apologize for last night, again." I sighed.

"It's fine. Go back to sleep. I have to be up by 10. If it's not 9:30 yet, don't wake me up." I snuggled closer to him. He kissed the top of my head and let me drift back to sleep.

My wedding was in 4 days and I could not be anymore excited than I was after trying my dress on for the final time before wearing it on my wedding day.

Okay, now I'm posting this when I so should be outside on my way to the movies!