Love's Not A Competition

*The Next Week*

"Hello?" I answered tiredly to my phone. I was waking up rather late, 12:30 PM to be exact. I had been talking to Jack until three AM.

"Hey! Angie, how ya doin'?!"

I moaned. "Who is this?"

"Uh, your booking manager...Al?"

"OH!" I flipped off of my bed. "Allen! I'm sorry. I was sleeping." I yawned on my hard wooden floor. "What's up?"

"How would you feel if you did a show on Friday?"

"The same way I do every other time I do a show...Fine."

"Well, how would you feel if you did another one in front of everyone at Fueled By Ramen?"

"Like..staff wise?"

"Yes, but also with the bands, their friends, family, and so forth."

"Uh...Okay? Do you honestly mean everyone?"

"Yes ma'am. Everything and everyone in the Fueled By Ramen and Decaydance family."

"Uhh...Once again, okay? I guess we could do that..."

"Great! You guys are also welcome to invite your families, we'll pay for airfare. Four people per person."

"Awesome! Okay. Can we invite people who are already here as well?"

"Oh yeah, go ahead, invite whoever you want. We just have the requirement that each of you must find four people to fly out here for the weekend."

"Alright! That's cool. We can do that. I have to tell Kaycee and Aiden. I'll call you RIGHT back. No, wait...a few hours, give me two!"

"You've got it, Angie."

"Bye Al, thank you so much!"

He hung up. I savored less than a moment of time.

"AIDEN! KAYCEE! JUSTIN!" I screamed pretty loud. They all ran in quickly and looked at me, probably confused of why I was on the floor. "You. Are all. Invited. To..New York Junkie's WELCOMING PARTY!" I sat back up on my bed excitedly.

"What do you mean, welcoming party?" Aiden scoffed.

"I mean, a party. With ALL the Fueled By Ramen bands!"

"Are you serious?!" Kaycee butted in.

"YES! And Al's paying for twelve people from home to fly in. Each of us get four of our choice. Guys, this is the perfect time to tell our parents about everything. This is awesome!"

"Dude," Aiden began. "I can't believe this. It's too awesome."

All of us exchanged glances. Aiden was right, it was way too unbelieveable.

***

"Hello?" I heard on the opposite end of the line.

"Mom?"

"Angie?"

"Yeah, hi mom."

"Hi Sweetie!" I sighed softly. I hadn't talked to either one of my parents for weeks. Probably a month or so. I didn't really miss them much. I was never one to be insanely attached to their parents.

"Hi mommy. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm good Sweetie, how are you? How's California?"

"I'm actually really good. Actually, everything's great." I didn't exactly know how to tell her. "Uhh, mom, we actually got signed...to a major label!"

She got really quiet on the other end. I kind of expected it. She and my dad never thought I'd get signed. They kind of hoped I would fail so they could send me to the college they enrolled me in over Spring Break.

"What? Honey, are you serious?!" She paused for a moment. "Honey, that's wonderful!" She was trying to be excited, but I could tell she was kind of depressed for wasting so much time trying to get me into a college. I told her this would happen...

"Yeah, and guess what else?"

"What?"

"I'm also dating somebody."

"Aww! What's his name?! What's he like? Is he nice to you?"

I laughed. "Yeah mom, he's really nice. His name is Jack. He's really sweet and funny. You'd like him a lot."

"That's good."

"Oh, and he's also in a band. Guess which one?"

She was still pausing to listen. She probably didn't think she had ever heard of them.

"...All Time Low."

"OH! You're dating HIM! Aww! He was on your binder last year, and now you're going out with him...That's cute. How did you two meet?" She was trying to be a friend now. She kind of fails at it. I was glad she was kind of cool though. My mom is one of those people who listens whether she wants to or not. She knows about me and my obsession with Zac Farro. Jack was one of those people where she needed to hear his band's name before his own name.

"Uhh, Myspace actually. He commented us and then we just started talking. We went on our first date last week, but I don't know. Let's just see where it goes."

My phone beeped. I smiled because it was obvious who was texting me.

"Hold on mom."

I looked at the text message. 'Good afternoon Starshine.'

I sighed and hit reply. 'The earth says hello! Good afternoon, did you just wake up too?' I hit send and put the phone back to my ear.

"Mom, do you think you could take off from work on Friday? You and dad?"

"And why is that?"

"The company's throwing us a welcoming party. Our booking manager, Allen, said that we could invite four people from home to fly in and that they would pay."

"Oh that's cool." My mom got quiet. "I'll have to see if it's okay." I could hear her shuffling papers in the background.

"Is Corey in summer school again?"

My mom sighed at the mere mention of my fourteen year old brother. "Yeah, but I have the calendar right here. Friday's his last day. I can take him out."

"Awesome! So you're coming?!"

"Yeah, we can make it. I wouldn't miss this for the world. I'm proud of you."

That's a first. "Thank you mom. I'm gonna have to call you back though. I have to tell Jack and call back Al. I told him I would."

"Alright Sweetheart. Call me back later."

"Okay mom."

"I love you."

"Love you too."

My phone beeped before I hung up. I waited for my mom to hang up before I read the message.

'-sexy yawn- yes, and you were the first thing I thought about when I woke up. I haven't seen you for five days now. Luckily, you're all mine today. :]'

I replied. 'Aww yes, no more waiting. I miss you and your humor...And, I have to tell you something tonight. :]'

-Friday Night-

"Hey Ang!" I looked over to see who was calling me. I already knew before I even saw him.

"Jack." I said calmly. The emotion I was no where near.

He pulled me into a hug. I let go and looked at him. "Wow," He started. "You look...beautiful." He looked at my outfit then back at my dress again and smiled. I smiled back politely and looked at him. To my surprise, he was wearing a tux. I felt like I was at prom again. Me and my expensive dress, him and his expensive tux. All he needed was a corsage for me and we could call it a day. I took Jack's hand and ushered him to the crowd of people I had been walking into the party with.

"Everyone, this is Jack." Jack nodded at everyone. I pointed at everyone in the crowd for an introduction.

I started in the front. "This is my mom, Kim, and my dad, John." He shook my dad's hand firmly. I would have advised it, my dad was giving Jack a creepy look anyway. My mom came forward to hug him. She was a nicer person. "And this parasite over here is my brother Corey." Jack gave Corey a casual wave. Corey waved back, then looked at me and smiled.

"Uhh, this is Kaycee's family." I looked onto the next row of people. "These are her parents, Leslie and Erik, and these are her little sisters, Aly and Sarah." I looked over at Kaycee and she stared at me like I was crazy. I forgot about the person standing next to her. "Oh, and this is her boyfriend, Justin." Jack looked at all of them and smiled nervously. I'm pretty sure I'm scaring him off. We're all pretty much one family...It's not my fault... "And these are Aiden's parents, Henry and Lauren. And this is his older brother, Keegan." Jack waved once again. He looked pretty tense about now. I figured we should stop.

"Alright, well, since we're all aquainted, let's go inside. I wanna see what's going on."

Everyone silently agreed and we all started walking towards the building. Jack and I similtaneously let out a loud sigh; me from anxiety that tonight was bringing, him from meeting my families. He looked down at me.

"Relax, you'll do fine. Me and the guys had to do one of these too, it went okay."

"Just okay?" I questioned. That didn't make me feel any better.

He stopped at the doors. "Angie, you'll be fine, I promise. You guys are awesome, you'll do great." He reassured me with a smile.

"If you insist..."

He chuckled at my remark and nudged my shoulder. I sighed once again as Jack opened the door for me and the rest of our group.

"Are you sure it'll be okay?" I asked before I looked in the room.

"You'll be fine! I promise! If anyone here has any sense, they'll be more than dying to hear you."