Clash Of The Rockbands
Flirting and Chicken
“No! Syn! No! Stop! No!”
I propped myself up on my elbows to see Syn and Rayne flirting. Syn had a hold of Rayne’s wrist and was attempting to drag her to her feet. Rayne tried to tear her wrist out of Syn’s grasp, but she wasn’t strong enough.
“Let me go!” Rayne shrieked, resorting to slapping his hand as hard as she could.
“No!” Syn yelled back. “You have a swimming pool! You need to swim in it!”
“No I don’t!” Rayne screamed back.
Ah, the many entertainments of a singer and guitarist flirting.
“Come on in, Rayne, the water’s fine!” Jen called from where she was treading water in the deep end.
“Shut up!” Rayne yelled at Jen. Seizing the moment that Rayne was caught off guard, Syn tugged her to her feet with little resistance. “No! No!” Syn was now steadily pulling Rayne towards the pool. “Syn, I will beat you up and leave you in a sewer somewhere!”
“He would like that!” Matt called.
“Oh, totally,” Syn replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes, all while pulling Rayne towards the pool.
The man can multi-task, I’ll give him that.
“NO, SYN!” Rayne shrieked as Syn turned, swept her right off her feet—oh, how romantic of him—and then sprinted into the pool. A few seconds later, they both resurfaced, but Rayne instantly converged on Syn, shoving his head back under the water.
They were definitely getting their flirt on.
“C’mon, Melrose, everyone but you has gotten in the pool!” James yelled at me. I shrugged, starting to lie back down.
“Melrose!” Rayne yelled in a warning voice. “Come into the pool!”
I sighed and reluctantly sat up. I slowly slipped my sunglasses off before climbing off of the lawn chair and heading towards the diving board. I clambered up onto it and stood there for a few seconds, readying myself for the insane amount of cold that I was about to force my body into. Then, I ran forward and dove gracefully off of the diving board.
I resurfaced quickly, shoving my sopping wet hair out of my face.
“See, not so bad,” Rayne said. I shrugged, sweeping water out of my eyes.
“Melrose, I challenge you in a game of Chicken!” AM called from the shallow end.
“Bring it on, bitch!” I yelled back. I turned to James, who was treading water a few feet from me. “Come!”
“Wait, what?” he asked.
“Be my legs!” I snapped at him.
“What?” he repeated, still looking confused. I rolled my eyes at him.
“Just go to the shallow end, good lord!” I said, turning and swimming towards the shallow end.
By the time we reached the shallow end, AM had already clambered up onto Zacky’s shoulders. I turned to James.
“Okay, if I compress your spine and paralyze you, I swear I’ll pay the hospital bills.” I told him solemnly.
“Melrose, you won’t compress my spine and paralyze me.”
“No, seriously, I’m just telling you.”
“It’s fine. You won’t hurt me.”
“Prepare to be told ‘I told you so’.” I told him. I climbed out of the pool and he helped me onto his shoulders. “Right. Feel anything pinching that shouldn’t be?”
“Melrose, seriously, it feels like I’m carrying a pillow.” James told me. He walked over so that AM and I were within arm-lengths of each other. Rayne waded up to us, looking up at the two of us.
“Right, I want a clean fight.” Rayne began. She paused, and then shook her head. “No, fight dirty. I want hair to be pulled, slaps to be administered, and lots of cheating going on. Make it interesting. Shake hands first, though.” AM and I shook hands, squeezing harder than usual. “Great. Begin!”
AM instantly grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled. Growling, I reached up and wrapped my own fingers around my hair so she couldn’t pull on it more. I reached over lightning-fast and pulled on the string of her bikini top.
With a shriek, AM released my hair and pulled back, raising a hand to keep her top from falling down.
Okay, I guess I should have warned you a bit. Here in The Better Halves’s household, we take the game of Chicken quite seriously. We go all-out when we battle against each other. There is no such thing as sportsmanship and fairness. If you have an advantage, use it, no matter how horrible it is for the other person. Snatch at every opportunity to beat your opponent into the water.
“Time-out!” Rayne yelled as AM struggled to fend me off and keep her top on at the same time. “Allow the woman to tie her string. Melrose, don’t do that again.”
“Yes, Referee Rayne,” I replied with a salute. AM quickly tied her string again.
“And...start!”
AM instantly slapped me. It wasn’t extremely hard, just enough to sting a bit. I grabbed her wrist and yanked it towards me, attempting to throw Zacky off balance. With a hard tug, AM ripped her wrist out of my slippery grasp. Without warning, she shoved me, hard. My weight shifted too much, and I fell backwards off of James’s shoulders.
I landed in the shallow water. Chlorine water instantly went up my nose, and I started to cough the instant my head broke the surface. AM was holding her arms above her head in a triumphant gesture.
“Anna-May is the winner!” Rayne yelled. I heard polite applause from everyone. “And Melrose is the spluttering loser.” Still coughing, I flipped Rayne off.
“You okay, Mel?” James asked. I nodded as my coughing finally stopped.
“Just got water up my nose,” I told him. I walked over to where AM still sat on Zacky’s shoulders. I reached up to shake her hand. “Well done. You outsmarted me.” She grinned and shook my hand. Then, I whirled around. “James, it’s all your fault!” I screamed, throwing my hands up.
“My fault?” he squawked, pointing at himself. I nodded. “You’re the one that lost your balance!”
“We could’ve had them if you had backed up while I had a hold of Ay-May’s wrist!” I replied.
“Sorry if I can’t read your mind!” James retorted.
“Lovebirds, stop squawking at each other.” Rayne said.
“Stop flirting with Syn and we will.” I told her with a smirk.
“You know I could never do that.” she replied nonchalantly. She didn’t even try to argue with me about her flirting with Syn. She knew she was guilty.
“Don’t climb down yet, AM!” Kim yelled from the deep end. “I’m challenging you now!” She turned to Johnny, who just shook his head no. “Why not?” Kim whined.
“He’s an uncoordinated little bastard, that’s why.” Matt explained.
“You don’t need lots of balance.” Kim told him. “The water holds you up. I won’t scream at you if we lose. I’m not as competitive as those bitches over there.” When Johnny just shook his head again, Kim began to pout. She stuck out her bottom lip and made her eyes take up the upper half of her face. “Please?” She just barely made her bottom lip tremble.
Johnny sighed and started to swim towards the shallow end.
Kim has that poor boy wrapped around her slender little finger.
She clambered up onto Johnny’s shoulders. He stepped forward and Kim and AM shook hands.
“Right,” Rayne said. “Don’t play fair, whatever you do. And...begin!”
For some strange reason, Chicken is a lot more entertaining when you’re the spectator instead of the athlete.
Kim instantly shot out a hand and slammed her palm against AM’s forehead.
“Could’ve had a V8!” Kim shouted with a huge grin. AM snarled at her and leaned forward. She squeezed Kim’s ticklish spots right below her ribcage. Kim shrieked and squirmed, attempting to push AM’s hands away.
She finally pushed them away. AM just looked smug as she leaned back again. Kim reached forward and flicked the front of AM’s neck as hard as she could. AM made a strange choking noise and grabbed her neck. She hated when people did that to her.
“Who’s smug now, bitch!” Kim shrieked, laughing. AM glared at her, still holding her neck as though it would fall off if she let go. She let go of her neck with one hand and seized Kim’s shoulder.
As if Zacky had read her mind, he took a quick step back as AM pulled Kim towards her by her shoulder. With a small shriek, Kim slid off of Johnny’s shoulders and landed face-first in the water.
“Good job, Zack!” she said, tousling his hair. He grinned like a punch-drunk fool.
AM has Zacky wrapped around her finger, too. I wonder if it’s the same with James and me...
I might need to investigate that.
“Anna-May is the winner...again!” Rayne yelled as Kim resurfaced, pushing her hair out of her face. “Good try, Kim, but it just wasn’t enough.”
But Kim just turned around and meshed her lips against Johnny’s.
“Not in the pool!” Rayne shrieked as AM quickly covered Zacky’s eyes. I heard James wolf-whistle from behind me.
“Don’t encourage them!” I scolded him. He just shrugged innocently.
Kim and Johnny finally pulled apart. I think I almost heard a strange suction noise. Johnny looked like someone had punched him.
“Dudes, the pool is not the proper place to suck each other’s faces, okay?” Rayne said weakly. “There are only two places to do that. One is in the back row of the movie theater during a movie. The other is in the bedroom. And no, I’m not giving you permission to do that.” Rayne said quickly when Kim perked up a bit. Kim deflated at Rayne’s words. “You know my rule.”
“No sex until marriage.” Jen, AM, Kim, and I all recited. “Or you’ll wind up with a large bump in your stomach and a huge hole in your heart.”
“That’s correct.” Rayne told us, nodding.
“What are you, their mother?” James asked curiously. Rayne nodded.
“I keep them all in line. I lay down the rules. They follow the rules or face the consequences.” she explained.
“What are the consequences?” Matt asked.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
Matt laughed.
“So they’ve never broken any rules?” Syn asked.
“Not yet,” Rayne answered. “But they will.”
“Have you ever broken any of your rules?” Syn asked.
“Pchah,” Rayne scoffed. “Of course I haven’t! I follow my own advice, thank you very much.”
“I’m just asking.” Syn said defensively, holding up his hands.
“It’s okay.” Rayne said, shrugging.
We heard a sudden thwump from the deep end. We all looked over to see Kim holding a purple noodle with a triumphant grin adorning her face. Jen tread water a foot beside her, looking shocked.
“I hit her in the face with the noodle!” Kim said excitedly. “She didn’t see it coming!” Kim turned to look at Jen. “You were totally staring at Matt. So I seized my chance.”
“I wasn’t—” Jen began, but Kim cut her off.
“Don’t deny it!” Kim yelled. “Don’t be a liar-face! You were staring at him, drooling all over yourself!”
Jen was beginning to turn beet-red. Pretty soon, her face would match her hair.
“Drooling?” Matt repeated with a smirk.
“No!” Jen snapped, shaking her head frantically no. “It wasn’t drooling, I swear! I prefer a build-up of saliva around my oral cavity.”
“But what about the whole staring-at-me part?” Matt continued.
“Yes, I’ll be woman enough to admit that I was indeed staring at you. But, seriously, how could I not?” Jen replied.
“Add to his ego, why don’t cha?” Kim said. Matt was looking awfully smug.
“But anyway,” Zacky said loudly. AM had finally slid down off of his shoulders. “Who’s up for a game of water polo?”
“Ooh me, me!” Kim, AM, Jen, Rayne, and I all said at the exact same time, raising one hand into the air and flapping it around as though screaming ‘Ooh me, me’ wasn’t enough. The other guys all agreed, and Kim climbed out of the pool to grab the water polo ball.
I propped myself up on my elbows to see Syn and Rayne flirting. Syn had a hold of Rayne’s wrist and was attempting to drag her to her feet. Rayne tried to tear her wrist out of Syn’s grasp, but she wasn’t strong enough.
“Let me go!” Rayne shrieked, resorting to slapping his hand as hard as she could.
“No!” Syn yelled back. “You have a swimming pool! You need to swim in it!”
“No I don’t!” Rayne screamed back.
Ah, the many entertainments of a singer and guitarist flirting.
“Come on in, Rayne, the water’s fine!” Jen called from where she was treading water in the deep end.
“Shut up!” Rayne yelled at Jen. Seizing the moment that Rayne was caught off guard, Syn tugged her to her feet with little resistance. “No! No!” Syn was now steadily pulling Rayne towards the pool. “Syn, I will beat you up and leave you in a sewer somewhere!”
“He would like that!” Matt called.
“Oh, totally,” Syn replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes, all while pulling Rayne towards the pool.
The man can multi-task, I’ll give him that.
“NO, SYN!” Rayne shrieked as Syn turned, swept her right off her feet—oh, how romantic of him—and then sprinted into the pool. A few seconds later, they both resurfaced, but Rayne instantly converged on Syn, shoving his head back under the water.
They were definitely getting their flirt on.
“C’mon, Melrose, everyone but you has gotten in the pool!” James yelled at me. I shrugged, starting to lie back down.
“Melrose!” Rayne yelled in a warning voice. “Come into the pool!”
I sighed and reluctantly sat up. I slowly slipped my sunglasses off before climbing off of the lawn chair and heading towards the diving board. I clambered up onto it and stood there for a few seconds, readying myself for the insane amount of cold that I was about to force my body into. Then, I ran forward and dove gracefully off of the diving board.
I resurfaced quickly, shoving my sopping wet hair out of my face.
“See, not so bad,” Rayne said. I shrugged, sweeping water out of my eyes.
“Melrose, I challenge you in a game of Chicken!” AM called from the shallow end.
“Bring it on, bitch!” I yelled back. I turned to James, who was treading water a few feet from me. “Come!”
“Wait, what?” he asked.
“Be my legs!” I snapped at him.
“What?” he repeated, still looking confused. I rolled my eyes at him.
“Just go to the shallow end, good lord!” I said, turning and swimming towards the shallow end.
By the time we reached the shallow end, AM had already clambered up onto Zacky’s shoulders. I turned to James.
“Okay, if I compress your spine and paralyze you, I swear I’ll pay the hospital bills.” I told him solemnly.
“Melrose, you won’t compress my spine and paralyze me.”
“No, seriously, I’m just telling you.”
“It’s fine. You won’t hurt me.”
“Prepare to be told ‘I told you so’.” I told him. I climbed out of the pool and he helped me onto his shoulders. “Right. Feel anything pinching that shouldn’t be?”
“Melrose, seriously, it feels like I’m carrying a pillow.” James told me. He walked over so that AM and I were within arm-lengths of each other. Rayne waded up to us, looking up at the two of us.
“Right, I want a clean fight.” Rayne began. She paused, and then shook her head. “No, fight dirty. I want hair to be pulled, slaps to be administered, and lots of cheating going on. Make it interesting. Shake hands first, though.” AM and I shook hands, squeezing harder than usual. “Great. Begin!”
AM instantly grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled. Growling, I reached up and wrapped my own fingers around my hair so she couldn’t pull on it more. I reached over lightning-fast and pulled on the string of her bikini top.
With a shriek, AM released my hair and pulled back, raising a hand to keep her top from falling down.
Okay, I guess I should have warned you a bit. Here in The Better Halves’s household, we take the game of Chicken quite seriously. We go all-out when we battle against each other. There is no such thing as sportsmanship and fairness. If you have an advantage, use it, no matter how horrible it is for the other person. Snatch at every opportunity to beat your opponent into the water.
“Time-out!” Rayne yelled as AM struggled to fend me off and keep her top on at the same time. “Allow the woman to tie her string. Melrose, don’t do that again.”
“Yes, Referee Rayne,” I replied with a salute. AM quickly tied her string again.
“And...start!”
AM instantly slapped me. It wasn’t extremely hard, just enough to sting a bit. I grabbed her wrist and yanked it towards me, attempting to throw Zacky off balance. With a hard tug, AM ripped her wrist out of my slippery grasp. Without warning, she shoved me, hard. My weight shifted too much, and I fell backwards off of James’s shoulders.
I landed in the shallow water. Chlorine water instantly went up my nose, and I started to cough the instant my head broke the surface. AM was holding her arms above her head in a triumphant gesture.
“Anna-May is the winner!” Rayne yelled. I heard polite applause from everyone. “And Melrose is the spluttering loser.” Still coughing, I flipped Rayne off.
“You okay, Mel?” James asked. I nodded as my coughing finally stopped.
“Just got water up my nose,” I told him. I walked over to where AM still sat on Zacky’s shoulders. I reached up to shake her hand. “Well done. You outsmarted me.” She grinned and shook my hand. Then, I whirled around. “James, it’s all your fault!” I screamed, throwing my hands up.
“My fault?” he squawked, pointing at himself. I nodded. “You’re the one that lost your balance!”
“We could’ve had them if you had backed up while I had a hold of Ay-May’s wrist!” I replied.
“Sorry if I can’t read your mind!” James retorted.
“Lovebirds, stop squawking at each other.” Rayne said.
“Stop flirting with Syn and we will.” I told her with a smirk.
“You know I could never do that.” she replied nonchalantly. She didn’t even try to argue with me about her flirting with Syn. She knew she was guilty.
“Don’t climb down yet, AM!” Kim yelled from the deep end. “I’m challenging you now!” She turned to Johnny, who just shook his head no. “Why not?” Kim whined.
“He’s an uncoordinated little bastard, that’s why.” Matt explained.
“You don’t need lots of balance.” Kim told him. “The water holds you up. I won’t scream at you if we lose. I’m not as competitive as those bitches over there.” When Johnny just shook his head again, Kim began to pout. She stuck out her bottom lip and made her eyes take up the upper half of her face. “Please?” She just barely made her bottom lip tremble.
Johnny sighed and started to swim towards the shallow end.
Kim has that poor boy wrapped around her slender little finger.
She clambered up onto Johnny’s shoulders. He stepped forward and Kim and AM shook hands.
“Right,” Rayne said. “Don’t play fair, whatever you do. And...begin!”
For some strange reason, Chicken is a lot more entertaining when you’re the spectator instead of the athlete.
Kim instantly shot out a hand and slammed her palm against AM’s forehead.
“Could’ve had a V8!” Kim shouted with a huge grin. AM snarled at her and leaned forward. She squeezed Kim’s ticklish spots right below her ribcage. Kim shrieked and squirmed, attempting to push AM’s hands away.
She finally pushed them away. AM just looked smug as she leaned back again. Kim reached forward and flicked the front of AM’s neck as hard as she could. AM made a strange choking noise and grabbed her neck. She hated when people did that to her.
“Who’s smug now, bitch!” Kim shrieked, laughing. AM glared at her, still holding her neck as though it would fall off if she let go. She let go of her neck with one hand and seized Kim’s shoulder.
As if Zacky had read her mind, he took a quick step back as AM pulled Kim towards her by her shoulder. With a small shriek, Kim slid off of Johnny’s shoulders and landed face-first in the water.
“Good job, Zack!” she said, tousling his hair. He grinned like a punch-drunk fool.
AM has Zacky wrapped around her finger, too. I wonder if it’s the same with James and me...
I might need to investigate that.
“Anna-May is the winner...again!” Rayne yelled as Kim resurfaced, pushing her hair out of her face. “Good try, Kim, but it just wasn’t enough.”
But Kim just turned around and meshed her lips against Johnny’s.
“Not in the pool!” Rayne shrieked as AM quickly covered Zacky’s eyes. I heard James wolf-whistle from behind me.
“Don’t encourage them!” I scolded him. He just shrugged innocently.
Kim and Johnny finally pulled apart. I think I almost heard a strange suction noise. Johnny looked like someone had punched him.
“Dudes, the pool is not the proper place to suck each other’s faces, okay?” Rayne said weakly. “There are only two places to do that. One is in the back row of the movie theater during a movie. The other is in the bedroom. And no, I’m not giving you permission to do that.” Rayne said quickly when Kim perked up a bit. Kim deflated at Rayne’s words. “You know my rule.”
“No sex until marriage.” Jen, AM, Kim, and I all recited. “Or you’ll wind up with a large bump in your stomach and a huge hole in your heart.”
“That’s correct.” Rayne told us, nodding.
“What are you, their mother?” James asked curiously. Rayne nodded.
“I keep them all in line. I lay down the rules. They follow the rules or face the consequences.” she explained.
“What are the consequences?” Matt asked.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
Matt laughed.
“So they’ve never broken any rules?” Syn asked.
“Not yet,” Rayne answered. “But they will.”
“Have you ever broken any of your rules?” Syn asked.
“Pchah,” Rayne scoffed. “Of course I haven’t! I follow my own advice, thank you very much.”
“I’m just asking.” Syn said defensively, holding up his hands.
“It’s okay.” Rayne said, shrugging.
We heard a sudden thwump from the deep end. We all looked over to see Kim holding a purple noodle with a triumphant grin adorning her face. Jen tread water a foot beside her, looking shocked.
“I hit her in the face with the noodle!” Kim said excitedly. “She didn’t see it coming!” Kim turned to look at Jen. “You were totally staring at Matt. So I seized my chance.”
“I wasn’t—” Jen began, but Kim cut her off.
“Don’t deny it!” Kim yelled. “Don’t be a liar-face! You were staring at him, drooling all over yourself!”
Jen was beginning to turn beet-red. Pretty soon, her face would match her hair.
“Drooling?” Matt repeated with a smirk.
“No!” Jen snapped, shaking her head frantically no. “It wasn’t drooling, I swear! I prefer a build-up of saliva around my oral cavity.”
“But what about the whole staring-at-me part?” Matt continued.
“Yes, I’ll be woman enough to admit that I was indeed staring at you. But, seriously, how could I not?” Jen replied.
“Add to his ego, why don’t cha?” Kim said. Matt was looking awfully smug.
“But anyway,” Zacky said loudly. AM had finally slid down off of his shoulders. “Who’s up for a game of water polo?”
“Ooh me, me!” Kim, AM, Jen, Rayne, and I all said at the exact same time, raising one hand into the air and flapping it around as though screaming ‘Ooh me, me’ wasn’t enough. The other guys all agreed, and Kim climbed out of the pool to grab the water polo ball.
♠ ♠ ♠
Heyloo.A pretty random chapter. One of many.
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