Clash Of The Rockbands

Dinner with Rockstars

Melrose’s POV

I tapped gently on Daphne’s bedroom door.

“Come in,” she called quietly. I turned the cool metallic doorknob and pushed the door open.

“We’re leaving to go over to Matt’s.” I informed her, poking my head into her room. She sat at the base of one of the bedroom’s walls. Textbooks lay out in front of her, and a notebook sat in her lap. She nodded, idly turning a page in one of the textbooks. “If we come home to a trashed house tonight, and you blame it on the cat, I’ll be very unhappy.”

Daphne looked up, frowning deeply.

“We don’t even have a cat.” she observed.

“Exactly,” I replied instantly. “That’s why I would be so upset, because it would be such a lame excuse. But, please, be good. There’s food in the fridge, you’ll have the whole house to yourself. Enjoy your alone time, and we’ll be back by midnight, okay?”

“Yep,” Daphne answered shortly, looking back at her textbooks. I gave a brief nod before leaning back out of her bedroom and closing the door.


**********

All five of us stood gathered around the front door into Matt’s house, staring in confusion at the frame.

“Where the hell is the damn doorbell?” Rayne whispered, looking frantically up and down the wooden doorframe.

“Just knock,” I suggested.

“I will not just knock!” Rayne hissed back, still looking frantically for the doorbell. “Those deaf bastards won’t hear a tiny little knock!”

“Does he even have a fucking doorbell?” Kim snapped, running her fingers up and down the left side of the doorframe. “He’s gotta have a doorbell.”

“Maybe he tore it out, tired of all the fan-girls ringing it all the time,” Jen reasoned.

“I’m just going to knock.” Kim announced. She reached over, but Rayne grabbed her wrist before her knuckles hit the wood.

“Kim, they won’t hear your tiny little knuckles rapping on the door.” Rayne said calmly. Kim just furrowed her eyebrows at her.

“Watch me,” she replied, pulling her wrist out of Rayne’s fingers.

She pulled back her tiny little fist and banged the side of it against the door. It actually sounded pretty loud, and resonated into the dusk falling down upon us. She smirked at Rayne as a shadow shifted behind the distorted glass window at the top of the door. Seconds later, Matt pulled the door open.

“That was the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard!” Syn exclaimed with a grin as he stepped into view, holding a can of beer—of course. “‘Does he even have a fucking doorbell?’” He quoted Kim in a very high-pitched version of her voice, attaching his own laugh at the end. Matt laughed too, digging those dimples into his cheeks.

“Shush!” Jen snapped, shoving Matt in the chest. He stepped back, and we all walked into the front hall of his home.

“And we aren’t ‘deaf bastards’ either,” Zacky said as he too stepped into the front hall from one of the rooms, putting ‘deaf bastards’ in air-quotes. Rayne just chuckled before pressing a sloppy kiss to Syn’s cheek. “Despite all popular belief.”

“And then you have Melrose,” James began as he, too, came out of a room. They all seemed to be appearing out of thin air! Just POOF, and they’re there. “The ever-logical one.” I smirked at him before pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

“The only logical one,” I corrected, hurling a smirk at the four other girls. They all flipped me the bird, except for Kim, who appeared to be pouting.

“Where’s Johnny?” she peeped, looking up at Matt out of big chocolate brown eyes. Right as Matt went to answer, a knock sounded on the door.

Kim spun around and shot over to the door. She wrenched it open. A shriek escaped her mouth as she saw that it was Johnny. She hurtled into his arms, squeezing him around the ribs rather hard.

“Kim...Kim...Kim!” Johnny gasped as she kept squeezing him tighter and tighter.

“What?” Kim asked, pulling away a little bit to look at him.

“I...can’t...breathe!” he choked out.

“Oh!” Kim said, quickly releasing him. Johnny instantly sucked in air, massaging his ribs. “I’m sorry, love.” She leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to one of his ribs.

“Anyway!” Syn exclaimed loudly. He looked over at Matt. “Where’s the chow? I’m starving because someone—” He shot a glare towards James. “—refuses to go shopping for food!”

“I’m not the only one who can drive, you know.” James replied calmly.

“The dining room is this way.” Matt interjected, cutting off Syn before he could retort. He turned and led the way into a living room. We all followed him as he cut around the furniture and through a second doorway, into a dining room with a large cedar table sitting in the center of it. The dining room looked very elegant, with tan carpet and scarlet walls.

“The table would be set, but I get distracted too easily.” Matt explained with a smile.

“Show me where the plates and stuff are and I’ll set it for you.” Jen offered. Matt nodded and led the way out of a second doorway.

“No making out you two!” I called after them. Both Matt and Jen spun around, looking exasperated.

“Damn you, Melrose!” Jen yelled back.

“You foiled our plan!” Matt said. I just smirked and pointed at my left eye.

“I’m keeping an eye on you two.” I told them. They both turned back around and continued towards the kitchen.

The rest of us sat down at the table. Surprisingly, there was plenty of room for us, and even extra space for Jen and Matt to sit down. Johnny still rubbed his ribs, and Kim still looked apologetic.

“Don’t worry.” she reassured him. She grinned at him, stroking his leg directly above his knee. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“No!” Rayne shouted, pointing at Kim. “Not at the dinner table, please!” Kim just smiled and leaned against Johnny.

Jen came back with a stack of plates and a pile of silverware. She placed a plate down in front of each of us, along with a knife, spoon, and fork. She also placed a couple down for her and Matt before seating herself down behind a plate.

“Melrose did it in the dining room with the fork!” James suddenly announced, acting all excited. We all looked over at him with raised eyebrows. “I figured out all the clues! It was Melrose in the dining room with the fork! You fiend!” he snapped at me. Everyone just gave him blank stares.

“He’s talking about Clue.” I explained calmly. “You know, how it’s like ‘Colonel Mustard murdered that person in the library with the rope’.”

“Ohhhh!” AM exclaimed. “I get it now!” We all laughed as Matt stepped in with a bowl of mashed potatoes and a bowl of corn.

“Did you make this yourself, Matt?” Jen asked as he set the bowls down. He nodded.

“Who volunteers to be the food-taster to make sure it’s not poisoned?” Zacky asked.

“I am actually not that bad of a cook.” Matt said defensively. “Besides, who always cooked for you guys on tour when we didn’t eat out? I did, and you haven’t died yet.”

“Key word: yet,” Syn muttered.

“Oh, shut up, I’m sure he’s a very fine cook.” Jen snapped.

“See? Someone’s confident with my cooking!” Matt replied. Zacky just rolled his eyes.


**********

“This isn’t awkward at all.” Rayne announced sarcastically.

Rayne, Kim, Jen, AM, Syn, Zacky, Matt, James, and I all played Twister, while Johnny, being slightly less coordinated than the rest of us, spun the spinner thing. Somehow, during the course of dinner, we decided that Twister would be a fun after-dinner activity.

Right. Fun. Definitely.

But, really, who doesn’t love twisting yourself into a pretzel on a white mat with pretty dots on it with eight other people? No one. Absolutely, positively no one.

“Right hand red,” Johnny announced. You know, you never realize how strategic of a game Twister is until you play it with eight other people on the same mat. It gets pretty damn difficult with that many people trying to do the same motion even though they’re in different positions.

I slowly snaked my arm around Matt’s arm and tried to stretch my fingers, attempting to reach the red dot. Suddenly, a hand seized my wrist and dragged my hand forward and pressed my palm against one of the red dots. I hadn’t expected the sudden help, and ended up losing my balance. I fell down onto my stomach, hitting Matt’s arm on the way so that it shot out from under him, which caused him to fall down too. I also ended up landing on James’s leg so that it bent at the knee, which caused him to fall down as well. It caused a chain reaction, and within seconds, all nine of us were lying in a heap on the white Twister mat.

You know how in football, after a fumble, there’s always that one guy that jumps on the ball, and then practically all of the other football players land on that one guy? I believe the correct term is dog pile. Well, let’s just say I was the retard on the bottom of the dog pile who had leaped on the ball before the other team could get it.

I could feel a couple people sprawled across my legs and a few people piled up on my torso. I could feel James’s leg underneath my stomach still from when I’d landed on it.

“Okay, so who helped me?” I asked no one in particular, lifting my head up a little bit. It was the only part of me not covered up by other bodies.

“I did,” AM answered with a laugh. “I didn’t know it would cause an avalanche.”

“Warning would have been nice,” I replied. AM just laughed again.

Finally, after about two or three minutes, we had all untangled ourselves from each other.

“So...who won?” Matt asked. We all looked around at each other before shrugging.

“I think Kim would have. She’s a flexible little twig of a woman.” Rayne answered.

“So, what time must you get back home to Daphne?” James asked me.

“I told her midnight, but I doubt she’ll ground us if we’re a bit late.” I answered.

“And what time is it now?” he asked.

“Um...” I looked down at my watch. “Quarter ‘til nine.”

“Sweet, let’s watch a movie!” Syn suggested. “A scary movie!” He grinned over at Rayne, whom he knew hated being scared. But she just smiled back and nodded eagerly.

“Ooh, let’s!” she agreed.

“No, not a scary movie!” Jen whined. She looked a bit distraught, with her pale blue eyes wide in her face, and her bottom lip already trembling a bit. She absolutely, positively, completely, wholly loathed being scared. When we were younger, if we went to haunted houses, she was always the one that came out of it trembling and shaking, with tears streaking down her face. She scares very easily, so we usually shirk away from the scary things if at all possible.

“I’ll protect you.” Matt announced, wrapping his arm around her. Jen wrapped her arm back around his waist, leaning her cheek against his shoulder.

“Oh, fine,” she said, caving in.

“Let’s watch The Exorcist.” I suggested as we all struggled to our feet. “I haven’t seen that movie since I was fourteen or fifteen.”

“I remember that night.” Rayne said as Matt walked over to the entertainment center and began to look through his DVDs for The Exorcist. “I warned you when a really scary part was about to come up.”

“Yep,” I agreed as James sat down on the couch. I sat down in front of him, leaning back against his legs and crossing my legs at the ankles. “But now, I’m watching it all the way through.” Syn sat down beside James on the couch, and Rayne sat in the exact same position that I sat in, leaning back against Syn’s legs. Zacky sat next to Syn, and AM mimicked Rayne and I. Johnny and Kim cuddled up in the one armchair, and Jen slowly sank down onto the loveseat.

Matt turned the large, flat-screen television on, put the DVD in the DVD player, grabbed the remote, and flicked off the light of the living room before settling down next to Jen.


**********

By the end of the movie, all five of us girls had scrambled up into our boyfriend’s lap. Rayne, Kim, AM, and I weren’t really that awfully scared—like I said, I’m not exactly one to scare because of a movie—I think we all just wanted an excuse to cuddle. As for Jen, she was actually, one hundred percent, truly scared. By the end of the first forty-five minutes of the movie, she’d curled up in Matt’s lap, peeking over her knees and his arm at the movie.

As the credits came up, Rayne, Kim, AM, and I all stretched, unfurling ourselves from our boyfriend’s lap. James’s hand lingered on my waist for a second before slipping away as I stood up.

“Is it over?” Jen’s muffled voice reverberated around the room. We all looked over to see her face buried in Matt’s chest, her back to the television.

“Yep,” Kim answered shortly.

“Gee, wasn’t that entertaining?” Jen asked sarcastically as she slowly climbed out of Matt’s lap.

The streetlight in front of Matt’s house threw its yellow glow upon all of us as we stepped out of the front door. It splashed across James’s face, turning it a strange gold-yellow color.

“Thanks for inviting us to dinner.” Rayne said. “And we’ll let you know if we don’t die from your cooking.”

“Okay,” Matt answered with a grin. Rayne bounded down the sidewalk after Syn to kiss him good night. All the couples were sort of breaking apart in the front yard, standing a little away from each other to have a bit of privacy. James linked his fingers with mine as he turned at the end of the sidewalk to face me.

“So I will see you later?” James asked, running his thumb over my knuckles.

“Eventually, yes,” I answered with a smile. “Hopefully soon.”

“Yes, I agree,” he replied.

“Alright,” I said. “Have a very good night, then.”

“You too,” James answered. We both leaned in for a quick kiss. Well, I leaned up, and he leaned down, since he’s a bit taller than me, but you get the point. “See you later,” he breathed against my lips. I smirked and nodded, pressing my lips briefly against his once more before pulling away.

“Let’s go home, bitches!” Rayne exclaimed, flouncing over to the Escalade. I wrapped James up in a brief hug before following the three other girls towards the Escalade, which Rayne had already climbed into.
♠ ♠ ♠
I personally love this chapter.

It was SO fun to write.

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