Plug in Baby
Plug in Baby
I glanced around the room quickly, praying that the big muscle-y build that I loved was nowhere in sight. Thankfully I didn’t see him anywhere, so I grabbed the rough, calloused hand of the boy beside me and dragged him upstairs. Most of the party was downstairs, grinding to whatever song was playing through the speakers, but then there were the couples looking for a little more privacy upstairs. I used to be the kind of person who found those random couples making out despicable. Now I am one. Funny how things work out. But hey; at least this is my house.
As soon as we made it through the door to my room, Alex pushed me up against it, attacking my mouth with his own. I tangled my fingers in his gorgeous dirty-blonde hair, tugging at it to make him moan against my lips. His fingers worked their magic as they danced over my skin, teasingly rubbing against my hipbone. We’d always been close, but now we added to it with physical contact, pushing against each other as close as we could get, a desperate need to touch as much of each other as we possibly could. We’d had a drink or two, but we weren’t drunk. We knew what we were doing, and we’d remember it in the morning, but that didn’t phase us in the slightest as we hungrily kissed each other. The passion and friction became unbearable, and I almost ripped his shirt from his tanned chest, but managed to restrain myself enough to ensure that it wasn’t torn when it left his body. His fingers pushed my tank top up at my sides, and slowly, gently, he pulled it off over my head.
It made me remember the first time we’d done this. Circumstances were similar, I suppose. People outside, us keeping it secret, but last time it was at Alex’s mother’s house, in the bathroom, at three thirty in the afternoon. Now it was nine at night, a full on party raging downstairs, in the room that I’d grown up in ever since I moved to Maryland and met him when I was the tender age of ten.
Slowly, agonizingly, my fingernails trailed down his spine to the back of his jeans and circled the waistband around his hips as he grazed my neck and ear with the best kisses anyone will ever receive in their entire life. His breath hitched as I got to the front of his jeans and fiddled with the button. One I had undone it, even slower, I began undoing the zip. He suddenly bit down on my collarbone, telling me to hurry the fuck up, but I didn’t feel like doing whatever he wanted tonight. I just kept up with my fiddling, resisting the urge to give in.
“Are you going to remain tantalizing and unobtainable to me forever?” he growled, breathing into my ear.
“Unobtainable?” I questioned in a breath, but he just reattached his lips to mine. When he broke away to focus his attention on the jeans that I was still wearing, our heavy breath mingling in the little space there was between us, I spoke again in his ear. “How can I be unobtainable if you’ve had me several times before?”
Unexpectedly, he picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist as we made our way over to the bed. He crawled on top of me and returned to my collarbone, but stopped suddenly. Before I could ask, he jumped up and ran over to the door, putting the lock into affect. He smirked at me and we took up where we left off.
Sure enough, he never answered my question.
***
“Alex, do I go shorts or jeans?” I asked him, holding up the two black articles of clothing up to my underwear-clad body. Being the lazy-ass that he is, he was still lying in bed. My bed, may I add. I looked at him through the mirror to see a smirk set upon his lips.
“Neither. You look good naked.”
I rolled my eyes. The typicality of that comment was amusing.
“Dude, I’m not going to a theme park wearing nothing. Help me choose and I might let you see me like this later.”
“Wear a skirt,” he said, now fiddling with his sidekick.
“Why?” I asked suspiciously. He shrugged.
Ignoring his suggestions, I got dressed into my bright blue jeans and an off-the-shoulder Glamour Kills shirt. I washed my face and put on my make-up, etcetera etcetera, and straightened my black and blue hair in my small bathroom before returning to my bedroom, where Alex was still in bed. His eyes were closed and his breathing was even, so I knew he was asleep. I leaned over so my mouth was at his ear.
“Get up you lazy fuck!”
“No,” he grumbled childishly, turning over and putting my pillow over his head. This went on for about three minutes until a force greater than I made Alex jump out of bed so fast he almost hit the ceiling.
“Dannie!!!” A voice we both knew all too well called from down the corridor. I could hear his footsteps coming closer to my room.
“Shit!” I whispered, as Alex tried to get his boxers back on. “Get in my bathroom!”
“What about my clothes?”
“Just get in the bathroom!” I hissed, racing to the other side of my room and kicking Alex’s jeans and shirt from last night under my bed. As soon as I had accomplished this, there was a knock on my door.
“Dannie? Please don’t tell me you’re still in bed…”
Giving my room one last look over, I swung the door open to reveal my brother, in all his morning glory.
“I’m up,” I said quickly. Did I sound too suss? “Wassup?”
“Can’t I check up on my baby sister?” he poked my side before leaning down to hug me.
“Pfft,” I snorted. “You’re a year older than me, yet you still have this obsession of calling me a baby. Maybe I should start calling you a senior citizen.”
Rian laughed and ruffled my hair.
“Hey! Dude, I just straightened it!”
“Calm down, sis. You’re almost as obsessed with your hair as Alex. He has OSD; obsessive straightening disorder.”
I forced myself to laugh, but the mention of my brother’s friend currently half-naked and hiding in my bathroom made me kind of tense. Understandably.
“Speaking of Alex,” Rian continued. “Have you seen him anywhere? I haven’t seen him since last night at the party and he said he was gonna crash here last night.”
I raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips in an attempt to look clueless. Whether it worked or just made me look guilty, I’ll never know.
“Nope. Haven’t seen him. Sorry.”
“Hmm. Okay. Uh, well if we can manage to find Mr Gaskarth then we’ll be leaving in around twenty minutes.”
“Sure thing,” I painted on a smile as my brother left to go back downstairs.
I slammed my door shut and raced across the room, yanking the bathroom door open and grabbing Alex’s wrist. You might have realized that we don’t want my brother knowing about us. You see, Rian loves playing the overprotective brother. He’s actually scared away four guys, which I was mildly pissed off at but didn’t really care that much. I highly doubt he would be thrilled with the idea of me and his best friend, but it’s not like I’m going to deny myself Alex because of my brother, so we just don’t tell him. Let’s keep it that way.
“Come on,” I said. “Put on your clothes and get out of here. Everyone’s looking for you.”
“We don’t have time for a quickie?” he asked mischievously, fingertips reaching for my waist before I brushed them away.
“Nope. Plenty of opportunities later. Now get out here before they get suspicious!”
He quickly dressed and took a moment to re-mess his hair up in the mirror before pecking me lightly on the lips, checking that the coast was clear, and leaving my room.
***
“Now I see why you wanted me to wear a skirt,” I mumbled lowly to Alex as we ran along the wooden corridor of the ‘Jungle House’. Translation: weird obstacle thingo at the theme park. We were currently running over vents that blew warm air upwards.
As soon as I reached the end, I glanced over at him and he had that smirk on his face. He approached me slowly and trapped me against the wall, his arms on either side of my head. His face began to inch closer, but I glanced worriedly around. The others were only a bit ahead of us in this crazy place, and they could come back at any second.
“Not here,” I whispered, when his lips were only an inch away from mine. It was just as painful for me to say.
He pulled away and took my hand, running back the way which we had come.
“Uh, yeah, Alex, we’re not actually supposed to be going this way…”
“Pfft. When have I ever been one to follow the rules?” he scoffed.
“Oh, you rebel, you.” I rolled my eyes to accentuate my sarcasm as we ran out of the house thing, leaving baffled and confused-looking carnival workers in our wake.
“Alex, where are we…”
“Ferris wheel,” he answered my question before I could finish asking it. He tossed a look at me over his shoulder and I simply smirked in return. Yeah, between Alex Gaskarth and me, there’s always a lot of smirking and suggestiveness going on.
After waiting in the line for fifteen minutes, feeling Alex’s hot breath on the back of my neck making me all the more impatient, we finally climbed into our little carriage thing and as soon as the machine started moving, we were attacking each other with our tongues. Again. This happens a lot. This wasn’t even the first time we’d managed to escape the others today to have a little ‘alone’ time. We’d run away before to go on the spider ride (for those of you who don’t know, it’s just a really fast spinning ride. Don’t worry, we didn’t throw up or anything) and for some reason Alex had an umbrella, which he promptly put up when we were in our seats. Weird, yet incredibly satisfying make-out session. I recommend it. Also, we went on the rollercoaster, and when it came time for the photograph we were well-prepared and posing. *cough* Shocked faces, him touching my boob, me touching…*cough* Yeah you know where I’m coming from. And now here we are, at it again on the Ferris wheel.Addicted, much?
The others don’t get too suspicious because Alex and I are pretty much best friends. He’s only a year older than me and we met through my brother, but that doesn’t make us any less close. Quite the contrary…
“Alex!” I gasped, earning yet another smirk from him. Of course I couldn’t see his smirk, but I sure felt it against my neck. “No, I’m serious! We’re almost at the end.”
“Exactly,” he murmured. “Almost.”
I laughed but pushed him off me nonetheless, straightening out my top and ensuring that the button on my jeans was done up. I knew I smelt of him, but I’d have to ignore and deny that. We grinned and joked as we got off the ride and skipped towards an ice-cream store, but were interrupted before we got there.
“You two have sex hair.”
I spun around, startled, to see a guy smirking at us with a knowing glint in his eye. I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Zack, Jack, or most importantly Rian. Now, I’d often make some bitchy remark back telling the guy to mind his own business and stay the fuck away from us, and I fully intended on doing just that until I met his eyes. His chocolate eyes were too deep to be considered swim-able for fear of drowning in them. His coffee hair was styled so that it swept across his left eye and stuck out a little to seem messy, but in that intentional way. Chocolate and coffee always were made to go together. My eyes traveled down from the well-fitting white t-shirt with a guitar design embossed on it to the black skinny jeans and lastly to the beat up black converse sporting several drawings and lyrics, much like mine. He was tall – about the same height as Alex – and skinny, but not ridiculously so. His collarbone and hipbones were nice and defined though… forgive me for staring, but… In a nutshell; this guy was hot.
“Yeah, we do,” I said mischievously. “You, on the other hand… not so lucky.”
He laughed as Alex and I turned to each other, fixing the other’s hair so that it looked as presentable as it was going to get.
“Thanks man,” Alex said, holding out his hand. “I’m Alex.”
“Adam,” the other guy introduced, shaking Alex’s hand with a firm grip.
“And this is Danielle,” Alex said, hands on my shoulders to make me face the hot stranger.
“Dannie,” I corrected, also holding out my hand.
Adam tried to inconspicuously give me a look over, but I noticed. I also noticed his Adams apple rise and fall as he gulped a little before accepting my proffered hand.
“So were we really that obvious?” Alex asked sheepishly.
“Yeah,” Adam laughed. “But don’t worry. I’ve been told I’m particularly observant.”
Before the conversation could progress at all, a girl came up next to Adam, a smile on her face. She was pretty in the traditional way; glossy long brown hair tied in a straight low pony tail, sparkling hazel eyes, olive-toned skin and wearing a pretty white dress.
“Hey Adam,” she said happily before turning to us. “Hey people talking to Adam.”
Adam rolled his eyes humorously, but the girl didn’t notice. She was staring at Alex, seeming lost in thought.
“Dannie, Alex, this is my sister Jess. Jess, this is Dannie and Alex.”
“I knew it!” Jess clicked her fingers and pointed to Alex. “You’re in All Time Low, aren’t you?”
Alex chuckled lightly and brought his hand to the back of his neck; a nervous habit of his.
“Yeah. That’s me.”
“Awesome!” Jess smiled. “I love your music. Adam does too.”
“I thought it was you,” Adam said, slightly embarrassed by Jess’s confession for him. “But I didn’t want to freak you out or anything. My sister obviously sees things differently.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” Alex shrugged, and before long he and Jess were caught up in vivid discussion, which left me to speak to Adam. Oh poor me.
“So how old are you?” he asked me, trying to strike up casual conversation.
“Seventeen,” I answered. “Yourself?”
“The same,” he grinned. “Something in common.”
“Indeed…”
And so began the game of twenty questions. The four of us ended up sitting at a nearby table for half an hour, still absorbed in our own discussions. The whole getting-to-know each other thing was interrupted by the sound of Jess’s phone ringing.
“Hello?” she answered. “…Yeah… no, we’re still there… but… fine… yeah whatever. Bye.”
She snapped her phone shut and turned to Adam.
“Mom?” he questioned.
“Yep,” she said, more than just a hint of annoyance in her tone. “She wants us back by four, so we better leg it.”
Adam nodded and the two of them stood up, Alex and I mirroring. A glint of silver from under Adam’s hair caught my eye. He had a small stud in his ear. Cool.
“It was great meeting you guys,” Jess said sincerely. “Our friends kind of ditched us to go make out, and we weren’t too keen on coming here in the first place, so yeah.”
I blushed a little, considering that’s exactly what Alex and I had done to our friends. Adam noticed and chuckled.
“We should hang out again some time,” he said.
“For sure,” I replied. “Here, give me your number.”
I handed him my phone, Alex and Jess standing waiting for us having already exchanged digits. He handed it back a minute later, smiling shyly.
“Found you!”
Alex and I spun around just in time to be hit with three masses of people that just happened to be my brother and his other best friends. Jess and Adam watched on in amusement.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you, sis,” Rian commented, leaning on my shoulder.
“You’re Rian’s sister?” Jess blurted out accidentally.
“Yep,” he answered for me. “And you are…”
“Guys, this is Jess and Adam,” I began. “And this is Jack, Zack, and my senior citizen brother Rian.”
Murmurs of greeting were tossed around before Rian pushed me out of the way slowly, narrowing his eyes at Adam. 'Oh god, not again!'
“My sister’s very special to me, Adam.” 'Here we go.' “If you so much as lay a finger on her I will ensure your permanent paralysis.”
I hit my head with my palm, and Adam smirked softly at me, looking quickly between me and Alex. Thankfully, he figured out that telling Rian anything wouldn’t end well for anyone. Jack and Zack also repeated the eye-narrowing process, but impressively Adam managed to stand his ground.
“And Dannie’s got awesome friends with good connections,” Jack threw in.
“Namely us,” Zack added threateningly.
Okay, this is the part where I have to save him.
“Don’t worry guys, we’re not eloping.” I rolled my eyes. “But you two had to get going, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jess said. “See you ‘round.”
She waved and ducked into the crowd, Adam saying a swift ‘Goodbye’ and following her. I turned around to glare at my three bodyguards, who proceeded to burst into laughter. Typical.
***
“Can you stay tonight?” Alex whispered in my ear as we drove back from the park, Rian and Jack sitting in the front talking loudly and obnoxiously, and Zack snoring softly beside me as I leaned my head on Alex’s shoulder from exhaustion.
“Nuh-huh.” I shook my head. “Mom wants as many family dinners or whatever as possible this month before we all leave on tour and I’m too tired to sneak out tonight, let alone to anything else that requires energy, if you get my drift.”
“Okay sweetie,” he said, kissing my forehead as the car pulled to a stop outside my house and Rian and I got out.
“Love you,” he whispered.
“Ditto.”
***
The next morning, I walked casually down the street. It was earlier than I was usually up, but some unknown force opened my eyelids and propelled me out of bed at seven thirty. I had quickly dressed in a black, blue and yellow striped summer dress, straightened my hair and did all the usual before heading straight out the front door. No one else was up so I left a note attached to the fridge. I didn’t bother eating. Where I was going, there’d be the best waffles ever.
Walking along, the cool breeze licked at my bare arms and legs pleasantly and by the time I got to my destination half an hour later, the sun was up and shining through the trees, illuminating the grass green leaves. I knocked on the door, but when no one let me in I just got my key and unlocked the door myself. Alex was nowhere in sight, so I began my ascent of the stairs and down the corridor to his bedroom. He must’ve still been sleeping. I opened the door a crack and peeked through, but Alex was not the only person asleep. Some blonde chick lay beside him, and by the clothes discarded on the floor I’m guessing that they were both naked. I didn’t leave, but I slammed the door violently behind me, causing the two to wake up.
The girl, messy hair and panda eyed, gasped startled and yanked the bed sheets up to cover her bare chest. Alex lazily lifted his eyelids, eyes widening when he saw me standing there, arms crossed over my chest. I glared at him before looking sweetly at the girl.
“Hi,” I said. “My name’s Dannie. What’s yours?”
“C-Casey,” she stuttered, clearly scared stiff.
“Oh that’s nice. May I ask what you’re doing in bed with my boyfriend?”
Her eyes widened even further, looking between Alex and me.
“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered, leaping out of the bed, grabbing her clothes and running downstairs. I saw much more than I wanted to.
I looked over at Alex who had a guilty grin on his face, and soon we had both broken out into loud laughter.
Oh, I’m sorry. Did you think Alex and I were actually together? Haha no. He’s the biggest manwhore about this part of town, and my best friend who I trust with my life. I’m a bit of a whore myself and I’m his best friend who he trusts with his life. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce; friends with benefits. Alex and I love each other, sure, and we’re physically attracted to each other, but nothing’s ever going to go any further than that. We love each other, but we’re not in love with each other. Get it? So yeah, whenever I catch him in bed with someone or he catches me in bed with someone (the someone supposed to only have been a one-night stand), it’s our duty to scare said someone away. Many one-night standers can become clingy, therefore defeating the purpose of a one-night stand. We need to help each other out.
“You whore,” I shoved him lightly on the arm and flopped down beside him in his bed.
“I do what I can,” he grinned.
“So was she good?” I asked. This is also routine.
“On a scale of one to ten, you being ten, I’d give her about a six.”
“Really? Not that great huh?”
“Well not bad, just not exceptional. Maybe a six point five.”
“Are you calling me exceptional?” I cocked an eyebrow, daring him to answer.
He laughed. “Dannie, honey, you are exceptional. You can’t get better sex than you.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.”
***
Over the next week, I found myself really not in the mood for having sex with Alex. This is really weird, because like I said, I’m a bit of a whore and usually we fuck each other whenever we get the chance. Now whenever he’s not in the mood and I need it, I’ll go get someone else. He does the same thing. So I’ve seen about eight different girls leaving his house satisfied over the last week, and still had no desire to go fuck a random. This is so unlike me. I would’ve loved to talk to someone about it, but I didn’t have anyone to go to. Alex would be biased, Rian would be murderous, and the thought of even discussing it with my mom made me sick. There was Jack and Zack, but those two were incapable of keeping a secret and if I told them about Alex and our little sexcapades they were sure to accidentally spill to my brother. This would result in all of us having to attend the funeral for one Alexander William Gaskarth. Not the ideal outcome.
Luckily, I managed to figure out for myself why I’d been feeling so weird. I didn’t want meaningless sex anymore. I didn’t want all this secrecy. I didn’t want any of it.
All I wanted was for someone to love me. Or to be pessimistic, if love doesn’t exist then to just have someone to hold me, and whisper in my ear that everything will turn out fine. Alex did that, but he loved me as a friend, just as I loved him. I wanted someone to actually love me. Someone to be in love with me.
Oh how pre-teen. Desperately wanting a boyfriend. How embarrassing.
“Hey Dannie!” Alex greeted, wrapping his arms around me in a hug. I hugged back.
“Hey Gaskarth.”
He leaned in to press his lips to mine, but I turned my head away before he could catch them.
“Dannie what’s wrong?” he asked, concern filling his eyes. “You’re not acting like you.”
“Sorry,” I said, leaning against his warm chest. “I just… I don’t know.”
“You know I’m here for you, right? To listen or whatever.”
“Yeah I know,” I said as he pulled me over to my couch and sat me down. I took a deep breath. “Okay, here it is. I want a boyfriend.”
He blinked. “Are you serious? That’s what’s bothering you?”
I groaned. “Shut up bitch! I know how stupid it sounds.”
He was silent for a few minutes, staring into space before looking back at me.
“Does this mean that whatever our relationship is is over?”
I gulped and looked at him.
“Well if I do get with someone then yeah. I’m not going to fuck you behind my boyfriend’s back. I’m not that much of a whore.”
“If that’s what you want,” he smiled at me and kissed my forehead. “But remember that we’re always best friends, and I’m here for you whenever you need me. You’ve also got the handy little gang of four to beat up anyone who tries to hurt you.”
I laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
We sat around in a comfortable silence for about five minutes. No one else was home, so it didn’t seem weird. Alex, however, broke the silence with a smirk.
“So if our physical relationship is over, can we at least have one last round of break up sex? You know, for old time’s sake?”
I let a laugh escape my lips before returning his smirk, and quickly straddling his waist where he sat.
“No time like the present, right?”
***
Alex had left. Rian and our parents were home, doing whatever around the house. We’d just had dinner, and now I was sitting in my room, staring at my phone and chewing my lip.
Do I do it, or not?
Yes.
No.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
I hadn’t been this nervous in a long time.
'Just do it.' I told myself. 'Just take a deep breath and take the plunge.'
I did as I told myself and took in a deep breathor five and tapped the green button harshly with my thumb nail. I held the last breath I took as I brought my phone to my ear and waited for an answer.
“Hello?”
“Hey Adam. It’s Dannie.”
As soon as we made it through the door to my room, Alex pushed me up against it, attacking my mouth with his own. I tangled my fingers in his gorgeous dirty-blonde hair, tugging at it to make him moan against my lips. His fingers worked their magic as they danced over my skin, teasingly rubbing against my hipbone. We’d always been close, but now we added to it with physical contact, pushing against each other as close as we could get, a desperate need to touch as much of each other as we possibly could. We’d had a drink or two, but we weren’t drunk. We knew what we were doing, and we’d remember it in the morning, but that didn’t phase us in the slightest as we hungrily kissed each other. The passion and friction became unbearable, and I almost ripped his shirt from his tanned chest, but managed to restrain myself enough to ensure that it wasn’t torn when it left his body. His fingers pushed my tank top up at my sides, and slowly, gently, he pulled it off over my head.
It made me remember the first time we’d done this. Circumstances were similar, I suppose. People outside, us keeping it secret, but last time it was at Alex’s mother’s house, in the bathroom, at three thirty in the afternoon. Now it was nine at night, a full on party raging downstairs, in the room that I’d grown up in ever since I moved to Maryland and met him when I was the tender age of ten.
Slowly, agonizingly, my fingernails trailed down his spine to the back of his jeans and circled the waistband around his hips as he grazed my neck and ear with the best kisses anyone will ever receive in their entire life. His breath hitched as I got to the front of his jeans and fiddled with the button. One I had undone it, even slower, I began undoing the zip. He suddenly bit down on my collarbone, telling me to hurry the fuck up, but I didn’t feel like doing whatever he wanted tonight. I just kept up with my fiddling, resisting the urge to give in.
“Are you going to remain tantalizing and unobtainable to me forever?” he growled, breathing into my ear.
“Unobtainable?” I questioned in a breath, but he just reattached his lips to mine. When he broke away to focus his attention on the jeans that I was still wearing, our heavy breath mingling in the little space there was between us, I spoke again in his ear. “How can I be unobtainable if you’ve had me several times before?”
Unexpectedly, he picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist as we made our way over to the bed. He crawled on top of me and returned to my collarbone, but stopped suddenly. Before I could ask, he jumped up and ran over to the door, putting the lock into affect. He smirked at me and we took up where we left off.
Sure enough, he never answered my question.
***
“Alex, do I go shorts or jeans?” I asked him, holding up the two black articles of clothing up to my underwear-clad body. Being the lazy-ass that he is, he was still lying in bed. My bed, may I add. I looked at him through the mirror to see a smirk set upon his lips.
“Neither. You look good naked.”
I rolled my eyes. The typicality of that comment was amusing.
“Dude, I’m not going to a theme park wearing nothing. Help me choose and I might let you see me like this later.”
“Wear a skirt,” he said, now fiddling with his sidekick.
“Why?” I asked suspiciously. He shrugged.
Ignoring his suggestions, I got dressed into my bright blue jeans and an off-the-shoulder Glamour Kills shirt. I washed my face and put on my make-up, etcetera etcetera, and straightened my black and blue hair in my small bathroom before returning to my bedroom, where Alex was still in bed. His eyes were closed and his breathing was even, so I knew he was asleep. I leaned over so my mouth was at his ear.
“Get up you lazy fuck!”
“No,” he grumbled childishly, turning over and putting my pillow over his head. This went on for about three minutes until a force greater than I made Alex jump out of bed so fast he almost hit the ceiling.
“Dannie!!!” A voice we both knew all too well called from down the corridor. I could hear his footsteps coming closer to my room.
“Shit!” I whispered, as Alex tried to get his boxers back on. “Get in my bathroom!”
“What about my clothes?”
“Just get in the bathroom!” I hissed, racing to the other side of my room and kicking Alex’s jeans and shirt from last night under my bed. As soon as I had accomplished this, there was a knock on my door.
“Dannie? Please don’t tell me you’re still in bed…”
Giving my room one last look over, I swung the door open to reveal my brother, in all his morning glory.
“I’m up,” I said quickly. Did I sound too suss? “Wassup?”
“Can’t I check up on my baby sister?” he poked my side before leaning down to hug me.
“Pfft,” I snorted. “You’re a year older than me, yet you still have this obsession of calling me a baby. Maybe I should start calling you a senior citizen.”
Rian laughed and ruffled my hair.
“Hey! Dude, I just straightened it!”
“Calm down, sis. You’re almost as obsessed with your hair as Alex. He has OSD; obsessive straightening disorder.”
I forced myself to laugh, but the mention of my brother’s friend currently half-naked and hiding in my bathroom made me kind of tense. Understandably.
“Speaking of Alex,” Rian continued. “Have you seen him anywhere? I haven’t seen him since last night at the party and he said he was gonna crash here last night.”
I raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips in an attempt to look clueless. Whether it worked or just made me look guilty, I’ll never know.
“Nope. Haven’t seen him. Sorry.”
“Hmm. Okay. Uh, well if we can manage to find Mr Gaskarth then we’ll be leaving in around twenty minutes.”
“Sure thing,” I painted on a smile as my brother left to go back downstairs.
I slammed my door shut and raced across the room, yanking the bathroom door open and grabbing Alex’s wrist. You might have realized that we don’t want my brother knowing about us. You see, Rian loves playing the overprotective brother. He’s actually scared away four guys, which I was mildly pissed off at but didn’t really care that much. I highly doubt he would be thrilled with the idea of me and his best friend, but it’s not like I’m going to deny myself Alex because of my brother, so we just don’t tell him. Let’s keep it that way.
“Come on,” I said. “Put on your clothes and get out of here. Everyone’s looking for you.”
“We don’t have time for a quickie?” he asked mischievously, fingertips reaching for my waist before I brushed them away.
“Nope. Plenty of opportunities later. Now get out here before they get suspicious!”
He quickly dressed and took a moment to re-mess his hair up in the mirror before pecking me lightly on the lips, checking that the coast was clear, and leaving my room.
***
“Now I see why you wanted me to wear a skirt,” I mumbled lowly to Alex as we ran along the wooden corridor of the ‘Jungle House’. Translation: weird obstacle thingo at the theme park. We were currently running over vents that blew warm air upwards.
As soon as I reached the end, I glanced over at him and he had that smirk on his face. He approached me slowly and trapped me against the wall, his arms on either side of my head. His face began to inch closer, but I glanced worriedly around. The others were only a bit ahead of us in this crazy place, and they could come back at any second.
“Not here,” I whispered, when his lips were only an inch away from mine. It was just as painful for me to say.
He pulled away and took my hand, running back the way which we had come.
“Uh, yeah, Alex, we’re not actually supposed to be going this way…”
“Pfft. When have I ever been one to follow the rules?” he scoffed.
“Oh, you rebel, you.” I rolled my eyes to accentuate my sarcasm as we ran out of the house thing, leaving baffled and confused-looking carnival workers in our wake.
“Alex, where are we…”
“Ferris wheel,” he answered my question before I could finish asking it. He tossed a look at me over his shoulder and I simply smirked in return. Yeah, between Alex Gaskarth and me, there’s always a lot of smirking and suggestiveness going on.
After waiting in the line for fifteen minutes, feeling Alex’s hot breath on the back of my neck making me all the more impatient, we finally climbed into our little carriage thing and as soon as the machine started moving, we were attacking each other with our tongues. Again. This happens a lot. This wasn’t even the first time we’d managed to escape the others today to have a little ‘alone’ time. We’d run away before to go on the spider ride (for those of you who don’t know, it’s just a really fast spinning ride. Don’t worry, we didn’t throw up or anything) and for some reason Alex had an umbrella, which he promptly put up when we were in our seats. Weird, yet incredibly satisfying make-out session. I recommend it. Also, we went on the rollercoaster, and when it came time for the photograph we were well-prepared and posing. *cough* Shocked faces, him touching my boob, me touching…*cough* Yeah you know where I’m coming from. And now here we are, at it again on the Ferris wheel.Addicted, much?
The others don’t get too suspicious because Alex and I are pretty much best friends. He’s only a year older than me and we met through my brother, but that doesn’t make us any less close. Quite the contrary…
“Alex!” I gasped, earning yet another smirk from him. Of course I couldn’t see his smirk, but I sure felt it against my neck. “No, I’m serious! We’re almost at the end.”
“Exactly,” he murmured. “Almost.”
I laughed but pushed him off me nonetheless, straightening out my top and ensuring that the button on my jeans was done up. I knew I smelt of him, but I’d have to ignore and deny that. We grinned and joked as we got off the ride and skipped towards an ice-cream store, but were interrupted before we got there.
“You two have sex hair.”
I spun around, startled, to see a guy smirking at us with a knowing glint in his eye. I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Zack, Jack, or most importantly Rian. Now, I’d often make some bitchy remark back telling the guy to mind his own business and stay the fuck away from us, and I fully intended on doing just that until I met his eyes. His chocolate eyes were too deep to be considered swim-able for fear of drowning in them. His coffee hair was styled so that it swept across his left eye and stuck out a little to seem messy, but in that intentional way. Chocolate and coffee always were made to go together. My eyes traveled down from the well-fitting white t-shirt with a guitar design embossed on it to the black skinny jeans and lastly to the beat up black converse sporting several drawings and lyrics, much like mine. He was tall – about the same height as Alex – and skinny, but not ridiculously so. His collarbone and hipbones were nice and defined though… forgive me for staring, but… In a nutshell; this guy was hot.
“Yeah, we do,” I said mischievously. “You, on the other hand… not so lucky.”
He laughed as Alex and I turned to each other, fixing the other’s hair so that it looked as presentable as it was going to get.
“Thanks man,” Alex said, holding out his hand. “I’m Alex.”
“Adam,” the other guy introduced, shaking Alex’s hand with a firm grip.
“And this is Danielle,” Alex said, hands on my shoulders to make me face the hot stranger.
“Dannie,” I corrected, also holding out my hand.
Adam tried to inconspicuously give me a look over, but I noticed. I also noticed his Adams apple rise and fall as he gulped a little before accepting my proffered hand.
“So were we really that obvious?” Alex asked sheepishly.
“Yeah,” Adam laughed. “But don’t worry. I’ve been told I’m particularly observant.”
Before the conversation could progress at all, a girl came up next to Adam, a smile on her face. She was pretty in the traditional way; glossy long brown hair tied in a straight low pony tail, sparkling hazel eyes, olive-toned skin and wearing a pretty white dress.
“Hey Adam,” she said happily before turning to us. “Hey people talking to Adam.”
Adam rolled his eyes humorously, but the girl didn’t notice. She was staring at Alex, seeming lost in thought.
“Dannie, Alex, this is my sister Jess. Jess, this is Dannie and Alex.”
“I knew it!” Jess clicked her fingers and pointed to Alex. “You’re in All Time Low, aren’t you?”
Alex chuckled lightly and brought his hand to the back of his neck; a nervous habit of his.
“Yeah. That’s me.”
“Awesome!” Jess smiled. “I love your music. Adam does too.”
“I thought it was you,” Adam said, slightly embarrassed by Jess’s confession for him. “But I didn’t want to freak you out or anything. My sister obviously sees things differently.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” Alex shrugged, and before long he and Jess were caught up in vivid discussion, which left me to speak to Adam. Oh poor me.
“So how old are you?” he asked me, trying to strike up casual conversation.
“Seventeen,” I answered. “Yourself?”
“The same,” he grinned. “Something in common.”
“Indeed…”
And so began the game of twenty questions. The four of us ended up sitting at a nearby table for half an hour, still absorbed in our own discussions. The whole getting-to-know each other thing was interrupted by the sound of Jess’s phone ringing.
“Hello?” she answered. “…Yeah… no, we’re still there… but… fine… yeah whatever. Bye.”
She snapped her phone shut and turned to Adam.
“Mom?” he questioned.
“Yep,” she said, more than just a hint of annoyance in her tone. “She wants us back by four, so we better leg it.”
Adam nodded and the two of them stood up, Alex and I mirroring. A glint of silver from under Adam’s hair caught my eye. He had a small stud in his ear. Cool.
“It was great meeting you guys,” Jess said sincerely. “Our friends kind of ditched us to go make out, and we weren’t too keen on coming here in the first place, so yeah.”
I blushed a little, considering that’s exactly what Alex and I had done to our friends. Adam noticed and chuckled.
“We should hang out again some time,” he said.
“For sure,” I replied. “Here, give me your number.”
I handed him my phone, Alex and Jess standing waiting for us having already exchanged digits. He handed it back a minute later, smiling shyly.
“Found you!”
Alex and I spun around just in time to be hit with three masses of people that just happened to be my brother and his other best friends. Jess and Adam watched on in amusement.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you, sis,” Rian commented, leaning on my shoulder.
“You’re Rian’s sister?” Jess blurted out accidentally.
“Yep,” he answered for me. “And you are…”
“Guys, this is Jess and Adam,” I began. “And this is Jack, Zack, and my senior citizen brother Rian.”
Murmurs of greeting were tossed around before Rian pushed me out of the way slowly, narrowing his eyes at Adam. 'Oh god, not again!'
“My sister’s very special to me, Adam.” 'Here we go.' “If you so much as lay a finger on her I will ensure your permanent paralysis.”
I hit my head with my palm, and Adam smirked softly at me, looking quickly between me and Alex. Thankfully, he figured out that telling Rian anything wouldn’t end well for anyone. Jack and Zack also repeated the eye-narrowing process, but impressively Adam managed to stand his ground.
“And Dannie’s got awesome friends with good connections,” Jack threw in.
“Namely us,” Zack added threateningly.
Okay, this is the part where I have to save him.
“Don’t worry guys, we’re not eloping.” I rolled my eyes. “But you two had to get going, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jess said. “See you ‘round.”
She waved and ducked into the crowd, Adam saying a swift ‘Goodbye’ and following her. I turned around to glare at my three bodyguards, who proceeded to burst into laughter. Typical.
***
“Can you stay tonight?” Alex whispered in my ear as we drove back from the park, Rian and Jack sitting in the front talking loudly and obnoxiously, and Zack snoring softly beside me as I leaned my head on Alex’s shoulder from exhaustion.
“Nuh-huh.” I shook my head. “Mom wants as many family dinners or whatever as possible this month before we all leave on tour and I’m too tired to sneak out tonight, let alone to anything else that requires energy, if you get my drift.”
“Okay sweetie,” he said, kissing my forehead as the car pulled to a stop outside my house and Rian and I got out.
“Love you,” he whispered.
“Ditto.”
***
The next morning, I walked casually down the street. It was earlier than I was usually up, but some unknown force opened my eyelids and propelled me out of bed at seven thirty. I had quickly dressed in a black, blue and yellow striped summer dress, straightened my hair and did all the usual before heading straight out the front door. No one else was up so I left a note attached to the fridge. I didn’t bother eating. Where I was going, there’d be the best waffles ever.
Walking along, the cool breeze licked at my bare arms and legs pleasantly and by the time I got to my destination half an hour later, the sun was up and shining through the trees, illuminating the grass green leaves. I knocked on the door, but when no one let me in I just got my key and unlocked the door myself. Alex was nowhere in sight, so I began my ascent of the stairs and down the corridor to his bedroom. He must’ve still been sleeping. I opened the door a crack and peeked through, but Alex was not the only person asleep. Some blonde chick lay beside him, and by the clothes discarded on the floor I’m guessing that they were both naked. I didn’t leave, but I slammed the door violently behind me, causing the two to wake up.
The girl, messy hair and panda eyed, gasped startled and yanked the bed sheets up to cover her bare chest. Alex lazily lifted his eyelids, eyes widening when he saw me standing there, arms crossed over my chest. I glared at him before looking sweetly at the girl.
“Hi,” I said. “My name’s Dannie. What’s yours?”
“C-Casey,” she stuttered, clearly scared stiff.
“Oh that’s nice. May I ask what you’re doing in bed with my boyfriend?”
Her eyes widened even further, looking between Alex and me.
“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered, leaping out of the bed, grabbing her clothes and running downstairs. I saw much more than I wanted to.
I looked over at Alex who had a guilty grin on his face, and soon we had both broken out into loud laughter.
Oh, I’m sorry. Did you think Alex and I were actually together? Haha no. He’s the biggest manwhore about this part of town, and my best friend who I trust with my life. I’m a bit of a whore myself and I’m his best friend who he trusts with his life. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce; friends with benefits. Alex and I love each other, sure, and we’re physically attracted to each other, but nothing’s ever going to go any further than that. We love each other, but we’re not in love with each other. Get it? So yeah, whenever I catch him in bed with someone or he catches me in bed with someone (the someone supposed to only have been a one-night stand), it’s our duty to scare said someone away. Many one-night standers can become clingy, therefore defeating the purpose of a one-night stand. We need to help each other out.
“You whore,” I shoved him lightly on the arm and flopped down beside him in his bed.
“I do what I can,” he grinned.
“So was she good?” I asked. This is also routine.
“On a scale of one to ten, you being ten, I’d give her about a six.”
“Really? Not that great huh?”
“Well not bad, just not exceptional. Maybe a six point five.”
“Are you calling me exceptional?” I cocked an eyebrow, daring him to answer.
He laughed. “Dannie, honey, you are exceptional. You can’t get better sex than you.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.”
***
Over the next week, I found myself really not in the mood for having sex with Alex. This is really weird, because like I said, I’m a bit of a whore and usually we fuck each other whenever we get the chance. Now whenever he’s not in the mood and I need it, I’ll go get someone else. He does the same thing. So I’ve seen about eight different girls leaving his house satisfied over the last week, and still had no desire to go fuck a random. This is so unlike me. I would’ve loved to talk to someone about it, but I didn’t have anyone to go to. Alex would be biased, Rian would be murderous, and the thought of even discussing it with my mom made me sick. There was Jack and Zack, but those two were incapable of keeping a secret and if I told them about Alex and our little sexcapades they were sure to accidentally spill to my brother. This would result in all of us having to attend the funeral for one Alexander William Gaskarth. Not the ideal outcome.
Luckily, I managed to figure out for myself why I’d been feeling so weird. I didn’t want meaningless sex anymore. I didn’t want all this secrecy. I didn’t want any of it.
All I wanted was for someone to love me. Or to be pessimistic, if love doesn’t exist then to just have someone to hold me, and whisper in my ear that everything will turn out fine. Alex did that, but he loved me as a friend, just as I loved him. I wanted someone to actually love me. Someone to be in love with me.
Oh how pre-teen. Desperately wanting a boyfriend. How embarrassing.
“Hey Dannie!” Alex greeted, wrapping his arms around me in a hug. I hugged back.
“Hey Gaskarth.”
He leaned in to press his lips to mine, but I turned my head away before he could catch them.
“Dannie what’s wrong?” he asked, concern filling his eyes. “You’re not acting like you.”
“Sorry,” I said, leaning against his warm chest. “I just… I don’t know.”
“You know I’m here for you, right? To listen or whatever.”
“Yeah I know,” I said as he pulled me over to my couch and sat me down. I took a deep breath. “Okay, here it is. I want a boyfriend.”
He blinked. “Are you serious? That’s what’s bothering you?”
I groaned. “Shut up bitch! I know how stupid it sounds.”
He was silent for a few minutes, staring into space before looking back at me.
“Does this mean that whatever our relationship is is over?”
I gulped and looked at him.
“Well if I do get with someone then yeah. I’m not going to fuck you behind my boyfriend’s back. I’m not that much of a whore.”
“If that’s what you want,” he smiled at me and kissed my forehead. “But remember that we’re always best friends, and I’m here for you whenever you need me. You’ve also got the handy little gang of four to beat up anyone who tries to hurt you.”
I laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
We sat around in a comfortable silence for about five minutes. No one else was home, so it didn’t seem weird. Alex, however, broke the silence with a smirk.
“So if our physical relationship is over, can we at least have one last round of break up sex? You know, for old time’s sake?”
I let a laugh escape my lips before returning his smirk, and quickly straddling his waist where he sat.
“No time like the present, right?”
***
Alex had left. Rian and our parents were home, doing whatever around the house. We’d just had dinner, and now I was sitting in my room, staring at my phone and chewing my lip.
Do I do it, or not?
Yes.
No.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
I hadn’t been this nervous in a long time.
'Just do it.' I told myself. 'Just take a deep breath and take the plunge.'
I did as I told myself and took in a deep breathor five and tapped the green button harshly with my thumb nail. I held the last breath I took as I brought my phone to my ear and waited for an answer.
“Hello?”
“Hey Adam. It’s Dannie.”