She's No You

For once in her life, Heather was alone. On her birthday, no less. Almost every day of her teenage life, she had been with someone. Some she loved, some – in retrospect – she hated. But she loved having someone, someone that was just her own.

But she didn’t. She had her best friends – Kellz, Amanda, Daryl, and Caleb – surrounding her and flooding her with gifts. But they all had someone. Even Caleb had a boyfriend. Heather knew who she wanted; she just didn’t know how to get him. There was the whole fact that he had been gone for over a year.

For her birthday, Daryl suggested they go to a club. Even though Daryl didn’t drink and she hated the music that was played, she had this weird fetish for night clubs. Heather liked drinking, so it worked well for her.

They arrived at the club and slivered their way in, telling the bouncer that it was Heather's birthday and she just needed to get in immediately, everyone went and got drinks while Daryl ran over to the DJ and begged for some good music to be played. No one needed to listen to songs about sex all right.

The best she could get was Britney Spears' Womanizer. Heather smiled into her drink as she heard the song. It was such a stupid song, but it had such a good beat. She placed her drink back down at the bar, now empty. Her eyes looked around for Amanda. She needed her to dance with.

However, right as Britney said the word "womanizer", she noticed him across the way. He was dressed in some bright red pants and an equally bright green shirt. He looked like a late Christmas gift from your deranged aunt.

But before she noticed, she was moving towards him. Once she was at him, she didn’t say a word, just clamped her arms around him, even though he was talking to someone.

"Heather!" he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her. He held onto her tighter, longer than he should have. Soon, the two parted and they both were looking at the tall blond before them, with boobs bigger than anyone could possibly want.

"Heather, this is my girlfriend. Girlfriend, this is Heather," Jack said with a smile, his arm wrapped around Heather's shoulder. Heather smiled, forced. It would've been nice to know that Jack was dating someone before she came over here, she heart all ready to be given away to the boy in red.

The girl laughed, a genuine smile spreading onto her face. "Jack's such an idiot. I do have a name. It's Bree." She offered her hand for Heather to shake, so formally, as it was something that people actually still did. Heather took Bree's hand into hers.

"Bree." Heather smiled. She really did seem nice. And she was gorgeous, easily one of the prettiest girls Heather had ever met. She had no idea what to say to the girl.

As silence spread over the three of them, Daryl approached, her boyfriend Alex hanging off her arm, his arms drifting from girl to girl. Sure, he loved Daryl, but her no sex rule kind of didn’t work for him.

"Jack," she called, giving him a hug herself, hers not as long as tight as Heathers, partially because Alex was still hanging off one of her arms. "Alex didn’t tell me you would be here tonight," she said, letting go of the boy. "It's kind of crazy. I'm dating your best friend but I haven’t seen you in a year. That's just messed up, fo sho."

Jack smiled. "There is something wrong with that, dawgg. The truth is, Alex has just wanted to keep me to himself. But, ya know, who can blame him? I'm irresistible!"

Everyone laughed. If Jack was anything, he was entertaining. Daryl and Alex headed off to the dance floor. Either Zack, Rian, Kellz, or Manda had gotten the DJ to play an All Time Low song. There was no way they would not dance to that.

Heather looked at Jack, wanting to be angry at him. But she just couldn’t. Not with him standing right there, more gorgeous than ever. Not with her favourite song of his blasting in the background. She just couldn’t.

"Dance with me," she said instead, taking his hands into her own. She led him out to the dance floor, where everyone was practically having sex – only with a small amount of clothing still covering their bodies. Heather didn’t get the appeal of dancing like that. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Jack's neck as she felt his slide around her waist.

They swayed to the song, one that wasn’t made for any sort of slow dancing. Still, they just moved.

"So, how have you been?" Jack asked Heather, looking down at her, smiling. He had missed her a real lot. He didn’t understand how a year could've past without her there. It just didn’t make sense. Sure, he had Bree, but there was something about losing someone you once loved – love.

"Do you want the truth?" she whispered. "Or just some fabricated lie on how wonderful I've been?"

"The whole truth and nothing but the truth." Jack smiled. Some part of him had always wanted to be a lawyer.

Knowing this, Heather said, "I plead the fifth," a small laugh escaping her smiling mouth. "Really, though," she said, her voice a thousand times more serious than it was before. "I've missed you. Gosh, Jack, I've missed you so much. I don’t know how I lived without you." She looked up at him, the song fading into a song with little meaning.

"Why did you have to go? Why didn’t you contact me? I mean, all my other friends were dating your bandmates. They all got to see you guys. But I never even heard from you. Jack, you're a horrible, horrible person." She paused, breathing in and out, trying to control her anger. "I guess," she said, her voice a painful whisper, "it wouldn’t matter if I want all in love with you."

Jack blinked a couple of times, confused. "In love?" he asked, his voiced louder than needed.

"I said that?" she asked, dumbfounded. She couldn’t understand how she could've let herself say such a thing aloud.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "But did you mean it?"

"Of course," Heather replied. Her arms dropped from his neck, realizing that in just a moment he would be telling her that he didn’t like her. She just needed to get out while you birthday was still not terrible.

"Well," Jack said, not really sure what to say, "I think I might love you, too."

Heather laughed, scoffed, not believing the words that just poured from her friend's lips. Love her? Not him. Not a chance.

"If you love me, you'd kiss me right now."

Jack smiled. "Gladly." And kiss her he did. The kiss was filled with so much love, as cliché as it sounds. Heather could almost feel the love radiating from them as they touched. It was there, it was all around.

Once they parted, her eyes found their way over to Bree, who was turned around, hopefully not having seen the kiss. Heather felt so bad. Kissing another girl's guy was something she told herself she would never do. But still, she had done it.

"Jack, what about Bree? She's so gorgeous and she seems so nice. I'm sure she likes you loads. I can't just have you end that because I want you."

Jack just laughed, as it was all just one big joke. Then again, to Jack Barakat, almost everything was. "Sure, Bree is gorgeous. Sure, she is really nice." Jack paused, taking Heather into his arms once more.

"But she's no you."