A Smile for Your Scrapbooks

A couple hours later, Alex was lounging on my couch watching TV, and I was in the kitchen making something that was remotely edible for lunch. I could hear him clicking through the channels aimlessly, driving me absolutely nuts. What was it with men and channel surfing? Do they find it absolutely necessary? What the hell was the point, anyways? It’s not like you could really tell what’s being shown on that station just by seeing it for two seconds.

I sighed as I stared at the wilted head of lettuce in my hands. I hadn’t been shopping in forever. Usually I ate out, but I was running low on funds. The joys of not having a job.

The door opened and shut, and I walked out of the kitchen to see who it was barging into my house. Much to my glee, it was just Rachel, and she was carrying two large boxes of steaming pizza. She gave me a knowing smile as she pushed past me into the kitchen. I followed her and sat myself on the counter.

“I knew you’d have nothing in this house to eat, so I figured I’d be the awesome friend that I am and get you guys lunch,” my best friend said as she sat the boxes down on the stove.

“Rachel. I love you. Let’s go elope,” I said, my face serious.

She placed a hand to her heart. “As much as that offer appeals to me, I’m going to have to pass, sweetcheeks. You’re not my type.”

A look of mock horror came over my face. “Moi? Not your type? I’m offended. Really.”

Rachel laughed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Go get Alex. I’m sure he’s starving to death out there waiting on food.”

I hopped down off the counter and walked into the living room. I was about to yell at Alex to get his skinny ass into the kitchen for pizza, but I stopped, mouth open. Alex was leaning forward, elbows on his knees and a cell phone attached to his ear. I quietly closed my mouth, and even though I knew it was wrong, I crept forward to listen in.

“No, no. I can’t come back yet. I just got here…Yeah, its great…Excellent neighbors…Um, a party last night, and a surfing lesson today. Haha, no, I almost died, dude…I don’t care what you tell the fans…I need my time, Jack. Just give me that. Yeah, okay. Talk to you later. Bye.”

I quickly crept back to the kitchen, grabbed Rachel, and pulled her upstairs, yelling at Alex that food was in the kitchen and that I’d be down shortly. I practically threw my good friend into my room and shut the door behind me. I wasn’t sure what to think about the conversation that I had just heard. I mean, it all seemed pretty normal until he got to the part about fans.

“Dude, what the fuck, homeslice?” Rachel asked, sitting down on my bed, her brow furrowed as she glared at me.

“I…I overheard Alex on the phone. I don’t know who he was talking to. A friend, co-worker, I don’t know. But he mentioned something about fans,” I said vaguely, sitting down next to her.

Rachel stared at me like I was the stupidest person on the face of the planet. “Um, well, yeah. He’s Alex Gaskarth. What do you expect?”

I blinked a few times. “Alex who?”

Her green eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “Wait, you have no idea who he is? Jordyn, are you serious? You’ve had a famous rock star living next door to you, and you didn’t even know it?”

I threw my arms up in the air in frustration. “Seriously, Rach. If I knew, I wouldn’t be so weirded out about the fans thing. Who the hell is he?”

Rachel pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “Girl, you need to get out more. Badly. Alex Gaskarth is the lead singer of All Time Low. He’s loved by thousands. And he has a voice like an angel,” she informed me as she began searching through her phone.

She showed me a few pictures of him on stage, sweating like the gross man he was, and singing into a microphone. She then actually downloaded one of their songs and played it for me. I think I fell in love in that instant. It was hard not to. Rachel had been right when she had said he had the voice of an angel. I could feel his emotions, the emotions in the song, right to the very core of my being.

“I…Wow. I’m speechless,” I said once the song ended.

“I honestly thought you knew, which is why I never said anything along the lines of ‘Ooh girl, getting it on with Alex Gaskarth, you lucky cow’.”

I groaned and placed my head in my hands. I had thought I had known what he was all about. I figured he was just another guy with another shitty job that just wanted to get away from it all for awhile. But now…things were different. I didn’t understand what it was that he was running away from. He had everything he could ever want, and he was turning his back on it? It didn’t make sense to me.

But apart from all of that, I was actually kind of hurt. I was trying to befriend him, and make his stay here worthwhile, and he wasn’t completely honest with me. He didn’t go right out and lie, no, but not telling me at all was even worse, I thought. Lying by omission.

“What are you thinking about?” Rachel asked softly, placing one of her small hands on my arm.

“I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to look at him the same,” I told her.

She wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. “Jordy, he’s still the same person. Nothing has changed that. Now you just know that he’s famous. That’s all.”

I snorted and shook my head. “Yeah, that’s all.”

“JORDYN! I’m going eat this whole damn pizza if you don’t get down here this instant!”

“Demanding little fart, isn’t he?” Rachel stated, arching a brow as she released me.

“Now I know why too,” I said with a quick roll of my eyes.

We made our way downstairs and found Alex in the kitchen, sitting in the same spot I had been just a few minutes earlier. By a quick glance in the box, I could tell that he had already eaten five slices. Pig.

“Jesus. Hungry, were we?” I asked as I grabbed a slice out.

He nodded and gave me a goofy smile. A little spot of red sauce was stuck just beneath his bottom lip, and I fought back the urge to lick it off.

“So what were you two up there doing?” he asked once he had swallowed his food.

I looked at Rachel out of the corner of my eyes, silently asking her what it was we were going to say.

Thank goodness I could always count on Rachel to come to the rescue.

“Actually, Zachary invited me to this concert tonight at some club. A couple of good friends of his, or something. I was just upstairs raiding Jordy’s closet while persuading her to go with me. Actually, the both of you should come,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

Alex looked hesitant for a second, and then smiled. “Yeah, sure. Sounds great. Jordyn?”

I shrugged one shoulder as I took a bite of pizza. “Works for me.”