Alas, I Cannot Swim.

and run away from all of my fear

Thomas face was turning a deep shade of red. Oliver could see that and yet it never stopped him from tormenting his younger brother. Instead he turned his iPod, which was plugged into the car radio, up as high as it would allow and kept singing ridiculously out of tune along with Hilary Duffs voice. Thomas only tried his hardest to ignore Oliver and instead focused on driving.

Sheffield was uncharacteristically warm that day, the sun being out from dawn and gave no signs of leaving any time soon. Unfortunately for the Sykes brothers they had to work for the day and were on their way to pick up Ava before heading to the recording studio where the rest of the band was.

“God, yeh can ‘ear ye singing from down the street Ol’s” Ava giggled, struggling to be heard over the still blaring music as she climbed into the back of Thomas’s beat up Volkswagen.

Oliver turned the music down so that he was able to take a break from his singing and talk to Ava. He struggled to turn around in his seat, his seatbelt causing him more problems than necessary, his face eventually meting with Ava’s.

“Think I might ditch the metal scene and see if Disney will take meh on” Oliver smiled at Ava, puffing his cheeks full of air so he could blow his fringe from his eyes.

“Don’t take offence when they hate yeh” Thomas muttered although the rest of the car heard him causing his to receive a hard punch to his left shoulder. Oliver laughed at the muttered curse words Thomas ranted out.

Ava watched the brothers with amusement in her eyes. She being an only child never understood the hatred and love that came between siblings. They could be each other best friends and worst enemies all at once. That thought had always frightened her a little, never being able to understand the motives of the one person that’s meant to be closest to you.

*****

The bands second home, or recording studio depending on who you where talking to, was a dump. Worse than all the boys real homes put together. Instruments, food containers, empty bottles of every available material, unwashed dishes, magazines, CDs, clothes just lying around everywhere. And that mess was only from the beginning of the day as they were made to clean up every night before they left.

Ava received a warm welcome from the occupants of the studio when they arrived, the Sykes welcome being a little less enthusiastic.

Once everyone had said what they wanted to say to each other they all split up into different groups. Thomas ended up with Ava in the kitchen area both condemned to work on Oliver’s clothing company as he worked on the bands new album.

Ava watched Thomas as he sorted through a mountain of paperwork, a smile tugging at her lips when he would screw up his face trying to understand what he was meant to be doing. Thomas fascinated her. He wasn’t like any of the other boys. As quiet as Lee maybe but nothing else like his personality. At first she was overwhelmed with the wide range of personalities within the group but as time went on she got used to all the boys, Thomas being the only exception.

“Did I do something to upset you Tom?” Ava’s quiet voice broke his trance. Startled and not quiet sure what to say, Thomas removed his eyes from the unreadable words on the documents in front of him to the gentle face of the women who had plagued his dreams for weeks. Ava did scare him but she had never hurt him. That she needed to know of at least.

“’Course not” Thomas smiled over to her, his heart slowing back to a normal rhythm when relief filled her face.

“Just checking” Ava smiled back at him reaching over for half of the paperwork, her body relaxing at the thought that she had not upset anyone.

Thomas took a minute to watch Ava’s movements. Her presence mesmerized him to the point that he thought he would lose his mind. And yet he found himself unable to remove himself from her company. He couldn’t be away from her even if he wanted to.