Put Your Heart Where Your Mouth Is

When Alex kissed me goodnight before I turned for Wren's hotel room, knowing full well that everyone was watching through the peephole. I opened the door quickly, hoping to catch them in the act, and all of my friends tumbled into a mangled heap in the hallway. Kennedy dusted himself off, and pulled Wren to her feet.

Poor Patrick was stuck underneath both Jared and John with no hope of being saved.. They all flashed me guilty, and extremely nervous smiles. "Have fun?" Pat asked, scratching his tilted head.

"Um, well..." I thought, "We got caught in rush hour, got stuck in the rain, ran for cover in a restaurant that became engulfed in flames...we had horrible translation problems, so, yeah. It was great." I gave them a thumbs up, and walked over them into my brother's room. Garrett was seated on the couch in front of the TV, keeping his eyes off me, and glued purposefully to the screen.

I waited a few minutes in complete silence for him to say something anything, but he kept quiet. "Are you ignoring me on purpose?" I asked casually, twisting the cap off a water bottle. "Or am I just that boring?"

"Both." He shrugged, sticking the end of a Twizzler in his mouth, and ripping off part of it with his teeth. "You're just like every other girl Alex gets his hand on."

I put my hand on my hip, "Excuse me?"

"Nice, innocent girl--You won't be that way for long." He said lightly, with a sickly sweet inflection in his voice. "If you're still a virgin, that'll be gone in the blink of a half-lidded eye--Did you just stomp your foot at me?"

"Yes, Garrett, I did." I sniffed.

"I thought girls only did that on TV." He smirked, and stood up to leave. "See you around."

I watched him give me a parting grimace, before turning down the hallway to the balcony. I debated whether or not to follow him, and ask him what he meant about Alex, but I sat down instead, and mentally kicked myself for it. I didn't care what he had to say. Not about my Alexander William Gaskarth.

"You alright?" Someone said, knocking feebly on the open door. Pat poked his head in the doorway, and gave me a sympathetic smile. "You seem kind of like Kennedy when you wake him up real early in the morning."

"Like brother, like sister." I sighed, "But I think I'm fine."

"Apparently Garrett isn't." He said pointedly, taking a seat next to me. "He's been brooding all night. Did he say anything to you about it?"

"It's like he's trying to scare me, or something." I said, "He kept implying that I wasn't safe with Alex, or something. I don't think he knows what he's talking about." I crossed my arms, and picked anxiously on the string bracelet around my tiny wrist.

"I can't tell if he's having his period, or if he's jealous." Pat smiled, "I think the latter, yeah?"

"Jealous?" I scoffed, "Does he want to date Alex?"

Pat furrowed his eyebrows, and narrowed his eyes. "That was a pathetic excuse for a joke, Andy. And no, Alex isn't his soulmate. You are."

"Garrett and I wouldn't work." I said, defiantly shaking my head.

"You don't know that."

"Are you trying to make things complicated?"

"Are you?" He asked knowingly, looking directly in my eyes.

"I don't like Garrett."

I knew Pat wasn't convinced, but the thing that really bothered me was that I didn't even fully believe myself.