You Belong With Me

Taylor's P.O.V.

Half an hour later (yes, that's how long it took), Alex collapsed on the bed next to me, both of our chests heaving up and down. I won't gross you out with the details, but lets just say that was the most incredible half hour of my life.

“That,” he said breathlessly, “was amazing.”

“Yes, it was.” I smiled at him as I wiped the sweat from my forehead. The pillow was now soaked since my hair was still wet from swimming.

He just looked at me as if he had never seen me before. “I never realized just how beautiful you are,” he commented.

I pushed him gently and rolled my eyes. “Oh, stop it!”

“What? I'm just being honest here. I've never seen anyone so stunning.” As he said that, he reached over and pulled a stray blonde hair behind my ear and rubbed my cheek lovingly with his thumb.

“But I'm all sweaty and naked and wet!” I exclaimed.

“Exactly!” He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows up and down. I turned my head away from him so that I could burst out laughing. “What's so funny?” he asked. When I didn't answer, he lifted the sheets up and began to stick his head under before I stopped him.

“Alex!” I squealed grabbing the sheets out of his greedy hands.

“What?” he said sheepishly. “I wanted to have another look.” As a result, he received a much-deserved hard smack on the chest. The spot where I hit him turned red. “Ow,” he whined. “I was only kidding.”

“Mmmhmmmm,” I murmured.

“I was!” he insisted.

“And I'm the Dali Llama,” I replied sarcastically.

“Ok, maybe I wasn't kidding,” he admitted. “You are just so damn hot that I wanted one last look.”

“You know, you can be a real perv sometimes,” I said as I turned my body away from him. He just grabbed me around the waist and pulled me closer to him.

“I'm a guy,” he whispered in my ear. “Unfortunately for you, my pervertedness just comes with the territory.” He kissed my cheek and rested his head on top of mine. I snuggled into his chest; his body was so warm.

“I guess I'll just have to accept you for who you are, pervertedness and all,” I sighed dramatically. “It'll be a sacrifice though.

His mouth dropped open. “Take that back!” he demanded. I shook my head and cowered under the covers. As it turns out, that wasn't the best idea because he started to tickle me as payback.

“No, Alex, stop!” I screamed through my laughter. I tried to move away, but he wrapped an arm protectively around my waist so that I couldn't go anywhere. After a few minutes of this, my stomach hurt from laughing so much and I couldn't breath. Eventually, he stopped and I gasped for air. “You are such a jerk,” I said once I got my wind back.

“But you know you love me,” he smiled cheekily.

“Yeah I do. Don't you feel bad for me?” I joked.

“Do you want to get tickled again?” he asked seriously.

I reflexively covered my stomach with my arms. “No thanks,” I responded.

“Well then be nice.”

“But that's no fun!”

Wordlessly, he gently turned me back over so that I was looking at him and he put a hand on my face again, rubbing circles on my cheek with his thumb. “God, you are so beautiful,” he marveled as he stared into my eyes. I smiled, so he kissed me and my stomach exploded with butterflies. It never felt so good to be so in love.

After a few minutes of semi-innocent making out, Alex and I groaned as we heard someone bang on the door.

“Lovebirds, it's time for you two to stop fucking each other and come back to the real world for some dinner,” Jack's loud voice came from outside the door. “Meet us in the lobby in an hour.” I covered my face with both of my hands as I began to turn red from embarrassment. I hoped to God no one else heard that.

I let out a long sigh. “I guess that's our cue to get out of bed.” I was about to get up, but then Alex pulled me back.

“Five more minutes,” he said as he kissed me again.
_______________________________________

Later that night, Alex and I had somehow managed to break apart long enough to get ready for dinner. I decided to wear a plain black halter dress that went to my knees along with black sandal high-heels and didn't have much time to do my hair, so it just hung curly at my shoulders. He made sure to tell me that I looked amazing. He was wearing a blue and black flannel button-shirt and black skinny jeans along with black converse sneakers. His hair was perfectly ruffled atop his head and his face was clear of most facial hair. For once, he wasn't wearing a beanie. He took my hand and led me out the door and met the rest of the gang in the lobby in record time.

After much talk, we decided to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant. Then, we went out and wandered around the boardwalk until we found a karaoke bar. Alcohol+karaoke=extreme entertainment, especially if you take Jack into account. By the end of the night, our voices were gone from singing and screaming so much. There was even a point when Kara, Laura, Katelyn, and I jumped on the tables and sang “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. It was a wonder how we all got back to the hotel in one piece; we were all so drunk that we could barely walk straight, but there was never a second where our judgment was impaired.

The next day, we stayed in bed as long as possible considering some of us were hungover from what happened last night. When 11:30AM came around, Alex and I each let out a long groan and got out of bed. We had to get ready and pack up our stuff so that we could be checked out of the room by noon. Once we all packed up the car, we spent the rest of the day at the beach and then went home later that night. Our parents still did not know that Alex and I were together, so they didn't think anything of it when he slept over that night.

I drove us to school in the morning and we got there early enough to meet everyone in the front. When we walked into school, no one was surprised to see us holding hands; I guess everyone expected us to get together eventually.

“Taylor!” Jack screamed when he saw me. He ran and jumped into my arms, even though I was holding Alex's hand. I made an “Uh” sound in pain when his body collided with mine, but he ignored it. “I've missed you so much, best friend!” He wrapped his arms around my back and squeezed the life out of me.

“Can't. Breathe,” I gasped. I had to poke him hard in the rib to get him to let me go and he cried out in pain. Everyone else just laughed at us.

“Um, anyway,” said Alex as soon as everyone had recovered from Jack's ridiculousness, “I told Matt that I completed the song, so he wants us to come in and track it as soon as school is over.” There was a loud, collective groan.

“Why are they having us do this?” Zack whined. “The record is already done!”

“Look, we can moan and groan all we want, but, at the end of the day, we owe these people everything” stated Rian. “They gave us a record deal. They may want to make as much money as possible, but they know that, in order to do that, they have to help us make the best record possible. That's what we want in the end, isn't it?”

“Yeah it is,” Alex agreed. “You are absolutely right, Buddy.” He clapped a hand on Rian's back. The ten-minute warning bell rang, so we went our separate ways, but Alex walked me to my locker. “I have a favor to ask,” he said as I was taking books out of my locker.

“Anything you need,” I said as I shut my locker.

“Will you come with me to the studio later?” he asked as we walked toward my homeroom. “I know it'll be boring, but I don't want to lose a whole afternoon with you.”

“Of course I will,” I smiled reassuringly. The five-minute warning bell rang, so I kissed him goodbye and told him I loved him. He returned the sentiment and took off for his own locker.
__________________________________________

Six hours later found Alex and me on our way to the recording studio. The whole time, he shifted and squirmed nervously in the passenger seat.

“What's with you?” I chuckled as I stopped the car at a red light and looked over at him. Each time he moved, the seat squeaked, so I could hear his trepidation even if I couldn't see it.

“I'm just nervous about recording this song,” he answered honestly. “I want it to be just right for you.”

“For me?” I asked as the light turned green and I eased my foot onto the accelerator. “Why for me?”

“Because I wrote 'Walls' for you,” he said as if that answer was the most obvious thing in the world. “I want you to listen to it and think of last weekend and how amazing it was.”

“Alex,” I looked at him for half a second and reached over to grab his hand and squeeze it with my free hand. “That song will always be perfect and beautiful to me because it came from your heart. You don't have to worry about me because I will always love it.”

A few minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot and parked the car. It had appeared that we were the last ones there as usual. Matt immediately told the boys how they were going to go about recording the song. First, they would track the instruments and the vocals would be last. While Jack, Rian, and Jack worked out the instrumentals, Alex worked with a vocal coach going over the notes. In the meantime, I busied myself by going on the computer and getting some of my homework done right outside the recording booth. After awhile, Jack came to join me on his break. He plopped down on the couch and let out a long sigh; we had only been here for a little while and he was already exasperated.

“Hey,” I said turning the swivel chair I was sitting in so that I was facing him. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah,” he responded. “I'm just tired. Come sit with me?” He patted the space next to him on the black leather couch, so I sat down and rested my head on his shoulder.

“How's it going in there?” I asked.

“Fine, it's just a long ass process.”

“I know what you mean. It used to take me up to a few days to get a song completely finished,” I agreed.

“So how are things with you and Alex?” he changed the subject.

It took me a short moment to gather my thoughts. “Things are amazing. I can honestly say that I have never been happier.”

“I'm glad,” he said as he reached over and pushed my long blonde hair behind my ear.

I lifted my head from his shoulder so that I could look him square in the face. “Jack, can I talk to you?”

“Of course,” he assured. “You know I'm always here for you.”

“I'm afraid that my relationship with Alex is going to screw up my relationship with you. I just want to make sure you know that the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you like that. You are my best friend and I love you, just not in the way you wanted me to. I never want to lose you.” I hoped he could hear the sincerity in my voice. A single tear rolled down my cheek and he brushed it away with his thumb.

“Taylor,” he began. “You'll always be my best friend no matter what. Nothing will change that. You could even kill Alex in his sleep and you'll still be my best friend.” I burst out laughing when he said this, but he continued. “ At first, it was kind of awkward seeing you guys together like that, but now I'm pretty much used to it. I don't want you guys to act any differently around me. Besides,” he paused. “I know this is kind of soon, but I think I'm starting to really like Katelyn.”

“Really?” I asked sitting up and giving him my full attention. “What have you guys done together? Give me details!”

“I just got to know her better this past weekend and she's actually becoming a very nice person. There's more to her than what people see on the outside. We shared a hotel room. I was going to sleep on the floor and give her the bed, but she insisted that I sleep in the bed beside her. Don't get me wrong, we didn't have sex or anything, but, surprisingly, it wasn't awkward at all. We actually spent most of the night just talking. It was nice.”

“That's amazing,” I said smiling at him. “I'm really happy for you. Did you kiss her yet?”

He shook his head. “Not yet, but we are hanging out after school tomorrow. Hopefully something will happen then.”

“Good luck. I hope she can make you happy.”

“I hope so too,” he said.

We both jumped when the door to the recording booth was thrown open with a loud bang when it bounced against the wall.

“Jack, your break is almost done,” Matt said as he came into the outside room. “However, before we start recording again, I have some news for everyone including you, Taylor.” Jack and I just looked at him curiously as the rest of the band filed into the room. Alex sat down and put his arm around me and we all focused our attention on Matt. “I just got off the phone with the record company and we just finished working out all the details for the summer tour.” As soon as these words came out of his mouth, my heartbeat quickened and my whole body began to heat up. “Taylor, we talked to your people and made it so that you can tour with the band.” It took a minute for everyone to fully comprehend his words, but, when we did, the whole room erupted in screams and cheers. Alex grabbed my face and kissed me passionately.

“This is amazing!” I screamed.

“Yes!” Jack cheered. “Now tour will be a real party.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Matt screamed over us and held his hands up to show that he had more to say. “There's more. You will not be going on your own tour; you will be there to support bigger bands. You will be joining Cobra Starship and Boys Like Girls in supporting Paramore on their headlining Brand New Eyes tour.”

That's when I fainted.