Something New

I stopped running and slowed to a walk. Eventually I found the park I was looking for. I dragged him over to these swings like the ones we used to have in a, now demolished, park back in Kingston. They were identical to the ones we used to have. They were held up by the same dark green arches that resembled the McDonalds logo. The swings were suspended from long blue metal ropes. The swings themselves were bright acrylic red with yellow rubber around the edges; they were giant circles, like the saucer toboggans but much bigger.

I looked to Nate and instantly saw his face light up. I was honestly surprised he remembered.

“Woah, I can’t believe you remembered these.” He said as he ran over to them, dragging me along in the process.

“You catching me made me think of them.” I said smiling as I jumped onto the closest one from probably three feet away.

“Remember when I had to reassure you that you wouldn’t fall off, even if you were clinging onto the side.” He said with a light laugh.

“I was scared okay; you could have had four of me on there and there’d be at least two inches between each one.” I said as he pushed the swing.

“You were rather small the first time we went there, you were what, four-foot-one, at the time?” He said teasingly.

“About that, yeah. Remember what you said to keep me from sitting in the sand while you and Emily were having fun?” I said looking back at him with a smirk.

“That even if you fell I’d catch you before you hit the ground. I’ll still catch you when you fall now, even if it’s not from a swing.” He said looking down, before jumping onto the moving swing like he used to.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I said smiling, probably wider than I ever have.

“Good, I’d miss that smile if you were with someone else.” He said smiling himself.

“I’d just miss you completely.” I said sticking out my tongue playfully.

He pulled me into this huge hug. I wrapped my arms around him and we both smiled. I looked up to Nate and he kissed my lips softly.

We kept swinging, and laughing, for a little while longer before we decided to head back to the apartment. We walked smiling hand in hand until we got back. We rode the elevator in a happy silence.

Once we got there Jon already had dinner on, this time we had Chinese takeout for once. We all ate happily until we had had enough then Nate and I cleaned everything up.

~~~~~~

“Guys hurry up!” I yelled from the hotel suite’s door frame.

“Hang on love, we’re not all as excited as you.” Nate said taking my side.

“I’m sorry, I just love concerts!” I said excitedly.

“And I love seeing you this excited.” He replied sweetly as he kissed me softly.

“Well then make those guys get their butts in gear.” I said shoving him lightly towards their door.

“Why?” He asked confused.

“I don’t know what’s behind that door, you’ll be less traumatized.” I said smiling sweetly.

“Ugh fine.” He sighed.
He pounded on the door several time before yelling at them.

“Hurry up or Aliki’s gonna barge in!” He exclaimed almost as loud as he could.

“What? We’re ready.” William sighed annoyed while opening the door.

“Finally, I thought I was gonna grow old waiting.” I stated dramatically.

“It was only like five minutes longer than you took.” He argued.

“So, aren’t girls supposed to take longer to get ready than guys?” I sighed as we walked out the door.

“Well there’s like six guys and one girl so you don’t have to deal with five other people?” He said trying to pull an argument out off thin air.

“Oh, bullshit.” I sighed as I pressed the call button for the elevator.

Once it arrived I grabbed Nate and pulled him inside and shoved Will into the other guys.

“Take the stairs slow pokes.” I said as Nate pressed the ‘door close’ button.

We burst into a fit of laughter. We laughed so hard we both had tears in our eyes. By the time we reached the bottom level we were both practically on the elevator floor laughing.

Once the door actually opened we managed to pull ourselves up to our feet. We practically stumbled out of the elevator still laughing.

I know it doesn’t seem this funny but we used to that to our friends back in Kingston all the time so it brought back those memories.

We met up with the other guys in the lobby a few moments later, and none of them looked happy. It’s understandable our rooms are on the ninth floor.

We decided to go to Baltimore for a few days just for something different to do. I think Jon wanted to plan fun things for us so Nate and I would have more memories to take away from this summer since we wouldn’t see each other again until around Christmas time most likely.

We were going to a show with a local band that was getting some really good reviews from several different websites.

We got to the small venue they were playing and I instantly saw a familiar face. I ran over and sneaked up behind him.

“Hey pretty baby.” I almost sang.

“Aliki!” He cried throwing his arms around me.

“I didn’t know you knew kids from Baltimore?” Nate said surprised.

“Yeah, we met like the summer before last. You know when my grandparents sent me to live with like a great aunt or something, near here? Anyways he was their neighbor, and he was kind of a tour guide at the same time.” I replied.

“Did they send you to back again this time?” Alex asked almost with a sigh.

“Not quite, I live in Chicago now.” I said scratching the back of my neck nervously.

“Cool, we play there a bit so we’ll have to hangout sometimes.” Alex said smiling.

“For sure.” I smiled.

“Oh, we have to go find Jack, he’ll be thrilled to see you!” Alex said excitedly grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me off towards the bar where he was trying to convince the bartender that he wasn’t underage.

“JACK! Oh JACKIE POO!” Alex yelled dragging me, Nate following behind.

“WHAT!” He yelled getting annoyed.

“Look!” He said almost flinging me at him.

“Aliki!” He said smiling.

“Hey Jack.” I smiled awkwardly as he pulled me into an overly tight hug.

“What brings you back to Baltimore?” He asked smiling.

“Vacation, love.” I replied.

“And who’s this?” He asked eyeing up Nate.

“That would be my boyfriend.” I said with a smile.

“Ah.” He sighed.

“Jack, Alex, this is Nate.” I replied speaking slowly.

“Thank you for that blunt introduction.” Alex smiled playfully.

“Shut up Alex, when do you guys go on?” I asked changing the subject.

“About an hour.” Jack replied turning back to the bartender who insisted on serving him only coke.

“Dammit, I knew I should have brought some with me.” Jack muttered as he took a sip of his virgin rum and coke.

“Or you could just be sober for a bit.” Alex teased.

“Shut up, you know you want a drink too, I can tell you both do.” He said looking from Alex to me.

In that second I swore I could have actually hit Jack. The one thing that Nate didn’t know about me was my bad habits. It was the one thing I knew would crush him, and the one thing I really missed about Kristian. Kristian never cared if I drank, or if I was high out of my mind, since he was eighteen he even got me alcohol a fair amount of the time.

I knew that everything I might have liked about Kristian were bad qualities to have in someone that was supposed to care about you; but that’s what I loved about Nate he actually cared enough to make sure I was safe, and wasn’t getting my stomach pumped semi-regularly.

“What’s he talking about? I thought you didn’t drink?” Nate said quietly to me.

“Umm, I don’t, you know that.” I replied looking him in the eyes.

“Man, this girl can drink, you shoulda seen her last summer,” Jack started before Alex hit him in the back of the head. “What?” He turned to Alex as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Shut Up.” Alex said to Jack through clenched teeth.

“Nate, I promise we’ll talk later, ‘kay?” I said looking up at him.

“Don’t think I’ll forget.” He said, I could tell he was mad.

“I know you won’t.” I replied looking down.

“I’m gonna go find Jon and them, I’ll see you later.” Nate said and walked off.

“Okay, now I really want a drink.” I sighed sitting next to Jack.

“Jack’s sorry, he doesn’t know how not to be an ass.” Alex said elbowing him in the side.

“What!?” He asked completely clueless.

“Nate’s straight-edge, no drugs, no smoking, no drinking. I thought I told you no one knows I drink.” I sighed.

“Well I’m sorry, how about after the show you come home with us for a bit, we’ll get you a drink then you can go fight with Natie over there after you’re nice ad buzzed.” Jack said, as sincerely as I’m sure he could be while shaking from nerves.

“Maybe I’ll just spend the night with you give him the chance to cool off a bit.” I sighed.

“Well we’ve gotta go backstage, warm up and find the other half of our lovely band. Meet us at the side of the stage at the end of our set, ‘kay?” Alex smiled.

“Sure thing babe, good luck.” I smiled and hugged them both. Before wandering off to find William and the rest of the guys before the show started.

“Hey guys, I’m gonna spend the night with Alex and his friends. I’ll meet you back at the hotel in the morning.” I said to Jon and Will when Nate and the others went to get more drinks.

“Okay, just be back before eleven, we want to leave before check out. We’ll probably be ready by like ten the latest though.” Jon replied.

“Even if I’m not, I never really unpack so everything’s still in my suitcase; but I’ll try not to be late though. I think I stop by the hotel and grab some clothes for tomorrow.” I said and tried to navigate my way to the front of the stage.

“’Kay, love you.” I heard him call as the crowed pulled me away.
~~~~~

After the show I met up with All Time Low after their killer set and we went backstage and waited until Rian was done putting away his drum gear. I helped the guys load up their van and we drove off towards the hotel so I could quickly grab some of my stuff.

Since no one was back yet I seized an opportunity I hadn’t in a long time, and hoped I would never have too again. I knew I’d regret it even more if Nate found out.

I pulled out the package Jay had sent with Nate when he came to visit. Once I was finished I packed everything back up and hid it in my suitcase. I grabbed the bag I had thrown together moment earlier and I locked the room and ran to meet the guys.

I hoped in the van and we sped off towards the suburban area Alex lived in.

“So what do you want to drink?” Jack asked as soon as we walked in the door.

“Absinthe or something strong would be nice.” I muttered with a smile.

“Sorry but its beer or those Bacardi cooler things. It’s all we’ve manage to build up.” Rian said grabbing three beers.

“Ugh, I’m not overly fond of beer, or alcohol that tastes like children should drink it, but I guess I’ll take the Bacardi thing, at least there’s a bit more alcohol.” I sighed as Jack grabbed two bottles of a bright orange liquid.

“A girl after my own alcohol soaked heart.” Jack sighed with a smile.

All I could think for the first little bit was ‘at least I’m high, and Nate isn’t around.’ I kept drinking, so did everyone else.

“Alex, you know thinking about it now I can’t remember why I was excited to go home at the end of the summer last year. Here I can drink and no one hounds me for it, plus even if I only have like four friends here not one of them are as big of assholes as the guys I used to know.” I said with a drunken smile.

I had a tendency to speak more openly drunk that I would sober.

“Plus you’re hot so we don’t mind keeping you around.” Jack said with a smirk as he lazily threw his arm around me.

“Jack, lay off, you shouldn’t hit on girls with boyfriends.” I said with a light slur as I shoved him over, causing both of us to lose our balance.

All five of us ended up laughing in a pile on the floor. By the time we managed to stop laughing we had forgotten why we started laughing and then burst out into another fit of tear inducing laughter.

I’m not too sure what happened after that because I ended up drinking more than I should have, but so did everyone else.

When I woke up the next morning Jack burst into the room, causing light to flood in and wake us both.

“Man, this is like last summer all over again.” He said with a loud laugh.

“What are you talking about?” We both moaned groggily.

“You and Alex laying in his bed without t-shirts on, it’s like you were gonna have sex but got lazy and fell asleep before the bra even came off.” He laughed.

“Maybe it’s cause we didn’t want to wrinkle our shirts while sleeping, ever think of that Jacko?” I teased.

“’Kay Jack, last summer we my have made out, this time nothing happened, you know I rarely sleep with a shirt on, unless we’re touring and sleeping in the van, and I’m pretty sure last night, Aliki said something along the lines of ‘if you’re not wearing a shirt I’m not going to either.” Alex explained, to ensure Jack didn’t say anything in the event they saw Nate again.

“Wow, I must have great logic as a drunk.” I replied with a light laugh.

“Oh man you should have heard you and Jack arguing about Megan Fox, last night it was hilarious. Mostly because you were right.” Zack said from behind Jack.

“Really? What was I saying? I love being right” I asked curiously.

“Well basically Jack, being drunk and horny, said that Megan Fox was a wonderfully talented actress, and you countered with ‘you only think that because she’s hot, if she still looked like she did on Hope and Faith, you wouldn’t think twice about her, and she’s also more stupid than a box of bricks. And then you went on a rant about how Natalie Portman is pretty, even if she’s bald, she’s got talent and she’s super smart.” Rian said as burst into the room.

“Fucking A, it’s true though.” I said with a laugh.

“Man no, she’s got talent did you see her in Transformers?” He asked as he jaw dropped.

“Okay she’s got a talent and sticking her boobs out, big deal, I can do that too.” I argued.

“Really? Then prove it.” He challenged.

“You know, I would but I’m only in a bra and jeans and I don’t think I could handle four guys with boners. Plus I’ve got a boyfriend.” I replied.

“Aww, you’re no fun.” Alex teased.

“I’m tones of fun, I just don’t want all four of you to get that excited.” I replied.

“I promise we won’t, plus Jack watches so much porn that it probably won’t even phase him.” Rian said elbowing Jack in the side.

“You guys are annoying.” I said getting up to grab my shirt off the floor.

Just to see how the guys reacted I stuck out my chest and they all started laughing, none of them appeared overly excited. I quickly stopped and put on my shirt.

Rain, Zack and Jack left and I followed them out of the room. I stopped in the doorway and turned to Alex.

“You coming, Love?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah, just give me, um, a minute.” He said awkwardly.

I walked out of the room and laughed slightly to myself. Of course sleeping with his arms wrapped around me while I’m half naked, and nothing, but when I act like a slut and then put on a shirt, that makes him hard.

“Where’s Alex?” Zack asked and I sat down between him and Jack.

“He’s kinda got excited so he’ll be out in a minute.” I said with smirk.

“Of course.” The three of them all sigh with a laugh.

A few minutes later Alex came out, with an odd expression on his face.

“Hey, Aliki, can we talk a minute?” He asked a moment later.

“Sure thing bud, come sit.” I said happily.

“No, I mean alone.” He said kicking the ground.

“Umm, okay.” I said awkwardly standing up.

We walked back into his room and he told me to sit down.

“Aliki, I’m not sure how to tell you this but, umm.” He said hesitantly.

“What Alex, what’s going on?” I asked nervously.

“Well last night we kinda, um, well, had sex.” He said staring at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“What! Alex how did that happened?” I gasped I shock.

“We were drunk, didn’t know any better, I honestly don’t know.” He said sitting down next to me.

“How do you know we had sex then? Maybe you just dreamt it?” I said worriedly looking for a way to avoid all of this.

“I’m pretty sure a dream wouldn’t leave a condom in the trash bin.” He said almost as if he was embarrassed.

“Well at least we got the condom part right.” I said not sure what else to say.

“I’m sorry.” He said looking to the floor again.

“Alex it’s okay,” I said taking his chin and turning his face towards me and looking into his eyes. “Well it’s not really, but there’s nothing we can do about it now, at least it’s not like you’re some stranger at a bar that ended up as a bad one night stand, I actually care about you and I know you well enough to know that sober you never would have let this happen, plus I was pretty much blacked out from the alcohol. It’s not like it’s your fault.” I said trying to make him feel better about the whole thing.

“Yeah but what about Nate?” He asked clearly concerned.

“Alex, you’re such a sweet heart, you actually care. I’ll have to talk to him about it hopefully it goes okay.” I say with a sigh.

“If you want I’ll help you tell him.” Alex offered.

“That’s sweet Alex, but I’m pretty sure Nate would end up trying to beat you up. It would be best if it was just me, once we got back to Chicago. Hopefully he’ll be understanding. Of course he’ll be pissed because I was drinking and that’s what started all of this, but I’ll just have to talk to him.” I said looking down now myself.

“Good luck.” He said pulling me into a hug.

“Thanks, I’ll need it.” I said giving him a light kiss. “We already had sex one little kiss won’t hurt I’m already telling Nate that I cheated on him.” I said with a smile before standing up.

“I should get going, but is it okay if I take a shower first?” I asked a few minutes later.

“Sure, go a head. Bathroom’s right there” He said pointing to the door next to his closet.

“Thanks.” I said grabbing my bag and closing the bathroom door behind me.

I quickly took a shower and got dressed. I put on some eyeliner and just pulled back my hair.

I went out into the living area where the boys were hanging out watching TV.

“You gonna go now?” Zack asked looking over at me as I walked out of Alex’s room.

“Yeah, I’ve got to be back at the hotel in like half an hour.” I sighed.

“Okay, let’s go.” They all said getting up.

“I was just going to call cab, but okay.” I said as we walked out the door.

The drive felt like it took forever, mostly because I was dreading the outcome of what would happen after. We spent the whole time talking and joking and then we finally got there.

I knew what happened the night before wasn’t just because we were two drunken teenagers. It was because I was high too. I needed to get rid of my stash before I even told Nate what happened. It was the only way I could even try to explain it all to Nate. If he knew I was serious about the drugs he would hopefully tell than I was serious about the remorse I felt about sleeping with Alex.

“Bye guys.” I said getting out of the car and giving them all one last hug.

“Come visit us again soon.” Rian said with a smile.

“Maybe you should come visit me next time, check out Chicago.” I said with smile.

“Sounds like a plan.” Zack said cheerfully.

“Bye guys, thanks for last night.” I said running into the building.

I went up to the room and the first thing I did was take the package out of my bag and run into the bathroom. I threw all the drugs into toilet and flushed them immediately. I then took the package and threw it into the trash before slowly walking out into the room where Nate was sitting on the bed.

I mindlessly sat down on the bed next to his without saying a word.

“Aliki.” Nate started to say before I cut him off.

“Nate, I know you’re mad, I would be too, but please can we just wait to talk about this once we’re back in Chicago.” I said as tears stung my eyes, I tried to hold them back but I just couldn’t.

“Fine.” He said almost angrily, his tone changed as soon as he noticed the tears.

He instantly moved over to the bed I was on and wrapped his arms around me.

“Nate, please don’t touch me.” I said pushing him away as soon as he got close enough.

“Are you okay babe? What’s wrong?” He asked concerned.

“Not really, but I’d rather wait ‘till we’re back in Chicago to talk.” I said again.