Chicks=Trouble

Leanne looked at her sister like she was insane. Had she seriously just said what she thought that she had? That she was pregnant. Jessica Ann Hathaway was going to have a baby? Leanne shook her head and raised an eyebrow,

“What?” she said and Jessica glanced sideways at Zack who was kinda still digesting the information as well. That had about been his reaction to the news as well. Jessica looked at her sister and tilted her head to the side.

“Lea…”

“Just hold up give me a minute. Have you told grams and papaw?”

“Yes”

“Who’s the father?” Jessica looked at her sister dumbfounded and raised an eyebrow. She shook her head and noticed that Jacey was trying not to laugh. She hit her.

“Zack you numbskull… what fucking planet are you on?”

“She’s on Earth but has Brian on the brain, she doesn’t function without him half the time.” Jacey said.

“Hey guys, what’s going on? Jess what are you doing here?” Johnny asked and she rolled her eyes and walked away alone. She needed to just be alone after all of that shit.

Sitting at the venue a few days later, Jacey found herself sitting on a stack of amps, Matt standing in front of her. The two were taking full advantage of the fact that no one else had wandered into the venue since the equipment had been set up, since it wasn’t very often that they found themselves alone together. His hands were gripping her hips lightly while her arms were around his neck, her fingers toying with the hair that rested on the back of his neck. It was the sudden, loud ringing of Matt’s cell phone which caused them both to jump before Matt reached into his pocket, cursing whoever had called under his breath and answered, his phone sounding irritated,

“Hello?” Jacey only shook her head, biting her lip to keep from grinning too widely at his obvious frustration as whoever was on the other end of the line spoke. Watching as he rolled his eyes, she looked at him curiously only to have him pull the phone away from his ear and placed it against his shoulder before saying, “Everyone’s going to lunch. They want to know if we want to go…”

“It’s up to you. I’m not all that hungry but if you are then we can go.” She answered, with a shrug. It was true, after all, she really didn’t care whether they went with the others or not. She’d gotten some alone time with Matt and she wasn’t going to complain, even if that time was a lot shorter than she’d have liked. She didn’t let it bother her too much, however, since the tour would be over soon and they’d be back home in Huntington. She hardly registered that Matt had started talking into his phone again, until he hung up and shoved it into his pocket once more. Pulling her off the amp, he wrapped an arm around her waist effectively causing her to lean her body into his larger one, and lead her out of the venue only to find a van cab and the others waiting for them. It only took their appearance for the others to begin piling into the bright yellow vehicle and Jacey didn’t bother to hide her grin as she and Matt followed suit.

It didn’t take long for the group to find themselves in a diner, all of them squeezed into a large corner booth. Jessica was sandwiched between her sister and Zack, staring almost blankly at the menu while the green eyed guitarist had an arm wrapped loosely around her shoulders, in an almost friendly manner. Noticing this, Jacey couldn’t help but quirk and eyebrow at the two and think it for the best that the two of them weren’t rushing into anything regardless of the baby her best friend was carrying. Leanne was off in her own world with Brian, the two whispering to one another while her dark haired friend was playing with the guitarist’s hair absentmindedly. She was getting ready to make a comment about it when she realized that her own fingers were once again tangled in the hair at the nape of Matt’s neck. Apparently she wasn’t the only one to notice this either as Lacey glanced between the two and asked,

“What’s with the two of you and their hair?”

“Huh?” Leanne asked, looking thoroughly confused by the comment. Jessica only smirked from beside her sister, knowing exactly what she was talking about and knowing that Leanne and Jacey did as well. Kelly just laughed from her spot beside Jimmy. Jacey immediately stopped the movements her fingers had been making, though she didn’t move her hand, and stated,

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Liar.” Johnny said, with a smirk, noticing that her fingers had stopped. Scowling at him, she only listened as Kelly laughed harder, and smirks formed on the faces of everyone else at the table.

“Why don’t you tell them?” Jess asked, looking between her sister and her friend, to find them both glaring at her, though neither of their hands left the heads of hair they were tangled in. This is when Kelly decided to calm herself down enough to join in the gentle teasing,

“Yeah you two. Explain to them what the hair fetish the two of you share has caused.”

“It’s not a fetish!” Leanne argued, looking indignant and causing Lacey and her sister to snort.

“Fine. Obsession then.” Kelly amended, still looking smug. When the two stayed silent, Lacey decided that it was up to her to inform the boys of what was going on.

“Well, it pretty much started with the two of them arguing about whose hair was nicer… Matt’s or Brian’s. Since we all know how competitive Jace is, it’s really no surprise that it ended in a bet of sorts.” Here Brian and Matt both raised eyebrows and looked at the women sitting beside them with smirks.

“What was this bet?” Brian asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. When the only response he got from Leanne was a shake of her head, indicating she wasn’t about to tell anyone that didn’t already know, Kelly picked up where Lacey had left off.

“Pretty much, whenever the two of them are in the same room and you guys are there too, they have to keep a hand in your hair at all times, unless you know you get up to go to the bathroom or something since that’d be kinda weird and whatnot-”

“You’re getting side-tracked Kel.” Lacey said, grinning at her friend while Jacey and Leanne looked ready to crawl under the table.

“Anyway, it’s just sort of a ‘If his hair’s so nice let’s see how long you can keep your hands in it’ type of thing. They even have a safe word to let one another know when the game’s gotta go on pause.”

“That’s why you two have been having those random fucking conversations about Victoria’s Secret!” Matt said, looking at Jacey accusingly while she refused to make eye contact with him while the rest of the table, save for Leanne, started to laugh. Shaking his head at her he muttered, “Do you know how fucking distracting it is when you do that? I’ve been waiting for one of those little pink bags to show up on the bus for the last week and a half dammit.”

“Really though, the actual bet isn’t so bad. It’s the consequences for the loser.”

“Well, what do they have in store for one another?” Johnny asked, looking between the two curiously.

“The original idea was to find a local strip club that had an amateur night and for the loser to take the stage but then we realized that Brian and Matt would have a conniption if that were to happen.” Kelly said, stressing the word ‘but’ when she noticed the two men ready to protest. When they relaxed back into the booth she continued, “So it was then decided that the loser would have to help sell merch in the outfit of the other’s choosing at the next show.”

As all of this was being explained, Jacey was glaring at the glass of ice water in front of her when suddenly an idea came to her. As inconspicuously as possible she fished out a piece of the ice and tossed it across the table, right down the front of the tank top Leanne was wearing. Almost instantly both of Leanne’s hands were grabbing for the piece of ice, which was slowly melting against her skin and Jacey, who was mentally thanking whoever had blessed her with such good aim, couldn’t help but screech,

“Yes! I win! Have fun selling merch dressed up as a catholic school girl!”

“Only because you fucking cheated!” Leanne grumbled, finally getting the significantly smaller piece of ice out of her top, then looked at her friend and smirked when she noticed her arms held up in victory. Catching this, the rest of the table stared at her as she said, “I’ll have just as much fun as you will when you’re right beside me dolled up in that vinyl nurse get up I picked out for you.”

“How the fuck do you figure that?” Jacey asked, unable to keep the smug look off her face.

“Your hand didn’t stay in Matt’s hair for a minute after mine left Brian’s. We both lose.” Leanne said, smirk still in place and Jacey’s face fell immediately. She knew she’d forgotten something. Jessica, Kelly, and Lacey were all trying, and failing horribly, to hide their laughter as Jacey spoke rather loudly, earning her a glare from a few parents in the vicinity,

“God-mother-fucking-dammit!”

Zack had left the group because he had said that he had something he needed to do and had headed out alone. They all shook their heads and twenty minutes later Jacey was looking for Jessica and found her sitting in the guys dressing room bathroom with a towel wiping her face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, why the fuck do they call it morning sickness if you get it at all times of the day?”

“I don’t know girl”

“Yeah me either, this shit sucks. How the fuc… hell is it that I sleep with him once and get pregnant and you and Lea can go at it all the damned time and not get pregnant?”

“Hey, as much I think that you and Zack need to take it slow, maybe it was meant to be. You guys skirted around it for so long, I think fates decided to throw the two of you together the hard way, since you didn’t do it on your own.”

“Yes we did…”

“And then you found out about the bet.”

“Yeah, so speaking of bets… that’s going down tonight?”

“Don’t fucking remind me.” Jacey muttered and glanced toward the outfit she wasn’t looking forward to putting on. Jessica laughed and turned towards the toilet and puked. Jacey cringed but rubbed her friends back, concentrating on that instead of her getting sick. When she was done Jess wiped her mouth and Lea walked in handing her a tooth brush that she had sent Brian out after for her. Jess took that and the toothpaste and brushed her teeth. She smiled meekly at her friend and sister.

“You know the sad part of this is If I hadn’t had been in a bad mood when he showed up out in California I would’ve heard him out. I would have let him tell me what he needed too. Then I would’ve told him that I loved him.” Jess looked up from what she was saying to look at her friends in the mirror, but instead her brown eyes met the green ones of the man she had been talking about. Her friends were standing back against the wall watching the look that passed between her and Zack as they stared at one another in the mirror.