Colder Than My Heart

Alex’s eyes gently opened as he slipped from his unconscious state. A small ache rattled between his temples for a brief moment causing him to groan lightly before squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the top of his nose. Sitting up he managed to shake the ache away and turned to the fabric separating him from the rest of the bus. Extending his index finger he hooked it beneath the curtain to his right and peeled it back a little. He strained his ears to recognise the voices at the front end of the bus. Rian and Jack were already awake. He looked up to the bunks opposite his and noticed Zack’s inability to shut his curtain in his drunken state allowing his foot to hang just off the edge. Alex chuckled lightly to himself before kicking his feet over the side of the bed. He ran his fingers through his hair before the events of the night before replayed in his mind causing a smile to form on his face.

After a half hour of jokes, general talk and watching the television Rian joined the pair in the back lounge. Later on Zack and Jack also joined along with members of their crew. A little after this Andrew and the rest of Sarah’s band joined them and everybody was packing themselves in the downstairs of the bus.

Within an hour of everyone’s arrival drinks were flowing and obnoxious laughter echoed throughout the bus. However, instead of being the usual life of the party he was considered, Alex steadied himself. In the whole night he hadn’t consumed more than a few cans of beer and a couple of bottles, nowhere near what he was used to. Instead of joining in with the usual banter and drowning in liquor he spent most of his night with Sarah.

“I don’t really see the appeal if I’m honest,” Sarah replied tilting her head at the brown bottle in Alex’s palm. Alex lifted his eyebrows.

“You don’t see the appeal?” He asked in disbelief. Sarah simply picked her eyes back up to look at him and shook her head in reply. “It’s tasty, try it,” he instructed holding the bottle in front of her face. Sarah grimaced and swatted the hand away from her face. “You seriously don’t drink?” Alex asked pressing the tip to his lips and taking a long sip whilst keeping his eyes on Sarah the whole time.

“Nope,” she shook her head proudly.

“But why?” Alex almost whined in reply causing Sarah to chuckle.

“Just a personal choice,” she shrugged right before a loud thump echoed from the stairs causing the two to turn their heads in the direction in which it came. There, using the wall for support and barely able to feel his legs stood Jack, stumbling over the last step and throwing himself to the back of the bus and cheering. The pair couldn’t help but laugh at his sorry state before turning back to each other. “And that kind of backs up my statement,” Sarah finished with a smug tone to her voice.

“Yeah well there’s a difference between drinking and Jack,” Alex retorted with a small smirk. Sarah rolled her eyes before fixing her gaze on the bottle playing in his fingers. “You don’t have to be excessive and lose your legs,” he added as she bit down on her lip.

“Hmm,” she mused still staring at the bottle. Alex grinned to himself at the longing look in her eyes and held his bottle out once more. This time she didn’t grimace. Instead she hesitantly lifted her hand. Taking the bottle from his grasp she gnawed at her cheek and brought it up to eye level. Letting out a low sigh she finally pushed the top to her lips and drank a long sip. As soon as the bitter taste responded with her taste buds she swallowed and thrust the drink back at him gagging as she did. Alex couldn’t help his laughter as he watched her squirm. “That is disgusting!” She wailed scrunching her eyes together tight and shaking her head. Alex took the glass back and watched as she calmed herself.

“You have to grow used to the taste,” he shrugged halting her actions and knitting her eyebrows together.

“No way am I letting you turn me into an alcoholic Gaskarth. For all I know you could just be telling me this to make me drink until the taste is gone and then I’ll be a babbling mess all over you,” she scolded to no avail.

“That actually hadn’t crossed my mind,” Alex chuckled. “I was just genuinely shocked you’d never drunk before,” he answered truthfully.

“Whatever,” Sarah snorted with a roll of her eyes. “So where are we tomorrow?” Sarah sighed pulling her feet up next to her on the seat and turning her body to fully look at Alex.

“What’s the date?” He asked after another brief sip from his beer.

“Um,” Sarah began staring at a random corner trying to get her numbers right. “Well if today was Texas that’s the third,” she mumbled to herself. “Tomorrow’s the fourth,” she concluded.

“Then we have another day off,” Alex smiled contently to himself.

“Awesome,” Sarah mumbled in silent agreement to what Alex was thinking.

“Yeah, so we can work on the verses of that song and then we’re gonna spend the rest of the day hanging out,” Alex decided sealing the deal with a simple nod. Sarah raised her eyebrows slightly taken off guard.

“We are?” She asked. Alex simply nodded again in reply.

“Yeah, I liked spending today with you, you’re a good kid,” Alex said placing his free hand on her knee. He instantly regretted this action, pulling his hand away and blushing slightly. He began to rub the back of his neck as his eyes darted to anywhere but Sarah. Alex had expected for Sarah to get uncomfortable and simply disregard what Alex had decided and refuse to spend tomorrow with him, what he didn’t expect to hear was the angelic sound of her laughter.

“Yeah it was fun,” she agreed causing Alex’s eyes to look back to her again. The warmth of the smile that greeted him told Alex he had nothing to fear about even with the daring contact he’d just made. Alex had never so much as hugged Sarah before and now he absently went so far as to grip a part of her leg and she made no deal of it. Sarah didn’t seem like the type of girl to just let any person touch her like that, she seemed more fragile than that. Did this make them friends now?

Those thoughts had plagued Alex’s mind for the rest of the night and he had now thoroughly convinced himself that they were indeed on a friendship level. That’s why despite the miniature hangover present in his mind for all of ten seconds he couldn’t keep the smile from his face. When he woke up he knew he was going to see just how far he could push Sarah.