If It Keeps You Around Then I'm Down

Dating Jack was more fun that having an all-access pass to Disney World, we had comfortable silences and tearing laughter. I had to say it was my perfect relationship of dating one of your best friends, slightly immature, but there when you need him. I was dozing off on Kara's shoulder when I heard the music finally stopped and my head was shaking due to Kara's laughter vibrating my whole body. I peaked on eye open, but it was too late.

"KAMAKAZI!" Jack yelled with an Asian accent and I ended up with four boys and a girl on top of me. I would've laughed, but laughing requires air and to get air you needed to breathe, something I currently couldn't do.

"I... hate... you.. guys.. so.." I breathed out, chuckling before I slipped out underneath them and ended up at all of their feet, I took a big gasp of air and then finished, "much!"

"Oh, you love us," Rian said kissing Kara's head gently as she teared up slightly from laughing so hard, I mocked them silently pretending to be laughing my head off.

"I do, you and y'all's stinky feet!" I sneered before doing a back summersault and ending on my knees, with my hair in my face. I saw a bunch of confused faces and Kara looked between all of us.

"Y'all?" She spat and I rolled my eyes laughing.

"Really long story," I sighed falling back on my back to lay slightly on my side to face them. I smiled brightly at Jack who was staring at my chest. But all eyes went to the stairs where footsteps were coming down. Mrs. Barakat appeared smiling brightly with a bowl of chips.

"I brought some snacks and I can bring some drinks," She smiled, I got up to help her and she thanked me. As it turned out, Alex's mother had been talking her ear off with good tidings about me and she liked me by reputations.

"No, ma, I think we got it," Jack said smiling like a five-year-old.

"No thank you, ma'am," I smiled and she grabbed my arm lovingly.

"You're so polite, teach my son some manners," She said walking past the couch and smacking Jack on the head, he butted out his lip trying to seem innocent and I put the bowl roughly in his lap, "you should be nicer to your mom."

"Why? You're nice enough for the both of us," he smiled his same juvenile grin and then pursed his lips for a kiss. I got close to his face and right before our lips touched I stopped.

"Because it's polite," I opened my eyes and took my position back on the ground. Jack groaned at me while Alex, Rian, Zack and Kara were laughing their asses off. I re-positioned myself to get more comfortable because I felt like something was sticking in my rib.

"You're such a tease!" Jack whined passing the bowl to Alex who stuffed his face absent-mindly following us like a TV show, engrossed. Like Spongebob for Jack.

"You can deal with it," I smiled back.

"But I don't wanna!" Jack called out flailing his arms and whining in a high voice. I laughed and patted the ground next to me, inviting him to come down, but Jack shook his head "as a matter of pride".

"Fine, suit yourself," I said grabbing my keys out of my pocket and hugging everyone that had been on top of me goodbye. Three weeks after being in Maryland they finally shipped my car to get here. I kissed Jack on the cheek and he caught my wrist, slipping something on it. I turned around and saw a friendship bracelet, poorly made, but with my three favorite colors: white, sea green and pale yellow, I smiled and kissed him hard on the lips. "Thank you, baby."

"Anytime," He said kissing me in staccato bursts, everyone groaned and got up from the couch, Alex pulled me away since I had given him a ride for a change. I waved goodbye with my fingers and Alex was talking about asking some girl to prom.

"Prom?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, Prom, a dance reserved for juniors and seniors, often dressed up with overpriced clothing items," Alex laughed condescendingly. I unlocked my white CR-V, still with California plates and climbed in.

"I've never been to prom," I said embarrassed. Zack knocked me out the my daze he jumped on my hood and pretended to be dead like I hit him, I let out a gasp of air before laughing hard. I honked my horn and he jumped up from the loudness. Alex seemed to not catch any of this.

"You've never been to prom? What did you recently lose a thousand pounds, why wouldn't you have gone to prom?" He asked in disbelief. I think we were having a sleepover.

"Well I've been asked, but freshmen and sophomore year my dad said I was too young to be and I quote, "letting boys wear me on their arm like a more expensive, classier striper," Alex nearly spit out the water he had been drinking and I waited until he took another sip, "and last year he made my date cry and pee his pants and then no one else wanted to take me." I said Alex sprayed water out the windows which luckily had been open and laughed the entire drive back to our houses.

"Please, please tell me you are kidding!" Alex laughed wiping tears from his red face, I chuckled under my breath and shook my head and Alex began roaring again. I got out leaving Alex to follow me, I knew he was there because he was still laughing. The reason is because Alex is a mental picture-er, if you tell him a situation, he will think about it in his head, which let's face it makes it so much funnier.

"Peed- peed his pants," Alex laughed starting to come down from his bout. I pulled on a pair of plaid boxers and a baseball shirt and walked out to see Alex propping himself on his knees, sucking in a deep breath and trying to calm himself down.

"Angel-cakes is that that you?" My father called from downstairs and Alex just started all over again. I sighed and nodded.

"Alex and I are going to watch a movie, I'll probably just crash there," I said kissing him on the cheek and he smiled in agreement.

"Is he on the drugs?" My father asked pointing to Alex who was holding himself on my father's much lower shoulder.

"I told him the prom story," I explained and my dad chuckled lightly to himself. I think he was secretly proud of himself, my mother was mortified and for the first time I actually wanted to move far, far away from there.

"You're my new favorite person," Alex managed between gasps for air and laughter. I opened my mouth in a smile and rolled my eyes to show my dislike for this conversation topic.

"See, someone appreciates me. Maybe you two should get together, he wouldn't give me this crap that your second boyfriend in two weeks is giving me," My father said snorting slightly. Alex moved from my father to me and I laughed as we started walking away.

"Bye daddy," I said halfway out the door Alex waved mocking me with the same dialogue and same tone. I smacked him and he took another deep breath and finally stopped laughing. The crap my dad was talking about was Jack accidently dropped an 'F' bomb and was three minutes late dropping me off for curfew because the movie got out late. The thing is, I don't usually have a curfew and my father drops more f-words than Dane Cook.

"Your dad is like my hero now," Alex said skipping ahead. I rolled my eyes, my dad had really grown to like Alex, since he actually knew about football and could appreciate the classic rock my father adored.

"He would be, hey Mrs. Gaskarth," I said walking into the house and following Alex up the stairs.

"Oh hello, Ava, we just got Titanic if you and Alex want to watch it," She said looking up from her book at the kitchen table. Our mothers were still resilient about trying to get us together, but upon learning the fact that I was the sister Alex never had and Alex was the brother that I already had only liked much better, but found they realized that sleepovers were nothing but talking and doing shit that two friends of the same sex would do.

"What do you wanna do?" Alex asked changing into a pair of long plaid pants that made him seem even skinnier and taking off his shirt. I laid on the bed and tied my hair up into a high pony tail.

"DId you wash your sheets since last night," I asked getting up the possibly non-sterile bed.

"No," Alex said picking up his guitar instinctively.

"Alright, ew, we're doing laundry first," I said picking up his sheets and pillow cases while Alex laughed at me. I knew he had a date last night and I knew it ended well, because I happened to have my blinds open. I carried the sheets to the laundry room and then picked some fresh ones out of the linen closet.

"You're so weird," Alex chuckled unmoved from his computer chair playing with his guitar strings. I recognized it as The Girl's A Straight Up Hustler, I pulled the sheets over the bed and replaced everything finally crashing on it.

"How is it weird to not want to sleep on your nasty juices?" I asked and Alex laughed shrugging. I held a pillow in my hands and propped my head to see him still looking down with a giant smile spread across his face.

"I guess that's normal-ish," Alex said placing his guitar down and jumping down on the bed turning on his TV, I jumped and retrieved a quilt from the linen closet, it was my favorite at his house. It was like a fabric scrapbook of Alex's childhood and there was a square somewhere with a heart circling 'ALEX + AVA'.

"Titantic?" He asked holding up the DVD with Leonardo DiCaprio.

"Want to see me simultaneously jizz my pants and bawl my eyes out?" I asked sarcastically and Alex laughed nodding wildly.

"The world won't end will it?" He asked pondering up in his mind searching for something to picture and I'd rather him not so I cleared my throat and his yes came down to me. "I guess not, because people have funeral sex all the time right?"

"All the time," I said sarcastically and he threw the remote at me. I pressed play and we began watching it Alex spread out next to me. Of course by the end I was bawling. "Why does Jack have to die?" I sobbed into Alex's shoulder who was mocking it by pretending to let the air in his fist go. I smacked him and he laughed shuffling us down to go to sleep after turning everything off.

"So you and Jack, huh?" Alex asked inquiring about details, but I was pretty sure I had told him everything. No bumps, no conflicts yet.

"So you and half the female population, huh?" I asked in the same tone mocking him. He smacked me lightly.

"Oh yeah," he said deepening his voice like the Kool-Aide man. I couldn't help but laugh out loud as Alex explained to me how the Kool-Aid man was the coolest, grooviest guy since Barry White. I couldn't see how people thought that life without complications is boring, but I was finally relaxed, we were graduating soon Prom was next weekend and then it was me going to down to Arizona to meet up with Katie. The only thing I was worried about was whether or not to stay together with Jack when we both left. I suppose that is a complication.