If It Keeps You Around Then I'm Down

JACK:

We all piled into Alex's car and I saw Ava smile slightly, I was curious as to what she was smiling to. She looked up to see me staring at her through the rear-view mirror. I smirked at her and blushed looking away. She was busy talking to Rian and they seemed to hit it off. I chuckled at her, Alex looked a little annoyed and scoffed at me.

Alex always knew when I had a look in my eye. I definitely wanted to get to know her. Alex and I never had a problem getting dates, if you know what I mean. She tucked her hair behind her ear. She was really attractive, unlike the orange stick girls who came to our parties to get drunk and get their hook ups. She had a little natural tan and perfect white teeth. She had beautiful eyes, they were bright brown I couldn't think about about a metaphor for them, they weren't a dark chocolate brown, but like if you saw coke with sunlight coming through it, I don't know but they were different.

She had a nice laugh too, she shifted uncomfortably she was really hard to get a read on. She smiled at me in the mirror and mouthed 'what'. I shook my head and smiled at her again. There was a weird tension between us, this would be different than usual as well. This would be a challenge.

"So you play drums?" I heard her ask Rian, her voice was sweet melodic voice. It wasn't high or low, she was truly unique.

"Yeah for a while now, we're all in a band together," Rian explained Ava nearly flipped shit.

"No shit, that's so cool!" Ava said excitedly, she played with her fingers and looked between all of us, "what kind of music do y'all play?"

"Y'all?" Rian and I asked at the same time, we both looked at each other before looking at her, I saw her chuckle at her own expense, her face becoming a slight rose color. She simply looked like someone who spent all day outside.

"My parents are from Texas and they pretty much taught me how to speak," She explained, looking down and smiling slightly. I nodded and looked at Alex who rolled his eyes.

"Where are you from?" Rian asked seriously interested, the way she interacted with him it was like they had been best friends forever.

"Well recently, I moved here from Irvine, California, before that it was Miami, Florida, before that it was Austin, Texas and before that it was Oregon, Arizona, Montana, and Phoenix, but I was born in England" She listed out without a second thought. I instinctually looked at Alex who was born in England as well.

"Well damn,' Rian laughed, Alex pulled up to a different high school and Zack, our bassist got in, Ava slid to the middle seat and let Zack come it, they shook hand and she smiled brightly.

"So you're the bass player?" She asked, what I assume is pure luck and a guess Zack's eyes got wide.

"How did you know that?" He said like she had done magic or something like that. She chuckled slightly and held out her hand.

"I'm Ava, not a psychic, just a good guesser," She smiled and he laughed louder than Zack usually does, their eyes locked together and he held out his hand.

"I'm Zack," He said taking hers and shaking it lightly, they seemed to get lost in each other's eyes and held it out longer than a normal handshake should. I felt a flare of jealousy for some reason. Rian cleared his throat and they both awoke from their reverie. They both brought their hands down and she held her hands together in her lap. They both had really weird looks on their face.

"Anyways," I said looking around, we finally got to my house, since my parents weren't home we decided to have a band practice all day, it beat school. I laughed and looked at Rian and Zack who doing rock, paper, scissors on who would bring the beer tomorrow night.

"Do y'all have party every weekend?" She asked looking around and Rian helped her out of the car and she slammed the door, Zack looked amused and Alex still looked like he had something up his ass.

"Y'all?" Zack smiled to himself and Rian simple said, 'long story'. Ava put her bag over her shoulder and tossed her hair over she shoulder. She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue strangely.

"What the fuck?" I laughed and she broke her face and shrugged smiling slightly. Alex kept walking and went straight into the house. I skipped over to Alex and hugged him from behind. "Why so blue panda bear?" I asked giddily. I heard Zack and Ava laughing at me from behind. I didn't mind doing things that made people laugh, I liked being the outrageous one.

"I'll tell you later," Alex muttered with his straight face, this usually would've cracked him up. I decided to be serious for a minute, and pulled him aside.

"So seriously dude, what the fuck is up with you?" I asked trying to get Alex to look me in the eye.

"Nothing, its just that Molly broke up with me," He said ruffling his hair and avoiding my stare, "and this Ava girl isn't helping."

"What dude what happened? What's wrong with Ava?" I asked really confused about how the two correlated. He swore under his breath and leaned against my kitchen counter.

"She said that I wasn't relationship material , that and she saw me making out with Maria in the hallway," Alex said like it was Molly's fault he couldn't keep it in his pants. "Ava and I were like childhood playmates or some shit and now I'm taking her to the party tomorrow night, instead of Maria, who is pissed at me for it, I told her my mom won't let me go with anyone else, she nearly had a cow when I texted her this morning."

"Dude, first of all, that's your fault, but if you want I could take Ava and you could take Maria," I suggested, he looked up with a slight smile on his face. I could tell he didn't give a shit about Molly or Maria.

"Sweet, thanks little buddy!" he said patting me on the shoulder and walking down into my basement, unscathed despite illusions a few seconds ago. I laughed, that was my best friend for you. I followed him and walked down into my basement seeing Ava and Zack arguing about football, my jaw dropped.

"No way! The patriots are going to get their ass handed to them!" Ava said waving her arms excited. Zack was shaking his head, he was a Patriot fan and Raven fan.

"Yeah, you can kiss the Giants good bye after Tom Brady gets his hands on them!" Zack said, this was more than he usually talked especially to a girl. I smiled to myself at her hair bouncing with each radical movement like it was going to prove her point.

"No way, Tom Brady is like the most overrated quarterback in the whole league," Ava said so sure of herself. Zack seemed impressed and finally chuckled to himself.

"Fine, how about we play Madden and test this little theory of ours out, whoever loses has to buy the other person a drink, or whatever that person wants," Zack finally drew the argument to a close holding his hand out on their wager.

"It's so on, but just so you know, I like rum and coke on ice," She smiled over-confidently grabbing his hand and shaking it competitively. Alex seemed in a much better mood bouncing off the walls and pretending to be Steven Tyler basically humping his microphone.

"What'd you do give him a handjob, before he was all mopey and whiney now he's- normal?" Rian asked getting behind his drum set. Ava made her way to a couch against the wall, she seemed really excited to watch us. Alex slipped on his guitar and started playing 'That Girl's A Straight Up Hustler', Ava seemed to be in awe after we finished she clapped loudly.

"I should probably act cooler since I'm the new kid, but that was fucking amazing!" she complimented. Alex gave her a big toothy grin and thanked her on behalf of all of us.

"What's your name?" She asked curiously looking at all of us, this time Zack answered.

"All Time Low," he stated shortly her face grew flat. I noticed how suddenly everyone was curious to know why. I flipped my hair and tried to seem nonchalant.

"New Found Glory? Really?" She asked sarcastically, all of us were surprised she got the refrence so quickly. She seemed to disapprove.

"It's fucking boss, what are you talking about?" Alex said, getting the slightest bit defensive, she smiled coyly and then raised her eyebrows at him. The was a silent tension before she burst out in laughing.

"Nah, I'm just kidding, that's awesome and you guys are so good! Why aren't you famous?" All of our shoulders seemed to simultaneously relax and Alex explained how we had just gotten signed to Hopeless Records and she congratulated us. We stayed at my house, ate sandwiches for lunch and then watched a mixture of Scrubs and South Park, before making fun of reality TV shows on MTV, I heard a car pulling up in the drive way and I figured it was my brother.

"Oh, shit! I have to get home and unpack," Ava said checking her cellphone. Alex got up and felt his pockets, upon finding them, retrieved them in his hand. Zack and Rian all got up and then turned to me.

"What I'm already home," I shrugged.

"Your car dumbass," Alex spat.

"Why I outta!" I got up pretending to roll up my sleeves like I was preparing to fight him, he shrieked and ran past my brother who said hello to Ava quickly then shooting me a 'what the fuck' look. I shrugged and we all piled into the car. I was surprised when Ava told us that she'd been playing the guitar since seventh grade and how she always moved around for no particular reason besides her parents' need for change.

We got to the school parking lot, and Alex parked and chased after Maria to tell her that he could take her, Ava got out of the car with the rest of us to take my passenger seat.

"You guys are seriously the coolest people I've ever met on a first day," she gushed excitedly. Zack asked her for her number and then Rian decided that they should all exchanged numbers to hang out. She looked up at me and smiled, "What's your number." I smirked and gave it to her before ducking out gracefully and making my way to my hand-me-down car. Rian did the same thing and the last thing I saw was Zack and Ava talking, Alex still had to drop Zack off at his other school.

I wished I had stayed just to make sure nothing too forward happened between them. Ava threw her head back in laughter, I never thought Zack was that funny but apparently she did. I scrunched my nose when I saw Alex and Maria having a brief makeout session in the middle of the parking lot before her friends pulled her away. I rolled my eyes as Alex ran over to the car and Ava and Zack finished their discussion inside the car, then I pulled out into the main street and started to make my way back to my house.

Ava came at the perfect time to add something interesting to my year, one last high school hurrah. I turned into the highway and thought about the party tomorrow. Ava didn't stand a chance, I had my sights set on her.