If It Keeps You Around Then I'm Down

I woke up peacefully in Alex's arms. I was a little bit cold, but too lazy to get up, it must have been at least ten in the morning because the sun was pretty high in the sky. I rolled closer to Alex and he accommodated to the change in distance by holding me closer. I started having my usual morning thoughts, I thought about how lovely the weekend had been. Wait, weekend, what day is it? I shot up and panicked looking at my phone.

"Alex!" I said shaking him slightly, he groaned and tried to swat me away before I realized this wasn't working. I slapped him, hard on the back and he got up annoyed and in pain.

"What?!" He said eyes still half shut.

"It's monday!" I said he shrugged and started to fall back down towards the hood, "we have school!" He finally registered what I said and popped up, he checked his phone before reporting that it was 10:30, I sighed. This habit of going to school wasn't working so well for me. I checked mine and saw I had four text messages, none from my mother so I guess she assumed I was at school.

'Where are you?', 'Are you playing hooky?', and 'Are you and Alex having secret neighbor sex?' all came from Jack and I laughed. One asked 'are you okay?' which came from Rian, I texted Jack back,

'It's not a secret anymore, now is it?' my phone almost immediately buzzed back.

'SERIOUSLY?!!?!?!'

'no!' I laughed to myself and Alex looked over curiously.

"Did Jack ask you if we're having secret neighbor sex?" I asked and Alex checked his messaged before laughing to himself.

"And here I thought I was special," Alex said climbing into the car and I followed suit. I was still exhausted, as we drove away leaving the Jager bottle where the car had once been.

"So, I was thinking, since we're already very late we should just hang out?" I suggested before looking at Alex who sighed in relief.

"Yes, let's get stuff from my house first," Alex said driving back, after our talk last night about how fucked we were I didn't really remember anything. I laughed realizing I was still wearing Alex's vest. We pulled up to his house and we made our way up to his room. I thanked him as he threw me the pair of black pants I also owned, in the same size. This made me feel a little bit like a failure. I pulled off my boxers without thinking I was in a room with a boy. Alex turned around and blushed. I secured the button after pulling them up and I laughed, blushing slightly.

"Whoa, Ava, your dad will not like me if he finds out you were pantless in my room," He said sheilding his eyes, his chest bare from changing his shirt which he stopped.

"Man up, Gaskarth," I patted his back fixing my messy bun, "Its nothing you haven't seen before."

"True," Alex shrugged before pulling on a red t-shirt and following me downstairs, "so what do you want to do?" He asked.

"I don't know I'm new here, what do y'all usually do?" I asked smiling brightly as we exited Alex's house again making our way through the fresh cut lawn towards his car.

"Y'all," he laughed condescendingly, "we could go to the mall, downtown and loiter, or we could hang out at Jack's house?" I felt my phone buzzing in the pockets of Alex's pants.

"Meet me at your house?" I texted Jack, "Let's go with Jack to Jack's house?" I suggested and Alex nodded turning on the ignition. I heard Hanson playing and Alex looked at me strangely, I quickly answered my phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Why am I meet you at my house?" Jack said, it sounded like he was in traffic.

"Because Alex and I need something to do and you love us?" I laughed and he sighed.

"Me more!" Alex yelled into the phone. I heard Jack laughing like a hyena and agreed to meet us in five minutes. I yawned at let myself rest my eyes while we waited for Jack. A couple of minutes later Alex slapped me on the stomach and I jerked up.

"What the fuck?!" I asked pretending to be mad, Alex was already out of the car, so I unbuckled my seatbelt to follow him. I ran up behind him and smacked him on the head.

"Oh and Brody scores fifty points for a head shot!" Jack called out like a sportscaster. I laughed and did a victory dance which was me running around with my arms above my head. I took a bow before Alex lifted me up over his shoulder and ran me into the house.

"Gaskarth, coming towards the end-zone, oh and touch down!" He called out as he threw me down on the couch. I could barely open my eyes I was laughing so hard. Jack came in a little bit later and explained to his older brother why we were home.

"Hi," I said shaking his hand still laying on the couch. I groaned as Alex started to sit on me and I pushed him off, smacking his ass.

"Oh, sexual harassment," Alex said pretending to bite his nails. I simply rolled my eyes,

"You wish," I laughed, propping myself up to sit correctly on the couch, Jack snaked next to me with three cokes and I took one.

"I do wish," He winked, I cracked it open and crossed my legs Indian style, well I suppose that's not politically correct, but that's how we learned in kindergarten, so in my mind, that's how I was sitting.

"What are you thinking about?" Jack said smiling before resting his head on my lap cutely, I blushed slightly. I brushed his hair back out of his eyes, instinctively, before resting my arms on his chest.

"You don't wanna know," I laughed, Alex was staring at us strangely and I lifted Jack's head up and pushed him over.

"No! It's not fair!" He cried after, I let go he was resting on my shoulder and Alex mocked
him doing the same thing. I figured there was no use in trying to fix it, Jack groaned trying to reach the remote without getting up.

"You're such a lazy ass!" I laughed leaning forward and grabbing the remote to him and I leaned back realizing that they were both chuckling. I looked at both of them trying decode their faces, "what?"

"My face touched your boobie," Jack giggled like a little kid who got a new toy, I laughed and stood up, letting Jack and Alex fall together bumping their heads. I moved over to a single seater and cuddled up in it.

"Fucking perverts," I blushed turning my attention to the TV that was still off, Alex and Jack were whining about their heads and I chuckled looking over at them biting my lip.

"So what did you crazy kids do this morning?" Jack asked, I smiled at Alex who raised his eyebrows.

"Well, first we had to find out where we were, then find clothes you know," I began, Jack's jaw dropped and he looked between Alex and I.

"Then we had to get her the morning after pill, because I ain't ready for no baby, and then she was like 'let's have a quicky in the car' and she gets what she wants, you know?" Alex said with a giant smile pasted on his face, by the end Jack knew that we were kidding and he got up towards the kitchen and turned around flicking us off.

"Fuck you guys!" Alex and I laughed. We spent the entire day, playing video games, Alex was writing some stuff while Jack taught me a couple of chords on the guitar, it felt nice having his arms around me, he sent shivers down my spine with his instructions. Alex was off in his own little world, muttering to himself and my fingers were sore from this, I had no idea how they did this.

"Shit! We need to go shopping with our mothers," Alex said after finishing up, he was checking his cell phone. I stood up and Jack looked between us. We were walking back up the stairs and Alex was on the phone.

"Ava!" Jack called out when I was following Alex up the stairs, I turned around and smiled. "We should go out sometime," He said ruffling his hair. I felt torn, I knew that I should say yes, but at the same time, I hadn't exactly told Zack anything about not wanting to go out. It was too sticky, too messy.

"Jack," I began and shifted uncomfortably, "I think that we should just be friends, at least for now." He nodded and shook it off.

"Yeah, totally, I understand," Jack said trying to make himself busy. I felt bad and turned around biting my lip so that I wouldn't say too much. I felt this overwhelming sense of regret. I ran up the stairs and over to Alex, he was looking for Jack to follow me, but then read my face as I passed him.

"Ava? Ava, slow down? What happened?" Alex grabbed me and I felt tears welling in my eyes and I bit my lip and blinked them away. I smiled and shook my head.

"I told Jack that I just wanted to be friends," I said pulling out of Alex's grip and climbed into his car. He backed up silent, he lost the words of wisdom of what to say. I bit my lip as our mothers waiting patiently before I got out the car, checking my face totally.

"Good lord, you two need to get a move on it!" My mother rushed us into the Tahoe in our driveway, I grabbed Alex's hand and ran him over chuckling and we climbed into the backseat. We must have spent hours at the mall, our parents dragging us from store to store. My mother pulled up a backless coral cocktail dress, that was pretty short. I was surprised by the fact that she had suggested it, since it was a little short and doesn't cover everything. Alex's mother made him try on a black suit and a black shirt with a white tie.

I laughed coming out of the dressing room with black heels and my hair still tied up, my mother gasped and Alex's mother came to look at me in the full length mirror.

"Ava, baby, you look gorgeous!" My mother kissed my cheek, Alex came out with his head down, tugging uncomfortably at his outfit. I smiled at him and made an 'aw' sound. Their eyes shifted to where I was looking, my mother pulled Alex next to me and they stared at us.

"You two look perfect," Alex's mother said, once we had changed out of our clothes, our mothers went to go play. Alex and I sat on the corner on the floor, I tiredly rested my head on his shoulder and he rested his head on top of mine.

"So are you going to end it with Zack?" He asked tiredly, I saw my mother get distracted with a couple of blouses. I nodded sleepily.

"Will you come with me to do it? I need to tell him in person," I asked looking up at him, Alex pulled further away to look at my eyes.

"Of course," he said, it felt like we were whispering.

"I'm not good at this," I sighed tiredly, he let his head fall back on mine without talking, we were resting in a comfortable silence.