Dear Summer

Hotel rooms were close to the top of Abbey's list of favorite things. They were always so clean and beautifully decorated—the ones that she stayed in, at least. There was also the great advantage of having people ready to wait on her whenever she needed something; the pampering was nice sometimes.

But after three Warped dates and a week with Matt and All Time Low, Abbey was beginning to love hotel rooms because they were completely her own. All day, every day it felt like she was constantly being introduced to a new band or a new touring crews. Or a new fan who had seen her talking to someone in All Time Low tried buddying up to her.

When she was in her hotel room, Abbey could do whatever she felt like. She could check her favorite online stores; she could let iTunes play as loudly as she wanted; she could even dance around in her underwear if she felt like it. And while all of the options she had in front of her sounded just perfect, Abbey mostly just slept when she was in her air conditioned hotel room.

The day that they arrived in Arizona, Abbey retired to her hotel room while the Kinsley went out to a late breakfast with Kyle. They had plans to meet up that night, but the long drive from California to Arizona left Abbey exhausted, and she canceled their plans around three so that she could take an extended nap and then do her nails or something later in the evening.

Around eight o'clock, a knock on Abbey's door and a call of, "Room service!" roused her from her sleepy state. After fixing her hair in a mirror and pulling a sweater over her camisole and tiny cotton shorts, she opened the door to find cart with a tray of food.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't order this," Abbey countered as the worker rolled the cart into her room.

"Are you Miss Eliades, room 623?" the man asked.

"Well, yes, but I didn't order this," repeated Abbey. She tried not to wrinkle her nose when the man set the tray of food on the table in her room.

"I did." Both Abbey and the hotel delivery man turned at the sound of the voice. Abbey's eyes narrowed slightly when she found Matt standing in her doorway.

The man who had delivered the food made his way out the door while Matt walked into the room. "What is this?" Abbey demanded as she lifted the lid off the plate. She laughed at the plate's contents. "Salad, grilled cheese, tomato soup and a martini?"

Matt grinned as he took a step towards Abbey and pulled her in for a kiss. It was nice, but Abbey was still too preoccupied with the meal crowding her table. "Matt," she said as she pulled away, "why'd you order me dinner?"

He shrugged as he sat down and began drizzling ranch—Abbey hoped that it was light—over her salad. "Kinsley said you canceled on lunch, and everyone went out to dinner, so I called downstairs and asked if you'd ordered anything," Matt explained.

Abbey rolled her eyes. "I was getting around to it," she began weakly.

Matt reciprocated her eye roll and crossed his arms. "Abbey, you don't eat after nine o'clock. It's eight."

She glanced at the food, and her stomach rumbled slightly. "I'm not hungry," she countered, crossing her arms around her torso. She could feel a growl building in her stomach, and she didn't want to fuel Matt's fire.

"Abbey, you know I don't worry," Matt began.

"Chillest guy on the planet," Abbey agreed as she flopped onto her bed and grabbed the remote so that she could turn up the volume on the soap opera she had muted earlier.

"Exactly," Matt continued, "but I'm worried now, Abbey. I don't want this to be like last summer—"

Abbey gripped the remote so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "I'm fine," she snapped.

"Then eat it," Matt challenged.

There was a long moment where the two simply glared at each other. Finally, Abbey's scowl melted into a smile. "Fine," she agreed, "I'll eat. But then you have to do something for me."

"Okay," Matt shrugged.

"I want to go out tonight. I can eat and be ready in half an hour, but you have to find some place fun," Abbey explained. She picked up her salad and took a bite as a peace offering.

Matt grinned. "That shouldn't be hard," he said, "I'll text the guys, and when everyone gets back, we'll leave."

"If you talk to the concierge, he should be able to find a really good club," Abbey added as she walked to her door and opened it.

Matt gave her a quizzical look as he crossed to the door as well. "Why do I feel like you're rushing me out of here?" he questioned.

Abbey returned a sweet smile. "Because I am," she admitted, "Party clothes require very risqué undergarments, Matthew, and if you want to stay while I get ready, we might not make it out of here in thirty minutes."

He gave her a quick kiss before he became more serious. "Promise you're going to eat?" he asked.

Abbey gave him another seemingly sincere smile. "Yeah," she nodded, "Thanks for being so wonderful, Matt."

It was a true testament to how little Matt actually had Abbey figured out when he left the room reassured. Wonderful was Abbey's lying adjective. As soon as the word slipped from her mouth, it was safe to assume she was being completely insincere. As soon as Abbey locked her door, she crossed to the table of food and glowered down at the meal. "What to do with you," she mused.

The salad was a safe bet, so it could stay. The main offenders of the meal were the greasy grilled cheese—it killed Abbey to describe it as so, because she loved grilled cheese—and the thick, creamy tomato soup. Warped was making it difficult for Abbey to keep up with her strict exercise regimen, and there was no way in hell she was getting fat this summer.

As she sipped her martini, Abbey took the bowl of soup into her bathroom and began dumping it down the sink. She left a little in the bottom of the bowl, because she was positive Matt would be suspicious if everything was gone. The next order of business was the grilled cheese. She cut the sandwich in half before she crossed to the balcony and glanced around casually before she dropped the sandwich onto the sidewalk below.

Then Abbey sat down at the table to enjoy the rest of her martini and her salad. The ranch wasn't light, which made her a little queasy, but she forced it down nonetheless. She felt slightly bad about not being able to promise Matt she'd eat; but it wasn't as though she had completely lied to him. She hadn't openly said, "I promise," in the first place, and she was eating some.

Thirty-five minutes later, Abbey entered the lobby of their hotel to find All Time Low, Matt, Kinsley, and some of Forever the Sickest Kids awaiting her arrival. They weren't looking at her, so Abbey allowed herself to take a steadying breath before she approached them. Being around Matt and not being able to act like she really liked him was difficult. Being around Gaskarth was just difficult on its own.

"Hey you," she smiled as she walked up to Kinsley and took her free arm. The blonde's right hand was gripping that of Kyle Burns.

"Abs!' Kinsley grinned, hugging her friend. "Are you feeling better?"

"What?" she asked before feeling stupid for not remembering that she had used the "I don't feel good" excuse when canceling their dinner plans. "Oh, yeah, of course."

"Great," Kinsley replied. "So where are we going, Matty?"

"Yeah, Matty," Abbey smirked. She couldn't wait until they were at the club, and Kinsley was distracted by Kyle. Kinsley was her best friend, but right now, Abbey wanted to enjoy her fling or whatever it was she and Matt had.

"We're going to this place called the Rhythm Room," Matt answered.

Abbey snorted as they walked out of the hotel. "You better hope it's more fun than it sounds," she told Matt.

The cab hailing was left to Abbey and Kinsley for two reasons: the first being that they lived in New York and were well acquainted with the process of hailing taxis; the second being that they were pretty girls and had a better chance of catching the cab drivers' attention.

They easily stopped two cabs. Kinsley, Kyle, Caleb and Jonathan took the first cab, and it became apparent to Abbey as soon as Jack, Rian and Zack were sitting in the second taxi that she was going to have either a very good night and get to ride with Matt or a very bad night and be stuck with Alex.

"Get another one, Abs," Matt said as both he and Alex glanced at the remaining spot in the second taxi.

By the time Abbey came back, another taxi waiting to whisk the remaining two off to the club, Matt was frowning, and Alex looked triumphant. "We rock, paper, scissored," Matt explained apologetically.

Abbey groaned and stomped off to the new taxi. As she sat in the back waiting for Alex, she considered telling the driver to simply leave but decided against it. Alex knew that she had something with Matt and that was knowledge that she didn't want Kinsley to become aware of.

When Alex slid into the back seat of the cab, he admitted, "Thought you were going to leave me."

"Considered it," Abbey responded as she scooted to the opposite side of the seat.

"You look nice," Alex commented in an airy tone.

Abbey frowned before she grudgingly muttered, "Thank you." It was nice to have someone notice. She had almost felt as though her Stella McCartney minidress was being wasted on the night and company as she hadn't seen any appreciative glances being sent her way.

"Do people ever call you Eli?" Alex asked suddenly.

Abbey raised her eyebrows. "No," she countered, "Abbey's a pretty easy name to pronounce."

"I meant because of your last name," explained Alex, "Eli could be like a nickname."

"I don't like it," Abbey immediately declared. "It reminds me of elephant."

"I like elephants," Alex noted as he began staring out the window at Phoenix. "They're one of my favorite animals at the zoo."

A smile almost broke Abbey's hard expression as she thought about the millions of times she and Kinsley had convinced their parents to take time out from their extremely busy schedule so that they could go to the zoo. When they were younger, they used to jump up and down around the lion exhibit, yelling, "Rawr!" at the top of their lungs until the big cats looked at them. And every time they went to the zoo, Abbey would buy a stuffed polar bear and hunt down a zoo keeper to tell her what the actual polar bear's name was so that her stuffed animal would have a namesake.

"I used to love the zoo," she admitted.

Alex cocked an eyebrow. "Used to?"

Abbey really did smile this time as she thought of the last time she had gone to the zoo. The polar bear from that specific trip was tucked into her suitcase back at the hotel. "I just haven't been there in a really long time," she explained vaguely. "It was the last time my dad took me."

"Are you guys close?" Alex pressed.

"We used to be," Abbey answered before she could help herself. But suddenly, they were too close. The conversation was too serious. She was sharing too much with Gaskarth. She tossed thirty dollars to the cab driver before she practically jumped out of the cab and joined her friends by the entrance of the club.

She grabbed Matt's hand as soon as she was with the group, not caring whether Kinsley saw or not. "What's wrong?" Matt asked as Abbey lead him through the door of the club and towards the bar.

"Apple mojito, please," she requested of the bartender. He seemed a little wary of her age, but Abbey promptly pushed a twenty dollar bill towards him, and the man began mixing her drink.

"Nothing's wrong," she smiled at Matt. She leaned forward and gave him a kiss that he curtailed with a laugh. "What?" Abbey demanded.

"That martini earlier messed you up, huh babe?" he asked as he grabbed her drink off the bar and took her hand. He was taking her somewhere. They stopped at a comfortable looking booth where most of their group was seated. Abbey dropped onto the comfortable looking seat and began sipping her mojito contently, ignoring Alex's burning stares. Matt shook his head at Abbey in an amused way before he sat down next to her and began checking his text messages.

"Eli, come dance with me," Alex said as he placed his bottle of beer on the table.

Abbey shook her head and took another drink of her mojito. "Go bother some easy slut instead of me," she requested. "There seems to be a lot of them here." It took a minute for her alcohol tinged brain to realize that Alex had called her Eli, but once she did, she snapped, "And my name is Abbey. Abb-ey."

Alex sent Abbey a smirk but took her advice nonetheless, and the next time Abbey glanced up, she saw him chatting with a pair of girls who seemed to fit the description she had suggested. She rolled her eyes as he looked towards their booth and winked at her. "Where's Kinsley?" she asked, suddenly realizing that their booth was nearly empty.

"With Kyle," Matt answered.

"Shocking," Abbey commented as she pushed the straw around the bottom of her glass, trying to get every last morsel.

"Need a refill?" Matt asked, looking amused.

Abbey nodded. "Thanks," she smiled as he headed towards the bar.

That was when Abbey noticed it. The BlackBerry that was one of Matt's most prized possessions. He was always emailing someone or talking to someone at the label about something. Curiosity overwhelmed Abbey, and after glancing around to make sure that no one was looking, she grabbed the phone. A few scrolls delivered her to his inbox, and Abbey clicked on the first unopened text message.

It was from Natalie. As in Matt's girlfriend Natalie. Abbey's eyes narrowed as she read the message: You never answered my call!): Give me a ring back. Love you babe!

A figure sat down next to Abbey, making her jump. "Snooping, Eli?" Alex commented as he drained the rest of his beer.

"Buzz off, Gaskarth," she snapped as her finger hovered over the button that would delete the text message from Matt's girlfriend. Alex gave her a push and placed his finger over hers, ensuring that the message would never be read by Matt.

Abbey grinned over at him. "Who knew you'd have a use," she mused as she replaced the phone on the table.

"That's what I'm here for," Alex declared, "Helping beautiful, young women let go of their inhibitions and do the things that they really want to."

"How'd you know I really wanted to delete that message?" Abbey asked.

"Because I know that you like Matt," Alex replied simply. "And secretly the fact that he has a girlfriend pisses you off more than anything else in the world."

"I don't like Matt," Abbey retorted. "He's just fun."

"Speaking of fun!" Alex set his beer down on the table and nudged Abbey's arm. "I want to thank you. Because those two girls over there," he pointed to the ladies he had been chatting up, "are going to show me a very good time tonight. Thanks, Eliades." He gave her a swift kiss on the cheek—which Abbey shrank away from—before he stood up and started towards his new friends.

Abbey's eyes narrowed as she watched the girls warmly receive Alex. She didn't realize how fiercely she had been glaring at the trio until Jonathan Cook took the empty seat on her left side. "What's wrong, Abster?" he asked as he gave her a heartwarming grin.

"Absolutely nothing," she smiled. "Now that you're here." And after making sure that Alex was looking, Abbey leaned forward and let her lips meet Jonathan's. This game of Alex's was certainly made for two players.

However, Abbey didn't put much thought towards the one person who would be hurt more than Alex by her sudden interest in Jonathan: one J. Matthew Flyzik.