Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Jade's POV

I walked around the many sweaty bodies, pushing and shoving the overly drunk high schoolers out of my way so I could make it over to the kitchen where I could slowly overcome my slight claustrophobic induced panic attack. When I finally pushed past the last body, I bent over, clutching my hands on my knees and took a few breaths, trying to calm my breathing out so I could go back to dancing in the heap of bodies succumbing my living room.

“Hey, you alright over here?” I turned around, my eyes catching Zack's as he grabbed another beer from the counter, handing it over to me. I silently thanked him and took a swig. “So, what's up?”

I shrugged, leaning against the counter, “Just trying not to die due to claustrophobia is all.” I answered nonchalantly, smirking over at the buff blond boy.

Zack chuckled, shaking his head slightly, “I swear, you are the weirdest person.”

“I take offense to that,” I answered, turning to him with a playful glare, “what about Jack? Melanie?”

Zack looked over at me, lifting his hand with the bottle in it towards me, his pointer finger directed at my face, “You make an argument there, Bates,” He agreed, retracting his hand and taking a long gulp of his drink, “Fine, third weirdest person. Happy?”

“Yes.”

Zack laughed and shook his head, the two of us walking out into the living room together, but stood on the outside of the bodies looking into the mass of skin and sweat, all induced by alcohol no doubt. Zack excused himself to go and talk to a couple people he knew while I stood off to the side, casually sipping my drink. Well, I was alone for a little bit.

I'll give you two guesses as to who they were.

“Well, well, well. If it isn't Miss Boyfriend-Stealer herself.” Red Head sneered as her conterpart positioned herself on my other side, causing a bimbo sandwich of sorts.

I sighed, looking between the two girls, “What do you two want?”

“We're here to-”

“Warn me about getting close to Alex?” I interrupted Blondie, a scowl now present on her overly make up caked face, “I swear, you two are like a broken record. Can I get a different song, or do I have to keep on listening to the one hit wonder?”

“Can it, Bates,” Red Head seethed, grabbing onto my wrist in a tight grip that had me wanting nothing more than to breakaway at that very moment.

“Its a party. Parties are supposed to be fun,” I glared up at the Red Head with as much fierceness as I could muster, “I'm not having much fun right now.”I tried to pull away but her grip got surprisingly tighter. Dammit, these girls were much tougher than they appeared. I felt slightly pathetic.

“Well, Bates, we all know what kinda fun you have planned out for tonight,” The blond snarled, a small smirk on her face.

I turned toward her, a confused and furious look set in my eyes, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“How many times do we have to say it, stay away from Alex. Don't even think of trying anything on him ton-”

“Oh my fucking God,” I yelled exasperatedly, “Shut up! Seriously, I'm not going to try anything. Alex is nothing more than a friend-”

“Really?” Red Head interrupted. She got closer to my face, a small smirk on her face, “Maybe you should walk around school like you don't want to jump his bones then?” My eyes widened and my mouth gaped open but for only a minute before my body tensed and my will power began to dwindle.

“Hey, what the fuck is going on here?!” A familiar voice yelled, causing the two bimbos to back away with innocent faces, parting away from me so I could see Rian's face perfectly. This wasn't the Rian I was used to, this was an enraged Rian, and frankly, I wouldn't want to be in Red Head and Blondie's position at this very moment.

“What are you talking about Rian?” Red Head sugarcoated her words perfectly, but Rian merely rolled his eyes, pushing past them and standing next to me, his arm wrapped around my shoulder.

“You two, leave.” When the two bimbos continued to stand stuck in their spots, Rian intensified his glare and snarled out a, “Now,” which caused them to almost sprint away from us. When they were a good distance away, Rian turned to me, a worried look in his eyes, “You okay?” He asked, looking over my face as I nodded, swallowing the saliva in my mouth to try and calm down and process what had just occurred.

“Yeah,” I breathed out, looking up at his face. Subconsciously, I reached out and grabbed the wrist the red head had been strangling during our conversation. Rian caught on and grabbed my hand, pulling it up to inspect the damage. Sure enough, there on my wrist were red and almost purple looking finger marks that were surely going to bruise by tomorrow. My eyes bulged a little, along with Rian's, “Well, this will be a little hard to explain.”

“Jade, you need to tell Alex.” Rian said, continuing to look at the bruising finger marks on my arm.

I shook my head, “I can't, Rian. This is my battle-”

“But he's the cause!”I sighed again, gently pulling my wrist away from Rian's grasp, “Jade, this is stupid. He has to know.”

“No, he doesn't,” I shook my head again, starting to walk away from him and making my way towards the dancing bodies, “I can do this alone.”

“Come and talk to me again when you have a black eye, Jade. Then tell me what your next move is.” And with that, Rian was gone, and I stood there, next to the dancing masses of human, processing exactly what had just happened in the last ten minutes.

“Jay Bird!” I turned my head, looking over as Alex made his way down the stairs, Lisa following after him, before they split up in different directions. I plastered a fake smile on my face, not wanting him to sense that anything was wrong and pulled my bruising wrist behind my back.

When Alex finally made his way over to me, he leaned in putting his lips close to my ear, making a small shiver run up and down my spine, “Five bucks says Jack gets naked by the end of tonight.” We both burst into laughter, myself nodding as he grabbed my drink from my hand and took a sip.

“He's pretty close right now. He's already got his shirt and pants off.” Alex laughed and handed back my drink.

“Yeah, that's my best friend for ya.” He laughed, shrugging a shoulder, “I need a drink.”

“Yeah, you do. I actually want my own and not have to share with you, Mr. Cooties.”

“I resent that.” Alex dramatically gasped, a small smile playing into his features.

“Sure you do. Would you like me to refer to your cooties as their given names?”

“What's that? Overly sexy cooties?”

I shook my head, “Nope, herpes.”

“Bitch,” Alex muttered, causing me to laugh loudly as we neared the kitchen. Once inside, Alex grabbed a plastic cup and began to mix together various alcohols as I looked away, not really captivated by Alex's obvious knowledge, though he was severely underage.

But the person in my line of vision was not underage.

As he smiled at me, his lip ringing shining in the dim lighting the house had acquired, I couldn't help but return his small gesture of greeting, because really, a smile could be used as a form of hello. Looking over at Alex, I realized he was still preoccupied with his drink, and I began to walk to meet in the doorway of the kitchen, his dark hair even more disheveled than usual.

“Hey Matty Mouse,” I grinned over at him as he smiled, lifting his cup to his mouth and taking a sip.

“Must you call me that?” He whined, a small smile still present in his features. I shrugged, taking my cup up to my mouth and taking a drink before looking back at him.

“So, what did you get Alex and Rian for their big birthday?”

“Nothing.” I raised an eyebrow at the older boy, a smirk now on his face, “I mean, I figure that
I put up with their shit enough days out of the week, why do I need to get them something to celebrate them picking on me?”

I smirked over at him, placing my cup on the counter, “They didn't get you anything for your birthday, did they?”

“Not a cent.” I chuckled, shaking my head as Matt joined in on my laughter, the two of us, smiling over at the other.

“When did you get your lip pierced?” I asked, changing the subject in order to keep the conversation going.

Matt shrugged, “Um, I think I was about...seventeen? Yeah, sounds about right.”

“Did it hurt?” I grimaced, thinking about my slight fear of needles. I had my ears pierced and
even then I had to have my mom and Sam hold onto my hands to get me to calm down enough for the lady to pierce my ears.

Matt shrugged once more, taking another sip from his cup, “A little. Nothing more than a pinch thought. Why, you thinking of getting one?”

I shook my head, “Nah, I want tattoos though, possibly a nose ring.”

Before Matt could answer, another presence made itself known, its shadow being cast over Matt's face and my back.

“So, what's going on here?” I turned slowly to look at Alex, a slight irked look on his face.

I sighed, looking between the two, “Nothing. Just Matt and I talking about piercings and stuff.”

Alex nodded, clutching his red cup a little less than before, “Cool.”

And just like that, conversation was dead.

“So...” Alex trailed off, taking a nonchalant sip from his cup. When he retracted the plastic from his lips, he kept his gaze down on the contents the cup contained, swirling it around until it was verging on spilling to the til floor below, “How long have you two been dating?”

I swear, Matt and I both choked on our saliva. Was he kidding?

It seemed like Matt was able to retrieve his wits faster than I could, “What the fuck are you talking about, Alex?” Matt whispered harshly, looking around to make sure no one had over heard.

Alex looked up then, his eyes blazing with fury, “Don't fucking toy with me, Flyzik. You've been all over her since your little fucking prank at my house that one night.” Matt's eyes widened and he took a few steps back, obviously as surprised as I was at Alex's sudden change in attitude.

“We're not dating, Alex.” I answered, only to have Alex's smoldering gaze fixated upon me next.

“Well,” He glared over at me, clutching his cup a little tighter than before, “then can you stop eye raping him then.”

I shook my head, narrowing my eyes at Alex and stepping forward so that I was staring straight into Alex's face.

“Alex, we're not dating either,” Alex's glare softened and he looked at the ground guiltily, “so you don't have a say in what I can and cannot do.”

Alex ran a hand through his hair, loosening the grip on his cup and putting it to his lips, taking another long drink from the cup. Raising my eyebrow, I finally put the pieces together. I looked over at Matt who was shaking his head, a frown on his face. Turning back to the coffee haired boy, I copied Matt's actions, shaking my head as he looked between the two of us.

“There you go again,” Alex yelled, throwing his hands up, causing a little bit of his drink's contents to spill onto the floor, “ Why don't you just get a room already, Jay Bird?”

“Alex, you're drunk.” Matt responded, trying to pry the cup from his grip.

“Don't touch me, you pedophile!” Alex pushed Matt back, causing the older boy to stumble back, holding his hands up in retreat.

“Alex,” I murmured, grabbing onto his wrist as his fiery gaze fixed upon me once again, “you need to give me the drink. You're acting like an asshole.”

“Well, Jay Bird,” Alex began, forcibly pulling his wrist from my grasp, the contents falling onto the floor once again, “ like you said, we're not dating. So don't worry about me.”

Alex made sure to bump Matt's and my shoulder forcibly before he walked away into the living room with the mass of sweating bodies and the smell of alcohol where no one could smell the heavy alcohol on his breath. Looking over at Matt, he shook his head, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“He's Alex. He gets like this when he's drunk,” I nodded, placing my cup on the nearby counter, not really in the mood to drink anymore, “Don't let it get to you. Everything will be fine when you see him next.”

I nodded once more, wrapping my arms around Matt in a hug before walking away to the corner I had been residing in at the beginning of the party; a place that I could feel safe in at the moment. Standing in the corner and looking around at the people carelessly dancing around with other drunk members of the party, I realized I had been the one to get more of a surprise than anyone. Actually, I was more confused than anyone at that very moment.

Why had Alex acted the way he had tonight? He had Lisa, who had been questioning their relationship a few hours before he had arrived at the party. But, here he was, questioning me about my supposed relationship with Matt. Had Lisa been right all along? Maybe Alex did have feelings for me that he was harboring, because, like they say, drunk words are sober thoughts...or something like that. Was Alex jealous of Matt and my friendship? I didn't understand why he would be.

Scanning through the faces of the crowd, my eyes caught onto the very couple that I had been thinking about a mere second before, attached at the lips with smiles on their faces.
They were happy.

But why was I more confused than anything once again? This should have cleared things up for me.

The questions burning into my mind once again faded away as one of them floated to the surface.

Why did I care so much about a drunken scene Alex created? It shouldn't have bothered me as much as it did.

Or maybe that was just because I was starting to realize that maybe I wanted something to occur between Alex and I.

And that's when I realized that I deserved a split lip and a bruising wrist, because I was becoming the person Lisa feared.

I was starting to harbor feelings for Alex.