The Smile You Fake, The Steps You Take

POINT OF VIEW: John O'Callaghan.

After checking into a hotel we all took to chilling out in the lobby. After a while, the other guests caught on to the fact that we were all highly loud and obnoxious and retreated back to the safety of their rooms, which simply gave us more room to be obnoxious.

"Go long!" Alex shouted, whipping a mini finger-sandwich across the room to me, trying to land it perfectly in my mouth. I had to jerk way to the left simply to catch it on my right eye.

"Nice aim, buddy," I laughed, peeling it off my face and eating it anyway.

"You guys wanna go laser-tagging now?" Amanda called over our noise.

"Holy shit, let's do it," Alex grinned, running at her and picking her up.

"Put me down!" she shrieked, slapping him on the back until he relinquished. "Let's go, dudes!" she called to the nine of us. "The van's probably already waiting outside."

We all jogged outside and piled into the van that was waiting to take us to the local laser tag place. Alex, Rian, Kennedy and I squeezed into the backseat and I pulled Amanda back with me so she was sitting on my lap, leaving the rest of the guys to sit in the middle and front rows. Amanda giggled and stretched out across all four of us, resting her head on my lap.

"So what are the teams?" she asked.

"I say it's All Time Low versus The Maine," Zack opined.

Alex counted quickly and then spoke up, "But then the numbers are uneven."

"I'll be on your team," Amanda offered and Jack nodded vigorously.

"Yes!" he said quickly, a little too loudly. Amanda ignored this.

"You're so gonna lose," she smiled and poked me in the stomach.

"Um, no way," I replied and poked her back. She giggled and swatted my hand away, which only prompted me to poke her again.

"Stop it!" she laughed, squirming away. "You know I'm ticklish there."

"Well in that case," I sighed, pretending to give in, then poked her in the stomach again, "I might just have to tickle you more, right?"

"Ah, John!" she slapped my hand away. "Get away from me!"

I snickered. "Too bad you're sitting on my lap!" I grabbed her in a tight hug so she couldn't get away and held on tight.

"Let go, you freak!" she grinned and stuck out her tongue.

I obliged. "You know you love me."

"Maybe," she laughed and sat up, electing to instead sit on Alex's lap.

"Alex, really?" I laughed. "Steal my girl, huh?"

"Better option than you!"

Ten minutes later, all ten of us were wearing the dorky vests that come with the territory of playing laser tag. Even though we'd all done it before, we were still required to watch some sort of instructional video, though I spent the majority of it poking Amanda in various places to see how long it took her to punch me in the shoulder. Finally we were allowed onto the "course," if you could even call it that. Each team was sent to opposite sides to start and we got into a huddle.

"Okay," I began, "Everybody claim a person and you just tail them everywhere. And be sneaky about it, dammit." I paused then added, "but I've got Amanda. She's goin' down." My bandmates each claimed a person and then we set off. The area was strangely misty, thanks to a random smoke machine in the corner. From somewhere to my left I heard Alex shout, "I've been hit! Man down!" and Garrett snicker, "Man? Is that what you're calling yourself now?" Then Rian cackled, "Don't mock Alex!" and shot Garrett.

"I'm down!" garrett shouted dramatically. Two down, but each team was still even.

"Ouch, watch where you're going!"

"Rian, you asshole, you just shot me!" Zack cried. "I'm on your team!"

"Oops, sorry," Rian apologized. I took the opportunity to glance around the corner and shoot Rian before diving behind a wall. "Who did that?! Dammit!" now it was just me, Pat, Jack and Amanda.

"Gotcha, sucker!" Amanda's voice came from around the corner of the wall I was hiding behind and Pat cried, "Aw man! Beat by a girl!"

I held in a laugh and sighed. Okay, two to one, but I could definitely do this. I got up to turn the corner and slammed right into Amanda, knocking her to the ground and falling right on top of her.

"Ow!" she whisper-shouted, pointing her laser-gun right in my face as if it was intimidating.

"You can't just shoot me in the face, you've gotta get the vest, remember?" I laughed.

She groaned. "Dammit, you're right."

My heart involuntarily started beating faster when I realized that I was literally on top of Amanda and I made a move to get off her. It's now or never, dude, my mind was telling me, but I didn't want to have to take the plunge. "Hey, Amanda, c'mere for a sec," I whispered, covering her mouth with my hand and pulling her behind the wall I'd previously been hiding behind. The last thing I needed was for Jack, the only other remaining player, to hear where we were going. God forbid if I got shot while trying to get my point across to Amanda.

"What?" she whispered once I removed my hand from her mouth. "Can't it wait until later? This is war!"

"Listen, I don't really now how to say it," I sighed, biting my lip and ignoring her attempt at humor. I'd barely started and I was already screwing up.

"Then just say it," she suggested, nodding her approval. "Go on."

I nodded. "Okay, well, um. The thing is..."

She shoved me playfully. "Wittle Johnny getting tongue-tied? Why is that?" she joked.

"Well, uh, you. It's because of you."

Amanda was quiet and very serious when she replied, "Explain that a little more clearly, John."

I bit my lip and looked down. I didn't want to finish, but I was already in too deep. "The thing is, Amanda, I've liked you for a while. You're my best friend, and I want...more than that. I mean," I added quickly, "I know I haven't seen you for a really long time, but you've got no idea how much I've missed you. And I mean, we're gonna see a whole lot more of each other now, right?"

She pressed her lips together to prevent the slight smile that had started to bloom across them. "Keep going," she urged.

What else was there to say? Oh, right. Of course. "Uh. Will you be my girlfriend, maybe?"

That's when I was shot in the back.

"We win!" Jack shouted.