Lost In The Stereo Sound

Natalie's POV:
My hands were shaking as I handed in my last final ever: an all written History final.

"Natalie are you alright? You look awful," my history teacher said as I handed him the stack of essays I'd written.

"I'm exhausted and this is my last final," I explained.

"Go home and sleep, Natalie!" he exclaimed. "By looks of your essays, you certainly deserve it."

"Thank you. Have a good summer," I said as I left.

With a wave, I headed out of the high school and got into my car. I let out a gigantic sigh and started my car. It was a beautiful sunny day so I pushed the button to have the top go down. As the sunlight flooded my eyesight, I slid my sunglasses up the bridge of my nose and turned the car stereo on. Honestly, there is nothing more relaxing than a summer drive with the wind in your hair and the stereo blaring your favorite tunes. Arriving home, my mother greeted me at the door and threw her arms around my neck as tears came to her eyes.

"What the hell, Mom?" I asked patting her on the back.

"My baby is done with high school!" she said through sniffles.

"Get it together!" I joked. "I'm starving and I need to sleep so can we wrap this up?"

"I'm sorry, Nat," she said with a laugh. "I made you some tomato soup and grilled cheese."

"Perfect!" I exclaimed.

After I finished with my five-year old lunch, I trudged my way upstairs and literally collapsed in my bed. I swear, I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow. Bliss.

Alex's POV:
It was nearing five at night and Natalie still hadn't called me or anything. I knew her finals were over for the week seeing that it was Friday and school had been out for three hours. I called her to see what she'd been up to but her phone went straight to voice mail. Thinking it was weird that she was incommunicado, I decided to head on over to her house.

"Hi, Alex," Mrs. Laurent greeted me at the door.

"Hello," I said heading for a hug.

"I bet you're really excited that you're done with school," she said letting me into the house.

"Forever," I added while nodding. "It feels so good."

"I'm glad for you, dear. Natalie is sleeping," Mrs. Laurent said. "You can go up, but don't wake her up. She's hardly slept all week. Promise?"

"Of course," I said slipping my shoes off. "Thanks!"

I was exhausted too, come to think of it. The boys and I had a really rough week. And by rough, I mean drinking until passing out rough. My parents, being English and all, could not care less about our drinking habits. Their theory was that we were going to do it anyway, so they may as well know about it to prevent anything awful happening. Logical. But starting on Saturday, we drank nightly. On Saturday, Jack hosted a regular party to start it off. We invented all new types of objects to serve as a beer bong: a plastic flamingo (flabongo), a swim noodle. On Sunday, we played the Lord of the Rings drinking game, wrongly, I should add. Instead of taking drinks, we took shots and were on the verge of passing out around eleven. Pathetic. On Monday night, I held the Beer Pong Tournament. Jack and I won, of course. We had upwards of fifty people playing games of six-cup and shit got crazy. On Tuesday, Rian opened his house up for a flippy cup tournament of epic proportions. The same people from the night before were invited and each team had about twenty people. All of these nights culminated to Wednesday where I held the Beer Olympics. Teams of five were assigned countries and were up for playing games of beer pong, quarters, landmines, chandeliers, flip cup, and fuck the dealer. One of the best nights that I can't remember. Looking at the pictures, I'm one hundred percent sure I had an amazing time. We ended the week on Thursday with the Tour de Franzia. In a nutshell, we bought an obscene amount of little kid tricycles and boxes of Franzia wine. The "race" was six blocks long and at each "checkpoint", we were forced to drink from the box for thirty seconds. How we all managed to get around the blocks without any police encounters is beyond me. There were a few wrecks, but that's it. Matt won that event somehow. So, yes, I was exhausted.

I opened Natalie's door quietly to find her laying on top of her bed. Usually when she sleeps, her arms and legs are all over the place, but now, she was laying as if she fell onto the bed and passed out. Carefully, I walked over to her and pulled the covers out from under her. Lightly pushing her over, I joined her and pulled the covers over us. I watched her sleep for a few minutes before finding my own eyelids heavy. I succumbed to their desire and fell asleep.

Natalie's POV:
I woke up when it was dark outside. Shifting to stretch, I felt someone laying next to me.

"What the fuck!" I yelled reflexively as I jumped out of bed.

"What?" I heard a sleepy male voice say. "Natty, it's just me."

"Wow, sorry," I said. "Son of a bitch. You scared the shit out of me!"

"Come back to bed, Natty," Alex said patting the space next to him.

"Hold on," I said noticing a slip of paper near my closed door on the floor. I turned on my dim lamp to read what it said. It was a note from my mother saying that she'd be out and would be back late.

"What's that?" Alex asked.

"A note from my mom saying that she's going to be gone until late," I said casually. "She went out, I guess."

"Gotcha," Alex said nodding. "So, I think we need to have a conversation."

"What are you getting at?" I asked feeling immediately defensive. I crossed my arms and leaned against my dresser.

"Come here," Alex said gesturing the bed again.

"What?" I said settling into the spot next to him.

"I just want to make sure that you are aware of what the band's goals are," Alex said slowly.

"What do you mean?" I asked slightly relaxing.

"We want to be the next Blink-182. And we're not stopping until we get there. There won't be tours that we'll turn down unless we're recording new records. We're determined, Nat," Alex said in an attempt to explain.

"Okay," I said.

"It's not like I don't want to, but I won't be able to come home or visit you often. It's not that you won't be a priority to me or anything, it's just that music is my career and I want to take this relatively seriously. Plus, we only have a short span of time to do this and we were given a shot early," Alex said.

"I know," I said.

"Are you alright with that?" Alex asked looking nervous.

"Who am I to stop you from living out your dream?" I asked plainly. "This is something you excel at and I'd be awful to not support you in that. It sure as hell won't be easy though."

"I know," Alex said looking down at his hands.

"I'm not giving up," I said solidly.

"Me neither, Nat," Alex said hugging me. "I love you."

Immediately, I pulled away and just stared at him. His eyes looked genuine but his expression seemed terrified. I couldn't tell what he was thinking at all and it scared me. My heart was easily beating a million times a minute and I felt color rise to my cheeks.

"Alex, don't say things you don't mean," I said seriously.

"I'm not. I love you, Natalie," he said reaching out to pull me close to him.

"I... I love you too," I said shakily.

"I've never said that and actually meant it, Nat," Alex said looking at me straight in the eye.

"Me neither," I agreed with a smile.

"I'm really happy I found you," Alex said.

"Was I lost? Is my name Grace?" I joked.

"You're ruining the moment, you asshole," Alex said tickling my stomach.

When the laughter died, Alex wasted next to no time putting the moves on me. Maybe it was the fact that I'd let myself actually admit that I loved him, but every time he touched me, my skin seared. The asshole started with my neck. He knew the exact spot on my neck that would make me squirm and, boy, he abused it. Alex skillfully slipped my shirt off and ran his hands up and down my back as he kissed me wildly. I felt an entirely new feeling. Instead of lust, I felt desire on a whole different level. It wasn't even close to a pleasure fix, it was wanting to be closer to someone I loved. I pulled Alex's shirt off to follow suit and ran my hands on the contours of his back. His hands were entwined in my hair as we rolled around in my bed. Carefully, Alex unhooked my bra and gently caressed my chest as I kissed his neck. Alex pressed his pelvis against mine and I could feel how badly he wanted it. Leaning back so there was a space between us, I undid the button on Alex's jeans and tugged them down. With the help of Alex, they were flung on the floor along with my skirt.

I have to say, when it was all over, I was left feeling ecstatic, like I could take over the world.

"Shit, Nat," Alex said flopping over next to me on his back.

"What?" I said feeling mildly self-conscious.

"You are fucking amazing," Alex said shaking his head in disbelief.

"Why thank you," I said climbing under the covers.

"Are you up for anything tonight?" Alex asked doing the same.

"Other than this?" I said with a smirk. "Nope."

"Sounds good to me," Alex said kissing my cheek. "We should probably put on some clothes..."

"Good idea," I said looking at the clock. It read midnight. "Jesus."

"What?" Alex asked pulling on his boxers and a pair of basketball shorts he'd left at my house.

"It's midnight already," I said laughing searching for a pair of flannel sleep shorts.

"Time flies when you're having hours of sex," Alex stated.

"Good one," I said sarcastically as I pulled a t-shirt over my head.

"No, don't do that," Alex said making a pouty face.

"As if a piece of fabric will prohibit you from reaching under it," I said pulling at my t-shirt.

"I guess you're right," Alex said with a smile.

"Come on, let's go to bed," I said jumping on to it. "You wore me out."

Alex slid in next to me and wrapped his arms around me. He kissed my neck and sighed.

"I could stay like this forever," Alex said sleepily.

"Me too, love," I said.

"Night, Natty. I love you," Alex said with a kiss.

"I love you too."

I laid awake for a while just thinking about the past few months. All of the memories blurred together as I fell asleep, but I knew one thing, I was in love and I was happy.