It Was Only a Kiss

Jimmy and Brian sat on the couch, staring at the door, waiting for Sophia to enter.

And when she did, she was holding her hand as she stormed to the bathroom. With no sign of Xander following, Brian grinned. "You owe me twenty bucks!" He shouted as the two stood up and followed her to the bathroom.

"Dammit Soph!"

She smiled when she saw them standing in her bathroom doorway. "What'd you do?!" Brian asked excitedly.

She shrugged. "He was being a dick so I punched his nose. He got blood on me." She replied, holding up her hand, which she was cleaning off with a towel. "He bleeds easily for someone who doesn't drink." She added with a laugh.

"Jimmy owes me twenty bucks." Brian said proudly.

Sophie grinned. "Did you bet I'd punch him?" He nodded. "At least Brian knows I still have a lot of ass-kicking left in me." She said, then stuck her tongue out at Jimmy.

Jimmy's eyes suddenly widened. "Fuck!"

Both Brian and Sophie looked at him, puzzled. "Fuck?"

"Fuck," he replied with a nod. "We forgot to get a recruit for tomorrow night." Jimmy said.

"Sophie can do it." Brian answered like it was obvious.

"What? What am I going to be forced into doing?" She inquired.

"You are being invited to the weekly, 'Suck my cock, you faggot' Halo tournament at Matt's house tomorrow night." Jimmy said with a grin. "We've been getting our asses kicked by Logan for the past fucking month, so -"

"I thought Matty and Logan broke up?" Sophie butted in, confused.

"Nah yo. Well they did. But they're back together now." Brian said with a sigh.

Sophie couldn't help but let a huge grin spread across her face. One, because Logan was one of the few girls she actually not only got along with, but liked, and two, because she was about to quote The Hangover. "'Yeah, that's the reason I've been able to stay single so long...'"

Brian grinned. "'Oh, really? That's the reason you're single?'" He continued.

The three started cracking up. They could practically quote the whole movie if they really wanted to.

Jimmy sighed, keeping the large grin still plastered on his face. "But yeah. You need to come so we can fight vagina with vagina!"

Sophie blinked. "What did I tell you about selling me to lesbian sex scene people?!" She groaned.

Brian grinned. "Only if it's with me, and a threeway. Of course."

Jimmy nodded. "What he said. But really. I'm sick of getting my ass kicked by her. We figured you could help cause girls can do that? I don't know! Stop putting pressure on me!"

Sophie smiled and nodded. "Get me another bag of popcorn for while we play and I'll see what I can do." She told them. "And how come you guys call it that?"

"Call what that?"

"The tournament."

Brian laughed. "Because while we play everyone ends up screaming 'suck my cock you fag' like, fifty billion times. So we named it that."

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "How creative."

They nodded. "Well, I'm officially tired. All of this creativeness has tired me out. Sophie, Bri, have fun crashing on the couch. I dub Sophie's bed mine." Jimmy declared.

The other two couldn't help but laugh. "Fine, be that way." Sophie replied.

"I will fucking be that way. And if I find jizz stains on your bed I'm going to murder you." Jimmy said with a big yawn. "But seriously; I'm tired and going to bed. Night."

Chuckling, they said their goodnights to Jimmy and then sat back down on the couch. "So. I'm sure you love Xander now." Sophie said with a nervous laugh.

Brian gave her a dry look. "Yeah. No. I might kill him."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Unsurprising."

He smiled. "I worry about you, Soph."

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "I worry a lot, Brian. I know the things you do when you're on tour."

He bit his lip. Brian knew more than anyone how much Sophie worried about Jimmy and himself. And the rest of the band, too. "I know you do."

He felt her body start to tense up like she did when she got upset. "There are some days, when I don't hear from you, that I think something awful happened. I hate it Brian."

"I know you do, Soph. But there's nothing you can do about it." He said with a sigh.

"There are days where I feel responsible. Those are the worst." She told him. Her eyes were filling with tears, but she was too close to Brian's arm for him to see, but he had his suspicions.

"It's not your fault at all, Sophie. If anything you're the reason we keep going half the time." He told her softly, wrapping his arms around her.

Their drug use worried her to no ends. Sure, she drank, but Sophie never did anything but try pot when she was in high school. And the guys were getting bad now, she knew. When they were on tour where she couldn't monitor them, she felt an intense pressure to make sure they were okay over the phone. She had nightmares of them not coming home. Her paranoia was acting up a lot during the past few months.

"And Soph, I want to talk to you about the new you." Brian added.

She let out a little sigh. She knew it was unavoidable, so she just went with the flow. "What about me?"

Brian needed a couple of seconds to think of the right words. So he laid down with his back against the couch; Sophie laid down next to him so she was facing him. "Why?"

Sophie looked at the tattoos that he had on his large arms, which were wrapped around her to make sure she didn't fall on the floor. "Because I see you with your girlfriends. They get treated differently than me, obviously, but I wanted to get treated like that too." She replied. "And when I had the whole tomboy thing going on, I had one night stands. Because no one wants to date a girl who's one of the guys."

"Logan's a tomboy and she has Matt." Brian pointed out.

"It's hard to explain, Bri. It's just, I, well, I didn't feel beautiful. I never had. And I figured I would if I changed myself a little, and now I do. Kinda." She sighed. "I just want to be special to someone."

Although the comment on her beauty was weighing heavily on his brain, Brian didn't comment on it. "And are you special to Xander?"

Sophie closed her eyes. "I don't know yet. But he's stayed longer than any other guy has."

Other than me and Jimmy, Brian thought to himself. The room stayed silent for a good ten minutes, long enough for Sophie to fall asleep.

Brian looked down at her face. He saw the make up. He then imagined that it was gone.

He kissed the top of her head. "You were beautiful, Soph. So beautiful."