Don't Stop Now

The following night, the guys had set up “camp” in Pat’s bedroom. They laid out blankets and pillows all over the floor and had the guitars, laptops, and box of DVD’s out. I occasionally walked in and out of the room checking on what they were doing. My parents were out and it was just us. We all originally planned on going over to Max’s house, but the guys decided to pull of this blast-from-high-school kind of thing. I remember when they used to have sleepovers together.

“Norah, for the last fucking time, this is NOT a sleepover. It’s a fucking conference.” Pat shouted at me as I leaned against his doorway. With my phone in hand, I quickly snapped a picture of all 5 of them sitting in a circle, Indian style, playing Uno. They noticed the flash from the camera and all looked up at me simultaneously.

“What?” John quietly said as he laid the deck of cards on the floor. The guys slowly stood up and walked towards me. Giggling, I quickly ran to my room with them stampeding right behind me.

“NO!” I shouted as I jumped on my bed and threw all my pillows at them. They all laughed and threw themselves at me, but failed. They landed on my bed, my floor, and my window. John and Pat started jumping up and down on my bed because they knew that irritated me. Jared was trying to hit me with my pillows while Kennedy and Garrett were trying to grab me by hiding underneath my bed. I held a pillow in my hand and hit it over Jared’s head. After that, I saw heads slowly turn my way like it was some kind of horror movie.

“Get her!” Pat shouted, and then suddenly they all had a pillow in hand and chased me around the house. Laughter bounced off the walls and so did screaming. There actually was a lot of screaming and shrieks of excitement. It was just an innocent game of chasing Norah with a pillow and the guys were very competitive about it. Pillows were being thrown my way and some were even torn. I laughed it off but stopped as soon as I felt myself being picked up by John and Garrett. I kicked and shouted, “Let me go! Put me down now!”

The guys just laughed and continued to run around the house with me on their backs. Pat had brought out pots and pans and starting banging them together to create loud, clashing noises. This was such a weird sleepover; I was being chased by a band that were holding and throwing my floral pillows, screaming and shouting. Plus, my brother was banging the cooking utensils against the cooking pots.

“Norah, you must suffer the consequences,” they all said as they gently threw me onto the sofa and surrounded me. I was lying on my back with my knees bent, holding a pillow to my face. “But consequences will NEVER be the same!” They laughed and that was the last thing I remembered… before they dog-piled me.

I opened my eyes to see their smiling faces all in a row. John was lying on my stomach, then Jared, Kenny, Garrett, and Pat (since he was the thinnest). Not going to lie, I was creeped out, but still, I was amazed to see them holding up. “We told you so…” Garrett said in that told-you-so voice.

“Okay, okay I get it. Can you assholes just get off me now? Please?” I grunted as I tried to wiggle my arms out from underneath John’s body. When I got them out, I lightly pressed John’s body sideways and watched them tumble down to the ground. “Oww…” they said, holding their heads in their hands. I laughed as I sat up and threw the remaining pillows at them.

“That was so much fun.” Jared said, lying on the ground, catching his breath.

Kennedy held out a thumb up. “Can’t believe we had… a pillow fight.”

I chuckled. “You guys are amazing. Thanks for a very entertaining night.”

Pat got up and slammed into me on the couch. I was now on my side with Pat’s face dug into my hip. With my hand, I lifted his head off my body and against the couch cushion. “I’m so tired,” they complained.

I quickly took another picture of them, catching their breaths around the sectionals and coffee table. Garrett held a pillow over his face while Kennedy lied on his stomach, poking at John’s head.

“So, who wants to watch a movie?” I asked, still lying on my side.

They all raised their hands and lazily stood up. I followed them as they walked back to Pat’s room and grabbed the blankets and pillows to bring into the living room. We moved out the table and set down the blankets and borderline of pillows. I made 3 bowls of kettle corn because that’s my favorite and surprisingly the guys’ too. We all decided Zombieland because we had watched it several times on the bus, and we just couldn’t get enough of it.

The lights were switched off and Pat popped in the movie into the flat screen. I casually checked the time and it read: 2:43 am.

Garrett was by my side and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders like he always did when we watched movies together. I was glad we were on the same terms now. Ignoring this guy was extremely difficult, but somehow we always ended up forgetting what happened and lock our pinkies.

Thick and thin. Always.

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Jared asked, as he sat back with a bowl of kettle corn sitting on his lap.

Pat whispered, “Big Surf Waterpark. Everybody wake up at 9.”

“Okay, shut up now… thanks.” I said, smiling at them. As the movie played, Garrett kept whispered song lyrics into my ear. He rested his head against mine and continued with the lyrics. It was something he’d never done and all of a sudden, I felt weird inside.

You were sweet enough to sing,
Oblivious to melody

“Please Don’t Let Me Go. Love Is Hell,” I whispered back at him, smiling. Garrett grinned and nodded. Thanks to him, I know amazing artists like Ryan Adams. One summer, Garrett decided to bring over the Love Is Hell vinyl, he happened to find one day at a thrift store, and play it for me. We spent that whole day listening to it and eventually, the whole summer turned into a Ryan Adams one.

This is where the summer ends
In a flash of pure destruction, no one wins

I turned to him and tilted my head to the side. He was giving me super easy song lyrics I could answer in a flash. “Nuclear. Demolition.”

“Correct,” he murmured back to me.

“Are you playing on freakin’ easy mode?” I asked, raising my eyebrow. I leaned in closer towards him and felt his hot breath escaping his lips. Garrett’s eyes averted, but slowly he gained the confidence to look me in the eyes even though we were only centimeters apart.

If I fall will you catch me?
If I'm sorry, sorry enough
If I fall will you pity me?
Will you confuse my love for the cobwebs?
Confuse my love for the cobwebs?

“Cobwebs,” I said softly, still looking into his blue eyes.

From what I could hear in the background, the guys were concentrating on the movie. I heard kettle corn being munched and snores coming from Kennedy. John kept repeating, “Fuck him up. Fuck him up. Fuck him up” every time it showed a part of the movie where the guy was running from a zombie.

But then I focused my attention on Garrett again, who currently was holding me together with his eyes. Cobwebs was our favorite Ryan Adams song, besides Shadowlands of course, but still… we always sang it and we knew the lyrics by heart. This song was kind of our song.

Garrett tugged on my hand and stood up. We both turned to look at the other four who were now knocked out. I giggled as I followed Garrett into my room, closing the door behind us. With only the light reflecting from the moon, I was still able to see his face. The two of us lied on my bed like we always do and held each other close… like we always do.

“If I fall will you catch me?” He asked in a soft tone.

I nodded. “Of course.”

Then out of nowhere, his lips came down and pressed up against mine. It might have been awkward at first, but I ignored that and kissed him back. Just that feeling of him kissing me, gave me butterflies inside. I felt his hands go around my hips as he pulled me closer to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kept our lips connected no matter what.

I was kissing Garrett, my best friend and we had never done this before, but it felt good.