Kiss My Ass

Alex really didn’t care if he was late or not. He had Tim Hortons in hand (and, yes, he even got some Tim Bits for his band) and he was feeling a lot more awake (thanks to the coffee he drank in under three minutes before he finally left). He was only about ten minutes late by the time he stepped out of the elevator, but he stopped instantly when he saw Erika running over to him.

“You can’t go in there,” Erika said, stopping him from walking further.

Alex bit his lip, thankful he was no longer holding a steaming cup of coffee, and he shrugged her hands off of his arms. “I kind of have to. It’s my job,” he told her, attempting to step around her.

Erika followed suit. “No, no. We’re going to just have to reschedule.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to reschedule when my band records our album,” he told her.

“Carlyle is here,” she blurted out.

“The fuck?” he exclaimed, his dark eyes widening.

Erika nodded.

“Bullshit,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s no way!”

“I saw her with my own eyes, Alex,” she told him. “I wouldn’t lie about this.”

“Then maybe you saw someone else,” he said with a shrug.

Erika sighed. “Alex—“

“This isn’t funny. If this is some kind of joke—“

“Why would I joke about this?!” she asked him, trying to keep her voice down. She didn’t want to attract unwanted attention. “I know you and I don’t get along, especially after what happened concerning Lyle. But I wouldn’t lie about this,” she told him.

Alex sighed, running his free hand through his hair. “There’s no way it’s her. It’s too coincidental. It’s like a fucking movie or something, oh God,” he said with a groan.

“Do you want me to see what I can do? Maybe get a new producer—“

“No,” Alex said. “It’s been four years.”

Erika nodded slowly. “Yup. Just about.”

“I mean, she… I don’t hate her, you know? I never have,” he told her.

“She hates you,” Erika said.

“But it’s been four years,” he repeated. “Maybe she’s over it by now.”

Erika scoffed. “Women don’t get over things as quickly as men do. We can hold a grudge for years. I still hold one against Lisa for her telling me I have to be an idiot for dating Jack. And that was years ago,” she told him.

Alex smiled at the memory. “Yeah, Lisa’s pretty blunt.”

“So glad you two aren’t together anymore… I could do without you guys being friends as well,” she told him with a smile.

“And I could do without hearing you and my best friend making sweet monkey love every night,” he retorted.

Erika nodded slowly. “Yeah, we don’t always get what we want, Gaskarth.”

Alex smiled before getting back to the matter at hand. “Well… If it is our Lyle, then…we’ll deal with it, yeah?”

“Yeah…”

“There’s no need to hide, you know? We were immature and it’s in the past. If she’s matured like we have—“

Erika scoffed.

“Hey! We’re mature!” Alex protested.

“Rian and Zack, maybe,” she told him.

“And Zack is arguable right now,” Alex muttered.

“Right, well, you and Jack most definitely are not,” Erika said.

Alex frowned. “I can be sometimes,” he said quietly.

Erika rolled her eyes.

“But anyway! She’s probably over it by now. Let’s just…go with that assumption for the time being, okay?” Alex said.

“Fine,” Erika said with a shrug. It was quiet for a minute before her eyes landed on the Tim Bits in his hand. “Are those for me?” she asked.

Alex rolled her eyes, shoving the box in his hand. “And you better share this time.”

+

Lyle was nervous. Her foot was shaking and she knew that Matt noticed it.

“You good?” Matt asked.

“Just nervous for my first big assignment,” Lyle said.

“C’mon, kid, you can’t be that nervous,” Matt told her, picking up his cup of coffee and taking a drink.

“I’m not,” she told him.

Matt’s eyebrows rose. “You just said you were.”

“Yeah, but, not a lot,” she corrected.

Matt laughed. “You’re one of a kind, Lyle,” he told her.

She shrugged. “I’ve heard that before.”

Matt shook his head but smiled when he heard the door open. “Hey, guys,” he said, standing up. He shook everyone’s hand, greeting them all individually, before he frowned. “Where’s Alex?”

“Tim Hortons,” Jack said with a shrug. “If he doesn’t bring me back Tim Bits, I’ll—“

“You’ll get over it,” Rian interrupted.

“Good to know,” Matt said. “Oh, right, guys this is Carlyle King,” he introduced.

Lyle sucked in a deep breath before standing up and turning to face the guys that she had known for almost eight years. She smiled when she saw them—they had definitely grown up. She never thought that she would smile if she had seen them again, but she did.

“Oh my God, Lyle,” Rian said, reaching forward and enveloping her in a hug.

Lyle wasn’t going to argue—she had always been a fan of Rian’s hugs. “It’s good to see you, man,” she said.

Matt shook his head. “Like a fucking movie,” he muttered.

“Pure coincidence,” Lyle said. “Zack, damn, you’ve been working out.”

Zack laughed, giving her a hug. “You grew up well, Lyle.”

She flushed slightly. “Thank you.”

“Don’t I get a hug?” Jack asked, pouting.

She didn’t even give it a second thought. She wrapped her arms around the tall, lanky boy. And it was then that she realized she was never mad at Jack, or at Rian, or at Zack. They had done nothing, essentially; all they were guilty of was following Alex’s lead. And Alex had always had that effect on people—she blamed it on how charismatic he was. “Did you get taller?” she asked, pulling away.

Jack shrugged. “It’s possible.”

“Do you know when Alex is going to be in? Time’s short,” Matt said.

“Should be any minute,” Zack told him.

“You know how he gets with his Tim Bits,” Rian said with a shrug.

“Erika’s here, Lyle. I’m sure she’d be happy to see you,” Jack said.

Lyle bit her lip. “Yeah, how is she?”

“We’re engaged,” Jack told her.

Lyle’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? Congrats, man,” she told him. And while she was excited, she still didn’t know how to react. After all, she hadn’t seen these people in four years. And while she no longer harbored any hate, she still wasn’t sure how to react. Well, her mind knew—hence why she had been so welcoming with the guys. But Alex? Alex was going to be another story.

Jack smiled, scratching the back of his neck. “She’s a good woman, especially to put up with my shit.”

+

Alex could feel his heart pounding against his ribcage as he approached the door. This was the first time in years that he had felt his confidence waver.

“You sure you’re good?” Erika asked.

Alex nodded. “Yeah.”

Erika watched Alex pause and she felt her breath catch in her throat. “Alex, we were horrible to her.”

Alex bit his lip. “Yeah. We were.”

“We said horrible things to her.”

“Me more than any of you,” Alex said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t help,” Erika said.

Alex sighed. “Well, if she’s going to still be mad at anyone, it’s going to be me,” he told her.

Erika shook her head. “I was her best friend. And I completely abandoned her over a high school rumor,” she muttered.

“She never denied it,” Alex said.

“Stop trying to justify your own behavior, Alex,” Erika said.

Alex ran his hands through his hair again. “We have to own up to it at some point, right?” he told her.

Erika nodded. “I’m nervous.”

“I’m ready,” he said with a shrug before opening the door.

The moment wasn’t like he would have expected. And if he had been honest, he would have admitted that he had thought about this moment quite a few times, this reunion. Granted, he wasn’t sure what he was going to say—maybe he would know in the moment. But, well, the moment was happening and he found himself speechless.

Of course, that might’ve been because he wasn’t expecting Lyle to turn out so…gorgeous. She’d grown out her hair and added in only a few highlights; she was still tall and slender, and she definitely didn’t need the four inch heels she was currently wearing. Her eyes might’ve gotten brighter, and she still had the same pouty lips that Alex dreamt about in high school.

Jack felt the tension in the room shift as Erika found his hand with hers. His eyes moved from Alex, who looked…star-struck, to Lyle, who looked nervous. He didn’t fail to notice the way Lyle’s breath caught in her throat when Alex walked into the room.

“Hi, Alex,” Lyle said quietly, struggling to sound indifferent, but she knew they just came out meek.

“Hi,” Alex said; he would have attempted something more but he had a sneaking suspicion that he would have just stuttered and looked like a fool.

“Time to get to work,” Lyle said, clapping her hands and turning away from Alex to face Matt. She forced a smile. “We good?”

Matt nodded slowly. “We…we good.”

+

As Lyle sat back in the chair as Zack recorded one of the bass parts for the first song, she tried not to look at Alex. The singer was currently sitting on the couch, paying attention to Zack while tapping out his own rhythm on the notebook that was resting on his lap. Lyle shook her head before turning her eyes back to Zack. Of course, she could easily feel Matt’s eyes on her. “Yes?” she asked, eyebrows rising before turning to look at him.

Matt shrugged, looking back at the soundboard. “Is this going to be a problem?” he asked.

“Is what?”

Matt rolled his eyes. “You know what,” he said.

Lyle turned quickly to look at Alex, whose eyes met hers, and she looked back at the soundboard, mimicking Matt. “No.”

“I need your word on that,” he said quietly, trying to be discreet.

“You have my word that it will not affect this,” she told him. “This is my first shot, Matt. You gotta know that I’m not going to screw this up.”

Matt nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Lyle nodded with him. “I promise, Matt. I can do this without personal involvement,” she whispered.

“I sincerely hope that you can.”