Status: ACTIVE.

Learn to Fly

twelve

“Did you know that a whale’s penis is called a dork?”

“What?” Peyton asked confused, a laugh on her lips.

“Yeah, that’s why my own penis is named Dork, because he is as big as a whale’s. You can see if you want,” Eric winked.

“You know, I’m okay thanks though,” she laughed fully now, letting it ring throughout the silence of the hotel room. “Are you going to come down to the pool?”

“Are you going to be wearing a bikini?”

“Eric, be serious,” she chuckled, grabbing a towel and holding it in her arms.

“Yeah,” Halvo laughed. “I’ll be down there later. Justin wants to work on a new song with me, figure out some bass stuff, but I’ll be down there later. See you in the hot tub?”

“I’ll save you a seat,” Peyton grinned before walking out of the hotel room. She walked over to the elevator where another gentleman was waiting. He was not that much older than her, looking maybe twenty four and he was texting on his cell phone. He looked over at her and grinned and she politely smiled back, trying not to make him think it was more than it was.

The door to the elevator opened and Peyton instantly felt on edge. She hated being put in awkward situations like this especially around guys. She stepped into the elevator and just before the door shut she heard feet running and a large hand grab the door. She smiled as John shuffled in next to her with a towel in his hands.

“I thought you were coming down later?” Peyton asked, a smile on her lips that he was in the room now.

John smiled and shrugged, “I’m having a hard time writing right now. I just, I can’t focus and I just need a break.”

She nodded her head as silence took over the small elevator on the ride down. Lately, it was harder for Peyton to be alone with John. She knew something so big that could potentially tear him apart but she couldn’t tell him—she refused to. This wasn’t her secret and if anyone needed to tell him it needed to be Melissa, but she couldn’t help but to feel guilty that she knew and he didn’t.

Peyton walked out of the elevator after John, like a gentlemen, insisted that she go first. They walked quietly through the halls of the hotel before finding the pool and entering. The room was completely empty as they walked in and the scent of chlorine instantly hit Peyton’s nostrils. She loved it ever since high school when she and Georgia joined the swim team for a year.

”Good God, could Sean Denton be any hotter?”

Peyton giggled, “Is this why we’re joining the swim team missy? Because I want to remind you about this boy you’re dating you know, Nick Santino, my cousin?”

Georgia’s soft laugh echoed in the air around the best friends. The two girls sat in the water their bathing suits clinging tight to their thin frames. “I wasn’t talking about for me, darling. I meant you!”

Peyton bit her lip as she watched Sean come out of the water after he was done doing laps. His tanned body was extremely toned and he looked like he should have been in a magazine; maybe Cosmo, under the hotties of the month section. “I don’t know, Georgia. He wouldn’t want anything to do with a girl like me.”

“Stop talking like that, Pey. You are so beautiful he’d be lucky to get a girl like you.”

The two friends sat in a comfortable silence as they listened to the soft sound of moving water. They watched the people around them finish their laps and teammates who were done sit around and talk much like they were doing. “Why do they call him Jupiter?” Peyton chuckled at Sean’s nickname around the school.

Georgia laughed and used her fingers to make air quotes, “Because he’s out of this world!”


“Peyton?”

She turned her eyes from where they were fixated on the pool and looked at John suddenly. She hadn’t even noticed that she had zoned out. “I’m sorry, were you saying something?”

John chuckled, “I was asking if you liked Poison?”

“Yeah, why?” She asked, dumfounded. He pointed to her oversized t shirt and she involuntarily blushed. “Oh, yeah, they’re my favorite eighties band.”

“Don’t want nothin’ but a good time. How can I resist?” John sang softly, with a smile on his lips as he took off his shirt. Peyton let her eyes fall on his bare chest where she found more font scribbled in ink.

“You have a lot of tattoos,” She stated as she discarded her own shirt, leaving her in a soft pink bandeau bikini.

John smiled, “I like them, what can I say? How do you like yours? Regret it yet?”

Peyton laughed, “No, and I don’t think anyone has really even noticed it except for you and Eric because of where it is.”

“Why has Halvo seen it?” John asked, and she swore she heard jealously in his voice.

She blushed, “We share hotel rooms, he’s seen me in a towel before after showering.”

John nodded his head before smiling softly and she wanted nothing more than to know what was going through his mind. They stared at each other for a second before she felt herself blushing. She turned around quickly before running and leaping into the pool. The cold water hit her body and as she resurfaced she smoothed her hair back out of her face. She grinned at John who was staring down at her with a crooked grin on his lips before he ran and cannon balled into the water, creating a huge splash.

She laughed and closed her lips tightly before a body was wrapping around her waist and pulling her back under the water. She reached her hands out and was trying to hit the body holding her, but the resistance was too much so John automatically won—not that she exactly minded. She could feel the heat of his body, bare and flat against hers. His entire arm spam wrapped around her thin body with room to spare and their bare hips hit accidentally. As they resurfaced together their laughs echoed throughout the swimming area.

Peyton coughed alongside of John as they tried to regain their breathing. As they did, Peyton lowered herself into the water to where only her head showed and he looked at her with a smirk on his lips.

“Tanner almost drowned me once,” he laughed, and she could tell by the look in his eye that Tanner was the best friend that he had lost. “We were at a party and he jumped in on top of me—and you know guys we’re always wrestling. So, we’re wrestling and we went under water and on the way down I hit my head and passed out… It’s weird that he died because he drowned,” John chuckled, emotionlessly.

Peyton looked at him with sympathy in her eyes, knowing exactly what he was feeling. She walked through the water and over to him before wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pressing their bodies against one another. He hugged her back tightly and his head instantly found its way to hide in her neck. His breath was hot against it and it gave her goose bumps up and down her arms and a chill down her spine. He sighed and she knew he was thinking about Tanner.

“I miss him, Pey,” John said softly, and she could see his vulnerability as he pulled back and looked into her eyes. His green ones showed his sadness, but acceptance of his loss. She wished she was that lucky.

“I miss Georgia, too,” she replied softly as John pulled her against him once again. She wrapped her legs around his waist under the water, and he held her light frame. She let her arms loosen around his neck but with her legs still around his waist he held her close to him, their bodies separated as she leaned her torso away slightly so that they could look into each other’s eyes as they spoke.

“Tell me about her,” John said smiling softly. He began pulling them around the pool in circles slowly.

Peyton bit her lip and looked away from his green eyes that could convince her to do almost anything. “I don’t really talk about her.”

“I mean, you don’t have to. But, Lissa and I found after Tanner died it was a lot easier after if I talked about him all the time,” John said, reminiscing.

Peyton’s thoughts drifted to Melissa suddenly and once again a wave of guilt came over her body. It was either talk about Georgia or be thinking about the secret she had all night, and if she was going to be doing either things that she didn’t like it may as well be about the one person she thought about the most.

“She was, God, I don’t even know how to explain it. They say that no one else in the world is exactly like you, and Georgia just proved that statement wrong. Her and I were the same exact person, we didn’t even have to speak to have a conversation. I would look at her and she would just know, you know?” Peyton rambled, focusing her eyes in John’s tattoos that she aimlessly traced with her fingertips. She felt John’s breath constricting each time her fingers moved closer to his neck and she honestly knew she should stop—but she didn’t want to.

Peyton continued, “She was so pretty, John. And funny, I just wish you could have met her. She would say one thing that really wasn’t even that funny, but just because Georgia Stone said it everyone would be rolling on the floor. Everyone loved her so much but her and I were best friends…we were family. Besides the Santino’s she was the only thing I had.

“She was the only reason I could talk to guys and even then I was nervous as hell. I had one boyfriend in high school and that was because Georgia convinced him to give me a shot. We were together for a year, a great year, and it all was thanks to her.”

“You don’t really seem bad with guys now,” John laughed softly, looking at her with his playful green eyes and a smirk.

“When I lost her that night, I guess part of me just—became the parts of her that I never was. I wanted her to live on and so I took her courage and I try to remind myself everyday of the person she was and the things she would do. That’s why it’s so important for me to finish this list…I need her to live on,” Peyton said sadly. She didn’t even know that a tear had escaped down her cheek. John used his finger to wipe it away before kissing her forehead gently.

“You’re a great person, Peyton. Honestly, the most amazing one I think I’ve ever met in my life…and I met Weezy,” John said seriously, staring into her eyes.

She felt herself let out a laugh. She sighed and looked into John’s green orbs, losing herself again, “Thank you, John. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime for you, Hayes.”

Peyton and John were so lost in each other that they didn’t notice the new presence in the room until they heard a cough. Her arms immediately flew from around his neck and her legs released from around his waist. John ran a hand through his hair and shook his head lightly regaining his thoughts before they looked up and saw a smirking Halvo.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Peyton felt her cheeks blushing as John pulled himself over to the wall of the pool, “Nah man, I was actually just going. I need to call Lissa, she told me to later. Uh—I’ll see you tomorrow, Peyton.”

She felt nerves run through her body as she watched how rigid his body was and how weird he was acting. How could she be so stupid as to get that close to him? He had a girlfriend for crying out loud; a horrible one, but still.

Peyton pulled herself out of the cold water and padded her dripping body over to the Jacuzzi where Eric was sitting. She sat in the small circle and even though there was plenty of room she sat close to him. He smiled at her before looking away. He wasn’t acting normal and she didn’t like it one bit. Seeing an upset Eric made her upset instantly.

“What’s wrong, Halvo?” She pouted, touching his cheek gently. She turned his green eyes to hers and stared into them trying to read him. They were really close and she could feel the tension.

Sure, Peyton obviously liked John and she could finally admit it to herself, but that wasn’t to say she felt nothing for Eric. Halvo was just—Halvo. He was loving, and happy, and funny, and cute, and she would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about him and that kiss they shared many times. It was a good kiss—really good.

“John always gets the girls and he doesn’t even try,” Halvo whispered softly and she could see that he was hurt.

“Eric,” Peyton whispered as she touched his cheek lightly. “John doesn’t have me…he has a girlfriend, honey.”

Halvo stared into her eyes, the ghost of a small reassured smile on his lips. She realized how close they were as she felt his breath on her lips. She smiled nervously as she felt Eric shuffle closer to her and placed his hand on her cheek cupping it gently. His fingertips rubbed her skin softly and she felt a chill go down her spine. He looked into her eyes before rubbing his nose against her own, and she watched as he closed his eyes. She followed in suit and after only a few seconds his warm lips were pressing on to her own.

Peyton felt herself pushing back against him as their lips worked together smoothly. They were warm, and soft, and just—soothing. The kiss was only lips and Halvo kept his hand on his cheek before he pulled away with his breathing rough.

“Eric,” Peyton breathed, a smile on her lips. “I have a proposition…”

“What are you bringing to the table, sweet thing?” He chuckled, catching his breath.

“Let’s do this,” she said simply.

“Do what exactly?” He asked, confusion in his eyes.

“Let’s hook up,” Peyton said softly.

“Just meaningless hooking up?” Eric smiled, softly.

She nodded her head, hoping that he would agree and wouldn’t be more invested than she was. As she saw a smile grow wide she sighed in relief.

“Let me get this straight, you just want to have meaningless hookups with me…but I can still look at any other girls I want—and touch them too?” Halvo grinned.

“Yes, sir.”

He connected their lips once again before pulling away, “Sounds great to me, but one thing, Pey.”

“What?” She asked, kissing him again.

“John never finds out.”

“Deal.”

Peyton looked at Eric with a small smile before attaching their lips again. Halvo wasted no time in placing his hands on her waist and bringing her thin frame to straddle his own. His tongue slipped the barrier of their lips and began searching her mouth. She allowed their tongues to flicker gently before pulling away. Her breathing was more constricted and she rested her forehead against his own.

“I’m going to go upstairs and shower, okay?” Peyton grinned, before picking herself up out of the hot tub.

“Is that an invite?” Eric winked.

She rolled her eyes, “Definitely not, but nice try.”

Peyton wrapped a towel around her body and tried to hide the blush that was on her cheeks from what she had just committed herself to. She picked up her things and walked through the pools doors where Jared and Pat were entering from and she said quiet a hello as she escaped into the hallway.

She got on the elevator and all of a sudden her nerves started racing. What if Eric told Jared or Pat? How soon would John find out? Would John even care?—No, he had a girlfriend, he shouldn’t care right? Would Halvo and she be able to stay strictly hooking up without any future problems? What would happen if Nick found out about this? Why was she enjoying kissing Eric so much in the first place?

Peyton groaned as she stepped off of the elevator and onto her floor, trying to shake all of the thoughts from her mind. She was just having a simple fling—another thing to cross off the list, right? It was in fact number thirty-two: Have a meaningless hookup.

Peyton’s feet softly hit the carpet of the hallway as she made her way to her and Eric’s door. As she slipped in her key she heard a door down the hall slam shut and her eyes immediately looked to where the noise was coming from. She watched as John stood outside of his room, staring straight forward at nothing before his legs gave out from below him and he crashed onto the floor.

“John!” Peyton ran over to him quickly and bent over in front of him, gathering his face in her hands. It held no emotion and his green eyes stared into her blue ones—all she could see was shock. “Babe, what happened? Are you okay?”

Confusion was on his lips and became a part of Peyton’s as well as he spoke softly, “Melissa broke up with me.”
♠ ♠ ♠
peyton

Team John vs Team Eric begins (;

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