For You I'd Count the Salt Under the Sea.

Vic, Mike, Tony and Jaime’s set (or should I say Pierce the Veil’s set) was amazing. They had so much energy, and a considerable amount of talent. I was mostly stunned to the point of barely breathing. Even Jimmy was getting a bit of dancing done.
Why didn’t they tell me? And I knew Vic had that ‘I know something you don’t know’ look about him the other night at my apartment when I mentioned the gig.
Jimmy stole some money off me to grab a drink during Pierce the Veil’s last song and handed me the change. While shoving it in my pocket, I could feel a pair of eyes on me right at the end of the song. I looked up and saw Mike looking through the crowd towards me, while Vic hovered over adoring fans, thanking them for coming out tonight, hoisted up by mosh pit security guys. Mike smiled mischievously, waved a little, before leaving the stage.

“They are really good, Nora. You’re friends are going to be famous one day” Jimmy lightly punched my arm. I laughed, agreeing. Kids started to slowly file out of the venue, and I stayed behind to wait for Bodie. Except when he walked towards me, he wasn’t alone, but chatting animatedly to the bassist and drummer of Pierce the Veil.

“Hey Anara” Jaime smiled, pulling me into a sweaty hug. I scrunched up my nose while I was smiling so I probably looked really ridiculous. I hugged Mike as well, telling them how amazing they looked and sounded on stage.
“We’re having an after party at Mike and Vic’s again, and you’re definitely coming this time” Jaime stated, rather than asked.
“I have to drop Bodie home first and I haven’t memorised the directions to your place yet” I shrugged.
Mike offered to come with me so I didn’t spend an hour looking for their place. We headed off towards my car, but I couldn’t help but wonder where on Earth Victor Vincent Fuentes was during this time.
I’ll see him in a little bit, at the after party, with adoring fan girls draped all over him. But I’ll see him at least.
In a few minutes, we were in front of Bodie’s house. I watched him enter his house before I drove off in search of Casa de Fuentes.
“So he’s a fun kid” Mike laughed, recalling the conversation that he and Bodie had moments ago about Luna Lovegood being a better match for Harry than Ginny Weasley. “Harry Potter instantly makes anyone cool to me”.
“Don’t you just wish you could live in Hogwarts for a while?” I asked, stopping at red light and putting a Chiodos CD into my CD player. Mike nodded at my question and choice of music and we talked about random things, mostly Harry Potter, until we arrived at his place. The visual before us was roughly what I saw the night before when I dropped Vic off.
“This is the Fuentes Forty-Eight hour party then?” I inquired, parking and locking my car.
“Definitely” Mike laughed, saying hi to about a million people before he even got to the front door.
As soon as I stepped in, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders, dragging me towards the kitchen. Jaime, of course. He handed me a drink, which I pushed away.
“I shouldn’t. I drove here” I smiled, lopsidedly. I also had something major on tomorrow and didn’t want to get too wasted.
“Don’t worry, just crash the night on the couch and drive home tomorrow morning when you’re all sober” Mike pushed the drink right back into my hands. I rolled my eyes, gave in, and tasted the drink.
“Whiskey” I smiled at Mike, “We were born to be friends”.
Okay, so maybe I will stay here and have a good time, I just won’t drink too much.

I spotted Tony in the corner with a blonde girl, his lady friend as told by Jaime. I walked over to say hi and tell him how awesome he was at the gig.
“Hey Nora, glad you don’t have to leave this time” He smiled at me.
“Chyea. You were pretty amazing tonight, by the way. Way to surprise the hell out of me” I nodded at him and then turned to his lady friend. “Hi, I’m Nora.”
“Stephanie” she smiled. I was about to ask her more about herself but out of the corner of my eye, I spotted him. Walking closer to me, smiling at everyone else. I turned to face him and he got that same mischievous smile Mike had earlier.
“Victor” I raised an eyebrow.
“Anara” he copied my expression, before turning to Tony and revealing my nerdiness. “Tony, you should check out the amount of Star Wars stuff this girl has. You’d be proud”
Stephanie and Tony laughed, promising to come check it out one time before Vic whisked me away to get me another drink. After my second drink, I noticed Vic had disappeared and not wanting to look like the loner, I attached myself to Mike for most of the night.



It was half past... Well actually, I didn’t know. My watch was taken by a heavily intoxicated lesbian who had promised to get it back to me before she left. She was nowhere to be seen, and I assumed my watch was still with her. But by the time I realised, everyone who was leaving had left, and those who were already passed out lay around hallways.
“You don’t mind staying back and helping clean shiet up, right?” Mike asked, looking exceptionally suspicious. I had no idea what he had planned, but I was hoping it had something to do with Vic.
“Yer, no worries” I smiled, already having a few empty bottles in my hand. I piled them in a garbage bag. With the place bursting full of people, I never noticed the swing that the Fuentes’ had in the backyard. I walked out toward it, grabbing a bottle of Corona (with a lime squished into the lip of the bottle). The swing was longer than a usual one; like a loveseat for the 12 year old hidden in all of us. I sat down, putting my back against the chain, one leg over each side of the swing. I sighed.
This totally beats sitting on my couch, watching movies alone.

“Hey” a voice startled me from my thoughts. It was Vic, sitting down on the swing, back to the chain and facing me.
“Hello stranger” I smiled. We weren’t moving so I placed the Corona in between us, which Vic stole sips from occasionally.
“Sorry I didn’t get to spend heaps of time with you tonight” he shrugged, playing with his fringe nervously. It made me giggle. “And thanks for helping clean up”.
“It’s okay. Just happy to not be spending the night at home alone” I touched his elbow in an attempt to stop him playing with his hair. As I was bringing my hand back down, he caught and held it with his own, which made me go about as red as a traffic light. With his other hand, he tucked my fringe away and I felt transported to my living room floor, where we nearly kissed before. Except there were no interruptions tonight. In a tipsy mess of lust, our faces pulled toward each other like magnets. The swing probably would have been a better idea than my living room floor anyway. After too short a time, we pulled away from each other and mirrored the same guilt-covered amused face someone gets when their curiosity had been satisfied. Vic smiled lopsidedly, I bit my lip. We crashed our faces back together. I leaned in closer to Vic’s side of the swing, placing my palm down in the space between us. But that space has already been filled by the now empty Corona bottle. Empty because the half still left in it was now all over my jeans, seeing as I was too drunk to catch it.
“Fuck” I said, although my voice was muffled by Vic’s face, still attached to mine. I pushed him off slightly and looked down at the moment-ruining, jeans-staining mess on my legs.

“We have a bathroom, you know, Anara” Vic laughed, slurring his words a little and getting off the swing, nearly tripping over. He extended his hand out to me (probably so he could cling to my less drunken form in attempt to not fall over) and I took it and followed him to... Well I didn’t know where he was taking me. Mike passed us in the hall and laughed his arse off (assuming he had one to begin with).
“Dude. We have a bathroom”
I rolled my eyes. “You two really are brothers” I muttered.
Vic dragged me into a room and kicked the door closed in Mike’s face. I stood still, lamely, not wanting to drip on anything, while Vic searched for something. It was amazing, the look of determination on his face. He was quite drunk so he was stumbling a little, but managed to produce a pair of boxer shorts and a red SD singlet. Without saying anything, he rushed back over to me and started undoing my jeans.

Was this Vic’s way of ‘getting in the mood’?

“Dude, what the fuck?” I now stood there, shirt and cardigan still on, jeans around my ankles and bunching up around my Vans.
“I’m going to shove your jeans in the wash?” Vic looked at me like I had just asked the stupidest question ever.
“I can change myself?” I offered, so very confused and highly amused by the whole thing.
“Oh... yeah” Vic realised where he was. Let’s just say it would have been quite hot if he wasn’t only interested in laundering my jeans. He went red, got up and faced the wall, which I thought was now pointless.
“It’s okay, I won’t look” he said, sheepishly, to the wall.
I rolled my eyes and changed. The SD singlet was a bit too big, more like a short dress, but gratefully my bra covered the exposed bits. I need not have bothered with the shorts but I wore them anyway.
“You can turn around now”.



After Vic put my jeans for a wash, he returned to his bedroom and grabbed a pillow.
“You can sleep in my bed tonight, I’ll take the couch” Vic smiled.
“No way, this is your place”, I grabbed the pillow, “I’ll have the couch”.
“Nah uh, you’re the guest. You get the bed”, Vic yanked the pillow out of my hands and forced me to sit on the bed. Then he winked, pulled off his shirt and threw it somewhere and headed for the couch. I bit my lip, trying not to look, but I couldn’t resist. As if I was going to let the couch have that.
“We’ll share!” I yelled out, making him turn around.
“Ugh, fine” Vic rolled his eyes jokingly, and slid into the sheets next to me. We lay there on our backs awkwardly for a moment before I gave in and curled up into Vic’s chest.
“I heard a funny joke the other night” I yawned.
“Oh yeah?” Vic inquired.
“Yeah. I guy goes into the doctor’s office and says ‘Hey Doc. I think I’m obsessed with sex’. So the doctor gets a picture of an elephant and holds it up, asking the guy what he saw. The guy replies ‘Two people making love’”, I yawned again, feeling just a tad sleepy. “The doctor shows him a picture of a bunch of grapes and asks the guy what he saw. The guy replies ‘two people making love’. Then the doctor says ‘Sorry sir, you are obsessed with sex”, my eyes drifted closed.
“Is that it? That’s a shiet joke, Anara” Vic laughed, more at me than at the joke. “Anara?”
I could barely hear Vic, but I’m pretty sure he whispered “Good night” before hugging me closer.