Double Standards

April woke up to the sound of her phone ringing. She couldn’t quite grasp the situation that was going on around her since her head was pounding. She was definitely hung over. That, or just extremely worn out. She pried open her eyes and looked around. April saw that she was in a bed with John lying next to her. April was slightly startled at first, but then tried and remembered the sequence of events from last night.

She remembers making John a crazy mixed drink with four types of alcohol in it and him loving it so she made rounds for everyone. The party got amped up from them as everyone danced to the extreme in the middle of John’s living room. It was getting kind of out of control. But John assured April that his friend Kennedy would handle anything if it got out of hand cause he was good at those kinds of things. When it was just nearing three o’ clock, April knew that her and Loren were both hammered and couldn’t drive so John insisted they stayed with him and even though April didn’t want to, Loren was all for it so she kept drinking.

Finally, around four, people were leaving and John pulled April in his room to talk to her. April was so out of it that she didn’t even care when he was pressing his lips to hers. It burned a fiery sensation through and a heated make out session was in store. They laid in bed for hours talking and kissing a lot. But April clearly remembered that they both passed out before it got any farther.

April stepped out of the bed and out of John’s arms, thankful that she didn’t do something too stupid last night. She made her way to the bathroom and did her business. When she looked in the mirror, April couldn’t help but think how crazy she looked. Her phone was in her pocket and it began to go off again. After retrieving it, her heart nearly stopped when she saw the name.

“Hey Gar Bear.” April mumbled into the phone.

“Whoa, you sound rough.” Garrett chuckled. “Long night?”

“Gee, thanks. Good morning to you too buddy.” April said sarcastically. She tried clearing her throat discreetly so she didn’t sound too raspy.

“I’m sorry. Good morning love.” He joked and even though April knew he was joking, she still blushed. Thankfully, he couldn’t see her. “Speaking of mornings, I think you and I should have breakfast so we can make this morning even better. What do you say?”

“I say yes.” April smiled into the phone. “Pick me up in thirty minutes?”

“Sure, where are you?” Garrett asked.

“Well, hold on.” April said and stepped out of the bathroom and headed outside. She looked on the street corner she was on and saw it said 23rd and 15th. She also saw a gas station a block down. “You know the gas station that’s on the corner of 23rd street, next to that dollar store? You can meet me there.”

“You sure? I can pick you up at a house. It’s not a big deal.” Garrett suggested.

“No really, I want to meet there.” Might as well get some fresh air and walk off any sign of being hung over, April thought.

“Okay, thirty minutes.” Garrett said and hung up.

April went back in the house and spent the next thirty minutes trying to make herself look presentable. She dug makeup and a brush out of her purse and washed her face to try and look fresh. After about twenty minutes, she was convinced she looked fine and walked back into the bedroom she was at. April made sure she had everything and looked at John who was still sound asleep. He really is cute, she thought. She kissed the top of his forehead and then stepped out into the Arizona heat.

**

“This pancake is the bomb!” April exclaimed and she was eating and Garrett just chuckled at her. He couldn’t help but think she was the cutest thing ever.

“And you’ve never been to this place before?” Garrett asked and April shook her head. “Well, I’m glad to be the first to take you here.” Garrett smiled. “So, what are you planning to do today?”

“Anything you’re doing.” April said, and at first she blushed because she didn’t mean to say that out loud. Garrett was taken aback by her straight forwardness, but he realized he liked her answer. “I mean, that is, if you wanted to spend the day with me.” April stumbled over her words and tried to regain herself.

“Definitely. I have a lot of errands to run today though, so I hope that’s not too boring.” He smiled.

“I’m sure I’ll manage.” April smiled back. “What do you have to do?”

“Well, I have to go get some new strings for my guitar, pick up some groceries for the house, make a stop at the post office, and then I’m all yours.” He listed all the things off.

“Sounds good to me.” April said and took a bite of her pancake.

“So how was your night last night?”

“Really good. Went to this party with my friend Loren and I thought it was going to be lame, but it turned out quite well actually.” April explained. “What about you?”

“Man, I almost went to some party too at my buddies house, but I don’t know, I got home and showered and then I got really distracted and ended up watching these movies all night.” Garrett said laughing and then looked up at April. “Wow, that made me sound really lame huh?”

“Not at all,” she smiled. “You should have called me or something, I would have joined you in your lame movie marathon.” April winked and Garrett smirked at her.

**

“Ugh!” Garrett exclaimed in the middle of the cereal aisle.

“Hey now Gar Bear, just because they don’t have your Captain Crunch doesn’t mean you have to get all angry.” April joked with him.

“Very funny.” He smirked. “It’s not that. My friend Pat told me we have band practice in thirty minutes and I really don’t want to go.”

“Band practice?” April questioned and Garrett gave her a guilty expression. He didn’t know how to approach this situation. He didn’t want to mention to April so soon that he was in a band because he didn’t want her to be into him for that reason. He wanted it to be real, that is if there was anything.

“Um, yeah, I’m in a band.” He said briefly.

“Cool,” April nodded her head. By his lack of mentioning, she decided not to pry. She looked at her watch and saw it was almost 7:30. She had literally spent all day with Garrett and she really didn’t want him to go. She loved all the silly things about him, and honestly, right now, she couldn’t get enough of him. “Well come on, we need to buy this stuff so you can get to your practice.”

**

“What the fucks up with the last minute band practice John?” Garrett asked angrily when John walked in the room. “I was having a great fucking time with a girl and Pat’s text message ruined my day.”

“Oh please, you act like you were getting laid or something.” Kennedy joked with Garrett and punched him in the shoulder.

“Well, angry little Garrett,” John smirked as he stood at his microphone, “I also had a great evening with someone of the opposite sex, and I’m just feeling giddy and decided ‘Hey, I want to sing’, thus I conjured up a band practice.” John joked around but said this all with a smirk on his face causing Jared, Pat, and Kennedy to all burst into laughter.

“You really are an ass John Ohh.” Garrett smirked before grabbing his bass.

**

“You gave him my number?” April exclaimed. She was sitting on the couch with both Kate and Loren eating some pizza while a lame vampire movie played in the background for some noise. “Why would you do that?”

“Because he was really sweet and I couldn’t resist those luscious green eyes.” Loren said panting.

“Ohh! He has green eyes!” Kate barged in. “That’s almost as cute as Garrett. He has pretty blue eyes.” Kate had to add on.

“Sure sure. But man oh man, John was all like ‘Hey Loren,’ you know after I woke up hung over and you LEFT ME THERE!” She yelled and April gave her an apologetic look. Loren really wasn’t mad though because she blew April’s phone up as soon as she woke up and understood the situation. “He was so sweet. ‘Do you think Jean would want to see me again?’ Of course my hung over ass was like who the hell is Jean and then I had to remember how big of a liar you are,” she smirked and Kate laughed. “I was like, possibly, she seemed really into last night. Then he said ‘Could I possibly get her number then?’ and I was like sure bro.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure you said ‘bro’ to him.” April scoffed.

“So when are you going to see him again?” Kate asked while Loren went into the kitchen.

“I don’t really know.” April sighed. Yes, last night with John was fun and spontaneous, but honestly, John was drunk off his ass, he didn’t want anything but some screwing around. She didn’t expect to even ever talk to him again.

“Hopefully soon, girl he’s already texted you,” Loren said ascending from the kitchen with her phone. “Your phone was lit up on the counter so I grabbed it.”

“What did he say?” April said and Loren tossed her the phone to show her the text. It read: Hey it’s John. I believe you left something at my house. Stop by and get it tonight? “What the hell? I don’t think I left anything there at all.”

“Who cares? Go see that fine man.” Loren persuaded her.

“Will you guys come with me?” April begged.

“Why?” Kate asked.

“Because, if you guys are there in the car, I have a reason to leave if he tries to make me stay.” April offered and they agreed to it. She texted him back saying she was on her way and they all drove over to the house. After ten minutes of trying to find it again, she got out of the car and steadily knocked on the door. It was quickly opened and she was greeted by a smiling John.

“Hey Jean, come on in.” John said smiling. He noted that she wasn’t dressed extremely nice, but she still looked good in sweatpants and a loose t-shirt.

“Hey, I can’t stay too long; my friends are in the car waiting.” April just threw out there because she noticed John didn’t look like he was getting to the point of anything and just lingering around. But he acted like he didn’t hear her and just walked to his bedroom. Cautiously, April followed him back there as well. “So, uh, what did I forget exactly?” April said looking at him.

“Oh, uh, just that shirt right there.” He pointed to a shirt that was black with some writing on it. That was definitely not hers.

“That’s not my shirt.”April pointed out and made eye contact with John. She realized what he was doing. She couldn’t resist that smirk on his face though. She wanted to be mad, but honestly, she just thought what he was doing to her was kind of adorable.

“Oh?” John questioned. Of course it’s not her shirt. John knew that, but he still wanted to see her.

“John, what is going on here?” April said straightforward. John didn’t know. He knew this idea was dumb, but he wanted to see Jean and talk to her. Last night for him was amazing, and even though they did make out a lot, he felt like she was different than the other girls because she didn’t like him, like him which was weird for John. He was used to having all the girls on a string for him. Not Jean though, he realized that she called the shots, and actually, he kind of liked it. “John?”

“I’m sorry Jean, I just, I really wanted to see you.” He admitted honestly.

“Why? You don’t even know me.” She chuckled a bit.

“Sure I do. We talked all last night. Don’t you remember?” John questioned.

“Oh I remember. But do you remember. ‘Cause I remember you being piss drunk that you passed out on me.” April said again with a slight laugh in her voice and John was taken aback. “You know after we made out for a bit.” He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or joking. He took the joking route.

“Hmm, maybe I don’t remember. How about you remind me about the making out part.” John challenged.

“John, not know, I really can’t stay long.” She began to protest but John cut her off.

“Please, hear me out. Just fifteen minutes. I’ll even set a timer if it makes you feel better.” He said whipping out his iPhone and pressed an alarm application. April took the phone from him and set fifteen minutes and John laughed at her seriousness.

“Okay, talk.”

“Well then. Why did you leave this morning? You just got up and left.”

“I had things to do today. Instead of lounge around and act all hung over.”

“So how was your day then?” John asked and April looked at him dumbfounded. “Okay, sorry, not what we should of talked about.” John said scanning his mind to bring up a good topic.

“How about you just tell me what’s on your mind.” April insisted.

“I don’t think you’ll like the response.”

“Try me,” she challenged.

“Well,” he said. April noticed he ruffled his hair and she thought it was rather cute how he was stumbling over his words. “I just wanted to see you. Last night for me was pretty great and I thought we were hitting it off pretty well. And yes, even though I was kind of drunk,” April raised her eyebrows at him. “Okay, really drunk, I still remember that I did enjoy being with you and I was hoping we could do it again. The hanging out part that is, not the getting piss drunk and passing out part.” He corrected and April started to laugh. John liked her laugh. He couldn’t help when he stepped forward and got close enough to her. April couldn’t grasp how tall he really was and how he towered over her. She liked it.

John cupped her face in his hands and leaned down to kiss her. This is so wrong. This is so wrong! April kept chanting in her head over and over again. But yet she couldn’t stop when they were on the bed her right over John. April knew that she shouldn’t be doing this since she doesn’t even know him. But he just made her feel so, wild and adventurous, she couldn’t resist. Before it got too heated, April swore she heard someone walking by so she pulled away quick. “Shhh,” she said to John and he began to protest so she pressed her hands against his mouth.

John heard the people now too. It was his brother Ross and his mother. Honestly, it was a good idea they were being quiet now because John wasn’t supposed to be having company over and he wasn’t even supposed to be home. His mom would be really mad if he got caught. So they laid like that for about a minute or two because his mom was walking back and forth down the hallway. John couldn’t help but smirk at the position they were in and April just glared at him.

Finally, John thought the coast was clear since he didn’t hear his mom anymore. Just as he was about to kiss April again, a small vibration went off on the nightstand. It was John’s iPhone with fifteen minutes blinking on the clock. John groaned and April just laughed. “No, please don’t go.” He murmured.

“Sorry John Oh, your time is up.” She smirked, “see you around.”

“So, does this make you my girlfriend,” he said giving her one more long kiss.

“Definitely not,” she said swinging open his window and stepping out onto his lawn. He watched as she jogged to her car across the street and jumped into the backseat.

“Tease,” he muttered. I’ll make her mine, John thought as he watched her drive off.