Into Your Arms

I don't like driving long distances.

I get too claustrophobic and it freaks me out, so I have to stop every few hours to keep myself from hyperventilating. But, hey, I didn't mind. Not this time at least. I was driving down to see my best friends ever. All I cared about was getting down to Baltimore, Maryland, in one piece.

The drive for what seemed like fifty days before I finally saw the white sign that said 'Welcome to Baltimore, Maryland!' I followed the directions Jack had sent me, though I wasn't very good with directions in the first place. After a while though, I finally arrived at what seemed like the destination.

Raising my eyebrow, I looked back at the directions my best friend had given me, then looked back out the window. It didn't seem like I was at the right place.

I had parked in a rather large hotel parking lot that was filled with many different colors and styles of cars, each with a different license plate on the front and backs of the cars' bumpers. The hotel in front of me was a Holiday in, and it looked to be one of the middle class ones. Not that I minded about that detail though; in all honesty, I think there better than the more expensive ones.

I followed Jack's orders to just walk inside and go straight for the room, which happened to be on the very top floor. People stared and whispered as I walked by, and most of them stopped me to ask for a picture and/or an autograph. I happily did so; my fans were so important to me.

Once the ten or so cleared out and were happy with that they got, I continued Jack's directions and looked for Room 534. My breath hitched in my throat when I saw the number in the gold numbers nailed to the door. This will be the first time I've seen the boys in a little less than half a year. The first time I'll be seeing Alex in five and a half months.

I knocked quickly on the door, my teeth tugging at my bottom lip. No turning back now.

The door was opened by a cute boy a minute later. His black hair looked soft, and his hazel eyes were warm and inviting. A black tee shirt clung to his thin torso, and beige cargo pants hung loosely around his legs, stopping at his knees. His Nike clad feet matched his shirt and a small silver hoop was pierced on his bottom lip. He was really cute.

His eyes widened slightly as they landed on my face, his jaw going slack a little before he pulled himself together and smirked at me. "You know, I didn't actually believe it when they said they knew Jasey Rae Scott. Damn, I owe them fifty bucks now."

I laughed lightly along with the boy, and I knew he was talking about the four that was in the room. He invited me inside and shut the door loudly behind me. I sucked in my breath quietly as his hand touched the small of my back, leading me farther into the room. I was getting more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by slowly.

"Hey, guys, guess who's here?"

"JASEY!"

I laughed lightly as I stepped into the room, and Jack immediately pounced up from the bed he was lying on. His face adorned a grin that looked like it was going to tear his cheeks, and his eyes held joy and excitement. "Chicago! I missed you so much!" His lanky arms that I had been in so many times wrapped around my body tightly, nearly crushing me.

I laughed lightly, hugging him back just as tight. "I really missed you, too, Jacky!"

Two more pairs of arms wrap securely around me a few seconds later, and I knew they belonged to Rian and Zack.

"Rian! Zack! Guys, I missed you so much!" I giggled, ignoring my claustrophobia for a few seconds. I would live in a tiny box for the rest of my life if it meant seeing these boys every day.

"We missed you, too, Jase!"

I pulled back, smiling widely at my three favorite boys. Teeth tugging at my bottom lip, I glanced around the room. I sucked in a sharp breath, my eyes seeing the empty room except to the boy with the black hair sitting on the chair. "Where's Alex?"

Jack and the other two lowered their gaze from mine and seemed to find inanimate objects more interesting. "H-He, uh...had to go out for a few hours. He'll be back later tonight." Jack mumbled, giving me a weak smile. That meant he was lying. There was something he wasn't telling me, and I had a feeling in my gut that I wasn't going to like it when Alex came back.

"Jasey! I believe you haven't met this dashing fellow over here!" Rian said, giving a nervous laugh as he walked over to the boy sitting in the chair.

I looked over, smiling at the boy with the lip ring. "Yeah, I haven't. I'm Ja-"

"Jasey Scott, I know." The boy stood up with handsome smile tugging at his lips. I felt my neck burn a little as he grabbed my hand. "I'm James Flyzik, but you can call me Matt."

"Matt? That's not a normal nickname for James last time I checked." I smiled, causing him to chuckle.

"James is my father's name. So I go by Matt. It's my middle name." He explained, and I notice he still held on to my band. "It's not the greatest name. But Jasey, now that's a pretty name." I blushed again. His eyes were really pretty.

Some cleared their throat, and I recognized it to be Jack, causing us to look over. Jack gave me a look that said we're going to have a talk later whether I liked it or not. I pursed my lips. It was going to be the 'Boy talk'. No way. I'm not going to have a talk with him. I smirked to myself. "So, excuse me a minute, I have to go call my boyfriend."

Their jaws dropped as I left the room for a few minutes. My fingers dialed the all too familiar numbers of my boyfriend's cell phone number and heard the ringing. I don't know why they're so shocked; I'm allowed to move on.

"Hey hey, baby!" His deep voice filled my ears; a voice I knew so well and loved. Smiling instantly, I felt my heart increase its speed a little. "Hey, babe. What's up?"

"Nothin' much. I saw your game today. You did great; I'm proud of you."

"Aw, thanks." I cooed, feeling my cheeks turn red.

"Whatcha up to now?"

I sat on the bed that was in the room and picked at a few fuzzes off my dark washed skinny jeans. "I'm actually in Maryland right now. I'm visiting a few old friends."

"That's cool. When you coming back to Chicago? Soon, I hope?" He asked, and that caused me to smile. This boy never gets jealous over little things like me hanging out with a few guys, and that's amazing. Normally guys would flip out. Sure, he gets jealous, but only at the right time when a guy is hitting on me. I decided to leave out Matt and me semi-flirting.

"Soon. I'm gonna stay here for a few more days because I want to see the boys perform and everything. You can come out if you want, I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

"Nah, I'll let you be with your friends. Listen, I gotta get going. I'll call you tomorrow, okay, babe?"

I smiled. "Okay. Bye, Destery." I hung up my phone and shoved it back in my pocket before walking back into the room the boys were in. Their conversation stopped once I stepped in, and they put on smiles quickly. They were talking about me for sure.

"S-So, how's your, uh, your-" Jack stammered.

"Boyfriend?" I finished, giving him a small smile as I sat next to him on the couch. "Destery is great, thanks."

He scoffed lightly, his arm automatically going around my shoulders, but I pulled away a little. I gave him a look. I knew that scoff. He raised his eyebrow at me. "What?"

"Don't 'what' me. What was that scoff you just did?" I scrunched my eyebrows together. What could he possibly scoff at? "Do you have a problem with my boyfriend?"

He sighed, rewrapping his arm around my shoulder and kissing my forehead. "No. Now no fighting. You just got here and I don't want to fight with you."

I sighed, slightly angrily, through my nose but I let it go. Jack was right. The four of us just got back together; fighting would ruin everything. "Fine. So, tell me how you’re touring and such is going."

Zack and Rian instantly went into stories and tales of the touring rockstar life. It sounded a lot like an athlete's schedule: hectic, fans surrounding everywhere you go, and doing what you love nearly every night. But it was also a lot of traveling and barely any time to see loved ones. That was the hardest thing about it and they didn't like that at all. I completely understood what they meant.

As the two boys were explaining a story of how Jack fell off stage, my eyes seemed to have drifted off to Jack's face. I smiled to myself. His hair looked the same, though it was a little longer. The blonde streak in his hair was even brighter. His eyes were the same deep brown I've always loved, and his smile is still to die for. He was the same ol' Jack I was slightly in love with many months ago. His gazed met mine, a large smile slowly forming on his lips. "What?" He whispered.

I reflected his smile, giving him a small shrug. "Nothing. Just getting an image of you in my head. I really missed you, Jack."

His lips attached to my head for a few seconds before he pulled me into his warm side. "I missed you, too, Jasey. You don't know how much I did."

"And the. He tripped and fell off!" Rian and Zack burst out laughing, and to make it seem like I was listening, I laughed too, which pleased the two storytellers. The muscley one suggested we put a movie in and everyone agreed, getting comfortable in the seats they were in. Zack put in Mean Girls because he knows it's one of my favorites, and no one complained when it came to the movie, so we sat back and relaxed and watched the film.

As it was half way over, I heard the door being opened. I felt my heart jump a foot. That meant Alex was here. He and I haven't seen each other since it happened those months ago. I felt a little faint. What if he can't stand to look at me anymore? What if he really doesn't want to at least be civil? What if it's super awkward?

Wait. I shouldn't be worrying about this. He should. He's the one who broke up with me. He should be worrying if it's going to be awkward and that if I'm going to be civil or not. Not me.

The boy walked in, and I quickly averted my eyes to the floor. For some reason, I just couldn't look at him right away. Was it because I'm scared? I'm scared to see the boy who had betrayed me, or was I because I was scared I might still feel something even after all this has happened? I hoped it was the former.

"Hey, Alex." Jack said, rather unhappily.

My eyes immediately flicked up at the sound of a girl's name. From what I can remember, there wasn't an addition to the band. My eyes landed on a tall girl with really pretty blond hair. Her eyes were a very gorgeous deep blue and she was rail thin. And, to top it all off, a perfect smile was tugging at her pink lips. Braces, I thought, unconsciously running my tongue over my own teeth. All in all, she was really pretty.

"Hey, Lisa." Jack finished rather gloomily, but he quickly went back to the movie when I looked over at him.

"Hey, Jack." The girl called Lisa and he said together, sitting on the bed right behind Jack and me.

I took a deep breath to see if it would calm my raging nerves that were in my stomach. It didn't.

"Al, who is that on the couch with Jack?"

I froze the second the nine words left the girl-behind-me's lips as a not so subtle whisper. She didn't say it rudely, shocking me, but she said it rather curiously. What was he going to say? An old girlfriend? The girl he betrayed? The girl who was in love with him not six months ago?

"A long time friend of ours, actually. Don't you know, that's Jasey Rae Scott, the baseball player?" I heard Alex say quietly back to her, and I sighed of great relief. A long time friend I can deal with.

"Oh! I must not have recognized her with her new hair. She looks really great. I didn't know you were friends with her." The girl Lisa said, realization clear in her voice. "I'd really like to get to know her."

I smiled to myself. Maybe this girl won't be as bad as I figured. Usually Alex's girlfriends/ex-girlfriends are quite nasty and I don't enjoy them very much.

"You can go talk to her, if you'd like. She won't bite, trust me. She's really nice." Alex whispered back, an that made me smile to myself also. At least he wasn't bitter towards the whole thing.

"Oh, no, I don't wanna bother her." Lisa said shyly, and I could see her blush from the corner of my eye.

I smirked, and turned around to look at her, a smile on my face. I might as well get the ball rolling since she's too shy. My eyes fell to her blue shoes for a second before returning to lock with her gaze. "This is completely random, but I really like your shoes."

The blonde blushed furiously and she smiled a perfect smile. "Oh, thanks so much. That means a lot coming from someone like you."

"Someone like me?" I raised an eyebrow. What's that supposed to mean? Is she inferring that I have bad clothes?

"Oh, no! I didn't mean it like that! I meant someone famous!" She said quickly, her cheeks as red as tomatoes from embarrassment.

I laughed lightly, waving it off. "Don't get so worked up, it's okay." The girl blushed even more, but stayed quiet. "But, anyways, I guess we haven't been properly introduced, since these bozos haven't taken the initiative." I stood up, straightening out my shirt before walking over to her. Holding my hand out to her, I smiled. "I'm Jasey Scott; it's really nice to meet you."

The girl stood, releasing the grip she had around the boy's waist next to her. "Lisa Ruocco. It's great to finally meet you. I've gone to nearly every game you've been in over here. I'm such a big fan."

I blushed slightly, the feeling of embarrassment never washing out of me, even after nearly four years of playing. "Oh, stop, you're making me blush. But, thank you. That means a lot to me."

The girl sat back down, and I yawned, walking to the next room to get to the small kitchen. Since the boys were making quite a bit of money, they've upgraded to a nice suite. I found the refrigerator not seconds later, so I opened to find it empty. Pursing my lips, I went for the cabinets.

"You won't find much. Have three guys living here doesn't leave much food left. We usually have to order take out."

I froze as I quickly recognized the voice. It was so...casual. Like nothing had ever happened. As if not one phrase of three special words had been spoken, nor a night of showing love for one another had ever happened. It sounded as if he was just talking to a long time friend. "O-Oh." I shook my head. I can't do this. Sighing, I turned around and looked at my ex-boyfriend for the first time in five and a half months.

He looked different, but it was a good different. His hair had more highlights and was a messier, longer hairstyle that looked good. Though his wardrobe was the same. A band tee clung to his thin torso with a zip up sweatshirt hanging loosely over it. His loose skinny jeans hung below his waist and was held up barely by a belt. His feet held Nike Dunks, though his hair was covered by a black beanie. He looked good.

I looked down, scowling at my own appearance. My jeans hung loosely off my too thin legs. My too large feet were covered by my old Chuck Taylor's. A tee shirt clung tightly to my thin torso, showing my ugly six-pack that I had to have because I had to keep in shape. And one of Jack's sweatshirts that I had kept because I missed them hung loosely over my upper body. My hair wasn't combed trough and was put into a very messy bun. I looked bad.

I sighed, looking back at my feet. "Alex...I can't do this."

"Do what?" Although, I knew he knew. He just didn't want to admit it as much as I did.

"I can't...I can't act as if nothing had happened." I said quietly, looking back up at him. With my bottom lip being tugged at, I sighed again. "You walk in here and talk to me like nothing happened. Like...like none of those nights happened." He opened his mouth to talk but I cut him off. "Look, I get that you don't....don't want to be with me, but I can't forget about those nights we shared like they never happened. You can, but I can't. And...I can't be friends with you." I whispered, feeling a layer of salty water form over my eyes. I blinked back the tears, letting a long breath through my nose. It was the truth, though. I couldn't just live my life with him in it and act as if nothing happened. It just wasn't in my nature to forget something that took up a good portion of my year.

With a shake of my head, I walked out of the room and web back next to Jack. His arm automatically went around my shoulders and I cuddle in his side. I guess Jack, Rian, and Zack were all I needed.