All Time Trouble

“What the fuck did you do this time Alex?” I asked standing at his door as he laid face down on his bed practically suffocating himself with his pillow, his face was buried so deep. He started to speak but I just yelled at him again.

“If you want me to understand you, how about you stop deep throating your fucking pillow and sit up,” I said walking in and shutting the door. The guys were still downstairs, and Jayde went home, and luckily all the parents were still out setting up tour stuffs. But I was upset that Jayde didn’t say goodbye to me, but it just got me mad when Alex started to chase after her on foot, and I told him to wait. He’s so fucking blind it’s not funny.

“I fucked up okay? How many times do I have to say it? Jesus Christ Kayden, you’re worse than Mom and Dad.” He mumbled turning over so he was lying on his back and he folded his hands across his stomach.

“Ohhhh noooo, I am not THAT bad. But, well, what went wrong? You did what I told you, didn’t you?” I asked a bit softer and he just sighed.

“Yes, but- everything just goes wrong for me.” he said looking out the window and I sighed before going to sit on the edge of his bed.

“Look at me,” I said softly turning his face towards me and away from the window.

“Some things may go wrong, but you have so many going right. We’re leaving for tour in two days, you and your three best friends are going to be living your dreams, and we’ll all get to see it come true. Isn’t this what you wanted?” I asked and he just sighed again.

“Yeah, but I don’t want people mad or upset with me while doing so,” he said trying to look back out the window but I wouldn’t let go of his face.

“Tell me what happened when you went over to Jayde’s,” I said getting off the edge of the bed, climbing over him, and sitting on the other side of him and in front of the window, so he wouldn’t stare into space in the middle of a sentence.

“I was throwing rocks-“

“I told you to throw pebbles.” I interrupted and he stared at me.

“I actually was throwing pebbles, but I was starting to run out and they were getting lost in the bushes so I had to improvise- I threw a couple rocks.”

“ALL AT ONCE?!” I shouted and he sat up.

“NO! I picked up like three rocks and threw them one by one, but the third one kinda-“

“You broke her fucking window, God dammit, Alex.” I mumbled and I shook my head. I looked at him and saw he stayed silent.

“Continue,” I said waving my hand and he started to speak again.

“She came down and scared me because I was trying to see what was going on because I figured she would’ve come to the window- like you said.” he said staring at me. He was going to start talking again but I stopped him.

“I said she’d probably come to the window if you threw a couple pebbles. I didn’t guarantee it, but still, I highly doubt she would come to the window if you broke it. And I mean come on, it’s Jayde. If something happens she’s the first one up and about to see what’s going on.” I said and he nodded.

“True. But anyway,” he said waving his hand and continued to talk.

“But I was joking around, saying how she never goes to bed at like, nine, and we talked and joked a bit, I guess you could say, and then she called me a douche. And I didn’t know how to take it, so I called her-“

“Please tell me you didn’t say-“ I interrupted but he went right on with what he was saying.

“A bitch-“

“God dammit, Alex! You never call a woman a bitch when she’s mad at you! It just makes them more mad then they already are, and they’ll just keep yelling!” I said.

“I know, but I was short on time, I couldn’t think of anything-“

“And you never, and when I say never, I mean never, never, NEVER, CALL A WOMAN A BITCH AS A LAST-RESORT COMEBACK!” I shrieked and he just stared.

“Can I go on?” he asked a little scared.

“Yeah.” I said looking at him and he stifled a laugh at my abnormity before telling me the rest of what happened and I just shook my head.

“I don’t know if it’s because you’re over tired, or you’re nervous for tour that you’re so out of it right now, she calls everyone a douche. And shockingly enough, you where the first one she called a douche when we were in ninth grade... Anyway, that’s beside the point. What I’m really trying to say is you need to open your eyes and take a look at what you have now and know how to handle it and keep it close to you, before you go and worry about losing something, or someone, you haven’t even lost yet.” I said poking at his heart and he nodded. He didn’t move so I took his hand and tried to pull him off the bed.

“Come on Alex. Let’s go back downstairs to the guys. It’s only, ten o’clock,” I said checking my watch. He groaned and as I pulled him down the steps and pushed him onto the couch and I went into the kitchen to get a drink.

“It’s about time you guys came back down,” Zack said.

“Yeah, we thought you were a goner. We thought she murdered you the way she was screaming and you were all quiet.” Rian said and I turned around to look at him with my cup pressed to my lips.

“Why is it always you who thinks Jayde and I will hurt and or eat someone?” I asked and the others laughed while Rian just shrugged and laughed along. I rolled my eyes and went to sit on the recliner. And in the process I took the remote from Alex, and got my soda poured all over his head.

“Okay, it’s already eleven o’clock, and we’ve done nothing but sit around and watch tv. I’ll go and see if I can convince Jayde to come back over-“

“But-“ he said raising his finger a bit and I held my one hand up.

“Shut up, I’m talking.” I said and he closed his mouth and lowered his hand.

“I’m gonna try and convince Jayde to come back over, and we can have one last night of fun before tour.” I said.

“But tour starts in two days, we’ll still have a free night,” Alex said looking confused and I just narrowed my eyes.

“Are you, Jack, Rian and Zack even packed yet?” I asked and he just stared at me blankly. They all stared at each other and stared back at me.

“That’s what I thought. And plus, I don’t think you’d wanna spend tonight packing, then go all apeshit tomorrow night, because we gotta be up early to start heading out. So I figured we’d have our last night of fun tonight, and we can spend tomorrow packing. But you guys can bring everything over here, and pack here in the living room, and if Jayde’s already not packed or not finished packing yet, we’ll go in my room. And we can pack up the van when we’re done, and then you guys sleep here, and we head out in the morning.” I said as simply as explaining to a two year old the importance of coloring in the lines.

“You’re really smart Kayden.” Jack said staring blankly at me, still trying to comprehend what I had just said probably.

“Thank you, Jack. Now if you’ll excuse moi, I’m going to go get your little sister, your guys’ friend, and my best friend to spend our last night before tour together.” I said getting up.

“Please, she was our best friend first.” Rian said leaning back folding his arms and Zack did the same.

“Please, she was my first friend when I went to school, and she’s my only friend that I had at school.” I said and Jack stood up, folded his arms and stomped his foot.

“WELL IF THAT’S WHAT YOU THINK OF WHAT WE’VE BEEN THROUGH THE PAST COUPLE YEARS THEN FINE! WE’RE THROUGH!” he shouted stomping out of the living room and into the kitchen, but poked his head back out through the door.

“Where are the chips? They’re not in their usual spot. And if that be the case, you’re out of chips,” he said and we all started laughing.

“Well, I’ll be back,” I said starting to walk down the hallway.

"Wait a minute, you weren't serious about going to get Jayde, where you? It's so dark out!" Rian said as I felt his eyes follow me down the hallway.

"Why wouldn't I mean it? She's my best friend, almost my sister, I'm not gonna let her sit at home, all alone on our last full, non-busy night before tour," I said turning.

"Then have someone go with you," Alex insisted and I nodded.

"It won't be you, you know, just giving you a heads up Alex," I said and he nodded slowly and looked a bit sad. I closed my eyes and did 'eenie meenie minie moe,' between Zack, Rian, and Jack, and guess who I landed on? Zack... 'perfect,' I thought, 'Just. Fucking. Perfect.'

"C'mon Zack, let's go." I said leaning back to grab his hand to pull him along with me to go outside to the car.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." Alex called out running through the living room a bit to catch up to us.

"What??" I asked slightly annoyed and dropped Zack's hand as Alex ran up to us.

"One, don't force Jayde here if she doesn't wanna come back to the house, and two, I wanna talk to Zack for a quick second," Alex said giving Zack a pointed look and Zack just looked back pretending not to know what Alex was gonna talk about with him, but I could tell he knew. I don't know what they were gonna talk about, but I knew Zack knew.

"Well you two can talk and waste time, but I kinda really don't wanna hear this conversation, so I'm gonna go in the car and come up with some sort of plan to get Jayde back over here," I said turning around.

"Good, I was actually about to tell you to go wait in the car anyway." Alex said still looking at Zack and I just raised one of my eyebrows.

"Okayyy, well it's clear you two really need to settle something, so yeah, I'll see you later Alex, and just come out to the car when you guys are done Zack," I said touching both of their shoulders a bit and they both nodded still staring at each other. I just rolled my eyes and grabbed Alex's keys from my pocket and unlocked his car, and I sat in the driver's seat and leaned down by the steering wheel to try to see what was going on. I couldn't see very well, but what I DID see was that Zack was backed up against the wall, and Alex was talking to him poking his chest, he made hand gestures towards me and back to him and kept talking. And I stared back confused as fuck, and I stared at Zack until he came out and sat in the passenger seat.
"What the fuck was all that about?" I asked and he didn't look at me.

"Oh um, nothing, it's fine, just drive." Zack stumbled as he tried to buckle his seat belt and I just raised an eyebrow.

"Zack," I said and he just looked forward.

"Just drive please." he said softly closing his eyes and leaning his head on the window. I nodded keeping it at that as I turned the key and backed out the driveway, and started one of the most quietest journeys I've ever taken on my way to the Barakat household, and the entire time I wondered what Alex had said to Zack to make him act like how he was now, and why he kept pointing to me through the window. And before I knew it I was pulling in front of Jayde and Jack's house now. I parked in front of the driveway and turned the car off.

"Wakey wakey Zack," I said shaking him by the shoulder a bit to wake him up, because about ten minutes after we left I heard him snoring softly.

“Are we here?” he asked stretching a bit and I laughed to myself.

“Yes, now what are we gonna do?” I asked and he shrugged and I just sighed.

“We’re just winging it aren’t we?” I asked and he closed his eyes and nodded with a smile. I sighed again before pulling the keys out of the ignition and opening my door.

“Let’s do this then,” I said getting out and Zack opened his door and I hit the lock button once he shut it.

“Why did you do that?” he asked and I just looked at him.

“Do you want the car stolen? I don’t think so, and I know Alex doesn’t want his car stolen,” I said raising my eyebrows as I talked.

“Well if you lock it now, and Jayde ends up not wanting to come back with us, it’ll take us longer to get her in the car if it’s locked. And it’ll give her more of a chance to get away,” Zack said and I nodded.

“Smart,” I said and hit the unlock button.

“Let’s go.” I said putting the keys back in my pocket and Zack followed me to back of the house. The door had been left open from when Jayde had come down earlier when Alex had come over a couple hours earlier, so we walked in very slowly making sure the door didn’t creak, we didn’t make any noise, and not to wake anybody up if they were already asleep. We left the door open a bit for light, but my heart stopped when I heard clattering across the floor.

“Holy fuck, how could we have forgotten about Dylan?! Come on!” I whisper yelled trying to get to the steps before Dylan got to us. But it was too late, he was already running around our feet trying to get us to pet him and give him treats.

“Hurry up, get him a treat and throw it towards his bed so he doesn’t start barking or follow us up the steps,” I said pointing to the bag on the kitchen counter.

“Why does he need another treat? He’s already fat as fuck, poor thing probably has diabetes. I’ve never met a bulldog with diabetes before.” Zack laughed as he started patting Dylan’s stomach and petting him all over.

“Just do it so we can get upstairs!” I hissed and he put his hands up before going across the kitchen to the bag of treats. Dylan heard Zack open the bag, and rolled around on his back trying to get up to get his treat. When he finally did get up, Zack held it out a bit before throwing it into the living room. He zipped up the bag real quick and we ran to and up the stairs as Dylan went searching for his treat. I found Jayde’s room and tapped on the door lightly. No response.

“Just go in,” Zack whispered and I nodded. I turned the handle and we walked in. Her lights were on surprisingly, and she was sitting on her bed playing an old guitar that Alex gave her for her fifteenth birthday. She looked up surprised to see us, and then asked why the fuck we were here.

“We wanted to see if you wanted to come back and hang out and have fun on the last non-busy night before tour, because the guys still have to pack, so we’ll do that tomorrow and all of you guys will probably stay the night and we’ll head out the next morning.” I said and she nodded but continued to play Alex’s her guitar, but then looked around us.

“Are the others here?” she asked and I shook my head. Dylan started to bark, and Zack quickly turned around to go let him out before he woke up Jayde’s parents. After he had left, Jayde then raised an eyebrow and stared at me.

“What?” I asked knowing where she was before she even started talking.

“Why is it just you two?” she wiggled her eyebrows and I rolled my eyes.

“We were in the middle of the living room, Alex insisted someone go with me, and I said fine, then did ‘eenie, meenie, minie, moe,’ and it landed on Zack.” I said but a smile was still spread across her face.

“You cheated.”

“How the fuck could I have cheated? My eyes were shut!” I laughed and she did too.

“I don’t know but knowing you, you could’ve cheated.” She said and we laughed. Zack came back up and we waited for about five before I cleared my throat.

“Well?” I asked and Jayde looked up.

“Hmm?” she asked curling her lips a bit.

“Are you coming back to my house with us?” I asked.

“Oh that.” She said and I nodded a bit with a ‘yeah, that’ kinda look.

“Yeah, I’m not going back over.” She said playing her guitar. Zack and I rolled our eyes and looked at each other.

“Okay Jayde,” he said and she looked at him.

“What?” she asked putting Alex’s her guitar on its stand.

“We’re going to do this one of two ways, and it’s totally up to you.” I said and she continued to look.

“One,” Zack started holding up his index finger.

“You pack a bag with some stuff and quietly and slowly walk downstairs with us and out to the car and go back over to Kayden’s,” he said.

“Or two,” I said holding up two fingers.

“We’ll wrap you up in a bunch of blankets and rush you out to the car and speed off back to my house.” I said and her eyes got wide.

“But it’s your choice on either of the two you want to do,” Zack said and I nodded.

“So choose wisely.” I grinned and she just continued to stare.

“How long do I have to decide?” she asked.

“Less than five minutes.” Zack and I said in unison and Jayde gave us a weird look and I knew why. Because Zack and I almost never talk in unison. But she just shook her head and stared at us.

“You guys know I fucking hate both of you right now, correct?” she asked and I just smiled crossing my arms

“You love us.” I said tilting my head to the left. She rolled her eyes and turned over.

“Are you going to sleep?” Zack asked sounding a bit confused.

“Just getting comfy for when you smother me with blankets and take me out to the car.” she said. Zack and I looked at each other and just shook our heads.

“She always makes things so fucking difficult,” I mumbled.

“I know,” he sighed in agreement.

“So... On three?” he asked raising his eyebrow a bit.

“On three.” I grinned before we threw a ton of blankets on her and tried to wrap her up in them so she wouldn’t fall out when we carried her out to the car.