If Not For You I Know I'd Tear This Place To The Ground.

"Alex? Alex? ALEXANDER. ALEXXXXXX. Earth to Alex."

Alex looked up as the voices in his head didn't diminish. He saw why instantly. They weren't the voices in his head talking to him as he'd originally thought, but that of his best friend. Jack was looking at him with the puppy dog eyes that meant that he'd either done something wrong and didn't want Alex to be mad at him, or that he wanted Alex to do something with/for him.

Alex sighed. "What?"

Jack smiled. "You're listening. Good. I want to do something. Want to do something with me? Please?" The puppy dog eyes drooped even lower and Jack's arms reached out to hug himself.

Alex shook his head and crossed his arms. "I'm not agreeing to anything until you tell me what it is that you want me to do."

Jack sighed. "You're no fun anymore."

Alex made a show of looking at his watch. "You have 5 seconds to tell me what you want, Jack-o, or I'm plugging these earphones in and forgetting you exist."

"I want you to come on a date with me."

I was shocked into laughter. It was something that hadn't happened in a long time, and the expression on Jack's face instantly made me feel guilty. I must seem like such a monster to my friends these days. It definetely wasn't how I meant to express myself.

"Did you just ask me out, Jack Bassam Barakat?"

Jack's expression was hilarious then. He looked like a fish out of water as his mouth opened and closed repeatedly and his eyes were the size of monster truck tires. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to find any words if his life depended on it. It was enough to get me laughing again, and this time, Jack joined in. Within seconds, they were both rolling around on the floor, Alex gasping for breath and Jack trying and failing miserably to speak.

The door slammed open, startling both of the boys into silence. Neither of them could breath, though, and Alex was holding his stomach in his hands and moaning from the lack of air. Jack hadn't been able to keep from laughing for more than a minute, and by the time Rian and Zack walked in, he was laughing into his hands while Alex had grabbed a pillow and buried his head into it.

Rian took one look at them and his expression changed. It seemed like the two boys had been in a bad mood, but the sight of their two best friends rolling around on the floor together like the old times made their day.

"Did we miss something?" Zack asked, grabbing the pillow from Alex's head and sniffing it. "Pillow seems okay. Must be something in the water or something."

Alex started to sit up, but Zack sat on him, forcing him to sit down.

"Mmpslprakdarf."

Rian laughed. "What was that, Lex?"

"I said, Zack should work out more. He's getting fat!"

Zack looked hurt. "Am not."

Alex wiggled underneath him. "Are too. Get offa me."

"Nope. I'm staying right here. I'm never moving. Never!"

"Never say never."

Jack had calmed himself and had pulled himself into a sitting position on the couch beside Ri. He gasped then, a slender hand covering his mouth. "Did Alex Gaskarth just quote Justin Bieber?" he asked in a whisper. "What would the FANS think?"

Alex laughed at this and managed to wiggle enough to that he was off of his stomach. It left Zack straddling him in a very awkward way, but at least he could breath.

"The fans would be fine with it. They'd think it was HAWT, man. And besides. I invented that saying. Bieber just made it famous."

Zack was looking a little uncomfortable. "Er, Lex. Please don't tell me you have a thing for Bieber while I'm on top of you."

Alex smiled. "Scared, Zack?" He paused. "You have nothing to worry about. Justin Bieber's got competetion. Hot competition. From the other JB."

Neither guy seemed to get what Alex meant.

"From Jack, you morons. He asked me out just before you came in. I was going to say yes, but you doofuses had to ruin the moment."

Zack leapt to his feet. Alex smiled in satisfaction.

"Jack asked you out?!" This came from their tour manager Matt who had walked into the room at that particular moment.

Jack looked uncomfortable. "I did not. I said I wanted him to go on a date with me. What I meant was, I met two nice girls who wanted to know if we were free tonight. I was hoping Lex would come with me."

Alex pretended to cry. "You got my hopes up for nothing. I was hoping it would be just me and you, some music, some lube. You know the drill, don't pretend you don't." He winked at Jack and went and sat on his lap.

Zack and Rian smiled at this. "It's good to have you back, Lex." Ri said softly.

Jack just shook his head and put his arms around Alex. "Next time, lover. I promise you something hot and sexy to make up for it. But in the meantime, I don't want to disappoint these girls. They seemed ... genuine, you know. They know about me and Holly and are totally cool with it. I bet they'd understand your situation, too. Give it a try?"

Alex thought about it. His friends seemed happy to see him breaking out of the shell that surrounded him. He knew he still had a ways to go, but the shell didn't seem like it was made of metal anymore. It was more like eggshell. Something that can and will break. And he needed to break it. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of making his friends' worry, and he wasn't comfortable with letting down his friends. It wasn't something he ever wanted to do. But a little voice inside his head still nagged him ...

"All we have to do is have dinner? Cause I'm not up to anything else."

The guys knew that he hadn't been sleeping. He'd probably kept them up all night half the time, even though he tried his best to stay quiet. But it was nightime when inspiration hit, and he found himself writing, singing, scribbling, strumming, whatever came to mind.

"I promise, Alex."

Alex didn't see any reason to not go. His friends had been more than supportive. Even the jokes and the dates and the easy girls were just them trying to make him feel better. It didn't matter that half the time they'd failed, they'd tried. That was more than he had been willing to do up until now. It was a realization that didn't settle in his stomach one bit. He looked at Jack and nodded.

"When do we meet them?"