Green and Gray

My plan of not talking to John didn't go as well as I had hoped seeing as I was on a plane sandwiched between him and Garrett on our way to Seattle. Stupid Seattle.

I was ambushed in my apartment by all five members of The Maine and Halvo – who was also flying up because his band was playing as well – at about eight in the morning the day after the disaster with Ryver. Luckily, I put pants on the night before when I went to bed because of how cold I was, or when Jared pulled my covers off me could have resulted in an awkward situation.

“What the hell you guys?” I croaked out, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and shivering.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!” Halvo exclaimed loudly, making me flinch.

“Seattle awaits!” John yelled with the biggest grin I'd ever seen him have.

I groaned as I sat up, “You cannot be serious.” I looked at them all. They were all standing at the edge of my bed, staring at me. It was actually quite creepy.

“I told you no ifs, ands, or buts.” He said.

I looked at him horrified, “You were drunk!”

“Oh, come on, Sparrow.” Kennedy said as Garrett left the foot of my bed and headed for my closet.

“Hey!” I yelled at him, but he ignored me, “What are you doing?”

He flipped on the light switch and looked around, “Where's your duffel bag?” He questioned and I rolled my eyes.

“I'm not going.” I told them all, stubbornly. It wasn't right of me to just pick up and leave to Seattle for the weekend.

“Yes, you are.” Pat said while everyone agreed.

“I have a life, you guys. I can't just leave on the drop of a hat.”

“Found it!” Garrett yelled triumphantly.

“Oh, sweet!” Jared said, “Get her an outfit or three and we'll get the necessities.” Was anything coming out of my mouth being heard? I watched them, nonetheless, as they quickly packed up some of the things in my room. Then I suddenly realized that they had broke into my apartment.

“How did you guys even get in here?!” I exclaimed in confusion.

“Key under the floor mat, Sparrow? How original.” John smirked from where he was standing, shoving my Macbook into its Marc Jacobs case.

My mouth dropped slightly as I was stunned, “Wha- You broke into my house!” I saw the ones who were listening (Halvo, John, and Kennedy) roll their eyes.

“Just put this on and shut up.” Kennedy tossed me my leather, studded jacket. I watched it land on my bed with a thud, but did nothing. “These, too.” Moccasins this time. There they sat with the jacket, waiting for me.

“Guys, stop! I'm not going.”

“We'll carry you out of here if we have to.” John said. I gave him a challenging look.

“I still can't believe you carried me out of my apartment over your shoulder.” I said to John in annoyance. We had been in the air for about an hour. It was still surreal that I was sitting there.

“We will stop at nothing.” He smirked.

“You didn't even let me change. I'm sitting here in my fucking pajamas.”

“You gave us no choice, Sparrow.”

I ignored him, “You guys better have gotten everything I need.” I addressed the two of them.

“I picked you out three outfits-”

“Garrett's the fashionista of the group so you're in good hands.” I saw Garrett shoot John a look which I laughed at. “Got your phone charger, Mac, Mac charger, underwear. We're expert packers. I think we got everything.”

“Makeup? Hair products? Toothbrush?”

Their smiles dropped, “Oops.” John let out and I groaned.

“Well,” Garrett started, “we'll buy you a new toothbrush.”

“And I'm sure you can go a weekend without hair products.”

I looked between the two of them and sighed, “You're lucky I keep extra makeup in my bag.”

I saw John roll his eyes, “You're not wearing any right now and you look perfectly fine.” I knew he was complimenting me, but I was still annoyed.

“You know,” I began as I crossed my arms over my chest, “this is considered kidnapping.”

The two rolled their eyes, “Sparrow,” Jared spoke up from behind me, “just suck it up and relax! You're already almost to Seattle and there's no turning back. You will be home on Sunday.” I sunk back into my seat in defeat; he was right. What use was complaining when I was already in the air?


I'd been to Seattle once when I was a kid, but I couldn't really remember much of it. All I remembered was the long boring drive there in my father's old VW bus and how much It rained. It was cold then and it was cold when we arrived that weekend.

It was cold as we waited for a shuttle to the hotel we were staying at and it was cold when we eventually got there. I was thankful for my leather jacket Kennedy made me put on along with the moccasins he threw at me. Everyone else seemed to be only kind of phased by the temperature, but then I remembered that I had extremely thin skin. It was cold, but it was also bright. Which is why I was also thankful that I kept my sunglasses in my purse.

I watched them wheel up their equipment to their room for the show the following day, shivering. I wasn't exactly aware of the sleeping arrangements, but I had a feeling I would be rooming with John.

“Oh, come on, Sparrow! It's not that cold!” Halvo laughed as he came up next to me.

“I-I-I-I ha-ha-have th-th-th-thin ski-ski-skin.” I stuttered through chattering teeth.

“Good thing you live in Arizona then.” He chuckled and I semi-glared at him.

“Halvo!” We both turned and saw a guy with short, dark hair with a beard of the same color approaching.

“Nice talking, Sparrow, but my band amigos are calling.”

I smiled weakly, “Bye.”

John approached me next when they were making their last trip up with the equipment, “You middle name is Alaska, come on now!”

I rolled my eyes as I tried to keep warm. I was tired of being teased. “I was conceived there, doesn't mean I've been!”

“All right, all right.” He smirked, causing a light feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Here.” He extended a card out to me. I grabbed it then immediately went back to hugging myself for warmth. “Looks like we're roomies.” He smiled brightly. Guess my suspicions were right.

The only set plans for the weekend were for the day of their show and the time our flight was to depart on Sunday. The rest was up to us. Too bad everyone had no idea what to do and I wasn't about to go outside in the freezing temperatures. I was all for having a good time, but I had to draw the line somewhere. That somewhere happened to be with my thin skin.

So there we sat. Jared, Pat, John, and I were sitting around our room doing a whole lot of nothing. Excuse me, Jared was flipping through the channels on the TV, Pat was on his Mac, and John was messing around on his iPhone. What a lively bunch we were.

Sighing, I reached over to my purse and pulled out my own iPhone. There wasn't much else to do but check Twitter. Boredly, I scrolled through the tweets from oldest to newest until I saw one highlighted light blue, notifying me that my name was in it.

“iamRyderAbott Where the hell is my bestie @SparrowAlaska? She isn't answering my calls or texts.”

My brow furrowed; I hadn't received any calls or texts from him, “Piece of shit phone.” I groaned. I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I looked up slowly, “My phone isn't giving me my texts or calls.” I explained.

“Did you take it off of airplane mode?” Pat asked from the table in the corner of the room. I closed my eyes as I resisted the urge to slap my palm against my forehead.

“I'm going to take that as a “no.”” Jared said with a laugh and I blushed.

“Hey, Sparrow, do you want to come outside with me so I can smoke a cigarette?” John questioned as he stood from the bed we were sharing.

I tapped the off button on my airplane mode then looked up at him as if he were crazy, “Did you not see me earlier as I shivered my ass off?” He smirked as he shrugged on his jacket then his peacoat. As he did this, my phone began to vibrate and ding with incoming texts. They all popped up so quickly that I couldn't even attempt to read them as they came in.

The three in the room looked at me once more, “I guess I'll go with you so I can make a few phone calls.”

John was watching me as he smoked his cigarette. My phone had blown up with “Where are you?” texts and voicemails. The one who had tried to contact me the most, though, was Ryder. Seeing his desperate attempts to talk to me, I called him first.

I sighed as I put the phone up to my ear and looked over at John, who was smirking at me.

“Where the fuck are you, you bitch?” Ryder answered and I rolled my eyes, “We had lunch plans and I sat at that fucking disgusting diner you like so much. I called you and you didn't answer and I sat there like some lame ass desperate friend when you know I hate looking desperate!” He exclaimed all in one breath, “Where the fuck are you?” Ryder was being dramatic like he always was.

“I'm sorry I missed our lunch, Ryder, but I'm in Seattle.” I explained with really no remorse at all. He had stood me up plenty of times before, he couldn't handle one time.

“Seattle?! Why are you in Seattle? Did your British boy take you off on some sexy getaway?” I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was smirking.

“No.” I answered in annoyance. “Remember John?” At the mention of his name, he looked up from his boots to me. Our eyes locked briefly before I looked at the traffic driving passed us.

Ryder gasped, “You are not off on some secret sexcapade with some hot musician!”

My mouth dropped involuntarily in shock, “What?! No! His band is playing a holiday show here and they forced me to go.”

He snorted, “Yeah, whatever you say, Sparrow.”

I scoffed, completely fed up with everything about him, “Whatever, I'll be home on Sunday. Pass on the information.” I heard him suck in a breath to respond, but I cut him off. “The truth, Ryder.”

He let out a sigh, “Okay, okay. See you when you get back! Use protection!” Before I could yell at him again, he had hung up.

I tapped on the “end call” button angrily then let out an exasperated groan. Ryder Abott was going to be the death of me. Remembering that I wasn't alone, I turned to face John once more. He raised one of his eyebrows at me then took one of the last drags of his cigarette.

“I really don't understand why I keep him as a friend.” I said, referring to Ryder.

He shrugged, “I've never officially met him, so I have nothing to go by.”

I nodded then sighed for what felt like the millionth time, “This is your fault.” I said as I clicked on Landon's name and brought the phone back up to my ear. John just laughed in response.

Landon didn't answer his phone. Instead, it went to his voicemail. “Hey Babe,” I spoke once the beep sounded in my ear, “Uh, I just wanted to let you know that I flew up to Seattle for The Maine's holiday show, so I'm not home.” I paused, feeling awkward with John's eyes on me, “Well, I'll be home on Sunday, so call me or something and we'll plan something to do or whatever. Bye.” I frowned as I hung up. “You'd think that he'd be worried, but not not one of my texts or calls were from him.” I spoke sadly.

John's eyes softened, “I'm sorry, Sparrow.” I shrugged with a sad smile, “Tell me more about him. How'd he manage to sweep you off your feet in such a short amount of time?” It was the first time he addressed the fact that I had a new boyfriend and I could detect a hint of bitterness in his tone.

I knew he was really asking me why I let him “sweep me off my feet” before he got back, but decided to play dumb, “He, uh, came into my work two weeks after you left and asked me out on a date for the following night.”

He nodded, “And the rest is history?”

“The rest is history.”

He stepping on his cigarette butt, looking away from me, “Do you see your relationship with him going far?” He looked back at me once the words were out. I didn't like these questions he was asking. They made me feel guilty. I didn't want to talk about it.

“I really like him, John. He makes me feel special and like I'm the only girl in the world.” Much like John did when we first met.

“That's great, Sparrow, I'm happy for you.” I knew he wasn't. He smiled, but I could see the pain behind his eyes. We were quiet. Then he advanced toward me and sidestepped my frame to get to the front door, “You're shivering, let's get you inside.” He spoke quietly and I nodded numbly, too deep in thought to really process what was going on. My moccasin covered feet led me back into the hotel lobby behind him.

It hurt me to see John in such pain. Pain I was causing. Why was he torturing himself by asking me about the guy that swooped in and stole my heart while he was away? I debated on if I had made the right choice by saying yes to Landon. That was the one, constant thought in my head.