Out of Grasp

The Arizona sun was unforgiving as it beat down on the pavement below my feet, the sun bouncing off it and sending heat rays towards my already sweaty body. I fast walked towards Pat’s house, craving the cool air that I would be met with. I didn’t bother knocking as I stepped up to his house; I just swung the door open and sighed in relief as the temperature dropped nearly 30 degrees.

“I’m here!” I shouted, kicking off my flip flops and descending the carpeted stairs two at a time into Pat’s basement. All of The Maine plus Melanie and Tori were seated on the various chairs and couches, minus Pat who was on the floor. All of the boys jumped up in an instant, tripping and shoving each other as they rushed towards me.

“Whoa, guys! Don’t crush me!” I yelped, as they bounded towards me like a mob.

Pat screeched as he leaped over Kennedy’s shoulders, rolling on the ground with him for a minute before bouncing up and smiling triumphantly as he reached me first.

“Emy!” He squeezed me tightly, his skinny arms squeezing the breath out of my already exhausted lungs. “I feel like I haven’t seen you since…forever!”

I rolled my eyes with a laugh, patting one of his arms that was wrapped around me. “I just saw you a few days ago Pat.” He pulled away and shrugged with a wide smile, stepping away from me.

After saying hello to Garrett, Kennedy, Jared and finally John, I joined Melanie and Tori where they sat on the floor, looking through some magazines.

“Finally!” Tori exclaimed. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”

“I had to walk, remember?” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Oh, yeah. You should’ve just called me! I could’ve sent Pat to get you.”

I shrugged. “I’m here now.”

“It’s not like you missed much anyway. The guys were playing video games but Tim made them settle down to talk about their next tour.”

“Tim?” I asked, the name unfamiliar to me.

“Oh right! You haven’t met him yet!”

“Tim is Pat’s brother,” Melanie said, nodding in the direction behind me. I turned around and spotted the brown-haired boy that barely resembled Pat sitting on the couch, an iPad in his lap and a serious look on his face.

He didn’t look much like Pat but I could see the similarities in the nose. He had longer hair; shorter than Pat’s but longer than any of the other guys. He looked up from typing on his iPad and met my curios gaze, a friendly smile breaking out over his features.

“Hi, I’m Tim. I don’t think we’ve met yet.”

“We haven’t. I’m Emily.”

“I know. These guys won’t shut up about you,” he explained after I gave him a confused look.

I smiled and nodded my head, humming in understanding. It wasn't long after my arrival that Tim’s serious conference with the guys was completely forgotten.

“Pat, Jared’s trying to break your chair!” Kennedy yelled while laughing.

“I am not!” Jared exclaimed with a laugh. “Kenny is trying to steal my seat!”

“No, you’ve got your ginger butt on my phone and I want it back!”

“Will you two give it a rest!?” Tim said.

“No!” “Not until I have my phone!” The two boys yelled at the same time.

“God, it’s like dealing with children.”

“Well, we are all younger than you,” Garrett murmured.

After wrestling and arguing for what felt like hours, Pat and Tim’s mom and dad called down to us.

“The food’s done! Come eat when y’all are ready!” He shouted down the stairs.

“Thank you, Mr. K!” We all yelled.

“I’m starving, babe! Let’s go eat!” Pat said, jumping up and over to Melanie, pulling her up from her spot on the couch.

She laughed and gave him a peck on the lips. “I’m coming, I’m coming. Let’s go, everybody!” She called over her shoulder as they headed for the door.

“We don’t have to listen to you,” Jared joked, following behind them.

“Fine then, starve for all I care,” she teased.

He laughed. “Yeah, right. Papa bears gotta eat.”

I laughed, following everyone out the door when a tug on my wrist stopped me in my tracks. I tripped over my feet and stumbled backwards, straight into John’s chest.

“Can I help you?” I smirked.

He shrugged, wrapping his arms around me. I was confused but didn’t hesitate, leaning up on my tippy toes and wrapping my arms around his neck. After a few minutes of standing in the middle of the room with our arms wrapped around each other, John pulled back slowly, keeping his hands on my waist.

"The guys are gonna come looking for us.”

I nodded. "Then let's go before they do."

"But I don't want to," he whined, sounding like a ten year old girl. He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, smiling cutely. "I want to stay here with you."

I rolled my eyes playfully. "Come on, Mr.Clingy.”

He whined, his face contorting into a sour look a little kid would give you if they didn’t get their way, stomping his foot.

“I promise we can have some alone time later. But for now, I’m going to eat.”

“I don’t like sharing,”

“Well good thing you don’t make the decisions, huh?”

“Evil.”

I chuckled, grabbing his hand and pulling him out the door in the direction our friends had gone.

It felt weird being able to call all these people my friends. I’ve had friends before but not many and none as trustworthy and fun as these guys. Come to think of it, Tori and Eric were my only real, true friends for a while. When James and I started dating, his friends became my friends. I latched onto him so quickly that any other people I once talked to no longer mattered. And as time went on, things never changed and I put my relationship first for the most part. His friends still became my friends, at least while we were actually together. Ever since we broke up, none of them have even attempted to contact me. Not that I necessarily blame them; I get the whole ‘hoes before bros’ thing and it’s not like we were ever real friends. My relationship with Carter’s friends was friendly, but nothing more and nothing less. There was never a real effort from either side.

But with Pat, Jared, Garrett, Kennedy, John, Melanie, the Rocket boys and even Tim, things were different. They wanted to get to know me and became my friend. They accepted me immediately after meeting me. It didn’t matter that I was a stranger; some girl that Tori just introduced. I was someone they got alone with and they latched onto that and brought me into their group with open arms. It was a weird but good –very good– feeling to be accepted.

“Wait, wait, wait, you have a tattoo?” John asked, turning to look at me with wide eyes.

I smiled and nodded my head, tossing another chip into my mouth.

“Yes, sir.”

“Why have we never noticed this?” Garrett asked, his eyes raking my upper body for the ink Tori just informed them of.

“Because it’s on my rib cage and you guys have never seen me without my shirt on.”

“Not yet, anyway,” John smirked. I slapped his chest playfully, cursing myself for breaking out in giggles.

“Keep it in your pants, O’Callaghan.”

“You’re so lucky Halvo isn’t here,” Tori laughed. “He’d have a conniption hearing you say that.”

“Awe, little Emy-Wemy has a body guard,” Garrett gushed in a baby voice.

“Yeah I do, so I’d watch your back. I’ll send my bodyguard out to kick your ass.”

“Psh, I’m trained to fight off the zombie apocalypse. I think I could handle Eric Halvorsen’s scrawny ass.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him that.”

“So, what’s your tattoo of anyway?” Pat chirped, squeezing ketchup onto his burger.

“It’s a dandelion with its little seeds blowing off and breaking out into birds.”

“I wanna see!” John said, turning in his seat and facing me.

“Mm, I don’t think so,”

“Why won’t you show me?” He whined.

“Because.”

“Don’t make me have to look for it myself,” he warned.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I challenged. “That would involve lifting up my shirt to a precarious height.”

“Oh believe me, that will only entice him more,” Jared chimed in.

“If you don’t show me Emily, I will tackle you and find it myself.”

Before I even had a chance to respond, John grabbed my waist and started tickling me like crazy, his fingers moving against my very ticklish sides quickly.

“John,” I said through uncontrollable giggles, “Stop it!” I laughed through tears, my face turning red from laughing so much.

“Nope! Not tell you show me!”

I knew he wasn’t going to give up so I caved, lifting my hands up in surrender.

“Alright, alright, I’ll show! Just stop tickling me before I pee my pants.”

“That’s gross, Emy.”

“Well, I can’t help it! When someone makes me laugh for eight straight minutes, I have to pee. Not my fault.

“Stop stalling,” John smirked.

“Geez, pushy.” I started to lift up the side of my shirt but stopped when I got to just above my belly button.

“What are y-“

I took off running, jumping out of the plastic green chair I was sitting in and racing across the backyard.

“Hey! This was not part of the deal!” John yelled behind me, the sound of his feet chasing after me not far behind.

Before I knew it, I was being thrown over John’s shoulder like a bag of flower, my face right dangling precariously close to his butt.

“This is called manhandling!”

“You’re right; it is.”

“Put me down!” I laughed.

“No, I don’t think I will.”

I smacked his butt hard; he stumbled a bit, yelping out and making me scream as I thought he was going to drop me. I could everyone laughing from their seats where they were watching us.

“That wasn’t very nice.”

“I thought you liked it rough? Is big, bad John Ohh getting soft on me?”

“Cute, Em, real cute.”

John pulled me down from his shoulder, gently tossing me down onto the grass below. He straddled my hips, grabbing my wrists and pinning them down to the ground.

I smirked up at him. “I’m liking you from this view O’Callaghan.”

“Don’t distract me Daniels.”

“Me? I would never!”

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way being you show me or the hard way being I look and find it myself. And believe me, I’ll show a lot more skin If I have to look for it myself.”

“I can’t show you if my arms are pinned above my head, now can I?”

“If I let them go, do you promise not to pull some weird ninja shit and get out from under me?”

“Why would I ever want to get out from being under you?” I smirked.

He smirked back, a smile breaking out across his tanned face.

“You’re just full of sexual innuendos today aren’t you?”

“I’ve been hanging out with you too much.”

“You can never have too much John O’Callaghan.”

“Right. Now let me go so I can properly show you.”

John complied and realized my arms, watching me carefully to be sure I didn’t try to run. I pushed him off my lap and sat up, grabbing the end of my shirt and pulling it up to reveal the picture on my rib cage.

John reached up and traced the stem of the dandelion, up to the flower head and all the way out the birds. Small goose bumps broke out under his touch and he looked up at me though his thick eye lashes with a smirk on his lips.

“I think it’s cute.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded his head. “Is there a meaning behind it?”

“Two actually. I like the concept of a dandelion. They're weeds that everyone finds to be pests, but they’re also so beautiful. They start off as these simple, yellow flowers and over time become these beautiful white ones. They’re not perfect and sometimes, they can ruin all the other flowers , but you can’t help but love them. They aren’t your typical weed, ya know? There’s more to them; more substance. And I also love the whole thing about making a wish on them. I remember growing up, I’d pick hundreds and hundreds of them, making more wishes up than I could count to at the time. Now that I have it tattooed on myself, it’s like I’m walking with all my wishes and it’s my job to make them come true.”

“And what about the birds?” He asked, rubbing his finger over the four black animals.

“They each stand for the important people in my life. One for Tori, one for Eric, one for my grandma who I was really close to, and one for the future people that I’ll meet that will mean something to me and became important.”

“So, technically, I’m one these birds.”

I smiled, nodding my head, “Technically.”

He smiled at me, his eyes sinking into mine. “You’re something else Emily Daniels.”