Thank You for Saving Me

[Jack’s P.O.V.]

I high fived Rian when we got backstage.

“Fuckin awesome! I love the buzz, man.”

Kara popped up, hugging Rian and Stella was behind her. She walked over to me and I met her, swinging my guitar around to my back.

“I’m proud of you, Sir.”

“Well, thank you.” I bowed toward her. “But you know I saw you staring at me again.”

She rolled her eyes, hiding her face a bit.

“No, no. Don’t be ashamed.” I pulled her hand down gently. “I know I’m sexy.”

Her eyes widened. “Whatever. And who told you that?”

“You did, silly.”

She shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”

“Ohh. But you will.”

She laughed and I laughed with him.

“Hey Stella!” Alex yelled.

Stella turned around and Alex shook his wet, sweaty hair like a dog all over her. She ran behind me to try to dodge it.

“I’m gonna kick your ass, Alex.” She yelled.

“Baby! Baby, eww. Stop that.” Kate protested with her squeaky, baby voice. Alex turned to embrace her in a hug and she turned away in a huff.

Alex just shrugged. “Let’s get this shit packed up, so we can go party.”

We got our things off stage quickly and because we came in a limo, Goddard allowed us to pick it up as soon as we could after tonight.

We were walking out to the limo when I realized we didn’t have Zack. I pulled my phone out to call him. He answered on the third ring.

“What’s up?”

“What’s up is that we’re about to leave without you.” I heard a girl’s voice in the background.

“I’m gonna hang out with Zoey, but I’ll meet up with yall soon. Just text me if you need me, but don’t wait up.”

He hung up after that. Stella looked up at me.

“Where’s he?”

“With a Zoey…Zoey whatsherface, maybe?” I scratched my head, trying to remember her last name.

“Zoey Stone?” Stella guessed.

“Maybe.”

“Aww, I don’t really know her, but she seems really cute. Way to go, Zachary.”

I smiled at her. “Get in the limo, silly girl.”

She stuck her tongue out at me before sliding in.

*****

“IHOP!” I yelled. Stella busted out laughing.

We were thinking of places to eat as our chauffeur drove us down the road. Ihop just popped in my head.

“I love pancakes!” Stella said after gaining back her breath.

“Aww, good idea, Jack!” Kara agreed.

“Ihop, it is.” The chauffeur responded.

When we got there, I was given this buzzer device and was told the wait would
be about 15-20 minutes. I walked back outside with the rest of the group. Rian and Kara were sitting on a bench together. Alex was comforting Kate, who was pouting again. Stel was sitting on the edge of the bench that Rian and Kara were on, her back facing the opposite direction.

I walked over to her. “Stand up.”

She gave me a goofy look, but stood up anyway.

“Woohoo! I successfully stole your seat.”

She wrinkled her nose at me. “Well, fine then. I’ll just find my own seat.”

She turned to walk away, but I quickly popped up and grabbed her waist.

“Nun uh. There’s still room for you here.” I sat down again, pulling her onto my lap.

She giggled, but wrapped her right arm around my neck. “Hey, yeah. This seat is comfortable.”

I nodded my head in agreement and found myself staring into her soft brown eyes.

“How did I get so lucky?” I breathed to her. “How did I get to share this night with someone so beautiful?”

She blushed, looking away for a few seconds, but then she looked right back at me.

Her left hand moved my bangs out of my eyes. “No way. I’m the lucky one.” Her head turned and scooped down, our lips meeting.

Kissing her always made my heart jump.

All of the sudden, there was a buzz and we both jumped.

Stella hopped off my lap and Alex started cracking up, laughing. “Save that for later, animals.”

I knew how badly Stella wanted to hide her face, but instead, she grabbed my hand as we walked inside to get our table.