Easier To Lie

Mallory awoke to noise.

And lots of it.

First, in her groggy state, all she could hear were drums. Then, as she sat up and rubbed her eyes and tied her hair into a messy bun, she made out the guitar and the bass, and finally, the voice.

"Don't you dare, don't you ever give up, don't you ever give up oh whoa, whoa. Don't you dare, don't you ever give up, don't you ever give up on us, my dear."

She didn't care about the fact that her boyfriend was downstairs in the basement and how much she wanted to kiss him. She didn't care about the fact that she was wearing nothing but thin black leggings and a light gray tank top.

She just wanted food.

So she headed downstairs and towards the kitchen, noticing it was almost one o'clock. How much had she actually slept? Pushing the question away, she opened the cupboard and found the Twinkies that she had bought last week. She grabbed that box, along with the box of Cheez-Its, the bag of Limon Lays, and a juice pouch. She felt as if she was in third grade all over again, eating the lunch her mother had packed for her. Mallory knew all this bad food couldn't possibly be good for her in anyway, but it was all just so-

"Hungry?"

Mallory turned, mid-thought, to where the voice came from. In her rush to get food, she hadn't noticed the music had stopped. She came face to face with a tall, lanky, hazel eyed boy with a, "Haircut?" was all she could say.

He chuckled and nodded. "You like it?"

"I guess," she mumbled. Then she held on just a little tighter onto her food and started to make her way into the basement where she knew her beloved Garrett was.

"Well good morning to you too, Trotter!"

"What do you want, John?" she huffed in frustration and annoyance.

"I was just getting water for the guys, calm down."

She just rolled her eyes and continued walking, trying her best to balance all the food. With the bag of chips hanging from her mouth, the two boxes stacked on top of each other in her hands, and the juice pouch resting on top, she plopped into a recliner and started opening all of her food.

The guys just stared at her in awe. "I never knew a little girl could eat so much..." mumbled Jared.

"I really liked that song you guys were playing. Was it new?"

Kennedy smiled and nodded. "We might be able to perform it on TV!"

Mallory gasped and almost dropped the juice pouch. "Television? You guys might be on TV?!"

Kennedy smiled even bigger and nodded. She turned her eyes to Garrett and saw that he looked more than a little nervous. She decided to talk about it with him later, because at that moment, John walked back in with a box of water bottles.

Mallory just rolled her eyes and continued to eat. "Alright, here you guys go."

A chorus of, "Thanks, John!" rang out and he nodded.

"Which song's next?" Mallory questioned out of curiosity.

"Which song do you want us to play, baby?" asked Garrett.

Now it was John's turn to roll his eyes. He should have been the one calling her baby.

"Um...how about Listen To Your Heart?" Mallory said, "I really like that one," she added with a grin.

"Hey, Pat," said Jared suddenly, "Have you talked to Jay about the video?"

"You guys are making a video for Listen To Your Heart?" Mallory wondered aloud excitedly.

"It's just a bunch of videos from tour, but yeah!"

"And you're doing it with Jay O'Byrne?!"

Mallory loved Jay O'Byrne. He was one of her favorite photographers and she was excited to find out that her brother and the boys were working on a project with him.

"Yeah, yeah," John said, annoyed. "Let's just get on with this."

Mallory sat back, slightly stung. He had just ruined her happy moment. One should never ruin a pregnant woman's happy moment. But of course, John didn't know about the pregnant part. Yet.

Mallory was about to defend herself, but Garrett turned to and glared at John. And John noticed. "Dude, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Why are you being like that towards Mallory?"

"Um, guys it's not-" Mallory started to say, but John interrupted.

"Because she's a rude little slut is what she is!"

Pat and Jared's eyes widened. Garrett started to take deep, angry breaths and clenched his fists. Kennedy started to take the guitar off his body and set it down on the stand next to him.

Then suddenly, before anyone could comprehend what was happening, Kennedy was lunging at John.

"What the fuck did you just call my sister?!" Kennedy yelled.

"My girlfriend is not a slut!" defended Garrett.

Mallory just stared in shock as Kennedy and John went down onto the ground. They were both trying to throw punches at each other, and Kennedy got in about three. John managed one before Jared pulled them away from each other.

Both boys had bloody noses and were breathing heavily. Garrett and Kennedy were still angry from the looks of it. John was just as angry now.

"That's right! Your precious little Mallory is a slut! She's a whore!"

Garrett pressed both hands to John's chest and shoved him backwards.

"No! Why are you guys defending her?! Kennedy, you know why I'm calling her that. I bet she didn't even tell you about the second time!"

"The what? The second time?" Kennedy asked right as Garrett asked, "What is he taking about?"

"Mallory, you know exactly what I'm talking about," John spat.

She was just sitting there, mouth opened wide, still in shock.

"She kissed me! Okay, Garrett?"

Garrett's mouth dropped as well.

Now Mallory was furious. "John, that's not how it went and you know it! You kissed me! Both times!"

"You still kissed me back!"

Kennedy couldn't take it anymore. "You're such a dick, John! I thought you let it go! I can't believe you kissed her twice!"

"You kissed my fucking girlfriend?!"

"So everyone's going to take her side on this? Great!" He threw up his hands in exasperation.

Pat was starting to panic and it was evident. He started to wring his hands and he was biting his lip, hard. His eyes flickered back and forth between the three arguing boys and when he wasn't biting his lip, it was trembling. He looked like he was about to cry.

Jared looked extremely worried. Mallory was sure there had been fights before this, but she knew that these boys weren't used to violence.

So before the boys could break out their fists again, Mallory shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath, gathering the courage for what she was about to say.

"I'm pregnant!" she yelled.

And those words did what she knew they would.

Pat dropped his drum sticks. Jared and John both turned to her with eyebrows raised and mouths open into identical O shapes.

Kennedy and Garrett looked at each other with surprise. They weren't expecting it at all.

But then John, Pat, and Jared all turned to Garrett. They thought it was his baby.

"It's not Garrett's baby," Mallory said with a sigh.

"So she is a slut!" John remarked.

Mallory was fed up. Here she was making an announcement about one of the most important things in her life, and John took the opportunity to shoot her down.

So she got up and abandoned all her food. She walked towards him and smiled a small smile. Then she brought up her hand and slapped him across the face.

"You're a dick, John Ohh. Stay away from me. And get your stories straight."