I'm Dancing on the Ceiling

In my life, I have been on a total of three dates. One was with Toby Mayer, when I was 12. It turns out, after Toby stole my first kiss in the middle of Ice Age, that he was only taking me out and being nice to me because of a bet. The second was with a little ginger boy named, and I’m not joking about this, Ronnie Wesley. He was mocked constantly, when we were 14, because of his name. Everyone called him Ron Weasley and he never heard the end of it. We went out to the mall and to dinner, where afterwards the little stinker slipped his hand up my shirt as one of his friends took pictures. He became a legend after that. And my last date was with Gunnar Crawford, who was actually nice and who’s idea of romance was a trip to the space museum. I like him, a lot. He just didn’t return said feelings. We broke up after 3 months, 2 weeks and 5 days. Not that anyone was counting.

Based on my experiences, to say that I was nervous about my dinner with Alex Gaskarth would certainly be an understatement.

Dressed in bright blue shorts that didn’t even come to mid-thigh and a black Ravenclaw t-shirt, Time Turner hanging around my neck, I walked out of the studio before the rest of the guys had finished packing up their stuff. And ran straight into a well-dressed Alex Gaskarth.

“Hi,” he chuckled, instinctively grabbing my arm as I started to tip backwards.

“Thanks, Alex,” I said with a smile as we both headed for the front door.

“Are you always that clumsy or do you just keep falling for me?” he asked with a cheesy grin. I shook my head.

“You know, if you weren’t so cute, I’d have to hit you for saying that. But I don’t wanna damage your pretty face,” I said without thinking and pat his cheek before pushing the door open with my hip. I left him inside the lobby as I started walking down the pathway to the sideway.

“Come again?” he asked, catching up with me easily.

“You heard me, Gaskarth!” I tossed over my shoulder as I started walking left.

“Other way!” he called back. I turned around and walked past him as he chuckled. He didn’t follow immediately, which caused me to swing back around to face him, walking backwards.

“Are you coming or am I taking myself out tonight?” I asked with a suggestive wink. He started after me and as soon as he caught back up, began dancing around me.

“You think I’m cute!” he sang. I cocked an eyebrow at him and shook my head again.

“It’s a general consensus. And besides, your fan girls would hunt me down and cut me from nose to naval if you were harmed in any way. I don’t want that,” I replied.

He nodded and said nothing. He grabbed my hand though, and it was like a trapdoor in my stomach had been opened, thousands upon thousands of butterflies flitting around within my gut. It was amazing. I hadn’t even really felt like this, not really. Maybe it was just because Alex and All Time Low had gotten me through so much and given me so much hope and inspiration. But maybe, just maybe, I actually had found a decent guy who was gorgeous and sweet, and everything a girl could ask for.

But then again, that’s what Mason had been.

Upon thinking this, I pulled my hand from Alex’s and stuffed both my free hands into the small pockets of my shorts. Alex, being the man that he is, hid the disappointment, although not well. I couldn’t let myself get hurt like that. Not again. Not ever. I wouldn’t let myself fall to pieces and be so codependent that when he wasn’t there, I couldn’t even trust the floor to be there when I woke up first thing in the morning. I wouldn’t let myself be that little girl. And I couldn’t trust myself not to be that little girl with Alex.

“Here we are,” Alex finally said, gesturing to a small café to our right. I took a step back and took it in.

“The Geekery? Awww, Alex, you know me so well!” I grinned and he stepped forward to open the door.

“The Geekery, the only café and bakery within a thousand miles that caters specifically to the needs of nerds. They have all sorts of goodies. I just thought you’d like to feel at home in L.A., seeing as you are a long ways from home,” Alex said as we walked in.

“I don’t really have a home, to be honest,” I muttered as I looked around. It reminded me of a Panera Bread restaurant, except with sci-fi decorations and famous quotes from Star Wars and Star Trek and Doctor Who. I turned in circles, staring in wonder. It was amazing in here. There was a soft Chameleon Circuit song playing and the room buzzed with overall enjoyment. My eyes landed on the door to the back, which had been painted to look just like the TARDIS. I was in heaven.

“You have this place, I suppose. It seems to be perfect for you,” he chuckled. There was a cross stitch mounted on the wall of a little Chibi River from Firefly that said “I can kill you with my brain” in blue thread, hung up beside one with Yoda that said “Do or do not. There is no try” in orange and blue thread.

“This place is amazing, Alex. It’s a home away from home, except I don’t have a home. So I guess that makes this the primary home,” I rambled before turning to face the menu. There was all kinds of delicious options and in the glass case before us, there was an entire row of decorated cupcakes, some with Daleks and some with Chain Chomps, a few with little battle scenes from Star Wars and others with wands and potion bottles from Harry Potter. Several even had the element symbols from The Last Airbender.

“Thank you,” I said, turning to the singer beside me. Mason never would’ve done this for me, my brain thought while the rest of me still stood beside Alex in wonder. We ordered and had polite conversation. He paid and even bought my massively big coffee concoction of whipped cream, coffee and chocolate. It looked like a really fancy version of a Frappuccino or a Coolatta, only better. For the rest of the night, which consisted of us sitting in front of the X-Box in The Geekery’s “game station” and playing Portal, failing miserably while a crowd of nerds tried to direct us, I didn’t think a single thing about Mason. That’s how it should be. He was long gone and never coming back.