Falling In Love Alone

"Stella, pick up your room. Chayse, Abby, and Alex are coming over."

I sighed and set my book on the bed, pushing myself up onto my elbows. Alex was coming over? I was fine with Chayse and Abby; they were practically my sisters. But Alex? I might as well be wearing only underwear and a bra around him for as embarrassed as I get. I swung my legs off the bed and stood up, swaying in place for a few seconds as the dizziness of getting up quickly went away. I walked around and threw the few things that were on my floor under my bed.

My room was usually not that bad, but one little piece of trash would set my mom on a rampage saying that the room needed to be spotless before anyone came over. The only people that ever came over were Abby, who’s more of a slob than I am, and teenage boys. It’s not like they cared. But I do it anyway. I’m kind of a goodie two shoes when it comes to my parents. They know nothing of what I actually think about. That consists of boys, sex, music, sex, writing, sex, drugs, sex, alcohol, sex, and sex. Did I mention sex? Well, I’m a teenager. What else am I supposed to think about, pie? Oh, pie. I could think about pie all day... What was I saying? Oh, yeah.

“STELLA, I CAN’T HEAR MY VOICE, TURN YOUR MUSIC UP!” I smiled when I heard that wonderful voice come from Jack’s room.

I stuck my head out of my bedroom door and grinned at him, “Say it with the accent or get the fuck out.”

He glared at me, flipping me off. “You fucking suck.” He laughed and his voice changed to that of his British accent. “Stella,” him just saying my name in that gorgeous voice gave me chills, “my voice is not being heard. Could you please increase the volume of your music?”

I clapped and he rolled his eyes at me, walking straight into my room and blasting the volume of his and Jack’s band’s song Jasey Rae. “You’re lucky my thongs are in my drawer.”

“You call that lucky?” He looked at me, a smirk playing on his lips. The smirk that always seemed to give me goosebumps. He always used it when he inadvertently flirted with me. Well, what I guessed was inadvertently. He probably did it to make me fall more in love with him. I bit my lip, but couldn’t look away. His eyes met mine and he revealed his teeth. I tried so hard not to smile, but the way he looked at me made me want to rip my clothes off. I mean, what?

“Stop eye fucking my sister and get over here, Alex. Band practice.” Alex looked away and I looked at my shoes. My cheeks were probably cherries.

“Want to come watch us?” He looked back at me and I looked up, hoping the color had drained from my cheeks.

“I don’t want to distract you,” I tried to put on a confident grin, and it seemed to work.

He laughed and shrugged, “I’d rather have you distract me than Chayse and her head banging.” (“I heard that!”) “Plus, Abby’s on her way over. Her and Zack are going to be making googly eyes at each other the whole time anyway.”

Zack and Abby weren’t dating. But they both liked each other. And both knew. Neither of them just hasn’t gotten up the guts to ask the other out yet. So they make googly eyes at each other on a daily basis.

I laughed and nodded, smiling, “Yeah, I’ll be down there in a few. Save me a bean bag.” He nodded and walked out, turning the corner and going downstairs to the basement.

Great, now I had to look cute. I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and let it fall to my shoulders. It always looked better down. I walked into my bathroom and made some quick make up fixes. After I no longer looked like a pile of cow manure, I grabbed a pillow off my bed and jogged down to the basement.

"Out of my seat, bro." I stood over Alex as he sat in my favorite purple bean bag.

"There's one right over there. I made sure no one sat in it." He gestured the puke green little ball of fluff that sat next to the couch.

"Fuck you. Get up. My house, my chair." He rolled his eyes and stood up, getting really close to my face.

My throat closed up and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped. He looked me in the eyes, "Maybe later we can share it." He smirked and walked past me, picking up his guitar from the stand.

I stood there for a second, not being able to move. I finally was shaken from my thoughts and kicked the sack next to the couch and sat down. I looked up at Abby, who was in her normal space on the couch. I whispered her name, making sure all the guys' backs were turned. She looked at me and whispered back, "What?"

Alex turned around and smiled at me. I bit my lip and shook my head, "Never mind. I'll tell you later." She looked at me weird then followed my gaze, which landed upon Alex trying to tune his guitar.

"Ah, okay. I gotcha." I nodded.

For the rest of the day, the guys performed for us. Alex and I made eye contact for most of it, which I couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing. I mean, we'd flirted before, on many occasions. But today was just... he gave me a lot more butterflies than usual. I usually hated the feeling of my stomach being uneasy. But the butterflies were more like that feeling that something good was going to happen, rather than I wish we could be more than friends.

"Who wants to go party?" The guys were putting away all their instruments. I was playing with the guitar pick Alex threw at me when they played The Girl's a Straight Up Hustler. We all looked at Alex like he was crazy. All the guys were sweaty and gross. Abby and I were planning on going to the movies to throw popcorn at strangers and get kicked out. "Come on, guys. It's just a little house party. Right down the street."

I looked at Abby and shrugged. It didn't seem like such a bad idea. "I'm in." Everyone else agreed and followed me upstairs.

"Be ready in thirty minutes. I'll be back with the truck." Alex waved and walked out the front door, getting in his truck and driving back to his house.

Abby followed me into my room and as soon as the door was shut and locked she was in my closet, looking for an outfit. "Get your own damn clothes, whore."

"I will. I'm finding an outfit for you. Something that Alex won't be able to resist." I rolled my eyes as I sat on my bed. I wasn't much for parties, but I felt like tonight was going to be fun. The butterflies in my stomach were still telling me something good was going to happen.