I Need You So Much Closer

“Do you want anything to eat or drink?” he asked, walking over to the fridge.

“No thanks, I don‘t want to intrude.”

“You‘re too polite. Seriously, what do you want?” he chuckled.

“Water is fine.” I mumbled. He handed it to me then sat down on a couch, which basically
just looked like a leather couch attached to a wall. I awkwardly stood, feeling out of place.

“Ally.” Nathan laughed, “Sit down.” he patted the spot next to him. I sat down and watched as he took a long drink of water. “I‘m sorry, I probably smell.” I shrugged. “What does that mean?” Nathan asked. I shrugged again, feeling myself blush. “I‘m the same Nathan you met yesterday.” he said quietly.

“I know…”

“So what‘s wrong?” he chuckled.

“I don’t know, I‘m still in shock!”

“Want me to explain?” he offered. I nodded, waiting for him to continue. “Well, our band‘s name is Allstar Weekend, we used to play in Zach‘s garage but we handed out flyers and it got in the hand of a producer and then boom, next thing we knew we were signed to Hollywood Records. We‘ve been together a good three years.”

“That would explain why you‘re not in college.” I laughed.

“Exactly, I didn‘t tell you because you didn‘t seem to know who I was and treated me normal. I knew you wanted to hang out with me because of me, not because I‘m Nathan Darmody from Allstar Weekend.”

I smiled, “I understand. I feel bad for not knowing who you are, some people would be pissed about that.”

“Don’t feel bad! I‘m going to change my shirt, I‘ll be right back.” he quickly stood up and walked to the back of the bus.

I looked out the window and saw someone that looked familiar, that someone being Joel from This Century. “Holy shit this is like band guy central!” I said to myself.

I stood up and moved to the other side of the bus, “Nathan! Joel Kanitz is outside of your bus!” I yelled, I glanced down the hallway and saw him pulling his shirt over his head. Oops. I quickly averted my eyes, feeling my face heat up. Abs much?

“This Century‘s bus is right next to ours, that‘s why.” he laughed. “You can go out there and say hi, he‘s really nice.”

“NO! I‘ll just make a fool out of myself and I don‘t want to seem creepy.”

“It‘s almost three, I have to meet this girl at our secret place.” Nathan smiled, walking up behind me, his hand found mine and he pulled me up off the couch so I was standing in front of him. “What did you want to do today?” he asked.

I shrugged, “I’d say surprise me, but nothing can surprise me more than what I found out a while ago. I wonder if they noticed us walking off…”

“They probably just assumed we got lost.” he winked. “There is one thing I want to do today, I meant to do it yesterday but we were rudely interrupted.” his eyes quickly flicked down to my lips, then met my eyes again. His arm wrapped around my waist, brining me up against him. I rested hands on his chest as my eyes were locked to his. His fingertips lightly brushed the front of my neck, I felt goose bumps appear everywhere, his hand rested on part of my face and neck and then he started leaning in. I closed my eyes as I felt myself lean into him, by this time I was begging for his lips to be on mine. I felt his warm breath on my face and our noses barely touched.

The bus door creaked open and my eyes shot open, Nathan looked at me and sighed, “Not again.” he put some distance between us as Cameron paraded up the few stairs, a smile on his face.

“Oops.” he laughed. “We thought maybe you two got lost again.”

“I wish.” Nathan rolled his eyes, “then we wouldn’t have to deal with you always interrupting us.” Nathan’s hand fell to the small of my back as we both turned to face Cameron. Soon everyone else piled onto the bus, even Claire.

“What are you two doing?” Zach asked.

“We were just leaving.” Nathan said casually. “We‘ll be back later, call me if you need anything.”

“Don‘t get lost.” Michael scoffed.

“We can‘t make any promises.” I laughed as I followed Nathan off the bus, Claire gave me a quick wave before the bus door shut.

Joel was still sitting outside his bus when Nathan and I got off. He looked at us and smiled, “Hey Nathan.” he greeted, then looked at me. I felt my heart start beating faster. The fan girl inside of me wanted to blurt out how much I loved his band.

“Hey man. This is Ally.”

“I‘m Joel.” he extended his arm out.

I shook it and smiled, “Nice to meet you, I‘m a big fan.”

“Well thank you. Where are you two headed?”

“I think we‘re gonna go get lunch.” Nathan responded.

“Careful, Solomon from Family Force Five stole a golf cart and is driving like a maniac, he purposely chased me around.” he warned.

We laughed and then said a quick goodbye as we walked off. “So where are we going for lunch?”

A smile appeared on his face, “They have a huge tent for the bands, how do you feel about eating with a bunch of smelly band guys?”

After eating lunch with various members of various bands, we took a walk around the bus ‘park’.

He kept mentioning that he wanted to get to know me better, so we talked nonstop. I told him I ran cross country and played soccer in high school, that I live in an apartment a few minutes from UCLA, that my birthday was October 9th, and everything else you need to know about someone. And then it was his turn. By the time we got back to their bus we’d been gone for four hours. Claire had to be home by 8, which left us a little less than an hour to get home.

“There you two are! We thought you got lost!” Claire exclaimed, she stood up from where she was sitting on the couch.

“Sorry, we got talking and lost track of time…” I smiled, feeling myself about to blush.

“Well, we have to go! My parents have that meeting tonight, which means I‘m stuck babysitting.” she sighed. “It was nice meeting you guys” she smiled and walked off the bus, I let her know that I’d be out in a minute.

“It was nice seeing you guys again.” I gave them a quick wave.

Nathan shot them a look and they all got up and headed to the back of the bus. “You always leave too soon. I can see you again, right?” he asked hopefully.

I nodded, “You have my number.” I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and quickly left the bus.

*** *** *** *** ***

The next day I was taking my usual morning run when my phone went off, I slowed to a jog and moved onto the grass, I stopped walking and pulled my phone out of my sports bra.

“Hello?” I gasped, out of breath.

“Is this a bad time?” the voice I recognized as Nathan laughed.

“I‘m sorry, who is this?” I asked in a teasing tone.

“Did you forget about me already?”

“Of course not.”

“You had me worried there. What are you up to?”

“Nothing really, I’m just in the middle of my run”

“Perfect timing, it‘ll give you time to rest.”

I put my free hand on top of my head, trying to get my breathing back to normal, “I guess you could look at it that way.”

“Are you free today?”

“I can make time, did you have something in mind?” I felt myself starting to flirt. Where did all of this courage come from?

“I was thinking we could see a movie.”

“That should work.” good thing he couldn’t see me, I was smiling like crazy. We quickly worked on the details and then I resumed my run.

*** *** *** *** ***

Since the guys were playing at a music festival, neither of them had cars there with them, so I was going to drive. A few minutes before I left I got a call from Nathan saying that he’s borrowing their managers car, he must really have wanted to drive. I set my keys back down and gave him my address, he said he’d use a GPS. Once he arrived I quickly ran, literally ran, down the stairs, I steadied my breathing and walked down the last flight of stairs to see Nathan waiting by the door with his hands in his pockets.

“You look beautiful.” he complimented me once I walked outside. I felt myself blush, I figured I’d dress casual, and I’m glad I did, because he did to. I stuck with a pair of jeans, gladiator sandals and a pink v-neck from Forever 21. Nathan was wearing black skinny jeans with a blue v-neck. My weakness. Oh boy.

“Thank you.” I smiled. He opened the car door for me and as soon as he climbed in we were off. “How was the show today?” I questioned, starting a conversation.

“Good, we‘ve had really good crowds this whole time. They all have been packed full of energy. How was your run?”

“Refreshing, I had a nice rest thanks to you.”

He laughed a little and his arm left the arm rest, picking up my hand off of my leg and laced his fingers with mine, setting his arm back on the arm rest.

I looked at our intertwined fingers and absorbed the tingling feeling that appeared in my hand. “I‘m sorry, does that bother you?” he asked when he noticed I was looking at our hands.

“No, it‘s fine. I like it.” I smiled.

“Me too, perfect fit, right?” he winked, then returned his attention back to the road.

“So I guess you took a real risk calling me from your personal phone, huh?” I asked, glancing over at him.

“Yeah, I figured you were worth it. And if for some reason you give it out and fans have it I can just change it…but I‘m trusting you not to give it out.” he winked.

“Don‘t give me a reason to give it out.” I smirked.

We made small talk the rest of the way, really there wasn’t too much left to talk about, we had talked for four hours yesterday, and a few more hours the day before. He ended up taking me to an old fashioned movie theater that only plays old black and white movies. We saw ‘Laurel and Hardy’ it was one of my favorite black and white movies. We got back into his car and decided to go to the beach. He was all worried that it was too typical and mainstream. I didn’t care, I loved the beach.

“So do you guys tour a lot?” I asked as we sat on the sand at the edge of the water.

“Lately, yeah, but, I don‘t know if it’s a lot, I think it’s…normal touring.” he laughed.

“Are you on all of Warped Tour?” I was nervous for his answer.

“Nope, just in LA, then we head back to San Diego, then who knows” I felt my heart sink.

I pushed aside my sad thoughts of him leaving LA and smiled, “That‘s awesome, at least you get time off.”

“Yeah, I really like being on the road though, seeing all of the fans that come out, I‘ve recognized some fans; they‘ve come to multiple shows. But sleeping in my own bed is always appreciated.”

I laughed and propped my knee’s up, resting my elbows on them, then resting my face on my hands. “I‘ve always loved the beach, I don‘t know what I‘d do if I lived away from the ocean. I bring Sam here all the time.”

“Tell me about Sam.” Nathan smiled.

“Where do I even begin? He‘s a hyper 5 year old…” I started, then continued to tell him about my brother, I truly loved that kid to death. We sat on the beach talking for an hour then headed back to my apartment. He insisted on walking me up to the door, and I’m glad he did.

“Thank you, for tonight. I had a lot of fun, as usual.” I smiled. I grabbed my key out of my purse and when I looked up Nathan’s lips where on mine. His hands were cupping my face, holding me there. It took everything I had not to drop the key in my hand. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back. Finally, we weren’t interrupted.

He pulled back a few seconds later and smiled, “About time I got that in.” I just smiled and nodded my head, speechless, “I‘ll call you later, goodnight.” he jogged back to his car as I unlocked the door and headed up the stairs to my room.