This Four Leaf Clover Is All but Useless Now

It was hot. Really hot. Annabelle stepped off the bus and already felt sweaty, tired, and thirsty.
“Alex” She whined, “Houston’s hot!”
Alex jumped from the bus, and swept his sunglasses onto his face, “Just like you.” He bent down and kissed her. Even though the climate had slipped above comfortable, Annabelle was still enjoying her time in the south. She had never left Maryland, and the desert landscape with the proper southern accents was exciting and new.
“Can we go visit Sugar Land?” She asked Alex, their hands were linked, but neither of them minded the sweat building up in their palms.
“There’s nothing out there!”
On the way through to the city Annabelle noticed an exit to somewhere called Sugar Land. She became so excited by it, that Alex made a shallow promise to go there with her.
“Is it, like a place, or, like a theme park, or what?”
Alex wrapped an arm around her, and breathed into her hair. “I don’t know!” He poked at her sides playfully and she squirmed away.
“Hey, where’s Rian and Kara?”
Alex shrugged, “Kara probably had to re-dress Rian.” Alex chuckled, Annabelle smiled. Rian had some strange fashion choices, and Annabelle never commented because she felt that it was inappropriate of her, but she was glad Kara had him under control.
“No, Rian! You know you can’t wear brown loafers with trackpants - especially grey ones!” Kara appeared, dragging, a now public-worthy, Rian.
“Seriously, dude, even I know that’s a bad clothing decision...” Alex raised his eyebrows at him.
“It was comfy!” Rian complained. “Hey, are Jack or Zack coming?”
“Nah, they left ages ago.” Alex replied, glancing at his watch.
“Oh!” Kara exclaimed, “We’re like a double-date! How cute!”
Annabelle giggled and Alex and Rian rolled their eyes at each other.
“Hey...” Annabelle turned around to see Greasy Gavin approaching, squinting at the sun. The boys grunted a hello. Gavin’s eyes lingered on Annabelle. She smiled warily.
“Mind if I tag along?”
Kara shot Rian a look and he made a face while Gavin wasn’t looking.
“Yeah!”
“Sure.”
“Of course.”
They all chimed at once. Gavin smiled slightly. “So...Uh, where are we off to?”
“Uhm, we’re undecided. Any ideas?”
Annabelle suddenly renewed her excitement and bounced up and down. “SUGAR. LAND. SUGAR. LAND. SUGAR. LAND!”
Alex grabbed her mid air and pressed her head into his chest until she was muffled and giggling and feebly slapping him.
Gavin’s smile broadened. “Sugar Land sounds good.”

***

Forty-five minutes later they had made it to the outskirts of Houston, pulled off a freeway, into a nondescript suburban street.
“This looks sucky.” Kara sulked upon stepping out of the cab.
Rian followed, “Yeah I was expecting more sugar-”
“Less land” Alex finished. Annabelle sniffed as the taxi pulled away.
“Don’t get down-hearted!” She grinned, “We’ll find sugar in this land!” And she proceeded to grab Alex’s arm and drag him along the road.
“I’m being kidnapped!” He cried jokingly.
Annabelle glared at him, her face grim.
“Sorry, ma’am.” He bowed his head and fell into step with her.

Annabelle looked around, having lost sight of Gavin, Kara, and Rian, to gain her bearings. She noticed a bank of land to her left and tugged at Alex’s sleeve. 
“Look! A lake!” The stumbled across a sheered lawn to a manufactured lake. He laughed at her excitement and pretended to push her in, catching her at the last moment. They fell onto the grass together and he leaned in to kiss her.
“Hey!” They jerked apart, catching sight of an middle-aged man waving angrily at them, stumbling across the grass that they had just ran across. “Hey!”
Annabelle pulled Alex up and he began to sprint away, his girlfriend in tow.
“Shouldn’t we ask him what was wrong?” Annabelle wondered, giggling and breathless.
“Nah.” Alex wrapped an arm around her waist. “We were on his property.”
Annabelle took a moment to process what he said, as she was engrossed in watching sweat bead on his forehead, she licked her lips.
“Huh?”
“I noticed that you bi-passed a humble mailbox in our mad dash to the lake.”
Annabelle opened her mouth to say something but he cut her off.
“Wait.” He paused, and she stared at him, confused. They were on a main shopping stretch. “This way!”
He began to walk briskly forward, Annabelle trying to keep up with his long paces. He suddenly stopped again, at the sound of a tiny chime. He fished his phone out of his shorts and laughed at it.
“What?” Annabelle asked.
“Rian says: ‘I can’t believe you left us with Gavin! We wanted to make out on the bank of this lake we found!’” Alex chuckled. “Haha, sucker.”
He closed his phone without replying, and grabbed Annabelle’s hand once more, continuing the fast pace. “Where are we going, crazy?”
They stopped once again, Alex turned to face the building they were outside of, his face breaking into a grin. He beamed down at her.
“Ramen!”

Alex sent a victory text to Rian, explaining happily that he was slurping his favourite noodley dish. Annabelle was so compliant, unwilling to ruin the good, albeit hot and sweaty, vibe, that she even tasted the dish in front of Alex. After he finished, Alex grabbed his phone once again.
“Oh god.” He said, then read the text to Annabelle, “‘I’ve got better news, bra. Kara found an ice-skating rink. Get your ass over here!’” He looked up, Annabelle was nodding, a huge grin spread across her face, “No.” She continued to nod. “No. No. No.”
“Yes, yes, yes!” She exclaimed. “Yay! Where is it? Let’s go.”
“Oh dear Lord, Jesus H. Christ.” Alex muttered. “Really, Belle?”
She giggled, “Yes.” Suddenly her face fell to a more seductive smile. “By the way,” she smirked, “you’ve got a little something on your face - here, let me get it for you.”
She leaned over the table and kissed him softly on the lips, her eyes open, watching his reaction. His mouth pulled into a smile.
“Okay.” He gave her a cheeky look, “only if I get to bang you SO hard tonight... as payback.”
“Alex!” Annabelle cried, slightly embarrassed, she looked around, lowering her voice. “Though I doubt I’ll see it as payback.” She winked.
“Oh dear God, you turn me on.”
“Stop talking dirty to me in a restaurant” She laughed, not minding one bit, continuing jokingly, “and leave God out of this!”
“Amen.” Alex glanced at the ceiling. Annabelle shook her head in faux disapproval.
“Let’s go skatiiinggg!”

***

Kara and Rian were already inside, getting skates on, when Annabelle and Alex arrived.
“Hey! It’s the A Team!” Kara cried a happy greeting and then giggled at herself, “See what I did there?” She looked around, waiting for laughter, “Because...both their names start with ‘A’...?”
“Yes, sweetie, it was very clever of you.” Rian teetered up to her on the blades, kissing her cheek. She slapped him playfully.
“See you on the ice!” She called as they tottered, hand in hand, towards the rink, giggling as they went.
“They are too cute to function.” Annabelle stared at them as they left. Alex nodded solemnly.
“Alright!” He said, snapping out of it. “Let’s go get some skates!”
“Warning: I have not skated in years.” Annabelle laughed.
“Don’t worry,” He looked at her. “I’ve only skated once.” An image of him and Lisa stumbling around on a rink in New York flashed through his mind. Wrapped in scarves and coats they fell over each other trying to learn how to skate. He brushed it away, smiling as he felt the warmth radiating from Annabelle’s hand into his. Lisa was not allowed in his brain. They grabbed their ice skates and he grabbed Annabelle’s hand as he felt her reach into her bag for her purse.

“I’m the rich and famous rockstar, and you’re my girlfriend. You don’t have to pay for shit.” He grinned cockily down at her. She shrugged. 

“Awesome.” She kissed his cheek and flopped onto a chair to tie her skates on. He sat beside her and they tied their shoes on in silence.
“Yay! Lets go!” She said, standing up and wobbling slightly, he steadied her from his seated position.

Kara and Rian were skating in large circles, hand in hand, when Alex and Annabelle stepped onto the ice. Annabelle held his hand as he wobbled to the barrier, helping him balance, but she was itching to try out her old moves. Naturally, being a ballet dancer meant that she was pretty good at ice skating. There was a rink near her old house, one of the many escapes of her mother, so she used to practice there. Alex let go of her hand and grasped onto the barrier, standing up properly. He started making tentative skating motions, one hand clutching the railing. Annabelle laughed and then skated away. Alex looked up in awe as she twirled around on the nearly empty rink, she skated a circle backwards around Rian and Kara, causing them to break out of their lovey-dovey couple time.
“Wow!” Kara enthused. “Look at you go!”
"Hey, where's Gavin?" Annabelle suddenly realised the creepy frontman was not here.
"He said he had 'business' to attend to..." Rian shrugged.
"In Sugar Land?" Alex asked from the barrier. The couple shrugged.
"Weird." Annabelle laughed, but went back to skimming along the ice.
Annabelle lifted a leg, letting herself slide into a perfect arabesque, her fingers reaching out to Alex who was watching, jaw-dropped. He laughed disbelievingly as she glided past, her fingers grazing his chest.
“And you said you were bad!” Alex complained, still skating slowly around the barrier. He was feeling a little bit left out and wished he had the skill to join her. 

“No. I said I hadn’t skated in years.” She teased, her hands behind her back as she floated around.

She picked up one foot and let herself spin around, her world blurring in a glorious way. She instantly regretted it. As she slowed down, stopping to face Alex, he started to lean sideways, the whole room; sideways. She slipped down, her vision fading.
“Annabelle!” Alex cried. He pushed himself from the barrier, making hasty skating motions, until he slipped and skated on his stomach towards her. He gathered her up in his arms as Kara and Rian glided over.
“What happened?” Kara asked. He ignored the question as he tried to rouse the thin girl. A rink official ran onto the ice.
“Did she faint?” He asked. Alex shrugged, nodding. He tried to pick her up, but he couldn’t with the blasted skates on. The employee took her from him and jogged, annoyingly sure-footed, to the sidelines and to a first-aid station. He lay her on a bed and started talking loudly at her. Alex managed to get to the sidelines, and walked to the first-aid area, nearly falling over again.
He grasped her hand as she woke up, he watched her eyes, large and frightened darting around.
“What’s her name?!”
“Annabelle!”
“Annabelle, Annabelle, sweetie, talk to me - what day is it?”
She stayed silent, her mind whirring, where was she? who was this man? Suddenly everything fell back into place in her brain.
“Uhm, Thursday-?” She asked.
“She probably doesn’t know- we’re on tour.”
“What band is he in?” The rink-man asked her.
“All Time Low.” She replied, focusing on her gorgeous boyfriend.
“Are you?” The man asked, and Alex nodded. “Okay. Now Annabelle, you have to lie down for a little bit. How are you feeling? I’m just going to put your legs up, can you raise your legs for me?”
He pushed a bolster underneath her knees. 
“Okay, how’s that?”
Annabelle nodded, her head starting to clear. Her temples were throbbing. Alex sighed, stroking her thumb gently. The damn girl needed to eat more. First vertigo, now fainting? Alex didn’t know what to do with her. He’d have to get her to eat more. But how?