Your Way With Words Is Through Silence

“Nicole, Marissa, these are my friends.” Tyler said as he gestured to the group of guys standing infront of us. As Tyler walked over towards them I grabbed his arm, pulling him back while he chuckled.

“Thanks for mentioning that you’re friends with my favorite band!” I half-whispered to him.

“Did I mention that I’m friends with your favorite band?”

“You suck.” he chuckled after I playfully smacked him in the chest while Marissa rolled her eyes.

“So are you going to introduce us to your friends or not?” Jeremy asked while looking at Marissa and I. I suddenly felt self-conscious about myself.

“I don’t know, do I even have to?” Tyler asked while looking at me with a smirk on his face. A Day to Remember looked at Tyler with confused looks on their faces. Marissa bursted out laughing, which made them even more confused.

“What’s going on?” Kevin finally asked and I couldn’t help but smile.

“I figured that I wouldn’t have to because Nicole knows all of your names already, don’t you? I think Marissa does too!” Tyler responded while gesturing to each of us when he said our names and I felt a blush creeping upon my cheeks, Marissa laughed again.

“You guys are fans?” Alex asked excitedly.

“Wait a second…” Neil said while looking at me. I was confused until a saw his eyes wander to my wrist. Before I could cross my arms to hide my wristband he had a gentle but strong grip on my arm.

“Neil! Let go!” I yelled, unsuccessfully holding in a laugh. I could hear everyone else laughing too, but Jeremy’s laugh stood out from the group.

“Aha!” he exclaimed triumphantly after he got the bracelet off my wrist. He looked at it for a minute then smiled.

“Yup, they’re fans!” he said while holding up my black and white rubber bracelet to show the rest of his band mates.

“Bring the noise! My favorite bracelet!” Josh said as he gave me a high five. As I went to pull my hand back Neil grabbed my wrist again and put my wristband back on.

“You have a Blink-182 bracelet?! I like this girl!” he announced and I could feel my face turning red. Everyone but Jeremy laughed; he flashed his perfect white teeth when I looked over at him which made me smile back.

“I think we should all go back to my hotel room and chill.” Tyler suggested.

“We should stop and get beer first!” Josh added in.

“I bought some earlier today because I knew I would be hanging out with you guys before I left.”

“Well okay then! Let’s go!”

We all started walking back to where Tyler was staying which was the same direction where Marissa and I came from. Everyone was talking, but Jeremy was quiet unless someone spoke to him directly. I walked over to him, leaving my spot from in between Kevin and Neil.

“Hey.” I casually said to him. I could feel butterflies in my stomach and my heart beat faster as I waited for him to answer, but he never looked up from his phone. I sighed and kept walking.

“Did you say something?” he asked after putting his phone in his pocket.

“No, I was just talking to myself.”

“It’s possible.”

“I don’t have full blown conversations with myself, I’d be in a special place for that if I did.”

“True.” he chuckled and I couldn’t help but smile a little.

“So how old are you?”

“Twenty two. You?”

“You should know the answer to that.” he responded with a smirk on his face. He seems to smirk a lot, which drives me insane….in a good way.

“Haha, you’re a comedian. Do you want to at least be polite and answer my question?”

“Nope.” he answered while popping the p. I sighed and shook my head then walked over to where Alex was.

We got to the hotel and it turns out that it’s the same one we’re staying at. We went up to his room and it wasn’t as big as ours since he’s the only one staying here.

“Where’s the beer?” was the first thing Neil asked when we got back to the hotel room.

“It’s in the fridge, Tom Denney.” Tyler replied as everyone walked inside and sat on the couches. Marissa and I started laughing hysterically.

“You guys actually got the Tom Denney reference?” Neil asked while taking a beer from the mini fridge, opening the can then taking a sip. We nodded after we stopped laughing.

“Those studio update videos were hilarious.”

“They were fun to make.” Jeremy added in. I didn’t realize he sat next to me until I heard him speak. I could smell him from where I was sitting, he smelt like the really good kind of cologne that you smell in some stores and you never want to stop sniffing it.

Tyler got up from his spot on the other couch and went into his room, coming back with his Macbook in his hands. He put it down on the coffee table and opened up his iTunes.

“Nicole pick a song.”

“Uh, alright.” I sat up on the couch and scrolled through his iTunes, stopping on “Feeling This” by Blink-182, knowing Neil would definitely appreciate this song.

“I knew this girl was my favorite!” Neil practically squealed as he sat down on my right, causing everyone to laugh, except for Jeremy again. Why is he so quiet?

We spent the next few hours talking, listening to music, and we even watched the Hangover, mine and Neil’s favorite movie.

“I married a whore!”

“Hey, she’s a nice lady!!” I finished what Neil was about to say and we were both laughing hysterically.

“We watched the movie an hour and a half ago, and you guys are still quoting it.” Kevin stated while shaking his head.

“Yup!” we said in unison.

“I don’t mean to sound like an old man or something guys but I need to go to bed, I’m leaving early tomorrow to go back to California.” Tyler said after noticing that it’s almost 11pm.

“Alright, where can we go now?” Josh asked out loud.

“We’re staying in a room on the next floor, we could go there?” I answered his question with a question, something I do frequently.

“Let’s go!”

We all said our goodbyes to Tyler, Marissa and I even exchanged numbers with him. We went up to our hotel room and sat in the living room again. The couch was made for three people to sit on, but I was in the middle with Jeremy on my right, Neil on my left and Kevin next to him. Marissa, Alex, and Josh sat on the other couch.

“Now what?” I asked out loud, earning a chorus of “I don’t know” and some shrugs.

“I guess I’ll go look in my room for something to do.” I squeezed my way out of my spot on the couch and walked to my room. I started digging through my suitcase, since there was some stuff that I didn’t bother unpacking.

“This hotel is nice.”

I jumped up from kneeling on the floor, knocking my suitcase off the bed. I started picking my t-shirts that fell out of my suitcase from my floor when I saw Jeremy helping me.

“Nice shirt.” he smirked while holding up one of my shirts.

“Shut up, you know I’m a fan of your band.” I said while snatching the shirt from him and refolding it before putting it back in my suitcase.

“Yeah I know, I just like hearing you say it.” I looked up at him and saw him smirk again.

“Stop smirking like that.”

“You know you like it.”

“Mhm, right. Don’t be so full of yourself Mr. McKinnon.”

“Oh but I am, Ms. Yazzetti.” he got up from my floor and held his hand out. I grabbed them and he pulled me up, causing me to slam into him and a giggle escaped my lips. I blushed and he smirked again.

“Did you just giggle?”

“No.” I answered right away. “It was just one of those care free laughs that you can use infront of people you’re comfortable with.” I realized I was uncomfortably close to him so I took a few steps back.

“So you’re comfortable around me?” he asked while taking a step closer.

I swallowed the lump that forming in my throat. Me comfortable infront of Jeremy McKinnon?

I wish.

“Are you?” he asked again, taking another step closer, his face inches away from mine.

“Yeah, I am.” I smirked, suddenly feeling confident. “Why are you asking?”

“I want you to prove that you’re comfortable around me.”

“How?”

“By hanging out with me all day tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

“Good, now let’s go back to everyone else now, shall we?” I nodded and exited my room, I could feel him walking behind me.

Suddenly I didn’t feel so confident anymore.