Forget It All

I couldn't concentrate.

My eyes constantly wandered over to him, my heart pounding in the process. I would bite my lip, look down and avoid conversation all because of him.

And it was driving me fucking insane.

"Hey! You're here already!" John cheered as he walked onto the bus, grinning like an idiot.

Kennedy peered down at his watch. "Two minutes to bus call. You make great time."

My brother shrugged and plopped down on the couch next to me, resting his arms out on top. "I know what I'm doing." He smirked and I rolled my eyes.

I could smell the stench of liquor on John. I held in my gag and turned my attention to Pat who sat on the other side of me. It was just about eleven thirty and the bus was suppose to be leaving at any moment. I was wide awake for whatever reason, but I resented it. What was I suppose to do all night?

"So," John sucked in a breath, leaning forward. "video games?"

It was unanimous- the guys agreed and quickly shifted to the couch opposite of me and turned their attention towards the flat screen television in the corner. Controllers were distributed as I sat down on the floor next to Kenny. Not everyone could play at once so Kenny decided on waiting until his turn was available.

"June?" Jared held out a controller to me.

John snorted and then scoffed. "It's June. She never played with us, remember?"

I sighed. "No thanks Jared."

"You sure?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah. Maybe later."

The next half hour was devoted to the five guys screaming at the television. It was entertaining to watch- that was for sure. I remembered back in high school when we would sit in Garrett's basement and they would do the same thing. I would pleasantly sit and watch, laughing and occasionally making jokes or comments.

Of course then, whenever Garrett wasn't playing he would take a seat next to me and talk. This time though? Of course not.

I was getting a little anxious watching though. I knew for sure I could knock Pat out right away in this game. He was clearly making many errors. And John? Sure he was good, but I knew I had gotten better.

I stifled a smile as their round ended and I voiced my opinion. They were switching controllers with each other when I spoke up, "Can I play?"

John looked over at me, cocking an eyebrow. "Really?"

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

I noticed Garrett holding in a smile. He then laughed. "Do you even know how to play?"

This time I didn't get nervous when his eyes settled on me, or when his voice was directed at me. This time I was angry. He was treating my like a child.

"It can't be that hard." I said. Jared tossed me a controller and I caught it, smirking at Garrett. He looked slightly concerned, but then ignored me and turned his attention back to the screen.

It was me, Garrett, John and Pat playing. I knew for sure my first target was Pat- it was just to easy and sure, I pitied him, but I was here to win. I found him quickly and shot him, holding in a smile.

"Hey!" He yelled then pouted.

"Sorry Pat!" I cringed and then laughed.

"She just killed you?" Garrett asked Pat.

I ignored them, now searching for my brother. I ran around, occasionally hiding behind dark objects. I wasn't sure what game we were playing, but there was a lot of downtime at college and I just so happened to live on a co-ed floor filled with guys who loved video games. I had my fair share of practicing with shooting games this year. If anything, they were sort of my newly founded forte.

I finally found John, biting my lip, I slipped behind what appeared to be a bush and scanned in. He was mindlessly creeping behind a destroyed and smoking, beat down car. I carefully pressed the button causing a bullet to shoot out of my machine gun, causing a loud shot and shooting John directly in the back.

"What!?!" John shrieked, eyes wide. His head whipped towards me, but I wasn't paying attention.

I had to find Garrett. I quickly shot at other targets and what I think were zombies but couldn't quite find him. I knew he was the expert gamer here. He knew what the hell he was doing in these games. He was the challenge.

I didn't hesitate the minute I saw his avatar running across the screen. I shot aimlessly at him, an intense, frantic, adrenaline filling my stomach. Unfortunately, I missed, causing Garrett to most likely see me. I took cover behind something and scanned my screen for him. Going out on a limb, I quickly ran towards a destroyed and burnt down building. I hid in there for about two minutes before going back out and searching.

I once again immediately found him. This time I steadied myself and got a better aim, crouching behind once again, another bush. I zoomed in making sure I had a good hit. I hit the controller's button and before I knew it 'Winner' was flashing across my screen.

The guy's cheered and Kenny took hold of my shoulder's shaking me back and forth. Pat jumped on me, yelling and I knew at any moment Rat Boy was probably going to make an appearance, but I remained calm, just lightly laughing and smiling at my victory.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!" Pat yelled. "YOU BEAT GARRETT!"

I shrugged and glanced up at my brother. He was shaking his head, his lips slightly parted. "What the fuck? When did you learn to play?"

"Believe it or not, there's a lot of down time in college. Also, almost every room in my dorm had an Xbox, so...."

"That was amazing!" Kenny laughed and Jared reached over, ruffling my hair.

I looked over at Garrett and smirked. He sat there, his controller resting in his lap, a light, almost proud and knowing smile across his lips. For a second I got caught up in his appearance. His new, dark brown reddish hair, his tattoos, his electrifying blue eyes and that damn, signature smile of his. I had to catch my breath and look away from him before loosing myself all together.

Jared, Pat and Kenny wanted to play with me, which I gladly accepted. This time though, I only managed to kill Pat and Kennedy. Jared ended up shooting me before I could even find me. Despite this, we celebrated and then all calmed down.

"Movie?" John asked, getting up and moving towards the cabinet underneath the television. At that moment, the moving bus shook lightly, causing John to fall onto the couch opposite of us.

"'Shit," He laughed. "that could have been bad."

He got up again and opened the cabinet, looking through the movies they had available. "Hmmmm," He browsed and then his eyes lit up. He held up a DVD, his eyes gleaming. "I haven't watched this in forever. It's a classic! How about it?"

I froze upon eyeing the case of the DVD. The Exorcist. I bit down on my lip and my throat grew tight. Although I had changed a lot over this past year I still had one immense fear and that was of course, horror movies.

I'm sure John figures I got over this fear. I mean, I going on twenty years old. Still, I was fucking scared and had no desire to watch a horror movie.

Different excuses ran throughout my mind. I settled on that I was going to sleep. It was around one in the morning anyway. But, John would be crushed. He set this whole thing up to spend time with me.

Therefore, out of guilt, I would have to sit through it.

"Oh man, I've seen that a million times. How about we watch something else?" Garrett objected, his eyes then flickering over to me with concern.

He remembered.

He fucking remembered.

I swallowed hard and looked down, my blood quickly coursing through my veins and my head pounding. How could he remember something like that? Why would he remember something like that?

I don't know; maybe I was just being paranoid. Maybe he had seen The Exorcist a million times- in all honesty, it wouldn't surprise me.

John shrugged, throwing the DVD on the couch. "Alright." He then began racking through a bunch of different movies.

I looked back up, my eyes giving in and wandering over to Garrett. He was looking at me out of the corner of his eye- at least I thought he was. Suddenly, he got up and joined John looking through different movies.

"What about this?" Garrett said holding a DVD to John.

Kennedy must have spotted the DVD. "Yes. Yes. We're watching it. It's settled. I don't care what anyone says. We're watching it."

John sighed. "I guess we don't really have much of a decision."

Garrett shrugged and put the DVD in, leaving me in slight confusion.

It didn't last long though. 'That Thing You Do' started to play on the screen and I smiled. It was Kenny's favorite movie. I knew that. Everyone knew that.

I sat in between Kenny and John and dozed off lightly for about five minutes, my head gently resting on Kennedy's shoulder. I kept thinking about Garrett. I really wanted to sit next to him. I just had the urge to. As I rested my eyes I pictured my lips on his and I remembered how great of a feeling it was to kiss him.

I snapped out of it though, my eyes flashing open as my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled out my phone, wondering who would text me this late.

It didn't surprise me though when I saw Alex's name across the screen. I rolled my eyes and opened the text.

Where are you?

I held in a sigh and pursed my lips. I wasn't on the bus the entire night and he was just noticing now? I quickly replied.

The Maine's bus.

I sent the message and went back to watching the movie. Next to me, John was sleeping soundly and lightly snoring. Some rockstar life, eh?

Alex texted me back minutes later. Couldn't he just go to bed?

Spending time with ya big bro? Or should I say your ex-lover ;)

I rolled my eyes and contemplated not responding at all. Despite my reluctance I responded.

What do you want?

I looked around me, now noticing Jared and Pat both asleep. Kennedy was, of course, up. He had to watch the entire movie every time he watched it. I glanced over at Garrett, his blue, tired eyes were on the screen. He looked like he too was about ready to fall alseep.

Alex responded and I felt like groaning. He just couldn't leave me alone.

Just missed ya is all. I still have to get you that drink you know.

I rolled my eyes and responded one last time before shutting my phone off for the night.

Go to bed.