Running Into You

I stumbled back, my eyes wide and my mouth slightly open in shock. Jaime continued to smile at me.

“Wha…what are you doing in my house?”

I was afraid. Maybe he was a stalker or something. Seriously, I saw him yesterday on the other side of the country. How and why was he here? Who is this guy?

“Oh Tori, I see you met Jaime from Pierce The Veil,” Landon said, walking into the living room. I looked from Jaime to Landon to the other two men sitting in my living room. “Vic…?” said the other Vic.

“Oh my god, this is so freaky,” I said, backing away from the Jaime.

“I knew you guys looked familiar,” I said, shaking my head. I looked at Vic then Jaime. Jaime was had this huge grin on his face, and Vic looked somewhat bashful about the situation.

“Well, I’m Mike,” said the tattooed man sitting on my couch.

I nodded at him. “Victoria. You can call me Vic or Tori. It doesn’t matter. I respond to both,” I said, unscrewing the water bottle and taking a sip. Just then, Logan stumbled into the kitchen.

“There was a fucking bottle of water in here. Where the hell did it go?” she said in her hung-over voice. She must have gone out to celebrate the homecoming. Mike chuckled. She glared at him.

“What?!” she said with a attitude.

Mike put up his hands and said, “Sorry, you just say water funny.”

“What do you mean?” she said, walking around the island and hopping up on it.

“It sounds like your saying ‘wooder,’” Mike said, cocking his head to the right.

I walked into the kitchen and opened the cabinet that we kept some medication in. I pulled out two Aspirin and gave Logan the ‘wooder’ and the pills. I was always trying to take care of her.

“Anyway, so you guys are the same guys I ran into…literally, back in Philly. And you are the same guys that are going to help write on our album?” I asked leaning against the island.

Jaime looked from Mike to Vic and then back to me. “Yep, sounds about right. Well, just Vic and I are going to help Landon write. Mike just tagged along.” Jaime said. I nodded my head taking in this information.

“Okay… well I need a shower,” I said pushing forward.

“Yeah, you smell funny,” Logan said, pinching her pierced nose. I smacked her tattooed thigh and walked away towards the bathroom.

Logan had a lot of work done. Although we were best friends, we looked like polar opposites. Logan looked like you dipped her in ink, while I had a few tattoos. I had a tattoo on each wrist. If you put my two wrists together it says, ’With Faith I’ll Survive’. I also had one that said the words ‘Irish Pride’ on my foot with a shamrock and a small one behind my ear of a butterfly on the full moon. Logan, on the other hand, had a full back piece that was an anchor and a chest tattoo that said ‘I Refuse To Sink’. She had both of her thighs done. On one she had a jellyfish and on the other she had an octopus. She had half a sleeve done on her right arm and on her left calf she was starting a sleeve.

In the summer she tanned a really nice dark color, while I burn, then get a slight color difference. She’s more out going when we first meet people and I’m more reserved for the first little while. I can down eight beers and walk away slightly tipsy, while she only has five and gets pretty drunk.

She is always dying her long hair different colors like reds, blondes, dark colors, and even blue one time. I stick only to blonde and certain browns. She had one inch plugs, while I was only at a 2g. But I love her. We can talk for hours about everything and nothing. She was my best friend.

And I loved Harley always. I could go to her for anything. We had more in common than me and Logan did, in appearance. Harley was also pale, and she burned in the summer too. She had long blonde hair with an under-cut above her left ear, and rarely dyed her hair. She had more tattoos than I but not has many as Logan.

I stripped down, wrapped a towel around myself, turned on the shower, and waited for it to get pretty hot. I dropped the towel and stepped in. I leaned against the shower wall and just let the water run over my body, thinking about how weird it was to run into Jaime in Philadelphia, my home city and for him to be in the band that is like best friends with Landon.

He was really attractive. But it’s not like I was ready to be in a relationship, especially with someone in a band. I had bad experiences with boys in bands. Plus now I was in a band. But still, it was hard for me to keep relationships because whoever I was dating always wanted me to be with them but they knew I had obligations with the band. Between going on tours, writing this album, and doing photo shoots, I am strapped for time.

That’s what happened with Matt. He got jealous. My band had just got off tour and wanted to start writing songs that we wanted to play live and had a lot of energy. It took up most of my time and still does. Personally I felt like he was acting like a little bitch about the whole situation. I told him off, that this is my dream, my passion, and I was taking off. Plus I was having some family problems. I was being pulled in all different directions so he broke up with me. My girls were sad for me, so we packed up and headed home to Philadelphia. I had a nice week. But I was missing SD. Plus I didn’t want Matt to think I was the type that runs away from her problems.

I was running my hands through my hair with shampoo. My mind started to wander to Jaime. He was really good looking. His smile was to die for. He wasn’t built too bad either. He had nice arms, not as good as Vic’s though. Jaime had an upper arm tat and that too was hot. I had always been attracted to guys with tattoos. And his voice was so sexy. Before I knew it I was getting turned on. I had to shake those thoughts from my mind. I mean come on, he was in my house. Not even that, he was right down the hall.

I hurried up, and got out of the shower. I rung out my hair and picked up the towel and wrapped it around my body. I stepped out of the shower and closed the sliding door. Then I moved over towards the counter and reached down and opened the drawer for a hair towel. I flipped my wet hair forward and wrapped my hair. I took my hand across the mirror to wipe the steam from it to see my reflection.

“Shit…” I mumbled. I had just realized I didn’t bring a change of clothes into the bathroom with me. The clothes I was wearing before were all sweaty from my run. I tightened my towel and opened the door a crack and peaked out to see where everyone was. No one was around. I pulled myself back in took a deep breathe and pulled the door open all the away. I was ready to make a dash to my bedroom when I crashed into someone.

“Fuck!” I yelled.

“Jesus, this is getting obvious Victoria. If you want my body just tell me,” Jaime said with a big grin on his face.

“I don’t want your body,” I said dragging out the word body, flipping him off. I quickly walked to my room. I heard him laughing as I closed my door.

“Damn,” I said out loud. Harley was sitting on my bed.

“What’s your problem?” she asked.

“Nothing… Well, remember those guys I told you about?” I said walking over to my dresser.

“You tell me about a lot of guys,” she said, leaning back onto my bed. I unwrapped my hair, and attempted to untangled my hair with my brush.

“Yesterday I went to get coffee and I ran face first into that guys chest?” I said.

“Oh…yeah! What about him?” she asked.

“Well, he seems to be in that band that’s helping Landon and I write the album. So he is here…in San Diego…in the house,” I said, shaking out my hair and opening a drawer to pull out a pair on binki-cut underwear.

“DAMN!” Harley said laughing.

“It is not funny,” I said, continuing to get dressed into gray skinny jeans with a hole in the left knee and a tear on the right thigh.

“Think about it though. It is funny considering you want him,” she said, picking at her dead ends.

“I do not want him,” I said, looking for a black t-shirt.

“Oh, come on now. Yesterday when I told you to rate him you said ‘dear god let me love you,’ when you clearly could have just given him a 10.”

“I never dreamed I would see him again!” I said.

Harley just shook her head while I grabbed my mousse and sprayed a reasonable amount in my hands, rubbed them together, and put it in my hair.

“ARGH!”

“Sexually frustrated?” Harley asked.

“Shut up…” I said shaking my head.

“So you are?” she asked, propping herself up on her elbow to look at me.

“No, I just think this is weird… and I mean he is good looking. But… I don’t know,” I said

“Ask him out,” she said laying back down.

“Dude, Matt broke up with me four weeks ago. Plus, that relationship didn’t end all to well. He’s in a band, and I just met him yesterday. I know nothing about him,” I said.

“Still, you’d make a cute couple. He is a nice, funny guy, and I heard through a friend that he is great in bed,” she said, giggling at the last part.

“HARLEY!” I said.

“What? Didn’t you say Matt sucked anyway? Personally, and I don’t mean anything by this but, you could use a good fuck. You’ve been kinda bitchy lately.” Harley said.

I stood up with my hands on my hips and turned to face her.

“Harley, Matt just broke up with me. He texted me this morning asking me to hook up..”

She cut me off. “HE WHAT?!”

“He. Asked. Me. To. Hook. Up,” I said, dragging it out like I was talking to a four year old.

“What did you say?” she asked sitting up wide eyed.

“I didn’t reply. Any who, I am being bitchy because I’m kind of pissed. I don’t mean to be bitchy but… it just happens. You have been dumped before and you know it sucks, especially since I thought things were going okay between us…” I said staring past her out my window.

“Wow…I know. Sorry but Jaime’s hot. I kind of want to jump him…but you saw him first. So…” she said getting up and stretching.

I smiled and sighed. I wanted to tell her to go for it, but a part of me said no.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I walked out into the kitchen.

“I’m hungry!” I said opening the fridge.

“Me too!” Logan said, jumping up from the couch. She was still in her booty shorts and WCAR t-shirt, her hair its usual matted, curly mess. Most people could never pull this off. It looks like she just woke up, which she did, but she keeps it like that all day. Personally, I liked it.

“Go put some clothes on and we’ll get le tacos,” I said, walking to the coffee table to get my car keys.

“FUCK YES! ONE MINTUE,” Logan said, rushing away. The funny part was she really would only take a minute.

“So…” Jaime said, looking up at me from the chair I usually sat in. I raised my eyebrow insinuating that he should continue.

“Back in Philly, I asked you if you were Spanish,” he said, picking at imaginary fuzz on his jeans.

“Uh-huh,” I said, nodding my head, pretending to be thinking back.

“And you said ‘or something’… what does ‘or something’ mean?” he asked, making eye contact.

“What’s it to you?” I asked, cocking my hip.

He smirked. “Yo sólo quería saber porque soy mexicano y yo quería tener un converstation,” he said. I thought when he talked in English it was sexy. I think I just came in my pants. I gave a quiet laugh, and shook my head.

“Su mexicana? Eso está bien, podemos tener una conversación en cualquier momento que desee, but not right now. Right now, I’m getting tacos.” I said proud of myself. Logan came running out of her room.

“Ready! Lets go!” she said running out the door. Our bond with tacos was not to be messed with.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Jaime said, reaching out to stop me as I was walking by to leave.

“And what was your question?” I asked, stopping. He left his hand on my hip.

“How do you speak Spanish so well?” He glanced at his hand and dropped it.

“I studied it in college. It is an amazing, beautiful language. I even had the opportunity to go to Spain and Mexico for two months each and study there,” I said, smiling. I patted his shoulder and walked out the door.

“Damn,” I heard him say as I walked out to my car. Logan honked the horn.

“HURRY UP! SLUT, THE TACOS WON’T WAIT FOREVER.” She acts like they’re going somewhere. I hopped into the drivers side and hooked my seatbelt and pulled out.

“Harley said to get her a Crunch Wrap Supreme,” Logan said, checking out a zit she had on her forehead in the car’s mirror.

“Mhm,” I said

“So…you got a mad crush on Jaime,” she stated as-a-matter-of factly.

“I do not…”

She cut me off. “Kill it. Harley and I were talking about it and you totally do,” she said, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.

“I have no idea where you two are getting this. It’s only 12:30. They have only been here for like… three hours. How could you even assume this?” I asked. I mean, I like him because he’s cute but I know nothing about him.

“True… You think he is hot though? Vic and Mike are throwing a rager tonight. We should go…” Logan said trailing off.

“Sure,” I nodded.

We pulled up to the local Taco Bell and got out of the car. We walked in and I thought I was going to throw up. I was not in the mood for food anymore.