Memories That Fade Like Photographs

On Christmas Eve, Aunt Katherine decided to invite all the families. Rian’s, Alex’s, Jack’s, Kara’s, Zack’s, basically everyone! It was really fun to meet everyone, well the one’s I haven’t met. I met Jack’s sister and brother. They were hilarious and they told me stories about Jack from when he was younger. He looked like a tomato when I teased him about it.

After a while though, all of us ‘children’ were told to go downstairs. I guess the adults started to get annoyed with all of us teenagers running around.

We talked about the boys and their band. They said that after break they’re going in to talk to a record company about recording their next album. Alex wrote a bunch of new songs and I’ve only heard a few. My favorite one that he wrote for was Lullabies. It was about his brother and I balled my eyes out the first time I heard it. It was a nice song, but I could feel the pain that Alex had when he wrote it.

“Hey, um, Lucy.” Brooklyn whispered at me to get my attention. Right now we were playing charades and Jack was of course trying to get everyone to guess what he was, which was really hard since he’s not really the most creative boy.

“What’s up?” I asked her.

“What happened with the trial? Did you get any news back about what’s going on?”

I sighed and looked away from her and gathered everyone’s attention. When all eyes were on me, I started to tell them about what was going on.

“You guys all know about what happened last summer and I want to tell you some news that I just received. Earlier last week, I got a phone call from the police officer that was working on my parent’s case. They said that the criminals are going through trial still to determine their sentence, but that could take up to years to figure out. So, far it’s looking like they’ll be in jail, 25 years to life. Officer Martin told me what the criminals said in confession. They said that they didn’t mean to kill my parents and that if they could bring them back, they would. They were just scared and that my parents were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it doesn’t change the fact of what they did.”

Everyone was quiet and I smiled softly to show them that I can pull through, “It’s good to get closure, but it still sucks knowing my parents won’t be here to watch me grow.”

“You’re wrong, Lucy.” Alex shook his head and continued, “Your parents will always be with you, always in your heart and your memories. They’ll always be there.”

I smiled at my boyfriend and kissed him softly on the lips. When I pulled away I whispered in his ear, “Thank you.” He then kissed my temple and pulled away so we wouldn’t disturb our friends with our PDA, but with the quietness that everyone was showing, it was bugging me a lot. Why isn’t anyone talking?

Eventually, someone spoke up – well two people.

“Let’s play a game!” Brooke and Jack yelled in unison.

Alex and I laughed with each other before we both spoke at the same time, “There’s my best friend for you!”

I looked at Alex and playfully glared at him. He did the same as well. I swear there is something wrong with all of us if we say the exact same things, at the exact same time.

Kara laughed, “Alright, what game should we place?”

“How about spin the bottle?” Brooke offered. We all gave weary looks at each other. Brooke scoffed, “Come on you pussies. It won’t hurt you. There’s an even number of boys and girls and I know you’re all comfortable with each other. The only set of rules I have is that Moose and I aren’t going to kiss each other. Other than that everything is fine. You’re all fine with kissing guys and girls, right?”

“Yeah I guess that’s alright. Does anyone have a bottle?” Sydney said.

I nodded my head and stood up to get a bottle. When I came back we were more spread out and Alex patted the spot next to him for me to sit down.

“Who wants to go first?” I asked.

“I will!” Jack yelled as he grabbed the bottle and spun it. It went around three times before it stopped right in front of me; the best thing about this though is that is moved over to Alex very slowly.

“Dammit!” Jack yelled, “I don’t want to kiss Alex! He has herpes!”

I laughed, “Shut the fuck up and kiss my boyfriend already. We all know he’s cheating on me with you.”

“I’m not cheating on you with him! He gave the last guy AIDS!”

“Alright I trust you.” I smiled.

“I refuse to kiss Alex.” Jack stated as he sat Indian style and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Come here sexy.” Alex said as he crawled towards Jack.

“Okay, if you insist.” Jack sighed and then they pecked each others lips. Everyone laughed as Alex pulled away and reversed crawled. It was the perfect opportunity to slap his ass so I did.

“Did you just spank me?” Alex asked with his eyes wide.

“Maybe?” I shrugged with a big smirk. Alex was about to lean in and kiss me but Brooke wouldn’t have it.

“Not kissing unless the bottle lands on her. Your turn to spin Alex.” she said.

He rolled his eyes and spun the bottle. When it spun on me he smirked and turned his head.

“Come here beautiful.” he picked me up and pulled me into his lap for me to straddle. I giggled before we smashed our lips together. Alex licked my bottom lip begging for entrance. When I didn’t allow him, he lightly bit my lip, making me gasp. When his tongue entered my mouth we both fought for dominance. I started to grind into his hips and he made a moan into my mouth.

“Alright, break it up! Break it up!” Rian said as he pulled us away from each other.

I laughed and kissed my boyfriend’s cheek when I sat back in my original spot. Then there was a huff across the room from Brooke.

“What?” I asked.

She shrugged, “Nothing, which just makes me think you two clearly need to take it to the other room and rip each others clothes off.”

I rolled my eyes and didn’t say anything about it. Instead I took my turn and spun the bottle. When it landed on Kara the guys all cheered. I gave Alex a playful glare and looked at Kara with a smile.

“Might as well get it over with.” she laughed. I nodded my head and sat up. We gave each other a peck on the lips and moved away.

“What?!” Jack exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” Kara asked.

“That was cheap shit! From now on everyone has to give somewhat of action. That was baby shit.” he complained.

“Fine Jack, that means the guys have to do the same thing. Come on Kara, how about we tease these boys and show them what they’re missing.” I encouraged her and she just laughed and got up again.

We crawled towards each other and kissed immediately. We grabbed each other's cheek and started to fight for dominance with our tongues. Our lips moved together and eventually it felt like we would end up fucking each other right then and there.

I pulled away without warning and sat back down before Kara and I went any further. As we sat down though everyone was speechless. Then they all stood up and went towards the bathroom. All of our mouths dropped as we watched Alex, Rian, Jack, Matt, Zack, and Moose head towards the bathroom.

“Kara, did we just give all those boys boners?” I asked.

Before she could answer the guys started to all yell at each other. Then they ended up crying saying that no one must speak of this ever again. Then it went quiet and all of us girls started bursting out laughing.

“I think we did, Lucy.” she laughed.

“I’m not going to lie, but even I’m turned on.” Sydney announced. Then Brooke and Kendra agreed.

I laughed, “Well, even though we didn’t get far in the game, I think it’s time we stop before we get too far ahead of ourselves.”

“Agreed.” the girls all said in unison.

We waited about five more minutes before the guys started coming back one by one. When Alex sat next to me I smirked at him.

“Are you boys all better now?” I asked.

“I hope your balls aren’t so blue.” Kendra said sadly.

I laughed and high fived her for that one. The guys were all red in embarrassment.

“Alright, well let’s not play this game anymore.”

“Agreed.” the guys all said.

“We already made that decision while you guys were fixing your”- Sydney was about to say but was cut off by Jack’s mother calling for him.

“Dammit, why is it that I always leave first!” he exclaimed quietly.

“Goodbye Joyce! I love you and I promise to visit soon with my lovely girlfriend!” Alex yelled up the stairs.

“Alex, stop trying to get into my mother’s pants!” Jack’s sister, May, yelled.

“Children, quiet down, or else you won’t get any presents.” Joyce scolded her children before smiling to Alex, “Thank you dear. I hope to see you both soon. Come on Jack, it’s time to leave.”

“Bye guys, oh hey look mistletoe,” he smirked, “and look both of you are standing underneath it with me. Now who should I kiss?” he questioned himself.

Before we could give him an answer, he kissed Alex on the corner of his mouth and he kissed me fully on the lips. He quickly ran away to him mother.

We were about to say something but then everyone else came rushing by to go upstairs and each of them gave us a kiss on the lips. We stood there with shocked looks and then finally looked at each other.

“Did that just happen?” I asked.

He nodded, “Yeah, I think it just did.”

“Alex, honey, it’s getting late and I’m going to head home with Joyce. Will you be okay driving home by yourself?” Isobel asked from the top of the stairs.

Alex turned his attention to him mother and smiled.

“Yeah mom, I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at home, thank you for inviting us over Lucy.” she smiled at me.

My face brightened, “Anytime. Merry Christmas, Isobel and give Peter, my best wishes.”

“I’ll tell him when I see him. Merry Christmas you two. Goodnight.”

“Night.” I waved.

“Goodnight mom.” Alex smiled as she walked away.

When no one else said anything, Alex took my hand and started pulling me towards the guitar room.

“Alex, what are you doing?” I laughed as he shut the door behind him.

“I’m giving you your gift, duh.” he smirked as he placed his hands on my hips.

“Alex, I don’t want anything.” I whined.

“You’ll love it, I promise.” he smiled before kissing my lips and then pulling away before taking an acoustic guitar and sitting down in front of me. He tuned the guitar and then started strumming a soft melody.

“So, before I start playing I want you to know that I love you. If I could pick a song that I’ve already written to describe us, it would be this one. We’ve been through a lot in just four months and I know that this will go far.” He then stopped strumming and stared up at me.

“Why’d you stop?” I asked as I took a seat next to him.

He sighed and turned to look at me, “I’ve never felt this way for anyone Lucy. There are absolutely no words to describe how much I love you. I mean I could write so many songs and it would never be enough. You’re always on my mind, and if I ever think about us not being together my heart breaks. I can’t imagine my life without you. You’re the best person to ever walk in my life.”

I smiled and leaned in to kiss him. He immediately kissed back but pulled away to lean his head on my forehead.

“You’ve heard this song before, only because the one that I am writing for you is scrambled up and confusing, but this song always makes me think about you… don’t distract me with your beauty, just so I can concentrate alright?”

I laughed, “I promise, now go on. Play it.”

He smiled as he started to strum to the song. Immediately I knew what song it was, Memories That Fade Like Photographs. It was one of my favorites even though I’ve only heard them play it once. They never really had a reason why that was but knowing that Alex thinks of me when he plays this song makes me happy.

When Alex finished the song I was in tears. Not because I was sad, but because with each word he sang, and every breath he took. It just made me fall in love with him all over again. He’ll never understand how strong my feelings really are for him. The first look he saw of my face he took the guitar off and hugged me, wiping away the tears afterwards.

“Luc, why are you crying?” he asked.

I laughed, “You just make me really happy. Thank you for the present Lex. It means a lot.”

“I’m not done yet.” He smirked as he reached into his pocket.

“Alex, I don’t want anything. The song was enough.”

He laughed, “Will you shut up and accept gifts for once.”

I sighed, “Only this once.”

“Good, now turn around.” He commanded. I rolled my eyes at him but did as I was told. Then I felt him wrap something around my neck. I looked down and picked up the charm that hung around the chain. It was a treble clef.

“A treble clef?” I questioned.

"You inspire me to continue writing music. You're the reason I get up on stage and sing to those people. Ever since I met you, there was something about you that told me to keep you in my life and I realized it's because I want you by my side for as long as I can. I'm completely in love with you that it hurts when we're apart. It might be too soon, but I know, that someday when everything falls into place, I want to marry you, Lucy."

I wiped away the tears from my eyes and leaned in and kissed him. I pulled away and rested my forehead to his. "I love you so much, Lex. You're the one person that I'd want to spend the rest of my life with too." I laughed a little and pulled away for him to wipe the last tears off my face. He kissed my cheeks and then my lips. When he pulled away I said, “You didn’t have to get me anything. Now I feel bad because I didn't get you anything.”

“I told you not to.”

“I told you the same thing, but look what you did!”

“You’re the best present I could ever get.”

I laughed, “Quite the charmer, aren’t you?”

“I was the charmer. Not anymore.”

“What made you change?”

“You.” He smiled as he kissed my lips.

I smiled as he pulled away, but we were only millimeters apart when I quietly chuckled and said, “Kiss ass.”

“You know it, babe.”

“Alex, it’s time to go and no you’re not allowed to spend the night!” Aunt Katherine yelled from the top of the stairs. We both laughed and kissed each other one last time before heading up. Alex put on his shoes, winter coat, and beanie before I handed him his car keys.

“Drive safely.” I told him as I pecked him once.

“Don’t worry, I will.” He smiled as he pecked me this time.

“Hey, Alex.” I said.

“Yeah?” he asked.

I smiled, “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, I love you, Lucy.” He said as we kissed each other longer than before. When he pulled away I tried to savor the moment.

“I love you too, Alex. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” He said before I shut the door behind him. This may have been the best Christmas Eve ever.