Ten Things I Hate About Alex Gaskarth

Oh, the smell of bowling shoes in the morning.

“Leila!” I screech, running over to her. I couldn’t contain my excitement in seeing her. I hadn’t talked to her in so long, except for her voicemail two days ago. “Where the fuck have you been? You never talk to me anymore!”

“Bitch, I saw you last week,” she laughs, pulling away from my hug. I laugh as well, turning to look at her boyfriend.

“Sammy Wammy,” I grin, hugging him as well. “It’s been too long. How was Europe?”

He grins back. His blonde hair had grown out, curling over his shoulders. “It was amazing. The museums were fantastic. Now all I have to do is convince this girl—” he jabs a thumb at Leila “—to come with me. But that’ll never happen. She’s too anchored in good ole Baltimore.”

I giggle. “Tempt her with the thought of Paris. She’ll jump right on a plane.”

“Hey!” Leila gasps. “I’m standing right here, fuckers!”

Sam and I roll our eyes before we move over to our bowling area. We put on our shoes before picking out our balls. “I’m gonna kick your ass, Ana,” Leila grins as she stretches her arm across her chest. “It’s gonna be legen—wait for it—dary!”

All three of us share a round of laughter before she picks up her neon pink ball, lining it up with her vision. She pulls her arm back and throws it.

“Four pins, bitches!” she thrusts her arms in the air, giving out a loud noise.

I lean over to Sam, speaking out of the side of my mouth. “Why do you date her, again?” I ask, and he just elbows me in the ribs. I giggle, covering my mouth.

We finished one round of bowling before deciding to have a snack break. We sit down at our table with a big plate of nachos between us, beginning to swap stories about what has happened to us lately. Sam was just finishing up a tale about this old bearded man in London who tried to steal his wallet, but ended up running about two feet before tripping. It had us all in stitches, holding our stomachs in agony.

“What about you, Anastasia?” Sam asks, his arm loosely hanging off the back of his girlfriend’s chair. “Any interesting things happened to you lately?” It was a normal question, but it had my blood curling and my heart pounding.

I sigh, biting my bottom lip. “Kind of.”

Leila raises her eyebrows. “Spill, hooker.”

My lips pull into a grin as I chuckle at her response. But then I remembered what I was gonna tell them and it falls, my fingers picking at a nacho on the plate.

“Well, I was at Reno’s, writing,” I say, swallowing so my throat was no longer dry. “And, low and behold, the man of my nightmares walked right in. And guess who he happened to speak to? Me.”

“Who is the ‘man of your nightmares’? And what the hell does that mean?” Sam quirks.

I look down at the table, trying to ignore the look my best friend was giving me. “Uhm, remember Prom night?” I ask hesitantly. “Yeah. It’s Alex Gaskarth.”

My two friends give a loud gasp. Collectively, they say, “Alex Gaskarth?” Then Leila shakes her head, leaning forward. “As in the Alex Gaskarth who told you you won Prom Queen, embarrassing you in front of the entire school? The one who fucking cheated on his senior research paper? The one who was rumored to have eaten Mrs. Kinnerd ou—”

“Yes, Leila!” I interrupt, groaning. “That Alex.”

She sits back, releasing a surprised exhale. “I can’t believe he’s trying to talk to you. After what he did? What a douche. I’m gonna kick his ass.”

I roll my eyes. “He’s actually being surprisingly sweet. He says he’s trying to make up for what he did. Or something. I don’t know. Every time he talks to me he charms me with those fucking…smoldering eyes.”

“Sweet?” Leila scoffs. “This is Alex were talking about. Should I mention Prom again?”

“No, don’t mention it again,” I mutter, sitting back and crossing my arms in a defensive gesture. “I just…I don’t want to tell him to bugger off. I mean, I know he was an ass to me, but he’s been nice now. What should I do?” I give them a pleading look, adding in a puppy pout for affect.

Sam shrugs. “Talk to him. Ask him why he’s doing what he’s doing.”

“That doesn’t help!” I moan, banging my head against the surface of the table.

They both just laugh at me, still not contributing to my awful situation. So I just groan and stand, huffing. “It’s my turn to bowl. No making out while I’m gone.”

I ignore the kissy face Leila sent me as I walk up to the bowling balls, picking up my purple one. I take a deep breath and bring it in front of me, looking down the lane. And just as I was about to throw it, I hear that laugh that sends shivers down my spine.

I drop the bowling ball, so it goes about a half a mile per hour down the lane.

I curse, turning around, my eyes immediately spotting the fucking devil as he lopes along beside Jack and Rian, laughing about God-knows-what.

I follow him with my gaze as they walk down the steps and into the lane-area, stopping about three lanes away. I was fuming; is he just, like, stalking me now? I shake my head in disbelief, stomping over to Leila and Sam as my bowling ball finally makes contact with the pins. It knocked one over.

“Skip over me,” I mutter. “I have to go into hiding.”

Leila scrunches her eyebrows. “Why?”

I nod my head toward Alex, who was now putting on his bowling shoes, and the couple looks over. Sam smirks while Leila grins. “Can we invite them to play with us?” she asks, that mischievous look gleaming in her eyes.

My own widen. “If you do, I will personally cut off Sam’s penis so when you two get married, you will never me able to consummate the marriage.”

Leila grins wider, turning to look back at them again. “HEY! JACK!”

My jaw drops, not believing my best friend could be so fucking cruel. “Sam!” I hiss. “Do something!”

He bites his bottom lip. “Please, please, please don’t cut off my dick.” I narrow my eyes as Jack Barakat looks up, a grin similar to Leila’s forming. He turns and talks to Alex and Rian, who look over at us as well. I jump out of my chair just in time, crawling under the table.

I watch Leila’s legs as she turns to look back at me, but I was no longer there. “Ana?” she asks, confused, her body moving as she tries to look around for me.

I flick her shin and she yelps.

Just then, I see three pairs of feet come over and join. I grimace. I recognized the skinny legs of Jack, and the stocky, calf-filled legs of Rian. Alex was wearing his skinny jeans, per usual, but oh my, did they look delicious.

“Where’s Anastasia?” Jack asks, his voice confused as well, “I just saw her a second ago.” I flick Sam’s leg to tell him to keep quiet.

Leila hesitates, but they don’t notice. “Maybe you were seeing things.”

Sam shifts uncomfortably. “It’s just Leila and I.”

There was a collective silence, Jack pulling out the chair across from Leila and sitting down. His legs were centimeters from touching me. I coil away from them, leaning against Leila.

“She’s under the table isn’t she?” I hear Alex smirk, and I instantly hiss.

I crawl out, glaring up at Alex. “Fuck you.”

He grins, his arm curling around my shoulders as the other four people around us laugh, my face burning red. “I’d prefer to fuck you while you’re under me. Or maybe if you were riding me. That’d be a pretty sight.” I punch him in the arm as he chuckles, his lips bending down to give me a sloppy kiss on the lips before I could stop him.