Ten Things I Hate About Alex Gaskarth

The party plans were coming along great.

Leila had the venue picked out, the catering company, the disco ball, the theme, and the dance floor designers. Everything was almost perfect. Except I was barely paying attention to any of it.

I could hear her knocking on my door right now, but I was too lazy to actually get up and answer the door. My sweatpants were too comfortable.

“Come in!” I scream instead, flipping over to a cartoon on my TV.

The door opens and closes. I could her footsteps and some rustling, but not a voice signaling it was Leila. At first I thought it suspicious, but I ignore it as I hear her come into my living room. “Sit on the couch,” I tell her, gesturing to the piece of furniture across from the recliner I was sitting in. “We can start invitations there.”

When she doesn’t or move, I look over at her. My eyes blow wide. Leila was standing there, but beside her was Jack. “Oh,” I swallow, sitting up. “H-hey, Jack. What…uh, what are you doing here?”

I suddenly felt very self-conscious of my sweatpants and wrinkly NYU t-shirt.

“Leila asked me to come over,” he answers, as I glare over at my best friend. “She told me…uh,” he begins. But he seems to lose his confidence. “She told you finished your book! Congrats.”

I grunt. “It’s not very good. I’ve had nothing else to do these past few weeks.” I ignore the fact that the last time I’d seen Jack, Alex had kissed me that same night.

Leila takes a seat on the couch like I’d offered her, and Jack sits beside her.

“So, who do you want to invite to this thing?” she asks me, setting her books and papers down on the coffee table. I shrug, looking back over at the television. There was a long beat of silence before Jack picks up the remote and shuts off my cartoons. I gape and snap my head to look over at him.

“What the fuck! That’s my favorite episode of Rocket Power!” I huff, crossing my arms over my chest. I look away sourly, setting my jaw.

“Hey!” Jack says loudly. “That’s also Alex’s favorite episode!”

“And speaking of Alex!” Leila grins, as if she and Jack had rehearsed this (which they probably had), “Jack was telling me he’s been trying to call you. Is that true? And if he has, why haven’t you answered him?”

“Because I don’t want to,” I answer stubbornly.

“Why though?” Jack asks. “Why won’t you answer.”

“Because he kissed me!” I blurt, not caring that Jack didn’t know this fact. But, judging by his unsurprised face, I’m guessing Leila had already filled in these details. “Everything was fine. I could handle him being back in my life, but for him to kiss me after everything he did to me? That fucker should be ignored. Let him drown in his sorrow. I refuse to talk to him.”

“But he did all that to you because he likes you, Ana,” Jack tells me, his face drooping. “Like at Prom? He wanted you to be his Queen. Isn’t that nice?”

“No,” I mutter. “He still ruined high school for me. I can’t forgive him for that.”

“Oh my God!” Leila exclaims, jumping to her feet. “Grab that stick out of your ass and listen!” She points at me accusingly. “You like Alex, he likes you. He has apologized multiples times for Prom, yet you still hold a stupid ass grudge. He wants to be with you, yet you are still holding on to the past. Fucking let it go and run to him!”

I stare at her for a few beats as she calms down. I then stand up, smoothing down my wrinkled shirt. “I’ll be in my room if you need me,” I say haughtily, stomping into my bedroom.

“Shit!” I hear Leila scream, and then something is thrown at my door.

I roll my eyes and grab some clothes, going into my bathroom to take a shower. If they want me to talk to Alex, I’ll talk to Alex. But only to give him a piece of my mind.



I knock on his door quite loudly, tapping my foot impatiently. He had a pretty nice house, with a clean cut lawn and some rosebushes out front. I could see through the window his two dogs, a small one and a bull dog, staring up at me like I was weird.

“Fuck, Jack!” Alex was growling from inside, his voice getting louder as he comes to the door. “I told you to fucking leave me al—”

He drops his voice once he opened the door, seeing me standing on his front porch.

There was an awkward pause as we just look at each other. Honestly, he looked like hell. He hadn’t shaved in these three weeks that we hadn’t seen each other, a beard growing over his jaw and cheeks. His hair was mussed badly and he was wearing nothing but boxers and gym shorts. And no matter how pissed I was at him, I couldn’t help but let my mouth water at his godly appearance.

“Are you going to let me in?” I ask, my courage dwindling fast.

He stays mute, nodding, and opening the door wider so I may come in. His dogs immediately jump all over me, panting and tails wagging. Alex shoos them away.

“Why…” he trails off, clearing his throat. “Why are you here?”

“I need to set some things straight,” I tell him. “Can we go to your living room?” My voice wasn’t nearly as strong as I wanted it to be, but I keep on talking. “You might want to sit down while I say all this to you.”

Alex nods cautiously and leads me into his living room, where he takes a seat on the couch. I clear my throat, taking a deep breath.

“Okay. At Prom, when you first…did what you did to me, is when I first really started hating you. In all honesty before that, I really did like you. Probably a lot. But I never thought you would notice me so I never acted on my feelings. And then to think you could be so mean and vile to trick me into thinking I’d won Prom Queen…my feelings went away. I couldn’t very well like you after you did that, right?

“But anyway, I was hoping to never see you again after that. And then when you just walked in to that coffee shop and talked to me and acted like nothing had ever happened between us just kind of pissed me off. I mean, you basically ruined my entire senior year of high school, right? So for you too act all fucking dandy with no remorse over what you did made me think you hadn’t changed. But after we hung out that whole week a month ago, I couldn’t help but see how you’ve grown and aren’t that fucking asshole like you were in high school. And I started liking you again.

“Don’t grin. Because you’ve got another thing coming.” His smile drops.

“But then, you go and fucking kiss me. Kiss me. As if I wasn’t confused enough about you, you had to go all…kissing me and stuff and it just…it screwed everything up! I had tried to move on from my past and you just came in and meddled in my present. You keep messing everything up, Alex! And I want you to stop. I have lots of things going for me and I don’t need you putting a damper on things anymore!”

I was out breath once I was done, my heart pounding against my rib cage loudly and messily. Alex was gazing at me blankly, my stomach flipping upside down at the look in his eyes.

It frightened me.

“Aren’t you…” I swallow, trying to find air, “aren’t you going to say anything?”

He stands up. He looks me dead in the face.

“I did all of that because I like you, Ana,” he speaks slowly and softly, his words almost caressing my ears and twisting inside of my brain, embedding themselves in my mind permanently. Hearing him say that made my heart life like it was floating on a cloud. But why?

“Someone doesn’t do that because they like them,” I mutter, my jaw flexing. “A person does that to hurt another person.”

Alex shakes his head, but doesn’t return with an answer.

“Alex, please, I came over here to—”

He takes a final step forward, his hands finding the back of my head, tangling in my hair, and pushing me forward, capturing my lips in his. I froze, thinking, Not again. But then, my body reacted on it’s own, detaching from my brain.

“No!” my brain screamed.

“Yes!” my body and heart shouted back.

My arms curl around his neck, huddling him closer to deepen the kiss. His hands were pushing my shirt up, his calloused palms setting the skin on my hipbones and sides on fire. Goosebumps broke out where he touched, until my shirt was bunched up under the hem of my bra. Then he was lifting it over my head, breaking the kiss for mere seconds before we collapse back into each other.

His tongue pushed past the barriers of my mouth, his tongue meshing with mine, setting a line of shocks down my spine. His hands find my thighs, pushing up so my legs wrapped around his waist. Then he was moving, clumsily bumping into walls before walking up the stairs.

Without breaking our lips away from each other.

We made into his bedroom, his hands already playing with my zipper and button. He unsnaps both quickly, my jeans falling from my body.

Then, there was no turning back.