I Can't Not Love You

[Alex]

“James Matthew fucking Flyzik, how could you forget the alcohol?!”

I could see Jack, Flyzik, and Danny wince as I screeched at the top of my lungs. I was standing only three feet away from them, after all. I didn’t care though – how did there end up being absolutely nothing to drink on the bus?

“Don’t blame me, Alex! I asked you guys if all of the food and drinks got put away!” Flyzik defended, turning away from his laptop to look at me.

“There were no drinks to put away! No beer, no wine, no pop, no energy drinks – nothing!!” I complained, crossing my arms.

“Well walk your ass to the store and buy some yourself,” Flyzik suggested, rolling his eyes as he turned back to the laptop.

“You do it!” I protested.

“Flyzik, you do realize we’re on a moving bus, right? He can’t exactly just walk off and go to the store,” Jack pointed out, before looking back down at the game he was playing on his phone.

“Maybe that was the point in the statement...”

“Flyzik wants me to die! He told me to commit suicide!” I yelled, pacing back and forth between the front and back lounges as I continued to yell.

Zack groaned, yanking open the curtain to his bunk and popping his head out, “Alex, if you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m going to do it for you.”

“Now Zack wants to hurt me too!” I yelled loudly, dodging and running away from Zack’s arm as he reached out to hit me.

Jack rolled his eyes at me, looking at Danny as I ran past them, “We’ve been on the bus for two hours and he’s already going nuts.”

“I think it’s a new record for him, actually,” Danny said, acting impressed.

Flyzik nodded in agreement, “Usually it takes at least three hours for the madness to kick in.”

“Don’t make fun of me,” I whined, stopping in front of them. I fell back onto Jack’s lap and he let out a gasp of surprise, not expecting me to do that. “Jacky understands. We always have our beginning of tour beer when hit the road. Right, Jack?” I asked, smiling sweetly at him.

“What? Oh, yeah,” Jack replied, cheeks tinting slightly pink as he nodded. Danny glanced up at us.

“Alex, I think Rian needs some help setting up the Xbox and that Nintendo 64,” Danny spoke up, gesturing toward the back lounge. As if on cue, Rian let out a yelp of pain as something crashed to the ground. My eyes widened. That better not be my games.

“Rian! Don’t break my Nintendo!” I exclaimed, jumping off of Jack and running to the back.

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

“Alex, give it back!” Jack yelled.

I laughed, running away from Jack. He was pissed off because I had stolen his can of hairspray to use on my own hair. We were backstage at a venue in New York, getting ready for our first show. Everyone was a little disorganized because we had a late start this morning. Even though we had left yesterday, it was still a little rough to wake up and quickly get into the routine again the next day.

“Come and get it, Jack!” I taunted, holding the can up and shaking it slightly.

“I’m gonna kill you when I do!” Jack called out, running toward me.

I laughed, resuming my running, “You love me too much to kill me!” Jack didn’t respond and I looked behind me. He wasn’t running anymore; he wasn’t even behind me. I stopped, turning around to look for him. Where did he go? I screamed as I felt myself being tackled to the ground from behind, and then I heard Jack start laughing. “Jack, you asshole!”

“You... you should’ve... seen... your face,” Jack panted between laughs, still pinning me down with his arms.

I scowled and pushed him off me, making him roll onto the floor. “Here, take the hairspray,” I said, tossing it at his chest and standing up.

“Sorry bro, but that scream was too funny,” Jack said, still giggling as he stood up.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” Flyzik demanded, walking up to us. “I heard that girly Gaskarth scream from halfway across the venue.”

“I don’t scream like a girl!” I said, crossing my arms at him.

Jack laughed, “Yes you do.”

“Shut up.”

“Both of you shut up. You’re supposed to be on stage in like five minutes. The Maine is finishing up their set right now,” Flyzik told us, pointing in the direction we had run from. “Go finish getting ready.”

Jack and I both pouted, walking back with Flyzik. We headed over to the others once Jack fixed his hair. I grinned when I saw Zack and Rian getting their stuff ready to go onstage, bounding over to them.

“First show of the tour!” I exclaimed, jumping up and down. I was excited about the show – we hadn’t played a show in almost two months. Our sound check this morning had shown that we were a little rusty, but we worked everything out.

“Alex, stay still! I’m trying to give you your earpieces,” Colussy said, and I realized that he was trying to put them around my neck.

“Oops,” I said, putting them into my ears and taking my guitar from Ian. We headed onto stage within a few minutes. I grinned as the crowd erupted in cheers when we started to play.

Jack and I slipped back into our usual routine easily, taunting and making fun of each other on stage. It’s just so easy to banter with him on the stage.

“So earlier, I stole Jack’s hairspray and he freaked out,” I said to the crowd with a grin, “I’m pretty sure he’s more concerned about how his hair looks than how well he plays on stage.”

“I gotta look beautiful for the crowd!” Jack argued, then he smirked slightly. “I don’t know if you heard a scream while The Maine was playing, but that was Alex. I didn’t realize until today that his screams are higher pitched than all you girls!”

“You’re just jealous that you can’t reach those notes!” I laughed, shaking my head. “They love me for it!”

Jack rolled his eyes as the crowd cheered in agreement, “I don’t.”

I grinned, “C’mon, Jack, you know you love me!”

“I don’t know, it’s hard to love you when you’re a dick,” Jack teased after a few moments of hesitation.

“You’re just in denial!” I laughed, stepping away from my microphone and walking toward him. I saw Rian grin as he started a drum roll, knowing what my intentions were. Jack froze as I leaned over and kissed him on the corner of his lips. His cheeks flushed red. I grinned, turning to the crowd as I raised my fist in triumph, “My first kiss!”

Jack remained quiet for a few more seconds before smirking slightly, “That definitely wasn’t your first kiss, you whore.”

I just shrugged, skipping back to my microphone stand. “This is our last song, everyone! Thanks for having us!”