Nothing Personal

When Alex had gotten back that night after going to visit Do, Flyzik had been all over him asking a billion different questions and going nuts about his ‘disappearing act’. He had ended up using the same excuse Zo had used and after a while finally got Flyzik to calm down. Then he went to find Jack. He needed to tell him everything that happened. And he did.

He told Jack about Do and getting to meet him and hang out with him for a while. But then Jack had asked him the exact same question Alex had been asking himself for a while now. Did he have feelings for Zo? And did she return these feelings?

Thankfully the girl in question had been sleeping soundly for a while by then so Alex could talk to Jack and not worry about her overhearing. As he explained that he had started to view the girl as more than a friend, he kept a close eye to make sure she didn’t wake up. That was the last thing he wanted.

Yes he did want to tell her that he liked her, but he wanted to do it in person and not while they talked to each other in their heads. That was impersonal and wanted to be face to face when he basically spilled his guts to her. What could he say, he was old school.

But that had been nearly a week ago and now they were just pulling up to the venue for their last show. The day after they had met, Zooey and her family found that the treatments Do was getting weren’t doing what they had wanted it to do. The doctors had said that they would continue to try to see if the treatments would help gradually the more his body got used to them but he had told them to not get their hopes up too high. There really wasn’t that much they couldn’t do anymore.

Zo had taken it really hard and didn’t really talk to anyone for two days, that including Alex. He had tried and tried to get her out of her depression getting worried that she was going to do something stupid. But after those two days, Do started to get back to himself more and Zo had started to do better too. They had decided to keep him in the hospital to continue the treatments and keep him on good pain killers but had only given him a few more months to live.

He had been up and down with the good and bad days. The most good days he would have in a row were about two and then he would get deathly pale and be in a lot of pain. A few times, Alex had honestly thought it would be the end. That he would die. But he pulled through and everyone gave a sigh of relief.

That current day, Do was having a good day and Zo was unusually hyper. And Zo hardly ever got hyper. She got happy or excited, just not hyper. And when she got hyper it wasn’t a pretty picture.

*For the love of God Zooey, shut up!* Alex yelled as he heard Zo continue to read him slutty fan-fiction of him and Jack doing…. things together.

*This is some good crap man, I wish I would have known who you were earlier, I would have done this before.* Zo replied with a giggle and began to read more. Alex just groaned and hid his head under a pillow but nothing would help. The problem was in his head and he couldn’t make her shut up.

“Dude, please make Zo stop.” Jack said as Alex looked up from where he lay on the couch and gave his best friend a confused look. “She’s texting me fan-fiction sex scenes between you and I.”

“Oh God, you too?” Alex asked as Jack’s jaw dropped.

“Please tell me she’s texting it to you.” Alex sighed and shook his head as Zo began to picture some of the things going on in her head. *Oh God Zo no!*

“Oh dude, you’re screwed.” Jack laughed as Alex just glared at his best friend. Flyzik came out into the main area and cocked an eyebrow at the pouting Alex and Jack just started laughing more.

“What’s wrong with the diva?” Flyzik asked as he poked Alex when he passed and then continued to the cupboards to find something to eat. Alex just moaned in response as Zo went on about the fan-fiction.

Alex heard Jack’s phone go off again and glanced up to see Jack check it and he swore under his breath when he read it. He couldn’t help but smile, knowing that it was Zo texting him more of the stuff that she was reading to him. At least he could join him in his misery.

“Princesses head just hurts, that’s all.” Jack muttered as he shoved his phone back into his pocket and Flyzik just shrugged and went back to the bunks leaving them alone. “I’m really starting to regret giving your girl my number. Why is she doing this anyway? What happened to the sweet innocent feisty Zo I met a week ago?”

“She’s gone and is replaced by the evil Zo that haunts my brain.”

“Seriously though, what’s up with her?”

“Her brother’s actually getting better and things are looking up. And you’re witnessing her other personality. This is the evil hyper one, the one where she terrorizes me and wants me to yank my own brain out of my head.”

Jack just rolled his eyes and checked his phone when it went off again. “Please, for the love of God, distract my mind.”

“Well then get dressed and we can go find something to do.” Jack replied as Alex smiled and got up off the couch and headed back to his bunk. Grabbing the first things he could find, he pulled them on and didn’t bother messing with his hair since he was just going to have to redo it before the show that night so he left it.

When he went back out to the front, Jack was already there waiting and they went to see if any of the other guys wanted to come but they all declined. The crew was still setting up their stuff and Rian was playing a video game and Zack was busy working out. So they left them to what they were doing and headed to the door to go find something to do.

They were in D.C. and knew the area pretty well so they didn’t have too hard of a time getting to where the different shops and things were. It was the last day of tour and thankfully they weren’t that far from home so they should be get back to their places the next day since they were going to stay overnight in one of the hotels in the area.

One of their first stops was a music store since Alex needed to get a few things for his guitar before the show that night. And then ended up staying at the store for over a hour looking at the guitars and different designs on them. But surprisingly they didn’t walk out with a new instrument, only things for their current instruments.

As it was Alex had two acoustic guitars and three electric and barely had any more room for them in his apartment. The spare bedroom in his small apartment had a bed and the furniture but no one ever stayed in there since he kept all his music stuff in there. His guitars, piano, and extra equipment were all in there, hanging from the walls and taking up most of the floor space.

Not like he had anyone over anyway. Jack and Alex basically lived at each other’s places leaving some extra cloths and such but whenever Jack stayed over he usually crashed on the couch anyway so it didn’t really matter. But on the off chance that he did need the room for storage, he usually spent the whole day trying to find a place for all the stuff.

So yeah, he really didn’t need another guitar. Thankfully, they left after a hour and continued on to a few clothes stores and other places that they found. After they had left the third shop, Alex realized that Zo was quiet. He checked on her to find that she was reading a book and sighed in relief. She had finally stopped. He loved the girl but seriously? Fan-fiction?

He told Jack his discovery and the raven haired boy smiled happily and went to turn on his phone again. Finding he only had two more texts from Zo, which wasn’t bad, considering how many she had sent before he had turned off his phone.

*I can keep going if you want me too,* Zo said.

Alex sighed, *shit. I thought you were too busy reading your book. But no, please don’t. I’m begging you. I’ll do anything.*

*Anything?*

He could only imagine the smirk on her face, *really Zo?* She just laughed and was about to go back to her book but he continued. *Where are you?*

*At the hospital, Do’s sleeping. Mom and Colter are at work and I’m taking this moment of silence to catch up on some reading.*

Alex scoffed, *like you need to. You’ve read that book at least three times before. And didn’t the number of your book collection go up too?*

*Yup!* She said excitedly and Alex would have loved to see the adorable look on her face. *It’s 281 now.*

*God,*

Alex said Jack tense when his phone buzzed and glanced over his shoulder to see that Jack had a new text message. As he opened it, he couldn’t help but laugh as he read what Zo wrote.

Tell Alex to stop being mean to me.

“What did you do now?” Jack asked as he opened a new text and began to type.

“Nothing, I’m just telling Zo that I need to sign her up for an intervention. She has 281 books.” Alex replied as Jack snapped his phone shut.

“So?”

“Only a three months ago she had a little less than 250.”

Jack’s eyes widened, “Holy shit.”

“Exactly,”

*I hate you,*

*Love you to Zo.*

Alex’s phone rang and he saw that it was Flyzik who was probably trying to find out where they were. They had been gone for nearly three hours and Alex figured that they were ready for sound check. He answered the call and told their manager that they were on their way back in a few minutes and then hung up.

Jack and Alex walked back to the venue to find the rest of the guys already there on the stage setting their things up and tuning. Alex smiled as Danny gave him his guitar and then plugged it in and stepped up to his mic. He strummed a few notes to make sure it was tuned and then started to play the first few notes of Time-bomb.

“Yo Evan! Can you hear me?” Alex said into his mic as Jack started to play along with him. Rian started to play his drums and Alex turned to look back while keeping close to the mic and began to yell at Rian.

Rian just smiled and kept his beat up as Jack started to test his mic too. Soon Zack was also playing and they all lazily went through a few songs. Once they were finished, Alex went back to the bus to grab his bag and put it in the dressing room for later and then joined the boys in on the random conversation they were having.

Jack started singing stupidly and dancing and Alex joined him loudly as they started to clap and sing louder. A random camera came into view and Alex just flipped it off and continued the random song Jack and him were singing. It was a common occurrence to have a camera out. They were always doing something stupid and the crew thought it was funny to keep record of it.

Flyzik and Colussy came in and yelled at them to quiet down and they all yelled back. When their tour manager finally got them to settle down, he got them ready for the stage and they all walked down the hall to the stage and grabbed their things.

Alex took a deep breath as he followed behind Jack on stage and took his place in front of the mic. This was it, the last concert of tour.

“Hey D.C. how you all doing tonight?” He yelled as Rian started the beat and they started to play the first song.