Lost In Stereo

Zooey woke up to the sound of muffled voices coming from the other room. She groaned and rolled over onto her back since she had been facing the sun and the bright light was really annoying her so early in the morning. Leaning back, she stretched and glanced over to the clock to see that it was only a little past nine. What were they even doing up this early? It was way too early for them to even be contemplating being up after the kind of night they had last night.

Rolling back over onto her side, she let her eyes slip shut so she could see if she could fall back asleep. But no more than five minutes later, she realized that it was useless. She was awake for the rest of the day now. Then as she checked her phone since she didn’t want to get out of bed yet, she realized what day it was. Maybe it had been a good thing that she woke up early, even if she hadn’t set an alarm. She needed time to prepare.

Getting up, she grabbed a pair of jeans and a tank top off the floor then opened the door to her room and walked across the hall to the bathroom. She set her things down and went to the shower and turned it on. Only having to wait a moment for it to warm up, she stepped under the warm spray and sighed. There was nothing better than a warm shower to get rid of the tension.

Adding shampoo to her hair, she started to massage it in and smiled to herself as a song came to her head.

”I’ve got your picture I’m coming with you dear Maria count me in. There’s a story at the bottom of this bottle and I’m the pen.”

As she heard her voice echo loudly in the room and couldn’t help but giggle as she washed the shampoo out of her hair.

”When the lights go off I want to see the way you take the stage by storm. The way you wrap those boys around your finger, go on and play the leader. ‘Cause you know it’s what you’re good at the low road for the fast track, make every second last…”

There was a faint noise coming from the hallway and she waited to hear the familiar annoying voice yelling at her for singing so loudly. But it never came. So she just decided to keep singing.

”I’ve got your picture I’m coming with you dear Maria count me in. There’s a story at the bottom of this bottle and I’m the pen. Make it count when I’m the one who’s selling you out. ‘Cause if feels like stealing hearts calling your name from the crowd.”

Pause. Nothing.

“Take a breath, don't it sound so easy, never had a doubt, now I'm going crazy watching from the floor. Take a breath and let the rest come easy, never settle down, ‘cause the cash flow leaves me always wanting more.”

She left another pause so that she could wash the soap off her face but as soon as it was gone, she continued.

”Cause I’ve got your picture…”

“I’m coming with you,” Another voice echoed through the bathroom making Zo jump and nearly slip. She swore once she was able to catch herself from falling and heard laughing from the other side of the shower curtain. She growled as she popped her head around it and glared at the one who scared her.

“Really Alex? Are you kidding me? You could have killed me!” Zo yelled as she saw Alex standing in front of the mirror doing his hair. Jack was also there standing in the doorway with a stupid grin on his face. “How long have you been there?”

Alex grinned, “Long enough to know that you can’t sing- hey!” She glared again and threw her sponge at him and he yelled in protest.

“Shut up and get out! I have to get dressed.” She reached down and turned the water off and snatched a towel from the rack.

“It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before,” he muttered as she reached for something else to throw at him.

“You’re so gross! I can’t believe you looked! And it wasn’t my fault, I told you to keep your mind on other things while I changed. It’s not my fault you didn’t respect my thoughts.”

He just gave her an amused look as he turned back to the mirror and continued to pull the straightener through his hair. She huffed in annoyance as she dried off and then grabbed her change of clothes and changed in the shower. Once she was finished, she pushed Alex to the side as she grabbed her brush and started to do her hair.

“You’re such a girl,” Alex muttered as she continued to check her hair. Jack walked past the bathroom and rolled his eyes at them as he continued to the main room.

Zo scoffed, “like you should be talking. You spend more time on your hair than I do.”

“I need to look good on stage!” She just laughed and finished her hair before heading to her room.

Her room was still a mess. It was only a few weeks after she had moved in with Alex and there were still boxes everywhere and she was even still waiting on some more in the mail. The only thing that she could really use in her room was her bed and desk, everything was either scattered all over the floor or in the mountains of boxes scattered everywhere. She still couldn’t believe that it had only been a few weeks ago.

“I’m bored!” Jack said as he walked in and flopped down on her unmade bed.

She just rolled her eyes as she went to one of her boxes. Out of the two weeks she’s been living there, the boy still hasn’t gone home to his own place. Zo was even starting to wonder if he had his own place. He was sleeping on the couch and living out of his suit case he still hadn’t unpacked from their tour nearly a month ago.

“Then you can help me unpack,” Zo replied as she pulled open one of the boxes and pulled out some of her books.

When she had left home, she had made sure to bring all her books with her in her car when they packed it up to drive to Baltimore. She had left most of her clothes back home because of it, but she didn’t care. They were more important and Alex had a washer and dryer she could use to clean the little clothes she had brought. Not a big deal.

“But I’m sleepy!”

“Really Jackary?” She asked and he just shrugged and nodded from where he lay on her bed. He was messing with her iPod and after a few minutes of silence, the room was filled with music when Jack had plugged her iPod into her stereo.

“Are you kidding me?” Alex’s voice was heard over the music as Under A Paper Moon started to play.

Jack laughed as Alex walked into the room and plopped down on the bed next to Jack. “What we wanted to hear your beautiful voice again. We’ve been off tour for so long that I was starting to miss it.”

Alex just rolled his eyes and Zo started to sing along quietly. “I still can’t believe you brought all your books instead of something more important. You don’t even have any shelves yet.”

“Seriously Alex? We’ve been over this how many times now? You seriously need to let this go.” Zo said as Jack started to change the songs again. “Wait! No Jack go back to that one! It’s my favorite!” She said as Jack clicked back to the pervious song and Alex just looked at her.

“This is your favorite? Out of the whole album and this is your favorite?”

“Yes now shut up and dance with me!” She said as she yanked on his arm to get him up off her bed but he just rolled his eyes

”No, won’t call you baby, won’t buy you daisy’s ‘cause that don’t work. And I know how to get you crazy, how to make you want me, so bad it hurts. I want to be good, good, good to you but that’s not, not, not your type so I’m going to bad for you tonight, tonight, tonight.”

She was finally able to get him up off his feet and then started to bounce around the room as Jack turned the volume up and joined them. Alex took her hand as he spun her around and she couldn’t help but giggle as he smiled sweetly to her. But the moment was ruined when Jack decided to jump on Alex’s back and start yell. Zo laughed as she tried to hide the blush on her face.

Had he been about to kiss her again? They hadn’t actually really kissed since he had asked her to move in with him. It had only been little kisses on her forehead or cheek but never on the lips. Maybe he was just as nervous as she was. Not that she didn’t want to kiss Alex again, he was just her best friend who she happened to have feelings for and she didn’t want to mess everything up.

”I’ll miss behave if it turns you on, no Mr. Right if you want Mr. Wrong. I’ll tell you lies if you don’t like the truth. I don’t want to be bad; I just want to be bad enough for you.”

Alex was finally able to get Jack off of his back and Jack decided to try and jump on Zo’s but she quickly caught onto what he was planning and swatted him away.

”Hey, hey, hey, thanks for the number, I’m not going to call you, ‘cause that won’t work. You like to play, hide and go get her, you like me better, when I play the jerk. I want to be good, good, good to you, but that’s not, not, not your type. So I’m going to be bad for you, tonight, tonight, tonight.”

“You’re letting a fan girl live with you?” A voice yelled over the music and they all turned to see two guys standing in the doorway of Zo’s room. She blushed as she saw the two guys staring at her and quickly looked down to the floor.

The first guy was short with dark hair and a lip ring wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and the other guy was slightly taller with a buzz cut. Obviously Jack and Alex knew who they were since both of the boys smiled happily to the two of them and walked over and hugged them.

“Nah, Jack just missed my beautiful voice singing all the time and decided to play us some tunes.” Alex teased as Jack nodded happily.

“It’s true, I can’t survive without hearing his gorgeous voice all the time. It’s so sexy and lovely that it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.” Jack replied as Alex rolled his eyes and turned to smile at Zo.

He waved her over and she bit her lip as she took a step forward and stood close to Alex as she faced her potential new bosses.