Just The Way I'm Not

Jack heard voices coming from the pool area as he and Alex explored the familiar venue. Alex must have heard them too because he wiggled his eyebrows thinking that maybe they could go sneak up and scare whoever was there. There were rumors of the venue being haunted anyway so whoever was here might already be a little nervous about that so it would make it even easier to freak them out.

They turned and headed back out of the dark room, which they figured was a locker room for the pool, and headed back out to the pool. Jack saw a group of people standing there following Rian and Zack as they explained the haunted pool. He heard Zack tell them about how he had gotten freaked out the last time they had been there when something touched him.

And something did touch him. He hadn’t been freaking out like everyone else said. Some ghost had come and touched him making him get the chills whenever they came back to this place. But no one believed him and he was waiting for the same thing to happen to someone else so he could rub it in their faces that he had been right all along. It hadn’t happened yet but he knew that it would.

He glanced at the group of people noticing a girl with bleached blonde hair and electric blue streaks and two boys who looked like twins and two other girls next to them. The first girl had dirty blond hair and the other had light brown hair with a few curls hanging in it. As they walked closer, Jack noticed that she looked familiar but couldn’t quite place how.

The others were talking and he and the other girl were basically giving each other the stare down. It seemed that the girl was thinking the same thing he was. He took in the piercing green eyes and the hair and the no bullshit attitude she wore. Then it hit him. He should have been able to recognize her faster but it had been so long. Ten years to be exact.

Soph? He signed and her eyes grew wide and she smiled as she ran to him and threw her arms around him and he pulled her close and hugged her back.

“Jack,” he heard her whisper and he closed his eyes and smiled. Sophia, his Soph was back. He finally was able to see her again after ten years. She was now twenty and absolutely beautiful, just like he knew she would be. Just like she had always been, beautiful and amazing.

They parted from the hug and Jack knew that all eyes were on them as he smiled down to her and brushed some hair from her face. “I can’t believe it’s you,” she breathed as he smiled and shrugged.

Jack looked behind them when someone cleared their throats and Soph turned to see the blond girl with a huge smile on her face. “Addie, this is Jack, my best friend from when I lived in Baltimore. Jack this is the rest of the band, my sister Addie, Bram, Zane, and Kora our tour manager.”

“Wait, your sister? Meaning the daughter of the family that adopted you?” He asked as she nodded.

“So you two grew up together?” Rian asked raising an eyebrow at Jack.

Jack nodded, “Yeah do you know the house that’s next door to mine that the weird couple lives in?” The rest of his band nodded. “That’s where Soph lived before she moved.”

“Ah so this is the girl you told me all about.” Alex teased as Jack blushed and shot a glare at his best friend. “When did you learn sign language?”

“Um back when I was seven,”

“You learned it because of her?” Rian asked as Jack glanced over to Soph and caught the worried glance Addie also had.

Tell me if you don’t want me to say anything. I can just give them some random story if you don’t want them to know. He signed and caught the approving look Addie was giving him. Hmm at least the sister was beginning to approve of him.

She shook her head. “No it’s ok Jack. We learned it together when I first lost my hearing. He demanded that he learn it with me so that I wasn’t alone. Even when he was young he was a pain in the ass.”

Everyone in his band laughed as Jack just rolled his eyes as he pulled Soph closer and wrapped his arms around her waist and rest his chin on her shoulder. She squirmed a little before relaxing in his arms and he smiled feeling like it had been when they were younger. It was as if nothing had changed and even after all this time they considered each other their best friends.

“Yo guys!” A voice yelled as they all turned to see Flyzik coming over. When he caught Jack with his arms around Soph, he gave them a confused look but let it go as he turned to the others. “Ok guys; are you ready for your first sound check?”

“Yes! They are! We have to go bring everything in anyway.” Kora said as Soph gave a huff and pulled out from his arms. She turned and smiled as she followed the rest of the band out of the pool area with Flyzik.

When they were gone, Jack felt all eyes on him and he took a deep breath before turning to them and rolling his eyes. “What?”

“Nothing, just nice to see you so happy again.” Rian said as Jack gave him a look. “Not that you aren’t happy it’s just on rare occasions that you’re this happy and all love struck. I haven’t seen you like this since Holly.”

Jack winced when he said her name. It had been a bad break up and if Alex and the rest of the boys hadn’t been there it would have been worse. “Thanks? I think,”

Alex was just smirking the whole time. “So this is the girl that you babbled no stop about the rest of eight grade?”

“So you met her too Alex?” Zack asked.

“No she moved away a few months before Jack and I met. But when we first met he was a wreck. He really missed her. He still carries a picture of her along with him wherever he goes.” Alex explained as Jack blushed.

Rian and Zack awed as Jack rolled his eyes and avoided the eye contact trying to think of something to say. “Shouldn’t we go back to the dressing room?”

“Jacky just doesn’t want to continue talking about his little crush on his best friend.” Zack teased. Jack flipped him off and followed Alex back to the hallway leaving the drummer and bassist on their own.

They walked in silence and just as they were about to walk into the dressing room, they heard the sound of drums and guitar beginning to play. Jack and Alex shared a look before they turned again to go back to the main room to see their sound check. When they walked in, Alex instantly went over to where Zo was standing and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Jack followed and nodded at Zo before turning his attention back to the stage.

Soph was setting up her drums with a determined look on her face. She was adjusting them to the proper height and set the stool in front of them and sat down taking a pair of drumsticks and started a beat testing to see if everything was in its right place. She must have felt eyes on her because she looked up after pulling one of the drums closer and glanced at him.

Stop staring at me creep. She signed as he started laughing.

You know you love that I’m a creep. Don’t lie to me. He signed back as she rolled her eyes and went back to fixing her drums.

Alex must have explained to Zo because when they walked over to him she gave him a teasing smile knowing that he must be falling for the girl. He rolled his eyes trying to hide the blush that was creeping up on his face again and turned his gaze back to the stage watching the rest of the band set up.

When they were finally finished setting up and running through sound check, Jack walked up behind Soph just as she was putting the last of her drums away and wrapped his arms around her making her jump. He heard her curse quietly before turning around and glaring at him.

“Jesus, I should be used to you doing that still. You used to sneak up on me all the time.” She said as she turned around in his arms.

“Yeah well I’ve master my skills over the last ten years so be prepared to get scared more often.” He replied with a laugh. “We should go get some lunch.”

She tilted her head to the side and nodded, “sure. Let me just go tell the rest of the guys that I’m going. Ok?”

He nodded and let her go heading over to Zo to tell her that he was heading out. When he told her where they were going he caught the hurt look on Alex’s face and gave small shrug. He would invite him along but he wanted a little alone time with Soph. They had a lot of catching up to do and he missed her a lot. Alex just smiled and nodded in understanding as Soph walked back and grabbed his arm.

“Let’s go! I’m starving!” She whined as she pulled him toward the door and they walked out of the venue. “So Mr. Hot Shot Guitar Player, where are we going? This is the first time I’ve been in the UK and I have no clue where we’re going.”

“Hmm, then you’re lucky to have me along then aren’t you?” He teased as they walked down the sidewalk toward the town nearby. At first he had thought that it might be a little awkward being alone for the first time in what seemed for forever, but it wasn’t. It was just like it was back when they were younger.

“You’ve never been here with your band before?” He asked as she shook her head.

“No, we’re hoping that this is our big break. We formed after senior year and got a few gigs and good tours but this is the biggest we’ve ever been. We were pretty psyched that we were going to be touring with some pretty big bands.”

“So are you a fan girl?”

“God no,” She rolled her eyes. “I always thought your band was a little full of yourselves. But we are fans of You Me and We Are.”

“Oh harsh, that hurt Soph.” She giggled as he gave her a fake hurt look and lead her farther down the walk toward a little café he knew she would love. “So why does everyone call you Phia instead of Soph?”

“Hmm, that would be because I don’t let them. After I moved away I only let people back in Baltimore call me Soph. So I changed it to Phia, needed to turn a new leaf and if anyone called me Soph it would remind me of my home. Of you. And I didn’t want to feel the sadness of leaving every time someone called me that so I changed it.”

He pulled her closer to him and gave her a sideways hug kissing the top of her head. “What about your grandma? After you moved she moved out a few weeks later and I didn’t hear anything after that. Did you keep in touch?”

She shrugged and he caught the sad expression in her eyes. “Yeah she moved to a facility to take care of her. She died when I was in seventh grade.” He bit his lip. That meant that she had died only two years after she had moved away.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was that soon after.” She stayed silent and he knew that it was time to change the subject. He knew how close she had been to her grandma and knew it was going to be a touchy subject when he brought it up. “So, anything else I should know about you? I know that you’re a drummer and that you’re close to your adopted sister but what else? Ten years is a long time, something else is bound to have changed.”

“Umm,” she started after giving him an appreciative look knowing he had changed the subject on purpose. “Oh, I’m a vegetarian now.”

“What!?”

“Yeah my freshman bio class showed us how meat was made and after that I swore I would never eat it again.”

He just stared at her. “Seriously? Six years without meat? How have you survived? That video must have been pretty graphic for you to swear off the stuff? I could never do it. I love meat too much to give it all up after seeing a video. Graphic or not,” He replied as he silently thanked God that he had chosen the place that he did. It was a health nut place that sold more vegetarian stuff than non and now he knew she would really like it.

When they got there, he opened the door for her and she blushed as she thanked him and walked in. Standing in line, she beamed as she read the menu and tried to figure out what she was going to get. They ordered and he paid for her, not before she tried to fight him on it but he won in the end.

They sat at a cozy little table next to a large window facing the busy street. When he started to ask her more questions he couldn’t seem to stop. They had a lot of things to catch up on and she seemed to have just as many questions as he did. She asked about the band and how it started and he explained everything. About meeting Alex, about how he had helped him get through it all once she had moved away and all about high school and how they had began as a cover band and grew to become so much more.

She told him about Addie and the rest of her adopted family and how great they were. Before she had first moved away, they had made up weird stories about the family and she told him that they were nothing like they had thought they were going to be like and told him that she would like him to meet them when they got back home. She did only live about a hour away so it’s not like they would be far apart after the tour ended.

And he was really glad about that. He finally got her back again and he didn’t want to let her go again.

Just as they were finishing eating, his phone buzzed and he rolled his eyes as he pulled it out to check who was trying to get a hold of him and found he had a few new texts.

From: Alex
Dude where are you? We have a meet and greet in a hour and a half and Flyzik’s going to have a cow if you miss it.

The first one read. He rolled his eyes and he pressed a button to check the next.

From: Flyzik
Jack, if you don’t have your ass back here in thirty minutes I’m going to kill you. Literally. Where are you?

“What’s up?” Soph asked and he figured she must have caught the annoyed look on his face. He gave a small shrug as he looked up from his phone.

“Nothing, Flyzik’s just going nuts because we have a meet and greet soon and I’m cutting it a little close. Would you hate me if I said we had to go?” He asked as she shook his head.

“Not at all, we have plenty more time to talk.” She replied as she stood up and grabbed her bag. “C’mon lets go. I don’t want you to be in any more trouble if we stay any longer.”

He nodded as he also stood and grabbed his coat pulling it on and following her out of the café. When they were walking back towards the venue, he pulled out his phone again to reply to the texts.

To: Flyzik
We’re on our way back. Don’t get your panties in a twist idiot.

When they got back to the venue, they walked into the dressing room together and each got a curious glance from their best friends. Alex had a teasing smirk on his face while Addie was signing to Soph at a rapid pace. He didn’t follow along with their conversation since he felt like he was prying and so just walked over to Alex and rolled his eyes.

“Have fun?” Alex asked as he pulled off his coat and threw it on one of the empty couches by his suit case.

“Maybe,” He replied shortly as he looked around the room trying to find their missing tour manager. “Where’s Flyzik? He was giving me shit about not being here and now he’s not even in the room.”

“I’m right here idiot.” Flyzik said as he walked over to them with an annoyed look. “About time you got here too. I was about to have Rian and Zack come and bring you back. But now that you’re here, would you mind doing the interview that you all promised that you would do today?”

“Eh I guess we can grace another interviewer with our presence. But they better start bowing soon or I’m not going to do them anymore.” Jack replied as Alex snorted.

Flyzik decided to not say anything as he shook his head and motioned them to follow him out the door to wherever the interviewer was hiding. Jack glanced back once more as he followed behind Alex to the hall and caught Soph’s eye and gave her a small smile before heading down the hall to get the stupid interview over with. All he wanted to do was get it over with so that he could get back to catching up with Soph and getting back to how they used to be.