I Got Your Picture I'm Coming With You

LEXIE'S POV

When I woke up, Jack wasn't there. I was slightly disappointed. But at the same time thankful for it, it meant we really weren't going to rush anything. We had a long way to go, I knew that. We had already started well by actually talking. The scars hadn't fully disappeared, but they were starting to fade.

Whilst I was caught up in my thoughts, Jack came through the door, dangling a key card. "I explained to the woman at the front desk and used my devilish charm, badda bing badda boom and here you go!"

I chuckled at him. "Thanks Jack, you're a lifesaver. But don't lie, you just flashed your cash really didn't you?" I teased.

"Pfft!" Jack buffed his nails on his jacket.  "Nah, she just couldn't resist me, it's a curse but I have to make the most of it," he mock sighed.

I laughed at him, swung my legs out of the bed and took my new key card from him. "Thank you," I said and kissed his cheek. I think he blushed a little.

"Ah, no problem. Breakfast when you're changed?"

"Sure," I nodded, smiling. "But I have to be back at the studio again today. They wanna talk about a music video or something. Some sort of promotion. I'm not really too keen though. I'd rather it was all about the music."

Jack nodded, understanding. "Yeah, but it's gotta be a good thing too. Like Hopeless won't make you do something you don't want to with the video. They want you too much to piss you off. Believe me. When they asked us if you could record our songs, if we said we'd have tithing about it, they'd spend hours begging us. They don't wanna let you go, Lexie, you're a special one."

I smiled at the ground. "Yeah, you're a special one too Jack," I whispered after I'd left and was in my own room.

Hm. What was that? Butterflies? Again? Really? I hadn't had those since Jack last year. I threw my head back and laughed in joy. He really was good for me. So this is love? Timeless. After everything, he could still make me feel like this. We had work to do, but I could tell we would make it out okay. Two minutes back with him and I was already falling all over again. It was easier now I'd gotten everything off my chest, and I'd finally really understood where he had been coming from.

I showered quickly, changed into skinny jeans and a Dangerous Summer tee, threw on a pair of sunglasses and converse, and headed out the door. It was sunny okay? And hot! May in America was a heck of a lot different to May in England. Okay in fairness I was in sunny California, but still. The only cold place here I bet would be Alaska or something. 

Jack was waiting for me outside the door. "Ready?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yup! Let's go eat, do they do chocolate cereal here?" I'd been craving it since I got here. Seriously, you don't know how much you love cocoa pops until you haven't had them for like a month.

"I think they're a little more sophisticated than that..."

"Well that's no fun," I pouted.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Fine, how about I take you out for breakfast somewhere? We can have pancakes with chocolate. That sound good? It's not cereal but it's still chocolate. That's good, right?"

"All chocolate is good! I'll be needing a brownie for lunch too."

"Do you only think about food?"

"When I'm away from my aunts cooking, yes. And American brownies are always the best. They kick asda's luxury brownie mix for sure!" 

Jack looked at me with a funny face. "Okay...I'll pretend that I know what that is. You English people are crazy."

"Hey! Alex is from England!" I defended. 

Jack cupped a hand round his ear. "What's that I hear? Oh yeah, VICTORY!"

"No! I just said, Alex is from England and he's not..." I trailed off as I thought about it and Jack smirked.

"Exactly."

I glared at him. "Fine. You win the battle, but, my friend, you have not won the war."

Jack smiled and shook his head. "You have much to learn young one. But no matter, we shall discuss it over breakfast. Let us flee and answer the call of the pancakes!" he declared, and ran out of the hotel, leaving me to run after him and try to catch up.

He stopped after five blocks at what he saw to be a good enough diner.

"Fuck, Jack," I gasped out of breath, trying to massage a stitch on my side. Bloody hell that boy was fast.

"This one. We can eat here."

"What makes it any different to the other few thousand diners we just ran past?" I asked with annoyance rising up out of my voice.

Jack just gave me a goofy smile. "This one gives you a soft toy with every child's breakfast."

"Of course," I mumbled as we headed inside and sat at a booth.

It turned out you had to actually be a child to get the soft toy. Jack was disappointed. Only Jack could pull at your heartstrings when he got turned down for the free toy. I have a feeling his body wasn't quite up to his mentality. But it was cute. His childishness made Jack...well, Jack.

We had a good talk over breakfast. The pancakes and hot chocolate sauce was pretty good to be fair. We caught up on each others lives. I told him all about my aunt, how I had started playing and gotten back into it, started gigging and how I ended up here. I was even honest about how I had felt. But that was nothing new after last night. Jack was honest about how he had felt when I'd left, and kept apologising, so much I'd ended up throwing my food at him to shut him up. That had earned us a death glare from the waitress as it had turned into a full on food fight. He carried on talking about how he had been with Millie, and the living arrangements between his and Vienna and Zack's homes. Jack didn't seem jealous that Zack looked after his kid with Vienna, but he was worried that Millie wouldn't get all the attention she deserved when their new baby came along, which was quite sweet of him actually, but I had a feeling Jack would give Millie all the attention she could ever want. He was a good dad.

After the serious stuff we just got back to joking, and even a little bit of flirting. It was nice, to have regained a little bit of how we were. But then I realised it was time to get to the studio, so Jack paid the bill and we left, walking hand in hand through the busy streets of LA. I don't think we'll ever get back to where we were, because the way I saw it, we were headed somewhere so much better than that. Somewhere where everything was glistening and bright. Somewhere perfect. A heaven of sorts.

We got into the studio, and guess what? The whole freaking band was there. I had to blink a few times, but then Dan stepped forward to clear it all up.

"They're here for the music video talk. Since we haven't decided on a song to do for the video, we figured you and All Time Low could collaborate one and do a music video together. So I guess today is about you guys writing a song. Can you write one in a day?"

"Pshh! Dude I can write ten in my sleep alone," Alex said, showing off a little.

"Do you understand the meaning of collab?" I said rolling my eyes, but smiling.

Alex put his hands over his chest. "Of course! I'll let you write the first line..."

I threw my sunglasses at him, and then we all got down to work.

"I wonder how it hurts
To know the years ahead are sure to blur
And float away
You can't hold on to them you say they escape
You won't look at me
You won't see it's my turn to be here
Now it's my turn to be here

Please
Don't 
Break

And your tears are bloodstained
But that's okay
There are some things we can't say outloud
And sometimes our knees will drop to the ground
Involuntarily/ you lost your belief 
In the fairytale ending...
But the end/ begins/ with you

It's not getting easier
And I wonder if the clouds will ever think to disappear
I'm still standing here
On the edge of a bridge
Bout to throw myself off but they can't see me like this
You say they can't see me like this

It's 
Okay
To break

And your tears are bloodstained
But that's okay
There are some things we can't say outloud
And sometimes our knees will drop to the ground
Involuntarily/ you lost your belief 
In the fairytale ending...
But the end/ begins/ with you

The change in the season 
Doesn't take your tears with them
And you don't know where to look 
Cause theres nowhere else to run

If you break
Break in front of me

(I can see) your tears are bloodstained
But it will be okay because 
There are some things we can't say outloud
And sometimes our knees will drop to the ground
Involuntarily/ you lost your belief 
In the fairytale ending...
(And you're learning that) the end/ begins/ with you

I need to say goodbye
Is it too late?
I don't want you to break"

Alex finished singing the last line, and I had to say, that was pretty good. It was good to be back with these guys. The song wasn't their usual stuff, but that was mainly because I was given most of the writing responsibility, humbly passed over by Alex. You think I'm kidding, but he made me a paper crown and everything. Plus it was mainly for me anyway, but they wrote all the music. Yes, I can play guitar. But I play it by ear. Ask me to write down what I'm playing or play something off sheet music and I'm stuck.

After a successful day of writing and getting the music all sorted, we decided to call it quits then and we all went for coffee. Nothing beats a good cup of English tea though. They don't make it the same in America. Zack headed off to Vienna, Rian and Alex headed of to do some shopping, and me and Jack were just sort of...left.

"So, what do you want to do now?" Jack asked me.

I thought about it for a moment. "I want to buy a new car. I have the money...but obviously it'll be a cheap car. Know any places?"

Jack looked thoughtful, then his face lit up. Brainwave moment. "I know the perfect place!"

He hailed a taxi and gave the driver some address. 

"I've never been in an American taxi before you know..." I told Jack after thinking about it.

He turned to me. "Really? You haven't? That's really weird! But yay! You're no longer a US taxi virgin!"

I laughed at him and the rest of the journey was pretty pleasant. Some All Time Low songs even came on, and the driver started jamming to them.

I looked at Jack and just laughed. He winked at me. 

"Hey, dude, ATL fan?" Jack asked.

The driver certainly looked young enough. Like maybe early twenties. Fresh out of uni I'd say...or college or whatever they call it here. "Yeah, man. Huge fan. It was my girlfriend that did it really."

"Want an autograph?"

The driver looked confused, at least that's what I thought looking at his eyes in the small rear view mirror. "Huh? What do you-HOLY FUCK YOU'RE JACK BARAKAT!"

And that outburst would have been funny if it weren't for the fact that the driver took his eyes of the road, drive straight into the crossroads, realised too late, and slammed the breaks just as the truck unintentionally headed straight for us.