Can't Stop Lovin' You

Jack was standing in front of a mirror in his band’s changing room, admiring his very own eyebrows as Alex smacked his head. It was a day before Christmas 2009 and All Time Low had to do this one last show of their tour in New York before heading back to Baltimore for a little winter break the label gave them. 2009 had been a busy year for all time low and nothing could top that moment for the band just yet.

“Jack, how many bras you think we’ll get this time?” Alex said bluntly.

“We? Seriously Alex? I get all the bras. They’re hanging on my mic stand!” Jack scoffed as Zack entered the room. “Oh, there goes our missing member!” He added as he grinned.

“Come on guys, show time!” Said the band’s tour manager, Matt Flyzik.

As the band hit the stage, the crowd was getting hotter and crazier. A lot of girls were screaming out their names and nothing seemed to get better. As the band perform their encore, Alex told the crowd what a wonderful crowd they were and the crowd got even much more noisy, even though the show was finally over.

The band went backstage to find their after show foods have arrived but their special guest has not even reached the venue just yet. Rian threw his body to the couch nearby him as Alex drank a can of his favorite beer meanwhile Jack was eating all the foods by himself since it was Mexican, and Zack decided to join Rian relaxing and being healthy with a bottle of mineral water.

As much as the band wanted to come out and hang with the fans, the security forbids them to because of some technical difficulties and danger. Turns out all the fans were told to go home because of the possibility of a storm, so the band couldn’t do anything but to agree.

“If a storm is coming our way, how are we going to meet Riley?” Jack said in concern as Zack tried to call Riley’s phone.

“I can’t reach her number.” Zack stated and the boys started to freak out.

“Boys, we’ll have to leave right now. But it’s impossible to drive back to Maryland tonight. The forecast says it will be one hell of a storm.” Matt said as the boys got up.

The band tried to argue with Matt’s decision of driving back to the hotel, but Matt had his own way to beat the band’s argument and he drove back to the hotel. The forecast was right, it was snowing real hard and the road was barely visible though. On the way back, Zack saw a group of people walking by the curb of the road and he noticed a girl with the ginger hair.

“Matt, pull over!” Zack shouted as Matt glanced. “I saw Riley by the curb! In the middle of those people!” he added, pointing at the group of people walking.

The other three members immediately told Matt to pull over as he did and Zack ran out of the van toward Riley’s direction and pulled her in to the van as they carried on their way back to the hotel where they were staying.

Riley’s boots and Zack’s sneakers were covered in snow as Zack helped her cleaning them and the rest of the band watched them getting their self cleaned from the snow. Sitting in the front seat of the van, Alex looked back through the rear view and smirked at Riley’s direction.

“You know we were waiting, don’t you?” Alex said as Riley bit her lower lip as she rubbed her own hands.

“You’re so cold.” Zack said in a low tone as he rubbed Riley’s hands as well in between of Alex’s sentence.”Come on Alex, stop intimidating her, we’re lucky she’s here with us right now. She could’ve got stuck someplace because of the storm.” Added Zack.

The band finally reached the hotel and Matt decided he would crash earlier, even though the boys were still asking him to go to the hotel’s bar for a little while. But Matt was being wise and he knew a little while partying for the band is more than average people’s little while. As Matt decided he would just go to bed, the band hit the bar straight.

Jack and Alex ordered a few shots before having some girls asking them to dance on the dance floor. Alex was half drunk and he didn’t have any intention to be drunk because he realized he would be going to back to Maryland, to his sweet Lindy, so he put down the girls’ offer to dance.

“Well I guess I'm the only one who’s going to have real fun tonight!” Jack stated as he went off to the dance floor with his ‘girls’.

Rian, Zack, and Riley were just having regular beers meanwhile they see Jack kept on going back and forth from the dance floor to the bar to order more shots. As the night was getting late, Jack was getting drunker than he probably ever should, so Riley decided to stepped in and take him out of the dance floor until Jack decided to be a dick and hit on her instead.

“You’re too drunk.” Riley said, rolling her eyes as Jack grabbed her hand tight.

“Say it sexy ginger, say you want a little part of me.” Jack whispered as he cupped Riley’s face, slowly pulling her close as she struggle out and ended up slapping him.

“You’re better than this!” Riley said, almost crying as she ran away while Zack and Rian decided to run after her while Alex came toward Jack.

“Come on, dude.” Alex sighed. “Even I know that’s too far! She’s Riley, you wouldn’t want to make out with her. None of us would! It’s bed time.” Alex added as Jack said no and it annoyed him so he left Jack all alone.

---

“Good morning, Barakat.” Said a girl’s voice in distant.

Jack’s head was still aching so bad because of the drinks he had last night and he could barely remember anything, including asking a random girl to sleep inside his room. Well waking up next to a total stranger girl is not something new for Jack in the past year. Ever since 2006, Jack was never really in a serious relationship, all he did was one night stands and he seemed perfectly fine with it.

“What time is it?” Jack asked bluntly in his sleep.

“It’s only 10 am, but that’s okay, you’re not late for your trip back home. Your phone wouldn’t stop beeping so I decided to take it and your band mate said they wouldn’t be leaving until later. The weather outside is horrible.” Said the girl. “Maybe its more time for us..” She added as she climbed back to Jack’s side.

Jack could saw the girl completely undressed and he realized he was too, but then something strike in. As much as Jack enjoyed his one night stand with this somewhat Russian girl, he knew he was in a huge trouble because he remembered that he was slapped by Riley and that was nothing good.

The girl felt Jack’s uneasiness as she tried to keep him down by getting on top of him, but Jack was a lot much more sober than he was last night. Even though he was still on hangover, he could now think a lot much clearer and running to Riley to apologize was the only thing he wanted to do. They were still best friends though.

“Look I get it we had a lot of fun last night, but I have to settle things out right now.” Jack said, trying to get the girl off him.

“Are you going somewhere?” The girl said as she watched Jack getting dressed up. “Do you want me to leave now? Or maybe we can carry this on later?” she added with a naughty voice as Jack rolled his eyes.

“I’ve paid you, haven’t I?” Jack asked as the girl nodded and she took all her clothes, getting dressed and get out of Jack’s room.

Jack washed his face and cleaned him self before going out to see his band mates, but thing is, he didn’t really know in what room does Riley stay in or with who, so the wisest way was to get information from Alex. As Jack knocked the door, Alex opened it and he let them in. with a typical smirk, Alex looked at Jack as if he was a big sack of bad joke.

“I know Alex, I messed up real hard, now tell me where she is.” Jack sighed as Alex told him she was with Zack. “Are they sleeping together in a room?!” Jack bulged his eyes out as Alex nodded.

With a little tickle in his head, Jack walked toward Zack’s room and imagines what would he get after he knocked on Zack’s room. Slowly with a grin he couldn’t keep down, he knocked on the room and waited patiently for any of those two open the door and finally the ‘click’ was heard and the door was swung open.

Riley opened the door and he could notice Zack was snoring inside his room meanwhile Riley who was standing in front of him was wearing Zack’s t-shirt and a hot pants. Of course Jack wanted to laugh but he wouldn’t laugh until Riley forgave him. To make sure he could laugh sooner, he quickly apologized and even though Riley was disappointed at Jack’s behavior, she forgave him anyway.

As Riley forgave Jack, he decided to walk into the room and wouldn’t keep his mouth shut, asking her straight how was her sleep with Zack the night before and what went down. Riley’s face turned so red, as red as a boiling crab. Riley didn’t want to answer but Jack was being a nosy guy and he wouldn’t shut up. Jack took a look over Zack’s direction and he spot Zack was not wearing any shirt.

“Oh My God! Riley? Did you two…” Jack dropped his jaw as he laughed so hard and it woke the hell out of Zack.

“Jack?! What are you doing here??” Zack said in shock.

“I’m here to meet your girl friend and finish our little business last night.” Jack said, trying to trick Zack. “Are you jealous?” He added as Zack stood up.

“Hell yeah I am!” Zack said as Jack laughed as hard as possible.

“I knew it! I knew it since last night you liked Riley and I knew you liked him too! Geez I'm so happy for you two.”

Zack’s and Riley’s face turned red and Jack had this winning expression on his face as he said he was only there to apologize to Riley and trying to find out what happened between the two. As much as Jack was happy for his two buddies, something felt different. Like there’s a piece missing and he wouldn’t bother to find out.

Zack took one shirt and put it on as he watched Jack leaving his room laughing uncontrollably, probably going back to Alex’s room to tease the hell out of Riley and Zack, meanwhile back in Zack’s room, the newly dated couple decided to snuggle back into the blanket and enjoy the rest of the day. Riley was happy that she was finally in the position she was in with Zack, but if only Savannah were there, she would be happier than Riley because she was the only one who knew how much Riley liked Zack since middle school.