Darling, I Just Can't Go On

"I can't believe it's already winter break," Rian muttered as sat around Alex's basement, me laying on the floor, laptop poised in front of me.

"I can't believe it's almost Christmas," Jack said happily as he stretched himself out on his stomach next to me, mimicing my position. "What cha doin'?"

"Nothin'," I replied, looking over at him and sticking my tongue out.

"Meanie!" He pouted before rolling over onto his back, looking up at Alex who had been sitting on the love seat beside me. "Alex! Make the woman be nice to me!"

"Andi, will you be nice to Jack?" He asked me, and without looking away from my game I replied, "Nope."

"Sorry man," He told Jack. "I did all I could."

Jack looked between the two of us with a incredulous look on his face while Zack and Rian laughed at the conversation we had been having.

"So Jack," Zack started saying randomly making us all look over to him. "My parents want to know if your mom is still throwing that big Christmas Eve party that she always does."

"I think so... I mean she's been talking about it since Thanksgiving." The lanky boy replied giving a shrug. "She looks forward to that thing all fucking year."

"Christmas Eve party?" I asked, rolling over onto my side to face the boys.

"That's right, you've never been to one of his mom's parties," Rian said as if it had just dawned on him.

"My mom always throws this big party on Christmas Eve for all the families to go to since we all do our seperate things on Christmas day." Jack explained to me, actually seeming calm for the first time that day. "And yes, you and your dad are coming. If you don't show up Alex and

I will come and kidnap both of you and force Christmas cheer down your throats."

I rolled my eyes at his words before rolling back onto my stomach, continuing on with the game that I had been playing. Zoning out and focusing in on what I was doing, I didn't hear what the boys were talkng about until Jack's booming voice brought me out of my trance once more.

"The best part of Christmas is getting to watch Nightmare Before Christmas again!" He giggled happily. "I mean that movie is perfect for my two favourite holidays!"

"What about Thanksgiving?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at him. "I thought you loved all the free food."

He stared at me for about a minute before glaring.

"Shut up."

I just laughed along with the other guys as I shut my laptop off. Closing the lid, I slowly stood up, stretching out my stiff back.

"I have to pee," I informed the boys before heading up the stairs to the front bathroom by the kitchen.

It wasn't until I was heading back to the basement that I noticed Alex's mom sitting in the kitchen with a tall glass of iced tea.

"Oh hello Andi," She said when she saw me walking past again. "It's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you too Mrs. Gaskarth," I said, giving her a small, awkward feeling smile.

"Oh please, call me Isobel," She said with a small laugh before patting the seat next to her, signaling me to join her at the table. "You're over here often enough for us to be on first name basis."

I just gave another awkward smile and a nod.

"There is a reason I wanted to talk to you, and not just small talk." She said, picking up her glass and taking a sip. "You and my son seem very close."

In my mind, alarms were basically flashing red and a siren was ringing. I knew that this conversation was going to come up, and I had been dreading it for months.

"You could say that," I mumbled in response, giving a small shrug.

"I'm not say that it's a bad thing," She said quickly, seeing my actions as defensive. "Actually, quite the opposite. I've seen a change in him lately, one that I feel is coming from you."

I tilted my head to the side slightly at her words, showing my confusion at her comment.

"He's so happy now a days." She beamed. "He's always been a happy kid, especially with as good of friends as Jack and the other boys, but he seems a different kind of happy ever since you two became friends."

I couldn't help the smile that formed as I took in her words, knowing that I had in fact helped with it.

"I've also noticed how odd your friendship with him is," She commented, sending me a knowing look that brought the confusion back to my face. "It's not hard to tell that you both are very close to one another, maybe in a way that's more than just friends."

What she was saying finally dawned on me, and I could feel it showing on my face as I gave a small shake of the head.

"It's not like that..." I mumbled, but a small amount of heat had risen and settled across the apples of my cheeks.

"Whatever you say honey," She said before taking another sip of her tea, but the look in her eyes had not faded despite my protests. "Get back to the boys and make sure they haven't killed each other yet."

I quickly scurried out of the kitchen, jogging down the stairs to find Zack pinning Jack down in the middle of the room, Rian texting someone and not paying attention to anything, and Alex just watching the two wrestling boys.

"What took you so long?" Alex asked me as I sunk down on the love seat next to him, tucking my legs under me lightly, which in the end just pressed me into his side.

"Your mom wanted to talk to me..." I muttered, looking up and pulling a small face at my words.

"What'd she want?" He asked, sounding both curious and a tad worried.

"Nothing big really, just about you."

"Wait, what about me?" He questioned, this time sounding almost insecure.

I just gave a small laugh at his tone, but purposely ignored the question as I settled back into the sofa more.

"Come on," He whined poked at my sides and making me squirm away from him slightly. "Tell me!"

"No," I said simply with a smirk which quickly faded when he began tickling my sides. "Stop!"

I was a laughing mess as I tried to break away from his wild moving hands, falling off the couch in the process, but bringing him down with me.

"Get off of me," I groaned as he spread his body weight out over mine, my feebly trying to push him off of me.

"Well since you won't share the big secret...Nope." He said, popping the 'p' at the end.

"Come on," I whined, mocking his words from only a few minutes before. "Move!"

"No." He replied simply, that time mocking my words. "Oh how the tables have turned."

As the two of us play fought, the other three band members sat back and watched, Zack and Jack having stopped their wrestling match when the sounds of loud giggles filled the room.

Jack already knew how Alex felt about the petite girl, but the others looked on in shock at how different their best friend was with this girl over all the other girls he had ever been close with, dating or not.