We Learned How to Love

“Why Josh’s of all places? Why not Jess or Brian?” Alana had been complaining to the brothers since they picked her up from Josh’s house twenty minutes previous.

“It was the first person I thought of, you were there for an hour tops it can’t have been that bad,” John replied while helping carry Alana’s bands up his porch steps.

“He hates me.”

“I’m sure you were a peach to him.” Stephen rolled his eyes imagining Alana winding up Josh in his own home, thinking she owned the place, in reality she was just being curious. It was curiosity which led Josh to fight with Amber before she had to move, making their break up a bitter one.

“Stephen if I’m going to stay here you’re going to have to learn to hate me when I’m not in the room. I am not putting up with your put downs for however long I’m here.” Alana didn’t get it, sure she liked winding Stephen up but they were family, she didn’t understand why he seemed to have a hatred for her.

“How long are you going to be here anyway?” He asked ignoring the purpose of Alana’s sentence, in his mind if she didn’t want him to dislike her she should be nicer to him.

“I said she could stay as long as she wanted, mom doesn’t mind.” John added on the last bit to stop Stephen from protesting. He wished Alana and his brother got along. He got on with Alana fine, she almost opened up to him on the phone which was huge for her, it was John’s understanding Alana found it difficult to open up to anyone, including her mother.

“Where is she sleeping anyway? The guest room is half a studio now.” Stephen was very interested in the production of tracks, whenever the band recorded stuff at home it was Stephen who did the technical work.

“We moved the equipment out to the garage for now, Brian said he might have room for it at his place.” John grimaced at the explosion which he knew was going to come.

“WHAT? So I have to go to Brian’s house every time I want to mess around with some music? Jesus John you could have at least asked me!”

“It’s not like we’re recording right now John, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal.”

“We don’t have to be recording! I play around with music all the time!” Even though they were brothers and cared deeply about each other it was common for them to have fights. Josh didn’t understand it much, he never fault with his younger brother Cameron but sometimes John and Stephen got in each other’s faces. It wasn’t as bad as the Gallagher brothers but their fights could be intense sometimes, although fists were never thrown. Alana was feeling extremely awkward, she thought Stephen already knew of all the details and was simply being hostile about it all, she felt bad John didn’t tell him. Without a word she carried the bag she was holding up the stairs and after bursting in to two wrong doors settled down in the guest room. The walls were an apple green and the furniture minimalistic but all the basics were covered. The bed was a double to Alana’s delight; she could be a terrible fidget if she wasn’t comfortable and often fell out of single ones. She packed away the stuff she had with her, and after listening in and not hearing raised voices, she decided it was safe to get the rest of her bags. Imagine her surprise when on opening the bedroom door she saw John with the other two bags she was just going to collect, her had a sheepish grin on his face.

“I’m sorry about that; don’t feel bad it’s all my fault,”

“Thanks for my stuff; I was just going to get that.”

“It’s no problem, so I was kinda surprised when you called, it was a nice surprise.” John walked into the room placing Alana’s stuff by the wardrobe before taking a seat on the bed. Alana silently groaned, she knew John was going to try and make her talk, something which she hated doing.

“It’s not like I had anything better do it,” Alana shrugged and leaned against the only part of the wall which wasn’t covered by furniture. John smiled, he had cracked Alana, he knew it was all an act she only got defensive when someone tried to ask her about her personal life. Her ringing him and asking to come to Arizona was the start of her admitting she needed help and he loved that.

“You going to have a holiday or look for work or something?”

“I don’t know, I want to pay my way.” Yes she was tough but it didn’t mean she was unreasonable. A lot of people assumed because she didn’t have a job she was lazy and that hurt Alana. When she worked she worked hard, she knew the value of money, it was never a luxury for her growing up, she never got anything for free and never expected to.

“Don’t worry about that, you’re family.” John patted the space next to him but Alana chose to ignore the gesture,

“Try telling that to Stephen,” she mumbled harshly, she could see herself confronting him pretty soon she wanted to get to the bottom of why he felt so lowly about her.

“Stephen’s… well he’s Stephen but maybe this could be a chance for you two to get along?” Ever the optimistic Alana thought.

“You know John I’m kinda tired.” It was the truth but mostly Alana just wanted to be alone but didn’t want to be rude to John, he was never anything but nice to her. He smiled and
stood up, giving Alana a hug on the way out which she swiftly responded to. She shut the door after he left and flopped on the bed sighing, John was slowly climbing up her wall and she hated it.