Spinning.

“So when was the last time you went bowling?” Pat was walking next to me as we made our way from the venue to a bowling alley for some post-concert entertainment, since we wanted to do something different tonight.

I was relieved that we weren't at another bar tonight. As much fun as hanging out with everyone was, after a week and a half straight of just bars, the bar scene was becoming a little worn out and old drunk guys can only hit on me so many times before I go nuts. I mean, I was lucky that the guys all kept an eye out for me and made sure it never got out of hand, but I wasn't interested in them and really just wanted to be left alone for a little bit.

“Shit, I don't even remember. I actually really enjoy bowling, but I kind of suck at it.” I chuckled. “So this should be entertaining.”

“Oh, bowling with us is always entertaining. Skills are completely unnecessary!” Pat beamed. “It's almost more fun to be bad at bowling when you play with us...”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Oh... you'll see!” And with that, Pat skipped ahead of me to talk to Garrett.

Walking into the bowling alley, rainbow lights were darting every which way as the sounds of balls striking pins echoed throughout the building. It wasn't packed, but the cozy bowling alley was far from empty. We reserved four lanes, splitting them between bands and crews and all piled on the benches and chairs near the lanes, scrambling to get shoes and select a ball so we could get started.

“Alright, how are we doing this? Anyone taking bets? Teams? Special rules?” Jared shouted over the rest of the chatter, attracting the attention of our group.

“First game is normal, second game let's do teams!” John shouted back, sliding on his bowling shoes down the bench from where I was. I wasn't particularly a great bowler-- I wasn't horrible, and occasionally I could break 100, but normally that meant that I also had to have bumpers up or a very lucky game.

The first game of bowling was fun-- we all laughed at each other's mishaps and had our own bowling mishaps, Dave dropping the bowling ball behind him at one point and Alex falling on his ass when he tried to get fancy with his throws. The second game we split into two teams, each band and their crew making up one team. The winners got to pick their prize, since no one could come up with a good one that everyone could agree on.

The first couple of frames went without a hitch, but by the fourth frame things had started getting a little more rambunctious. I grabbed my ball from the rack, stepping up to my lane and lining up to throw when Pat and Kennedy ran up behind me, only to start pelvic thrusting on each side of me.

“Oh yeah, uh huh, we're hot!” They both shouted, distracting me and causing me to get a gutter ball. I cursed under my breath, turning to catch all of the Maine laughing at me while my bandmates looked confused.

“Since when was sabotage legal?” I busted out laughing, turning a bright shade of cherry.

“Since now!” They ran away laughing, high-fiving John as he stood up to take his turn.

“Well then, two can play that game!” The twins shouted, just in time for me to snatch a bowling ball from the rack and beat John to throwing it down their lane, giving him a gutter ball as well.

“HEY! That's not fair!” John started chasing after me as I ran away, giggling while the twins took over the sabotaging. John's long legs gave him a distinct advantage and he scooped me up, throwing me over his shoulder.

“John!! I'm wearing a dress!” I tried to squirm my way out of his grasp, but he was too strong and held onto me firmly as he carried me back to the bench.

“Boys, we have a hostage! What should I do with her?” The others stopped what they're doing, the rest of the Maine laughing while my bandmates started protesting. I felt my cheeks flushing as people from other lanes were paying attention to us, realizing that two well known bands were at the same bowling alley as them, and not to mention that they could all probably see up my dress.

“John Cornelius O'Callaghan the fifth! You are causing a public disturbance!” I shouted between laughs, still fighting to get him to put me down. “And your bony shoulder is giving me a bruise!”

He effortlessly flipped me around so I was now being held threshold style, grinning mischievously at me before setting me down. I managed to stop laughing long enough to fix my dress, looking up at the scoreboard to realize that the rapid fire sabotaging had gotten us through three and a half more frames. John stood in front of me, smirking with his arms crossed.

“It's my turn to bowl, jerk.” I playfully glared at him.

“You took my turn!” He retorted, olive eyes still sparkling.

“Yeah, after your band mates took mine!”

“So why'd you take it out on me?”

“Because we're bowling on teams, you tool.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Well then...” he trailed off, pondering a good comeback. I took advantage of his distraction to run up and bowl quickly, barely managing to whip the ball down the lane before he had caught up to me and began tickling me.

“This... isn't... fair!” I gasped between laughs. “Stop!”

“Not until you apologize!” He laughed, continuing to tickle me even after I had fallen on the floor.

“No!” I refused, trying to get away from his reach.

“Beret you got a strike!” Mason shouted from behind me, running up quickly with Dave to save me before I hyperventilated from laughing so hard. The twins had started bowling for the Maine again, and mentally I decided that there was no way we could legitimately count this game since it wasn't an honest competition.

“Oh my god John, I know where you sleep!” Once Dave and Mason had separated us, I returned to making silly threats at him.

“And I know where you sleep!” He returned the sentiment, winking at me. Ian and the twins began shouting with Pat and Garrett about the scores.

“LOOK!” The four of them shouted, attracting our attention. They pointed to the scoreboards, which indicated that we had tied.

“Would ya look at that!” Jared laughed. “We tied!”

John turned to me, narrowing his eyes. “It's her fault.” he teased, pointing at me. “We would have totally won if it wasn't for her.”

“Oh whatever John, don't be a sore loser.” I giggled.

“That's it!” He ran over and picked me up again, raking me out of the bowling alley entirely.

“John! We're not supposed to wear our bowling shoes outside!” My eyes widened as we left the building, realizing that we were going to get in trouble.

“Oh please, it's not like they're going to notice!” He looked around, still holding onto me, trying to decide what to do next.

“They know who we are though! I might get in trouble with Alice! Image!” I squeaked.

“Oh who gives a shit about image.” John stopped, something clicking in his mind before an evil grin appeared on his face.

“John...” I trailed off as we started moving again, towards a snow bank. “John!” I realized he was about to throw me into the snow and began panicking, trying to get free before he could throw me in the snow. “No! John Cornelius! Don't you DARE throw me in the snowbank!” I screamed, wrapping my arms as tightly around his neck as I could. If he was going to throw me in the snow, I was determined to take him down with me. Dirk had chased after us with his videocamera, laughing hysterically as he watched the scene unfold before us. John's pace quickened as we got closer to the snow, the grin on his face only widening as we approached.

“No! John! No!” I kept yelling, and as we reached the snowbank he tried to peel my arms off of his neck, almost succeeding before losing his balance and causing both of us to topple into the snow.

“Jesus Christ that's cold!” He yelled, scrambling to stand up and brush the snow off. I smirked and pulled him back down, rolling over and sitting on top of him before brushing the snow off of myself.

“Ha. Karma's a bitch!” I laughed at him before hopping off of the pile. I had maybe made it five feet away from the pile before I felt him pulling me back onto the pile, his tall frame easily overpowering my small one as he pinned me down onto the pile.

“Chilly?” he smirked at me as I squirmed for the hundredth time.

“You suck.” I shot him a dirty look, which he simply responded to by grinning.

“You love me!” He sang, the sparkle in his eyes increasing as he held me there.

“Nope. No I don't! This is cold you asshole!”

“I won't let you go unless you say you love me!”

“Never!”

“Say it: John is the coolest guy ever and I love him!”

“No!”

“Say it!”

“John this is really cold!” The snow was starting to soak through my dress and the cold felt like it was burning my skin.

“Not letting you go until you say it!”

“FINE! John is the coolest guy ever and I love him!” I gasped as he pulled me off the pile, stumbling at first before regaining my balance.

“Fuck, I hate you so much.”

“Watch it or I'll throw you in the snow again.” John suggestively wiggled his eyebrows at me. I was so cold I had started shivering, so I rapidly shook my head no before running to get back inside.

“What happened to you?!” Ian spotted me as I returned, soaked from the snow and shivering. John wasn't far behind, also soaked from the snow, while Dirk was still laughing behind the camera.

“Snow bank.” I simply responded, removing my bowling shoes before replacing my own shoes on my feet.

Jared started laughing as he put two and two together, looking between John and I as his laughter grew.

“I would have expected that from the twins, not you two. You look like drowned rats!” He was almost doubling over with laughter, amused by our apparent scuffle with the snowbank.

“She started it!”

“No, you started it!”

“Children!” Carolyn cut both of us off. She didn't seem mad, wearing a grin on her face and a twinkle in her eye as she addressed us. “As amusing as this is, we have to get going. The buses are supposed to be leaving in twenty minutes and we still have to walk back to them.”

John and I both narrowed our eyes at each other before simultaneously busting out in laughter again.

“Truce?” He held out his hand to me, which I stared at for a minute before taking.

“Truce.”



“Here, let me get that for you.” I turned around to find John standing there, hands shoved in his pockets while we were trying to unload the trailer with our equipment.

“Oh, no I can get it. Thanks though.” I smiled at him, holding a box of cords and pedals. “It's nothing heavy anyways.”

“I'm surprised that you help with the set up and take down for shows.” John admitted, trailing after me as I entered the venue we were playing at tonight.

“And why is that?”

“Well, you're like, crazy famous. You could get anyone else to do it for you.”

“Yeah but then what am I going to do for the entire time that we set up and take down? I wouldn't have anyone to hang out with, and I don't particularly think me wandering around cities that I don't know would end up well. I have a horrible sense of direction.” I laughed. “Besides, it keeps me humble. And it's good exercise.”

“Touche, I suppose.” He held the door open for me and I walked through to the stage, setting down the box. Walking back outside, I turned to say something to John when I felt myself being scooped off the ground.

“John what in god's-- oh no, NO JOHN NOT THIS AGAIN!” The mischievous smirk on John's face told me everything I needed to know, and that was that we were heading straight for another snow bank. We may have called a truce last night, but apparently the war wasn't over.

I pulled him into the snowbank with me, squeaking as the ice crystals burned against my bare skin. “Fuck why do you always think this is a good idea??” I yelped as some snow went up my shirt, scrambling to sit up.

“Revenge is a bitch, you should realize how this works.” He laughed, making a snow ball and throwing it at me.

“Bitch please it's on!” I grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it down the back of his shirt, to which he screamed like a girl and then tried to tackle me onto the snow again.

“Oh my god are you two at it again?” Jared and Dirk walked outside and saw us wrestling in the snowbank.

“Oh please this bitch started it!” I pointed to John as he chucked a handful of snow into my face.

“Whatever, she had it coming!” John retorted, grinning ear to ear as I tossed more snow at him.

“You guys are so weird!” Jared shouted after us as they walked away, ignoring the squeals and giggles coming from the pile of snow.



“I hate you.” I couldn't keep a straight face as I tried to guilt John, moving back in the bus and stripping my wet clothes off before finding some new clothes to put on.

“No you don't, you're smiling.” John shot back, the grin on his face widening as I felt my cheeks blush.

“No, I'm pretty sure I hate you now.” I affirmed, turning so he could only see my back while I switched shirts.

“Well, if I take you out for hot chocolate, will you stop hating me?” John asked, his voice teasing me as he laid back on the couch.

“Does that mean you're paying?” I considered his offer.

“What else would that mean?” His face shifted to confusion.

“Well knowing you, you'd probably think it was funny if we went to get hot chocolate and then you made me pay.”

“Well now that you mention it...” I walked back to the front and smacked John's arm as he trailed off, the ever-present grin on his face widening. “Ouch! That hurt!” He rubbed his arm where I had hit him, feigning that he was in pain.

“Oh stop you big baby.”

“Seriously though, want to go get hot chocolate or coffee or something? Now that we've both frozen our asses off...”

“Sure. Do you have to change before we go, since you're kind of wet too now?”

“Wow, that's what she said.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Yes, I do have to change. And grab my wallet.” We left my bus and made our way onto The Maine's bus, where John didn't bother to warn me before removing his pants and shirt, leaving him in nothing but his boxers.

“Are we at this part of our friendship yet?” He started laughing at my eyes bulging out of my head, completely caught off guard by his actions.

“I guess we are now...” The heat rose off my cheeks as I realized I was totally checking him out, tearing my eyes away from his abs and looking everywhere else.

“So, are we ready?” I tentatively peeked over before realizing John was completely dressed again, tossing his wallet up and catching it with one hand.

“Lead the way.” We walked around for a little bit before finding our way into a Starbucks, where John flirted shamelessly with the Barista before ordering a white mocha for me and a peppermint mocha for himself.

“So, what's new in the life of Beret?” John asked as we sat down at a table. “What's up in the life of hollywood's weirdest obsession?” He made a face and chuckled, causing me to narrow my eyes at him.

“Oh shut up.” I couldn't help but laugh. “And to be fair, I'm by far one of the least weird people hollywood is obsessed with. Like, I don't even know why they pay so much attention to me. I'm not even interesting.”

“Who says you're not interesting?”

“Well, I don't pull Lindsay Lohans every night and I don't sit around pledging my purity to everyone with ears. As far as fame goes, that means I just exist.”

“That doesn't mean you're not interesting though.” John defended, looking at me like I was missing the point.

“To the people who know me, sure I'm probably just as interesting as anyone else. But that's not how the rest of the world knows me.”

“Well why not?”

“Because I have handlers who meticulously care for my public image.” I sarcastically commented. “The bowling alley last night? Someone put a video of it on youtube and TMZ found it. Alice wasn't very happy when we got up this morning.” I laughed. “They had this crazy story about how we tore up the bowling alley, and Alice I guess had to call them like 'no that wasn't what happened!' and give them what actually happened, which means when they tape their live show I'm sure that'll be a fun time.” I rolled my eyes.

“Wow, that's rough.” John tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips.

“Yeah I'm pretty sure they're more strict than my parents were. Like, 'don't wear that!' 'tweet this!' I'll do whatever I damn well please, thanks.” We both couldn't help but laugh as I mocked my life. It wasn't that I didn't like Carolyn and Alice-- they were perfectly nice people, and they were doing their job. But being told what to do and having people judge you all day gets kind of old. Especially when you're naturally independent and don't give a fuck.

“See, you are interesting! You get sassy when people try to step on your toes and tell you who to be. That's interesting.” John exclaimed, still obviously stuck on the 'interesting' bit.

“Wait, you're still on that?” I laughed. “We're moving past that now. Alright, tell me about the world of John. What's going on in that crazy head of yours?”

“Fine. Well if you must know, I talked on the phone with my mom this morning.” He shrugged, blushing slightly.

“And?”

“And what?”

“Well... what did you talk about?” I pressed.

“Usual stuff, what people are up to at home, Shane and Ross's misfortunes, what I'm up to, she bugged me about taking care of myself...” he laughed. “I feel like every conversation is like 'oh hey mom we're playing this show to ten thousand people!' 'oh John you're not eating too much junk food right?' 'mom did you just hear me I said we're playing a show for ten thousand people! ” he imitated his mom, causing me to giggle.

“Your mom sounds fun. She just cares about her baby.” I teased, making kissy faces at him.

“My mom's a character. I'm sure you'll meet her when we play in Phoenix. She gets really emotional over things, which is hilarious but scary at the same time. We were watching one of those lifetime movies one day and she just started sobbing and I had no idea what to do.” His eyes were shining as he thought about his mom, which made me smile. He was a total mama's boy.

“So what did you do?” I inquired.

“I started laughing. She hit me for laughing at her.” He tried to choke back his laughter, but failed. “I was kind of a douche when I was a teenager.”

“Apparently!” I laughed.

“Well what about your family?”

“Mine? Well, I don't know. My parents were pretty normal. My dad works in construction and my mom is an art teacher at a high school. I apparently am the spitting image of my mom when she was my age, but with red hair. They were always pretty easygoing, which might explain a lot about me. My brother prevented me from ever being really girly. He used to hide my barbies so I'd have to play with him.” I smiled at the memory. Even though five year old me hated it, it made me smile now.

“Wow, what a jerk.”

“You can't tell me you didn't force your brothers to do things they didn't want to!”

“Oh no, I was the perfect older brother.” John's face lit up as he chuckled, knowing that was a lie.

“I call bullshit.”

“Hi, um, excuse me?” We both turned to see two teenage girls standing next to our table. “We, uh, didn't want to interrupt, but um we're going to your concert tonight and we were wondering if we could get a picture with the two of you?” The older looking girl asked, biting her lip nervously.

“I, yeah, of course!” I replied, looking at John.

“Yeah, we'd love to!” John and I stood up, as one of the girls ran to give someone else her camera. We posed for a serious picture and a funny one, talking to the pair for a couple minutes before they said goodbye.

“Wait! One question before we go,” the younger one quickly asked. “Are you two... like... dating?”

John and I looked at each other before simultaneously bursting into laughter. “Us? Dating? No... no we're not dating at all...” I shook my head, trying to contain my laughter.

“Oh, well I was just... you two seemed like you might be on a date...”

“She made me buy her coffee because I threw her in a snowbank.” John smiled at them, and I'm pretty sure I watched them both swoon over that grin.

“Because he's a jerk.” I snickered.

“Hey!” John pouted.

“I'm kidding, he's perfectly nice. Except for when he throws you in snowbanks.”

John playfully narrowed his eyes at me, which I mirrored.

“Oh... well, okay!” The younger girl responded, drawing our attention back to the pair of girls. “Can't wait to see you guys tonight!” They waved and walked out, leaving the two of us still chuckling.

“Well that was interesting.” I mused.

“Yeah, forewarning, our fans get a little crazy over possible girlfriends. Except for Tessa, they really like Jared's girlfriend Tessa for some reason.”

“I mean, with your ugly mug, who wouldn't go crazy?”

“Ouch, right in the feelings there Beret.” He pouted.

“I'm kidding. Calm your tits.”

Our conversation then returned to families, slowly sharing all the quirks that made us into who we both were today, and stayed there for a while until John looked at the time.

“We should probably go back to the venue. I think we're supposed to soundcheck soon.” We both had permanent smiles etched on our faces, and the walk back to the bus was filled with lively chatter about everything else under the sun, which was refreshing to say the least.

John made me feel good about myself. He was fun, spontaneous, and honest. And that smile, and those eyes... I was easily seeing why everyone had crushes on John. And I even had one myself. Not just an “oh you're cute, I don't know you at all but you're easy on the eyes,” but more of an “alright you're really cool and I want to spend a lot of time with you because you make me really happy without even trying” type thing.

And with that realization, I needed to call Ava.