Take A Breath, Let the Rest Come Easy

“When can I see you again?” Alex asked, pulling Grace’s other hand to latch in his. Grace pulled out of his grip and covered his eyes, then pulled her hand away.

“Ta-Da!” She laughed. Alex didn’t. “I’m kidding.” She chuckled. “I have a meeting tomorrow, and work in the evening.”

“Do you want to come over and meet the guys? We’re having like a…movie night? I guess you could call it that. Zack really wants to watch Iron Man. The guys a Marvel nerd.”

“Can I bring Lauren?” She asked.

“Sure!” Alex nodded. Grace mumbled an, “okay” and then put her hand on the doorknob.

“I’ll see you later, Alex.” She said.

“Wait,”

Grace’s heart sped up. She wanted him to kiss her. Alex cracked his fingers, something Grace had noticed he did when he was nervous. He leaned in towards her, and caught her face in his hands. Her arms slid around his shoulders and he pulled her towards him. His lips pressed against hers and she felt her knees become mushy. Alex’s arms slid around her waist to keep her up, as he felt her knees buckle beneath him. He nibbled on her lip, causing her mouth to open. His tongue slid over her teeth, and she moaned. Being kissed was not something she was used to- hell, she didn’t even know if she was good at it. She eventually pulled away from him, and put her fingers to her now swollen lips. “That was….wow.” She stopped.

Alex smiled, and then turned back down the steps of the apartment. “I’ll call you.” She nodded stupidly, and then went into her apartment.
---

“He better have hot friends.” Lauren leaned over to Grace. Grace rolled her eyes.

After having a phone conversation with Hopeless Records, they agreed to meet her for a recording. They wanted to hear her, and Grace couldn’t have been happier. But, back to the current location- Grace and Lauren were standing outside Alex’s apartment. Grace had been out five times with Alex since their first date, and they had a lot of fun together.

Alex took her to the highest point in Baltimore, which was on one of the office buildings further uptown. They drank lots of beer that night, and ended up getting extremely wasted. And although Alex kept hinting at going back to his place for the night- Grace never let in, despite how intoxicated she really was. She had class, and she intended to keep it that way. Besides, she had kept her virginity for so long, as much as she wanted Alex- she couldn’t just give it up so soon. She was often teased about being so old fashioned. But growing up in a home full of poise and class, she couldn’t even imagine giving it up so easily. She knew Lauren had, but Lauren wasn’t raised as Grace was, and as much as she loved her for that, she couldn’t bring herself to act how Lauren did, sometimes.

“Hi!” Jack opened the door. The warmth burst out of the room and felt wonderful on Lauren and Grace’s faces. (haha that rhymed). “Get your fine asses in here!” He said and pulled both into the room. Lauren stared up at Jack, and Grace immediately knew she thought he was sexy.

“Hi, I’m Jack.” He said, smiling. The boy was tall and lanky. He had dark brown hair and was completely Lauren’s type.

“Hey.” Lauren said, smiling like an imp. Grace left both of them to get acquainted. Alex took Grace into his arms and then introduced her to both Rian and Zack. Zack was laying down on the floor doing crunches.

“Enough with the working out, man! You’re already fucking ripped.” Alex laughed. Zack stood up and said hi to Grace.

“Hey, Grace.” Rian said, and Grace turned around to greet the tall short haired man with a friendly face. He asked her about her music career, and then how she planned on getting signed. Then he began to explain their experiences and the music label that they had been signed on to. Alex twisted in his seat uncomfortably. He hadn’t mentioned to Grace yet that they were signed on to Hopeless Records- the same label that had asked to listen to her.

“You guys are signed to Hopeless?” she questioned, looking over at Alex. “You never mentioned that.”

“You never asked.” He laughed.

Zack popped in the movie and Rian brought himself a bag of popcorn into the open living room. Alex put down his guitar and scooted next to Grace. Lauren and Jack exchanged awkward looks at each other before leaping into each other’s arms and giggling like children.

About half way into the movie, Alex’s hand crept up the side of Grace, and then slid back down to her waist. She smiled, and looked back at him. He pecked her cheek. Grace slid her fingers through Alex’s free hand, and moaned softly when Alex began tracing kisses down her soft neck. “Alex,” she mumbled. “Stop, please.”

“Why?” He murmured.

“GET A ROOM!” Jack wailed from across the room, tossing a handful of popcorn in their direction. Lauren chuckled, and raised an eyebrow at Grace, who blushed.

“Fine!” Alex retorted. “This movie sucks anyways.”

“HEY!” Zack frowned.

“Sorry, Zack. I think it’s good.” Grace shrugged as Alex yanked her up from the couch, and pulled her by the arm.

“She’s lying.” Alex finished and then took her away from the room and into his bedroom. Grace plopped herself on the bed and watched as Alex sauntered over her, gently kissing her neck again.

She gave in to him, and continued to kiss him. Alex’s heart sped up, and he felt himself stiffen down below. This girl did things to him that he had never felt in his life. He slipped his hand behind her head and grasped her curly blondish mess. Her fingers found their way to his shirt and pulled it upward. Her hands felt around each and every muscle. Alex groaned, wondering whether he was going to be able to control himself from completely jumping her bones that instant.

Alex pushed Grace’s shirt to the side and kissed down her neck and to her shoulder. Grace’s body tensed as he hit her long crooked scar. Alex stopped and looked down at the ugly mark. “What happened?” He fell to the side of her, and traced a finger over the mark.

“Car accident.” She muttered.

“That looks pretty nasty, what happened?” He pressed for more, wondering whether this was the reason she had stopped driving all together.

“Scrap metal dug into my shoulder.” The words made her stomach churn as she replayed the events from two years ago.

“You’re lucky it didn’t pierce you altogether.” Alex noted, and found his way to the scar under her lip. He fingered it gently before leaning in to kiss it.

“I know.” She sighed, looking down and away from him. He turned her face with his hand.

“What’s wrong?” His dark eyebrows furrowed. Grace’s eyes flickered over to the acoustic guitar sitting in the corner.

“Can I play you some lyrics I wrote?” She asked. He nodded, and moved to let her get the guitar from the corner of the room. Grace sat down with the guitar and took in a deep breath before striking a few chords. Alex listened silently.

I’m not coming back, I’ve done something so terrible,
I’m terrified to speak but you’d expect that from me.
I’m mixed up, I’ll be blunt,
now the rain is just washing you out of my hair.
I’m out of my mind- keeping an eye on the world,
so many thousands of feet of the ground.
I’m over you now, I’m at home in the clouds,
towering over your head.

“I don’t really have much other than that. I can’t get any more out of it.” She sighed, and scratched her head. Alex still couldn’t believe she hadn’t been signed yet. The girl had an amazing voice, sounded like an angel to him.

He thought about the lyrics, how they may or may not have pertained to her life. Maybe he could help her come up with the rest of it. But then he had a better idea- maybe he could feature her in one of their songs? Alex was already struggling with lyric ideas since the break-up between him and Lisa, and these were strong lyrics. He could have her play at one of their shows, and surely Hopeless Records would sign her. He stepped back for a moment into reality.

“What do they mean?” Alex asked. Grace was taken aback, she was expecting to hear what he thought of her voice.

“Uhm… Were they bad? I know I’m not that talented… But I really love singing and my mom said-“

“Bull-shit, Gracie, you’re one of the most talented singers I’ve ever heard. Stop selling yourself short all the time. What were the lyrics about?” He asked again.

Grace bit her lips. “Myself.” She paused and then inhaled a deep breath. “So I was dating this guy named Tommy. We were leaving a Christmas party- and this was about two years ago, by the way. Well, I was driving us home, and we pulled up to a stop light. It was red, but a truck came barreling towards us from the opposite turn lane. Tommy got out of his seat to cover me, and” She hitched a breath, and forced the tears in her eyes to remain there. “He was killed on impact. The metal scrap went right through him, but it only just hit me. That’s what this is.” She pointed to the scar again. “It was Sunday night, Christmas Eve.”