Hold On Till May

The past two weeks had been fantastic when it came to everyone's lives. They were living it up as teenagers and happier than ever. Aurora's home life had greatly improved when it came to Mallory finally realizing that she hadn't been much of a mother lately. She actually cleaned the house, opened the blinds to let the sun in, and had a genuine smile plastered on her face that looked as if it were there to stay.

Though everything was going fine, Aurora's urges weren't. She shook off the feeling of needing to injure herself and listened to music and talked to her friends whenever she felt that she was going to do something greatly stupid. Since Rian had now learned of her old addiction taking it's hellish place in her life again, they had been more open to talking about it. Every few days Alex or Zack would check her over to make sure that she wasn't doing something that she shouldn't of been.

This specific day, the five of them were back in Rian's basement trying to put together new songs to wow the next record label that came around. This time, they promises themselves, they were going to be signed. No one was going to reject them this time around because this, this is what they wanted more than anything.

"I like this." Aurora said over Zack's bass and Alex's guitar. In her lap laid a torn and frayed old notebook that Alex carried around him like a lifeline. It was where his imagination and artistic skill took its toll and spilled all over pages.

Rian walked over to her, his eyes wide and his head cocked to the side as he took the notebook out of Aurora's small, cold hands to read Alex's sloppy handwriting with a bunch of crossed out words and re-written lines running across the page. To a normal person, this would all be complete shit, but to his four friends, it was almost like reading a masterpiece from one talented deviant.

Life is not only blind, but a fool, a stumbling mess falling backwards through showroom doors into atmospheres unwelcoming of his presence. He is the unruly show-stopper, brining the piano's hook to an untimely end, grouping in sultry salutation towards the nearest burlesque beauty, an untouchable object of obsession in the selfish eye of man, to which all occupants react with disapproving sneers and spiteful, sideways glances. They know better than to touch what they cannot have, but faced with such infatuation, he is but a child in a candy shop. Love is the fumbling mess who finds himself caught between a drop-dead-gorgeous match made in heaven, and a promise she made to her family, yet he seeks comfort in the concept of brief, brash contact, while Beauty seeks escape in the promises he makes under cover of dim moonlight coffee-shop soundtracks; promises he would whole-heartedly keep if the station called for such a thing… He wishes she knew. Love seeks to prevail when common sense is lost beneath the faint aroma of warm mint in the air she exhales over his smile, and he struggles to come to terms with the fact that Rationality and Reason play larger roles in here life than he ever could. Although her response is as seasonal as the green of trees, he is content waiting for each and every spring - the time spent alone in hiding - when they can forget the world and let butterflies multiple inside them, and let warmth spread throughout appendages to disregard a mid-winter's bitter chill. Above all else, he will remain steadfast as trees do, through the harshest of Januarys, as time is but a matter of context, where in his wasted heart will beat for her always.

Rian's jaw dropped in awe of what he had read. He knew that the kid was talented, but this was something else. This was pure poetry; something that a 17 year-old boy wouldn't be writing. It was a rarity for someone their age, but Alex had another talent that turned into a deep passion for words. "Dude," Rian looked up at Alex and was almost unable to speak, "this… This needs to be turned into a song somehow."

Alex's eyes trailed from Rian to Aurora where she was sitting pleasantly with a small smile on her face that was saying the same thing that Rian was. This small story could turn into a great song for the future of All Time Low.

"Write a song to accompany, Gaskarth." Aurora chuckled. It was possibly one of the best things that she had read in a long time, yet all of them were confused as to how someone that would rather make fart and dick jokes every hour of the day could possibly write something this magnificent.

Alex slowly nodded at them. "Give me a day or so and I will get back to you all." Rian looked more excited than the rest of them and passed the notebook on for Zack to read. About thirty minutes later, everyone was more than impressed with this divine piece of work. They were thrilled about the thought of reading the lyrics that Alex could muster up for them in the next twenty-four hours.

"Now that you're ego is fully blown-up for the day, wanna walk me home?" Aurora asked the teenage boy who had a smile stretched across his face, as if he were patting himself on the back for a job well done. None of them had really accomplished putting anything together in the past four hours, but this alone was enough for them to be satisfied.

The two of them walked together down the street together right after the sun had set for the day. The air was starting to get more cool as the end of the year had ended and Baltimore's cold wind took its place to nip you in the ass with its harshness. "I'm freezing." Aurora stated after she realized that they had five more blocks to go. Alex remained completely still as he pulled an extra hoodie out of his backpack and placed it around her shoulders. She looked at him with an odd smirk. "Thanks."

"You act like you don't have a dozen of my hoodies already."

"I've been meaning to give those back to you, but… I mean… I'd rather not." Aurora scrunched up her face and looked at her feet as they walked. "They're too comfy to give up."

"You have all of my favorite ones except the one I'm currently wearing!" Alex threw his hands up in the air in an over exaggerative style.

"Fine!" Aurora stomped. They continued to walk in silence until they were a block away from the house. "I'm still cold." She complained with a frown on her face. Alex just smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close until they got to her house. "Want me to drive you home? It's too cold to walk."

"If you'd like to." Alex said in a soft tone. "Hey, Princess?"

"Hey, Alex?" She repeated him.

"Thank you." He sounded so coy and incredibly secretive and Aurora didn't understand why.

"You have nothing to thank me for, Alex." She was in the dark on this one.

Alex grinned and shook his head. "Thank you for being happy and smiling and laughing. And thank you for believing in me and the guys and my sometimes horrific writing and our shitty songs. Thank you for being the best girl anyone could ever ask for. And for not doing harmful shit to yourself." Alex looked at his best friend who stood before him, clad in one of his hoodies, with tears swelling up in her beautifully green eyes. "You're perfect, whether you want to believe that or not. You are truly perfect." He grabbed her by the waist with both of his hands and pulled her close. In response, she snaked her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his chest and took his scent in. They stood there for several minutes until Alex finally leaned his head down more to place a kiss on the top of her head and in that moment, Aurora knew what being loved truly felt like.