Good Love

Eight in the morning. Eight in the fucking morning, and there was someone banging on her door.

Annie would have ignored it and simply fell back asleep, but the person outside the door had been going at it for about ten minutes straight and showed no intentions of stopping. She had a pretty good guess who was behind that door, too, considering last night’s escapades.

She groaned and got up, her socks padding along the cheap carpet as she walked to the door. Not bothering to look through the peephole, she swung it open to reveal a disheveled, sleepy John.

“God, you’re a persistent little shit, aren’t you?” Annie sighed.

“With you, I have to be.”

“What do you want, O’Callaghan?” She got right to the point; it was early, she was grumpy, and she wasn’t here to play any games. He played enough of those last night.

“I just wanted to say sorry-”

“Did it have to be this early?” she snapped. “The sun rose about, thirty goddamn seconds ago.”

“I didn’t want to-”

“Didn’t want to be caught shoving your tongue down my throat again?”

“Would you let me finish a fucking sentence?” he growled. When she didn’t say anything, he continued. “Can I come in? I want to apologize.”

She groaned but unlocked the deadbolt to let him in. She knew he wouldn’t give up until she agreed, so she might as well not even bother to fight him. He walked over the small armchair in the corner of the room and sat, and Annie suddenly became aware of what she was wearing: a tank top and a small pair of athletic shorts that her underwear could probably be seen through. Feeling anxiety and paranoia creep up on her, she slid back onto her bed and pulled the comforter around her, trying to look casual while doing so.

“I, uh, I’m really sorry about last night,” John said softly. “I had a little too much to drink and I just wasn’t thinking straight-”

“Really? Because when you were asking me all of those personal questions right before, your thoughts seemed pretty straight.” She raised her eyebrow to see if he would object, and at first it seemed like he was going to. He opened his mouth, but when nothing came out he shut it. Annie could see the embarrassment and frustration on his face as he looked away, out the window.

After she had pushed John away from her on the beach, the two had remained quiet the rest of the night. They sat and finished off their bottle of Jack, listening only to the waves, and then John had hailed a taxi that took them back to the hotel. Annie had felt numb the entire ride home as she watched buildings and palm trees fly by out the window. She didn’t know what to do.

“Nice view,” John said, still not looking at her after a couple minutes of silence. Instead his gaze shifted to his hands, which were fumbling over each other in his lap.

Annie almost felt like laughing as she watched him; John was almost more awkward than she was sometimes. He couldn’t even sit still.

“What? Why are you smiling?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing.”

He raised an eyebrow, making her want to laugh again. Whenever he did that, his lips puckered in a weird way, and it sure was helping Annie’s sour morning attitude. Nothing like quality entertainment in the form of someone being awkward.

“You’re more awkward than I am,” she laughed.

John groaned but cracked a smile himself; did this mean she forgave him?

“Now hurry up, JohnO, I’m losing precious sleep while you sit here and blabber like an idiot,” she smirked. Apparently he wasn’t forgiven.

“I really am genuinely sorry for kissing you last night, Annie. I don’t want you to hate me, especially when we haven’t had the smoothest of friendships. I know I invaded your boundaries and that was wrong of me. I promise, I’m not a bad guy.”

She shrugged. When she did so, she really did look indifferent. John couldn’t tell if it was genuine or just a mask she put on. “Fine,” she said. “As long as it doesn’t happen again, got it?” she added sternly, looking him straight in the eye. She could sure as hell be intimidating when she wanted to.

“It won’t, I promise.” Though he couldn’t shake the memory of how good of a kiss it was. “So can we be partners in crime again? Bonnie and Clyde?”

“Weren’t Bonnie and Clyde lovers too?”

“Were they? ‘Cause I’m perfectly okay with that,” John said, winking at Annie and earning a disgusted look.

“In your dreams, JohnO.”

He laughed; Annie was so interesting to talk to. Why hadn’t he just made friends when he first met her? What was his deal? “But for real, we’re good, right? Friends?”

She nodded and grinned. She had to admit, it felt good to consider John a friend. She knew that when she needed an adventure, he was her go-to guy.

“Woo! Annabelle Monaco’s my friend, everybody!” John shouted, jumping up from the chair and dancing around Annie’s hotel room. His bangs flicked around his face, forcing him to shove them back every few seconds and he made a fool of himself.

“John, shut the hell up! You’re giving me a headache,” she laughed, watching as he continued hopping around the room. She groaned as he got onto the bed with her and stood up, starting to jump and making her bounce all over the mattress. “Goddamn it, John! I swear to god-”

“You’re not supposed to swear to god, Annie!” he whined, sounding like a child.

“Would you shut the fuck up and go back to your own room? You’re going to wake everyone up.”

“It doesn’t matter, we’re spending the entire day driving, anyways. They can sleep on the bus for all I care!” he shouted, continuing to jump up and down on the bed.

“One little monkey jumping on the bed,” Annie hummed, reminiscing the book her mother would read to her and Jared when they were younger as she retreated to the bathroom.

After taking a quick, ten-minute shower and getting dressed in a clean pair of clothes, she opened the door to find John laying down, his head on the same pillow she’d used the night before.

She walked to him slowly, craning her neck to see if he’d fallen asleep or not. He hadn’t, naturally. He was just staring out the window again.

“Thank you, John. For last night. I had a lot of fun, surprisingly.”

“No problem, Annie. Anytime.” He rose from the bed, sitting up like she was. “You’re not even hungover, are you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Give me a little more credit; I’m no lightweight. I might be small, but I can keep up with the big boys.”

John laughed and got up, heading towards the door. “That’s pretty sad, actually. Between the two of us, we drank an entire large bottle an neither of us have hangovers,” he laughed. “You might make a good beer pong partner, Ann. I’m gonna go see if the guys are awake yet, I’m starving. Are you up for some breakfast?”

***

Their large group of guys -plus Annie- was seated at three tables pushed together. Kennedy had found an IHOP a couple of blocks down, luckily. By the time everyone had woken up and gotten around, Annie’s stomach was gnawing.

When the waitress placed a plate of blueberry pancakes in front of her, Annie did her silent prayer that she wouldn’t get sick. It was kind of funny actually: most people prayed in gratitude for their food, while she was praying that she’d just be able to eat it.

“That looks good, sis,” Jared said, peering over her shoulder to look at her plate. “You gonna eat all that?” he joked.

She looked at him. What a hilarious, brilliant joke. Not like she hadn’t been tiptoeing around with her stomach lately or anything. Not at all.

“When pigs fly, I’ll be able to eat all of this, Jared,” she said in his ear, not wanting the other boys to hear her.

He gave her a look of sympathy, which she hated, and put his hand on the back of her chair. She leaned back, soaking in the comfort her brother gave her. Even if he irritated the hell out of her sometimes, his presence was still a consolation to her.

“Hey John, where’d you go last night? I heard you leave the room, and I don’t remember you coming back,” Pat questioned, his words catching Annie’s attention. As discreetly as she could, her eyes flickered to John, who was sitting diagonal from her at the table and smirking.

“I went outside and smoked a couple of cigs,” he answered, but it was so obviously a lie. He couldn’t keep that damn grin off of his face.

“You met a babe, didn’t you!” Tim laughed. John started to shake his head, but Tim interrupted him. “You so did. I mean, by the look on your face I’d guess that you got laid!”

The other boys started laughing and agreeing with Tim, calling out comments and rude jokes at John.

Annie could see his eyes glancing at her every now and then, gauging her reaction. “Nah, it was better than getting laid, man,” he said, starting to laugh along with the guys. Oh really, now? Better than getting laid? Annie rolled her eyes.

After a couple minutes of laughing, the boys finally calmed down. “So really though, what did you do?” Kennedy asked with a mouthful of bacon.

“All I did was smoke, man!” John laughed. “I was out there for a while, yeah, but I didn’t talk to anyone.”

The boys didn’t believe it, but John stuck to his lie, and Annie was grateful. After their conversation centered on John was over, she looked at him just long enough to catch him wink at her.

When everyone was finished with their breakfast, they reluctantly climbed onto the bus to head to their last show, which was somewhere in northern Arizona tomorrow.

Annie flopped down onto the couch in the front room next to Garrett, who had started some kind of zombie apocalypse movie. “Bye, Cali,” she pouted. She loved it here.

“We’ll be back before you know it, Ann.”

“No, you’ll be back, Gare. I’ll probably be in Tempe.”

“What, you’re not going to come with us anymore? Did you hate it that much?” Garrett grumbled, squinting his eyes at her.

“No, dumbass, I’ve actually had a lot of fun. I’ll just probably have responsibilities, ya know? Like school or a serious job or something like that,” she said, pushing his shoulder.

“I thought you already had a serious job?”

“The bar? Cause that’s not exactly-”

“No, photographing our tours. Aren’t you getting paid for that?”

His question took her by surprise; could this really count as a real job for her? “I guess I’m getting paid, if someone buys the pictures I take.”

“Our friend Dirk, he normally photographs us. I mean, he has his own agency and everything, but he makes some pretty decent money out of it. Maybe you could get something with him, some kind of photography deal, and still be able to come with us?”

Annie couldn’t think of a job she’d like more. Taking pictures had always been her favorite thing to do, and to be able to travel with her best friends while making money sounded pretty damn good. “That actually sounds like something I’d like to do, Gare. I’ll have to get in touch with your friend once we get home.”

“Yeah, he’s a cool guy, and a good friend of ours. I’m sure he wouldn’t have a problem with hooking you up. Now let’s shut up, shall we? I’d like to watch my zombies,” Garrett laughed as the actors on the screen started screaming.

Annie smiled, mussed Garrett’s hair, and headed towards her bunk to find her pajamas. Finding them, she grabbed her necessities and went into the bathroom to shower. She was pretty sure she still had sand between her toes from sitting on the beach last night, and it was driving her crazy.

Once she’d showered and put her pajamas on, she combed out her wet hair and put it into a braid before walking back to the front room to finish the movie with Garrett. Instead, she found Austin, Pat, Kennedy, John, and Peter sitting with Garrett. She assumed Jared was up front driving, considering she hadn’t seen him.

“I thought you were watching a zombie movie?” she asked, sitting down between Austin and Pat.

“We were, but the dvd must have gotten scratched because it wasn’t working, so we put in Soul Surfer instead,” Garrett answered.

“Ugh, are you kidding me? Soul Surfer, of all movies? I was ready for some serious gore!” Annie whined.

“Well, there’s Saw. You can take it to the back lounge and watch that, blondie,” John smirked.

“Oh, but do you think it’ll be gory enough for you, Ann?” Austin snickered. Those little shits didn’t think she could handle a simple horror movie. Assholes.

Ignoring them, she grabbed the dvd and headed towards the back lounge, flipping the boys off on her way.

A few minutes into the movie -which had so much fake gore that it was almost laughable- her phone buzzed, alerting her that she had a new text. She opened it, seeing the message from Macy. Two more weeks, then Arizona here I come! Neither of them could wait; they’d been apart too long. Annie had made new friends that she loved, but nothing compared to her and Macy’s friendship, and she missed spending time with her best friend terribly.

Annie texted her back and returned to the movie, which had gotten progressively more gruesome in the past two minutes.

Forty-five minutes into the movie, and it still wasn’t holding her attention. She couldn’t even remember what the characters had been doing thus far. Annie groaned, feeling the restlessness fold in on her, but refused to leave the room, knowing the boys would give her shit about it. She settled for opening the windows and staring at the blurred landscape fly by from the moving bus. She sat there, thinking and thinking and thinking, but trying not to let her thoughts drag her under.

Eventually she got tired of staring, as the view hadn’t changed for a solid twenty minutes. Feeling a burst of inspiration, she walked to her bunk and grabbed her duffel bag, looking for one thing in particular. Her hands dug through piles of clothes until they reached the bottom, where it sat waiting for her, like always. Her notebook.

She found a pen lying on John’s bunk, took it, and went back to her position in front of the mirror. Her conversation with John last night about writing had stirred the desire in her again, and before she knew it she was scribbling away on the paper. Fifteen minutes later, and she’d finished six full pages of paper.

Annie closed her notebook when she heard a knock on the door to the lounge, but didn’t answer. She knew whoever it was would come in anyways. It was probably only Austin.

“Can I come in?” a voice asked, and she immediately recognized it as John, which surprised her, though not as much as it would have before last night.

“Sure,” she called, watching as the door inched open to reveal the boy with a bowl of popcorn in his hands.

“You finish Saw?” he asked, walking over and sitting near her and setting the bowl in between them.

“Sorta. It didn’t really hold my attention,” she answered before grabbing a couple pieces of popcorn.

“Is that code for, it scared the shit out of you?”

“Very funny, asshole. It didn’t scare me, I just wasn’t really paying attention. I’ve been writing, actually,” she said, holding up her notebook.

“Ooh, can I read?” he asked excitedly, reaching for the notebook in her hands.

“No way!” She pulled it away from him, protecting it in her lap.

“Hey, you heard my new song the other morning, the least you could do is share your creativity!”

She glared at him for a moment before tossing the notebook at him, hitting him square in the chest. She rolled her eyes when she heard a muted ‘ow’ from out of his mouth. He eagerly opened it, and Annie watched him and he read her words. His lips were pursed in concentration.

“Holy shit, Annie. This is amazing,” John said when he finished, closing the book and handing it back to her. “Seriously. This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read.”

“Thanks,” she said shyly. “It’s just chicken-scratch though, really.”

“If that’s just chicken-scratch, then I really can’t wait to read what your real stuff is like. It’ll probably blow my mind, or something,” he replied, smiling crookedly.

Annie didn’t know what to think of this newfound friendship with John, but she liked it. It was entertaining and interesting and different, but still easy. It was nice, to say the least.

But, oh boy, she really didn’t know what she was getting herself into.