Good Love

Annie woke up to a loud clanging of metal against metal. The hell were they doing? It sounded like two-year-olds were making music with their kitchen utensils.

She rubbed her eyes as if to rub the sleep away before glancing at her digital clock on her nightstand. A little after eleven. Knowing her brother wouldn’t be home because of how early it was -he’d spent the night at Tessa’s again- she grabbed a cigarette and lit it after opening her window. Jared was always pissed when she smoked inside, but what harm could a couple of smokes do?

She trudged down the hallway still in her pajamas, her sock-clad feet dragging on the hardwood floors and the cigarette dangling loosely from her lips. She recognized Tim’s voice along with a few others, assuming the room would be full of the usual boys: Kenny, Garrett, Pat, Max, Halvo, Peter, Austin.

Annie rounded the corner of the hall and was about to call out, but the group of unfamiliar people caught her off guard as they sat around her brother’s shitty dining room table.

In her surprise the cigarette fell out of her lips and onto the floor, and she swiftly bent down and picked it up. Naturally, by the time she straightened up everyone was lazily watching her, half paying attention to the hockey game on tv and half staring at her. Thankfully she recognized some of them; Tim, Austin, Peter, and Halvo. She had no clue who the other two were.

“Well well well, look who decided to get up,” Halvo smirked, holding a hand of cards close to his chest.

She felt her spine come back to her, allowing herself to scrutinize what the hell John had done to their living room: a couple of empty beer bottles were sitting on the coffee table, the tv was blaring, Peter had a cigar in his mouth, there were two bags of chips ripped open on the counter, someone had left the milk out, the door of the dishwasher was hanging wide open, and a metal bowl and two pans were lying on top of the stove.

“John, what the hell? Do we live in a pig sty? It’s filthy in here!” she snapped, ignoring the table of boys -who were most likely staring at her exposed legs- and walked towards the kitchen to straighten things up. After she had put the milk away and closed the dishwasher, she returned to the table and stood next to Austin and took another drag of her cigarette. “Woah, really? You guys are playing poker at eleven in the morning? Do none of you have lives?”

“That’s a stupid question, Ann, ‘cause you know we don’t,” Tim laughed.

“Yeah, get off our asses, baby. You’re not much better, I mean you’re the one who just woke up,” Halvo smirked.

“Whatever. What were you guys doing in the kitchen? You woke me up,” she grumbled.

“We were trying to make food. But we can’t. Because we’re men,” John said, automatically earning the evil-eye from her.

“You sound like a misogynist idiot. Come on JohnO, I’ll help you,” she muttered, trudging back to the kitchen.

“There’s still some coffee in the pot, too,” he said, following her into the other room. “I left some just for you, blondie.”

“Gee, you’re so sweet,” she said sarcastically, pouring herself a cup while smiling as a thank-you. “Did you leave this mess just for me, too?”

John smirked. “Don’t worry. I’ll clean it up later, mom.”

“I wouldn’t have to act like your mother if you didn’t act like a child,” she shot back, pulling two frozen pizzas out of the freezer.

“At least I have a hot mom,” he chuckled.

“Shut up and help me make your friends some fucking food, O’Callaghan,” she said before taking one last drag of her cigarette and throwing it in the trash.

John laughed and moved to the oven to put the pizzas in. He had to admit, he was basking in this moment: messing around with Annie in his kitchen, making food together. He knew Halvo would tease him about it later, considering that’s all he had done for the past week since John had told him about his fondness of the girl, but he didn’t mind. If it had anything to do with Annie, he didn’t mind.

Half an hour later the two of them were pulling the pizzas out of the oven and yelling at the boys to come and get it before it’s cold, dickheads. Once all the boys had grabbed plates of pizza and returned to the table to finish their game, John was about to follow when he noticed Annie lagging behind, pouring herself another cup of coffee. Her hands were shaking like crazy. Had they always done that?

“Are you alright, Ann?”

“I’m fine,” she snapped. “I’m so sick of people asking me that.”

“Maybe people wouldn’t ask you that so much if they didn’t think that something was actually wrong,” he said back, trying to keep his tone of voice even. He might have a stupid crush on her, but if she was going to throw around an attitude, he’d throw one around too.

She let out a deep sigh and sipped her coffee, avoiding his eyes. “I’m alright,” she answered. “Sorry.”

“It’s all good, blondie. Are you gonna eat any pizza?”

She shook her head, and he didn’t argue. John knew food was a touchy subject.

“Well, at least come sit with us. I promise I won’t tell Jared if you smoke in the house,” he said, smiling. She smiled and followed him into the living room with her mug clutched against her chest. They left the kitchen, earning a few whistles from Eric and Tim.

Annie ignored them and shifted her eyes to John, who’d been quietly watching her. She sent him a look, as if to say, are you going to introduce me to the strangers in my house?

“Uh, Ann, this is my friend Rex,” John said, taking the hint and pointing at a boy with dirty blonde hair across the table. “And that’s Dirk,” he said, pointing to the next guy who had tattoos on his arm and short, dark hair. “Guys, this is Annie.”

“And honorary member of The Maine,” Peter added, smirking.

“No, man, she’s my lover! So don’t get any ideas,” Austin grinned, laughing and wrapping an arm around Annie’s waist.

She rolled her eyes and lightly shoved him away. “I’m no one’s lover, and I’ll be damned if I’m part of The Maine.” Her comment earned a round of laughter from the boys, and she laughed when John faked a hurt expression.

“But seriously Ann, Dirk is the guy I was telling ya about, the one who has a photography studio,” Tim spoke up after the laughter had died down.

Dirk stood up and extended his hand across the table. “Dirk Mai, nice to meet ya.”

Annie shook his hand, knowing his face seemed familiar. Had she met him at one of the boys’ parties? “Wait, Dirk Mai? Did you used to live in a neighborhood in Gilbert?”

“Yeah, I did actually. When I was a kid,” he answered, giving her a funny look.

“You used to be my neighbor! It’s me, Annie!”

“Annie Monaco? Holy shit! Why didn’t you guys tell me this was Jared’s little sister?”

“Wait a second, you two know each other?” John interrupted.

“Yeah, we were best friends/neighbors when we were kids! This is so weird,” Annie laughed, taking a seat in the empty chair next to Austin.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d be back any time soon. So you’re living here?” Dirk asked as the boys continued their card game.

“Yeah, I’m staying with my brother for a while.”

“What happened to Chicago?”

Annie instantly stiffened but tried not to let it show. She saw Austin glance at her out of the corner of his eye as he put his arm on the back of her chair, as if to comfort her. “I just, uh, needed to get away. I felt like coming back home,” she shrugged, putting on a fake smile. “There’s no place like good old Arizona.”

Dirk smiled, believing her reasons. “You were always quite the flighty person. Always leaving. How many times did I chase after you when you ran away from home?”

“Oh, ya know, a few hundred,” she smiled.

They spent the next couple of hours reminiscing, smoking, and playing cards. She and Dirk even made a lunch “date” to discuss her photography career over coffee. It never bothered her one bit that she was the only girl, or that her brother wasn’t here with her. She felt right at home.

***

It was later that afternoon. Annie had just gotten off the phone with Macy, who’d be flying into the Phoenix airport in five days, and was heading into the shower after a day of relaxing and chatting with Tessa. Jared had gotten home an hour or so after they cooked pizza, thankfully bringing Tessa with him.

John was dicking around the house, cleaning the mess his friends had left behind and watching tv at the same time. He was in the middle of laughing at some stunt they’d pulled on Ridiculousness when he heard an alarm going off down the hall.

He was just going to ignore it, but five minutes later and it was still blaring. He followed the noise, which led him down the hall and into Annie’s room, where he saw her phone blinking and making noise. Her screen lit up, reading Doctor’s appointment tomorrow! It was an alert from her calendar.

Doctor’s appointment? She didn’t seem sick. She seemed just fine, physically.

He was about to ignore it and leave, knowing it wasn’t his business, when he saw a familiar little notebook lying on the floor by his feet. John picked it up, recognizing it as the book he’d seen Annie writing in while they were on tour. He flipped through it, seeing pages and pages of pencil-written words, and was trying his hardest to put it down. There were even little sketches and paintings in between pages of words -which were also amazing.

Now, he knew damn well he shouldn’t look at it. Hell, he probably shouldn’t even be in here.

But you know what they say. Curiosity killed the cat.

So that’s how twenty minutes later, John found himself sitting on the floor of Annie’s room, reading poem after poem as he leaned against her bed frame. He was so mesmerized by the words on paper that he didn’t even notice the bathroom door open, or the wall of steam following it, or the sound of light footsteps on the floor.

“What the fuck are you doing?” a voice screeched. He definitely heard that.

“Oh shit I, uh, w-well- your phone! Your phone was going off and-”

“And that gave you permission to come in my room and go through my stuff?!”

“No, no! I’m sorry! I’m sorry Ann-”

“Nope. I don’t want to hear your pitiful excuses. Do you know how personal that notebook is?” she scoffed. “Get out.”

“But Annie-”

“Get. Out.” she growled, cutting him off again. “I can’t believe you.”

He was about to apologize again but closed his mouth when he saw the look on her face. John left the room and Annie slammed the door forcefully behind him.

Shit.

How many times could he fuck up?

Once he got on good terms with her, he ruined it. He always fucking ruined it.