I'm On a Trip

Charlotte's P.O.V

It had been a whole week since our day at the park, and it had flown past so quickly. It was now Saturday afternoon and we were setting up for a party tonight, of course John had invited the guys and other friends of his how I knew were in bands, but he wouldn't tell me who he had invited. So all I knew was that they were in bands and there wasn't many people coming tonight. I think tonight will be a good night, but I was so nervous about meeting anyone new, I wasn't normally very good at that.

I blasted my I-pod out loud while helping John set out some food and alcohol. Legally I wasn't allowed to drink over here but that didn't mean that I wouldn't...

I sang along quietly to the lyrics that were currently flowing through my head rather loudly.

"She works for the weekend,
Mixtape of her favorite bands.
Turning up the radio,
Lost in the stereo, sound.

She's trouble in a tank top,
Pretty little time bomb
Blowing up,
Take you down
Living in the radio
Lost in stereo, sound"

I turned around and noticed John's smirk. I pulled one earphone out, "What?" I questioned raising my eyebrows.

"Nothing," a smirk still evident on his face.

"You sure? Speak now or forever hold your peace!" I chuckled.

"You sang," he smiled.

"Yeah..." I dragged it out, "problem? I can quite easily stop, I know I can't sing but this is one of my favourite songs, I think I'm allowed to sing," I smiled proudly back, gosh I had such an attitude sometimes with John, but I was only kidding.

"Yes you are, it's nice when you sing," he complimented.

"Yeah well I can't sing," I replied quickly.

"Well you aren't horrific, I know worse," he practically dug himself a hole.

"Don't lie to me, I admitted I can't sing don't tell me I'm not that bad, I have the ability to hear too!" I shouted at him, making him wince, I wondered whether he knew I was joking, I wasn't actually mad at him, he was so cute when he was serious.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you," he mumbled, looking me straight in the eye.

"You know I was joking right?" I giggled back at him, suddenly a huge grin spread across his previously slightly worried face as lunged forward grabbing me. I gasped, simply because I didn't expect him to start tickling but also at the fact at how close he had suddenly got to me...

I knocked off a bottle of coke onto the floor but luckily it was plastic so it bounced straight past my head, while I was still on the floor practically being tickled to death. I was struggling to breathe through my fits of laughter when John realised I had, had enough. My eyes were full to the brim with tears that were threatening to escape but they didn't because I kept my eyes shut the majority of the time that he was tickling me.

Several hours later and I had showered and changed into something more appropriate for a party but not like a complete slut. I was wearing a light denim pair of shorts with a floaty cream top which had small owls printed on it. I loved this top, it was fairly smart but you could dress it up or down depending on what you were doing. My shorts weren't ridiculously short however they did show of the healthy glow I had achieved from the glorious Arizonian sunlight.

I stepped out of my room into the kitchen to grab a drink before anyone else did, which is where I found John doing exactly the same thing. We got whatever alcoholic drink we fancied and pushed our glasses together before taking a sip of the drink. Only moments later did people start arriving.

It was a small get together and so far only the guys from The Maine had arrived, but to be honest I didn't mind they were great and we soon flowed into a hilarious conversation about one of the pranks they had pulled on each other while they were touring last, and I found myself forgetting about everything else and having a blast.

Then the door bell rang, John immediately jumped up and invited, what sounded like men, into his house. John wandered around the corner and once he stepped aside I realised who he had invited. None other than the guys from All Time Low. Their eyes wandered around the room saying hi, and that was when my eyes met with Alex's.

"Hey, um, you're the girl from London with the sweet tattoo, right?" He shrugged.

"Yeah that's me," I smiled, shocked that he remembered who I was. "I'm Charlotte!"

"That's the name! I couldn't think of it!" Jack shouted from behind Alex, causing me to laugh to myself a little.

"I'm surprised you remembered as much as you did," I replied with a smile, it had been more than a month since we went to see ATL.

"So you've met before?" John asked, slightly confused.

"Oh yeah, she came to one of our hometown gigs and met us afterwards with her friend," Jack responded to John.

"That's cool," Kennedy stated behind me, clearly everyone was joining in with the conversation now.

...

The night was going great, This Century had been here for a while now, even though they were late! To be honest I spent the majority of the night talking to Joel, he seemed to care about what I actually did before I came over here for my break. Well I am sure someone else would care but no-one had asked me to the full extent as Joel had, unless I hadn't noticed.

"So do you like sport?" Joel asked curiously.

"I used to play netball at school, I did a lot of dancing, I used to compete for my school in the athletics team which was cool, I guess that's why I like jogging a lot," I replied to Joel honestly.

"Have you done any of that since you have been here?" He asked.

"Well, yeah, I went jogging last week with John," I smiled.

"What? You got John jogging!"

"Well, no he took me to the park, and waited while I went for a jog then drove me home again," I laughed.

"I was going to say, how on earth did you persuade him to do that!" he laughed.

"He's not the most active then," I smirked as I turned my head to look over at John for a moment.

"No! Anyway I need to check and see where Sean's gone, God knows what he is doing right now," he smiled before walking off in the direction of the back yard.

I grabbed myself another drink and went around talking to anyone else I was introduced to earlier, this meeting new people idea wasn't so bad after all. I couldn't see John anywhere anymore he seemed to have disappeared.

John's P.O.V

I was having a cigarette in the back yard, when someone came outside and stood beside me.

"So you took her to the park then?" Joel asked

"Yeah," I replied, staring off into the distance still.

"Just a nice gesture, was it?" He asked again.

"Yeah, she needed somewhere to go for a jog so...seeing as she didn't know anywhere else..." I shrugged back at him, wondering what he was implying. He seemed to back off me a little then.

"She likes her sport, doesn't she? I mean she has muscly arms, shoulders and legs, you never find that in a girl ever, unless they are really manly. Like, she really seems to care about something, it's as though she has to prove she's doing well to someone," Joel pointed out.

"She does have to prove she is doing well to someone even though she isn't inside. Joel it is killing me not knowing what is upsetting her so much, like there is something she is keeping bottled up and there is no bottle opener to make her share her problems, it hurts me," I released my problem onto Joel. A problem shared is a problem solved however I couldn't see that happening with this problem that was clearly upsetting me, but I wouldn't dare tell anyone else, particularly her.