Original Love

Alex's POV:

Waking to the smell of coffee, Alex forced himself out of bed and towards the door of his room as he followed the smell into the kitchen. Walking inside, he found Charlie already up with her back turned to him, rummaging through one of the cupboards and pulling out two coffee mugs. He couldn't help but smile when he noticed she was in a pair of plaid pajama pants and a worm grey t-shirt and her hair was on top of her head twisted in a messy bun. Charlie suddenly turned to get something from the fridge and froze when she saw him standing there but quickly got a home of herself and gave a shy smile along with a blush as she continued to grab whatever she needed from the fridge.

"Good morning, I made coffee if you'd like some."

Alex hummed at the thought of a cup of coffee to wake him up. "I'll defiantly take you up on that offer, thanks. And good morning to you also. Thanks for putting up with me."

"It’s really no problem, I'm glad you're here. Did you sleep ok? Every time Rachael stays over she complains about that bed. I hope it wasn't too bad." Charlie replied, biting her lip and obviously nervous about what he was going to say.

Alex just gave her an encouraging smile as he took the cup of coffee she offered to him. "It was perfectly fine. I slept like a baby!"

"You're just saying that because you just got off tour and are sleep deprived." She teased as he rolled his eyes.

"Well that’s a little true, but trust me. I've slept on hard uncomfortable tour bus mattresses and this was total heaven compared to them."

The small smile she gave him was proof enough that she believed him as she sat across from him at the little table she had in the room. They were both silent as they added sugar and cream to their coffee making it perfect and then taking the first few sips. This was the perfect way to begin his time off in his opinion. Spending time with people he cared for. It was his first full day in Wisconsin and third day after tour ended. He had spent the first two day with his friends and family in Baltimore before flying out to be with Charlie.

They had some things that needed to be discussed anyway and he really just wanted to spend more time with her too. Two full days and talking and texting all the time wasn't enough for him and he didn't even have a return flight home since he didn't even know when he wanted to go home. The real answer to that was never but he knew that he had to. He had three other people depending on him to come home so they could continue to live their dream and he wouldn't ever ditch them. There was no band without all four of them and he knew that if one of the others gave up and called it quits they would also. There was no All Time Low without Jack, Rian, Zack, and Alex, and they would never replace any of the other members if it came down to it.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Alex asked as Charlie looked up from the paper she had been reading. They had both been sitting in the comfortable silence, sharing parts of the Milwaukee Journal like an old married couple. But Alex was curious since he had some plans that he wanted to fulfill here and wanted to know when he could put them into action.

Charlie glanced at the clock and sighed, "I have work in about an hour."

"Really?" Alex frowned, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. He knew she wasn't going to take off the whole time he was here just for him, but he had kind of hoped to have at least a day or two for just them.

She must have picked up on his disappointment since she instantly continued. "Yeah but it's only a two hour class and I have the next two days off. I couldn't get out of this one thing today because we're short on teachers but it's just two hours then we can do whatever you want!"

"Can I come with you to your studio?"

She frown and he wondered if she didn't want him to. "You want to come?"

"Sure why not," Alex shrugged as he avoided eye contact. "But if you don't want me to come that’s fine too. I can just stay here until you're done."

"No you can come, it's totally fine. I just figured you'd get bored,"

Alex shook his head, "no I could never get bored. You're really beautiful while you dance; it's really cool to watch. Not that you're not beautiful when you aren't dancing, which you are but-"

Her laughing stopped him from his embarrassing rambling and he blushed. "Sorry, I talk a lot when I'm nervous."

"Why Mr. Gaskarth, I make you nervous?" She asked as he blushed more, deciding not to say anything so he didn't make even more of a fool of himself. "But that’s totally fine if you want to come. After I'm done we can go and shop around downtown or grab food if you like."

Now that’s more like it. They could finally put his plan on taking her out on a date into action and a sudden wave of confidence shot through him. "Awesome, I've wanted to take you out of a date. If you'll let me that is,"

It was Charlie's turn to blush and Alex smirked as she mumbled a quiet yes and then made an excuse that she needed to get ready and left to go to her room. He just smiled to himself that his plans were moving into action and got up also to get changed and ready to go so Charlie wasn't late. When he searched through his bag, he was really glad that he had decided to do laundry before he left for Charlie’s place since he had originally wanted to say screw it and get there as soon as possible. But now looking through his bag, he noticed that he wouldn’t have had anything relatively nice for their date later on. He had no clue where to go but having something a little nicer than a old Glamour Kills shirt and ripped skinny jeans was one less thing to worry about. But hopefully while Charlie was teaching he could look up some nearby places to find some place great to take her. He cared a lot about her after all; he wanted to make sure he planned everything right.

“All ready to go?” Charlie asked as she walked into the living room where he was waiting for her.

He glanced over to see her standing there with a cute shy look. Her hair was pulled up already into a bun and she was wearing a pair of sweats and old shirt while holding a bag in the other hand. When their eyes met, she blushed and he just gave her an encouraging smile as she went to grab her keys and then they headed out to her car.

As they were driving, Alex went through her CD’s and changed the one that had currently been in the player and turned the volume up as the first song began to play. He knew that both of them were fine sitting in silence as the CD played but as soon as she heard what was playing she was singing along with a huge smile on her face and he couldn’t help but think she was even more adorable than he already thought.

Her studio was only about ten minutes from her place and she pulled into the empty parking lot and they both walked up to the doors and she unlocked them. As they walked inside, she flicked on all the lights as they went from room to room until she stopped at the biggest room at the end of the hall and set her bag down. Alex wandered through the room alone as Charlie went to go change and looked at all the pictures hung on the walls in the hall. Most of them had what he figured where Charlie’s students in them, all in different dance poses as they repeated what they were being taught. There was also a few of whatever recitals they had with props and a stage and glittery outfits and all.

Though out of all the pictures, he was only able to find one with Charlie in it. But she was so easy to find since she happened to be the tallest and more experienced out of all the little girls surrounding her. Alex couldn’t tear his eyes away from the picture as he took in every detail. The small smile on Charlie’s face as she danced the beautiful outfit she was in, and the frozen dance step she was in seeming to execute it perfectly and looking confident and content as she did so.

The only thing that forced Alex to look away from the photo was the sudden voices coming in and the sound of footsteps following. He looked down the hall and saw a few little girls chatting happily as they walked past him and into another door which he assumed was the changing room since all three of the girls were in stylish jeans and sparkly t-shirts. He realized that he might come off as awkward and slightly weird just standing there in the hallway staring at a bunch of photos of little girls and the mom’s might pull out mace on him if they caught him standing there. So he made his way back to the practice room and began to scroll through Charlie’s iPod as he waited for said girl to come back from where ever she was.

“Hey, sorry about that, some of the mom’s had some questions.” Charlie said a few minute later as she walked back into the room.

Alex looked up from the device he was still playing with and paused the game of Angry Birds he had been in the middle of to reply back. But once he saw her, he had to will himself to breathe again when he nearly stopped at the sight of her. Her brown hair which normally hung behind her was now pulled back into a tight bun and she had a black leotard on with a whit skirt and black leggings with the same grey legwarmers she had been wearing the first time he had seen her. She was stunning and he had to force himself to say something back so he hid that he was actually staring and being a total creep.

“You ok there?” She asked with a raised brow.

He swallowed and nodded, “yeah, perfectly fine.” He replied while rubbing the back of his neck. “So do you want me to go somewhere else while you teach or-”

“No you don’t have to. You can stay if you want. Though it might be a little boring, I can give you the keys to my car and then I can call you when I’m done to pick me up.”

Alex just shook his head with a small smile. “No, it’s fine. I want to stay, if that’s not too awkward or anything.”

Charlie blushed and was about to answer when someone suddenly called her name behind her and she turned to talk to whoever it was. Alex leaned over to see a bunch of little girls rushing over with huge smiles on their faces and they talked quickly, addressing her as Miss Lottie instead of Charlie. She was so cute when she talked to the girls, her eyes shined and a huge grin was spread across her face the entire time as more little girls joined the conversation and giggled and gasped at whatever their teacher was saying.

When Charlie looked up, he caught her gaze and smiled to her making her blush and return a really small smile back. Then almost as if to avoid any more awkward moments, Charlie suddenly straightened up from her crouched position she had when she was talking to the girls and clapped her hands calling all the excited girls to order. She announced it was time for class and all the little girls stood in the middle of the room in two rows of ten and waited for Charlie to begin their lesson.

“Ok girls, stretch first and then we’ll start ok? Lizzie, why don’t you lead?”

A girl with brown hair and bright blue eyes beamed as she walked from her place in line to the front of the room to face all her peers and began counting off as they went through their routine. Meanwhile Charlie walked over to where Alex was sitting and blushed a little more when their eyes met again.

“They really love you,” Alex mentioned as she stood at the table he was sitting next to and picked up her iPod.

She just shrugged, “I don’t know about that. But I love them. I may complain all the time about trying to get all to focus and get their routines down correctly but I do love them. They remind me of myself when I was young.”

“I bet you were really cute when you were a kid.”

Charlie blushed which turned into a playful glare, “were?”

“Yep,” Alex replied with a serious expression. “I only used that tense because now you’re beautiful.”

That just made her blush even more and tried to hide it by turning to make sure the girls were actually doing what they were supposed it. And they were and Alex was beginning to realize that Charlie never took compliments all that well and was trying to avoid saying anything by pretending she needed to check on her class. She was too cute sometimes. As he thought this he began to realize that he was falling for her more and more and he had only known her for a few months and actually talked to her in person a handful of times. He had never had this happen this fast before and he was a little scared about it.

“Anyway, they’re almost done and I was wondering if you’re planning on sticking around if you want to be in control of my iPod while I’m teaching?” Charlie continued with a hint of blush still on her cheeks making Alex smile more. “All you have to do is play the songs in the ‘Dance’ playlist I made on it. I’ll tell you what to play when.”

Alex shrugged and nodded as she thanked him with a small smile before excusing herself and heading up to the front of the room. The little girl was just finishing with the stretching routine and once she was done Charlie thanked her before glancing over to Alex and smiling again.

“Ok guys, let’s get started. But before we do, I want to introduce you to my helper for today, Alex. He’ll be playing the music for me so I don’t look silly running around the room trying to do it myself because my remotes still broken.”

All the girls giggled and turned and either waved or shouted hi to Alex making him chuckle. Charlie got their attention again by telling the girls to get into the start position for the routine they were working on and all the girls raised their hands in the air and placed their feet in the proper position. He watched as she scanned all the girls making sure they were doing it correctly and pointing out a few things to some of the girls before she also got into the exact same position as the rest of the girls.

“Lex, if you would press play to track 5 please,”

Alex nodded even though Charlie was looking straight ahead not moving her head out of the proper position and scrolled through the list finding the one she needed. Music instantly filled the room and all of the girls instantly started to move, keeping a close eye on Charlie as she danced.

He honestly couldn’t take his eyes off Charlie as she danced. She was truly beautiful. It made him remember the first time he had seen her dance when they had first met. The slow graceful moves she made as she glided through the room as the instrumental melody of Miss You by Blink 182 played in the room. It was the only noise besides the occasional thump as her feet landed on the hardwood floor as she continued on dancing.

In this instance nothing was different. She was just as graceful and beautiful and Alex felt like a total stalker for staring but he couldn’t help it. He had never seen anyone dance with so much passion before. Given that the only dancing he really had ever seen was in a club and all the dancers were either drunk or just looking for sex. He had always thought ballet and any other type of dancing beyond that was boring. But once anyone took one glance at Charlie they would instantly change their minds.

He could tell she would give anything to just close her eyes and get lost in the music but she couldn’t because she had to watch the girls. He knew that feeling all too well. Any time he was on stage and playing a certain song he couldn’t help but close his eyes and let the words sink in as if he was hearing and singing them for the first time even though it was far from it. All their songs held special meaning but ones like Lullabies or Remembering Sundays were especially important.

Charlie continued to teach for a hour and a half more. Carefully watching the girls and walking through the rows and helping them straighten their posture or extend their toes more. She was a really good teacher and a amazing dancer and Alex didn’t stop watching her until class was over and she was talking to the moms that had questions about whatever it was that they had come up with about their daughters progression.

When everyone finally left, Charlie gave out a sigh of relief as she plopped down on the chair next to Alex making him laugh. “I’m so glad that’s over with.”

“All the kids love you Miss Lottie,”

Charlie took a deep breath and rolled her eyes as she pulled her leg up onto her other and rubbed her foot through her ballet slipper. “Yeah they’re great but their moms are all pains in the asses.”

“Feet hurt?”

“One of the many perks to being a dancer.”

Alex gave her a sympathetic smile, “we can go back to your place if you want. We don’t have to go out.”

“No that’s ok! I’m just whining, just ignore me.” She said just a little too fast making Alex laugh and her blush yet again. “Just let me go change and we can go, ok?”

She left before he could really answer, hopping to her feet and then heading out the room toward the locker room to change. Only moments later Alex heard his phone beep alerting him to a new text and grabbed it, curious as to who it was. Now that he was out of town it could be a handful of people demanding to know where he was since he sort of dropped off the face of the earth only letting a handful of people know where he went.

From: Jack
Did you ask her yet?

To: Jack
Well hello to you too…

He sent it and waited a total of three minutes for a text back instantly letting Alex know that he had nothing better to do and was probably just sitting on his couch watching tv and getting bored watching a rerun of Spongebob for the umpteenth time.

From: Jack
Hi. So did you ask her?

God he was a persistent bugger wasn’t he?

To: Jack
No I didn’t. But we’re going out soon. I want to see how it goes and see if she actually does like me before actually asking.

From: Jack
Dude, I can tell you right now she likes you. You don’t have to ‘wait and see’. Trust me. Just do it. I know she’ll say yes.

To: Jack
Ok. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I trust you. You better not have just screwed this all up. Anyway, enough about my love life, anything new in yours?

From: Jack
Believe me, everything will be fine. And I may or may not have met someone.

Before Alex could even begin to reply back to that text, Charlie walked in and announced she was ready. Alex sighed shoving his phone in his pocket. He could reply back to Jack later. Now all he wanted to do was enjoy the time with Charlie before he had to leave. And maybe take Jack’s advice and actually ask her what he’s been meaning to ask her since he had gotten in to Milwaukee the night before.