Thunder

It was next Friday and the school day was finally over. Thank God, Alex thought as he walked threw his front door, slinging his black backpack to the couch in the living room. They had to postpone the party, deciding to wait until it was clear they’d be able to get away with it.

“Hey, Mom, I’m going over to Jack’s in a few. Is that cool?” Alex asked, once he spotted his mother in the adjoining kitchen.

“Of course, just don’t do anything stupid,” Isobel laughed, lightheartedly. Isobel couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to Abigail, though. After she left the Gaskarth home earlier that week, it seemed as if she had just disappeared out of Alex’s life.

“It’s Jack. Something stupid is bound to happen,” Alex laughed, running up the stairs to quickly change then head on over to Jack’s house.

The two best friends had decided to throw the party at Jack’s home because his parents were out of town for at least a week, so they had time to throw a party and enough time to clean it up.

While Alex was changing into his usual outfit – a black Glamour Kills tee with skinny jeans and beat up sneakers – he couldn’t help but think about Abigail. She had been preoccupying his mind for the last two weeks. He knew something was going on that she wasn’t telling him, and that scared the eighteen year old more than anything.

Alex also knew, though, that having this party and getting shitfaced drunk was probably not the best way to try and forget her. He had a bad feeling that he’d end up saying the wrong thing tonight, but that didn’t stop him.

Dressed and ready to go, Alex hustled out the door, yelling a quick goodbye to his mother, after convincing her that he was perfectly fine walking to Jack’s alone.

What Alex knew 100% for sure, though, was that he going to have the best fucking night of his life tonight.

——-

Barely an hour into the party, it seemed as if the entire school was all jam packed into Jack’s home. Some were dancing, some were making out, and Jack was pretty sure that some were fucking in the variety of upstairs bedrooms.

Jack was trying to stay as sober as he possibly could, but still have fun, but he was long gone. Anyone could see that. He was hanging all over girls and getting extremely close to a majority of the girls he was dancing with. Besides that, Jack could barely make coherent sentences let alone stand on his own.

Rian had just entered the Barakat home, though. The expression on his face was obviously worried. He had to tell Alex what he learned about Abigail. Though, now that he thought about it, it made sense. Maybe that was what Alex and Abigail were sharing between them, but Abigail had said Alex didn’t know she had attempted suicide just the night before.

Then something clicked in Rian’s mind – that was the night Alex was waiting for a call from her.

When she never called, Alex got a little panicked but tried to brush it off. Then the next day… she told Alex she couldn’t hang out with him anymore. Alex had said that her words were something along the lines of “it’s safer this way”. What the hell did that mean?

Rian tried desperately to find Alex for about half an hour – but no luck.

The drummer reluctantly took the large bottle of hard liquor that his skunk haired best friend seemed to be shoving down his throat, pleading over and over, “Riiiiiannnn, you have to drink this shit. This is the good stuff,” had all been said in a slurred voice.

Before Jack could persuade Rian into drinking even the slightest drop, Rian set off to find Alex Gaskarth.

——-

Alex was, no surprise, with a bleach blonde girl who seemed to pop straight off of a magazine cover in one of the upstairs bedrooms – just right enough to fit Jack’s suspicions.

To be completely honest, Alex couldn’t even tell this girl had gone to school with him. He was drunk, though, so it didn’t matter. What did matter was that he was getting his mind off of Abigail – or at least trying to.

The blonde girl had said her name was Annabelle, and that she had gone to Dulaney ever since her freshman year, and all these things about having a “huge crush on Alex, but never having the nerve to talk to him because she was afraid he’d reject her” and now she “couldn’t believe she was really making out with Alex Gaskarth!”

Alex knew he was drunk and this probably wouldn’t be the best decision he’d ever make, but when had he ever made good decisions when he was drunk?

Alex’s mind went to a million different places as Annabelle trailed her lips down his jawline and his collar bone. Of course, he thought of Abigail. Even with his drunken mindset, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. It was impossible.

——-

“Jack,” a half drunken Rian slurred. “Where’s Alex? I need to tell him something about Abigail,” he strained every word, making it seem longer than it really was.

Jack mumbled something that even a sober person wouldn’t be able to understand, so Rian shrugged it off, doing his best to get himself off of the couch to go find Alex.

Before he could even leave the living room, he felt his cell phone begin vibrating against his thigh.

Taking the black rectangle out of his jean pocket, he read the number that was lighting his screen up over and over until he realized that he had no idea who it was. Quickly, though, Rian elbowed through the massive sea of people and found a quiet place to take the call, which he was surprised to see, was still ringing.

“Hello?” Rian answered, trying to make his voice said as sober as he could.

“Rian?” the faint voice on the other line said in response. “It’s, uh… It’s Abigail…”

Rian’s thoughts immediately started racing. Why was she calling him? Shouldn’t she be calling Alex? “Um, what’s up?”

“I know you’re probably wondering why I’m calling…” Abigail said as if she could read Rian’s mind. “I just wanted to ask if you told Alex about, uh… what happened in class a few days ago…”

Rian’s body tensed up. He was going to tell Alex, because he thought Alex should know. But now that he thought about it, should he tell Alex? If Abigail wanted him to know, she’d tell him. Maybe she had a good reason to not tell him. “Well… in all honesty, Abigail,” Rian said, running a hand over his buzz cut. “I was going to, but I think you should be the one to tell Alex. For all I know, you have a logical reason for not telling him. I don’t want to intrude if not necessary If you want Alex to know, you’ll tell him yourself. Not me.”

Abigail was honestly shocked by Rian’s response. She had expected him to go running his mouth to all of his friends. Not that she thought Rian couldn’t keep a secret, it was just that she figured it would happen, or that Alex would find out from somebody. “Thank you, Rian, really. It means a lot,” Abigail spoke, trying to be as quiet as possible, to not disturb her father and give him any reason to come up to her room. Hearing the loud, obnoxious music in the background of Rian’s line, the girl cleared her throat awkwardly. “It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun right now, so I’ll let you go.”

Rian turned to face the party again – she must’ve heard it, he thought. “Abigail, for future references, if you ever need to talk to someone, I’m here.”

“Thanks again, Rian, but I think it’s safer if we don’t talk, either,” and with that Rian heard Abigail’s line go dead.

What the hell did she mean by that?

——-

Things between Alex and Annabelle had gotten heated pretty fast. Before he could think about it twice, this girl was already shirtless and lying on top of him, kissing him hungrily and moaning his name every now and then whenever Alex did certain things, or whenever she thought things were getting too quiet.

Annabelle began fumbling with the button on Alex’s jeans, before practically ripping them off of his legs, as he did the same to hers.

Alex knew he was just drunk enough to use that as an excuse for this, but sober enough to know his reasons for his actions were completely wrong. He knew he was using this girl, who may or may not be taking this entire thing seriously or not, but he was beginning to forget about Abigail – sort of – so his plan was working.

Well, he thought it was working pretty well. It was up until the point when he was just about to put himself inside of Annabelle.

“Alex,” the girl moaned quietly, biting Alex’s lip lightly, grinding her hips into his.

“I want you, Abigail,” Alex moaned back in response. Being so caught up in the moment and a bit drunk, he hadn’t even realized what he had just said until Annabelle’s lips suddenly stopped moving.

“Excuse me?” her voice dripped with bitterness and a tad bit of awkwardness. When Annabelle realized that Alex didn’t have a clue what he did, she spoke again. “Who the fuck is Abigail?” Annabelle continued again. “Wait..." the girl collected her thoughts, already getting up to grab her shirt that had been tossed across the bedroom. "Isn't she that emo freak that you hang around with at school or something?"

"She's not an emo freak," Alex defended the girl quickly, pulling on his own clothes, glaring at Annabelle. "I'd really appreciate if you didn't say that, either."

"Whatever you say, Gaskarth, but you don't know what you're missing out on," the blonde girl rolled her eyes before adjusting her clothes once more and walking out the room without even looking back.

As Alex watched the girl leave the room, he knew exactly what he had to do.

----

Attempting to make himself look presentable, he steadily ran down the stairs, since he was still obviously drunk.

He was looking for Rian, in particular. He knew Rian was always the most sober person at parties, so it was safest to go to him for help.

“Rian!” Alex called, obnoxiously loud when he spotted his friend. “Rian, I need your help,” he said a bit quiet once he got face to face with the drummer.

Grabbing the keys to his own vehicle from his pocket, Rian smiled knowingly. “Where do you need me to drive you?”

Alex smirked at how intelligent his friend really was sometimes. “I need you to take me to Abigail’s house.”

Rian gave Alex a questioning look. “Where the Hell does she live?”

Alex’s face fell when he remembered – Abigail never told him where she lived. She was scared that he’d go and say something to her father (which was likely). “It’s down the street from here,” Alex said hopefully, as well as trying to sober up the best he could.

“True. And with that, how many Speeds can there be on this street?” Rian said, as he and his shaggy haired best friend began elbowing through crowds of people. Once they got to the front door, Rian shot Alex a look again. “It’s also nearly 2am, though. What the hell do you need to do at 2 in the damn morning?”

Alex couldn’t rack an answer in his brain fast enough, so he just made his way to Rian’s pickup truck, trying to balance himself so he didn’t fall over.

“And you’re drunk as fuck. Or at least still not near sober. You sure you want to do this, man?” Rian asked, as he and Alex both got into their seats of the truck. “You might say something you regret, you know?”

“No, I won’t,” Alex rolled his eyes. Every time he got drunk, even the slightest bit, everyone thought he was bound to say something he’d regret. Then again, he always so drunk he never remembered.

“Whatever you say,” Rian smirked at his friend before taking off down the street.

——-

“Hey, there it is, ‘Lex,” Rian pointed his chubby finger towards the white mailbox that read ‘SPEED’ in big, black, bold letters on the side.

“Park a few feet away from the front of her house, Rian. I don’t want her dad to wake up or any shit like that,” Alex waved off the thought, as if it were pointless, but it needed to be said.

Rian did as asked, as Alex climbed out of the truck staggering a bit. All he needed to do now was try and determine which room was Abigail’s.

He had remembered her telling him the night that she had stayed at his house that she always felt like she had her own little world at her house sometimes, because she was upstairs all by herself.

The eighteen year old took a risk and picked up a stone from the driveway and walked towards the biggest window on the second floor of the brick home. He knew throwing the rock at the window thing was extremely cliché, but it was the only option he had.

Tossing it at the window with the best aim a drunk could get, Alex saw a light from the room turn on. Please be Abigail, Alex thought desperately. It wasn’t that he was scared of the girl’s father – it would just be a lot simpler if he didn’t have to encounter him tonight.

Much to his delight, Alex spotted a familiar brunette poke her head out the window to stare down at him. “Alex?” her whispered filled the air, sending chills down Alex’s spine. It had felt like forever since he had heard that voice, even if it had only been two weeks.

“Abigail,” Alex said through a smile. He had missed her entirely too much. “Can you come down here… please?”

Abigail knew it wasn’t safe. She knew if her father caught her with Alex, she’d never hear the end of it. But she missed him.

The seventeen didn’t say anything, but slowly made her way down the stairs and out the front door, jumping slightly at the sight of Alex once she turned the corner of the house.

“Hi,” she stated simply, feeling awkward in her pajamas – a loose fitting white V-neck with simply gray sweatpants.

“I missed you,” Alex said breathlessly, taking in her presence, as well as another step closer to her. “A lot.”

The second Alex got directly in front of her, Abigail smelled every bit of alcohol he had drank that night. “I missed you too…. A lot,” she smiled lightly, trying to ignore the obvious signs that Alex was drunk off his ass.

“Can I kiss you?” Alex asked, out of completely nowhere, catching Abigail off guard. Alex honestly just wanted to kiss her so bad – he wanted to know if what he was feeling was real and not just some bullshit in his head he had made up. He wanted to know if what he felt - what he felt was so much more than just plain liking someone; this had to be love, right? - was real.

“If you do, I won’t stop you,” Abigail felt her voice shake. She was repulsed by the smell of alcohol that was quickly filling the air, but she didn’t care. She wanted to kiss Alex again.

Without hesitation, Alex’s lips crashed against Abigail’s. It was a bit more emotion than their first – and only – kiss. It wasn’t just care, love and concern. This time it was more passion. It still wasn’t a “sexy” kiss, but it did have a lot more passion than the last.

Alex was kissing the teenager in front of him like it was the last thing he would do. He ran his hand through her thin hair, as she pulled herself closer to him, closing any space between them.

Pulling away and resting his forehead on hers, Alex smiled lightly. “You’re beautiful, you know?”

Rolling her eyes, Abigail flickered her blue irises at Alex’s browns. “You’re drunk, you know?” she said, using the same tone.

“Just barely," Alex smiled, shrugging his shoulders, as if it didn't matter.

"But still drunk," Abigail countered, raising an eyebrow at the boy in front of her.

"I guess you’re right. I am,” Alex confessed, smiling sheepishly. There was no denying he was even the littlest bit drunk, so why bother? “But you’re still beautiful. But tomorrow, I’ll be sober, and you’ll still be beautiful.”