Paint You Wings.

⊱⊱ Alex Gaskarth ⊰⊰

Being back with the guys, in the basement of my house since we kept Rian's old drum set there along with the old second-hand amps and whatever other shit we had, it felt like we were teenagers again. We were fooling around with each other more than we were actually trying to write new songs with vague ideas of how the track would go. Rian and Jack would constantly be bickering, Zack would be snickering in the corner as he tried to get them to shut up before he'd give up and start fiddling with his bass instead, and I'm pretty sure that they would all agree that I'd been on my phone the whole way.

It wasn't my fault that Riley was too freaking adorable for her own good.

She was supposed to be taking her last exam paper tomorrow and she didn't plan on sleeping through the night. Turns out that she studied better under the pressure of having to ace the exam which would be on the following day. And since she was slowly growing delirious, she started sending me selfies with the most ridiculous faces pulled. Every time she sent me one, I was, of course, obligated to reply with a selfie of my own.

So we basically spent our whole 'brain-storming-slash-practice' session doing everything but brain-storm and practice.

Jack sighed dramatically, flopping down onto the worn leather couch that I had in the basement. "'M tired."

The guys and I let out snorts as we shot him dubious looks. "You didn't do shit." Rian remarked, before pursing his lips. "None of us did shit."

"Blame Alex! He's been on his phone the whole fuckin' time." Jack accused, wagging a bony finger in my direction.

I grabbed the nearest thing I could, which was an ancient PlayStation controller, and chucked it at him. "You're one to talk. All you did was come up with dick jokes."

Zack smirked, "At least he's got new jokes to tell at the shows. I mean, they all still suck, but whatever."

"You're a dick." Jack grumbled. Zack only chuckled, blowing him an air kiss. "We should just meet up tomorrow night, like with no distractions and shit. You know, get some proper work done?"

Rian frowned. "Huh. Jack actually made a good point."

Jack scowled in response, flipping him off while mumbling "stupid potato man" under his breath, earning a wooden drumstick to his back.

I sheepishly smiled at them, bringing a hand to the back of my neck. Rian let out an "uh oh" before I'd even said anything. I raised a brow and he just raised one back right at me.

"So, I, uh, can't make it tomorrow." I trailed off, shrugging a shoulder.

"Riley?" Jack, Rian and Zack chorused in unison.

"What - psshhtt, of course not, I mean, I'm gonna go --" Zack threw a pillow at my face, cutting me off mid-lie. "Yeah, Riley." I relented, knowing that they'd be teasing me endlessly.

Jack snickered. "When are you gonna get the guts to kiss her?"

"Or ask her out?" Rian asked next.

"Guys, give him a break." Zack spoke up, laughing slightly. I sent him a grateful look, about to thank him for defending me when he spoke again: "He's probably going to take a couple years to do those things since he's such a pussy."

Scowling at the three guys I called my best friends, I huffed, crossing my arms across my chest. "Fuck you all."

"Yeah, we love you too, brother." They laughed, smirks plastered on their stupid, smug faces. Idiots.



Riley frowned at me as I started to mess about with my hair. She pouted her bottom lip and I laughed, reaching a hand out to grab the sketch pad from her hands. She grabbed onto it, bringing it to her chest as she narrowed her eyes over at me.

"Oh come on," I pouted. "Jack let Rose see his drawing once he was done!"

I'd asked her to 'draw me like one of [her] French girls' while striking a ridiculous pose. I didn't hold the pose for too long since it actually required effort, but she carried on sketching, glancing up to look at me every once in a while. And now that she was probably done, she didn't want to let me see it.

She furrowed her eyebrows, pursing her lips before she cocked her head to the side. 'Did he? 'Cause I haven't watched that movie in years.'

I shrugged a shoulder. "I don't remember, either." I laughed, watching as her lips curled up into an amused smirk, of sorts. "How are you still standing when you haven't had any sleep?"

'Technically, I'm sitting.'

I scowled at her, using the pillow that I was resting my head upon to gently hit the back of her head. She flashed me a toothy smile, paired with an innocent shrug, making me roll my eyes.

'I listened to some All Time Low albums last night. The band's really good.' She wrote on the sketch pad, letting me read it.

I couldn't help but beam at that. She liked my band. "Which album did you listen to?" I ask curiously.

'All of them.' She writes, offering me a sheepish and sort of shy smile.

Letting out a small chuckle, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and drew her in closer to my chest. I almost didn't realise my actions because it felt so natural but since she didn't do anything except for sink into me while still holding her sketch pad, I let myself relax.

An idea popped into my head and I let her go, holding up a finger; the universal sign for asking someone to wait for one moment. She nodded and I jogged to my bedroom, grabbing my acoustic and bringing it back out. Riley was still on the couch, although she was now curled up at the end, drawing mindlessly. I sat down in the middle of the couch, smiling at her.

"C'mere." I motioned her closer with my hand, her giving me a confused smile in response. I chuckled, "I'm not gonna eat you. If I wanted to, I would've done it ages ago."

She raised an eyebrow, shooting me a flat look. I only shrugged my shoulders in response, giving her a cheeky grin. "You look tasty." I smirked, winking, only realising how dirty it sounded a millisecond later. As soon as I started snickering under my breath, she nudged me in the shoulder, making me tumble a bit.

I glanced up only to be met with the most beautiful smile plastered onto her face as amusement glinted in her grey eyes. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip then, and I couldn't help but drop my eyes to zoom in on her lips. Her perfect lips. Lips that I found myself wanting to feel against my own, many a time since we've started hanging out.

'Patience.' I told myself, darting my eyes back up to her own.

Reaching a hand out, I rested it on her waist and pulled her closer to me, across the short distance that separated us on the couch. I placed the guitar on her lap, moving her left hand to the fret board and using my other hand to guide her right hand, so as to help her with the strumming. I positioned her left hand so that it rested on the right chord, also moving myself closer to her. I was kind of behind her at this point, one leg bent so that it was at her lower back area while the other was a few inches away from her own leg, each hand over hers and I was sure that with every breath I let out, the hairs on the back of her neck would stand up.

I leaned down just the slightest bit, ghosting my lips across the back of her neck, biting back a triumphant smirk as I felt her shiver ever-so-slightly. Making sure that her fingers were pressing firmly enough on the strings, I guided her right hand to strum the beginning chords to one of our songs that, although was somewhat based off of the ex-girlfriend, related to the situation I was currently in.

I sang as she strum the chords accordingly, picking up on the strumming pattern and the chords that was used in the song rather quickly.

'Cause right now could last forever
Just as long as I'm with you

You're just a daydream away
I wouldn't know what to say if I had you
And I'll keep you a daydream away
Just watch from a safe place so I never have to lose

Her cheeks pinked lightly and she bit on her bottom lip again. I almost wanted to groan and use my fingers - or my lips, I'm just saying that I'm alright with using either - to release her lip from the entrapment of her upper row of teeth.

We'd reached the end of the second verse, and I was singing the chorus again. She already knew the strumming pattern and the chords to play for that bit, but I didn't move a single inch away from her. My hands dropped from hers and hesitantly moved down to her hips, and then wrapping my arms around them in a hug, of sorts. I let my cheek rest on her back, between her shoulder blades, as I continued singing softly - only to her.

She stopped strumming since I placed my hands over hers to stop her. The last bit was pure vocals, anyway. I deliberately went right to her ear, singing quietly.

You're just a daydream away
I wouldn't know what to say if I had you

My lips grazed the back of her earlobe and she drew in a shaky breath. I titled my head so that I could look at her beautiful face, and she looked right back at me. I watched as her eyes danced across my face, as though she wanted to memorise each and every little dent, curve and slope. I couldn't say anything against it since I was doing pretty much the same thing.

I really want to kiss her.

Her eyes darted down to my lips for a brief moment and I saw her tongue poke out, running across her upper lip. I'm pretty sure that meant she wanted to kiss me, too.

I brought a hand to the back of her head, gently bringing her face closer to mine. She still had an arm resting on the guitar, but the other one went under my arm, hand going to rest at the nape of my neck. Our foreheads nudged gently against each other as I took slow, deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart. It was a good kind of racing, though, not the horrible kinds that I got during my panic attacks.

She leaned forward the same time that I did, and I felt my eyes flutter shut. I'm pretty sure that we were a breath's away from each other since I could feel her cool, minty breath fanning across my lips. I inched closer, ready to finally do what I'd been wanting to do since the second day of being friends with her.

Our lips had barely brushed against each other when the front door burst open, banging against the wall. Riley and I jumped apart, staring wide-eyed at each other before we, simultaneously, turned towards the door. By the doorway stood a very drunk Jack Barakat.

"Have you guyssss seen my... Pet dragon?" He slurred out, eyes droopy before he collapsed to the floor in a heap.

Dammit Jack.