Happy

[006]

"You're going to die from alcohol poisoning some day."

Alex glanced up with a lazy smirk plastered along his lips, already familiar with the voice that was speaking. He shrugged non-comittedly, tilting the cup of Long Island Iced Tea in his hand over in Zooey's direction.

"And you seem to be working every time I'm at the bar. Are you sure you're not stalking me?"

Zooey rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, mate. Unlike some people, I don't actually have three months worth of day offs, or whatever."

"Technically speaking... I work more than you do."

"Says who?"

"Says me – the guy who's playing a concert every other day for at least nine months out of a year." He sassed, raising a thick eyebrow.

The redhead frowned curiously. "Nine months out of a year? Are you exaggerating?"

"Nope." He shook his head, taking a large sip from his drink; making a face as the liquid slid down his throat.

"That's rough."

"Now you understand a bit more about my whole situation."

She laughed. "Just a bit." She agreed. "Do you ever get tired of it, though?"

"What? Touring?" Alex asked, setting his drink down to pay full attention to the bartender that he currently referred to (in his mind) as his confidante.

Well. Not complete full attention. Like, half attention.

His mind was getting fuzzy, but he wasn't drunk enough to the extent that he couldn't see straight and removed the filter that stood between his brain and his mouth – the filter that usually helped him not get his arse kicked, since his thoughts were rather blunt and offensive. Sometimes. Most of the time.

Zooey nodded.

Alex shrugged a shoulder. "I mean... Sometimes it sucks. Being away from my family, and my puppies, and my friends. But when it comes down to it... I wouldn't trade this life for any other one. I could be on break for three months, like I am now, and I'd be missing tour after two weeks of being home. It's barely been a week and I already miss touring, so that says something. I miss my boys, I miss being on the road, I miss the fans I haven't met yet. I dunno. I guess it's not the most convenient lifestyle but it's my life and I really fucking like it."

"It's a band member's life for you." She smirked slightly, half-singing it in the tune of 'it's a pirate's life for me.'

Alex laughed, wrapping his fingers around his glass once more. "Right you are, my friend."

-----

The lights weren't even turned on, but the pair were seeming to have no problems with being in the pitch black room. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the lack of lighting, which meant that he had to open his eyes while his lips were attached to that of a brunette (probably) in front of him.

She moaned rather loudly, hoisting herself up so that she could wrap her legs around Alex's hips. Her hands tugged at his hair roughly and he winced, though he never stopped letting his lips roam the skin of her neck and collarbone. He never really liked rough sex. It was preference, and it was a preference that Alex did not prefer.

Apparently she – Mary? Jenny? Kelly? – had that preference.

He didn't necessarily care, though. In that moment, his hormones were at an all time high – hah – and he just needed to get off. If that meant sleeping with a beautiful young woman and ditching her the next day then so be it. It wasn't like she had a chance with him, in the first place.

Alex just didn't want commitment. Ew. Commitment. That word only equated to horrid messes in his mind. He tried it once (with Lisa), and look how that ended up.

"Danny." She moaned out, instantly making his drunken mind confused for a bit, before he ended up biting down gently on her skin to create a love-bite; also trying to disguise his laughter.

She had approached him while he was sat at the bar, a Jack and Coke in his hands. He'd already downed the Long Island Iced Tea, ordered a couple of shots, just because, a bottle of beer and this was his current poison. With the amount of alcohol he'd consumed, he was in no way sober, and Zooey had already told him to go home the moment he finished his drink. He probably would get alcohol poisoning, but he didn't really care. All Alex wanted was to get drunk and to forget.

The chat that he'd had with Zooey made him think about his boys. Alex ended up remembering his fondest tour memories silently, as he sat by the bar, downing his poison of choice in that moment. Then when the brunette approached him and started flirting with him – he ended up blurting out that his name was Danny, because he'd been thinking of Danny Kurily at that time.

Thus why she'd just moaned out Danny's name while Alex was the one making her pleasured enough to moan.

Bit awkward, honestly.

But then again, Alex still wanted no one to know that he was the lead singer of All Time Low – because that's apparently a big deal – so if that meant having to hear his flavour of the night moan out his guitar tech's name, then so be it.

"Danny?" She breathed out, tugging at his hair, making him glance up.

"Kiss me." She stated, her lips curled up into a devilish grin, earning a charming smirk from the young gentlemen before her as he hungrily claimed her lips with his own.

It was still weird, though. Really weird.

-----

Alex had an arm wrapped around the blonde beauty next to him. Apparently, while drunk, his mind couldn't tell colours apart.

Their activities had tired her out, while it only sobered him up. She had passed out, asleep, head on his chest within two minutes, while Alex was still awake – staring at her bare ceiling. He felt completely sober now, so with an apologetic glance to the blonde – though she would never see it – he gently cradled her head and rested it upon a pillow. He slid out of the bed, his feet making no sound as he moved about, collecting his clothes and pulling them on.

He wrote a note for her before he left, saying that he was sorry for using her and that he was hammered drunk long before she spoke to him. He wasn't lying, so he felt just slightly less guilty for leaving her like that. Alex placed the note on her bedside table and then brought the duvet up to protect her naked body from the cold. See? He wasn't completely heartless and emotionless.

Once he'd made his way out of her flat, he heaved a sigh, shaking his head as he buried his hands into his pockets. Alex started on his way back to his own flat, walking at a relaxed pace as the silence of the night/early morning surrounded him.

A familiar slim, feminine, figure made him cock his head to the side in curiosity. He watched her turn around, messing about with the locks on the door or something, before she turned around, ruffling her hair and stretching out her neck.

"Zooey!" He called out in a normal tone, though with the silence, it sounded like he was yelling.

The flame-haired young lady turned, startled, before she smiled, leaning on her side against the wall of the pub. "Hey." She greeted as he drew closer; him then walking next to her. "What're you doing out here at –" she cut herself, shaking her head. "Never mind. I think I have an idea of what you're out here."

Alex could only manage a sheepish grin as he shrugged his shoulders, bringing a hand to the back of his neck. "I didn't know the pub closed this late." He changed the subject not-so-subtly.

Zooey raised a brow but she snickered and went along with it, anyway. Another thing that Alex really fucking liked about being mates with this girl.

"We usually close at about six, but there wasn't anyone in the pub so I closed up early. Then we open up again at midday, for lunch."

"You serve food here?" Alex asked, furrowing his eyebrows, because he genuinely did not know that the pub he'd been frequenting actually sold food. He could've gone there for dinner so many times (but not really) before and then get drunk without having to move to another location!

"Yeah?" She replied slowly, laughing lightly. "Last order for the kitchen is at about half past nine in the evening. You've usually come in by ten."

He blinked. "The food any good?"

"Very."

"Then I guess I'll see you tomorrow night at dinner time." He winked before he laughed, Zooey following suit.

"Unfortunately for you, I'm not working tomorrow, so there's that."

"What happened to your whole 'no day offs' thing, huh?" Alex teased.

She shook her head. "I never said that. I only said that I didn't have three months worth of day offs."

Alex waved her off. "Same thing."

"Is not." Zooey laughed, then halting her walking pattern. "This is my stop." She gestured to the complex that they'd somehow ended up at.

Alex glanced up, realising that they were actually pretty freaking far from where the pub was at. "Right. Have a good night. Morning. Whatever."

Zooey laughed. "Yeah, you too. I'll see you when I see you." Then she turned, making a move to step into the building, but Alex called out her name. She turned again, looking at him inquisitively.

"You never say 'bye', how come?" He observed, because it was true. In the times that he'd hung out with her – be it as a patron at the bar while she worked, or when they'd bumped into each other, she never said 'bye.' It was always a 'see you,' and Alex was curious.

She shrugged. "Goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting."

Alex blinked, before he flashed her a lopsided grin. "Peter Pan."

"Yeah." Zooey nodded, smiling. "See ya, 'Lex."

Alex waved at her, watching as she got into the building and then stepped into the lifts – before he actually made a move to figure out which way he had to go in order to reach home. He figured that backtracking his way back to the pub was easiest, and so that was what he did; hands buried in his pockets and he walked.

Once he'd almost reached the pub, he already knew which way he was meant to go, so he turned where he had to and he walked the familiar road back to the flat that he'd rented.

So there he was, on the way home at a quarter to five in the morning, alone in the dead of the night.

Orson Welles once said: "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we are not alone."

But Alex was alone, as he was always meant to be.