Mistakes

"Babe, what do think? I don't know if I want to go for more a sex kitten look, or more reserved and floral," I said, grabbing both the floral dress and the black crop top I'd been staring at for a while now from my closet.

My girl friends and I were going out tomorrow night for a girl's night. We were going to grab some drinks at a bar and then come back because one of the boys' friends were having a fire over at their house and David had invited all of us over just for something fun to do. During the day, though, Dave was heading out to do a photoshoot for a magazine I couldn't remember the name of to promote their new album and then heading into the studio to do some more work.

"You're going to look great tomorrow, David," I told him.

He smiled back. "You, too, baby." He looked down at the garments in my hands. "Did you decide on a look yet?"

I sighed and shook my head. "No, not yet. I'm literally so torn on what to wear."

David laughed and gave me a squeeze. "I don't know why you didn't drag Bradley over, baby girl. Wouldn't she have better opinions on clothes?"

"On the contrary, David Schmitt, I find you highly fashionable and I really cherish your opinions and advice," I informed him, a little stung.

David smiled and kissed my nose. "Okay, okay. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Ellie," he said, kissing me again. "Show me my options again."

In the end, I did decided on a more sex kitten look to go out and kept my refined, floral pieces for something a little more formal. I mean, we were going out to the bar. I didn't exactly have to look super professional.

I found David in the bathroom messing with his hair, dressed in his typical attire. "You look fine as hell, babe," I told him quietly, leaning against the frame of the door.

"I could say the same about you," he said, meeting my gaze in the mirror. "Are you planning on changing before you girls come out to chill with us tonight or do I have to deal with you in that?"

Grinning playfully, I leaned forward and gave David's shoulder a shove. "Oh, stop it."

He turned completely and dropped a kiss on the side of my face. "Still can't believe this beautiful girl wants to date me. How'd I get so lucky?"

"David." I was blushing, hard, and he knew it. He kissed me again. "I love you, babe. I'll see you tonight, okay?"

"Have fun with your girls," he said, tilting my head up so he could give me a proper kiss before he let me go completely.

The bar was crazy fun, like it always was. We grabbed drinks and sat around chatting for three hours straight. We all got some food to split, since the boys were planning on breaking out the grill tonight. We didn't want to be too full, but we needed something to absorb all the alcohol. It wouldn't be fun hanging out with the boys when we were all a little tipsy.

I was actually really proud of myself, since I didn't find that I was horribly fixated on my food tonight. It was nice just to be able to relax and not make everything such a big deal. I had minimal feelings of guilt about not sticking my fingers down my throat to gag up my food and I didn't feel the need to get entirely wasted so I could throw up easier. It was really nice to have my head calm down a little bit so I could enjoy my night. I knew I still had a battle ahead of me, since one good night didn't erase my problems completely, but I was getting there. And I was proud of myself.

The boys' mutual friend, Dustin, was having the fire at his home. His beautiful wife, Lydia, had made food and the boys were grilling things out back when we arrived. There was only four of us girls that had gone out, including Brad and I, so it wasn't like there was a huge pack of us.

I grabbed two beers from the fridge inside and handed one to David when I came and sat down beside him. "Thank you, baby," he said, kissing my cheek. "How was your night?"

"It was really nice, actually! I think I caught up with everyone. Plus, you know how Kiki is always out of town so we never get to see her. It was really nice to catch up with her. It really was," I said, smiling. "How was yours? How'd the shoot go?"

"Really quick, actually. I was kind of surprised. And we got some more stuff done at the studio, which our manager was happy with. We might actually get this record done on time," David said, looking so happy. I loved when he talked about music. He looked his happiest.

"That's great, babe!" I said, giving his knee a squeeze. "I'm really happy for you!"

"Thanks, beautiful. It means a lot," he said, leaning over to give me another kiss before one of the boys dragged his attention away.

The night went on as normal. Hanging out with everyone was fun and we did some more drinking, of course. At some point, the boys switched the music to some trap ass song and they were having a "dance off" which was just too funny. We were all drunk, so it was definitely funny to watch drunk guys trying to dance it out.

"He hasn't been drinking nearly as much as he normally would," Bradley said against my ear, sitting down beside me.

I nodded, watching him. He was drinking water at the moment and hadn't had a beer in going on an hour. "You don't think he's toning it down because I'm here, do you?" I asked her, glancing over at her.

She shook her head slowly, thinking. "I don't think so, babe. You know Dave. He does his own thing, whether anyone likes it or not. If he's not drinking as much, it's because he decided not to, not for your benefit."

"Yeah, I know. But still. I keep worrying about it every single time he cracks open a beer, not even if we're out here partying, you know?" I sighed, hanging my head. "I'm going to get some water."

Before Bradley could grab my arm to keep me sitting, I got up and headed inside. I leaned against the counter, filling a glass with water. I drank half the glass when I heard the screen door slide open behind me.

"Look, Brad. I don't want to talk about it anymore," I said wearily.

"Talk about what, Elle?" Tommy asked, behind me.

I turned and smiled at him. "I thought you were going to either be Bradley or Dave."

"Nah. I saw you go inside and Brad looked sort of fed up," Tommy explained and then gave me a look. "You wanna talk about anything, Ellie?"

"I'm just worried about David," I confessed and sighed. "It's so stupid. He's out there drinking water. I just don't want to lose him to alcohol again."

"It's okay to be worried, Elle. Dave's a chill guy, but he goes hard. We all know that, and I think he knows that. But he is better now, don't you think? Live in the moment, Elle," Tommy said gently. "Now get back out there, okay? Don't hide in here."

I nodded slowly and then pulled Tommy against my chest, giving him a huge hug.

"Awh, come on now, Coops. You trying to steal my girl all ready?" Dave asked from behind us, laughing.

"Early bird gets the worm, bitch," Tommy responded and then gave me an extra squeeze before letting me go completely.

I squeezed Tommy's hand and then grabbed my glass from the counter, taking David's hand in my own. "Come on, babe. Let's go back out there, yeah?"

He nodded and smiled at me. "I think Lou wants to start grilling anyway. I hope you're hungry."

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The next day, David and I hit the gym together. He was trying to get his stamina back up, since the boys were gearing up to release their new album, Savages, very soon, which meant touring. David got hyped when he was on stage and he was relentless, but this time off and being in the studio hadn't exactly been the best for his physical shape. So I joined him at the gym, which was actually pretty fun. I had tried hard to get him into hot yoga with Bradley and I, but he was not having it. Oh, well.

I left David after we'd grabbed some lunch downtown, since my dance studio was gearing up for our spring recital, which I was very excited about. My students had been working very hard all season and it was about to pay off big time.

"Elle! You're here!" Nora, one of the girls I danced with, said when she saw me sneak into the back of the studio with my bag.

"Hey!" I said happily, smiling at her. "Let's get this thing started, shall we?"

Once we had shuffled all the dancers to the wings of the stage, we were able to begin our rehearsal. Today was the first day where we had every dress in their costumes and dance, rather than the usual leotard and tights. The kids all looked great, with only just a few minor things that needed tightened up. I was incredibly proud of all of students; they really worked hard to look so great.

Since Bradley had convinced me to take my own dance class, I had my own section of the recital coming up. We were doing a kind-of hip hop piece to S&M by Rihanna, which was one of the sexiest choreography I'd ever done in my life. And I was also doing a lyrical duet with one of my good friends, Matt, who was probably the most talented male dancer I'd ever worked with in my career. We had great chemistry and we'd nailed the choreography into our brains at this point.

Once rehearsal was over for the day, I redressed in the bathroom and then swung into my car to drive home. I wasn't sure if David had had any plans today, and I hadn't had a chance to speak to him since I left him at lunch earlier.

When I returned home, however, I found a little note on the counter that Dave had scribbled hastily, in his lopsided, messy handwriting.

Hey, babe. We're getting a crew together to hit the beach, but I'll be back for dinner for sure. Hope you had a great day! Love, D.

I rolled my eyes and stuck the note in the trash, smiling slightly. He'd gone into the studio today after lunch, so I could only assume he came back here to change and write me the note. He was cute. I grabbed my things from the inside of the front door and headed down the hallway to change into something more comfortable and start dinner.

I pulled on a pair of shorts, an old BC tee from back in the day and one of David's flannels. Honestly, I looked like a Breathe Carolina fangirl, but it was comfortable and I had danced my ass off today. I deserved a break from looking fabulous.

"Hey, babe! It smells fucking amazing in here," David said, when he came though the kitchen, dropping his keys on the counter so he could kiss me soundly. "I'm so glad I didn't grab take-out on the way back!"

"Me, too! I worked pretty damn hard on this meal," I said, grinning at him.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier. I wanted to make you dinner tonight," David admitted, stealing another kiss from me before he went to the fridge to fill a glass with water.

"Don't be so silly. I like being domestic. You can cook for me tomorrow," I told him, smiling.

"Deal." He leaned against the counter beside me, affectionately watching me make us food, when he paused halfway through lifting the glass to his lips. "Are you wearing my shirt?"

I gave him a look from my peripheral vision. "Do you want me to take it off?"

"No, I really don't," he said and then laughed, tugging at the hem playfully. "You look real good in my shit, Elle. Like, damn good."

I laughed. "Thanks, Dave. You're sweet."

He tugged me from the stovetop and folded his arms around my hips, resting his hands at the small of my back. "Maybe you should take it off. Or let me," he teased me, leaning down to kiss my lips a few times and then my neck.

I sighed softly, blushing. "David, our food is literally cooking. We can't do this right now," I said, trying hard to get him to see reason.

Sneakily, David reached over and turned the oven and the stovetop off, pulling me closer to him. "And now nothing is cooking and we have plenty of time," he said, smiling coyly.

With nothing left to stop us, I reached up to cup the back of his neck so I could pull him back to me. Once the sparks between us had died down, and we actually ate our dinner, we curled up together on the couch to catch up on some TV shows we'd been neglecting recently. Riot curled up in David's lap, which I thought was super cute so I snapped a quick photo of us to upload.

"So, Elle, do you remember a while ago, I told you I was writing you a song?" Dave asked, after a long companionable silence between us, just watching TV like an old couple's Friday night.

I rolled my eyes. "No, I don't think I recall, Dave. You're writing me a song?"

He looked like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I thought I told you," he said quietly and then shook his head. "Anyway, so we finished tracking it today, so I've been thinking about it a lot. I wanted it to be perfect."

I smile at him. "I'm sure it's perfect, David. You're a great lyricist."

"Thanks, baby," David said and leaned over to kiss me, tasting sweet like the frozen yogurt he was eating.

We headed to bed not long after (like I said, old couple's Friday night) and David still had this far away look in his eyes when I curled up in bed next to him.

"What's the matter?" I asked him.

"Do you want to hear it?" he asked, looking down at me.

I felt confused, and a little wet. David's hair was still damp from the shower. "What are you talking about, baby?"

"The song. The one I wrote for you," David said, looking at me again. "Do you want to hear it?"

I blinked a few times, trying to force my brain to catch up with what he'd just said. "Of course, silly. I'd love to hear it. God, you're acting like it's some big secret or something," I teased him.

He smiled at me and then got out of bed. He rummaged around our bedroom for a moment before he pulled his guitar case out from under the bed. It had been such a long time since I'd seen David play the guitar. He sat back down on the bed and I straightened up a little bit, eager to hear what he had wrote.

"Now, just so you know, it's still kind of rough and the words might change, so--"

"David," I cut him off. "I'm sure it's perfect the way it is. Really."

David smiled at me again and then started playing. It was beautiful, really. David wasn't the kind of guy to wear his heart on his sleeve. He kept his emotions pretty close to the vest, actually. Plus, he was chilled out and cool by nature, so he didn't often get worked up about most things that would bother other people. But this song was different than anything he'd ever written about me before. It was raw and honest, something I wasn't used to. I was absolutely in love with it.

"That was beautiful, David. Thank you," I said softly, leaning over to kiss him gently. "What are you calling it, by the way?"

He smiled at me, wide. "It's called 'Please Don't Say.'"