The Fear of Falling Apart

"You were right." Jessica grinned as they walked out of the movie "That was pretty awful."

Brendon grinned "Seriously a ghost using a blinder to kill someone? Who writes these movies?"

"I'm pretty sure Nicole planned on taking Amelia to dinner. Do you have time to grab something to eat?" Jessica asked, feeling bold as she linked her arm with his. She was hopeful she didn't look as nervous as she felt.

Brendon smiled at her a moment, causing her to blush as she felt her cheeks and ears heat up. "What?"

His smile widened slightly. "Nothing, what were you thinking about for dinner? Tommy's? A bar or somewhere nice?"

"A bar or somewhere nice i think." she answered, as the exited the building and began walking down the street. "I eat at Tommy's a lot, it's Amelia's favorite. I wouldn't be surprised if her and Nicole were there now."

"A bar or somewhere nice." Brendon chuckled "Complete opposites."

"You pick between the two," Jessica answered, as she rested her head on his shoulder as they walked.

"Nice place, I think." Brendon answered, "Much quieter than a bar and we can actually talk. Besides some guy in a bar might try to steal you away from me."

Jessica pursed her lips and lifted her head to look up at him. "That is not likely to happen."

Brendon frowned "What makes you say that?"

"Not a lot of guys take an interest in me." Jessica answered, "I'm not very pretty and besides once they find out about Amelia they usually high tail it in the other direction."

Brendon frowned and stopped in his tracks, causing Jessica to jerk back with their arms still linked. "I didn't," he answered "Amelia is an awesome kid. If someone isn't willing to get to know her then they aren't worth your time." he closed the distance between them, so their noses were almost touching; his dark eyes had her hypnotized as he continued. "As for your looks, I don't know what kind of carnival mirror you've been looking in because you are gorgeous."

They stayed like that a few moment, neither one of them seeming able to move; completely lost and locked in each others eyes. The moment was finally broken by a man accidentally bumping into Brendon, causing him to stumbled into Jessica a little and break their eye contact. The man half mumbled and apology and kept walking.

"Dinner." Jessica smiled shyly, turning to continue down the sidewalk.

Brendon barely managed to catch her hand, jerking her back towards him until she crashed into his chest. The only thing keeping them from falling over was the side of a building and Jessica found herself nose to nose with him again. This time they did not stare at each other for long before Brendon crashed lips against her's, arms wrapping tightly around her waist.

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"Cool." Amelia pouted, as the harsh words left Nicole's mouth and William smile fell faster than a ton of bricks.

"It's alright Amelia," William grinned regaining his composure, and Nicole knew he was hiding hurt feelings for Amelia's sake which made her feel bad for lashing out. "I know she doesn't mean it."

Nicole checked her temper and took the last drink of her milkshake, "I think it's time to head back to your house and get you to bed." She sighed. "It is already past your bedtime."

"Can I stay at your house tonight?" Amelia pouted.

Nicole's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What is the matter with your own house?"

"It isn't yours." She answered quickly.

Nicole raised an eyebrow, knowing the child must be up to something but not knowing what. "I suppose it would be alright. I could drop you off at daycare before work. I'll have to text your mom to make sure she doesn't mind."

"Can we watch a movie before bedtime?" Amelia asked, taking Nicole's and William's hands as they walked out of the diner.

"A short one." Nicole allowed.

"And Jack can come?" Amelia grinned.

Nicole held back a sigh as William smirked at her. She really should have seen that coming.

"I'm sure he wants to go to bed." Nicole answered, trying to keep the growl from her voice.

"He can stay at your house too!" Amelia answered excitedly "Like a slumber party!"

"Where is he going to sleep?" Nicole asked. "You have your bed in the guest room and I have my bed but that's it. He would have to sleep on the couch and it's rude to do that to people."

"Couldn't he share your bed?" Amelia asked, with the innocence of child having no idea what she was really saying.

William covered his mouth, but Nicole could tell by his brown eyes he was laughing at her. Not feeling like allowing Amelia to start a line of questioning as to why Nicole and William could not in fact share Nicole's bed she tried another approach.

"Yeah but you know I kick in my sleep." She smiled at Amelia "He wouldn't get any sleep that way and then he would be tired tomorrow."

Amelia pursed her lips thinking. "I guess that's true."

Nicole began typing out a quick message to Jessica letting her know that Amelia was going to stay the night. She smirked lightly adding another quick message and a link before sending the message.

"I know!" Amelia said excitedly. "What if Jack drives his car to your house Cool. Then if he gets tired he can drive himself home."

Nicole had to stop herself from burying her face in her hands. There was no chance that Amelia was going to let this go.

"That sounds fine to me." William smiled.

Nicole was not at all surprised by this. She had already known that he was going to go along with whatever Amelia suggested. She was still trying to decide if it was because he found it amusing to see her flustered or because he really wanted to spend time with her.

"Alright." Nicole sighed, knowing she was on the loosing side. "but only one short movie and William has to go home when it's over."

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The kiss was interrupted by Jessica's phone going off. It took a moment before Brendon would release her long enough for her to dig phone out. She unlocked the screen to see a message from Nicole waiting.

"It's from Nicole." she mumbled quickly.

Hey feel free to stay out as long as you like. Amelia wants to spend the night at my place. I'll drop her off at daycare in the morning.

By the way I found this video while research Brendon's band for my article. Thought you might like it.

Below was a link to youtube. Jessica frowned for a second before clicking on the link, anything to keep from having to meet Brendon's eyes after that kiss. She knew her cheeks had to be pink with a blush. The video was a music video in fact for one of Brendon's songs.

It began playing and Jessica watched in confusion as video was nothing but a close up of Brendon's face while sang. It took Brendon about half a minute to recognize his own voice.

"Did Nicole send you one of my songs?" he asked curiously.

"No a video," Jessica answered, still confused until her face turned tomato red and she quickly shut the window. "That little-"

"She sent you the video to Girls/Girls/Boys?" Brendon asked, his own face a little red with a blush.

"Yeah," Jessica answered "I was really confused until the video zoomed out. Why do you have a video where you are completely nude?"

"You never see past my hips." was all the answer he could seem to come up with.

Wanting to quickly end the awkward Jessica added "Amelia wanted to stay at Nicole's tonight so we have plenty of time to go to dinner. There is a nice Italian place just around the corner." she hurried off in the direction, unable to meet Brendon's eyes. Brendon caught up quickly and took her hand in his but said nothing. Jessica could feel the blush creeping back up her face again.

She was going to kill Nicole for sending her that video.

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"So what are we watching?" Nicole asked as she set down Amelia's backpack and her own bag and keys on the table in the entry way.

"The goblin movie!" Amelia yelled, running past William to jump onto the couch.

"It gave you nightmares last time," Nicole answered, knowing that Amelia would understand to pick a different movie.

"What is the goblin movie?" William asked curiously as he watched Amelia run over to the large movie collection.

"Labyrinth." Nicole answered with a yawn. "Red movie night." she added making Amelia pout.

"And what is a red movie?" William asked, joining Nicole on the couch.

"All of the movies Amelia is allow to watch has different colored dots on them. No dot means not a kids movie. Red dot means a half hour or under. Blue dots mean an hour or under, Green dot is an hour and a half and purple is movie night which are really long movies like or series like Lord of rings and harry potter."

"Wow," William answered looking slightly impressed. "That is really organized."

Nicole shrugged and took the movie case that Amelia was holding out to her "It keeps a lot of movie fights from even starting. This is a blue dot miss."

Amelia smiled and tilted her head to the side, her arms behind her back as she waited for Nicole to crumble under her cuteness; which she always did.

"Fine," Nicole grinned "Getting up to put the movie in the DVD player.

"What did she pick?" William asked, unable to see the movie case.

"Pixar shorts." Amelia grinned.

"They are one of Amelia's favorites." Nicole smiled, taking her seat back on the couch. "I swear she has them all memorized by heart."

"No," Amelia answered "I memorized them in my head not my heart."

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"So what are you thinking about getting?" Brendon asked, the awkwardness of the interrupted kiss and awkward video not completely out of the air.

"The fried cheese ravioli looks good." Jessica answered, looking over the soup options as well.

"They give you honey mustard to dip it in," Brendon smiled "It's amazing. If you like fried pasta there is also the fried lasagna. We could share it as an appetizer?"

Jessica smiled over her menu at him. "Sure. I love anything with pasta and cheese."

Jessica looked up to see Brendon blushing and she couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips. "Are you blushing?"

"I most certainly am not."

"And yet it looks like you are." Jessica grinned, unable to deny that fact that she way enjoying someone being more embarrassed than her.

Brendon rubbed the back of his neck "I've never had to be standing there when people see that video. It is a lot more embarrassing than i thought it was going to be."

Jessica was about to answer when the smile quickly dropped from her face.

"Jessica whats wrong?" Brendon frowned.

"We have to leave now."

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Amelia easily crawled her way off the couch where she had been lying across Nicole and William's naps, without waking up either of the adults who had fallen asleep almost as soon as the movie had started. Grabbing a blanket out of the closet she tossed it on top of the two the best she could without waking them.

She smiled, proud of her work before turning off the tv and living room light "Good night Aunt Cool, goodnight Uncle Jack." she grinned before quietly making her way up the stairs and to Nicole's room. She crawled into the large bed that she had always preferred to the bed in the guestroom that Nicole kept for her and quickly fell asleep as well.