Burn

When my alarm clock went off the next morning, I groggily rolled over and felt around for the right button before it finally went silent. The sun was barely above the horizon but I'd promised The Maine I would be back 'bright and early' so I groaned, getting out of bed and going into the bathroom to start getting ready.

I could feel the chilliness on the inside of the house--the linoleum in the bathroom was cold to my feet as I stepped out--so I padded back into my room, looking for something a little thicker to wear today. Fall was quickly approaching, but it seemed like just yesterday everyone was wearing shorts and tank tops. I settled on a loose, grey sweater and a pair of light-wash jeans, then went back into the bathroom to dry my hair and style it.

Forty minutes later, I was on the way to The Maine's studio with a granola bar in hand and a giant grin on my face.



I let myself in the house since the door was unlocked and set my equipment bag--courtesy of Mr. Clancy--down on the kitchen table. Along with a brand new Nikon and tape-recorder, I'd also received a shiny black AmEx just in case I would need anything else. I knew it was for work-related emergencies only, but that didn't stop my palms from itching to swipe it at every clothing center in town.

The house was extremely quiet, which could only mean one thing--everyone was still asleep. "I thought we agreed on early." I muttered, kicking off my shoes.

"No one ever wakes up early around here." John answered from the living room, making me jump. I peeked around the corner to see him sitting on the couch watching TV, sipping from a steaming mug. His hair was tousled lightly from sleep and he wore only a white t-shirt and plaid pajama pants. Seeing him so comfortable made me smile, and I joined him in the living room and sat in the recliner.

He gestured toward me with his mug. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Yes." I groaned. "That would be perfect right now."

He laughed, sitting his mug down and walking into the kitchen. I focused on the old episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that was playing on the TV until he returned from the kitchen with a steaming mug identical to his and handed it to me. I sipped carefully, surprised at how good it was.

"I didn't know how you liked it, so I just made it how I liked it." he commented as he sat back down. I gave him a thumbs up with my free hand as I sipped again, making him smile. "To be honest, I don't think they thought you were serious when you said you'd be over early."

"But you did?" I asked and he smirked. "No, I just like being awake before everyone else."

We fell back into silence for a few moments, just drinking our coffee quietly before I asked, smirking, "So this is the life of the famous John O'Callaghan? Getting up early, drinking coffee and watching nineties sitcom re-runs?"

He laughed, shaking his head. "Sometimes. But the best part is whenever those dudes decide to wake up and we start recording. Then you'll see the real life of 'John O'Callaghan'." he lifted his fingers up in air quotes as he said his name.

"I guess we'll see." I said. "So can I ask a question?"

"That is your job, isn't it?" he asked, smirking. I ignored him. "Why are so many The Maine songs about girls?"

His eyebrows shot up on his forehead and he sat his mug down on the coffee table. "Um--" he started, letting out an awkward chuckle.

"I'm just asking. I mean--is it because you have a past full of long, complicated relationships or--you know..." I trailed off. I could feel my face heating up with how stupid I felt for asking such a question. It was really none of my business why he wrote the songs he did.

"I guess...they're for a girl that could be. Like in the future." He answered, and I would have thought he were joking if I wasn't staring straight into his face, which did not falter. "And--maybe I'll find her soon."

I didn't understand exactly what he meant, but I know that the look on his face made my pulse quicken. I looked away before he could see how flustered that answer had made me.



I wonder what you taste like

The salt within your skin

Evil rages inside

Now I'm hungry for blood again

John's sultry voice filled the inside of the recording studio as he tracked vocals that would later be added to the instrumental of Run. He stood on the other side of the glass with giant headphones on his ears, completely deaf to the outside world. I stood up, walking closer to the glass to capture John on video while he was singing. He threw a smirky smile my way as he noticed me.

As he finished, he hung the headphones on a stand in the corner of the room and opened the door, joining the rest of the band and I on the couches.

"How was that?" he asked, and their producer Brendan began playing back what John had just sang. The band listened, nodding in approval and John smiled.

"I think we're about done here, boys. Why don't you guys call it a day?" Brendan said, turning around to face us in his chair.

Pat clapped, jumping up from his seat. "Food!"

"What should we eat?"

"Should we go out?"

"How about I cook dinner?" I piped up. "I make some good chicken alfredo."

"That would be amazing." Kennedy said, smiling. "I vote Viola cooks dinner." Everyone began agreeing excitedly.

"Whoa, wait. You don't have to Viola, you're supposed to be our guest." John said, throwing Kennedy a look. I shook my head. "No, I don't mind. Really."

"Well we definitely didn't buy stuff yesterday to make chicken alfredo with." Jared said, laughing. "You'll have to run and pick that up."

As everyone dispersed and started heading upstairs, I pulled out my phone to start a grocery list of everything I would need to buy to make alfredo for six boys plus myself.

"You gonna be okay going by yourself?" John asked. I hadn't realized he'd stayed behind while everyone else trekked back upstairs.

"Um, actually. Would you wanna come?" I asked hesitantly. "I honestly don't like to go places by myself."

"Of course I'll come, Viola Grey." he said, breaking out into a grin that warmed me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. "I'll just go put on some more appealing clothes for you."

I only nodded, watching his sweatpant legs with a smile as he climbed up the stairs by twos.



John had started an annoyingly fun game of twenty-one questions with me in the car on the way to the grocery store.

"Okay, so what's your favorite food?"

"Probably pizza. Or chicken alfredo, of course."

"If you could live anywhere, where would you live?"

"Chicago."

"Why?"

"I just like the city, I guess."

John was quiet as he checked his phone, which had been dinging non-stop for the past few minutes while he'd questioned me.

"Do I get to ask a question now?" I asked, glancing over at him. He shook his head violently. "Oh no. That's not how this goes. I need to know about you and who you are."

I rolled my eyes. "You're not being very fair with your rules, Mr. O'Callaghan."

"You already learned all about me from the internet!" he exclaimed, laughing. His phone dinged three more times.

"You can't learn everything from the internet." I objected. I looked over at his phone before pulling into the grocery store parking lot. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's just my Twitter. I posted something new and everything is replying to it."

"Ah, the life of a rock star." I said sarcastically, and he smirked. I parked the car, unclicking my seat belt and pulling my wallet out of my purse and tucking it under my arm.

"Yeah, don't be surprised if I get a bunch of requests for my autograph in here." he chuckled. We got out and began walking toward the entrance. "I need to follow you up there. I keep forgetting to."

"How do you know I have a Twitter?" I asked as I grabbed a cart "Or have I said something about it before?"

He walked beside me, still scrolling on his phone. "I was the one that followed you back on the band's page."

My eyes widened slightly. "Oh, that was you?"

"Yeah. I saw your name, looked you up and found a whole bunch of articles you'd written before. You're actually really good."

My face began to heat up, both from the compliment and the fact that John had googled me. I rolled the cart to the meat department to pick up the chicken first.

"What?" he asked, chuckling as he noticed my facial expression. "You thought I was lying when I told you I did my research? I want to know who you were, so I did it--I hope that's not creepy."

I shook my head quickly. "N-no! It's no more creepy than me looking up things about you guys before the interview."

He laughed then. "Yeah. I think its cool how you can spew off facts about us sometimes. You're like a hardcore version of a The Maine fan or something."

"But I am a The Maine fan! I really like you guys." I said, looking up at him. His eyes danced playfully as he readjusted his grey beanie. "Well we're a fan of you, too." he said, his smile widening as he added, "Me being the biggest obviously, since I just tweeted about you."

I head my phone ding then, and I quickly whipped it out of my back pocket to see a new mention of my home screen.

@johnmaine: @ViolaLion only likes the sad songs.

"Awesome. I'm getting publicity because of you." I teased. I rolled the cart into an aisle to pick up the linguine noodles, then to the dairy section for the cream cheese.

"So what do you do for fun?" John asked, returning to his question game as he slid his phone in his pocket.

"I like to hang out with my friends. We drink, the boys play video games, and the girls do girl stuff." I replied, laughing.

"Sounds like what we do, basically. Minus the girls." John said, smiling. "You should invite them over some time. We could all hang out and drink."

I thought the idea over in my head. Joel and Alex would be stoked to meet The Maine, and so would Rose and Callie--the only headache would be Caleb. After his episode last night, I was almost positive he'd be fine with never hearing anything about them again.

"Yeah, maybe we could do that." I decided. I pulled up to the spice aisle to get the final ingredients for dinner.

"Good. Then you can invite them over tomorrow. We'll all go out for dinner, then come back to the house and chill." John said, coming around the side of the cart to stand next to me.

"Tomorrow?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know if everyone is off work--" I was interrupted by my phone receiving a FaceTime call from Rose. "Speak of the devil." I muttered, turning away from John so that I could answer. "This will only take a sec."

He motioned for me to take my time, and I answered the phone to see Rose and Callie's face fill up my screen.

"HELLO! Did you know John is tweeting about you?" Rose said hurriedly before I could even reply to her hello. I blushed, turning the volume down on my phone and glancing back at John. He was smirking at me.

"I guess you were right about the publicity thing, huh?" he commented quietly. I turned my attention back to Rose, who was raising an eyebrow at me. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the grocery store." I replied, pushing the cart towards the register with my free hand.

"We hadn't heard from you in a few days. We just wanted to make sure you were still alive." Callie said, pushing her head more into the screen and smiling at me.

"I'm fine. I'm got a lot of things to explain to you guys--are you free tomorrow night?"

John walked past me to check and see which register had the shortest line of people. "Viola, this one is open." he called, pointing. Rose pushed her way back into camera view. "Wait, who was that?"

"It's um...John." I whispered the last part, feeling my face heat up.

"JOHN?!" they exclaimed in unison and I shushed them quickly. Callie snatched the phone from Rose then, putting it very close as if that would give her a better view of what was around me. "No freaking way." she said as I flipped the camera around so that they could see John putting groceries on the counter.

"Oh my god. You have so much explaining to do." Rose said, narrowing her eyes. "I cannot believe you didn't tell me this sooner."

"I know, I know. I promise I'll explain but not right now, okay? We want everyone to meet us for dinner tomorrow at--" I looked up at John. "Eight?" and he nodded. "Yeah, eight. Then we're gonna go back to The Maine's studio and hang out."

"Hell yes." Rose said, winking at me. "I'll spread the word. Text us the details!"

I quickly said goodbye to them and hung up the video call, sighing. John chuckled, noticing my worn expression. "I take it those are the friends you were talking about earlier?"

I nodded. "The girls."

I quickly paid for the groceries and wheeled the cart out to my car. John insisted I warm up the car instead of putting groceries in the trunk--of course, I objected but he won in the end.

"I have almost thirty new followers because of you." I commented, showing him my Twitter as he got back in the car. He raised his eyebrows approvingly.

"Maybe you'll get me the opportunity to interview another band and stay in their studio-slash-living quarters." I teased and John shook his head.

"Nope. You're all mine, Viola Grey. I don't share."

I knew he was joking, but it didn't stop the way it made me feel.

Stupid grin = activated. Red cheeks = also activated.



"Jesus, Viola. That was absolutely delicious." Jared said, pushing his plate away from him on the table. I smiled gratefully as I collected up the dirty dishes to put them in the sink. Kenned quickly hopped out of his seat, grabbing the plates and cups out of my hands and shaking a finger at me.

"You can't clean up if you're the one who cooked, silly!" he said, laughing.

"Okay, okay." I agreed. I looked at the time to see it was almost ten, and realized how tired I was. I'd been on the go since the crack of dawn this morning and it was starting to show. John stood up and motioned for me to follow him. "I forgot, I have something to show you."

I raised my eyebrows and looked around at the other guys, who just shooed me in the direction John was walking towards the stairs. He led me to his room and stood to the side, making a ta-da gesture. Off to one side of the room was the nicest air mattress I'd ever seen. I laughed loudly, going over and sitting on it and rubbing my hands over the fluffy grey and yellow comforter.

"This was the nicest one they could find. We liked the little inflatable headboard it had." he said, patting it and chuckling.

"Thanks. This is really nice of you guys." I grinned. "Did ya'll pick out the comforter, too?"

"We did, actually." Pat thought you might like that one--and he's the girliest of all of us."

I laughed. "Well this is great. I like it."

"...You are staying here tonight, aren't you?" he asked nonchalantly as he walked over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of pajama pants for himself.

"Well..." I said, hunching my shoulders. "I brought my stuff. But I haven't really decided yet."

"Stay." he demanded, but his tone turned playful. "I mean, that way you can sleep on it and decide if it needs to be returned or not."

I pretended to ponder it for a moment before giving in. "Fine. I'll stay, but I have to go grab my bags from the car." he bounded over, snatching away the key's I'd just produced from my pocket.

"I've got them! Be right back!" he said, and I couldn't help but notice how happy he sounded. I listened to his footsteps down the stairs before I fell back on the air mattress, letting my hair fan around me. I knew staying here was against Caleb's wishes, and that thought played in my mind over and over. But the memory of the way he made me feel the night before resurfaced, reminding me of how disrespectful he'd been to me.

"This is my job." I mumbled to myself. "Nothing else."

I repeated it as a mantra the rest of the night to keep myself from feeling guilty.

Viola's Outfit