A Story to Tell Your Friends

Thirty-Two.

“Oh, my God, that is the cutest picture I’ve ever seen,” I gushed to Jack as he showed me the picture his friend had taken of us the night before. It was in black and white, and Jack and I were wrapped up in each other right after he’d told me he loved me. You could see the grin on my face and his, his forehead leaning on my own. “I need it. You need to be my screensaver.” Jack laughed, quickly forwarding the snap on to me. We were currently curled up on his sofa with coffee, the TV playing to itself next to us.
“Honestly, that ugly mug of yours has been the background on my phone for weeks,” he told me, showing me a picture of he and I pressed between Alex and Lisa the first night we’d all gone out together.
“You had me as your background when I wasn’t even speaking to you?” I laughed, setting the picture he’d sent me as my background. I saw a small blush creeping up Jack’s face.
“Well, uh… I guess.” I bit my lip at how nervous he seemed, trying not to let him see the smile threatening to spill onto my face. “I mean, it’s not a couple photo, and it was just genuinely a fun night, so… yeah, I did.” I pushed a small kiss to his lips, assuring him that I thought it was simply adorable that he hadn’t been bothered about how weird it would have looked to everyone else. I felt my phone buzzing in my hand and sighed, detaching myself from Jack and answering quickly.
“Go,” I said as I clicked ‘accept’ on the call from my brother.
“What the Hell, Clara?!” He asked loudly. I rolled my eyes at his voice, establishing that he more than likely had social media plugged in to everything Jack did since he’d been told of his existence two nights before.
“What the Hell, Marky?” I mimicked, trying to push him into voicing his real questions. Hey, what was a sister for if not to irritate the life out of you?
“You lied to me!” He accused and I held back a laugh, seeing Jack raising his eyebrows at me, clearly hearing Mark’s words. “You said you didn’t have a boyfriend, now your weird friends are showing me videos of some dude telling thousands of people he’s in love with you?!”
“Stop calling my friends weird, asshole,” I laughed. He’d always called my High School friends weirdos, including when he was shamelessly flirting with some of them at old parties we’d gone to. “Jack wasn’t really my boyfriend, I guess?” I was questioning my words, not sure how best to describe Jack and I’s previous relationship to my brother without telling him details I’m positive he didn’t want to know. “I don’t know. I guess I’ve been seeing him a while, but he wasn’t really my boyfriend yesterday.” I heard an annoyed tutting on the other end of the line and rolled my eyes. “Hey, if you have an issue, try telling me when you’re sleeping with my friends behind my back.” Mark’s annoyed tutting increased and I stifled a laugh. I’d been holding his secret relationship with one of my childhood friends over his head since I first found out it had been going on. And, honestly, if he tried to rat me out to my parents for anything I did, I simply threatened to tell them what I’d walked in on them doing in my parents’ bed during a particularly raucous party at our house while my parents had gone on vacation.
“You need to talk to mom and dad,” he told me, finally.
“And tell them what exactly? I’m dating a guitarist? You know dad would kick my ass if I brought home anyone who didn’t wear a suit to work.”
“Dad wouldn’t kick your ass, he’d kick mine,” Mark laughed down the phone. “I’m supposed to keep you under control. You’re my baby sister, I’m supposed to protect you from assholes in bands.”
“He’s not an asshole, dick.”
“He’s in a band, Clara. He’s an asshole.” I snorted at his words, remembering my brother’s extreme prejudice against anyone I dated. Typical older brother stuff, really. “I mean, what do you even know about him?” I shrugged softly, not sure how to tell him I knew Jack was the most incredible man I’d ever met.
“Hey, anything I don’t know, he’s more than willing to answer himself. Right, Jack?” Jack’s eyes widened and he looked up from his phone, which he’d recently become preoccupied with while I carried on my conversation. “He nodded,” I lied, stifling a giggle at the expression Jack still held on his face.
“I want to meet him.”
“We live a thousand miles away, ass hat. You can’t meet him.”
“I knew there was I reason I didn’t want you moving to LA.” I snorted once again at his reaction. That was pretty much the entire reason I had moved so far away.
“Look, we’ll work something out eventually. I’ll tell mom and dad when I’m ready to tell mom and dad, okay? Now shut your face and leave me alone.”
“Bye asshole.” I ended the call, still laughing. Mark and I weren’t hugely close, but he would still try and protect me from anything and everything he could. Generally, that included boys and taking my alcohol from me when I was underage.
“So, I guess your brother didn’t know about me?” Jack asked. I shrugged, putting my phone back down and turning to face him, thankful that he didn’t seem annoyed at the fact I’d neglected to tell my family about him.
“He did, sorta. When Twitter blew up the other night, my friends told him I had a boyfriend, but I didn’t really know you were my boyfriend then, so I told him they were being overdramatic because they’re in love with you. I mean, I’m pretty sure your siblings don’t know about me.”
“May does.” I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously, trying to establish just why on Earth he’d told his sister about me. Or, in fact, what he’d told his sister about me. “She came to one of the shows when we weren’t speaking. I told her about everything, and she told me I was an asshole.” I chuckled at Jack’s words. That seems to be the conclusion everyone was reaching about Jack and I lately. “She hates us both, but she said if we get back together and she doesn’t meet you by the end of the year, I’m dead. Actually, I think she said if we don’t get back together and she doesn’t get to meet you, I’m dead. Generally, she’s going to kill me regardless of anything I do.”
“She’d better get in line behind Marky.”
“On a scale of 1 to Zack, how buff is he?”
“He’s an absolute weed, you’re good.” Jack pushed out an overdramatic, relieved sigh and pulled me into him.
“I was beginning to get scared I’d have to break up with you already.”
“Please,” I snorted. “I thought you were supposed to be my Prince Charming and all that crap?”
“I’m your Knight in Shiny Paper,” he told me, trying his best to maintain a serious look on his face. I rolled my eyes at him, allowing a smile to pull at the corner of my mouth.
“Good to look at, but basically useless in a fight?”
“You know me so well.” He allowed a grin to spread on his face, pulling me back into him. I rested on his side, cuddling into him and finally looking at the TV to see what was currently playing. It was nothing special, a terrible TV movie. No wonder we weren’t paying attention. “Besides, you scare me, so I can only imagine what you’re like in a fight. I’m pretty sure you don’t need me.”
“Jack, I’m 5’5 and I probably only weigh like 115lbs right now. I aren’t scary to anyone.”
“You’ve never seen yourself drunk and angry: that shit is terrifying.”
“Drama queen.” A silence fell over us as we both watched the TV for a little while, just sitting comfortably and relaxing for a little while. It had been months since we’d last done this, and I just felt genuinely… content to be there with him. No talking, no drama, no confused feelings: just Jack and I, in love and happy to be together.
“This film is awful,” Jack said finally, sitting up straight and forcing me to do the same. “Let’s go out. We’ll have lunch and then work out something to do that doesn’t make me want to shoot myself.”
It didn’t take us long to get dressed and make our way out of Jack’s apartment. Jack and I had taken a pit stop at my place last night so I could grab some clothes, before making our way back to his place for the night. I still hadn’t seen, or heard from, Tammy, but I only assumed she was still wrapped up in Chris and wanted to give Jack and I some space. If she’d actually made it to the concert, she would have seen Jack’s little announcement. And, if she hadn’t, I’m sure every All Time Low blog or fan site she was subscribed to would have done that for her. Her Tumblr dashboard was basically All Time Low central, so I had no doubt she’d seen something about it.
I held Jack’s hand loosely as he made his way to the café he’d decided we were going to. Apparently it wasn’t much of a walk and, since the weather was fairly nice, we’d both agreed it would be nice to actually walk somewhere for once, instead of our incessant taxi rides.
“I feel like I haven’t seen anything,” I told him, glancing up at him through my sunglasses when I realised I hadn’t seen this street at all before. It was lined with little cafés and bars and I began to feel annoyed at myself for having wasted the last couple of months shut away in my bedroom, not making any attempt to get out and get to know the city I’d become a part of. “I need to get out more.” I pouted at him. He laughed at me, shaking his head.
“I’m home for months now, Clara. I’ll show you everything.”
“You can’t show me everything,” I told him. “You’re never home.” I intensified my pouting and Jack chuckled again.
“Like I said, I’m going to be home for months. We have tonnes of time to see anything you want.” I grinned as Jack stopped still, signalling that we’d reached our destination. I tugged at his hand lightly, pulling him toward me and wrapping my arms around him.
“You know, you’re really cute when you want to be.”
“I do my best.” He mirrored my grin and I pushed a kiss to his lips.
“You’re not away for anything big until Europe, are you?” I broke away from him, still grinning.
“How did you know about Europe?”
“I work in your Promo department. I’ve known about Europe for weeks.”
“Okay, okay, Miss Know-It-All.”
“Oh, my God. You guys are so cute,” a female voice gushed from the side of us. Jack flinched slightly before letting go of me, lacing his fingers with my own before turning to the voice with a smile on his face. I noticed a girl with purple hair in front of us, she looked no older than sixteen and was staring at Jack intently. The pair of us both had rather large sunglasses on, but I guess his bright red hair gave him away more than the sunglasses hid him.
“Thanks,” I smiled at her, trying my best to be nice, despite the mild annoyance the interruption actually was.
“It’s her that makes us cute, honest,” Jack said, nudging me and grinning. I rolled my eyes, nudging him back and shaking my head.
“I’ve seen the video,” the girl continued to gush. “You guys could be, like, a movie or something. But you’re definitely adorable, and everyone who is being mean is just totally stupid.” I smiled softly at her words, thankful I’d not yet come across someone who didn’t like me. I hadn’t even checked social media this morning and, knowing now that basically all of last night was on there, I wasn’t sure I wanted to check it. Honestly, I wasn’t concerned with other people’s bad opinions, unless it somehow affected my life directly, but that didn’t mean I wanted to read it.
“Clara’s made of hard stuff, she deals with the cruel stuff easily, but thanks for sticking up for us,” Jack grinned at her. “I love how protective you guys are.” The girl smiled brightly, seeming pleased with herself at Jack’s words.
“Can I, um, can I have a picture? Is that okay?” Jack laughed, assuring her it was more than okay, as I broke away from him to allow her to get close enough for a photo. I took her phone from her, taking the picture for her, the pair of us bidding her farewell as we made our way into the café.
“So, what cruel things are people saying about me then?” I asked, taking a sip of my drink a few minutes later. He shrugged.
“The usual things people say. At the minute, they’re taking some of what I said last night out of context. Like, they think you’re lying about not being a fan and you’re with me purely because I’m marginally famous. Oh, and,” he snorted softly, “they think you’re using me to get to Mark.” I laughed softly.
“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything, but…” I grinned mischievously at him and he rolled his eyes.
“All the time with you, I swear.”
“I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t remarkably inappropriate about Mark and Geralt.”
“Honestly, the worst of it is when they try and say you’re flirting with Alex.” I choked on my drink, staring at Jack in disbelief.
“Yeah, I’m hooking up with a guy’s best friend and becoming friends with his wife so I can convince him to run away with me.” Jack laughed lightly, shrugging again.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I’m just passing on the news.”
“Well, your fans are certainly, uh, creative.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Beyond excited by the new song. Oh my.