Tales That Must Be Re-told

During that school year, I seemed to be in a weird sort of limbo; I wasn't myself. Not that I was depressed or anything like that, by any means. When it came down to it, though, the only thing that could really be to blame was the fact that I missed my brother terribly, along with the rest of the guys.

True to their word, I received a call from one of them nine days out of ten. Alex usually called every other day, and the other guys (including Flyzik) would take turns at random calling me on the remaining days.

I got a boyfriend as well, which Alex was a little less than happy about. He seemed to think that his younger sister was incapable of taking care of herself when he wasn't there, or something.

"If I hear he does anything to you, anything at all, I will be over there to rip his balls off," said Alex fiercly after I told him about it. "Seriously Addy, I'll beat the shit out of him."

This caused me to giggle. "With your beastly muscles, right Alex?"

He paused. "Well, I'll get Zack to do it and I'll hold him. And Jack can... well, I don't know. He's pretty bony, he could probably stab the kid with his goddamn ribs or something. Then afterwards Rian can kick his ass to the moon and Matt will get it all on video."

I laughed. "I'm glad you have a plan, Alex, but I'm a big girl now," I assured him. "I think I can manage to take care of myself."

Now, when I say I wasn't myself, it's kind of hard to explain. I mean my personality didn't necessarily change, but I became a bit more quiet and reserved, for one thing. I more or less only spoke when I was spoken to. Perhaps it was that having the guys around brought out the outgoing side of me - I don't know, exactly. As well, I hardly ever touched any musical instruments. Music was something that I had always spent a lot of my spare time on, up until the boys left. I mainly played piano and guitar, but in school I played saxophone and I had also learned a bit of drums, a result of Rian and I sitting around waiting for the rest of the guys to show up for practices.

It was a bit of an odd thing. The only time I truly smiled was when I got phone calls from the boys. Jeremy, whom I was completely happy with, couldn't even bring out a real smile from me.

I was cuddled with him on his couch one day when my phone started vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and sure enough, it was Jack calling.

"Hey Jack-o, what's up?" I asked.

"Adelaide, help me," he whined. "We're sitting here in the boonies because your brother is an idiot and got us lost!" he exclaimed, his voice getting louder with every word he spoke, particularly in the last half of the sentance.

"It's not my fault!" I heard Alex protest in the background. "There's so many goddamn trees that you can't even see the street signs!"

I laughed. "Where are you supposed to be?"

"Somewhere in Arizona, I think," said Jack. "I don't know exactly where." He paused. "Matt just told me we're supposed to be in Phoenix. This sure as hell doesn't look like Phoenix to me."

"Well, why don't you stop somewhere for directions?" I suggested.

"Becaaaause, Adelaide, we're in bumfuck nowhere and all these houses look like they're from Jeepers Creepers or something! They're scary and we don't wanna die."

I giggled. "Well, I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance, then."

Jack let out a long sigh. "That's okay, I just hope you have better navigational skills than your brother for when you come out with us. But enough about me, what're you up to?"

I yawned. That's another thing, I was tired a lot. "Nothing much, I'm just at Jeremy's."

"Ohhhhh," said Jack. "I hope I didn't, ah, interrupt anything."

I rolled my eyes. "Only you, Barakat. We were watching a movie, for your information."

He giggled. "Yeah well, what you two hooligans and normal people like me-" I snorted, "-define as movies may be two different things."

"We're watching Alice In Wonderland, pervert."

"Fine, you've got me for now," Jack said and sighed.

I was just opening my mouth to ask him what else was new when I got cut off. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit. MATT DON'T DO IT, WE HAVEN'T MADE BABIES YET!" he screamed. "SAME WITH YOU, ZACK!"

"What's going on?" I asked, confused.

"They're going up to a house with an old couple sitting in rocking chairs," he said.

I giggled. "Five guys against two old people? Jack, if worse comes to worse, I'm sure you could defend yourselves and get away."

"They could have guns though!" exclaimed Jack. "Old people can be very deceiving!"

I snorted. "You've been watching too many movies, Barakat."

After I stayed on the phone for a few more minutes with Jack and learned that Matt and Zack made it safely back to the van with directions on how to get to Phoenix, I said goodbye and we hung up.

"How does he do it?" asked Jeremy as I was returning to my comfortable position against him.

I looked at him, a little puzzled. "How does who do what?"

"Jack," he said. "How does he get you to smile like that?"

My puzzled expression turned into a sympathetic one. "Listen, Jeremy-"

"Relax," Jeremy said and smiled softly. "I'm not mad or upset, I just want to know how he does it."

"Well, become my best friend for ten years or so, leave to go on tour, and call me sometimes," I said and smiled slighty. "Then you'll know."