The Party Scene

Chapter 14
Get Up, Get Out

Breaths were shallow, and heartbeats were quickly racing as sounds could be heard from underneath the sheets, two voices were mumbling between sighs just to get a quick gasp of air.

"Should we slow down?" whispered a girls voice.

"No, we're fine..." responded a guys voice.

"You're drunk though..." she replied pulling away from the boy who was kissing her neck and tugging on her shirt.

"I'm fine, don't you want this?" he asked kissing the girls collarbone.

Alex tossed about in his bed nervously, sweating and gripping onto his pillow. He had been deep in his sleep, but quickly awoke with images replaying over and over in his mind. They were haunting him and wouldn't stop.

"I think...you're beautiful..." he spoke between each kiss, as his hands found the bottom lining of the girls shirt. He tugged on it playfully, before lifting the shirt up and over her head without any hesitation.

"Alex..." whispered the girl into his ear.

"Hmmm..." he sighed.

"Is this really happening?" she questioned. He didn't take any notice in her question for he was too caught up in his own world, there he was with the prettiest girl within a hundred mile radius, and she was laying right underneath him.

Alex twitched, as he once again woke up dripping with sweat. She had tried to stop them, and he didn't even acknowledge her question, he could have prevented it all.

"You're so cute." she whispered in his ear as she ran her hand up and down his bare chest. Across the room articles of clothing were scattered about.

"Lena...I love you..." he moaned

"Don't talk like that..." she giggled as he slowly began to move his hand down from her face past her chest and to her torso.

"Ahh." panted Alex shooting straight up from his pillow, with his eyes bugging out. He had told her he loved her. And knew at the time he fully meant it, which scared him even more then the thoughts of what was next to happen.
She lay there underneath Alex biting her lower lip, in utter shock that she was here now with him, doing this. She giggled and rolled out from underneath him so she could take control on top.

"Oh Lena..." he sighed as she dug her fingers through his messed up hair.

Alex once again woke up trying to erase all the memories of the previous night out of his mind. He only wanted to know what had happened, he didn't ask to relive every scene. He couldn't make it stop, all he wanted to do was sleep, but every time he closed his eyes his mind drifted far off into the memories.

"That was amazing." he said exhaustedly as he now laid beside Lena.

"That shouldn't have happened Alex..." she panted but too tired to care.

"Well it happened, and there's no going back..." he said kissing her one last time before shutting his eyes to sleep.

"You're right, we can't change what just happened." she replied as Alex turned over on his side, she put her arm around his body, and placed her hand in his, as she laid her head on his shoulder.

Alex woke up for the fourth time that night, only to look at his clock and see that it was morning, he'd made it through the night, and was terrified to even dare shut his eyes again in fear of falling asleep and revealing more images of that night that he so desperately wanted to completely forget. Only hours before he had been begging to know exactly what had happened with him and Lena, and now that he knew he couldn't get it out of his head. He couldn't believe it'd happened, but he knew he couldn't take the blame for it all. He had been drunk, and Lena had clearly tried to stop them from doing it, but not hard enough. Everything was opposite, normally it was the guy taking advantage of a drunken girl, but she'd taken advantage of his drunkenness instead. He knew one thing was for sure, and that was that everything from here on out would change. For the better or worst, he hadn't the slightest clue. He was going to have to tell Athena, he'd promised her to be honest from now on, and he wanted to be a better person than he had been the past couple months. But if he told her, would that mean he would lose her as well? He wasn't ready to find out, not just yet, he needed time to get everything straight. He looked over to the clock and it read 8 AM, he decided he would go downstairs and start his day rather then accidentally falling back asleep to have more bad dreams.

"Alex? Why are you up so early?" asked his mother grabbing her purse off the back of the kitchen chair, as her son came walking into the room in boxers and nothing else scratching his head.

"I don't know, I don't like sleep anymore." he answered blankly making his way to the pantry to grab the box of cereal. He opened it up and grabbed a handful and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Hunny, pour some in a bowl and eat it right, we eat the cereal too, and no telling where you've had your hands...and just now in your hair that greasy matted mess...take a shower sometime today Alex, okay?" she beckoned.

"I took one yesterday morning...it's not that bad." he shot back.

"Fine, go without washing it. Put that cereal in a bowl." she demanded, Alex slammed the box down on the counter and found a bowl, and poured the cereal into it, and began to eat it out of there without milk, or a spoon for that matter. "Thank you...now I'm off to work, your dad already left, now remember no leaving this house you're grounded. And I don't want anyone coming over, you understand?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah grounded...no fun for me. Got it." he snickered.

"Fix that attitude before I get back young man, or we'll make it two weeks without fun." she shot and walked out of the room. He waiting until he heard the front door to close and then he threw his bowl down to the ground shattering into millions of little pieces and cereal flying everywhere. He tossed his arms up over his head and shouted out of frustration. It was going to be a long day.

Hours later Alex was still laying around in his boxers only with a half eaten box of Milano's clutched in his hand. Just then the doorbell rang, and he slumped to the door to answer it. It had been Jack and Rian.

"Hey Ale- umm?" began Jack.

"What happened to you?" exclaimed Rian.

"I don't feel good, and I'm grounded for a week...I'm not allowed to have anyone over..." sighed Alex.

"Oh, then we should go. We were just coming to see if you wanted to hang out, we were going to get the girls to come too, wherever we decide to go." explained Jack.

"Well, I can't. Have fun though..." said a bitter Alex, and shut the door behind him and walked back to the couch.

Outside of the house Jack and Rian looked each other, in concern of Alex. Something was up with him, neither knew what it was, but they were going to figure it out one way or another. Both the boys walked down the road, not knowing which way to go first to get the girls, everyone in their little grouped lived remotely in the same neighborhood.

"We can go to Amanda's first since she's just on the next street over." suggested Rian.

"Okay, that's fine with me." agreed Jack. "Rian, you like Amanda?" he asked grinning.

"Of course, she's one of my best friends apart from you and Alex." he answered.

"No, I mean do you like her, the like-like way?" he pushed on. Rian was silent for a few minutes as they continued on and turned onto Amanda's street, the truth was he didn't know for sure. He'd always felt a few more stronger feelings for her, then just friendship, but he didn't know if that was because he'd wanted to be in a relationship and never had a girlfriend before.

"No, that would just be weird. She's my best friend." he said without realizing it. Those were his thoughts that he'd been thinking, and he'd let it slip out into the open instead.

"Okay...whatever you say." sighed Jack knowing that he secretly liked her, whether he knew it or not yet. Or if he was just saying that, because he was too shy to admit it. A few minutes later, the two were walking up the front steps to Amanda's porch. Before either had a chance to ring the doorbell, the door flung open. Out came Samantha, Amy and Amanda.

"Oh...Hey you two!" exclaimed Amanda looking back up after shutting the door. "What are you guys doing here?" she chuckled combing her fingers through her ponytail.

"Just stopping by to see if you wanted to hang out...we were going to go to all of your houses...but I guess that's not needed anymore since Amy and Sam are already here." answered Rian.

"Oh Amanda, lets hang out with them instead!" smiled Samantha.

"What were you girls going to do instead?" asked Jack

"We were going to go over to Sam's house and watch movies..." said Amy unenthusiastic.

"Well, as far as we got was inviting you three to hang out with us, but we're not sure what to do." said Jack.

"We'll figure something out." said Amanda walking down the steps, everyone else followed.

An hour later and the five were still wondering the neighborhood thinking of things to do, but no one could agree on anything.

"Bowling?" suggested Jack.

"No, I hate bowling..." responded Amy.

"The Lane isn't even open on Sundays." added Amanda.

"We could always just go to my house still and watch movies..." said Samantha for about the fourth time.

"Yeah...we might as well..." answered Rian, the five turned around and headed back a few houses until they reached Samantha's. Once there they all argued on what movie to watch, typically. Half an hour passed and everyone was shuffling through the movies, either everyone had already seen a certain movie, or the one the girls picked the boys didn't want to watch and vice verse. Just then Rian's phone rang, and he answered it.

"Hey everyone, that was my mom telling me I need to get home...sorry but have fun on deciding what movie to watch..." he laughed and stood up to make his way to the door.

"Yeah...I need to go too, my mom wanted me home around two anyway. So I'll see you all at school tomorrow." she said getting up and following in Rian's footsteps.

"That's not obvious at all." Samantha said shaking her head.

"Rian wait up!" called Amanda a few yards away.

"Oh...you leaving too?" he asked.

"Yeah...they're never going to decide on a movie to watch and I was getting bored." she chuckled.

"Mhm, my mom actually was just calling to see what was going on, but I was bored too, so I said she needed me home." he laughed.

"Hah, nice...well we can always just hang out." she shrugged.

"That'd be fun...but where?" he he said lifting his hands up in confusion.

"No idea...we can go to the park-" she began.

"Race you there!" he exclaimed sprinting down the street.

"UGH! Not fair you got a head start!" she called out after him, and began to chase him down the street.

A few minutes later and both were at each others heels it was going to be close to see who made it to the gate first. Both kept glancing at each other the whole time.

"I'm going to win, just so you know!" said Amanda exhausted.

"Oh please...you're already tired...I could go on forever." said Rian.

"Modest much?" she asked.

"Try and stop me!" he said speeding up, the gate was a few yards away now. Amanda looked from the gate to Rian.

"Okay!" she shouted. She sped up just enough to where she was right behind him now and she stuck her foot out in front of him and Rian toppled down to the grass, and Amanda came down on top of him. A grunge sound escaped both of their mouths.

"What the hell!" he shouted, Amanda couldn't contain her laughter and burst out laughing at the thought of what she'd just done.

"I stopped you, you told me to try, and I did." she smiled still laughing hysterically. "And I win!" she said leaning over to touch the gate with her index finger. "In your face mister!" she said getting up off of him and brushing the grass off of her.

"Oh you think you're so clever!" he yelled chasing after her into the park grounds, he quickly grabbed her arm and tackled her to the ground.

"I'm the cleverest of everyone in the group!" she smirked, looking up at him in the eyes as he laid on top of her. She quickly twitched and rolled out from underneath him. "We need to talk I think." she then said nervously. He looked at her strangely and then she got the sinking gut feeling in the pit of her stomach where she started to feel sick. She couldn't believe what she was actually about to do, but it needed to be done, and now was the best time. She didn't know who she was doing it for anymore; herself, or Jack because she cared so much about him, and he would tell Cayden his feelings only in she could tell hers to Rian.

"Okay, what are we talking about?" he asked after a couple minutes of silence between them. Amanda was caught in a daze and she couldn't get out of it. She shook her head once more and looked at Rian.

"Right...um I guess there's something I've got to confess..." she said hesitantly.

"It's okay, just go on and say it." he smiled.

"You're my best friend you know, you have been forever...but recently I've had these odd feelings...I don't know it's hard to explain. I don't think that I want to feel this way that I'm starting to feel about you because I don't want to jeopardize our friendship...but..." she paused for a breath of air.

"You like me?" he asked catching Amanda off guard.

"Huh, oh well...basically I guess that's what you could call it, or at least it's turning out to be that way." she blushed.

"Jack was asking if I liked you...so I find this whole conversation ironic." he said scratching the top of his head.

"What'd you tell him...?" Amanda asked curiously, dreading the answer.

"I told him I didn't know, because of our relationship as best friends...what do you think?" he said fidgeting with a twig that was poking out of the grass.

"What do I think about what, about us being more than friends? I think it's odd to think about, maybe we wait it off a while and see if these feelings grow stronger..." she replied biting her lower lip. Rian loved when she bit her lower lip, he always thought it was her cutest worst habit she did. She did that when she was shy or nervous about anything, or even in some cases when she was trying to be cute and get her way...but she never had to act cute to get her way when she was with Rian. And it was just hitting him at how much he noticed the smallest details about things she did. Maybe he did like her more than he thought. One thing was for sure, since she spoke her last sentence he couldn't stop staring at her. "Uh, Rian?" she nudged him.

"Sorry...I think that's a good idea...and if more feelings appear we can try us out together, but we don't want to rush anything." he added in.

"Definitely, I'm glad I have you as a best friend, and we can always talk about anything!" she smiled and embraced him in a hug. "I love you Rian!" she giggled.

"I love you to Manderz!" he chuckled and wrapped his arms around her back.

Eventually the day came to an end, Amanda and Rian had spent the rest of the day together at the park and grabbed a bite to eat before going their separate ways. Jack, Samantha and Amy never chose a movie to watch and Jack got conned into being apart of the girls "girl talk." As for Alex he'd remained immobile, never leaving his spot on the couch, never taking a shower, nothing.

"Alex..." said his mom entering the front door.

"Huh?" he mumbled.

"Have you been there all day, what's the matter?" she asked walking to him to feel his head.

"I'm not sick mom, I screwed up and I'm a bad person for what I've done, I'm going to bed." he said storming up the stairs. The night went on as long as the day had, and the images returned to him, replaying over and over in his head. Hours later, his alarm went off and he prepared for school. He was actually excited to be leaving the house and seeing friends, even though it had only been one day since he'd been grounded. When he arrived at school he immediately saw Athena, and she spotted him and quickly raced up to him and gave him a huge kiss on the lips.

"I missed you this weekend!" she smiled, and got no smile in return. "Alex, what's wrong?" she asked scared to know the answer.

"Athena, we need to talk about something really important, can we go in the cafeteria and sit down?" he asked.

"Yeah absolutely." she said gripping onto his hand as they walked down the hall. "You're scaring me, what's wrong?" she asked as they entered the cafeteria.

"Sit first...you're going to need to." he sighed.

"Alex...just tell me!" she said thrusting herself down with her backpack falling to the hard tile floor.

"I don't know where to begin...but I'm going to be honest, because that's what I promised..." he began.

"Okay, go on...just tell it how it is." she said staring him directly in the eyes.

"The night of the party, I remember what happened..." he paused to see how Athena was reacting. She didn't get affected yet. "Well, most things, I remember what happened after the party." he went on. Athena let out a small sigh of relief, glad that this wasn't about her little lie and saying that he'd said he wanted to get back together. "Um, I guess I was too drunk to go home, so I stayed over...and some things happened that I wish I could take back, I woke up the next morning without clothes on...and that's why I was so messed up that day when I ran into you, because I couldn't remember anything...and now it's haunting me babe...It's killing me inside what happened." he gushed out every single one of his current feelings. He looked up to see Athena in tears.

"Alex, what exactly did you two do together?" she stuttered.

"We...had...we did.."he hesitated unable to bare the look on Athena's face and the waterfall of tears spilling from her eyes.

"You two had sex...just say it." she whispered. He nodded, and she broke down and slammed her fist to the lunch table.

"Hey, hey...please don't cry...I know I fucked up real bad, and I can't take any of it back, but I'm trying to make it up to you by not hiding it or lying to you about it." he said.

"Of all the things you've done while we were together..." she began to raise her voice.

"I know..." he began.

"No, I'm not done, of all the things you've done while we were together, this has got to be the worst, I could handle Lena liking you, I could handle you kissing her, I could handle that you snuck around and lied to me about hanging out with her. But this, it's too much...I don't think I can take it anymore, even if you're being honest with me now...I'm sorry Alex." she shouted to the point where the few people who were in the cafeteria were staring at them. She began to stand up and lean down to get her bag, but Alex quickly stood up and grabbed her by the arm and embraced her in a kiss.

"Look, I know what I've done, but remember what you said. No one can get between us...and well, Lena's not coming into the picture anymore, and I don't want this to get in-between us either. I told you my heart only beats for you, and I'm going to make things right from here on out, and I'm staying true to what I said, because Athena...I care about you. I've felt what it was like to lose you once, I can't go through that again, it was hard. Please...please don't leave me again." he said falling back into his chair.

"I told you all you were getting was one more chance when I left you, and this was your last chance..." she sighed picking up her backpack once more.

"Athena! please..." he begged. She began to walk off.

"Don't make me regret this, this is the absolute last chance you'll ever have with me Alexander Gaskarth, honesty or not, I can't just be your easy shot. Just because you're you and everyone is in love with you, I can't be the one girl that keep pretending to be okay and deal with all this shit. Because this is it...I'm counting on you to straighten up and be the Alex I know you are." she said turning around to inform him before quickly turning back around and running out of the cafeteria. That was the only thing he could ask for was one last chance, he owed it to everyone to show that he could go back to his old self, no matter how hard it was.

Back in the hallway Amanda was approaching Jack smiling from ear to ear.

"What are you so happy about?" he asked.

"There's Cayden all alone, go tell her how you feel now!" she demanded.

"No way in hell! You still have to..." he started.

"I told him yesterday...and if you don't believe me, there he is walking up behind you, you can ask him for yourself." she shot.

"Rian, did you and Amanda talk about you're feelings for each other yesterday?" he asked rather loudly.

"Yes...why?" he blushed as a few people turned around.

"Damn you!" he said turning back around to Amanda, she gave him a shove in the direction at Cayden, and he glanced back at her and gave her the finger.

"Can we talk?" he said hesitantly walking up to the girl he hadn't spoken to in a month.

"I...I guess so, can I speak first?" she asked.

"Sure..." he shrugged wondering if the next words she would speak would break or make him.

"Jack, I'm with Tyler now, things are going good. So I hope that you can accept that, because I think I know what you're going to say, but I just needed to let you know that, before this conversation went on any further." she spoke sternly.

"Right, I know you're with him. Of course." he stammered.

"So, what'd you want to tell me?" she tilted her head leaning against the wall.

"Well, I think it sucks that you're with him now, because I was going to approach you that day and ask you out myself. I know we haven't known each other a long time yet. But those times I was with you I was always happy and always having a good time. You didn't judge me like other girls do. You accepted me for my differences, and my childish behavior. You made me feel like I could actually have a chance at a relationship with someone like you. I liked the way you would call my name playfully even when you were dead serious. Cay, there's just something about you that I can't let go of." he spilled it all out, everything he'd been wanting to say to her was finally there all in the open.

"A girl like me...what's that supposed to mean?" she questioned confused.

"Pretty girls like you don't go for boys like me, it's like a rule or something." he shrugged.

"Well, I can guarantee you that's not true. Because you had me locked in Jack. You...you just weren't..." she began before being interrupted.

"You weren't quick enough." said Tyler, her boyfriend who had heard their whole conversation from behind a wall at the hallway intersection. He grabbed hold of Cayden's hand and forced her to walk down the hall with him. She glanced back at the sight of Jack slumping to the wall, and waved to him sympathetically as he looked up to watch them walk off.

Later that day, after a long and emotional filled Monday everyone made their separate ways home. And Jack and Rian didn't come over to Alex's like usual. All had to make plans without him. All except for Samantha because her plans were waiting right outside of her house when she got off of the school bus at nearly four o'clock.

"Zack Steven Merrick what are you doing over here?" she asked shocked to see him sitting by the door.

"Oh I thought I would come and see my best friend. Jenna told me you two talked this weekend." he explained.

"Yeah we did, but that doesn't explain why you're here at my house." she continued.

"I don't want to miss out on hanging out with you anymore, if we're ever going to reach the level of friendship we once had, we're going to have to start hanging out a lot more. And since Alex is grounded and even though he's still allowed to have band practice, I doubt he's going to schedule anything. Which means that my mom thinks that I still have practice but in reality I can spend my afternoons with you! Isn't that great!" he exclaimed, explaining his whole scheming plan.

"Oh Zack, that's a great idea. What do you suggest we do though with all this free time?" she giggled taking a seat next to him.

"Oh you know I figured we could start out my making-out some..." he teased. But Samantha didn't get the joke and stared blankly at him, so he decided to have a little bit of good old fun with his best friend. He leaned in to kiss her and placed his hand on her cheeks as she leaned into him without realizing it.

"Wait!" she shouted breaking lose. "What's going on?" she asked utterly confused and taken aback.

"It was a joke, but you didn't get it...so I decided to have some fun." he chucked at how clueless she was at the moment. He leaned in once more and gave her a quick peck and grabbed her hand. "Come on let's go get some ice-cream." he continued to laugh.

"But I like the kissing better!' she finally said halfway down the street.

"Me too, one day little Sam." he grinned.

"Or after we get ice-cream...it's all fun and games right." she hinted.

"You make a good point." he agreed. Was this the sign of two friends being more than friends without any strings attached? Samantha didn't know what she'd just gotten herself into, but she wasn't complaining if it brought her closer physically to Zack.

That night Alex was up in his room about to go to sleep when he heard the doorbell ring, and he heard his mom get it. A couple seconds later someone knocked on his door, he went over to it, and let it swing open as he walked back to his bed. When he didn't hear anyone speak he turned around, and remained in shock at who was there.

"Your mom let me in only for a couple minutes to let me say something to you..." said the girl.

"Lena I can't see you anymore." he shouted.

"I know...but you said you remembered what happened?" she asked.

"Yes, everything that happened afterwards. I can't believe you didn't stop me..." he glared at her.

"How could I knowing that I was with you...I'm sorry." she said.

"Well sorry doesn't cut it...are you...are you..." he stuttered.

"I'm not sure yet it's too soon to find out...but that's why I'm here..." she paused. "We didn't use anything, so what happens if worse comes to worse...?" she explained. Alex wasn't ready to hear that, he wasn't ready to think about what were to happen if things came down to that, how he could ever explain the whole situation to anyone. He sat down on his bed and stared at her, knowing that this conversation too was going to now haunt him.

"Alex, there's a good chance that I'm not, I'm just exploring all the options of "what if's." If I am are you going to be there for me?" she asked. He stared at her silently. "Well, it's something to think about, but lets just pray I'm not..." she answered in response to his silence. "And that's something for you to think about...because in two weeks I'll know..." she said shutting the door softly behind her. And instantly Alex ran to the bathroom and held his head over the toilet for the remaining hours of the night. He knew he'd screwed up, but he didn't think about the things resulting afterwards that could possibly happen. This shouldn't have been happening at all, he was only fifteen and almost done with his first year in high school, he'd never asked for this to happen. And he'd never expect it to have happened to him. He couldn't picture himself breaking his parents hearts with news of that such, or even the thought of Lena's parents being disgusted by him, because of his bad judgement. Even though none of this was his fault. It was Lena who threw a party with alcohol. It was her who handed him his drink of alcohol. It was on his stupid behalf that he actually took it. It was Lena that didn't stop them from having sex, she could have, but she wanted the pleasure of having him take advantage of her, or rather her take advantage of him. All he wanted was to be a normal teenager in a band with his friends. He didn't want to take adult responsibilities yet, he wasn't ready for anything like that. He'd heard it before, and he would repeat it now. At some point in everyones life, we all lose our minds, and he couldn't always be in control of himself.