It's the Mess That Feels So Right...

“You promised.”

The dark brown eyes, hovering inches from my face, told me as soon as I opened my eyes. I groaned, rolling over and attempting to fall back asleep until a sudden weight was felt on top of my body. I looked up, as best I could, to see Gabe sitting on me, wearing his usual dorky grin.

“Ugh, Gabe, honestly, you’re squishing me!” I squeaked from under his heavy frame, as he began to wiggle around purposely.

“No, you promised! Come on, get up! It’s already lunch time!” Gabe whined, his skinny butt protruding into my side. He rolled over so he was lying next to me on the couch. I glared at him and grinned.

“I’m awake, alright?” I asked him and Gabe smirked.

“Good, we leave in ten.” Gabe called out, jumping off the couch and walking off down the hallway. I just groaned and rolled over once more.

Ten minutes later, and not one second more, I was sitting on the bus next to Gabe, on our way to Chuck E. Cheese, cringing in fear that he would do something stupid. Next minute, I found myself kicking his ankle furiously, and he turned, giving me an innocent look.

“What?”

“Stop sniffing that old lady, honestly Gabe!” I glared at him and he smirked, shrugging nonchalantly before sliding down on the seat, beginning to hum one of those annoyingly happy tunes.

Finally we managed to arrive without the death of a twenty-five year old male who has the mind of a five year old, a perverted five year old mind you, and likes to sniff people on the bus for shits and grins.

“I’m glad that’s over!” I moaned, Gabe trailing behind me as we headed into Chuck E. Cheese.

“Why? It was fun! And we always have the ride home!” Gabe exclaimed happily. I groaned, hitting my palm to my forehead with a slight grin. It would be easier if we just took Gabe’s car but because I refuse to get into any car, no matter the driver, that option was out of the question. Gabe chuckled, ordering us some lunch and was about to say something when a familiar voice intercepted.

“Gabe!” Nope, not an obsessed fan. Something worse; my best friend, throwing himself at Gabe with a grin. But it was the look on Gabe’s face that caught me off guard. It was a flicker of annoyance, almost anger that rippled across his tanned skin as he saw past Caleb, seeing Vicky-T, Nate, Ryland and Suarez, making their way over to the table, some more gracefully than others, as Caleb lay almost sprawled across Gabe’s lap with a grin. Well, he did have a reason to be annoyed, if I had been trapped in a tour bus with those four for three weeks, I wouldn’t be as pleased to see them again so early either.

Suarez slid into the booth next to me, followed by Nate and Vicky-T, Ryland squeezing in beside Gabe and the now-sitting-up-right Caleb as our food began to arrive. Immediately, Suarez dug into my fries, betting Nate how many he could fit in his mouth at one time without choking himself. He made it up to twenty-eight before he was unable to go any further, and then began practically inhaling the chips.

I turned to him with an amused look. “You’re a pig.”

“Oink,” Suarez replied with a grin. I looked back at Gabe and Caleb who were laughing at something stupid that Caleb had done when it occurred to me.

“Caleb, aren’t you supposed to be at school?”

He gave me a look. “Are you kidding me? And miss out on going to Chuck E. Cheese? You’re crazy!” He smirked and looked over at Gabe then back at me, giving me that I-know-your-secret eyebrow wiggle. Vicky-T, always one to catch a whiff of gossip, turned to me with that you-better-tell-me-what-he-knows eyebrow raise. I need to start shaving people’s eyebrows off.

Once the food had relocated, mainly into Suarez and Caleb’s stomachs, Ryland had the urge to make us all play in the ball pit. It went something like this,

“Let’s go play in the ball pit! Yeah!” Followed by Ryland running around in circles, squealing and dragging Caleb and Gabe into the container filled with multi coloured balls. Suarez and Nate joined in half a second later, as I turned to Vicky-T, shrugging at their crazy behaviour.

“After-tour endorphins much?” I asked with a smirk.

“Mix that in with testosterone and being dropped on their heads one too many times when they were babies, and you have them,” Vicky-T replied, rolling her eyes and laughing.

“I know you want to join in,” I said, watching as the boys started dunking each other, while being watched by the few bemused and stressed out mothers that were scattered across the fast food joint, trying to keep watch over their toddlers also.

Vicky-T looked around shiftily. “Maybe…” I laughed and linked arms with her as we ran to join thekids men in the ball-pit. I dived into the pit, landing on Caleb’s back and pulling him down with me, laughing as we wrestled underneath the mass of suffocating balls.

“Ball fight!” Gabe screamed, chucking a ball square into Vicky-T’s face, as she got him round the neck and placed him into a headlock. Ryland managed to get Nate a few times, before Nate turned around and tackled him into the floor, Caleb and I still trying to get each other which was hard to do when we were both laughing our asses off. I noticed that Suarez has disappeared, and when I peered out the ball pit, there he was, chowing his way through yet another plate of fries, which made me roll my eyes.

“Uh guys…” Ryland started, sounding very cautious. We all turned to look at him, seeing the sheepish expression he held on his face.

“Um, what’s wrong?” Gabe asked, speaking for all of us who were looking mystified at how Ryland was behaving. He looked around, before falling into the sea of balls, only to pop his head up moments later, his eyes wide.

“I’ve lost my pants.” Ryland whispered.

“WHAT?!” Gabe yelled, causing everyone’s attention in the whole damn place to direct towards us. Ryland nodded and we all had to bit our tongues till they were near detached to withhold ourselves from laughing.

“But they’re so tight, how is that possible?” I asked, still trying not to laugh as Ryland shrugged.

“Alright everyone, operation Find Ryland’s Pant’s is underway!” Nate called out, everyone once again staring at us. Ryland went a deep shade of red and began squirming around, feeling around for his pants.

“Hey, look, a distraction!” I called out, pointing over toward Suarez so that everyone would look at said Suarez. Suarez looked around, at me then at the people staring at him and waved. When everyone looked back, Ryland was re-pantalized, thankfully.

After paying the bill, we practically ran out the doors, because unless you are Michael Jackson, you do not stay around the scene of the crime where you were pant-less in a kid’s playground area, after all. Ryland was still red in the face, adjusting his belt till he could barely breathe, Suarez complaining about not finishing his chips, Nate and Vicky-T were trying to get Gabe to open up to why he seemed annoyed and Caleb was cart wheeling down the sidewalk. As he does.

“Can you believe we get to bring forward the release date?” Nate said excitedly, and I looked up from the pavement, this was all new to me.

“What? Really? That’s great! Gabe never told me that!” I replied, glancing at Gabe who shrugged and let out a small smile.
“Well, we are releasing our CD early!” Gabe announced and I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, next Saturday, there’s a big party to go along with it and all.”

I practically pounced on Gabe to get him to shut up, but it was too late. Caleb’s head pricked up and he looked at us through narrow eyes.

“Party?” He said slowly. “Party meaning new clothes? Meaning a shopping trip?!”

We all looked at each other nervously, as Vicky-T, Nate, Suarez and Ryland began backing away slowly. As soon as they were a good distance away, they began running, giving us a quick;

“Good luck with that!” Ugh. I looked back at Gabe who smirked, looking at his invisible watch with a mock expression of surprise.

“Would you look at the time, I have to be going to do that…thing,” Gabe muttered, trying to walk away before I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down to my height.

“If I’m going down, you’re coming down with me,” I said between clenched teeth and Gabe let out an overdramatic gulp before Caleb grabbed us and practically began sprinting toward the nearest mall. Caleb is so going to get payback for this.

-X-

Gabe slouched beside me, sitting so we were back to back, our feet killing us both, doubled over with mountains of shopping bags. Caleb had allowed us a five-minute break before we had to get back to picking out twenty different outfits for this damn party.

“If I ever hear the words ‘shopping’ and ‘trip’ from Caleb’s mouth again, it would be too soon,” I moaned, leaning more against Gabe’s back as he nodded.

“I second that!” Gabe agreed, falling silent for a moment. “Oh! I know! Let’s get some ice cream!”

If I had been able to turn to face him, I would have glared at him. “Are you being serious right now? I’m exhausted!”

Gabe turned so his face was close enough to mine to be able to feel his warm breathe brush against my skin, making me tingle in the best way possible. He smirked, his eyes on Caleb, who was in the store in front of us, absorbed in the racks and racks of clothing.

“And by ‘let’s get some ice cream’, I mean, let’s gap it!” He whispered into my ear, before grabbing my hand and pulling me off the seat with a laugh, running toward the escalator and dragging me off home.

Half an hour later, we barged into the apartment, still laughing breathlessly about our lucky escape, knowing sooner or later, Caleb was going to come round here and inflict the torture on us once more.

I collapsed on the couch, groaning as Gabe collapsed behind me, almost nudging me off. He laughed and put his arm around me for a half-hug.

“Spooning much?” I asked with a grin, giving another fake groan as Gabe laughed, pulling me closer and resting his cheek on my shoulder blade.

“Movie?” He mumbled and I nodded, yawning as he dragged himself up to pick one out.

“Any requests?”

“Aristocats!” Gabe sighed, but I knew he loved that movie anyway. As we settled down to watch the old Disney classic and zone in and out of consciousness, I tried to remember if I felt this way with William and for a brief moment, a thought ran though my head, wondering if Gabe and I ever could be together, would it feel just like this?