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

“Bee?”

“Hmm?”

“How can Patrick afford a house if he never works?” Gabe asked, peering over the back of the couch, his face wondering, resembling that of a four year old.

I sighed, placing my spoon down so that it sunk under my cereal. “Honestly Gabe, I don’t know. He lives under a rock, that’s not exactly a house.”

“Oh.” Silence. “Then how do they have fires underneath the ocean? Because they always have fires…” Gabe wondered out loud as I put away my dishes and continued to get ready for school, rolling my eyes at Gabe’s comment.

“Oh, I don’t really know. But it could be because SpongeBob SquarePants is a cartoon?” I said, smirking at him as he pouted.

“Why do you have to ruin the dream?” Gabe asked sadly, fighting back the urges of a smile. I poked my tongue out at him, grabbing my bag and heading for the door, swooping down to plant a kiss on the top of Gabe’s dopey head.

He looked up at me, giving me a half smile. “Why do you have to go?”

I laughed at this; he asks me this damn near every morning when he is home. “Because it’s school Gabe, and not all of us can runaway and join the circus or join a band, you know.”

Gabe smirked. “Which one did I do?”

“Some days it’s hard to deicide. Now, I have to run but I should be home by four. And please, get out of the house some time today and take Shylo for a walk!” I said, patting Shylo quickly before heading out the door, only just hearing Gabe’s ‘goodbye’.

-X-

The rest of the day was filled with grumpy teachers, questioning themselves as to why the picked such a horrendous career, assignments being handed in and handed out, and Caleb, brightening my day with his idiocy once again.

As the final bell rang, the weekend so close you could feel it, I escaped the confinements of school and ran down to the gates, my head swivelling in all directions to find the whereabouts of Caleb, when my eye caught a sight that made my entire stance freeze up.

There was William, looking as nonchalant as ever, his tall frame leaning against a tree, his infamous leather jacket pulled tight across his chest by his arms and a baseball cap shoved tightly onto his head, as if he was trying to disguise himself, but not too greatly. Still trying to kick my brain into gear, I stumbled over to him, gapping madly. It was quite possible that Gabe could see him here with me, or any of Cobras for that matter, who would tell Gabe in a heartbeat. Well, the boys would, anyway.

A smile flickered across William’s face as soon as his eyes settled upon me, his arms reaching out as soon as I was in distance for a hug. I hug back, with not quite as much effort as William, drawing back to look at his face.

“Will, what are you doing here? You know that Gabe could find out!” I whispered and his smile dropped briefly.

“I know, I know, but I had to come see you. I’ve missed you a lot,” He mumbled, pulling me back to him for a longer embrace. I sighed into his chest, unable to continue worried image as I relaxed in his arms. He kissed the top of my head, before smiling into my hair. I leaned into him more, as if I needed to be as close as possible to him. To anyone else, and hopefully to William, it looked like I was being affectionate, like I needed him so much. And that was true. But the real reason, the slightly more meaningful reason for my action was because it was a test. I was trying to see if I felt the same way I felt around William, as that funny tingling feeling I get whenever I’m around Gabe.

But I seemed to get a different feeling, one that I couldn’t name, and I had been focusing so hard on trying to remember this feeling, I hadn’t heard William’s attempts to start a conversation.

“Bee?” I looked up at him to show I was listening. “I was just saying that I’m going to the CD release party on Saturday.”

“That’s great! But, you know that you won’t be able to… you know, hang around with me too much…” I mentioned, and William nodded, his brown eyes flecked with sadness. Then suddenly, he was smiling again.

“But at least I get to see you. That’s enough for now.” With that, he buried his face in my hair with a contented sigh.

“Bee! ...And William, whoops, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt your...snuggle fest,” Caleb said with a laugh, as I glared at him and William smiled.

“That’s okay, I have to be going now, but I’ll see you tomorrow,” William mumbled, kissing me softly and smiling at Caleb before slinking away, back to the hotel room, even though he swears he is staying with a friend, I know better.

“Well, onward home, I say!” Caleb said with a smirk, putting his hands out in front of him like a super hero as we headed in the opposite direction that William had gone.

“Don’t you reckon it would totally be like one of those clichéd fan fictions if Gabe found out about your relationship with William tomorrow night at the party?” Caleb stated, out of nowhere, catching me off guard. I coughed, so shocked by this I had managed to choke on my own saliva.

“W-what? Fan fictions?” I stuttered and Caleb looked around shiftily.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about... Don’t look at me... Okay, it was Alex’s idea to go read some!” Caleb finally admitted, and I nodded, that sounding about right.

-X-

“Help...me!” I called out, crawling out of my bedroom by throwing my hands out in front of me and literally dragging myself through the doorway. Gabe stood in the hallway, laughing as Caleb grabbed my ankles and pulled me back in, handing me yet another dress.

Gabe was still laughing when Caleb gave him a look. “What are you laughing at Saporta, you’re next.” Gabe gulped and it was my turn to laugh. It was early evening on Saturday and Caleb decided that he was going to pick out both of our outfits, out of the twenty million he had brought the other day. Maybe I was exaggerating, but trust me, not by much.

Nerves coursed through my body as I thought about tonight, being around William yet having to act like we were nothing more than acquaintances, having Gabe being so oblivious. I told Gabe all the inner workings of my twisted mind, but I guess there really is a first of everything. I would really have to use my acting skills, especially when around Vicky-T, she could pick up the slightest hint between myself and William, and know straight away. She had spent most of last night begging me to tell her what Caleb had blabbed about. I had only managed to get her to shut up when Shylo... peed, on a not so desirable place on her new handbag.

“Hello?” Ryland called out, wandering through the apartment until he spotted Gabe, being given five hoodies that looked the same and being told to try them all on.

“So, are we all excited for tonight?” Ryland said with a grin, rubbing his hands together with anticipation. “This record is going to be huge! Especially with all the magic Patrick produced when working on it.”

Gabe nodded in agreement. “Hell yeah! It’s gonna be off the chain!”

I rolled my eyes. “Just remember Gabe, you are a white, Jewish kid.”

“Kid?!”

“You were the one who woke me up this morning, asking if I wanted to watch SpongeBob.” I reminded him and he just grinned. Fifteen minutes later, all outfits were sorted out, and made to Caleb’s liking before we could start to leave. I was just checking that Shylo’s food bowl was full when Gabe came up behind me, linking his arm through mine and looking down at me with his foolish grin.

“Bee, can I ask you a favour?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah, anything.”

“Well, there is a copy of the new album on your bed, could I ask you not to listen to track 6 until I tell you to?” His eyes were serious, and that startled me.

“Uh why?”

“Please, just promise me.” I nodded and he sighed, a smile reappearing.

“Are we ready, Miss Bee?” He asked, his Brooklyn accent ruining the English accent he was trying to pull.

“Yeah, come on, bring it, Señor Saporta,” I replied with a grin before he lead me out the door.

-X-

As we arrived, the party was already underway, blasting what Gabe told me was number one on the new album, iViva La Cobra!, called ‘The City Is At War’. I liked it, it was different from the sound from the last album, more upbeat and it seemed to be a sassy, party album.

Gabe started swivelling his head around in all directions and caught my attention.

“Whoa Gabe, settle. What, you meet a girl on tour and seeing if she stood up your ass?” I joked lightly, trying to ignore the fear of jealousy if my joke had actually been reality. This statement had caused Ryland to choke on the beer he had been sipping and laugh.

“Gabe? With his eyes on some other girl?” Gabe’s head whipped around, his look alone enough to reduce Ryland to a stuttering idiot. “I…I mean, who, besides you, could put up with his annoying habits and leaving the toilet seat up?” Ryland managed to squeak out, Nate having to quickly step in.

“Yeah, you must be the only one able to put up with that. Not even we can on tour!” Nate said, trying to lighten the sudden dark mood, and amazingly he managed to distract me. Was the fact that I felt this feeling when being told I was the only one able to be around Gabe long enough strange? As if I felt I was more compatible with Gabe than any other girl out there? I shook my head of those ridiculous thoughts and gave Gabe a weird look as he was still glaring at Ryland.

“No, I’m looking for William. I haven’t seen him in ages and apparently he has been in town for a few weeks!” Gabe ground out, giving Ryland one last look before going back to looking for Will. My heart missed a few beats at the mention of William’s name, and as if I had called him, William suddenly came into view, striding toward us with a big grin on his face. Then he and Gabe became involved in one of those manly hugs, Gabe saying how much he missed him, in the manliest way possible of course. I managed to zone in to hear the last of his sentence.

“…remember Bee, don’t you?” Gabe motioned to me and I smiled, but it came out more like a smirk and I winked subtly at William, who seemed to grin wider.

“Of course, nice to see you again,” William said politely, leaning in to give me a quick hug and I smiled even more. Gabe looked confused for just a moment, at the exchange we just had, but being Gabe, he only had a one-track mind and was already thinking about something else, telling William about a few records he had purchased of eBay lately.

Vicky-T, who had been ‘supervising’ the bar, came over to me, her face astonished and her eyes wide. And in that instant I knew she had figured it out, so I did the first thing that came to mind. I jumped on her.

“Hey! Bee! Don’t harm her, I’ve already been through one keytarist, I don’t need to have to find another one!” Gabe said with a grin, before turning back to William. After Vicky-T got up off the floor and brushed herself off, she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the ladies room. She turned to me, her mouth moving but no noise coming out.

“You… William…togetherness… relationship… Explain.” I was going to laugh at how stupid she was acting but decided against it at the last minute.

I sighed. “We’ve been together for a few weeks. He came over once to see how I was and from there we began to hang out more. Then he just asked me out, and I said yes. End of story. But, please, you can’t tell Gabe! I don’t know how he would…react.”

Vicky whistled. “You’re too right, you don’t know. He would go nuts because he is good friends with William. Does anybody else know?”

“Yeah, Caleb,” I replied nodding. It was now Vicky’s turn to sigh.

“Alright, I won’t tell him. But if he finds out, it’s going to destroy him.”

I flinched at her choice of words. “Yeah, I know, but hopefully I figure out how to tell him before then.” Vicky nodded and we both walked out of the ladies room without another word. As soon as I was out in the open, Caleb swooped by and linked arms with me, whirling me round to the bar.

“Hello, pretty lady, how’s tonight treating you?” Caleb said with his goofy grin, and despite the tension earlier, I laughed.

“Well, now that Vicky is in on the dirty little secret, only just okay,” I replied and Caleb’s jaw dropped.

“Okay, totally didn’t see that one coming. Well, I have a little something-something for you!” He flicked a small square piece of paper towards me and I opened it cautiously.

B.
Meet me out in the lobby in five.
You look gorgeous, as always.
W. x

I smiled at the note, slipping it into my purse.

“Cover for me?” I asked Caleb and he looked thoughtfulfor once.

“Do I get some compensation?”

I let out an over exaggerated sigh. “Next time I go out, you can pick my outfit.”

“Yay! Alright, go go, I got your back!” Caleb said, a little too gleeful. I slunk out of the loud, crowded room toward the lobby, seeing William leaning up against the wall in his signature pose.

“Hey beautiful,” William said with a smile, kissing me softly as I tried not to grin so much.

“Hey yourself,” I answered, leaning in for yet another kiss. Soon enough, it became more than just an innocent peck. It felt good to be wanted, to have William right there with me, the fear of getting caught adding to the excitement. That was, until we were caught.

“B-bee? What the fuck!” We pulled apart instantly, looking over to Gabe, his face shocked, with Ryland, Caleb and Vicky behind him, Ryland looking moderately shocked also.

“G-Gabe, this isn’t what it looks like,” William stuttered, moving forward but still keeping a hand on the small of my back, the other out in front to protect himself.

“Get your hands off her, Beckett,” Gabe growled, his entire face dark and his hands clenching into fists at his side. William tried to speak again, but Gabe cut him off, swinging his right hand around, until his fist collided with William’s nose, a sickening crack defining the moment. I let out a cry, moving forward to catch William as he staggered back, his hand covering the damage to his face. Gabe paced backwards, rubbing his hand, the fire in his eyes still burning strong. In a mere second, he was flinging himself forward again, rage written all over his face as Caleb flew in front, pushing Gabe back as William looked up in fear.

I knew William wouldn’t fight back, but Gabe wouldn’t stop until he left a permanent mark, with mood he was in. I pulled William away, trying to pry of the hand he had clamped to his nose, blood seeping out between his fingers.

Gabe was panting as Caleb still held him in place. Suddenly, a look of realisation came over Gabe’s face and he looked agonized.

“They… Bee… William…they’re together?” He whimpered, and Caleb nodded, his face hard. Gabe crumpled to the ground, his eyes still staring at me, the pain so intense I had to look away. William coughed, the blood most probably blocking his airways. Vicky-T flittered to William’s other side as we took him to go get cleaned up, but not before I looked over my shoulder, giving Gabe the most disappointed, angry look I could muster.