(4) Out of Control: An All Time Low FanFiction Romance

Chapter 42: Answers (Jack's POV)

        "Jack, can I talk to you for a second?" Stella's voice sounded quietly from behind me. I lifted my head lazily, eyes moving from the screen I'd barely been paying attention to, traveling to her face. She had come up from the steps, pausing by the driver's seat. She moved closer without saying anything, green eyes never leaving mine as she took a seat across from me in one of the seats of our two-person table. The chairs were the only seats open from my being stretched out across the couch, feet reaching the other arm rest.

        The Lovely Broken had just finished their performance in Detroit and I was waiting for Natalia to shower. She had this damn obsession with showering as soon as she got off stage, refusing to come to my bus unless she was clean.

        Some part of me thought she was doing it to drive me insane, to make me wait, but part of me didn't mind. Her hair always smelled so good when she was done, like some kind of flower. It drove me nuts, everything about her drove me nuts, and she knew it. She used it to her full advantage. It made me insane the way I wanted her more than I wanted anyone else, the way she was better than anyone else.

        "Jack, you're not even listening to me are you?" Stella questioned, voice tinted with amusement. I looked over at her again, her head tilted slightly to the side in expectation as I pulled myself from my thoughts before they moved any further. "Of course not," she chuckled.

        "Sorry Stell," I grinned. "What's up?"

        "I wanted to talk to you," she repeated, her voice more cautious this time, typical Stella. "About Natalia," she added, gaining my attention completely. Even the mention of her name made me want to go find her and have the kind of nights we've been having since Holly said we needed a break.

        "What about her?" I asked, angling my body slightly so I was facing her more, cheek pressed against the pillow I'd been resting on.

        "I know you guys have your thing, whatever you want to call it," she started, hesitating when I wiggled my eyes at her, gaining a laugh in response.

        "Stop it, Jack," she rolled her eyes and shaking her head gently in my direction, "I don't need to know anything. I wanted to know if you expected something to come from whatever you two have. I know you're both fine with just messing around right now, but she's not the type of person to have any kind of commitment, at all. She never sticks with the same guy for long, even if they are just fooling around. I don't want you thinking you'll get something out of this, because chances are, you won't. I don't hwant you getting too wrapped upin her and having her walk away."

        "That's what she does. She did it with this kid back home, she used when she wanted and left him when she didn't, and he liked her too much to stop being somebody she fooled around with. He tried to get her to be in a relationship with him, and it never worked. I don't think anybody could change that, not even you if you really tried to."

        "Stella," I groaned, my turn to roll my eyes, not in annoyance, but at the protective cover she was putting on. I tried to start talking again, but she interrupted me, a smart look fixed on her face.

        "Don't even try and tell me that you only like her as nothing more than a hook up whenever you guys want it, " she said firmly, confident that she was right. "I think it's pretty clear to everyone that you like her."

        "Stella," I repeated, pushing myself up so I was sitting, feet planted a foot or so apart, forearms restng along my thighs. She just kept going, persistent to get some kind of confession out of me.

        "Look me in the eye and tell me you don't like her," Stella challenged, leaning forward, closer to me in her seat. I flicked my head to the side, flipping the hair out of my eyes before meeting her gaze. I was fully prepare to tell her what she watned to hear, but the feeling of my phone buzzing in my pocket stopped me before I'd barely opened my mouth.

        Stella watched me carefully as I leaned back, hand pushing into my pocket to dig my phone out, the vibrating stopping as I held it in front of me, opening a text message from Natalia, telling me she'd be over in a few minutes. I couldn't stop the smirk from forming on my mouth as I responded quickly before dropping my phone next to me, meeting Stella's gaze again.

        "The next words out of your mouth better not be anything like, 'I don't like her' because I will know you're lying to me. I wish you could have just seen your face, it was the same look you used to get when you talked to Holly."

        "I don't know what you want me to say, Stell, we all know it and you just said it again yourself. She doesn't do commitments. I get that, I've sure as hell heard her say it enough."

        "So, what are you going to do?"

        "I'm not going to stop fooling around with her, if that's what you're getting at?"

        "I know," Stella muttered, sighing deeply. "Part of me just wishes you would, so you wouldn't get hurt when she wants to stop." Stella watched me carefully, waiting. I let a smile form on my mouth, knowing she was just looking out for me, the same way she looked out for all the guys since before she started dating Alex. That was just her.

        I shrugged, knowing whatever else I could say she wouldn't want to hear. I wasn't going to change anything between Natalia and me, for now I was pretty pleased with how things were going.

        "Just be careful, okay?" Stella added quietly, standing up. I nodded once, hearing her feet move across the bus, down the flight of stairs and out the door. I expected to hear the door swinging shut, instead it stayed open a moment, swinging shut a few seconds later, bringing a new set of footsteps onto the bus.

        I didn't have to look up to know who it was, and I didn't move when she couch shifted slightly with the weight of a person at my side, their fingernails tracing random patterns across my arm as they spoke quietly in my ear, the same voice that gave me chills.

        "What was Stella doing?" she asked, voice causing me to turn my head, her blue eyes closer than I'd expected. She smelled good, like those damn flowers.

        "We were just talking," I said, brushing it off. Natalia nodded softly, biting gently on her lip as she watched me, waiting. I felt fucking stupid for thinking about how cute she was, looking at me like that.

        "Are you okay?" she asked a moment later, eyebrows bent slightly as she stared at me, her eyes searching my face. For a moment, my mind flashed back to a few days before, when I'd been asking her the same question and she surprised me by asking what she was to me and what I wanted from us. The question threw me off, but I answered, saying what I knew she wanted to hear. If I had said that I wanted something more than a casual fuck, it would bave thrown everything off. She was too damn difficult, and I knew it would take a lot to get her to change her mind.

        "Fine," I said quckly, hand moving to grab at her waist, pulling her body onto mine. I felt her lips turn up into a smile, the same way she always did, as she pressed her torso closer to mine, fingers twisting through my hair to hold my mouth against hers.

        I almost wanted to ask her if she knew how fucking crazy she made me, or if her whole body felt like it was on fire the way mine did every time I was with her. I wanted the kind of answers I couldn't get from her.