Strings

Non-Proposal

"Really? That Riley chick is taking up way too much space in that already too small set of cells he calls a brain, and now he wants to postpone our Baltimore show? Who the hell does he think he is?"

"Hey, Barakat, calm down. Look, maybe he does just need a little time to process everything. He's been away from Riley for two months now, and I'm pretty sure they're both still trying to figure out what in the world is going on there. But it's not our place to judge, and I think you've had enough." Rian took the bottle of mysterious liquid from Jack, who was so out of control he fell over when trying to get it back from him. Zack, Rian and Jack were standing outside of Rian's and Cassadee's room, recouping after the texts from Alex.

"I think I know when I've had enough. Besides, the weak stuff doesn't affect me anymore," He laughed.

Rian untwisted the cap on the bottle and took a whiff, blinking a few times in order to recover. "That's not the weak stuff."

"I didn't say I was drinking the weak stuff, doofus." Jack winking at him and went back towards his own room. "I'm gonna go to bed or something." He swayed slightly as he walked down the hall from Rian's and Cassadee's room. When he pulled the key from his pocket, it took about five attempts to get the card into the slot before Zack ran up behind him and took the key from him. "I got it, man."

He ushered Jack into the room, helped him under his covers, and sighed. "Maybe you need help."

Jack rolled his head around to look at Zack. "I kissed Alex."

Zack shrugged, like it was no big deal. "I knew you had a thing for him, and I noticed you clamming up when he talked to Riley on the bus. But you don't deserve to beat yourself up like this over unrequited love, man. Try to get some sleep, I'll come back to wake you up about thirty minutes before we have to leave." There was an untouched overnight bag sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, so Zack opened it and set Jack's clothes out on the chair for him.

"Night Jack."

"Night."

****

"So, you want something to eat?"

"At one o'clock in the morning? Why the hell not." Alex pulled on his shorts and Riley put on a tank top and a pair of pajama pants. They raced to the kitchen, and danced around after putting hot pockets into the microwave. "Do-do-do." They sang and danced, laughing at the little pop of the over-heated hot pockets, just high on life.

Suddenly, Riley stopped mid-twirl, pulled herself close to him, looked him straight on with a twinkle in her green eyes, and smiled. "I love you so damn much, Gaskarth." She took his face into her hands and kissed him.

"I love you too, Andrews."

She let go, backing up and biting her lip. "What are we, though? Just out of curiosity, because I don't even really know. Obviously we aren't just friends, and I don't think this is anything casual-not that that would be anything bad, but just-"

Alex put a hand over her mouth, silencing her. She just looked up at him, wide eyes laughing silently. He put a finger over his lips and shh-ed her, then got down on one knee. "Riley Motha-freakin' Andrews. I've known you for a total of about two and a half months now, and we've seen each other for about a week of that. But we've already established that I love you, and I'm pretty sure you love me-I mean who doesn't. So, because we aren't friends, and I'm not going to call you my girlfriend at any point because that doesn't do this justice, will you, sweet, a-dork-able Riles, be my everything?"

She took his hand off her mouth, sat down on the tile next to him, and crossed her legs Indian style. "That was the sweetest non-proposal I've ever heard."

"And your answer is...?"

Riley put a finger on her chin and looked up, fake-thinking hard. "Maybe."

"Fuck you!" He laughed, falling backwards into the drawers.

"Nah, we've already done that." She laughed and got up to pull out the hot pockets. He dragged himself up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and awkwardly followed her around as she set the plates on the counter and turned back to close the microwave. Alex waddled around with her like that, insisting that he wouldn't let go until she gave him an answer. "Fine! Duh, asshole, if you'll be my everything."

"Then it's a deal. We're everything. That's what this is." He still didn't let go, using one hand to hold her back and the other to hold the hot pocket so he could eat it. "Hey, you know that first time, at the bar, when I tried to kiss you?"

"Yea. What about it?"

"You were going on about something like 'no commitments, no strings attached.' What was that all about?"

"I didn't want you to feel like you had to be with me out of pity, and I knew that you were leaving... So I didn't want to give you a reason to feel the need to come back." She sat on her barstool and leaned on the counter. "It's suckish to think that someone's only with you because you love their music and you love their band, or that you fell into their arms like puddy so they think you're just an easy target."

"You think I was just using you? Ha, Riles-if I just wanted target practice I definitely wouldn't have brought you free tickets, I would've just taken one of those silly girls backstage back to the hotel for the night. And by the way, you didn't fawn all over me, you just didn't play as hard to get as you thought you were. I didn't know I didn't want something easy until you backed away from me in the bar."

She leaned into him, his arm still around her. "I wasn't sure how to play it, so I went with 'I'm good with whatever's aloud'."

"That's a good way to play it." Alex took another bite of his food, then wolfed the rest of it down. "Shit!" He sat her back up as gently and quickly as possible before running around the bar and to the sink, sticking his head under the faucet and taking a swig.

"Well, what do you expect when I just pulled it out of the microwave, dumb-ass?"

****

"Jack? Hey, wake up!" Zack called through the door. Thirty seconds later, Jack answered the door with racoon hair and bloodshot eyes. "Woah, you look trashed."

"And thankfully I feel a little less tired." He leaned on one arm against the door frame and rested his head on it. Zack noticed that he had a little five-o'clock shadow framing the lower half of his face, and the goofy little smile that used to always come with the Jack Barakat package was back.

"What's that for?" He asked about the grin.

"I dunno, I just feel a little more relieved, ya know? All these months I've been worried over this and him and now that I know he's not even remotely interested, yea it sucks but I'm glad I can move on from it."

Zack reached out and ruffled his hair, laughing. "I'm glad you're feeling better." The touch left his palm tingling, and he withdrew it before Jack noticed the less than casual intentions behind it. There wasn't any need to let on anything because there was no use in rocking the boat any more than the band could handle. "You should go ahead and get dressed, we're getting back on the road in about twenty minutes."

"Allright." Jack started to go back into the room, closing the door.

"I'm gonna go get some food from downstairs, anything you want?"

"Yea, just get a bagel for me or something, I'll meet you on the bus, k?"

"Got it." Zack took off down the stairs.