October 4th
4:51 pm.
The last two days were pretty uneventful. The guys are on their three week break. Thankfully since they're all so burnt out from the shows, they haven't been as crazy, and loud.
I had been reading all day. I finally decided to get out of bed and do something, anything at all to be somewhat productive.
I'm not a huge reader, but it's probably healthier for your brain instead of watching television.
I walk down the hall, and down the stairs leading into the living room to see all five of the guys spread out on the chairs, couch, and floor.
I tip-toe past Steven on the floor, assuming he was asleep. "Hey jack." Izzy mumbles from the couch.
I sat down next to him, still careful not to bump Steven.
"Hey, what're you watchin'?" I say in a slight-whisper. "I have no idea, honestly." he laughs dryly.
"I was watching the new Dallas season, but this just randomly came on and I was too tired to care."
I give him a small smile. "You doin' anything today?" Readjusting myself on the couch to fully face him.
"Nah, probably not. You?" he shrugs. "I mean, I have nothin' planned but we can find something to do." I respond.
"Like?"
"I don't know, we could just get some snacks and watch a movie later tonight." I looked over at the clock to see it reading '5:21 pm'.
"Damn, I didn't realize it was already 5:30." I chuckled, "We should probably wake them up."
"Yeah, probably."
-
After the rest of the guys had gotten up, I forced them to help me clean the house, we spent about an hour straightening up the kitchen and living room,
"I'm not doing it, you do it!" I heard a voice shout from another room. "No way! You saw it first!"
I sighed, stuffing blankets in the hall closet and then following the voices into the bathroom.
Duff and Slash are waving their arms everywhere, rambling about something I didn't care about enough to listen to.
"Rock paper scissors!" Seriously? These are grown men acting like 5 year olds. I stare at them through the doorway with my hands on my hips.
"What the hell are you two arguing about?" I blurted.
"We're not arguing!" they both say in unison. I scoffed. "Okay, then what is this about?"
"The drain is clogged!" Duff raises his voice again.
"Okay Duff, we're in the same room, you don't have to yell."
"So all this racket is about a clogged drain? Seriously?" I raise my eyebrows at them. "Yeah, it's gross, and I don't wanna do it." Slash argues.
"Okay, neither of you wanna do it. So just do like Duff said and rock paper scissors for it."
"Fine."
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"
rock
-
rock
"That's a tie."
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"
paper
-
paper
"Another tie."
-
"Tie."
-
"That's a tie."
-
paper
-
paper
"Jesus christ, you guys this will never get done if you keep choosing the same ones over and over again!"
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"
scissors
-
paper
"Ha! I win, bitch!" Slash exclaimed. "Whatever." Duff mumbled. "That wasn't fair." he groaned under his breath.
"What was that?" Slash taunted at him.
"Shutup."
I rolled my eyes at them, leaving the bathroom and I head towards the kitchen, where Izzy's leaning against the counter with a glass of water.
I grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and fill it with the tap. "Well that was fun." I leaned against the counter next to Izzy.
"Thanks for helping. You did the most out of all these guys." I gesture towards Axl laying on the countertop, Slash playing air guitar on top of the coffee table, and Duff & Steven playing 'hot hands'.
"No problem. This place needed a good cleaning, anyway." He shrugged.
"So what movie do you wanna watch later?" I finished the rest of my water and place the glass in the sink.
"We could watch the shining!" Slash blurts out. "Just in time for the halloween season too!" Steven joins in.
"Okay.. stop being cheesy." Axl interrupts. "Yeah." I agreed.
"Anyway, yeah we can watch The Shining."
"What about snacks?" Steven raised his arms.
"Oh, right. Uhh, who wants to go to the Walmart with me?" I lifted my back off the counter's edge.
"I can go with ya." Izzy suggested. "Alright, but I'm going now, so if you need to get dressed do it now, and fast."
He ran out of the kitchen into the hallway.
"Alright what snacks do you guys want?" I walk into the living room towards the rest of the guys.
-
7:15 pm.
-
"Izzy I'm leaving in one minute, hurry your ass up!" I shout while tying my converse.
"Okay, one sec!"
I don't know what's taking him so long. We're literally just going to walmart for snacks... he could've gone in his pajamas.
"Okay, I'm ready!" Finally.
"Wait, let me get my shoes."
I groan impatiently and very dramatically, and finish tying my shoes.
"Izzy I'm going out to the car, you have 20 seconds!"
I slowly back up towards the door, my hand on the knob.
"20.."
"19.."
"18.."
Stepping out the door backwards, still counting, I hear Izzy shout something unintelligible.
"15..."
"14..."
I finally shut the door and turn around, and nearly choke on air at what I see before me.
"Hey."
What the hell is he doing here?
"What the fuck are you doing here?" I say, delivering it more as a statement rather than a question...
"Long time no speak."
I scoffed. "Yeah, Aaron. There was a reason for that." I walked past him to the driveway, where my car was parked.
He stays silent for a minute as I struggle to find the right key to unlock my car. "My mom died."
"I'm awfully sorry to hear that." I mumble, still not facing him.
I liked his mother. She was nice, always so welcoming. She was like a second mother to me, so yeah. I was truly sorry to hear that.
"What happened?" I turn turn to face him, finally.
I silently pray to God for Izzy to come out and save me already.
"Motorcycle accident, two nights ago."
Two nights? Damn. That's a fresh wound... but how the hell did he get all the way to California from Nashville so fast? Was he already on his way?
"I'm sorry." I swallow thickly. I would rather just get in my car and drive off as fast as possible, but I can't seem to find the right FUCKING KEY.
The front door creaks open and there stands Izzy, shifting his eyes from me, to Aaron, back and forth.
"Hey, I'm Aar-"
"Yeah, I know who you are." He brushed right past him, standing next to me, leaning against the car. "You ready for dinner?" He puts his arm around my shoulders.
Huh. Maybe Jesus is real. I decide to play along with it, for shits and giggles.
"Yeah, I'm ready." I smile up at him and wink, sort of as a silent 'thank you'. He winked back at me. "Dinner?" Aaron interrupted, "You two dating?" He crosses his arms. Who does he think he is? Why is it any of his business if we were?
"Yeah, we are." I smiled, trying my best to hold in my laughter. "What's it to you?" Izzy added. "Jack, can we talk?" Aaron responded.
"No, sorry. We're gonna be late for our dinner." I looked back up at Izzy. He slides his arm down to my waist, pulling me closer.
Aaron clears his throat loudly, and Izzy and I pull apart.
"Let's go, Jack." Izzy said, eyeing Aaron.
Jack.
I like when he calls me that, I don't know why. It's bittersweet. Aaron used to call me that. It sounds way better when Izzy does though.
Izzy & I got into the car, without another word to or from Aaron. I turn the key in the ignition, and pull out of the driveway immediately.
The drive was quiet, besides the radio, and it was really awkward.
I was thinking about so many different things at once that we had arrived at Walmart sooner than my brain processed.
We stayed in the car for a minute, completely silent. I had to think about what I was even going to say to him. Maybe i'm being too dramatic about this, but I didn't know what to think of it.
"So uh-"
"Hey-"
We both start at the same time. I chuckle "You go first." He scratches the back of his neck, "No it's fine, go ahead."
"I-" I began, my ears burning from my nerves. I could tell they were red by the feeling of it so I hid them behind my hair.
"Thank you." I say sincerely, half-turning my body towards him, resting my arm on the center console.
"No problem." He shrugs it off, waving his hand in the air. "No really, thank you. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't come out at that exact moment."
"It's okay, Jackie." he chuckles. "And uh, I'm sorry if I caught you off guard."
I laugh awkwardly. "No, I liked it."
what the fuck did i just say?
"Oh-" He swallows thickly. "No no, I didn't like it." I wave my hands in the air and shut my eyes tightly.
"Oh." He repeats, this time quieter. "No I mean-"
I sigh in defeat. "I didn't.. not like it, but- I didn't like, like-like it."
I give up. I'm just digging myself a deeper grave.
"Nevermind." I laugh and shake my head.
"No, I get what you mean," he chuckles softly, "Just don't worry about it."
-
Izzy insisted on carrying every bag in the house, even though there was only four. I could've done it.
When we entered the house all the guys were spread out in the living room, clearly bored.
"Wake up bitches!" I kick Axl's foot, who's laying on the rug below the couch. "Ow, bitch, that hurt!" he barks as he gets up.
"Hey, don't call her that!" Steven argues, following behind Axl. "I'll call her whatever I want." He jokes.
"No, you won't if you want snacks." I raise my eyebrows while emptying the grocery bags onto the island counter-top.
"What'd you guys get?" Duff joins us in the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Slash follows behind him.
"We got everything you asked for, don't worry." I put my hands up in defense dramatically, knowing one of them would throw a fit if I didn't get everything on the list.
Everyone grabs their snacks, and they all return to their respectful spots in the living room.
I sat between Steven and Izzy on the couch, Steven curled up in a blanket against the arm, I had my legs rested up on the coffee table in the middle, and Izzy on my other side with his arms stretched across the top of the cushions, legs crossed on the chaise.
We weren't but 20 minutes into The Shining, and Steven was already screaming at the top of his lungs. To be honest, his screaming scared me more than the movie. That was the real jumpscare.
"Steven shutup." Duff mumbles from the recliner beside the couch, already dozing off, and rolling over to face his back toward Steven.
I guess I was wrong about Steven's screams being the only scary thing, because as soon as the "heressss JOHNNY!" scene came on, I smacked my hands onto my eyes to cover them.
I know, right? How 'punk rock, don't-give-a-fuck attitude' of me. I found myself slowly scooting closer to Izzy as he laughed at my fear.
My body was pressed firmly against Izzy's. If I'd have moved any closer, I'd practically be on top of him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and softly rubbed my arm.
I tried my hardest to fight the tiredness as we got further into the movie, but I caved in, and dropped my head onto Izzy's shoulder.
We stayed like that for the rest of the night, and for some reason, it just felt right.
In a platonic way, though. Izzy's too polite to even think that way about me. I think.
Yeah. Platonic.