Dakota’s POV
I woke up and rolled over on to my side. I didn't remember how I fell asleep, but I do remember seeing Vic. The clock on my bedside table said that it was 8 o'clock and I smelled like strawberries, which was weird because I don't own anything that is strawberry scented. I looked down at myself and realized that I was still wearing Vic's sweatshirt. Crap! He came over last night to get it and I fell asleep in it. Wow, I’m an idiot.
I got out of bed and walked into the bathroom. I took off his sweatshirt, even though I didn't want to. It was so warm and it smelled exactly like him mixed with strawberries. I brushed my hair and put on a different t-shirt. I then folded up Vic's sweatshirt. Audrey wasn't awake yet, but I grabbed the key and walked over to Vic's apartment, holding his sweatshirt. I knocked on the door, and Jaime opened it up.
“Hi, Jaime! Hey, I have Vic's sweatshirt, where is he?” I asked.
“He is in his bedroom, but I think that he might still be asleep,” he told me.
“That alright, I’ll just go and put it in his room so that he has it for later, if that's ok,” I said, hoping that he wouldn't be creeped out. He didn't seem to mind.
“Go right ahead. You already know which room it is right? First one on the right side.” he said, walking towards the kitchen, not seeming to care much.
I walked over to Vic's door and knocked quietly. I let myself in after he didn’t answer. He was lying on his bed asleep. He looked so precious snuggled up in blankets with his head on his hand and the other hand nuzzled under his chin. He was snoring softly and I watched him for a few minutes, taking notice of the little things I never paid attention to before, like the shape of his mouth and how his hair wasn’t straight like the night before. It had more curl to it, and in my opinion, looked much better. There was also a pair of glasses on his bedside table. Huh, I didn’t know he wore glasses.
I wandered around his room, looking at the little things that he kept on a small table in the corner. There were guitar picks, an iPod, and pictures of him and his friends. Posters plastered his wall, and I recognized a lot of the bands.
Once I finished looking at all of his things, I realized that I had probably been in his room for close to ten minutes. I set the sweatshirt beside his head and looked down at him. The song we sang together last night played through my head and I smiled. I turned to leave his room, and with just my luck, I stepped on the creakiest part of the floor. It made a super loud noise, and I froze.
I turned around and saw him open up his eyes. Damn it, I woke him up. A normal person would be mad if you woke them up by going into their room uninvited, looking at their things, and then stepping on the creakiest part of their floor. But Vic didn't even seem to mind. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes, pushing his hair out of his face.
He stretched, and I realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt. I know I’ve seen him shirtless before, at the beach, but this just hit me like a sack of potatoes. And his arms were incredibly toned.
“Oh Vic, I'm so sorry! I was just returning your jacket and I didn't mean to wake you up.” I felt so bad.
“Don't even worry about it,” he said in a sexy, sleepy voice. “And thanks for returning it, by the way. It’s sort of my favorite jacket ever. But when you fell asleep in it, there was no way in Hell I was going to wake you up.”
“I guess I was just really tired… the last thing I remember from last night was us singing. You have an amazing voice.” His face lit up.
“Thanks! I've had a lot of practice over the last few years,” he said smiling.
“Oh, really? Doing what?” I asked curiously, walking over to his bed and sitting down. He was still smiling.
“Well, I'm in a band with Tony, Mike, and Jaime. I sing lead vocals and play the guitar.” My jaw dropped. No wonder he was so good. He must have performed all the time. But what type of music did he even play? I had so many questions about the band.
“That is the coolest thing I have ever heard! What do the other guys do?” I asked, thinking of what their talents must be.
“Well, Jaime plays bass and does some backup vocals, Tony plays lead guitar, and Mike is the drummer. And together we are Pierce the Veil!” he said dramatically, rubbing his hands together with a devious smile.
“I’ll have to check out your guy's music pronto!” I said excitedly.
I was always up to listen to a new band. I was thinking about how they might sound and how cool it was that Vic could sing and do all these awesome things. All I wanted was to sing with him again.. I hadn’t felt that truly happy in the longest time.
It was quiet for a few seconds, when out of nowhere, I heard a deep growling sounds and I looked Vic straight in the eyes. I tried to hide a smile, but I burst out laughing anyways.
“What? I'm hungry! I can't help the noises that my stomach makes. I need pancakes!” he said, getting up and throwing a shirt on. “Denny's is calling our name. We should go pajama style! We are going to wake everyone up when I count to three and within 15 minutes, meet me back here with Audrey.”
“What? Are you crazy?” I said laughing. I didn’t believe him.
“Yes I am! Ready? Set? GO!” he yelled, bursting his door open.
Jaime was standing in the lounge. He turned to see Vic running past him.
“Jaime, get Tony up, we are going to make a Denny's pajama pancake run! I’m going to wake up Mike. The girls are also going to come.”
Vic ran towards Mike's room while Jaime was still just standing there, confused.
“Audrey is going to be there. Come on bro get ready!!!”
Vic opened up Mike’s door and ran in. His last words seemed to catch Jaime’s attention. Did he like Audrey? That was so cute!
Jaime ran into Tony's room. I heard him yelling at Tony to wake up. I laughed and walked out of the apartment. I burst into Audrey’s room singing. I walked over and began to shake her bed.
“Wake up sleepy head. Come on we only have 10 minutes. COME ON!” I was laughing. I looked down at her, but she was crying. I stopped singing immediately. I pulled her close to me.
“Oh my God! What's wrong Audrey?” she was still crying. I gave her a hug.
She looked at me and whispered almost inaudibly, “I had the dream again. It isn't fair!”
I felt so bad. I didn't know if she would want to go to breakfast with us, but I couldn't stand to leave her here alone.
“I know it isn't fair, but you are strong, and you can get through it. I also know that you just woke up, but I know what might make you feel better.” Audrey sat up in her bed, curious.
“What?” she asked sniffling. Right as she asked, there was a knock on the door. I smiled.
“Here it is!” I jumped up leaving her in bed, and let the boys in.
“Where is Audrey?” Vic asked.
“I just got her up. She had a bad dream and is still in bed.” They followed me into her room. She watched them walk in and tried to put on a smile, even though it wasn't very convincing.
Jaime saw her and could tell she had been crying. He ran up to her and sat on her bed.
“Audrey, are you okay?” he asked, very concerned. She looked up at him, and her eyes looked glassy. She bit her lower lip and gave him a hug.
Audrey’s POV
I woke up to Dakota singing to me, waking me up from my dream, right before Haven... I didn't even want to think about it. I immediately started to cry. She tried to comfort me, but it didn't really work. I was still thinking of Haven, which made me want to curl up into a ball and float away into nothing.
Then she told me that she had a surprise. That interested me, so I sat up. There was a knock on the door and she skipped out of the room. She came back into the room being trailed by all four boys. Vic was directly behind her, then Jaime, then Mike, and finally Tony. Jaime's eyes automatically caught mine and we stared at each other. He walked over and sat on my bed, pulling me into a hug.
“Audrey, are you okay?” he asked. I swore I was going to lose it right there. His voice was so genuine and he sounded like he really cared, even though we only met last night. His arms held me tight and I felt safe. I hadn't felt that since Haven, and I forgot how much I longed for it again.
I know it sounded super cheesy, but I pulled away from him and looked into his deep eyes and said, “Now I am,” wiping off my eyes and smiling. He smiled back and my heart skipped a beat.
“Sweet! Now we can go have pancakes! LEGGO!” Mike yelled hopping up and down, heading towards the door. I noticed that they were still in pajamas, so I didn't have to get dressed. Jaime got off of my bed and offered me his hand, pulling me out of my covers. I slipped on a pair of Vans, grabbed my bag and a jacket, and followed everyone out the door.
We made it to the cars and realized that we couldn't all fit into Vic's, so we decided to go in two cars. Dakota offered to drive and we started to walk towards it. Jaime jogged after us.
“Um, I'll go with you guys if you want, you know for directions and stuff,” he said, adding a smile in at the end.
“Sounds good to me.” We all hopped into Jeff, Dakota driving, me in the middle and Jaime on the passenger side. I leaned into him a little, not even realizing it, almost as though it was a habit. He put his arm across the top of the seat so that it was behind my head, giving me something else to rest on. He gave us directions to the Denny's, even though Dakota was following Vic. His voice was soothing and he had a very relaxed and chilled vibe. I liked it.
We pulled into the Denny's parking lot and walked in, the waitress sat us in a booth. Dakota slid in and I sat next to her, Jaime sat next to me on the very end. Vic sat across from Dakota, Tony across from me, and Mike on the very end as well. The waitress took our drink orders and gave us time to look at the menus.
“So what are you guys going to get?” Vic asked curiously, looking at every one at the table.
“Waffles, duh.” Mike said, automatically, not even having to think.
“Omelet, with toast,” Tony said afterwards, then taking a sip of coffee.
“Hmm. I was thinking about getting pancakes,” Dakota said. Pancakes were her favorite. Vic got all excited. “Me too! I love pancakes!” They started talking about different pancakes and breakfast foods. I turned to Jaime.
“What are you going to get, Jaime?” I asked. He smiled, and looked at the menu.
“French toast. Definitely French toast. And bacon. Always.” He looked over at me.
“No way! I was thinking about also getting French toast.” He smiled.
“Then I guess that makes us French toast buddies!” he said, giving me a high five. He made me so happy just from his energy.
The waiter came over and took our orders, Jaime and I got the same thing, and so did Vic and Kota. Mike started up a conversation and got all of us laughing. I’m pretty sure that I heard Dakota snort a few times, which made me laugh even harder, and Tony turned bright red. We had to make ourselves stop laughing because everyone was giving us strange looks.
Eventually, we got ourselves into a hot sauce eating contest. Whoever could handle the most hot sauce without water won. I didn’t even bother to try, and Mike wasn’t that into it either, so the competition was between Tony, Jaime, Vic, and Dakota. I was of course rooting for my main girl. Tony dropped out first, then Vic. The competition was between Dakota and Jaime. Both of their faces were bright red, and Dakota was pretty much crying. But I knew my best friend, and I knew she wasn’t giving up.
Jaime finally caved, and we all cheered for Dakota. Vic declared her the Queen of all Spiciness and presented her with a crown made of our straw wrappers.
The topic somehow got towards bacon after a while. All of us were talking about it as if it was the one thing keeping us all alive, except for Tony and Dakota. It was expected for Tony not to be saying anything, but Dakota was sitting silently with her hands folded in her lap, looking down at them. Vic seemed to notice this.
“Dakota, are you alright?” he questioned. Dakota’s head snapped up.
“What? Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
“You aren’t talking very much…” Vic said warily.
“Well, this isn’t exactly my place for conversation,” she laughed. Tony picked up on what she was saying and smiled, but kept quiet.
“What do you mean?” Vic said, while taking a bite of his pancakes.
“I can’t stand bacon,” she blatantly stated. Vic dropped his fork and choked on his food. Mike and Jaime had basically the same reaction. Vic recomposed himself and just stared at her with his jaw dropped.
“Are you freaking kidding me?!” Jaime blurted a bit too loud. The rest of the restaurant became quiet, but we continued anyways.
“I’m serious!” Dakota said.
“How can you not like bacon?” Vic asked with a hint of disappointment.
“It’s literally strips of fat cooked in its own grease. It’s nauseating,” Dakota said, clearly disgusted.
Mike added in, “I thought you were form Idaho? Where you eat meat or don’t eat at all?”
“Oh, I eat meat. Just not bacon. Or eggs, or soup… or nutella.”
The entire table became silent. I sat there, restraining from bursting out laughing. Tony was sitting back with his arms folded across his chest, clearly amused. Mike, Jaime, and Vic all had their jaws dropped open as if they had just witnessed a murder. I could tell that Jaime had tried to say something, but all he did was readjust his facial expression.
I looked over at Dakota, who was clearly uncomfortable. If there was one thing anybody should know about her, it was that she hated when all of the attention was directed towards her. She looked back at me, not knowing what to do. We suddenly just burst out laughing, the boys eventually joining in.
“Well, that’s something different!” Vic said. “She can down a load of hot sauce, but she doesn’t like the typical white girl foods. Are sure you aren’t secretly Mexican?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, here you have it! A rarity of all sorts! She’s not your typical white girl, but she is definitely white! I present to you, Dakota!” Jaime said in an announcer voice, almost as if he was presenting a circus act.
Dakota blushed, and then continued laughing even harder. She had her arms wrapped around her stomach, most likely because her abs hurt. She slipped out a loud snort, and boys started dying, to say the least. Vic fell over onto Tony’s lap, Tony was gripping the table, Mike was slapping his knee, and Jaime was laughing so hard that he was silent. I couldn’t breathe, and was at the point of crying because I was laughing so hard. Dakota had one hand covering her mouth, attempting to refrain from snorting again. She was taking sharp, short breaths, and banged on the table a few times.
I controlled myself just enough to look around us. Literally every person in the restaurant was staring at us, even the workers. I cleared my throat, and our laughing died down. Vic sat up, with his face bright red. We all looked around at each other in silence for a few seconds, and realized we should probably control ourselves.
“So what do we do now?” Mike asked.
Vic chimed in, “Yeah? What do you guys want to do?”
I turned to Dakota with a questioning look.
“Actually, Audrey and I have to go run some errands. We don't have any food in our fridge, and we need to run to grocery store to stock up our cupboards,” Dakota explained to the boys.
“But that doesn't sound like any fun,” Vic said, pouting like a little kid.
“No, it doesn't, but we have to get it done,” I replied.
Out of nowhere, Jaime spoke up. “I have an idea! We can all help you guys get your errands done! We are super good listeners and we can show you where to go because you guys don’t know the city, and believe me, it’s big.”
Dakota had a cautious look on her face. “I don't know - ”
Jaime interrupted her. “PLEASE? I promise we'll be good,” he begged. Mike was laughing at his theatrics.
“Oh fine! You guys can come, but only if you promise to be helpful and not mess around too much.”
“Oh don’t you worry; we are super great at shopping. We can get you in and out of the supermarket in 15 minutes tops.” Jaime boasted. “Start writing down a list of stuff you need,” he said, handing us a pen.
Dakota and I started writing down all the stuff we needed. We paid for our meals, left the restaurant, and headed straight over to the Albertson’s.
Dakota’s POV
“Okay, so we need milk, eggs, butter, bread, fruit, and - ” I was cut off by Jaime.
“Got it!” Jaime snatched the list from my hands, grabbed Audrey by the wrist, and they ran off into the store laughing.
I smiled and shook my head, then Mike spoke up.
“Uh, me and Tony are going to check out the magazines,” he said, almost as if he was trying to get away from Vic and me. Or get us away from them…
“Okay, cool,” Vic said. As Mike and Tony walked off, Vic turned to me and smiled. “I guess that just leaves you and me. Shall we?” he asked, offering his elbow.
I hooked my arm through his and laughed. “We shall.” I smiled to myself. Gosh, he was sweet.
We walked aimlessly through the store for a while, sharing stories and laughs. We could hear Jaime and Tony shouting to each other from across the aisles at times. I completely lost track of time, where I was, and why. All I knew was that I was with Vic, and I could tell that this was the beginning of a long friendship.
“Oh my goodness, those are my favorite!” I said, pointing to a box of red Barnum’s Animal Crackers. “I could literally eat them all day if I could,” I told Vic.
He didn’t say anything, but he smiled down at me in response and stopped walking. I gave him a curious look; he looked like he was contemplating whether to tell me something or not.
Just as he opened his mouth to say something, I heard Jaime yell, “Mike! Tony! Vic! Dakota! Let’s go!”
Vic and I rolled our eyes at each other and laughed, starting for the front of the store. I began to slide my arm out from his, but his pinkie caught mine just in time so that I couldn’t get away. I blushed and smiled at him, but his head was somewhere else. I wondered what was eating at him.
Audrey’s POV
“Got it!” Jaime shouted, taking the list from Dakota’s hands. Before I knew it, I was being hauled away by Jaime through the store. I couldn’t help but laugh, this guy was great.
We finally slowed down, and Jaime asked, “Where to?”
I replied, “I don’t know, you’re the one with the list!”
“OH! Right,” Jaime said, looking at the now crumpled and slightly torn shopping list. “Well, it says we – I mean you – need eggs, butter, and milk. To the giant refrigerators!” I laughed at this. He was seriously funny, and cute too.
We slowly but surely gathered everything on the list, getting distracted multiple times. Or should I say, Jaime got distracted multiple times. I was the one that had to keep him on track. I’m not saying that that was a bad thing, it was actually really fun.
It was like we were in our own little world, with no rules and nobody to tell us what to do. Jaime and Tony had conversations from across the store a few times, but I didn’t pay much attention to that. I was having way too much fun with Jaime and I didn’t want it to end.
Was I actually falling for him? No, no. I was just imagining things. There was no way that he actually liked me back, anyways. I mean, we just met yesterday for God’s sake.
I finally realized that we had everything that we needed, but were just messing around for the past 15 minutes.
I laughed and said, “Hey Jaime, I think it’s time for us to go.”
Jaime looked down at the shopping cart full to the brim. “Damn! I guess it is. Well, it was fun while it lasted.” He smiled directly at me and looked me in the eye.
My breath caught in my throat and I let out a nervous giggle, but smiled back nonetheless. The world around me seemed to stop for a moment, and all that existed was Jaime and me. He was so damn adorable. His dimples, his cheekbones, his hair, and his smile; all the definition of perfection.
I was snapped out of my phase when I heard Jaime shout, “Mike! Tony! Vic! Dakota! Let’s go!”
I smiled and walked next to him, closer than I was before. Our shoulders were touching, and our hands brushed against each other a time or two.
This day was already fantastic, and I was just in a great mood overall. The day wasn’t even half over yet! I smiled to myself at this thought. More time I might get to spend with Jaime.
We met up with Dakota and the rest of the boys, got checked out, and crammed everything into Jeff. I drove this time, and Jaime sat in the middle.
Once we got back to the apartments, we loaded up the fridge and our cupboards.
“Is that it?” Tony asked.
“Yep, now Audrey and I just have to finish unpacking boxes. We’ve been great at putting that off the last few says,” Dakota said with a laugh, and aiming this remark towards Vic. He flashed her an overly-innocent grin.
“We can help!” Jaime nearly shouted.
“Yeah! You’ll get it done a lot faster,” Vic added in.
“Uhh, okay,” I said with a smile. More time I get to spend with Jaime.
“Um, Tony and I have to go… do things,” Mike said, nudging Tony in the ribs.
I smirked and said okay. I knew they just wanted to go home, and that was totally fine. They walked out of the apartment.
“So what’s first?” Vic questioned.
I pointed to a group of boxes, and we all started unloading. Vic helped carry Dakota’s boxes into her room, and Jaime helped me carry mine. I could hear Dakota and Vic joking around, then a loud thump followed by silence, then laughing. Jaime and I looked at each other and smiled while shaking our heads.
He helped me put my books on my shelves and everything in place on my dresser. I asked him to put some things on the top shelf of my closet, because I couldn’t reach, while I put some clothes into my drawers.
Instead of actually putting my clothes away, I just stared at Jaime. He was very attractive and muscular. I loved the way his hair was crazy and did whatever it wanted to, yet at the same time was neat and well-kept. He caught me off guard by turning around, and found me staring at him. I blushed and looked away, but then back up. Instead of him having a confused, why-were-you-just-creeping-on-me look, he was just smiling back, looking as adorable as ever.
I jumped a little when I heard Dakota clear her throat while standing in my doorway, with Vic immediately behind her. I didn’t even realize that they had been standing there. Did Jaime even notice?
I looked back at Jaime, who was nervously rummaging through things to make it seem like he was doing something instead of smiling at me.
“Well, I can see you two lovebirds are busy, but we just came to tell you that everything else is unpacked and ready to go,” Dakota said, winking at me. I swear I saw Jaime blush, which made me smile. Maybe falling for him wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.
As we thanked Vic and Jaime for helping us, Jaime gave me a tight hug, almost as if he were telling me that he would never let me go. Vic and Dakota hugged too, for a little longer than a hug usually lasts. They would honestly be the cutest thing together.
After they left, Dakota and I were talking about how we already missed them, even though they had just gone.
“I had so much fun today, it was ridiculous,” Dakota said.
“I know right! I literally had the best time today with Jaime,” I replied without thinking.
“What was that last part?” Dakota teased.
“I said that I had the best time today…”
“Don’t even pull that shit with me! You totally like Jaime!” Dakota said, poking me everywhere and laughing.
“I do not!” I denied.
Dakota raised an eyebrow at me, then walking away singing obnoxiously loud, “AUDREY AND JAIME SITTING IN A TREE. K-I - ”
Before she could finish, I ran over and covered her mouth with my hand.
“SHH! They can hear you!”
She licked my hand and I quickly pulled it away, wiping her spit on her own arm.
“Maybe that was the point, genius,” she said, winking at me.
“Oh yeah? Well what about you and Vic huh?”
“What about us?”
“I totally saw you guys holding pinkies in the store, so don’t even deny it.”
“I know we just met, but we’re just really close alright?” Dakota said defensively.
“Alright. I’ll make you a deal. I stop bugging you about Vic if you stop bugging me about Jaime.”
She held out her hand. "It's a deal."