Without A Doubt, You're All I Dream About

:3 :3 :3 :3 :3

COLY'S P.O.V:

"Hey, Jack. What are you doing here?" I ask, standing in Alex's doorway wearing his shirt, thankful it wasn't his parents.

"Nice outfit. You planning on wearing that today?"

"Uh, no. I think I'm a little overdressed, don't you?"

"I'll say!" he laughs.

"So... What are you doing here?" I ask, shoving him, jokingly.

"Alex didn't answer my text. I thought he could give me a ride. Cuz he loves me and stuff,"

"Something tells me that he didn't reply to that text for a reason, you moocher," I say, as we walk into the kitchen.

"Ooh! Breakfast!" Jack exclaims, going to reach for a pancake, but I slap his hand away.

"No! Mine! Anyway, Alex is getting dressed, you can ask him for a ride when he comes back down,"

"We all know he's gonna give me a ride,"

"Well, yeah. But only cuz we kind of need you to be there on time, you know?" I joke.

"Haha, very funny," he says, sneaking a blueberry.

"Jaaaaack?"

"Yeeeees?"

"Can I ask a question?"

"You just did-"

"Shut up. Can I ask a question?"

"If I can have a pancake,"

"Ugh. Fine. Here," I say, practically throwing the plate at him.

"Thanks. So. What's your question?"

"Do you love Lisa?" I ask.

"What?"

"Do you love her?"

"I don't... I don't know,"

"It's not that hard, Jack," I grin at him. He has to!

"Did you love me?"

"What? I... That's different. I'm sorry, Jack - I love you as one of my best friends. But, it's always been Alex. Let's face it. It just has. Always will be," I say, smiling to myself and feeling my cheeks flushing red.

"Do you really feel that way?" I hear from behind me. Alex's voice. My Alex's voice. I turn to face him.

"Yeah. I do. Do you?"

"You know I do," he says, taking a few steps closer to me as I stand up. When we meet in the middle of the room, he wraps his arms around my waist and I wrap mine around his shoulders, standing on my tiptoes and or lips meet. We kiss for a few minutes, until Jack makes puking noises. Alex throws a skittle at him, which Jack catches in his mouth.

"Ooh, strawberry!" he declares, chewing loudly. I turn back to face Jack, with Alex's arm still around my waist.

"Think about what I said, Jacky?" I ask. Alex clears his throat.

"Coly...? I, um... Heard you and Jack talking. I know about him and Lisa," he tells me.

"Fuck," Jack mutters. I look at Alex, concerned. He and Jack don't need to be fighting again.

"It's alright, man. I don't care. Well, I do care. I'm happy for you guys. I just... I wouldn't like to see you fuck her around. Do you love her or not?"

"I don't know..." he says, for what must be the hundredth time. "I can't stop thinking about it. And I just don't know,"

"Jack," Alex starts. "It's simple. You either do, or you don't. If you loved her, you'd know. If you didn't, you'd know. The fact that you can't stop thinking about it, tells me that you probably do,"

"He's right, Jack," I say, grinning again.

"I'll think about it," he says, avoiding our gaze. "Can you guys, like, not talk to Lisa about this?"

"We won't," we both say at the same time.

"Jesus, where are your parents? We're gonna be late," Jack says, changing the subjects.

"We're not gonna be late. You know the Gaskarths. They're never late. Ever," I say. Then, as if waiting for me to say this very line, the door opens and in come the Gaskarths.

"Hey, Mom, Dad!" Alex says, pulling away from me to hug his Mom.

"Hello, dears!" she says, hugging her son, before moving on to Jack and I.

"How long do we have before this meeting, Alexander?" Mr Gaskarth asks and Alex checks his watch.

"Twenty minutes,"

"Well, we had better get a move on then," he replies, herding us all toward the door.

The meeting was a success. Basically, they're happy to sign us and once graduation is over - we can start our (small, but beggars can't be choosers!) tour. Alex and I will be writing the entire time and we're to start recording next month! To celebrate, we manage to talk Mr and Mrs Gaskarth into letting us use their house for a "small, quiet" party. Alex and I are sent shopping, to pick up supplies for what will most likely be the most extravagant party our high school will have ever seen. We all text our other friends, who are at school today (we were allowed to skip first two for the meeting, but we decided to give ourselves the rest of the day off as a Well Done Present) to tell them to invite the entire school. We text Lisa and Kara too, asking them to invite people from their school. We get Zack's brother, Kyle, to buy us all the drinks we could ever need (seriously, it will probably last us well into our fifties). My brother even lends us his huge stereo (which Alex has been eyeing up forever) on the promise that, if it gets broken, I'll buy him a new one. Alex and I buy/rent almost everything in sight in the party supply store - giant inflatable fruit, smoke machines, strobe lights, bubble machines etc. We even spring for sumo wrestler costumes, gasping for air, laughing as we imagine different people from our school wearing them.

"It's not like I need a college fund anymore, right?" Alex jokes as he hands over a credit card, which scares me a little, but I brush it off. We fill his car with our supplies and as we reach his driveway, we see his parents waiting for us by their car. They look over everything we bought, ignoring how much it all cost (thankfully) and getting straight to the point.

"You promise that this won't get out of hand?" Alex's Dad asks.

"I swear, Dad," he says.

"I'm not naïve enough to think that there wont be alcohol, but please be responsible?" his mother adds.

"We will," I tell her.

"Okay. Well. We trust you," they tell us, their eyes boring into our skulls, trying to guilt trip us into putting the condition of their house before our own lives. The Gaskarths are very house-proud.

"Thanks," Alex says once again. We wave them off as they get into their car and drive away. "I think," he starts. "That this, might just be the second best day of my life,"

"Second best?" I ask.

"The first best, had to be the day that I kissed you for the first time," he says sweetly.

"You mean 'The Most Embarrassing Night Of Your Life'?" I ask, laughing. That night, we'd almost gotten caught for underage drinking, so Alex had kissed me after something he'd seen in a movie. It worked. We weren't arrested. But we were banned from the gig we tried to get into... We'd gone down to the docks and drank Jaeger and a bottle of Jack Daniels I'd stolen from my step-Dad. Alex told me then, that that was the most embarrassing thing he'd ever done - the walk of shame past the line of people waiting to get in.

"It was a pretty awesome night," he tells me. "I wrote a song about it,"

"You did?"

"Yeah,"

"When?"

"Months ago... The time that Rian found us on the beach,"

"Oh. Can I see it?"

"Sure, I guess,"

"Hey, Alex?" I ask as we climb the stairs to his room.

"Yeah, Coly?"

"No more secret songs?"

"Deal," he says, kissing me on the cheek and opening his bedroom door for me.