Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

Weightless

"I'm a real big fan of yours, but I'm quite the joke to you..." I sang out, a large smile on my face as I put the finishing touches on my makeup. My first actual show started in twenty minutes. I was going to go sing with just my guitar and ukulele to back me up in front of hundreds of people, most of which had absolutely no clue who I was. But I did know that I had at least a few fans in the audience. The supportive tweets I had received had been out of this world, and a lot of them had mentioned how they couldn't wait to see me live.

A knock on the door startled me out of my thoughts, but before I could say anything, Jack opened the door to the dressing room I had on the venue and plopped himself onto the couch there.

I raised my eyebrows. "You know, the point of knocking is to wait for the person to acknowledge you before you enter." I informed him, crossing my arms. He shrugged, his usual grin on his face. "I could have been naked!" I exclaimed, indignant.

Jack just wagged his eyebrows. "All the more reason for me to just walk in without waiting for you to say anything," he flirted, his eyes roaming across my body hungrily.

I rolled my eyes, but on the inside, my heart fluttered uncontrollably. Even though he flirted with me 24/7, I still wasn't convinced that he wasn't just screwing around with me for fun. It was true, what the internet said, that Jack was too sweet to be a womanizer.

But at the same time, he was known to be a bit of a heart breaker. I always thought it was sort of the fault of the woman who claimed had their heart broken because they got their hopes up when they shouldn't have, and here I was, confirming my own theory.

If I flirted back, if I showed even an inkling of the feelings (oh, they were there, alright) I was beginning to have for him, it would only end up hurting me. I simply couldn't let that happen. So I brushed off his advances, and pretended like they didn't get to me.

"Whatever, Barakat. Why are you here, anyways? Shouldn't you be with the rest of the guys?" I said, changing the subject.

He pouted. "There's nothing wrong with me for wanting to see my favorite Lily-flower."

"Do you give cheesy nicknames to every girl you flirt with?"

"Only the ones that I know it will work on," Jack responded cheekily, throwing me a wink. It was times like these that reminded me that I needed to snap out of these feelings and get back to reality.

"Well, stop. Because it's not working, and it's not ever gonna work." I informed him (liar!), turning around and facing the mirror I was using before he walked in. My attire for my first concert was simple: shredded, light jean shorts and a grey Glamour Kills tank top which was almost completely opened on the sides, and a bright pink bandeau for a pop of color. I didn't really like bandeau’s normally, but I literally couldn't have worn a bra with this shirt. I already tried.

"It'll work," he responded confidently, "One day, I will have my Lily."

I groaned internally. Did he have to say all of this now? Fifteen minutes before my first concert? "Why are you here?" I asked again.

Jack shrugged, taking my question more seriously than he did the first time. "I wanted to wish you luck before the show."

My eyes softened and I turned to face him again. He had crossed his legs and sat Indian-style on the couch the venue had provided and was smiling softly at me. I paused, feeling my heart thumping loudly. This wasn't the flirty and teasing (and somewhat handsy) Jack Barakat I had come to know. This was a cute, kind, puppy-like Jack Barakat. One that took things semi-seriously and took other people's feelings into account. 

I shook my head, snapping myself out of these thoughts. I couldn't do this, especially not with Jack. I felt a sharp pang in my chest as I looked at his smile again.

"Thanks, Jack." I said before I could say anything I would regret later.

His smile faltered a little. "Are you okay?"

No, no, no, don't stop smiling...

I managed to smile a little bit. "Fine. I guess I'm just a little more nervous than I thought."

Jack's smile came back as he stood up and made his way towards me in long, even strides, enveloping me in his arms before I could say or do anything about it. This time, I didn't just stand there awkwardly. I took full advantage of the situation I was in, and hugged him back tightly, burying my face into his chest. He laughed lightly, the sound reverberating into me, making me shiver.

"It's perfectly okay to be afraid, Lily-flower. I was damn near terrified when we played our first big show. Everybody gets like that. Hell, I still do." He murmured, placing his lips at the top of my head at the end of his statement.

I looked up, surprised. "You do?"

His deep brown eyes seemed to be locked onto me. "Yeah," he said softly, tucking a stray lock of my red hair behind my ear, making me flush, "I don't think I'll ever not feel nervous before a show. Honestly, if you're not feeling nervous, you're not doing something right."

I smiled up at him, hugging him tighter. "Thank you, Jack."

"No problem, Lily. Now, I think it's time for you to go and kick some ass." He teased, shooting me a wink as he stopped hugging me and gently pushed me to the door.

I grinned back at him, turning around and heading towards the door before I stopped dead in my tracks, an idea forming in my mind.

Don't do it, Lily. Don't fucking do it. You're going to regret it, Lily Sparrow, don't you do it...

I mentally gave my subconscious the middle finger and whirled around, walking back to a confused looking Jack. Without a moment's warning, I stood on my tip toes (I'm really short, at least compared to Jack the literal mother fucking giant), placed my hands on his shoulders and pressed my lips to his cheek. I lowered myself and looked anywhere but Jack, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. 

"For luck," I explained, nodding to myself, trying to give my own brain a reason as to why the hell I just did that. 

Before Jack could say anything, Matt Flyzik busted into the room, holding my ukulele and looking panicked.

"Jesus, Sparrow, you're on in two fucking minutes!"

My eyes widened as I took my instrument from Matt and was about to make a mad dash to the stage when Jack's voice stopped me.

 "I'll be watching, Lils. Good luck." His voice didn't sound as smooth as it usually did, in fact it sounded choked up and a little off-guard. I smiled to myself.

Did I do that?

I turned around and flashed him a grin as Matt grabbed my arm impatiently and dragged me away.

Huuuuge shout out to alltimelowfanfiction.tumblr.com for boosting this fic for me. I went from eleven reads to sixty six in about a day and a half. Holy crap.

Anyways, thanks for reading. On the side is the song Lily was singing in the beginning, YourBiggestFan by NeverShoutNever. In case you were wondering, a lot of the songs Lily will be singing will be from NSN, so if you want to hear what I imagine her songs to be, give it a look. I'll be posting songs with each chapter now.

If you could drop a comment, just telling me what you liked or what you didn't, that would be great. No pressure, but I would really enjoy it.

Thanks for everything.

-Abbi