red hot | grayson dolan

fourteen

GRAYSON

"Dude, what is wrong with your twin?" I hear Austin say from the kitchen. It sounds like he's cracking open another beer.

"He's clearly depressed. I've never seen him like this, though. It's weird." Ethan replies.

"Is he even breathing? He's had his eyes shut for awhile now. Should we poke him or something?" Austin whispers to my brother.

"What is poking him going to do?" Landon chimes in.

"I don't know, maybe it'll wake him up." Austin suggests.

"You better poke him hard, then." Ethan states.

"I can fucking hear you guys." I finally say from my position on the couch. My eyes remain closed as my thoughts run wild. I've been a mess all day, and they clearly took notice in it.

"Ah, so he is alive. Thank god." Landon's voice gets closer to me.

"I was starting to think we lost you, man." Austin chuckles.

"What, I'm not allowed to take naps?" I give in and open my eyes, seeing the three of them standing around the couch.

"You've been lying here all day, though. Are you okay?" Ethan sincerely asks.

"No, I'm not okay. I can't stop thinking about her." I tell them for the millionth time.

"Oh come on dude, snap out of it. There will be other girls." Austin shakes his head while taking a sip from the beer in his hand.

"Dude, shut up. You're not helping." Landon scoffs at him.

"There will never be another girl like Avery. Trust me, she was a rare one." I debunk his statement and slowly sit up.

"We know, man. She was really sweet." Landon looks back at me and sighs.

"She was too good for me, anyway. I should have known I would screw it up."

"You didn't do anything bad in my eyes." Austin adds more commentary. "Girlfriends are hard to maintain when you're in a band. The groupies are our weakness."

"Or maybe you're just a dick and don't know what the word loyalty means." Landon sends him a jab, proving his manwhore behavior to be correct.

"Woah, what's with the shots, man? I'm trying to give Gray some honest advice." Austin throws his hands up in defense.

"We saw how happy Avery made you. Even for a short amount of time, she brought out the best in you." Ethan shocks me by saying.

"I'm a complete asshole for embarrassing her like that." I shake my head in disgust. The incident keeps replaying in my mind. I should have been honest with those girls and told them I liked Avery, but I panicked.

"Instead of dwelling on it, maybe we should take your mind off of things. Let's run Angels and Demons again." Ethan picks up his drumstick and twirls it around his fingers.

"I just wish I could get her to listen to me. I want to make things right." I run a hand through my hair and reach for the pack of cigarettes on the table in front of me.

"Have you tried calling her?" Landon asks.

"I don't want her parents to pick up." I light the cigarette and blow out a puff of smoke.

"Damn, sometimes I forget parents exist." Austin shakes his head.

"Why don't we take a ride over to Inglewood?" Ethan suggests.

I let out a sigh and shake my head. "I can't go to her house, her parents would-" I stop my sentence from continuing and think back to our first date a few weeks ago. I picked her up at Lily's house instead of her own. "Wait, I have an idea."