"Can I get you guys anything to drink to start?" Dash flipped her over-sized sunglasses on top of her head as she and Alex slipped into a booth at a restaurant down the street from the house. After ten more minutes of constant bitching and nagging, she had finally gotten Alex out of bed and dragged him to breakfast.

"A cup of coffee, please," Alex told the blonde waitress, his voice still thick with sleep. "And a glass of water as well, if you don't mind."

"I'll have a glass of water as well," Dash said, "and you know what, I think I'll have a mimosa."

"Coming right up," the middle aged woman said, smiling and leaving the pair with their menus.

"A mimosa?" Alex scoffed. "You're a trooper, McCafferty."

Dash shrugged. "Nothing cures a hangover like another taste of the snake that bit ya," she told him. "And the mimosas here are the absolute best."

Alex smirked at her before turning his attention to his menu. "I've never been here before," he told her, "what's good?"

"Everything," the brunette across from him immediately replied. "When I spent the summer here with Baz and Chuck a few years ago, Chuck would take me for breakfast almost every morning. It came to the point where the waitresses knew our full order every morning. So we decided to switch it up. We'd come in, each of us would order something we'd never had before and then we'd share our meals."

"So what you're saying is, you've actually tried everything on the menu?" Alex said, a tone of disbelief in his voice.

Dash nodded and laughed. "When you say it like that, it sounds so dumb. But Chuck and I had such a great time that summer, and our menu exploring only added to it."

"It's not dumb," Alex was quick to tell her. "Actually, my ex-girlfriend and I did a similar thing, only it was with this Thai take-out place in Baltimore. We told ourselves that we'd order at least one different item every time that we ate there. That lasted about a month." Alex let out a soft chuckle and rolled his eyes. "We were never that good at sticking to our plans."

Dash was about to question his statement when Their waitress arrived at that moment, laying two glasses of water on the table followed by Alex's coffee and her own mimosa. "Now, are you two ready to order?"

"I know I am," Dash said, grinning, "I'm absolutely starved."

Alex and the waitress laughed at Dash, who turned to the woman and said, "could I please have the Sunshine breakfast? With whole wheat toast?"

"Absolutely," said the woman, nodding, "Scrambled eggs okay?"

Dash nodded her reply. "Do you think I could also poutine my hashbrowns?" Alex looked at her with his brows furrowed.

"Poutine your hashbrowns?" His voice was full of confusion on longing. "What is this sorcery?"

Dash laughed at the boy sitting across from her. "You have to try it," she told him, "this place is famous for it's hashbrowns."

"It's true," the waitress said, "it's on our sign and everything."

"Well then, if there's signage involved, I simply must try this concoction!" Alex placed his order and was quick to make the request that his hashbrowns be smothered in gravy and cheese curds. As the waitress walked away with their order, he turned to the tiny girl sitting across from him. "You are just introducing all kinds of interesting things in my life, Miss McCafferty."

"I'm just full of great ideas and fun things to try," she said with a wicked grin on her face.

Alex cocked an eyebrow at the girl. "Oh really?"

Dash shot him a quick wink. "I'm just full of surprises, Gaskarth."

She earned a chuckle in reply. Alex took a long drink of his coffee before setting it down in front of him and looking across the table at Dash. "I'm slowly learning that." He hesitated slightly before saying, "like that whole Singer thing. I didn't take you as that type of girl."

Dash was immediately on the defensive after hearing Alex's statement. "What's that supposed to mean? That type of girl. What exactly is that type of girl, Alex?"

Alex instantly regretted commenting on Dash's actions from the night before. "Nothing," he quickly interjected. "All I meant was since you'd been in a relationship for so long, I made the assumption you weren't one to sleep with a guy then ditch him in the morning." Alex smiled softly at the girl sitting across from him. "Singer is going to be so confused when he wakes up."

Smirking slightly, Dash shrugged. "Poor fucker," was all she murmured. Pulling her braid over her shoulder with one hand and swishing her mimosa in the other, Dash stared at Alex curiously. "Tell me something about yourself."

"Like what?"

Dash shrugged. "You seem to know a lot more about me: with Sam and my ridiculous love of all things breakfast; tell me something about you. What's something about Alex Gaskarth that I don't know?"

He let out a deep sigh. "Um, okay. Let me think."

Dash drained the last of her mimosa, laying it on the table in front of her. As Alex thought about what to share, she let her mind drift back to the night before. She was able to recall most of the night. However, she was left in the dark concerning the events leading up to her waking up to find Singer in her bed.

"Oh! I've got something." Alex pulled her attention back to him. "Okay, so I really like dogs."

She waited a moment for Alex to continue, however it quickly became apparent to her that he made his great revelation. "Is that it? You like dogs?" She let out a low chuckle. "Such a deep, dark secret, Gaskarth."

Alex lifted his hands in defense. "What? It's true."

"I don't deny that it's true, but that's not exactly what I meant. I can find that out about you by searching you on the Internet." Dash pulled her phone out of her pocket and passed it to Alex, showing him the background. "That's Max. And Beans is the little Pomeranian."

"They're adorable!" Alex immediately cooed. "How long have you had them?"

"Max was a graduation gift from Baz. He was supposed to be a guard dog, to protect me when I moved into the city, but he failed in the security department. The big lug is terrified of his own shadow." Dash couldn't help but smile as Alex passed the phone back to her. "So me and Sam went to the animal shelter to attempt to find an actual guard dog, and we ended up with Beans. He's almost seven now."

"I have a rescue dog too," Alex said, showing her a picture of himself with two dogs sitting next to him. "That's Peyton. And Sebastian is the little guy." He leaned back in his booth, smiling down at his phone. "My ex takes care of them while I'm gone. I miss them like crazy."

"So you've got a joint custody thing going on there?"

Alex shrugged. "Something like that. They know her. She was around when I got both of them, so they're comfortable with her."

"How long had you been with her?" Dash asked.

"Who: Lisa?" Dash nodded in reply. "Almost six years. On and off since high school."

"That's a long time."

"Sometimes I think it was too long."

"What makes you say that?" Dash questioned, taking a sip of her water.

"I just think we kept going back to each other because we were familiar with each other. Lisa knew how to adjust to this lifestyle so it always seemed easier to just go back to her than put in the effort to find someone else who could handle it."

"That makes sense," she agreed. At that moment, their waitress returned, plates in arm.

"Here you are," she said with a smile on her face. "Is there anything else I can get you guys? Some more coffee maybe?"

Alex nodded and smiled in return. "Please." She topped up his mug and left the two alone.

"This was the best idea I've ever had," Dash moaned as she took a bite of French toast. She gestured to the mound of potato covered in gravy and cheese. "Try it," she told him, "you won't be sorry." He scrutinized his meal before taking a small piece of hashbrown and popping it in his mouth. Immediately, his eyes lit up. "I told you," Dash said, chuckling.

"This is heavenly."

Dash nodded in agreement. "Again: I told you."

Conversation was put on the back burner as Alex and Dash devoured their meals; neither of them had realized just how hungry they were until the food had arrived in front of them. As they chewed contently, Dash let her mind wander to the boy that she hoped was no longer back at the Simple Plan house. She had been so stupid to hook up with Singer. Baz was sure to find out and Dash was sure that he would not be happy with her. She ignored the urge to groan at the thought of the lecture she was sure to get from the guys when she went back to the house. She would get a bigger earful if Baz were to tell Kane. Or God forbid, Spencer.

"Hey, Alex," she said suddenly. The shaggy haired boy looked up at her, a string of cheese hanging from his chin. Dash fought the urge to laugh and said quickly, "let's get day drunk."

"It's eleven in the morning."

She shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's almost five o'clock in Newfoundland. If not, il est cinq heures quelque part."

Alex was silent for a moment as he mulled over this proposal. He chewed on a sausage thoughtfully before swallowing and nodding. "Okay. I like your attitude, McCafferty. Let's finish up here, head back to the house to shower and change, then we'll hit up a bar. I know just the place."

Dash smiled across the table at Alex. "Sounds perfect," she said, glad to push off the inevitable conversation about sleeping with strangers that she was bound to be subjected to by her cousin.

×××


"Alex," Dash said brightly, turning to the boy sitting next to her at the bar. She nursed her fourth pint in her hand and smiled. "Do you think that we met for a reason?"

He pulled his eyebrows together as he mulled over her question. Dash was far more intoxicated than himself; she had been drinking him under the table all afternoon. "How do you mean?" he finally asked.

The small girl shrugged, taking a small sip of her beer and playing with the orange that rested on the rim of her glass. "Ezra told me once that he thought every person he met in his lifetime had some sort of significant effect on his life, either for the better or for the worse, even though he may not have known it at the time." She paused, turning her suddenly intense gaze onto him. "I've been thinking a lot about that lately and I think Ezra is right. I was just wondering if you knew what the reason was for us meeting."

"To make great music?" Alex guessed, smiling. Dash was certainly one of a kind. "Or maybe to help ourselves get out our writing funks?"

"Maybe," was all he received in reply. "Or maybe ten years from now we'll be able to look back on this conversation and then we'll have all the answers." Dash drained the last of her beer and shot Alex a wink. "Or maybe not. I'll be right back: bathroom break."

Alex shook his head as Dash scooted off the bar stool that was too tall for her and left him alone at the bar. His phone vibrated in his pocket and not for the first time that day, Alex chose to ignore it. Pierre and Chuck had been texting him all day, demanding to know what Dash had said about her sleepover with Singer; Jack had been nagging him about spending some time together since his best friend would be heading back to Baltimore at the end of the week; Lisa had even starting talking to him again: Sebastian had killed an innocent rabbit in Lisa's backyard that weekend. His phone moved once again in his pocket and this time, Alex pulled it out to find Jack calling him.

"What's up, dude?"

"Alex." Jack's voice was monotone. "Go check Singer's twitter. He's tweeting about our girl."

Alex rolled his eyes. "She's not our girl, Jack." He paused and glanced over his shoulder to see if Dash was on her way back. Seeing that the coast was clear, he asked, "what's he saying?"

"Just get on and see. Sebastién is not going to be happy."

"Thanks man," Alex replied, "Don't say anything to him. I'll check it out."

"No problem. Let's get food tonight," Jack added. "I've missed you."

"You're so weird. I'll be back in an hour or so."

"Bye buddy," Jack replied. Alex could practically hear his friend grinning on the line. "Love you."

"Love you too, asshole."

Alex hung up the phone while shaking his head. His best friend was an absolute weirdo sometimes. Then again, Alex reasoned, he himself had a weird streak as well. He opened the Twitter application on his phone and immediately search for Singer's page. He skimmed the most recent tweets, knowing that Dash would not be impressed once she saw what the vocalist was tweeting about her, no matter how discrete Singer had tried to make it.

@alexanderdeleon i wonder: could it be? that when your clothes fall to your feet, you could be an animal like me?

@alexanderdeleon Back at the hotel with the boys. Best night I've had in a long time.

@alexanderdeleon i want it bad girl.

@alexanderdeleon It's true that no one does it like the French.

"Dash is going to lose her mind," Alex murmured, furious at the other Alex for tweeting about her like that. If any of the guys back at the house were to see them, they would know instantly what Dash and Singer had been up to that night. Alex was sure that Dash did not want her cousin knowing anything about her sexual escapades, especially with someone that would be touring with him in the winter. At that moment, Dash appeared at his shoulder. "Miss me?" she asked, grinning devilishly and hopping back up on her bar stool.

"No," Alex replied, smiling back at her. "Come here. Let's selfie it out. I want to instagram this. Prove to people that I have friends."

"They're all going to think that you paid me to comply."

Alex shrugged. "Probably. But that's how it goes sometimes."

She laughed, leaning over to get closer to Alex as he held up his phone to take a picture. She smiled at the camera and the moment that Alex pressed the shutter button, Dash stuck out her tongue. "You ruined it!" Alex complained.

Dash shook her head, laughing. "No, I didn't. It's perfect. Post it and tag me."

@AlexAllTimeLow Round two: gettin' good and day drunk with my favourite French girl.

@adashofhope @AlexAllTimeLow... he paid me to take that picture.

@AlexAllTimeLow @adashofhope fuck you, frenchie.

@JackAllTimeLow @AlexAllTimeLow @adashofhope Get a room you two.

@alexanderdeleon game on.

Notes

you locked the door behind you
when you walked into the room
& your eyes have got me thinking
that maybe there's a different side of you.

alex and jack are not happy that deleon is tweeting about their girl. oh snap. this was somewhat of a filler. though i did want to introduce some sort of tension between the two alex's.

thanks to Beautifulbreakdown and Luciferrr for commenting on the last chapter.

i've been doing a nice bit of writing at work, since things are really slow right now. so please, leave a comment and i'll try to get the next chapter up asap. things are slow i know (in the story), but it absolutely vexes me when people hop right into the romance aspect of a story like this. it does not happen like that very often.

xo