The Trouble-Makers

"Ow," Alex complained, wriggling under my grasp. He was shirtless in my bathroom, sitting on the counter next to the sink. I was currently attempting to clean him up, but he was proving difficult.

"Stop squirming, it will only take longer," I scolded, resting a hand on my hip. I reached forward to dab at one of his bruises with my rag but he caught my hand.

"Maybe if I had some motivation..." he said slyly, his half smile appearing on his face. I was very aware of his bare skin showing and how close we were in this small space, but Alex proved to make things worse by constantly teasing me about things like this.

"Quicker this is done, the quicker we can go back to the guys," I told him, trying to wiggle my hand out of his grasp but he only hung on. Right now, with him sitting down we were almost eye level.

Alex didn't respond, he simply pulled me closer to him now and I couldn't find the urge to fight him. His breath tickled my cheek. "Why did you come for me?"

I bit down on my lip, leaning into him. "How could I not?"

He chuckled lowly at that. "I think you're feeling something for me."

I smiled at that. Of course I did, I would've never kissed him before if I didn't. "And what about you?"

He paused, looking down at my lips. "You tell me," he whispered, pulling me closer and connecting our lips. He locked his arms around my back, pulling me closer and my hands wandered up into his hair.

Alex pulled away, grunting as I leaned too far into him and must have hurt one of his bruises. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry," I gushed.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Don't be," he said quietly, looking down at the ground. "Stella, I, uh," he furrowed his eyebrows, looking back up at me. "I wanted to make this...official."

I looked up at him. "You mean us dating?"

He nodded his head, biting down on his lip.

A smile spread across my face and I nodded my head, taking a hold of one of his hands. "You think I could say no to you?"

Alex released a sigh, as if he were afraid I would've said no, and pulled me back into his arms.

***

After cleaning him up, Alex and I returned to the boys hand-in-hand. Now that we were official, it was okay to hold hands in front of them although I felt extremely awkward doing it. I knew we'd be teased for the first few times, but hopefully the boys would get used to it eventually.

Jaime, of course, was the first to notice it, a smile lighting up on his face. "Oh my, oh my, what do we have here? Public affection? In front of us?" He playfully gasped, and Alex punched his arm lightly for that.

"Someone finally popped the question, eh?" Rian asked, raising an eyebrow at Alex.

"It's about time you guys made it official instead of sneaking around in places where we'd catch you kissing," Jack added, wrinkling his nose.

I blushed at that, hiding in Alex's chest. "Shut up, 'tard," Alex lamely defended, holding my back. As much as this situation was awkward, I knew the boys approved; or at least I hoped they did. Despite the messy scenes I've seen them in, I was grateful to be accepted by them.

"Okay, now being serious here," Mike said, bringing the playful banter to a halt. "What happened today?"

Alex's smile dropped from his face and he walked over to a nearby couch with me. As hard as he tried to make it look like he was fine, there was a slight limp in his walk. "Kellin just knows how to get under my skin," he practically growled, his voice turning cold. "He shot me text saying how he had Stella drunk with him and how he was going to..." he trailed off, looking almost shyly over at me before returning his gaze to the boys. "It threw me off, and of course I couldn't leave it with that. In my mind, I thought he actually had her. So I just kind of rushed over there."

"You should've at least tried calling me first, I would've answered," I said, biting my lip.

Alex shrugged at that, and Jack stepped in now. "Can't blame Alex for this one. When something sets him off, he doesn't really think." Jack paused, looking down. "That kind of goes for all of us. Even Rian if someone really pisses him off."

I widened my eyes, looking over at Rian himself and he just shrugged his shoulders. I couldn't imagine someone as peaceful as him getting into a bloodbath like Jack and Alex did. I even had trouble imagining that for Jaime until a couple of nights ago.

"It's something that can't be helped with us," Jack continued on. "And we have to set some ground rules for you if you want to continue hanging out with us at parties. Because, let's be honest, we get into a lot of fights."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Since when did this change into a discussion about me? I thought we were talking about Alex's problem."

Jack's jaw set, again I could tell I was crossing a line with him: no telling him what to do. I let out a huff, rolling my eyes. "Whatever, continue."

He smirked, but Alex squeezed my hand reassuringly. "As I was saying, you can't just come up to us when we're like that. Any of us, including Alex, would react the way I did."

"So what? I'm supposed to just stand there on the sidelines watching you beat someone bloody?" I nearly exclaimed, the idea of it setting myself off. "I can't do that."

"You saw what Kellin did to Alex; he deserved it," Jack said, walking closer to me as if that would prove his point further.

"Yeah, Kellin's a dick and what he did was wrong but that doesn't mean we should do the same thing," I retorted.

"You're missing the point, princess," Jack growled, throwing his hands up in the air. "We're just finishing what he started. And most of this is for you, because it all started with you."

I sucked in a breath. It never clicked before that this whole fighting situation started with me, because it was true. Alex got beaten up because of me, and Jack punched Kellin the first night I hung out with them because of what Kellin said about me. I felt my eyes start to prick, and I let go of Alex's hand so I could ball up my fists. "You guys go a step further than what's needed to be done," I nearly whispered, but I knew the boys heard it. I stared at the ground, refusing to make eye contact with any of them. "Beating people up is one thing, but you can't just nearly murder each person that pisses you off. If that's what you guys do every time something goes wrong, then I'm not sure I can be a Trouble-Maker."

The room fell quiet, and Alex reached for my hand but I pulled it away. I knew there would be hurt feigning in his eyes but I needed to get this point across some how.

"Stella-"

"No, Alex. From what I've seen this is borderline murder. And God knows what Jaime did to Kenny when he dragged him off," I said, feeling tears form. I still refused to look up because I knew they all didn't know how to react to a crying girl.

The room fell silent once more, and I was tempted to look up to see their faces. We're they pissed off? Confused? Upset? Probably a mixture of the above, but I still couldn't look up. Not like this.

"She's right," Rian said, and I looked up shocked at that. I wasn't sure what I was expecting to hear, but it definitely wasn't someone agreeing with me.

"What?" Jack asked, shaking his head. "I would expect Alex to agree with her because that's his girl now, but you? What are you thinking?"

"Jack, I'm serious. We've only been getting worse as we get older and it's got to stop," Rian said, rubbing his hands together nervously. "I mean, what are we going to do when we get out of high school? They're not just going to keep giving us slaps on the wrist, they're going to throw us in jail."

Apparently Jack wasn't sure what to say to that, because he just stayed quiet.

"I think we should...give it a shot?" Mike stepped in. "I mean, I can't imagine any of us being perfect right away, but heck, if it means keeping the group together and out of jail, whatever."

"You guys are insane," Jack said, throwing his hands into the air. "There's no way we're going to stop."

"Maybe not the first time," Jaime spoke now, and Jack looked over at him shocked. "Trust me, we're still going to get in fights." He chuckled at that. "But we don't have to go the extra steps."

"If it means keeping Stella around, I'm willing to try anything," Alex said, rubbing my back.

Jack cursed under his breath, realizing he had no one left on his side. He stormed out of the room and I heard my back door slam shut.

"I'll go talk to him," Jaime murmured, quickly leaving the room after him.

"Way to go Stella." Mike chuckled, sitting himself down next to me. "You're changing the Trouble-Makers."

Notes