-ONE MONTH LATER-

Jack POV

“I’ll be back before you know it,” I whispered in Jade’s ear as I hugged her tightly.

I’d been counting down the days to get back on the road for the past month, because every day that passes by and I’m not up on that stage in front of thousands of screaming fans just feels like a waste to me.

But for the first time in what seems like forever, I’m actually going to miss someone while I’m gone. And when I kissed her goodbye, I realised that it was going to be hard without her; she is the one that has been keeping me strong enough to keep going the last few weeks. I’ve been doing so much better. Without her, I may be weaker and more vulnerable.

“I’ll miss you, babe,” she murmured sadly with her face buried in my shoulder.

All of a sudden, I felt a hand tap me on the other shoulder and I finally broke away from the embrace to find Alex standing behind me, carrying about seven bags of luggage in his hand. I immediately wondered how the fuck he managed to tap my shoulder without hitting me over the head with a bag.

“Ready?” He asked impatiently, raising his eyebrows.

I love how he rushes me when I’m saying goodbye to Jade, yet when he was saying goodbye to Lisa, anyone would have thought it was the last time he was ever going to see her by the way he was smothering her with hugs and kisses.

Not that I’m jealous... Of course not.

I'm getting over you. (If I say it like I mean it, then maybe I'll believe it like it's true.)

“Yeah,” I nodded, then I turned back to Jade and said, “Well, I'll see you in a few weeks.” This time I managed to refrain from throwing my arms around her again purely because I knew that Alex was about to collapse under the weight of a ridiculous amount of luggage any second now.

I waved goodbye and Alex nodded at her, then we started making our way towards the check-in counter of the airport. We turned a corner, leaving Jade behind.

“Got enough bags?” I asked casually in an amused tone of voice, glancing sideways and cocking an eyebrow at Alex as we walked.

He looked down at the bags in his hands as if realising for the first time he was carrying them.

“Wait, yeah… Why the fuck am I carrying everyone’s stuff?” He suddenly wondered aloud, stopping dead in his tracks. “Here,” he said flatly, shoving two of my own bags in my hand, which I had asked him to hold while I said goodbye to Jade.

“You look pretty mental, like you’re just walking round stealing people’s suitcases and stuff,” I informed him nonchalantly.

“Well, y'know. That’s what I do when I’m bored. Don’t judge me,” he shrugged light-heartedly, suddenly dropping the guys’ bags in a pile on the ground.

I looked at him with frown on my face, before smirking and shaking my head at him.

I dumped my own two bags carelessly onto the pile, too lazy to hold them even for a minute while we waited for the guys to get back from the toilets.

For a moment, it felt exactly like old times with Alex. I loved how we were joking and talking the way we used to.

‘This is the way it needs to stay,’ I told myself firmly. ‘Just friends… Nothing more.’ I’m better off without you.

He opened his mouth like he was about to say something else, but then something seemed to catch his eye in the distance behind me and he suddenly exclaimed “Finally!” so loudly that everyone within a one mile radius probably heard. A lot of heads turned in our direction and I pulled my hat lower instinctively, trying to hide.

Way to draw attention to two vulnerable rockstars standing by themselves in the middle of an airport...

I frowned deeply at him again before glancing over my shoulder to see what the fuck he was even shouting about.

I was met with the sight of Rian and Zack making their way towards us. I was beginning to think they had set up camp in the toilet cubicles or something, seeing as they had been gone for what seemed like hours… But still, I wasn’t quite as thrilled to see them as Alex seemed to be. (I managed to refrain from screaming at them, at least.)

When they finally appeared at our side, Alex was quick to sarcastically remark; “That’s alright, take your time.”

Man, why is he so impatient today?

“Rian got lost,” Zack informed us flatly, rolling his eyes.

…Why am I not surprised?

My eyebrows shot upwards and I exchanged a glance sideways with Alex. Our expressions remained composed for about two seconds before we both smirked at the same time.

“I did not get lost! I was just… looking around,” Rian insisted quickly, folding his arms like a sulking child.

“Sure you were, Rian, at least you’re not as bad as Alex” I nodded patronisingly, the smirk still playing on my lips.

Alex needs a bit of looking after, we all know it. You can’t take your eyes off of him for one second because it’s almost guaranteed he will do something dumbass. Once, I actually caught him going into a shower with a heater… Dear God.

“Right, well, we better go and check in now, you know, before Rian gets lost again,” Alex declared, ignoring my teasing joke.

I continued to smirk to myself at Rian’s expense as I bent down to pick up my bags from the floor, preparing to move again. By the time I returned to full height, Alex was already in the distance, walking off in the direction of the check-in counter.

"Jesus, how long was I down there?" I asked in surprise.

"About 0.5 seconds," Rian replied insightfully, even though I wasn't really looking for an answer. I was just referring to how Alex clearly had a rocket shoved up his ass.

We all sighed and started to drag our feet and our luggage after Alex, complaining about airports like the bunch of grumpy, old men that we are.

***

We landed in England at 7pm after a flight that seemed to go on for fucking days. Leaving the airport and all its joys behind, we headed straight for the hotel where we would be staying for the next few nights in London.

It was 8:30pm when we finally arrived at the Hilton hotel. Alex and I proceeded straight to the reception desk to check-in, and the others proceeded straight to the comfy-looking sofas in the lobby to chill out. They were all drawn to the seats, like moths to flames… Or just like the lazy fuckers they are. I was clearly still instinctively drawn to Alex, because my feet had just automatically taken me with him.

“Good evening and welcome to the Hilton Hotel,” the receptionist greeted us warmly in a posh British accent.

“Hi, we have a reservation under the name Flyzik,” Alex informed the lady politely.

I remained silent, deciding to let Alex do the talking. He has better social skills than me. And I’m too tired to function properly right now anyway.

As the woman searched her computer forMatt’s name and our reservation, I distractedly gazed around the grand entrance of the hotel in awe; I had never seen ceilings so high and marble floors so polished in my life. It was ridiculous. Anyone could have fooled me that we were staying in the Queen of England’s house.

“Ah yes, Mr. Matthew Flyzik… Two double rooms,” the receptionist lady confirmed, reading off the computer screen.

This statement snapped me out of my thoughts of wonder and I turned to look at Alex questioningly. He returned the confused expression.

“Two rooms?” He repeated, questioning me as if I knew what was going on.

I shrugged.

How the hell should I know why we only have two rooms for six guys?

We slowly turned back to look at the receptionist in bewilderment, but the desk was suddenly empty; it was like she had vanished into thin air. But presumably, she had just gone to go and get our room keys, because she returned shortly carrying two keys in her hand.

“Well, here-“

“I think there’s been some kind of mistake,” Alex cut her off as politely as he could. “See, there are Six of us, not two… Could you check the reservation again please?”

“Oh right,” the woman’s face fell slightly and she suddenly looked as puzzled as us. “I’ll just see.”

She sat back down at her desk and stared closely at her computer screen for a moment, clicking her mouse and tapping keys quickly, before eventually stopping and looking back at us.

“I only have two double rooms under the name of Flyzik.”

“Oh. Okay, uh… Can we pay for three more rooms now then, please?” Alex sighed, reaching into his back pocket to pull out his wallet.

“I’m sorry,” the woman started, causing Alex’s hand to freeze. “We have no other vacancies.”

Well. How fucking inconvenient.

“Oh,” Alex responded blankly. “Shit.”

He turned to face me again, raising his eyebrows at me, like he was expecting me to have a brainwave and think of a plan B. I stared back blankly.

I think it’s pretty clear what we have to do now…

“We’ll have to share,” I shrugged. “I mean, they’re double rooms, so, at least four of us will have a bed... Unlucky for the fifth and sixth person though."

“Okay, you can tell Rian he’s gotta sleep in the bathtub then,” Alex replied without hesitation.

The funny thing was, he sounded deadly serious.

“There are pull-out sofa-beds in the rooms,” the receptionist interjected informatively, bringing our attention back to her.

"Well, that’s better than nothing… But still, I can see a bed war taking place tonight," I smirked.

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” she added apologetically, stretching out her hand with the two room keys across the desk for us to take.

“Oh, it’s alright,” Alex replied with a shrug, accepting the keys graciously. “We’ve slept in a lot worse places!”

That’s true…

As soon as our backs were turned and we started walking away from the desk, Alex sighed loudly in frustration.

“Oh, what the hell, Matt?” He demanded suddenly, turning to me so fast it actually made me jump.

“My name’s Jack,” I corrected him, deliberately not taking the situation seriously. I found it rather funny, actually.

“Why do you think he only booked us two rooms at this hotel? Usually we get our own rooms!” Alex frowned, completely ignoring my smart-ass comment.

“Well, maybe he did book us five rooms but for some reason it didn’t register on the computer,” I suggested reasonably, giving our manager the benefit of the doubt.

Alex shrugged and continued to mutter under his breath, like a spoilt child who wasn’t allowed what he wanted.

Out of nowhere, Rian, Zack and Robbie appeared right behind us and we all managed to squeeze into one lift, which was surprising with all our luggage.

“So… Who wants to share rooms?” Alex suddenly spoke, looking round at us all enquiringly as the lift was shooting up to the third floor.

Everyone unhelpfully shrugged and mumbled that they didn’t mind.

Am I the only one who has a preference here?!

I decided to be brutally honest, because we weren’t going to sort anything out if no one was assertive.

“Well, I don’t particularly want to share with you two because you’re the loudest fucking snorers in the world and I’m the lightest sleeper,” I told Zack and Robbie bluntly. “And I defiantly don’t want to share with Matt or Vinny, where ever they are.”

Robbie snorted.

“Believe me, Jack, you can’t be that much of a light sleeper if you don’t even wake yourself up with the fucking full-on conversations you have with yourself in your sleep,” he retorted cynically.

…Since when do I have ‘full-on’ conversations’ with myself in my sleep?!

“What are you talking about?” I frowned, cocking an eyebrow curiously.

“You talk in your sleep, man,” he explained candidly, sounding annoyed.

Holy shit, I never knew that!

“W-what the fuck? What do I say?” I demanded with wide eyes, trying not to freak out.

My dreams and subconscious thoughts are not for anyone else’s ears… Especially since most of them are about Alex. You're always on my mind.

“Oh, it’s something different every night… Just random shit that doesn’t make any sense,” Robbie waved his hand dismissively.

“That’s true. Okay, yeah, I am cool with not sharing a room with you,” Zack suddenly commented, agreeing with a shrug.

“Me too,” Rian suddenly joined in.

I didn’t know whether to be offended or secretly happy that they didn’t want to share a room with me, because it meant it was more likely I would be left with Alex… Is that a good idea?

“Wait, uh... Rian, you should stay with Alex and Jack,” Zack suddenly piped up as if he had just stepped into my head and heard what I was thinking.

I couldn’t help but glare at him.

“Why?” Rian frowned, clearly a bit slow on the uptake.

“Because… uh… you know…” Zack struggled to find a reason that wasn’t ‘because Alex and Jack can’t be trusted by themselves.’

“Me and Zack don’t like you,” Robbie finished Zack’s sentence bluntly. “Sorry.”

For some reason, an awkward silence followed Robbie’s remark. I turned to look at Rian and realised that he looked deeply offended.

“Well, fuck you then,” he retorted in disbelief, still not getting the real reason why he needed to be in our room, even though it was blatantly obvious.

I had to smirk at his reaction.

“You're such a dumbass, Rian,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes at him. “They want you to stay in the same room as me and Alex because they don’t think it’s a good idea to leave us alone together, alright?”

What’s the point in making up excuses when the reason is obvious, to everyone except Rian?

“Oh,” he slowly responded, rubbing his neck awkwardly. “Yeah, that makes sense...”

No, it doesn’t! When did Zack and Robbie become my parents? Seriously, they’re acting like Alex is my boyfriend or something and we’re just a pair of irresponsible kids who cannot be trusted to be left alone. What the fuck do they think we’re going to do? We CAN control ourselves. Jeeesus.

Alex was stood directly opposite me and I could feel his eyes burning into me. I dragged my eyes from Rian’s face to lock with his and he immediately refocused his gaze to the floor. I could feel the awkwardness creeping back into the atmosphere.

Thanks a lot, guys…

His silence made me wonder whether he thought the others were right and that if we were left alone just the two of us, we could be in danger of losing control.

Personally, I thought they were wrong. I’m fairly confident that I have the strength not to succumb to temptation where Alex is concerned anymore. I mean, yes, I still have feelings for him. There’s no point in denying that. But I’m with Jade now… I’m in a different place emotionally; I’m a stronger person. I've been doing so much better.

The doors to the lift suddenly opened and we all filed out into the narrow corridor in search of our two rooms. Room 220 was officially mine, Alex’s and Rian’s, and Zack and Robbie were next door to us in 221.

I walked into our room behind Alex and Rian. I was the last one inside, but the first one to comment on the lack of furniture.

“Oh, brilliant… There’s one bed,” I observed in a bored tone of voice, dropping my bags on the floor abruptly.

I always thought there was two single beds in a double room, not one big double bed… Obviously I need to re-evaluate my life.

“SHOTGUN!” Alex suddenly screamed loudly, nearly deafening me.

…Do you MIND?

I snapped my head in his direction, glaring at him in bewilderment as he ran towards the bed.

What he had said didn’t really register in my brain because of the sheer volume that he had said it, but Rian was quick to spring to life just in front of me.

“No! That’s not fair!” He complained, hurrying after him, who was now lying spread out on his back on the double bed in a rather inviting position... But I refused to feel invited. I turned my attention to the leather sofa in the corner of the room to distract myself.

“Who said anything about fair?” Alex scoffed. “I saw the bed and I called it first… Therefore, it’s mine.”

I arched an eyebrow and looked back at Alex just in time to see him stick his tongue out at Rian.

Oh, real mature…

“No! It’s not!” Rian objected strongly, shaking his head vigorously in disagreement as he stood at the end of the bed with his arms crossed.

I remained standing in the doorway, watching Alex and Rian bickering like a pair of five year-olds. All I could think was, ‘I cannot believe I’m stuck in a room with these two for the next three days. I may be driven to take my own life.’

I rolled my eyes at both at them and took a few steps towards them.

“Jack, tell Alex the bed is not his,” Rian suddenly whined, turning to look at me pleadingly.

Kill me. Kill me now.

“Seriously, learn what calling shotgun means, Rian!” Alex exclaimed, slowly pulling himself up into a sitting position on the bed.

“Oh fine, then I shotgun the toilet… It’s mine and you can’t use it now,” Rian snapped.

“That’s not how it works!”

“Oh, shut up, that’s exactly what you just did!” Rian exploded suddenly. He was so irritated I almost expected him to start dragging Alex off the bed at any second.

“How about you both shut up? We've been in here two minutes and you kids are already driving me crazy!” I interjected before Alex even had a chance to open his mouth and respond with a lame comeback.

So, apparently, I have taken on the role of the mother here.

Alex and Rian snapped their heads in my direction, as if only just remembering I was standing there.

“Rian, I hope you realise you sound like a five year-old. And Alex, you can’t just call shotgun on the bed… We need to work out a fair way of deciding who sleeps in it.”

“Well… How do we decide who gets the bed then?” Alex asked, staring at me with a blank expression.

It’s as if decision-making does not exist in his world without ‘shotgun’. He’s clearly forgetting the wondrous magic of ‘rock, paper, scissors’...

“Well, two of us are gonna have to share the bed, and the other one has gotta sleep on that sofa,” I jerked my head towards the corner of the room.

Rian and Alex automatically glanced in the direction I nodded and noticed the old, small sofa for the first time.

“I’d rather sleep in the bathtub than on that thing,” Alex commented bluntly, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

It’s not THAT bad, Mr Snob. I guess it is a bit small, but hey, so is he, and I like him...

In fact, it would actually make sense for the smallest one to sleep on the sofa... So, why am I not prepared to give up my chance to share the bed with Alex?

“Well, I’d rather sleep on that thing than share a bed with either one of you,” Rian spoke flatly, putting his hand on his hip. “Alex kicks in his sleep, and Jack, you always jerk awake so suddenly and scare the living shit out of me.”

I don’t do that ALL the time… Only when I have dreams about Alex killing me or Rian kissing me.

“Well, okay then… That was easy. I had a whole speech prepared and everything,” I muttered, mentally erasing my new plan to persuade Rian to sleep on the sofa by mentioning the fact that Alex might have a wet dream in the same bed as him.

“So, Rian, you’re sleeping on the sofa, Alex, you’re in the bath, and I’m in the bed!” I concluded triumphantly, smirking to myself.

“Whoa, no, not so fast,” Alex protested quickly, waving his arms around dramatically to draw our attention to him sitting cross-legged in the centre of the bed. “I didn’t say I’d rather sleep in the bathtub than in the bed… This is fucking comfortable!”

Yeah, it does look comfortable… Too comfortable... Me and Alex in the same bed will be too fucking close for my comfort zone. Yet I still find the situation rather endearing. I think it’s what I want.

“Okay... Well, I guess we’re sharing,” I shrugged hesitantly.

My eyes locked with Alex’s for a second before I shiftily averted them to look at Rian instead. I furrowed my eyebrows when I found that he had a weird expression on his face, looking from me to Alex with a deep frown.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” He questioned, clearly in disapproval. “I mean, won’t it be a little weird for the two of you to share a bed? Like, after everything that’s happened between you…” He continued to ramble awkwardly, despite the look on my face and in my eye, begging him to just not even go there.

Stop talking… Stop talking now!

The truth is, yes, it will be weird sleeping in the same bed with Alex. But I don’t want our friendship to be affected by our forbidden feelings for eachother and I really don’t want things to become uncomfortable between us again. This sort of thing never used to be an issue and it shouldn’t be now. Even if it takes forever, I’ll get my shit together…

Alex suddenly let out a loud, extensive sigh and I rolled my eyes at Rian, because it was his fault the atmosphere was suddenly so tense, for not being able to keep his thoughts in his head. I’m sure we were all secretly thinking the same thoughts, but we would have been better off ignoring them.

“It’s fine, Rian. Me and Jack sorted things out,” Alex suddenly said, sounding fed up. “Any inappropriate feelings we had for eachother are in the past now.”

Really? Tell that to my heart.

“Yeah… We’ve moved on,” I agreed half-heartedly, lying smoothly with a forced shrug.

I could feel Alex’s eyes burning into me, but I avoided his piercing gaze, choosing to stare at Rian with unblinking eyes. He just narrowed his eyes at me.

Oh, fuck off, Rian. Don’t look at me with those knowing eyes!

“Yeah… Anyway… I’m gonna go have a shower,” I announced, swiftly changing the subject and ending the conversation that was rapidly becoming awkward.

“Right… Yeah, uh, time for bed,” Alex yawned, falling back onto his pillow and stretching out into a lying position on top of the covers.

I wandered into the bathroom absent-mindedly, distracted by the thoughts of Alex that were now circling in my mind.

Is he really over me already? Or is he actually still addicted and in danger of being controlled by urges towards me? I kinda have a bad feeling about this whole situation, yet I want it to happen… I’m sure I can control myself, but can he?

Notes

Stupid small filler, there are dishes in the sink and i REALLY don't wan to do them. i also just want to sleep but i'm not sleepy. Sum41 is awesome and i love them..
Dont forget to Rate, comment, and SUBSCRIBE!


song: The Click Five