(Not Quite) Prince Charming

“Okay.” Anna muttered to herself, seemingly ignoring the fact that there were two other people in the room. We had invited her over to watch the world premiere of Fan Girl, the independently released movie that heavily featured All Time Low--well, their music, anyway. More precisely, as the title implied, it revolved around a young girl that just so happened to obsess over a band that we were all very familiar with.

Of everyone in the room, Jack was the only one that had already seen the movie. I had the chance to see bits and pieces of the film--or know about a scene here and there when I had visited the set with Jack and the rest of the band. I even made a brief appearance on camera myself when the producer-slash-writer of the movie found out who I was. It was nothing big, mind you. Literally just a three second cameo where I glared at a chick for claiming that she was with someone in the band.

Movie debut aside, I had yet to see the film in its entirety. This was mostly thanks to Midnight’s summer tour since we were in Australia when it had been given a limited release in New York and Los Angeles. As for Anna, the poor girl had finals when it was filming and summer school when they showed the movie in LA, so by the time the October TV premiere rolled around, she was beyond ready to see the movie. To say that Anna was a little excited that her favorite band was being featured in a movie would be the biggest understatement ever. “I’ve got the popcorn, the remote for rewinding-slash-pausing easter eggs, and my phone for live tweeting.” She nodded as she pointed to each item listed before finally taking the plunge and sitting down next to me. “I’m ready to go.”

I raised a brow, having already seen her change her mind and jump right back up three times previously. She tried to come up with reasonable excuses for each delay but having known Anna all her life, I could see through the thinly-veiled white lies she laid before me. You know, like ‘Oops, I made the wrong kind of popcorn. You wanted lightly buttered, right Chris?’ or ‘Wait just one sec, I just thought of a really funny tweet. I should post it before we start.’

I narrowed my eyes at the excitable blonde, ready for her to change her mind for yet another time. “You sure?” I asked carefully, praying to God we could actually roll film. As it was, we were already a good half hour behind the rest of the world, and I was admittedly a bit curious about the film myself.

...who am I kidding. I was a lot curious. But really, who wouldn’t be after spending six years with the same four adorable idiots? All Time Low, for better or worse, had changed my life.
Jack, my favorite idiot, had been quietly smiling to himself at my cousin’s silliness and answered before she could. “Quick! Press play before she changes her mind.”

I smirked, snatching the DVR remote out of my cousins fidgeting hands and pressed the triangle ‘play’ symbol in the center of the electronic device.

As soon as the opening scene began, Anna’s face lit up just as it had the first time she had ever seen the boys in person. You know, as if Jack wasn’t a part of her life and sitting two feet from her. I couldn’t help but laugh at the reverted behavior Anna was displaying. It was like she was sixteen all over again, pumped and ready to see the young boys from Baltimore perform for the first time. I swear, her toothy grin was so wide I was worried her face might get permanently stuck that way. It was the true fan girl in her, I guess. Even after knowing the band for five, almost six years, she would still freak out any time something new in the fandom showed up. It didn’t matter if it was big, like Alex and Lisa getting engaged, or small, like when the boys performed at the MTV fandom awards with that hot dude from Teen Wolf. In Fan Girl’s case, though, it was just a totally goofy teen flick with some decent star power in Meg Ryan and Kiernan Shipka. Good or bad, I guess we’d find out soon enough.

Did it like a cheesy rip off of Mean Girls. Totally. Did it mean that my dear cousin would love it any less? Hell, no.

The guys found it hilarious, welcomed it, even--Anna’s fan-girling, that is. Alex would use this to his advantage, using the resident fan girl to ‘test’ songs out and see if they were any good. Unsurprisingly, she could never actually give any worth while feedback. It usually went along the lines of: “Oh my God, Alex that was the best song ever!” and “That lyric is totally my life.”
Some people never change. That girl, for better or worse, loved every little thing Alex wrote, and that’s saying quite a bit. Don’t get me wrong--of course I loved Alex’s songwriting. But everyone has an off day, you know?

A few lines from Dirty Work immediately come to mind.

Yet Anna, like many girls that worshipped the ground Alex walked on, would deny tooth and nail that anything the lead singer was apart of would be even a little bad. Even if it--be it a stupid rhyme or dumb tweet--sucked balls, I’m sure Anna wouldn’t be able to admit it to herself, let alone to her favorite singer. Which is where I usually came in, having long ago gotten past his ‘celebrity’ and told him what I really thought.

Back in our living room, it was no different. “Oh my God, it’s Jasey Rae!” She squealed, bouncing lightly in her cushioned couch seat as the large bowl of popcorn almost went flying after a total two minutes of safety on her lap. Before the kernels went flying, I grabbed the purple plastic bowl and shoved it into Jack’s arms for safekeeping.

I chuckled at Anna, turning my attention back towards the screen only to place the concert footage and very distinct haircuts a moment later. I nudged Jack lightly with my elbow. “Hey, is that from Straight to DVD?”

He smirked, nodding in confirmation. “Yep.”

“Ooh, look! You guys were so young!” Anna gushed, already in love with the movie and it had barely been on for ten seconds.

Jack’s jaw dropped as he drew offense. “Hey, we’re still young!”

Anna, never one to miss a chance to tease, just rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Whatever you say, old man.”

He simply responded by sticking his tongue out at the twenty-one year old.

So mature.

Then, he turned back to me, a smirk on the edge of his lips. “Brings back old memories, huh?”

I smiled back at him, my stomach fluttering as I watched the younger versions of the band play their hearts out on the television in front of us. “Seems just like yesterday that you introduced me as your girlfriend at that show.” My mind shot back to that night as I recalled how nervous I had been. “I remember thinking you were crazy to include me in the DVD. We’d only been dating what, two months, if that?”

Jack just shrugged and casually wrapped an arm around me to pull me closer. “What can I say? I knew you were it for me.”

I fell into his chest, letting my head fall back as I snuggled shamelessly into his arms. “Kind of hard to believe we’ve made it six years already.”

Anna, who had been trying hard to focus on the movie despite it so far being nothing but a clip from STD, gave a pointed glare in our direction as she cleared her throat in annoyance. “We get it. You two are sickeningly in love. Can we watch the movie now?”

I just rolled my grey eyes dramatically in response as I shut up, letting the movie begin it’s narrative as it introduced it’s main character, Tallulah Farrow. She was the a-typical music loving teen, with band posters galore and an iPod filled to the brim with her favorite songs. I could lie and say that I didn’t do that when I was a teen but...yeah. I totally did that.

“Oh my God, that’s totally me.” Anna muttered, her eyes wide and glued to the television as she blindly patted around for the popcorn. Jack complied a beat later, passing the bowl back over from his lap to mine so Anna could grab the salty snack. “I have that sweatshirt and everything.”

“Yeah, I know.” I smirked, grabbing a kernel of popcorn for myself. “You wore it almost everyday freshman year.”

Anna’s lips split into a wide smile as she shrugged. “Hey, it was a damn comfortable sweatshirt, thank you very much. Speaking of which, you should tell Alex to start making clothes again.” She briefly glanced over at Jack as she added. “You too, Jack.”

I stiffened a laugh. “Like the world needs more ‘Boner’ shirts.”

Jack mocked offense. “Hey, those were big sellers!”

“Yeah, because your fans are just as weird as you.” I shot back with a smirk.

Anna roughly cleared her throat. “Um, I take offense to that. Also--” Her pointer finger shot back towards the screen, where Tallulah was now explaining the different types of people found at her school. You know, the preps, jocks (which in this case were lacrosse players? Odd.) and the out of place leftovers just trying to fit in.

“Okay, I’ll be quiet...” I sighed, shutting my mouth for a second time that evening.

We watched as Tallulah tried to come up with a plot for her movie trailer. We watched in amusement as we were introduced to the more amusing characters like Hashtag (a typical skater-type) and Darvan (just an all-around sassy charmer). I have to admit, my attention did waver a bit during the first half of the movie, having been removed from high school life for over half a decade--and really, if you’ve seen one high school movie, you’ve pretty much seen them all. There’s the preppy bitch (check), the jock (check. Or in Fangirl’s case, just an all-around hot guy. Not sure if he was actually a Jock), the nerd (the ‘new-slash-old’ transfer student who glows for whatever reason), the outcast (Tallulah), and the rebel (Darvan).

Sound familiar? If it doesn’t I think a movie-cation is in order because it comes from the best high school movie ever, The Breakfast Club. Actually, it could even be the best movie ever, period. I must’ve watched it at least fifty times and could probably recite it line by line without batting an eye.

...but I won’t because that’s not weird at all.

Um. Moving on.

“HEY!” Anna’s voice jumped up several octaves as her hand shot back towards the screen, jaw dropped in disbelief. “They totally stole how you and Jack met!”

I frowned to myself, not really getting that vibe as on screen Alex bumped into Tallulah and commented that she had a quote, “sweet name.”

“I don’t know, Anna...” I scrunched up my nose. “Just because they used the coffeeshop as a meet-point doesn’t mean they stole how we met. It’s been done like a million times in movies.”

“And if you want to get technical, we met at the concert, not at Starbucks.” Jack added.

Anna thought for second, eying the movie scene playing for a few moments more before admitting, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. He’s already left and he didn’t give her his number like some weirdo I know.” Her eyes shot towards Jack and she gave her light brows a few quick wags.

“Are you regretting that I did?” Jack shot back, knowing that my cousin wouldn’t change how things had turned out for anything.

“Never.” Anna. “Without you, I never would’ve met Gerard Way. Or Patrick Stump.”

He just smirked proudly. “Your welcome.”

The movie continued and, after a disastrous spray tan Ross Gellar would be proud of, two-near animal fatalities, and a semi-realistic version of an ATL concert, the movie had finally come to a close.

“Wow...” I managed to get out as the credits began to roll and the commercials immediately started to preview whatever was next. “That was...wow.” I glanced over at Anna, whose smile had only widened since starting the damn film. Remember when I said she was really a fangirl? So do I really have to say that she liked it? Of course she did.

“That was awesome!” She squealed, gushing at Jack as if he was the sole creator himself. “I love it so much...oh! I have to tweet about it!”

Sure enough, a second later my phone let out a soft ‘bing’ to indicate a new tweet on my feed.

@annaxoxo If you’re even a little bit of an ATL fan, do yourself a favor and watch Fangirl.

@annaxoxo Great job, as always on ur cameo @AlexAllTimeLow! Really loved the movie!

A moment later, Alex responded to her tweet. Despite currently being in Baltimore himself, I had a feeling he was still high on adrenaline over the projects release.

@AlexAllTimeLow @annaxoxo Thanks! It was such a cool thing to be a part of. Really different for us :)

I held myself back from tweeting right away, letting my thoughts on their artistic adventure stew. Never one to lie, I really was torn on how I felt about the movie. It wasn’t terrible--far from it. In terms of independent movies, it was probably better than most. Though, I couldn’t say I had seen a lot of independent movies to gage that properly. True, there were a lot of plot holes, random things that didn’t make sense and storylines that fizzled. BUT in the end, I was really proud of my boys. Whether I thought it was good or not, it didn’t matter. This was a world premiere movie, broadcasted to any household that had ABC Family. True, this was still pretty much just the US, but it didn’t really matter. If the movie sparked the interest of one future Hustler, it was worth it.

“So...” Jack asked, his voice laced with curiosity as I got up to put our now-empty popcorn bowl in the sink. He didn’t miss a beat, only a step apart as he followed me into the next room to let Anna simmer down a bit. “What’d you think?”

“It was good.” I smiled as I set the plastic bowl down on the white porcelain sink. “Kinda wacky at times, but I was expecting that.”

Jack’s thick brows shot up as he took a step closer to me, now mere inches apart. “Come on. It would’ve totally worked as a serious drama.”

“As if.” I rolled my eyes, allowing his arms to snake around my waist in a comfortable touch. “If it’s anything involving you guys, it has to be at least a little funny. It should try to be, anyway. Succeeding is another story.”

Jack’s jaw dropped as he let out a gasp, following my slap at the band’s crude sense of humor. “You don’t think we’re funny?”

“Sometimes I think you guys say the funniest things.” I replied honestly, recalling a time or two when someone in the band had made me choke I was laughing so hard. “Other times I wonder how the hell I ended up with a guy that still makes dick jokes.”

“Because they’re hilarious.” Jack shrugged, not looking the least bit offended. “Admit it, you love it.”

“I love you. Is that close enough?”

He pretended to think deeply for a moment before reluctantly giving an answer. “Oh, okay...I guess that’ll do...”

I rolled my eyes before pressing my lips against him, partly as a way to shut him up, but it didn’t take long to turn into something more. The kiss was full of the fire and spark I always felt when I kissed him. One might’ve thought after being with the same guy for six years, it might’ve faded some, but if anything the fire deep within only grew stronger.

We parted a moment later, slightly out of breath. I pressed my now slightly-chapped lips a few times before adding as an afterthought, “...though I have to say, if I have one complaint about the movie, it’s that the band wasn’t given enough screen time.”

Jack bit his lip slightly as the corner of his mouth drew up in a sexy smirk. “You missed seeing my devilishly handsome face, huh?”

I fought a smile in vein as I shot back. “You wish. I was talking about Rian and Zack, you ass.” I paused for a moment to add in tease, “Probably could’ve used less of you, actually.”

Jack thew his hands to his heart, miming a hit to the heart. “Ooh! Low blow, Sally!”

I shrugged, ignoring his usual dramatics and explaining, “I’m just saying for the sake of the network and their sponsors. You can’t tell me that if they’d filmed you for more than five seconds, you wouldnt’ve flipped off the camera, or put a bra on your head, or taken off your shirt and blind everyone with your pasty-white skin?”

“I’d probably do all three.”

“You have done all three.” I corrected, frowning slightly as I added as an afterthought. “Pretty much every show, actually.”

A sigh escaped his lips. “I guess you have a point. I’m not exactly ‘Disney’ friendly.”

“No, you’re no Prince Charming.” I agreed with a firm nod. “But what would be the fun in that?”

He just smiled.

Notes

A slight detour from the main storyline, but I actually had a lot of fun writing something slightly AU. Who knows, I might do some more in the future. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed!