Ash’s POV
I was sat in the living room, open books surrounding me, pens all over the table, and a notebook in my lap. It was that time of the year again: teachers were cramming lessons full of information, all the students were stressed out and sleep deprived, and the dread of real life was starting to hit all of us. Finals week was coming. It was the worst time of my life, even more stressful than that one time I lost my soft bunny toy when I was five years old and ran through the entire house hoping to find it somewhere. I really had taken Christmas break for granted. Never would I have ever thought that I would yearn for that time so soon afterwards again. It had only been two months since I had seen my family, but I was missing them more than before.

I had been trying to go through all the courses again, going for those A’s. Although I was already accepted to the university I wanted to go to, I still wasn’t going to risk being rejected because my grades weren’t what they expected. There was no way I would forgive myself if I messed up just because of one B. Everything had to go perfectly. It didn’t really help that the teenage boy who I lived with didn’t give one fuck about his grades. All he did was flick through the pages, only looking at the pictures. It really got on my nerves. But then again, he was very busy with his music. They wrote the songs, practised the songs, recorded them, practised again, changed things, until finally settling on something they liked. A demo was finally made.

And that’s exactly why I was studying all alone once again. No, they actually weren’t at Rian’s, they were at a meeting. You know, one of those official things where people actually discussed things together. It wasn’t one of their meetings with pizza and coke, which eventually led to them talking about girls. This was official. Record deal official. Somebody actually wanted to listen to their demo and think about signing them. All they had to do was read through the contract and sign it. I just hoped they wouldn’t do anything stupid, like forgetting to read all the small print or getting too excited and throwing their lives away.

However, it wasn’t my job to lecture them. The boys had had many talks with their parents. Trust me when I say it wasn’t very pretty. The first time Alex suggested it to his parents, it ended with shouting, him running up to his room and locking himself in, disappointed parents, and me being put in the middle of it. Alex wanted me to be on his side, while his parents tried to get me to agree that he was being unreasonable. I just said that I thought Alex had to make his own decisions, but that I knew where his parents were coming from. This then resulted in Alex getting mad at me as well and giving me the silent treatment for longer than I thought possible (four days, it only ending one day when his parents were both out and I was leaving the shower in just my underwear). They eventually compromised. Alex had to graduate, but then he could go out and pursue his dream. Something similar happened to the others, except I wasn’t such a big part those times except for the fact that I made Alex’s parents think about it, eventually getting all parents to agree.

It was also the reason why I was in the living room rather than in my own room. I wanted to see Alex reaction as soon as he came back home. From where I was sitting on the floor, I could see the front door clearly. I needed to see if he was happy or upset; if I needed to jump around or console him. I was probably even more nervous than they were, to be honest. They had been wanting this for so long, I just thought they deserved it. Sure, it would mean that thay’d go on tour for long periods of time, but it wasn’t like I would see Alex more often if he also went to college. Either way, we’d both be busy and in other places, whether it be in the country or somewhere else in the world.

Somehow it only made the dread worse. I say ‘somehow’, but it’s probably very obvious. I didn’t know what was going to happen after we graduated. Well, I knew that I was going to move out and go to college and Alex would start recording a full length album and start touring. I knew that pretty well. But what would happen between us? Would we go for that long distance relationship and only see each other a couple of days a year? Or would we just break up before it all got too much? I honestly didn’t want to think about breaking up. I mean, why would I? Our relationship was perfect at that moment. We both loved each other, we’re completely comfortable around each other, and there was nothing or nobody threatening our trust. It was what I always wanted from a relationship. I felt like nothing could go wrong.

I was chewing on my pen, trying to concentrate on the textbook I had in front of me. I couldn’t even tell what I was studying anymore. All I wanted was to see Alex and have him tell me everything about it. I completely forgot to tell him to text me as soon as they found out, and knowing him he would keep it to himself until he actually got home.

But then I heard the key being put in the lock, and the door opening. My eyes immediately snapped towards the sound, seeing a figure through the opaque window. I sat upright, waiting to see who it was, my heart racing, ready to run up and give a hug. I just hoped it wasn’t Isobel coming back home from getting groceries. When more than one person stepped inside, I knew immediately that it was Alex.

I kept staring at the hallway, waiting for them to turn around and look back at me. Nerves were actually rushing through my body, even though there was nothing for me to be nervous about. And when Alex finally made eye contact with me, I could feel my heart skip a beat as I held my breath. However, Alex’s small smirky smile gave it all away.

I let out a small shriek and threw everything on the floor before getting up and rushing towards him. I didn’t leave him any time to prepare for the impact of me jumping onto him for a hug, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his torso. He managed to make sure that we didn’t topple, however, and put his arms under my butt to keep me up.

“I knew you could do it!” I whispered, a smile reaching my eyes, as my face was just a couple of inches away from his. I closed to small space left over, letting our lips meet. I really was proud of him. My boyfriend, at only 18 years old, and his three best friends got a record deal.

“PDA!” Jack groaned as he pushed past us, nobody else behind him anymore, meaning that only he came along with Alex.

“Shut up,” I rolled my eyes and resumed kissing Alex, making him squeeze my ass lightly.

“No, really, if you’re going to do this, do it somewhere else, preferably in a bedroom with a condom.” Jack continued whining.

“He’s just jealous that he doesn’t have anybody to celebrate with,” Alex laughed, teasing his best friend at the same time. I guess Alex already warned Jack that something like this was going to happen if he came along.

“I’m over her.” He raised his hands up in defence as if that were supposed to change the entire situation.

“Over who?” Alex questioned, putting me back down on the floor, his arms still loosely around my waist.

I looked at Alex weirdly. How could he forget about Jack’s crush? I mean, it was a pretty big deal for some time. “Don’t you know?”

“Don’t know what?” He pulled me just a bit closer. Oh god. He probably thought Jack was talking about me. Being afraid that Jack would swoop me away, he thought that Jack might have been jealous of what Alex and I were doing because I was involved.

“I thought you knew…” Jack gasped quietly in disbelief, squinting his eyes as if he was missing something.

“Jack’s crush on Lianne,” I clarified before Alex could over think it any more. I did not need this happy occasion being ruined by somebody misunderstanding something and lashing out on the other.

“Lianne?” Alex let go of me completely, causing me to retract my arms as well, and turned to Jack fully. “Why Lianne?”

“I mean, you had a crush on Ash. Why couldn’t I have a crush on Lianne? I’m not going to list everything, ‘cause I literally just got over the whole thing. But, yeah, why not? She’s cool.” Jack explained. I could tell he still had some feelings for her, but was trying his best to forget about it all, that she was never going to like him back that way. It must have been horrible, but it was good that he knew being hung up on her wasn’t going to do him any good.

“Ok, fair.”

“Guys, let’s celebrate your record deal,” I suggested instead and started pulling them towards the kitchen, “We can keep talking about past and present crushes, but that won’t do us any good. I have a crush on Matt Damon, but he’s too old for me, so what’s the point?”

“Hey!” Alex pouted.

“Matt Damon is a pretty good crush to have.” Jack winked, agreeing with me.

I pulled out a bottle of soda, deciding it was a better idea not to have Isobel walk in on us going through their alcohol and drinking it. I was sure they didn’t mind us having some while they were there as well with their permission. This was a pretty big event, changing their lives forever.

Notes

Just a little filler chapter. I decided to extend to story by one chapter again. There's so many ideas I have, but I've had to only pick the best ones.