What's My Age Again?

My mom came home Sunday morning without suspecting a thing. Thankfully she didn't send May to check on me last night because I'm sure May would have told her I snuck out this time. My mom came into my room and woke me up. She told me that she bought McDonald's breakfast home for me. I quickly got up and went downstairs to eat.

I sat at the table with her and immediately started eating it. My mom rarely bought it home because she didn't like to wake me this early and I always woke up too late to go get it myself. I wonder why she got it for me today.

"I'm sorry for not letting you go with your friends last night, Jacky." She apologized. "I just get so worried that something bad might happen if you stay out too late. That's probably because I work at a hospital and have seen some of the worse things that can happen. But that doesn't mean I should stop you from having a life." She sighed. "So I'm going to try to stop this bad habit."

I was starting to feel bad. My mom probably saw teenagers come in to the hospital late at night because of horrific things. She was just worried that it could be me one night.

"It's okay Mom. I understand now." I told her. I knew how to be careful when I went out places. That's why Kellin and I always used Über when we know we're going to be drinking.

"Okay. I'll try to be more lenient when you ask to go somewhere." She said.

"Well actually my friend, Lynn, got tickets to the Orioles game for tomorrow and I probably won't be home until eleven. Is it okay if I go with her to it?" I asked.

"Yeah but only because I wouldn't let you go with them last night. Your curfew will still be ten for the rest of the school week." She warned and I nodded. I didn't care about the other days as long as I could stay out with Alex tomorrow.

"I know. Thank you, Mom." I said and she kissed me on the forehead.

"You're welcome."

***

~The Next Day~

Kellin came home with me after school today. He was going to help me get ready for my date with Alex. Well he was going to yell at me about what to wear. Alex said he was coming to get me at six so we now had two hours. My mom was home so we careful not to say Alex's name just in case she walked by my room and overheard us talking.

"It's not that cold out so I think I'll be fine in a short sleeve shirt." I told Kellin as he dug through my closet.

"Yeah I'm thinking you should wear this black V neck and some jeans. I wish you had an Orioles shirt that would be better." He said.

"Yeah but I'm not a big baseball fan. I have a million Ravens T-shirts."

"I know I can see." He chuckled.

"You're not going anywhere with you know who?" I asked.

"No we're kind of not speaking right now." He said.

"How? You guys seemed fine Saturday night."

"Yeah but we got into an argument last night."

"Over what?"

"Basically his touring schedule. When he told me it, for next year, of course I didn't sound too happy about it but he accused me of catching an attitude. So we went back and forth before I hung up on him." He sighed.

"Not talking isn't going to solve the problem, Kellin." I nagged.

"I know. I'm going to call him tonight, I was just annoyed yesterday. I hate when I'm clearly not angry and someone accuses me of being angry. That itself will make me mad." He ranted.

"Well call him and calmly explain that you weren't mad, you were just upset that you two will be apart for so long." I said and he nodded.

That conversation made me think about Alex and how he was probably going to have to start touring soon with the guys. I remember saying something like he was happy to have the rest of the year off so he wasn't going anywhere for the next two months.

"Do you know when All Time Low will start touring again?" I asked.

"I’m not sure, I think they were talking of doing the Spring Fever Tour with Pierce. I don’t know if they were serious or not." He told me.

"But he's going to be gone for like months." I whined.

"Welcome to my world." He sighed and sat down next to me.

We moped around the rest of the time, feeling sorry for ourselves. I finally finished getting ready and Kellin had to leave so he could go talk to Vic. Alex texted me that he would be here to pick me up in fifteen minutes.

"Put your happy face on. At least enjoy the time you get to spend with him now." Kellin said and I nodded.

"Yeah I will. Maybe I’ll let him get to second base today." I joked, but Kellin didn’t laugh. He looked worried with what I just said. Actually he did seem very careful when speaking to me today.

“Maybe you should take it slow for a little while longer.” He told me.

“Uh yeah.” I made a mental note to ask him about it later since I didn’t have time to do it now.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow and you can tell me all about it." He said.

"Okay."

I followed him downstairs since Alex was almost here. My mom was in the living room watching the end of her soap opera.

"Are you boys leaving now?" She asked us.

"No just me. I'm not going with them." Kellin answered.

"Aw why not?"

"Lynn's dad only bought her two tickets and I literally hate baseball so Jack was her only option." He lied.

"Oh um did you two have any interesting conversations while you were upstairs?" She asked Kellin. I had no idea what she was talking about, but Kellin did.

"No ma'am." He answered and she nodded.

"Okay well be safe. We'll see you later."

"Okay, bye." He waved to us and walked out the door.

I looked at my mom about to ask what was that about, but she changed the subject. It was probably something about Kellin's mom anyways.

"Are you about to leave?" She asked me.

"Yeah Lynn should be here any minute."

"Okay. I'm going to get in the shower so just tell me when you're going." She said and walked into her room.

Alex was running ten minutes late. I was beginning to worry because he didn't text me about it. I thought about texting him to make sure he was alright, but I didn't want it to seem like I was rushing him. The doorbell rang minutes later. I went to the door and opened it to see Alex standing there. I gave him a smile while I prayed that my mom was still in the shower.

"Hey sorry I'm late. The traffic is crazy because of the game." He said as we hugged.

"Oh don't worry about it. Um let me just tell my mom that I'm leaving. I would let you meet her this time, but she's in the shower." I gulped and he nodded. I went back to my mom's room and thankfully still heard the shower going.

"I'm leaving, Mom!" I yelled to her over the water.

"Okay, bye and be careful!" She yelled back.

"I will!"

I walked back to the living room and saw Alex looking at one of my baby pictures. He turned and smiled at me when he noticed I was back.

"You had the cutest and fattest cheeks." He laughed.

"Oh my God! Can you not look at those?!" I exclaimed and my cheeks heated up. I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the house.

"Don't be embarrassed, you're still so cute." He said and stopped to kiss me.

"You're so annoying." I blushed. We held hands as we walked to the passenger side. He opened the door for me like always and I thanked him. He got in on his side and drove in the direction of the stadium.

The stadium wasn't terribly far from my house, but like Alex said the traffic was horrible so it made the drive longer. Alex had really bad road rage so that kept me entertained most of the drive there. He pulled into the stadium at six forty-five. We reached our seats right at seven and the seats were really good. Like we weren't at home plate or anything, but we weren't in the back of the stadium.

"These seats are amazing!" I told him as we sat down.

"Yeah they're getting kind of cheap since the Orioles aren't doing so well. It's a win-lose situation." He laughed.

"There's always next season."

"Well yeah but that's a year from now." He sighed. He was so into this and I couldn't care less about baseball. It was sooo boring, but I was happy he bought me with him to watch something he enjoyed.

"It'll be okay." I said. "But speaking of next year, do you know exactly when you guys will start touring again?" I asked.

"Um I think we're going to do the Spring Fever tour with Pierce and two other bands. I'm not sure who the other two are yet. Why?"

"Well it's just weird knowing that we're gonna have to go months without seeing each other." I mumbled. I didn't want to sound clingy. I probably shouldn't have brought it up at all.

"Oh yeah I guess I didn't really think about that." He sighed. "You kind of took my mind off of the band. But I think we should see how the rest of my break goes and maybe, if you’re up for it, try a long distance relationship."

"Really?" I asked happily.

"Yeah! I like you a lot, Jack." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I like you a lot too." I giggled and he kissed me.

"Good."

***

The game was close to ending, but Alex insisted that we left now to beat the traffic. The Orioles were losing so other people were leaving too. It was just nine thirty so I had an hour and a half to spend with Alex. I thought baseball games usually lasted longer.

"Are you hungry?" Alex asked as we walked back to his car. I did feel a feel something in my stomach, but I couldn't tell it was because I was hungry or because I was spending so much time with him.

"Yeah I can eat." I answered.

"What are you in the mood for?"

"Umm Taco Bell?" I answered and he chuckled.

"You are not hard to please." He joked.

"No. Our first date could have been at McDonald's and I still would have had a great time with you." I laughed and he playfully rolled his eyes.

"And yet you are super skinny."

"So are you!" I exclaimed.

"Well I'm skinny because I barely eat while we're touring. Watch, over the holidays I'm going to gain like sixty pounds." He said as he opened the car door for me.

"I'll believe it when I see it."

He drove us to a Taco Bell further away so we wouldn't have to deal with drunk fans coming in after the game. I didn't want to look fat in front of him so I ordered a little bit less than I normally did. We put our orders under one ticket and I wanted to pay for it since he spent so much on me already.

"That'll be fifteen eighty-three." The cashier told us. I pulled out my wallet about to hand him my debt card, but Alex quickly stopped me.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he handed the cashier his credit card.

"I was going to pay for it. You've already spent so much on me." I told him.

"Yeah but I do it because I want to. You don't owe me anything." He said and grabbed his card back.

"I know. I just wanted to do something for you for once." I told him.

"You agreed to come with me to the game, that's something." He smiled at me.

"That doesn't count." I chuckled.

"I think it does."

I left to go get us a seat instead of playfully fighting back with him. Alex waited for our order and then came to sit at the table with our tray of food. We divided our food and began eating. I told Alex on the drive here that I wanted to be home by eleven for school in the morning and he agreed to take me. Lying about my whole life didn't seem so hard. I couldn't imagine Alex ever finding out about my real age unless I told him and I didn't know when I would ever do that.

"So there's something I've been waiting to ask you for a while, but I don't want to make things weird." He said randomly. I had no idea where he was going with this.

"Um go ahead and ask." I said nervously.

"Okay so remember when you told me that you never dated anyone before?" He asked and I nodded.

"Does that mean you've never..." His voice trailed off and I looked at him confused. What did that mean? Never liked someone before him? Never kissed a guy? Never had sex? Wait yeah he was probably talking about sex.

"Oh uh yeah of course I have." I lied and he nodded. This was probably a bad lie to tell, but I couldn't stop myself. "Um why?" I asked nervously.

"Oh I was honestly just curious, that wasn't meant to rush anything." He covered my hand on the table with his and rubbed his thumb across my fingers.

Even though he said he was just curious I still felt guilty for not doing anything before. He was older so of course he wanted to have sex with the person he was kind of dating. I felt like I needed to stop worrying and sleep with him some time soon. I didn't want him to get bored of our relationship thing and find someone who was quickly willing to have sex with him.

"Okay." I smiled at him.

After we finished eating we still had about forty minutes to kill before I needed to be home. As we walked to the car a girl stopped and stared at Alex. She covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming. I tapped Alex's arm to get his attention because he didn't even notice that she was staring him down.

"Oh my gosh!" She gasped.

"Hi!" Alex said politely and waved at her. Thank God we weren't holding hands or she might have suspected we were dating instead of friends.

"Do you know who you are?" She whispered on the verge of tears. "Oh my God I'm going to cry!"

"Please don't cry over me." He told her and that pushed her tears over the edge.

"Can I take a picture with you??" She asked as she wiped at her eyes.

"Yeah of course.” He said.

"I can take it for you two." I volunteered and she handed me her phone. The poor girl was shaking as she stood near Alex. I took a few pictures and handed her back her phone.

"It was nice meeting you, but I have to go now." Alex told her and she nodded.

"I love you so much!" She exclaimed as we walked away.

"I love you too!" He said back to her. I was surprised that she didn't pass out.

I opened the door for myself just in case the fan was still there.

"Sorry about that." He apologized.

"It's okay. I didn't mind." I said. "How often does that happen?"

"Um maybe once or twice a month when I'm out. I'm used to it now."

"Did you even notice when she stopped to stare at you?" I asked chuckling.

"No I don't think I can tell anymore. I enjoy it sometimes, but if I'm busy doing something it becomes a little annoying." He said.

"I don't think I could do it. I hate attention from strangers, it creeps me out." I said and he laughed.

"Like I said, you get used to it after a while. But enough about that, what do you want to do with the remainder of our time? Do you want dessert, or I can take you home if you're ready, or-"

"Or we can make out." I suggest and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah or that." He smiled. He unbuckled his seatbelt and moved to the backseat of his two door car waiting on me to do the same. I struggled and finally made me way to backseat with him. His windows were tinted so nobody would see us.

He placed his hand on the right side of my face and pulled me closer to him so our lips connected. I could have easily let him have his way with me right now, but I didn't have the courage to do it. I already felt myself getting worked up. Maybe I could start out with something smaller like blowing him. I'm pretty sure I remembered most of everything Kellin taught me.

He pulled me on top of him and I straddled his hips. I rested my hand on his thigh and slowly slid it up his leg as we made out. I placed my hand on the button of his pants and he pulled away.

"Stop you don't have to." He said and grabbed my hand.

"I know, but I want to." I told him and he shook his head, he thought I was talking about sex.

"Look as much as I would really really really like to do this right now with you. I don't think our first time should be in the back of a car." He said and sat up. I nodded and turned to the front so he wouldn't see how embarrassed I was. I guess he could tell by the way I was holding myself.

"How about I take you home. We uh had a long night." He suggested and I nodded not able to speak to him.

I followed him as he climbed back to the front of the car. He started the car and drove in the direction of my house. We were silent the entire drive, nothing but the sound of the radio playing. I sighed when he pulled into my driveway. I didn't know how I was supposed to leave without making things more awkward.

"Um thanks for taking me to the game and everything." I mumbled. I pulled on the door handle trying to quickly get out, but he stopped me.

"Jack wait. Things don't have to be weird between us. I really was tempted to let you undress me and everything, but I really care about you and you deserve better than a quicky in my back seat. I didn't mean to seem rude." He said apologetically.

"No it wasn't your fault. It was mine for trying to rush things. I'm sorry." I told him.

"It's okay. I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of me either." He joked and I laughed.

"Shut up."

"I'll see you later?" He asked.

"Yeah of course."

We kissed goodnight for a few minutes. When we finally pulled away I grabbed my phone and began getting out of the car. While I was stepping out I felt Alex's hand slap me on the ass. I smiled and turned to see him wink at me. I playfully rolled my eyes at him and we told each other bye again. My heart melted and my cheeks were still bright red as I walked into my house.

Notes