What's My Age Again?

It felt like someone was stabbing me in the head when I woke up. I don't remember getting home or getting in bed. Kellin was asleep next to me in my bed. The only reason I woke up was because I heard my mom come in from work. She was coming to check on me so I tried my best not to look like I was hungover.

"Jacky?" My mom whispered as she cracked my door.

"Hi mom." I yawned.

"Hey, are you and Kellin hungry?" She was used to either Kellin spending the night or me spending the night at his house so we wouldn't be at have to stay home alone.

"Nah I'm not really hungry and Kellin is pretty much dead to the world. You should go rest you look tired." I said.

"Yeah I'm going to lay down for a few hours. Come get me up if you need anything."

"Okay."

I laid back down checking my phone to see if I had any notifications. The only ones I had were for Facebook and Twitter, no new text messages.

The last thing I remember doing last night was talking to Alex and getting more alcohol from Vic. Everything else was blurry. I don't remember getting home, getting into my pajamas, or into bed but I know we took another über here because the receipt was on my nightstand.

I decided to be creepy and Google Alex. I wanted to see if he was really that attractive or if the alcohol made him look that way.

The pictures I saw of him online showed that he was really good looking. I found lots of All Time Low fan blogs and Alex Gaskarth pages that gave me too much information about him. I only looked at the basics like his age, height, and birthday. According to it he was a lot older and taller than me.

Kellin began to fidget meaning he was finally waking up. "I'm dying." He mumbled into the pillow.

"Me too. This is all your fault." I blamed him.

"I didn't force four cups of that drink to your mouth." He chuckled.

"You forced me to go to that party!"

"Stop crying, you had fun and met an attractive guy."

"Yeah I guess it was worth it." I giggled.

"It is way too early for anyone to be up." He complained. It was only nine am but it felt like torture being hungover and up this early.

"Yeah do you want to sleep some more and then go get lunch?" I asked.

"Yes."

Kellin and I slept until one and then got up to go get burgers from a small restaurant we liked to eat at. We both still felt a little groggy but it wasn't as bad as it was when we first woke up. I was just happy to get some food into my stomach. I could feel myself feeling better with each bite I took.
Kellin was looking down at his phone and finally said, "Alex crashed with Vic last night. Do you want to go over there?"

"I look like a zombie so no." I answered.

"You look fine. I mean the bags under your eyes are barely noticeable."

"I'm definitely not going now." I pouted and he laughed.

"Yeah I guess that's a good idea I don't want Vic to see me like this either." We were both in sweatpants and tee shirts.

"I like Vic, he was really nice."

"I knew you would! He was actually kind of nervous to meet you because he knew if you disapproved I would have been kind of skeptical of him too." He laughed.

"Aw you really care that much about what I think?" I gushed.

"Well yeah you're my best friend. And I trust that if you don't like someone it's probably for a very good reason."

"And I feel the same way about you."

"Good! I should text Vic and tell him he has nothing to worry about." He chuckled.

"Are you ever going to tell him your real age?" I asked him.

"Yeah on our wedding day." He mumbled.

"Kellin, he'll find out sooner or later. You should tell him before he discovers it on his own." I warned.

"Well yeah but I don't want to ruin things with him yet. I want to wait until we fall so deep in love that my age won't matter."

"He might still be mad that you lied."

"Yeah he might. I'll try to ease into that conversation years from now." He said and I shook my head at him.

"Are we still going to that stupid haunted house next Saturday?" I asked him and he froze and looked up sorrowfully from his phone. I didn't really want to go so I'm an idiot for reminding him about it.

"Oh no I forgot we were supposed to do that. Shit I made plans with Vic."

"Oh don't worry about it. We can go some other time." I didn't want to make him choose between Vic and me plus he didn't get to see him the whole time he was on tour.

"No I made plans with you first. Well actually what if Vic comes with us-." He suggested.

"-I don't want to be a third wheel." I complained.

"You didn't let me finish. What if he comes with us and I tell him to invite Alex for you."

"No that's so obvious and awkward."

"We can invite more of their friends so it seems like a group thing!" He exclaimed.

"What if he brings someone with him?"

"He won't...I hope." He mumbled the last part.

"Kellin!"

"What? I can't say for sure what he will or won't do. Let's just try it and see what will happen."

"I don't know, I'm scared." I've never been on a date or hung out with another guy besides Kellin. The thought of being around Alex was freaking me out. Plus what if he was just a friendly person and didn't like me like that.

"Look I'm sure Alex likes you, I could tell by the way he talked to you at the party yesterday." He reasoned.

"Yeah but he could have just been drunk or really polite. Also you're forgetting the most important thing. The age difference between us. I'm only sixteen and he's twenty-three. It is literally illegal for us to attempt to date."

"Don't worry about the age difference thing so much. It honestly isn't that bad. And I don't know why you're so insecure. You're attractive, I'm sure Alex can see that too." He said.

"Whatever you say, Kellin." I waved him off.

"You're so stubborn." He shook his head at me and looked at his phone. "I just told Vic about the haunted house and he said yeah he'll ask them if they want to go."

"Okay. Hopefully I won't be as nervous around Saturday." I said.

"Just try not to worry about it. Alex is really sweet even if he doesn't like you, which I really think he does, he'll still walk with you through the haunted house." He told me.

"I really hope so." I sighed. "But we should get going before the traffic gets really bad." I told him.

"Yeah good idea."

***

~The Next Morning~

If I could marry someone rich and not have to worry about school or money any more I would be the happiest person in the world. Sadly that wasn't going to happen soon so I was up at six am and at school by seven am. I didn't necessarily hate school I just didn't like waking up and doing things this early.

Kellin was running late, as usual, so I went to class without him. Last time I waited I was late with him and we both got detention. Our first class was photography which was the best class to take early in the morning since it was so chill. The only other class we had together was art and it was our last class of the day. You would think we would get tired of being around each other, but we never did.

Kellin walked into class six seconds before the late bell rang. "You got so lucky." I told him and he laughed. Our teacher was still setting up for today so we had time to talk.

"I know, but I couldn't stop pressing snooze."

"Put you're alarm on the other side of your room so you'll have to get out of bed to turn it off." I suggested.

"How will I be able to use my phone if it's on the other side of the room?"

"If you're going to bed you won't need your phone!" I scolded him.

"Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and being on my phone is the only way I can go back to sleep." He complained.

"Oh my god Kellin. Just go buy an alarm clock."

"Actually yeah that's so much simpler." He laughed. "Also Vic said everyone is on board with going to the haunted house on Saturday. He said Alex is going too."

"Wait did you tell him I like Alex??"

"...maybe." He mumbled.

"Kellin!" I whispered yelled so I wouldn't be so loud.

"I'm sorry it just kind of came out, but I told him not to tell anyone so he won't."

"You are a horrible person."

"I'm sorry."

***

My mom didn't have to work today so she was well rested when I got home from school. My sister, May, was over to visit. She moved into her own apartment with some friends last year, but it was only ten minutes away from us so she almost always came over. She was twenty-one and in her junior year of college. She actually did go to the University of Baltimore.

"Hey mom, hey May." I greeted them as I walked in our house.

"Hi Jack. Come sit with us, it's been a while since we all just spent time together." My mom complained.

"Mom I was here like three days ago." May laughed.

"I know, but I still want to spend time with my babies." She said.

I went to sit down next to my mom on the couch and let her kiss all over my face. I wasn't afraid to admit I was a momma's boy. She was all I had since May's and my dad abandoned us. The only thing I knew was his name and the fact that he deposited child support money on my card every month. I never got to meet him and May didn't remember him so in our minds he didn't exist. Our mom was all we needed.

"Mom is it still okay for me to go to a haunted house with Kellin this Saturday?" I asked. I knew she would say yes, I was just reminding her that I would be out late that night.

"Yes that's fine." She answered.

"It's just going to be you two?" May asked suspiciously. "You two aren't going to it make by yourselves." She laughed.

"I know, we were thinking of asking a few friends from school to come with." I lied. I knew my mom wouldn't approve of the age group we were hanging out with. I couldn't even tell her one of the guys was dating Kellin because Kellin's mom doesn't know about his relationship and my mom would definitely tell her since they tell each other everything. Kellin and I learned that the hard way.

"You two aren't going to meet some other boys there for a date are you?" My mom questioned jokingly.

"No mom. We're just going for fun not on a date." I lied again.

"Okay good." She smiled and I playfully rolled my eyes at her. "What about you, May? Are there any boys I should be questioning you about?"

"Nope I'm still very single." May sighed.

"Mr. Right will come pretty soon." My mom told her and she laughed.

"Whatever you say, mom. But like I was saying my roommate won these tickets from that Kiss FM radio station. It's some Rocktober concert that's this Friday." May said.

"I wouldn't be caught dead at anything called 'Rocktober.'" I said making my mom and May laugh.

"I know, but she doesn't want to go by herself so I agreed to go with her. At least Fall Out Boy will be there so I won't be completely bored." She chuckled.

"Yeah I would totally go just to see Fall Out Boy.” I said.

"Of course, but I don't even know the other bands. One is like twenty-one p-pilots? And like another is all time something and the other one I remember seeing is Five Seconds of Summertime or whatever." I disregarded everything she said after 'all time something.'

"Do you mean All Time Low??" I asked her.

"Yeah that sounds about right. Do you listen to them or something?" She asked. I think I sounded too eager when I asked her.

"Um no I've just heard of them before." I mumbled.

"Oh well hopefully they don't suck."

"Yeah." I agreed nervously and picked up my phone to text Kellin.

From Jack:
Dude May is going to see all time low in concert this Friday.

From Kellin:
Oh yeah I heard on the radio about some concert you could win tickets to. I tried calling but I wasn't caller number 9. I'm sure you could buy tickets online.

From Jack:
Her roommate actually won them from the radio. And I'm pretty sure you can probably buy them too, but I don't wanna go.

From Kellin:
Why not? Don't you want to see Alex lmao

From Jack:
Well yeah but I doubt he'll see me in that huge crowd. I can just wait and see him again on Saturday.

From Kellin:
Yeah so you can have him all to yourself

From Jack:
-_- Stop texting me

From Kellin:
Lol okay I'm done being childish. But you really should flirt some more with Alex when we go. Just so he knows you're interested in him.

From Jack:
I don't know how to flirt

From Kellin:
Just laugh at all his jokes and touch his arm a lot. Also make sure you make eye contact with him.

From Jack:
I guess I could try.

From Kellin:
That's the spirit!

I switched from my text messages to Twitter. I wanted to see if Alex had a Twitter account. He did and he was verified with 1.2 million followers. I took a look at the band Twitter page and it had 1.5 million, I guess they were really popular. Even his band mates Zack and Rian had a million followers. I followed all three of them, but they wouldn't notice because I blended in with rest of their fans.

"Jack, get off your cellphone!" My mom scolded me.

"Okay two more minutes and I'll be done." I promised.

I took a look at Alex's most recent tweets. One he retweeted from Rian yesterday saying how excited they were to play at that Roctober thing and his most recent tweet was about the haunted house we're going too on Saturday. It said, "Going to a haunted house for the first time in years this weekend. Going to bring a spare pair of underwear just in case." I laughed it and some of the replies from the fans.

I finally sat my phone down like I promised and watched Hocus Pocus with my mom and sister. I loved this time of the year, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. I was prepared for Kellin to drag me to another Halloween party this year, but I wasn't dreading it. Especially if Alex would be there.

Notes

What do you think of the story so far? And does anyone think the chapters are too long?