::Brook::

"How come you're not at Alex's big New Year's party tonight?" Sami asked, dropping down on the couch next to me with a paper plate full of pigs-in-a-blanket that she managed to pop in her mouth like pieces of popcorn.

"Shhh..." I hushed her.

I was trying really hard to keep Alex's existence a secret from the rest of my family the best that I could, for as long as I could.

"Sorry," she bit her lip, "but, really, why aren't you?"

"Because I'm here with all you loud people," I said, gesturing around the room to our various family members and family friends who'd apparently all forgotten their indoor voices at home.

"Lame excuse," she scoffed. "No one would even know if you disappeared for a little while," she said popping another pig-in-a-blanket in her mouth.

"Sam, you're starting to sound like Jenny. I'm not going anywhere," I sighed. "Wait. How did you even know he was having a party? I didn't-"

She interrupted me by shoving her cell phone in my face.

"What am I looking at?" I asked, my eyes trying to focus on the small screen.

"This is Alex's Twitter page. He posted about the party before," she explained, pointing at the screen where the specific message popped up with a picture attached of his kitchen table covered in all the different bottles of alcohol.

AlexAllTimeLow: New Year's Eve bash at my house tonight. Prepare your livers, friends!

I laughed a little and passed Sami back her phone.

"Does he write stuff on this page a lot?"

Sam nodded. "All the time. Most of the time no one knows what he's talking about."

"Why is that?" I asked, eyebrow raised.

"Because your boyfriend is really weird sometimes," Sam shrugged.

"He's not weird. He's cute," I frowned and then I realized what she said and I groaned. "And he's also not my boyfriend!"

Sam laughed. "Not yet."

I rolled my eyes, wanting to change the subject completely from Alex right now but I was interested in this whole Twitter thing and I wanted to know if he mentioned me in any way.

"What else does he say on here?" I asked, motioning back to the phone.

Something clicked in her head and Sami's eyes widened considerably.

"You want to know if he's mentioned you, huh?"

I bit my lip. I wasn't going to bother denying it.

"Has he?"

"Maybe," she shrugged and moved to stand up when her plate was now empty.

"Where are you going?" I asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her back to the couch with me. "Answer the question."

"You made it perfectly clear the other night that you didn't want to know anything from the internet about him that might be considered cheating in your little relationship. I'm just respecting your wishes," she smirked.

"Yeah, I know I said that but if a guy is taking his time to write messages about me on the internet, I want to-" I paused and corrected myself, "I need to know."

She sighed and went back to her phone and started to scroll through the page.

"Did you give him a Christmas present?"

I nodded. "A Ravens' cookie jar and I made him a scarf with the team's colors."

Sam nodded and turned her phone screen to me. Alex had posted a picture of himself wearing the scarf with the caption that read Maybe my favorite Christmas present to date. It's handmade!

I smiled and looked closely at the picture. My heart did a weird flutter in my chest as my eyes scanned Alex's smiling face and I pictured him smiling like that at me in real life.

"Anything else?" I asked, tearing my eyes away from the picture.

"Let me see, let me see," she mumbled to herself. "Oh, here's this one!"

I looked at the screen and read: Life's been feeling like a happy Taylor Swift song lately. Can't complain. :-)

I smiled a little. "I can't necessarily disagree with that."

"I wasn't sure at first but I'm pretty sure that this one is about you too," she said and showed me a post that read When one door closes, another most definitely opens.

I shrugged. "That could be about anything."

"Well, the internet gossipers think he was referring to breaking up with his ex-girlfriend, a door closing and then meeting someone new, you, a door opening."

I smiled a little more. "When you put it that way," I shrugged, looking at the date he posted that message. "That was the night we went on our first date."

Sam smiled big and shoved me with her shoulder. "Promise me I get to be a bridesmaid at the wedding."

::Alex::

It was coming on almost midnight and I was really drunk. I'd been trying to do my best at being a good party host and mingle with all my friends but really I was more content sneaking text messages to Brook.

I had to sneak them because Lina had practically attached herself to my hip and while it should have bothered me and I should have told her to back off, I couldn't. So instead of dealing with the issue head on, I drank. And I drank. And I drank.

"Alex!" I heard Lina yell from somewhere behind me after just opening a text from Brook.

She was sending me a pictures of her and her cousins waving around different noise makers and wearing party hats with bright colors and 2012 written all over.

Turns out her phone did accept and send picture messages. She just had no idea how until her cousin taught her.

I spun around just in time for Lina to crash right into me. She had clearly drank as much, if not more than me.

"You have to wear this!" she insisted, reaching up on her toes and placing a crown on my head that said "Happy New Year!"

"Okay," I laughed and straightened out the matching crown she had on her head. "Why am I wearing the pink one?"

"Because this gold one matches my dress, duh!" she said like it was obvious.

I laughed a little and followed her into the kitchen where Rian and Cassadee were trying their best to quickly pour as many glasses of champagne as they could before it struck midnight.

"Forty seconds!"

I felt Lina grab my wrist and drag me into the living room where everyone was gathered around the TV waiting for the ball to drop.

I suddenly felt my mouth dry out a little when the countdown dropped to twenty seconds and Lina slipped her hand into mine, leaning up and whispering in my ear.

"I'm really glad I'm here."

I smiled, releasing her hand and slipping my arm around her waist, pulling her close to me.

"Ten... Nine... Eight..."

In the corner of my eye, I could see the various couples pairing off and cuddling together, very similar to how I was currently standing with Lina.

"Seven... Six... Five..."

With five seconds to spare it dawned on me that those other couples were getting together to get ready to kiss.

Was I supposed to kiss Lina? Did she want to kiss me? Did I want to kiss her?

"Four... Three... Two...One..."

I vaguely remember shouting "Happy New Year!" along with my crowded living room before a pair of warm, strawberry-lip-gloss flavored lips pressed against mine.

Lina wrapped her arms around my neck and my hands found their way to her waist as I slowly started to kiss back.

She pulled away only a few seconds later and whispered softly, "Happy New Year, Alex."

I tucked some of her hair out of her face, re-adjusting her crown again before I leaned down and kissed her once more.

I was drunk and if I was able to think clearly there was a good chance that I never would have kissed Lina but I could barely think clearly when I was sober at this point, so I kissed her. And I kissed her again. And over the course of the rest of the night I kissed her a few more times. I knew that Lina and I had the most dysfunctional relationship and there was this intense chemistry between us, it always felt like we were seconds from exploding. And this covered from one extreme to the next.

While all that may have been enough to make me the world's biggest asshole, I'm pretty sure when I insisted she spend the night instead of driving home, that took the cake.

Yeah, I probably did the right thing because she had been drinking and most definitely was in no shape to drive and yeah, plenty of my other friends were crashing at my house for the night because of the same reason but I didn't have to insist that Lina stayed in my bed and then agree when she insisted it was okay if I slept in there with her.

The guilty knot in my stomach tightened to the point of possible explosion when I found myself laying in my bed with Lina passed out next to me and my iPhone out in front of me while I continue to text Brook.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions yet?

I stared at her text for a second, glancing back at Lina. I'd pretty much already broke every resolution I could have made. I typed back the only response I could come up with but genuinely meant from the bottom of my heart.

Spend more time with you.

Notes

Story Title: Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Chapter Title: All Time Low - Noel
Brook's outfit.

Oh, Alex...

Enjoy! XO