::Brook::

"Brook, honey. You know it doesn't matter how many times you organize and re-organize this table, right? As soon as everyone gets here no one is going to care and it's going to look a hot mess," Cassadee said, coming up behind me where I stood at the table in Alex's kitchen that was half covered in a variety of different bottles of alcohol while the other half was covered in different trays and bowls full of party food.

"You're right," I said, turning around from the table and facing Cassadee, forcing myself to not alphabetically organize the bottles.

"I know you're nervous about being the newbie in a room full of old friends but I will tell you from firsthand experience, when Rian and I first started dating and he brought me around his hometown friends, I was terrified. Then about five minutes after meeting them all, I felt like I'd know them forever. It's going to be okay," Cassadee said, giving me a reassuring smile.

"I know," I nodded. "I also know how important Alex's friends are to him and if for some reason they didn't like me I wouldn't-"

Cassadee held up her hand and cut me off.

"Let me stop you right there, babe. You have no reason to worry about someone not liking you because I can guarantee that the ones who truly matter already do."

"What do you mean?" I asked, a confused look washing over my face.

"The most important people in Alex's life, aside from his parents, are his band mates and probably Matt. Rian absolutely adores you and Matt thinks you're a total sweetheart."

"So, I just need to impress Zack and Jack," I said slowly.

“Exactly,” Cassadee nodded confidently. “It will be easier than you think. Zack's kind of shy around new people, so if he's quiet, don't take it personal, once he warms up to you, he probably won't shut up."

"Anything I can talk about that will spark his interest?"

I didn’t want to admit this to anyone but I had spent a significant amount of time earlier at work googling things about Jack and Zack on the internet. I wanted to be as prepared as possible to make sure these guys liked me. Thankfully Fridays aren’t too busy in the guidance office.

Cassadee thought for a second.

"Zack loves working out and anything that has to do with fitness. If you've ever been to a gym, talk about that."

I laughed a little.

"The last time I went to the gym was about two years ago."

"Maybe you just don't tell him that detail," Cassadee laughed.

"What about Jack?"

He was the one I was most worried about. He was Alex's best best friend.

"Jack's such a simple person. You could probably strike up a conversation with him about anything. If he makes a joke and it's not funny, be the first to laugh anyway and you're golden. Just prepare yourself, Jack is crazy. He says things without thinking sometimes. So if something is inappropriate or a little offensive, don't let it phase you; he just doesn't have a filter."

I nodded slowly.

"Oh! And don't freak out if you see his penis," Cassadee added like it was a normal thing to say.

My eyes widened and I choked back a half laugh, half gasp.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Jack has a tendency with the more he drinks, the less clothes he has on. I'm not sure why but it happens. I'll be honest, if it's not Jack, it's Alex."

“Oh really?” I said, letting out a laugh this time as I eyed my boyfriend across the room.

“Really,” Cassadee nodded. "Between the tours and the parties I've been to with these guys, I've probably seen your boyfriend's penis more times than you have."

"Wow," I shook my head. "That wouldn't be hard," I muttered mostly under my breath.

"What wouldn't be hard?" she was quick to ask.

"Umm..." I froze.

“Oh my gosh,” Cassadee gasped, her eyes sort of wide in surprise. "You're a virgin!"

"No," I shook my head. "I'm not. We just haven't had sex yet," I shrugged, trying to make it sound like it wasn't that big a deal.

"You've known Alex since the end of December, right?" she asked, her gaze narrowing at me.

"Yes. We met a few days before Christmas."

"And he's kept it in his pants around you for this long?" Cassadee asked, shocked.

“Yes…” I replied, sort of dragging out the word. “He has.”

"Wow," Cassadee said slowly.

"Wow what? Why do you say it that way?" I asked, feeling a sudden wave of panic on the inside.

"Alex has never really been the type to wait for sex,” she said with a shrug. “That's probably because he never had to. He pretty much has a girl on speed dial in every city who would be willing to drop her panties for him at a moment's notice."

I bit at my lip nervously, not wanting to be having this conversation at all.

"That’s definitely something I needed to hear at this current time and place, Cass” I groaned.

"Okay, maybe not but there is actually something I should tell you," she started. "You know how we were all together a little while ago in California?"

I nodded.

"Well, we were all out one night at this bar where our group of friends always went. This girl named Daniella showed up. She and Alex had a bit of a thing like last year."

"What kind of a thing?"

"Think of it like friends with benefits without actually being friends."

I nodded again, wanting now more than anything to just turn around and re-organize the table again. I was thinking size order in addition to the alphabetizing.

"He wouldn't give up hooking up with her for anything. Even when things were good with Lina, he still wouldn't turn down Daniella."

"Can you please make your point?" I asked. "You're freaking me out."

"Sorry," she frowned, reaching over and squeezing my arm in a comforting way. "Long story short, Daniella showed up at the bar looking like she just walked off the runway at a Victoria’s Secret fashion show and Alex had a few drinks already and she practically threw herself at him. She had enough experience with him to know exactly what buttons to press to turn him to putty in her hands.”

I tugged nervously at the bottom of my faux leather jacket as Cassadee continued her story. I loved the girl to death but she enjoyed to talk and normally I wouldn’t have a problem with it but in this case I really just needed her to get to the point.

“This time Alex wasn’t having any of it. If she came near him, he walked away. If she tried to start a conversation with him, he politely excused himself and when she finally flat out asked him what was going on he looked her in the eye and said and I quote I am not interested. When she asked why not, he said and I quote again, I have a girlfriend.”

“He said that?” I asked, cracking a smile.

“He sure did,” Cassadee nodded. “However, not one to give up, Daniella shot back asking why him having a girlfriend changed things now and he said, this time I'm paraphrasing, that things changed the moment he met you because you changed him and no one was worth screwing up what you guys have."

“He said that?” I asked again, biting back a bigger smile.

"He did,” she said with a laugh. “Once Jack heard Alex said that he was ready to send out wedding invitations. The fact that Alex blew off Daniella for you was a big deal to him."

"I appreciate that,” I said, frowning at the word marriage, “but I'm not getting married."

"Well of course not yet,” Cassadee laughed again. “Jack was just saying that it seemed so serious that someday you guys would get-"

"No,” I cut her off. “I'm just not ever going to get married."

"What?” She had a confused look on her face, which I couldn't blame her for. “Why not?"

I bit my lip. I had clearly given up too much and Cassadee didn't seem like the type to let something go.

"I'm just turned off by the whole idea. It's kind of a long story."

"Well, I'm definitely going to have to hear that story," she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

I sighed.

My emotions were all over the place when I heard a loud bang on the door. People were here, which meant it was time for me to start impressing these guys. That made my stomach feel weird, kind of like I swallowed a bunch of pebbles but the same time it put an end to this conversation with Cassadee, which I was happy about.

"Brook! Come here," Alex's voice yelled from the front door and Cassadee gave me a reassuring smile.

"You've got this," she whispered to me.

I slowly walked over, doing all I could not to trip over my heels as I forced a friendly smile to my face.

"Brook, this is Zack," Alex introduced. "Zack, Brook."

"It's good to finally meet you," Zack smiled as he surprisingly pulled me into a hug.

"You too," I smiled a little less forced when he let me go.

Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

"And this is Jack," Alex continued. "Jack, this is Brook."

I didn’t know if Jack and Zack had come to the party together or if they just happened to show up at the same time. I was just glad it worked out the way it did so I could get this over with all at once.

"Hi," Jack said flatly and instantly my smile wavered.

So much for not so bad after all.

"It's great to finally meet you, too. I've heard a lot about you," I said, hoping no one could detect the shake in my voice.

"Yeah, same here," Jack rolled his eyes. "All this one does is go on and on about you. Brook this and Brook that," he rolled his eyes again. "It's a little excessive."

I blinked a few times, not sure what I was supposed to do or say.

"I-I'm sorry," I stumbled on the words.

"Whatever," Jack shrugged. "Matt!" he squealed, excitedly running over to the boy at the other side of the room who had shown up early.

It slowly felt like a car door was being slammed on my soul. I don't know what I could have possibly done already but Jack didn't like me and that wasn't going to end well.

"Jack's a little weird sometimes," a voice whispered in my ear and I spun around to see Rian standing there. "He's kind of protective of Alex. He'll come around. I promise," he said, clasping a hand over my shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

I tried to force another smile to my face. I guess the worst thing I could do was let everyone know how bothered I was.

Over the course of the next couple of hours a slew of people came through the house and not one of them had reacted towards me anywhere near like Jack had. I was determined to get him to change his mind about me, no matter the cost.

I tried my best to bring topics up in conversation that I knew, from my intensive googling, Jack would be interested in. After the third or fourth time I jumped up to refill his drink when it was running low, I realized I was probably making a fool out of myself and kissing Jack's butt and loudly laughing at his ridiculous jokes were not going to make things better.

Eventually, I'd given up trying to impress Jack and at that point I was even avoiding Alex because, while he was trying hard not to be, I could tell he was a little, or maybe a lot, disappointed that Jack hated me.

As the night progressed, I stuck with Cassadee or Cassadee and Rian and sometimes Matt but mostly Cassadee and between the two of us we had our fair share of Malibu. I didn't drink that often but I figured I needed to do something to loosen me up a bit.

"When I was either five or six, we were learning about money in school. Any time I was shopping with my mom, she would hand me some bills to count and have me pay for whatever we were buying," I started.

Somehow we had gotten on the topic of silly things we'd done as kids and it became my turn to share.

"She had me pay the bill at a diner once and said to tell the waitress to keep the change since the tip was included. At this time I was obsessed with the movie Home Alone. So, I handed the waitress the money, smiled and said Keep the change, you filthy animal. The waitress, of course, laughed but my mom was not happy at all. I wasn't allowed to watch that movie for a few days after that happened."

Everyone laughed, except Jack of course. I sighed inwardly. I hoped that story would at least get a chuckle out of him but I got nothing. I was feeling so defeated.

Suddenly, a wide smile spread across Jack's face and he started to make his way towards me.

"Okay, I can't do this anymore," he said. "I fucking love this girl!" he announced.

I stared at him, very confused.

"What..."

“I fucking love you,” he announced again, throwing his arm around me. "Look, Alex is my buddy and I had to make sure you could hang, y'know?"

I nodded slowly.

"I figured if I was a total asshole and you still were nice to me, you were a keeper," Jack explained, his entire demeanor towards me changing as he squeezed me tighter to his side.

"Jack, you're such a dick," Alex rolled his eyes, shoving Jack lightly. "I knew you couldn't actually not like this girl," he said, gesturing to me before planting a big kiss to my lips before disappearing somewhere.

"So you don't hate me?" I practically beamed as I looked up at Jack.

"Hate you? No way! I have a feeling we're going to be best friends. Actually-" he paused, turning to the table next to us and digging through the bowl of Chex Mix.

I stood next to him awkwardly, figuring I should file this moment under crazy Jack.

"Got it!" he exclaimed suddenly and turned back to me. "Brook, I know we haven't known each other very long but I think you're awesome," he said, slowly crouching down to one knee and holding up a small pretzel ring. "Will you be my best friend?"

I busted out laughing, as did the few people around us watching, nodding my head yes as Jack did the best he could to slip the pretzel on my ring finger.

"Wow," I said, holding out my hand and admiring the pretzel that just barely fit around the tip of my finger. "This is the happiest day of my life."

"You better believe it," Jack smirked, pressing a hard, wet kiss to my cheek before sucking the pretzel from my finger and rushing off to find Alex.

“Told ya!” Rian whispered in my ear, appearing behind me again.

I breathed out a large sigh of relief and it seemed like after that I didn't have a care in the world. All the social awkwardness and anxiety I had been feeling, but hiding as well as I could, from before practically melted away.



::Alex::


"Tonight was fun," Brook sighed, plopping down on my bed much later that night once everyone had left.

I'd given her one of my Ravens jerseys to sleep in since she had somehow forgotten to pack pajamas for herself. She had thrown her hair in a bun and washed off most of her makeup. Still, she was stunning.

I smiled from where I was throwing my dirty clothes in the hamper in the corner of my room.

"It was. I'm glad you had fun."

She sat up, leaning against the headboard and hugging her knees to her chest. The jersey she was wearing just covering up to above her knee.

"Did you know Jack was going to pretend he didn't like me?"

"No," I shook my head, sitting down on my bed next to her. "I swear that I had no idea and to be honest I was pretty pissed at him for being such a dick."

She smiled, dropping her head to my shoulder.

"Now that I know it was a joke, it's funny but in the moment I was freaking out."

"I'm sorry," I frowned, resting my hand on her knee and kissing the top of her head.

"Don't be. It's not something to worry about anymore," she assured me.

"Could you imagine if my best friend and my girlfriend didn't get along?" I shook my head.

"I’m sure it happens,” she shrugged, “Jack may be your best friend but I'm not so sure you're his best friend anymore."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Were you not there when he proposed best friendship to me?"

"Actually, I wasn’t but I did hear all about it,” I laughed. “I'm actually surprised he didn't propose marriage to you later on when you guys were going shot for shot with that Cupcake Vodka."

"Can I tell you a secret?" she asked, poorly hiding her giggles. "I only really took like three of those shots. I faked like I chased them with that beer but really I just spit the shot back into the bottle."

"That's my girl." I nodded proudly, giving her knee another squeeze.

"Old party trick I learned from Coyote Ugly."

"Classic movie," I laughed. "Okay, but really how drunk are you right now?"

"I'm not drunk!" she exclaimed, poorly hiding another giggle.

“Come on…” I pressed.

"Okay," she quickly caved. "Maybe a little bit,” she admitted, holding her hand out to me with her thumb and pointer finger slightly separated. “That's only because someone thought it was a good idea to leave me and Cass alone with that bottle of Malibu."

"I don't mind," I said. "I'm just glad you had fun."

"Oh my God," she gasped. "You must think I'm such a lush. That's two nights in a row you saw me drinking!" she exclaimed, waving two fingers in my face.

I laughed at her and slipped my arm around her shoulders, squeezing her body close to mine.

"Yeah. I just look at it as your way of getting me back for the ton of drunk calls and texts you've gotten from me from the road."

"That's true," she nodded. "I'll never forget the night you called when you were lost walking back to the hotel. Broooook, I misssss you! Barf. Broooook, I'm so sorry! Barf."

"I'm such a keeper, huh?" I winked.

"I guess you'll do for now." Brook said, looking up at me with a giggle.

“Nice,” I pouted dramatically and bumped her shoulder with mine. "Real nice, Brook."

She giggled again and it really was beginning to become one of my favorite sounds.

"I'm just kidding, silly. I think you'll actually do for a lot longer than just now."

I smiled, leaning down and kissing her lightly.

“Do you have any hidden talents?” she asked suddenly, pulling back from the kiss.

“What?” I laughed at the random question.

“Clearly you have musical talent with the singing and guitar playing and song writing but do you have any other talents I don’t know about?” she asked, sitting up straight and facing me.

She had the most adorable drunk-serious look on her face. I didn’t want to upset her so I knew I had to at least pretend to take her question serious.

“Well... I’ve learned that I’m really good at convincing people on some bull shit. Like, if someone asks me about something and I have no idea what they’re talking about, I can talk my way out of it, making it sound like whatever I’m saying is completely true.”

She nodded slowly. I could see that she was trying to decide if that was an acceptable answer.

“I can also do a cartwheel,” I added.

“I would like to see that one day,” she said with a laugh.

“One day,” I shrugged. “Don’t think you’re getting off so easy, my dear. What hidden talent do you have?”

“Oh, I’m so glad you asked,” she said, sitting up even straighter and puffing out her chest a bit. "I am a fantastic rapper.”

“I’m sorry. What?” I tried to fight back another laugh.

“You heard me,” she said. “I can rap.”

“Do you write your own rhymes?” I humored her.

“Oh no,” she shook her head. “Definitely not. Currently my specialty is Superbass by Nicki Minaj but I can pretty much nail anything by Will Smith or early 2000’s Eminem.”

“Really?” I could no longer hold in my laughter. “I had no idea. Now that's something I would like to see."

"That's not going to happen," she told me. "Those talents are only displayed alone in my car."

"Oh, come on.." I whined. "You can't drop a bomb like that and not prove it."

"Sorry," she shrugged. "You'll have to get me waaaay more drunk than I am right now to even consider doing that in front of someone else."

"That can certainly be arranged."

"I bet," she giggled again.

"Well, I guess for now I will just have to take your word for it. Those talents are quite impressive."

“Thank you,” she said, moving to sit with her back against the headboard again. “I’m just full of surprises,” she said with a yawn as her head fell to my shoulder.

“That you are,” I said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You tired? Do you want me to put on a movie before we go to sleep?"

She was silent for a minute before she shifted her position and sat across my lap.

"I have another idea," she said, snaking her arms around my neck and bringing her lips down to mine.

"This is a great idea," I muttered against her mouth as she shifted again, her legs now straddling my waist.

"Shhh," she hushed me and a second later I felt her tongue slip into my mouth and I definitely didn't object.

A few moments passed before either one of us spoke again and when we did it was Brook's turn to break the silence.

"Can I be really blunt with you right now?" she asked, the words muffled against my mouth as she barely broke away from our kiss.

"Okay...”

"You're a really freaking good kisser," she said before crashing her lips back to mine.

"It's probably just because I'm kissing you,” I said, laughing into the kiss.

"Maybe," she said against my mouth, tightening her arms around my neck.

"Can I be really blunt with you right now?"

It was my turn to I ask that question, gripping her waist tighter which caused the jersey she was wearing to ride up a bit and it was hard to ignore the fact that she wasn’t wearing any pants.

"Mhm," she muttered, softly pecking kisses across my jaw and down the side of my neck.

"If you don't stop pressing your hips into mine like that, I'm going to pitch a fucking tent so big Boy Scouts can go camping under it," I admitted, gripping her shoulders and shoving her back gently.

Her eyes widen much wider and I began to worry that confession had been a little too blunt for her.

"Really?" she asked, a sort of proud and playful smirk covering her face.

"Yes,” I nodded. “Really."

"Good to know," she said, almost to herself, before crashing her lips back to mine.

I don't know if it was on purpose or not but she started rocking her hips against mine even more than she had before. I was only wearing a pair of boxers and Brook wasn't even wearing pants. If anything popped up, it would almost be impossible to hide.

By the time Brook moved her lips from my lips and up my jaw and behind my ear I was sure I was going to explode.

"B-Brook," I stuttered, pushing her off a little. "We need to stop."

"Why?" she pouted, pressing her lips lightly to the side of my neck.

"Because. We just do," I said a little more stern as I pushed her away again and glanced down south quickly so she'd get what I was saying.

"It's okay," she said lightly brushing her lips over mine and the next thing I knew, I felt her fingers grip the waistband of my boxers and slowly begin to push them down.

I felt my eyes nearly pop out of my head.

"Brook,” I gasped, grabbing her hands. “What are you doing?"

“Calm down,” she said as her eyes met mine and she pushed my hands away before wrapping one of her hands around my growing erection. “I’m going camping.”

For one of the only times in my entire life I was speechless and the more she began to work her hand up and down, the likeliness of coming up with any words kept slipping further away.

I let my eyes fall closed and I became aware of Brook's lips missing from my own and suddenly they were replacing her hand.

"Shit, Brook," I groaned, blinking my eyes open for a second and letting one of my hands tangle in her hair.

Time sort of stood still as she began to work me with both her hands and her mouth.

“Fuck, Brook,” I moaned, biting the inside of my cheek to suppress any other noises from coming out.

Rian and Cass were just down the hall and I’m not sure Brook would want them to know what was going on in here.

Again, words were escaping me and before I knew it, I was reaching my climax and another string of shit and fuck attached to Brook's name quietly passed by my lips.

As my breathing began to get back to normal, Brook slowly moved back up the bed and sat next to me. She was quiet and I instantly hoped she didn't regret what she'd done.

"Was that okay?" she asked in soft voice as she twisted her hands nervously in her lap.

I looked up at her, quickly adjusting myself back into my boxers.

"Are you kidding?" I asked her surprised.

"No," she shook her head; she was avoiding looking at me at all costs. "It's been a really long time since I've done anything like that and..." she trailed off.

I reached over and touched her cheek lightly, making her look over at me.

"It was perfect."

"It was?" she asked, finally letting her eyes meet mine.

"Absolutely," I said, leaning in and kissing her lightly.

She smiled into the kiss, wrapping her arms around my neck and letting me lay her back against the pillows as I deepened the kiss.

I placed one of my hands on her bare knee. When she didn't protest, I slowly moved my hand up her leg and when I grazed her inner thigh and she still didn't stop me, I carefully slid her underwear down her legs.

"You okay?" I asked, briefly breaking our kiss.

"I-I'm fine," she said quickly, arching her hips up towards me, voluntarily or involuntarily, I wasn’t sure.

Either way, I took that as a sign to keep going.

I pressed my lips firmly back to hers as I gently slipped two fingers inside of her. I waited a few seconds for her reaction before I moved any further. After she moaned slightly into my mouth, I began to little by little work my fingers at a quicker pace until Brook was practically writhing underneath me.

"Alex, please," she muttered, breaking our kiss and her eyes meeting mine.

I nodded knowingly and slowly made my way down the bed and was quick to replace my fingers with my tongue.

Brook was moaning quietly as her fingers threaded into my hair. She used the light grip she had on the back of my head to guide me exactly where she wanted me. I was glad to have the direction because just a few moments later a few inaudible words left her mouth and she too had reached her climax.

After regaining my own composure, I moved back to lay next to Brook.

"You okay?" I asked again, lightly pushing some of her hair from her face.

I used the corner of the bed sheet to wipe away the few small sweat beads that had formed on her forehead.

She nodded sleepily, cuddling her body into mine.

"I think so. I'll let you know when the feeling comes back to my toes."
***

Notes

Story Title: Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Chapter Title: The Cure - I Melt With You
Brook's outfit #1.
Brook's outfit #2.


Huh... Whatcha think about this one? <3