Alex-

Waking up the morning after two days of non-stop partying for Jack's birthday in Vegas was so not an easy feat. I also use the term waking up loosely because I'm not sure I ever really fell asleep longer than a period of twenty minutes at a time.

Knowing that Brook was mad at me and that we had to play our regular set, an acoustic set and do a signing was only making the pounding hangover ache in my head that much worse.

When my eyes finally adjusted to the bright light that slipped into the room through a crack in the shades, I leaned up on my elbows and slowly glanced over to the couch where Brook had gone to sleep.

I was equal parts surprised and elated to see her there. I was surprised because after the asshole I acted like the night before, I expected her to be on the first flight back to Baltimore. I was elated because the fact that she was still here meant there was still a chance I didn't completely fuck up and could fix this.

I jumped up from the bed, ready for full damage control. As I started gathering all my crap that was thrown around the room, I realized it was only just after 7:30 in the morning and I'd only gotten maybe 2 hours of sleep tops.

I forgot about being tired and continued to move about the room, quietly straightening the place up. I didn't want Brook to wake up yet. She needed to catch up on some sleep.

After I had cleaned up to the best of my ability, that included making the bed, I called down to room service and ordered waffles for both Brook and myself, as well as lots and lots of coffee. I even went as far as to request that they make our waffles with my grandmother's secret ingredient. The guy on the phone said sure, but I'm pretty sure that was just to appease me.

It was almost eight o'clock when the food and coffee came up and I was surprised that Brook was still asleep. She was usually such a morning person, after her coffee, of course.

I set the food and the coffee up on the small table on the other side of the room and decided that it was time to wake Brook up.

I stood over the couch where she was and watched her sleep for a couple of seconds. The comforter that she had over her body was so big and cushy, it almost looked like the couch and the blanket were swallowing her whole.

Realizing how much I missed being able to sleep next to her last night, I crawled onto the couch with her and shifted around a bit before I was remotely comfortable.

We stayed like that for a little while before Brook's eyes fluttered open and she smiled up at me for just a second before she probably remembered she was mad and the smile faded.

"What are you doing?" she asked sleepily, trying to shift away from me, but really, she had nowhere to go.

"Damage control?" I said softly, giving her a weak smile.

"Oh," was all she said as she pushed herself up on her elbows and sat up a bit.

"Look. Brook, I -"

She cut me off, holding her hand up to me.

"Let me actually be a fully awake and functioning person before we start this. Please."

I nodded. "Of course."

I sat up too and Brook took the opportunity to move herself to the other side of the couch. She didn't say anything for a really long time. I was starting to think that maybe she still did plan on heading home.

"Do I smell coffee?" she asked, finally breaking the intense silence.

I nodded, jumping up from the couch and walking over to the table.

"Yes. I called room service. I also got waffles."

She cracked the smallest smile as she stood from the couch. I was sure she was only happy because of the hot, caffeinated beverage that was waiting for her.

"They didn't have that French Vanilla flavoring stuff that you like. So I made sure they brought plenty of skim milk and Splenda," I told her, hoping to win some brownie points by throwing out some random facts I remembered about her and her coffee preference.

"Thanks," was all she said, stirring the milk and sweetener around her mug.

I nodded. "You're welcome. Did you notice that I cleaned up?" I asked hopefully.

She sipped her coffee and then glanced around. She looked up at me and nodded.

"Uh huh."

I sighed. "Come on, Brook. I'm really trying here, okay? Would you just talk to me? Yell, scream. Whatever. Just please?"

She placed her coffee mug back on the table and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Trying to cuddle with me when I'm sleeping, cleaning up and ordering me coffee is not going to fix what you did last night."

"Don't forget I also ordered waffles," I pointed out, lamely.

She rolled her eyes and stood up. "You're impossible."

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "For everything. I was an idiot, alright? I didn't think about how what I was doing was going to effect you. And I'm really, really sorry."

"Okay," she said, waking towards her suitcase.

"Okay? That's all you're going to say?" I followed her.

"Yes," she said before digging through her suitcase for clothes and disappearing into the bathroom.

I sat down at the small breakfast table and sighed.

"Fuck," I muttered to myself as I heard the shower head turn on.

About twenty minutes later, Brook emerged from the shower, dressed. Her wet hair hung over her shoulder in a tight braid and she wore absolutely no makeup and even though when she looked at me, I saw nothing but disgust for me inher eyes, she was still the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

"You should shower and get ready. We need to be on the bus in thirty minutes," she said, putting her dirty clothes in a separate bag she brought.

I nodded, standing from my seat and grabbing clothes from my bag.

"I'm sorry," I said again as I stood in the door way of the bathroom and Brook looked up at me. There was a little less hate in her eyes this time.

"I know you are, Alex. But I'm just not sure you know what you're sorry for."

"I'm sorry that I acted like a jackass last night. And I'm sorry that I'm a terrible boyfriend. And I understand if you wanted to go home."

Brook sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're right. You were a jackass last night. But you're not a terrible boyfriend. And I'm not going to go home."

I had to bite back the smile that threatened to cover my face when she said she wasn't going home.

"But I am still mad at you, Alex. And it's not the kind of mad that can just go away with a few hugs and kisses and nice gestures."

"Brook. Come on. I was an ass. But, it's not like anything happened, okay? Can't we just move on?"

"No," she said a little louder than I think she even expected. "Do you even understand how stupid you made me feel?"

"Brook," I put my clothes down in the bathroom and walked closer to her. "I didn't mean to-"

"I know. But that's the point. The entire night everyone saw you with that girl. And everyone saw me off to the side just watching as my boyfriend kept flirting with someone else."

"Brook-"

"How do you think that made me feel?"

"Brook, I'm-"

"Like a complete moron, Alex! That's how I felt. And then I whined to Emily about it. And she was all, go mark your territory, so I tried," she vented and I realized I was getting the Brook explosion I'd been waiting for. "And then you go and introduce me to that girl as your friend Brook."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Should I have called you Ms. Monteverdi?"

"No," she snapped and quickly the disgust was back in her eyes. "Am I just your friend, Alex?"

"No," I shook my head quickly. "I definitely didn't intentionally call you just my friend. Of course you're not just my friend. You should have known that."

"It may have been unintentionally but you went and said it in front of a girl who everyone knows you've slept with before and who I could tell obviously didn't like me."

"Who said we slept together? We never-"

"Stop," she cut me off. "Don't lie to me, Alex."

"I'm not- We-" I panicked. "How did you know?"

"Emily told me last night. But I've heard about her before from Cass too."

I looked at her a bit confused. "Cassadee wasn't even there..."

"I know. She mentioned it back in March."

"Why would she-"

"She told me how you and Daniella had a thing for a while and how even when things were good with Lina you would never turn Daniella down."

I nodded slowly. "Why would she bother ever telling you that?"

"Cass told me because she was explaining how much you must have liked me at the time because you guys were in LA and Daniella was somewhere you guys were and you turned her down and made her well aware of my existence." I nodded.

"See! So, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is last night you gave her the satisfaction of knowing I was right there and you sent me away to continue flirting with her."

"Okay," I sighed, taking a few steps closer to her. "First of all, I wasn't really flirting with her. And second of all, I don't know what else you want me to say. I was an idiot. I was wrong. I was trying to help Jack and I wasn't thinking about how I was hurting you."

She nodded and didn't say anything so I figured I would keep going.

"And you know how desperately I never want anyone to ever hurt you."

She nodded again but still didn't say anything. She just started taking the comforter from the couch where she slept to put back on the bed.

"No," I said walking next to her and shaking the blanket from her hands. "Don't do that thing where you get overwhelmed and shut down and start cleaning up."

That was definitely one of her defense mechanisms.

She shook her head and looked up at me and that's when it happened; my heart shattered into a billion pieces when I saw her eyes filled with tears and she sniffled.

"Brook," I said quietly and internally thanked God for small favors when she didn't pull away when I hugged her.

She didn't hug me back but at least she didn't squirm away from my touch.

"I'm so sorry," I said softly into the top of her head. "I love you. And I'm so, so, sorry."

She looked up at me and sniffled again. I let her go as she wiped at the tears in her eyes.

"I know," she whispered and went back to putting the blanket on the bed.

I didn't understand why Brook was taking this whole Daniella thing so personally. But then it hit me like a million tons of bricks.

Brook could be the most insecure, self conscious girl I had ever met, who already had severe trust issues. And there I went last night acting like a complete asshole.

I kept quiet and helped Brook make the bed. At this point I didn't know what else I could possibly say at this to make things better.

"We have to go downstairs soon. You don't really have time to shower anymore," Brook said, gathering her bags and placing them by the door.

I nodded. "Okay," was all I said before going into the bathroom and quickly changing my clothes. I decided to throw a beanie over my head since I wasn't going to be able to shower.

Once I was ready to head out, Brook was already dragging her suitcase down the hall towards the elevator.

We got on and Brook spoke to me again.

"I think I'm just going to hang on the bus today. I have a lot of work I should catch up on."

I nodded and just said "Okay."

I knew she was lying about catching up on work. She'd specifically busted her ass before we got to Vegas so she'd be able to enjoy all the festivities guilt free. I also knew I wouldn't be able to change her mind so I just let it go. She wanted to avoid me and I didn't blame her.

We walked into the lobby and found he rest of the guys were already waiting for us; all in various states of hungover. We all grumbled good mornings to each other, expect Brook, who didn't speak to anyone, before heading to our bus.

The bus ride was literally five minutes as we only had to go a little down the strip to the parking lot of the Luxor hotel where today's Warped Tour was being held.

It was kind of embarrassing that everyone could tell that Brook and I were not on good terms and it seemed to really effect the mood of everyone on the bus.

I couldn't wait for the moment when Matt got on the bus and told is it was time to start doing press.

When that time came, everyone practically ran off the bus, but I went back to the bunks and poked my head into the one I shared with Brook. She went back to sleep as soon as we got back on the bus.

"We're gonna head out now, okay?"

She rolled over to face me. "Okay."

"You're going to be okay by yourself here?"

She nodded sleepily. "I'll manage ."

"Okay. Call or text me if you need me, okay?"

She nodded again and her sleepy eyes fell closed. "Have a good show."

"I'll try," I said, leaning into the bunk and kissing her forehead. "Love you."

"Love you, too," she muttered into the pillow.

That was certainly good to know.

I kissed her forehead again before I headed off the bus with the remaining members of the band and crew.

It was now time to put on my game face. I couldn't let the fans or anyone else know what a lousy mood I was in and how badly I just wanted to be back on the bus with Brook.
***

Notes

Story Title: Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Chapter Title: All Time Low - Running From Lions

Well, they're not quite fixed yet, but at least Brook still loves him. How long do you think she can stay mad?

XO