Alex-

When Brook and I got into my house, we stopped to play with the dogs for a bit. As we sat on the floor with them, I was waiting for Brook to collapse asleep right there next to me.

"Alex," she gasped when I scooped her up in my arms and started walking toward my bedroom. "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking your tired ass to bed," I said, adjusting her weight in my arms.

"My hero," she mock-swooned, throwing her arms around my neck and sighing dramatically.

"Don't think I won't dump your wise ass right here in the hall," I threatened with a laugh.

"You won't," she challenged and I bounced her around in my arms a few times, faking like I might drop her. "Try again," she said, shifting her body so she had her arms still around my neck and her legs wrapped tight around my middle.

I smiled, adjusting my grasp on her, my hands going underneath her butt to get a better grip.

She yelped and her eyes widened as I'd accidentally squeezed her ass.

"Sorry," I mumbled, stepping into my bedroom.

She laughed and leaned forward to kiss me. "Yeah. I'm sure you're so sorry," she rolled her eyes.

I smirked, kissing her back. "You're right. I'm not sorry," I said, grabbing her ass again, this time both hands fully cupped both cheeks.

"Okay," she squealed, reaching around with one hand and swapping my hands away. "Take it easy."

"Oh, look," I said, holding her above my bed. "You're home," I announced before I dropped her on the mattress with a light bounce.

Immediately Brook grabbed my hand and tugged on it until I fell down on top of her.

"This is nice," I said, stretching my body out over hers.

"Get off," Brook squealed, wriggling around under me.

"What? You pulled me down," I gasped.

She laughed. "I wanted you to lay next to me. Not on top of me."

"I like being on top of you," I said, kissing the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah?" she raised her eyebrow and I smiled. "Now that you mention it, it's not a terrible place for you to be," she said, her voice getting quiet before she pressed her lips lightly to mine.

We slowly fell into a rhythm of steady kissing over the next few minutes. It wasn't until Brook had been grinding her hips up into mine and I felt something grow in my pants that I realized where this might be headed.

"Aren't you tired?" I asked Brook as her hands slipped under my shirt and tugged it over my head.

She shrugged, tossing my shirt away, a sleepy smile on her face. "I'll sleep when I'm dead, I guess," she said before crashing her lips back to mine.

Slowly our clothes began to litter my bedroom floor. I smiled as I slid Brook's jeans down her legs to reveal she was wearing a pair of black and yellow Batman underwear.

"Did you know this would happen tonight?" I asked, gesturing to the underwear.

"I had hope," she said, a light blush spread across her cheeks.

I smiled a little bigger and leaned over to kiss her slowly. "I love you," I muttered into her mouth.

"Love you, too," she muttered back, her fingers wrapping around the waist band of my boxers, pushing them down.

"Should I be looking for condoms now?" I asked, once all of our clothing had been removed and thrown to the floor.

Brook shook her head. "No," she said, a little out of breath. "It's been long enough now. We're fine."

I nodded, quickly covering her lips with mine.

Each minute that passed fell into the next. It was like the world didn’t exist around us whenever Brook and I were having sex. It had never been like that before with anyone else. It was special. That’s why I never wanted to force these moments with her. They needed to be real and natural. Before Brook, I never really cared about silly post-sex pillow talk and kind of thought cuddling was obnoxious. But with Brook, I looked forward to that shit. When we weren’t together, I yearned for it.

"Alex?" Brook panted my name, dragging me from my thoughts. "What's the matter?" she asked.

There was a sense of panic laced in her voice and I couldn't blame her. I had sort of stopped in the middle of what I was doing to get lost in my thoughts.

I shook my head, offering her a smile. "N-Nothing," I said, adjusting my body so I was holding myself over her.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

I nodded, leaning down and kissing her lips quickly. "I love you."

Her lips curved into a smile before they spoke the words "I love you, too."
***

"Holy crap," I sighed, collapsing down on top of Brook completely and resting my chin on her chest.

She smiled down at me, a sleepy, satisfied look on her face as her fingers immediately tangled in my sweaty hair. "That was definitely worth the wait."

I smiled back at her, leaning up and kissing her. "I couldn't agree more."

We laid together for a while, both of us slipping in and out of sleep as we clung to each other under a sheet.

“Brook, are you awake?” I asked into the darkness of my room a little while later.

“Hmm…” she mumbled.

“Can I ask you something?”

“What’s up?” she asked, twisting her body slightly to look up at me.

“What’s Jenn’s story?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” she replied confused.

“I mean, what’s her story? I never hear you guys talk about her family. It seems like she’s always with your family for holidays and stuff… I’ve always been meaning to as I was just never sure it was my business.”

“What makes you think it’s your business now?” she asked with a chuckle.

“I’m just really nosy,” I said with a shrug.

Brook let out a long sigh followed by an even longer moment of silence before she began to speak again.

“Jenn’s parents’ passed away at the beginning of our senior year of high school. Car accident.”

“Shit,” I muttered until my breath. I hadn’t expected something so heavy.

“Her mom and dad were both an only child so she didn’t have a lot of family. She had one set of grandparents who lived in Seattle and she really didn’t want to move all the way out there when she was so close to graduating high school.”

“So what happened?” I asked.

“My parents took her in. They contemplated legally adopting her but since she was so close to turning eighteen already, it didn’t make much sense. So, she sort of became an honorary Monteverdi but really, she’s been my best friend since I was four, so she was already a honorary member of our family anyway.”

“Wow,” I said quietly to myself. “That’s really cool of your mom and dad.”

“Yeah,” she said, rolling over a bit so she was resting her head on my chest and wrapped an arm around my waist.

“That must have been really tough to go through, huh?”

“Oh, it was awful. Jenn was actually at my house when she got the call that her parents had been in an accident. My parents and I took her to the hospital, so we were with her when she found out that they had both passed. Obviously, she was devastated but Jenn is the strongest person I’ve ever met. She held herself together very well throughout the whole thing.”

“Damn,” I muttered more to myself again.

“She did almost give up her dream of being a doctor after that though.”

“Why?”

“She developed a rather large hatred for hospitals. Granted, we all hate hospitals, but hers turned into a pretty big anxiety. She couldn’t even drive passed one without getting all freaked out.”

“That’s awful.”

“She’s been able to get passed it for the most part but I know she was having a bit of a tough time when she was in the hospital with me after my appendix tried to explode.”

“I feel like I need to give her a hug when I see her again tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Brook laughed softly, leaning up and pressing a soft kiss to my shoulder. “She might punch you.”
***


Brook-

"It looks like everything is going okay. Everything is going okay, right? Do you think everything is going okay?" I asked Cassadee almost full on panicking.

I was sitting at a picnic table next to the catering tent with Cassadee who was out on the road for a few days to visit. Alex and the rest of the guys were busy with a signing and a few interviews which left me to watch after our parents and my aunt and uncle who decided at the last minute that they wanted to come to the show since they were here anyway.

Sami and Jenn had disappeared to go watch some bands and Sami definitely wanted to show off to Jenn that she had become friends with so many of these people now.

"Are you kidding?" Cassadee laughed, glancing over at the table behind us where the six adults were sitting, excitedly and happily talking among each other. "They all look like they've been friends forever."

"Right?" I nodded. "I thought it all looked good. But what do I know?"

"Relax," Cassadee insisted, placing her hand over mine on the table to get my attention. "Everything is perfect."

I smiled. "Thanks Cass."

She nodded, removing her hand from mine and taking a sip from her iced coffee. "I understand. I was kind of a wreck when my family and Rian’s family finally met."

“And it all went okay?”

“Totally okay. Once it was all over I couldn’t believe I was so nervous about something so silly."

I nodded, glancing back over at the six adults at the table behind us. "I think I know what you mean," I said and Cass nodded. "So, you fly back to LA tonight, right?"

Cassadee nodded again. "Unfortunately. It’s time to get back to the grind," she said smiling.

"I still can't believe you're going to be on The Voice. I can't wait for it to start airing. It's going to be so cool."

Cassadee shrugged. "I don't even like talking about it sometimes. I get so nervous about it."

I reached across the table and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "You're going to do great. How could you not?"

She smiled. "Thanks."

"It just sucks because it will probably be forever and a day until I see you again."

Cass frowned. "I know so far I do definitely have a trip to Maryland planned in late October for Jacob and Morgan's wedding."

“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. "I didn't hear anything about their wedding yet."

"Oh," Cassadee bit her lip. "Alex is probably just being a boy and waiting until the last minute to mention it," she said quickly.

"Or he's afraid to bring the whole thing up to me because it's a wedding," I said with a shrug.

Cassadee nodded slowly. "That's really what I was thinking but I didn't want to say it. And now I feel bad for even mentioning the whole thing."

I laughed. "It's fine, Cass. I actually like weddings. I'm just not into the idea of having one for myself."

Cassadee nodded. "So... If you're invited to a wedding, you'll go?"

I nodded. "Of course."

Cassadee's smile grew. "That's great! Now I won't feel bad asking you to be a bridesmaid."

I felt my eyes widened as I gasped. "Uh… What?"

Cassadee laughed. "Put your eyes back in their sockets. It's not like he's asked me or anything. I'm just being a girl and thinking way, way into the future."

I smiled. "Cass. You'd actually want me to be a part of your wedding?"

She nodded. "Of course. I know we haven't known each other very long but I consider you to be one of my best friends."

I smiled even bigger and laughed at myself when I felt a tear prick my eyes. "Can I hug you?" I squeaked out.

Cassadee laughed and jumped up from her side of the table and came around to mine, pulling me into a tight hug.

"Are you crying?" she asked with another laugh when I pulled away and wiped at my eyes.

"No," I laughed.

"You're seriously the cutest thing ever," Cassadee said, fluffing my hair and moving back to the other side of the table again. "Oh and, by the way, I totally can't tell that you had sex last night."

My eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"I assume that mark there on your collar bone is the result of a fight with a vacuum..." she said gesturing to the very small yellowish-brown mark on my skin.

"Oh my gosh!" I gasped, trying to adjust to top of my dress in a way to cover the blemish. "I tell him all the time not to leave marks. I don't even remember him doing that."

Cassadee laughed. "It was that good, huh?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"It kind of was," I replied, blushing. "I guess it had to be after almost a month."

"Damn," Cass laughed. "It's supposed to be that long when you're apart, silly, not when you're together!"

I nodded. "Tell me about it."

Cassadee opened her mouth to say something but stopped when someone came up behind me and I felt a pair of long fingers around my eyes.

"Guess who?" the all too familiar voice whispered.

I stood up quick, spinning around to see the smiling face of my boyfriend. "Hi," I gushed before he kissed me quick and wrapped his arms around me tight.

I had to ignore the man-eating butterflies that seemed to always be present in the pit of my stomach whenever Alex was around.

"How's it going, Wendy?" he asked once be released me.

"Great," I answered, one of my eyebrows raised in confusion. "So um, I've noticed you've called me Wendy a few times now over the last week or so... And I didn't want to be rude and correct you... But my name's Brook."

"Wiseass," he muttered, placing a hand on my hip and pulling me a little closer to him again. "It's a nickname, silly. Remember the other day when we decided I was Peter Pan? And you've managed to mature me. So you're like Wendy?"

I nodded slowly. "I do get it now. However, you know that Peter Pan and Wendy don't end up together, right?"

"What? No way. Of course they do," Alex argued.

"Nope," I shook my head. "Wendy grows up and has a daughter of her own named Jane. And he ends up getting with her."

"That's gross. And I don't remember that being in the movie," Alex said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's because it wasn't in the original. There was a less popular sequel that they put out a few years ago," I explained.

"Well... I haven’t seen that movie so it doesn’t count. Let's just leave it at the first movie for purposes of this new nickname for you. Unless you'd prefer me calling you sweet-cheeks..."

"Deal," I smiled and he leaned down to kiss me again.

"So, how have things been with them?" he asked, subtly nodding with his head to adults table.

I nodded, smiling. "Really good," I said, looking over to find that Jack had positioned himself between Alex's mom and my mom and the two older woman really seemed to enjoy his company.

"Brooky, I need to use the bathroom. Do you mind taking a walk with me?" my mom asked a couple of minutes later, breaking away from the conversation around her.

"Sure, Mom," I said, signaling to Alex across the way that I would be right back. He smiled and blew me a kiss.

I walked in the direction if nearest port-a-poty with my mom.

"Good luck," I said, gesturing to the empty stall.

I learned quickly on this tour, the later in the day it was, the more disgusting the stalls got. I would have offered to walk back to the bus with her but the guys were about to go on stage and we wouldn’t have made it back in time.

“Like hell I am actually going in there,” my mom chuckled, shaking her head. “I don't actually need to go. I just wanted a few minutes to talk to you alone."

"Oh," I said slowly before leading my mom over to an empty bench that sat underneath a large tree. "What's wrong?"

My mom sat down next to me and smiled. "Still such a worry wart. Maybe you'll grow out of that by the end of the summer."

"Mom..." I said more sternly. "What is it?"

She placed her hand over mine. "I just wants to tell you how proud I am of you."

"Proud of me?" I asked, confused.

She nodded. "I know that I pushed you to go on this tour, but deep down I didn't expect you to make it this long. I kind of figure you would have fun for a few weeks and then come home and that would have been fine. But, you seem like a different person now."

"Is that a good thing?" I asked.

She nodded. "Of course. That sparkle has been creeping back into your eyes since you met Alex. But now, it is back and brighter than ever. And I think it was this experience and Alex that did it."

I smiled. "This has been really good for me. And not just because it was a change of pace for me and that I've made a ton of incredible new friends. But it's really done wonders for my relationship with Alex."

"Things are good there, huh?" she sort of gushed.

I nodded. "We've dealt with a lot so far this summer. But we've been never better now," I smiled.

My mom narrowed her eyes at me. "What have you dealt with?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Just things..."

"Like?" she pressed.

"Well, there was some silly drama in Vegas with even sillier girls. And then Alex bailed on meeting Mikey. But I found out it was only because it was the same day as his brother's birthday. After each argument, Alex and I ended up talking it out, like really talking. I mean, after the whole baby thing, we even discussed our future."

Mom blinked a few times and I realized once it was too late that I mentioned the maybe baby thing and there was no way to take it back. I was trying to avoid that conversation.

"I'm sorry," she cleared her throat. "What baby thing?"

"It's okay, Mom," I said quickly. "After I changed my pill and was on antibiotics, my cycle was all screwed up. I was late and got really nervous that I might be pregnant. I went to a doctor and found out I wasn't. Everything is back to normal now."

My mom nodded slowly. "Wow. What did you end up saying about the future? Oh my gosh! You said you'll marry him!"

"No," I shook my head, laughing. "I’m still not getting married. But we did both decide way, way into the future, when we're ready that we might want to try and have a baby

My mom smiled.

"And I explained that even though I didn't want to get married, I wasn’t opposed to still finding someone I could spend my life with."

My mom smiled bigger. "Alex?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't complain."

She laughed a little and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "He's a great guy honey. And his parents are wonderful. You could do a lot worse."

I laughed, giving my mom a hug. "I have done worse."

Alex-

I got a little nervous when I saw Brook's mom pull her aside right before our set. I hoped she didn't have anything bad to say about my parents. Everything seemed to be going so well with them.

If I was being honest, I was already nervous. Playing a huge home show like this really put pressure on me. I didn't want to screw up for anyone. And I wanted to entertain Brook's family who were watching me for the first time. I needed Brook to be there. I knew if I could look out to the wings and see her flash a smile at me or blow me a kiss, I would be fine. And that's just what happened.

Throughout the show, I was actively trying to watch my language. I didn't feel it was entirely appropriate to talk about mine or Jack's dick in front of Brook's family. Halfway through the show, Jack called me out on it and I ended up admitting that my family and my girlfriend's family were there and I was watching my mouth on their behalf. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of awws I received from the crowd.

"So what did your mom want when she pulled you away before our set?" I asked Brook later that night when we were back on the bus in our bunk.

Brook shrugged, leaning up on her elbows. "She just needed to use the bathroom."

I glanced over at her and raised an eyebrow. "And?"

Brook sighed. "And tell me how proud she was of me. And how much of a positive impact this summer has had on me."

I smiled. "Yeah?"

Brook nodded. "Yeah. And the usual, how perfect you are. And how wonderful you've been to me."

I smiled wider. "Your mom really loves me, huh?"

“Yeah,” Brook nodded with a roll of her eyes. "For whatever reason she really does."

I laughed and rolled over so I was laying half on top of Brook. "I know someone else who loves me."

"You do?" she gasped. "Who's that crazy person?"

I laughed, pressing my lips to hers lightly. "I think you'd like her. She's a complete whacko. But she's awfully pretty. And whenever she laughs I feel these tiny, little butterflies in the bottom of my tummy."

Brook blinked a few times and for a split second I thought I offended her with the whacko comment.

"Is that true?" she finally asked.

"Which part?"

"When I laugh you get butterflies?"

"It's true. But not you, the girl that actually loves me," I smirked.

"Jerk," Brook rolled her eyes and lightly tapped my cheek a couple of times before she pressed her lips to mine. "I had a really good time these past two days at home."

"Me too," I said. "My parents absolutely adore yours."

"Oh and my parents think yours are just wonderful. My mom and your mom exchanged numbers before they left. They’re probably going to hang out while we’re gone."

"That's awesome," I smiled. "I knew it would go over well."

Brook laughed. "Bull shit."

I couldn't help but laugh. Every time Brook cursed around me, in English, it caught me off guard.

"What do you mean bull shit?"

"I mean you were just as freaked out about this as I was. You were just too wonderful to admit it to me," Brook decided.

I gasped. "Now that is bull shit. I was not freaked out about this at all," I insisted.

Brook shook her head. "Bull shit," she repeated.

I laughed. "Does it really even matter? Everything went perfectly. That's what matters."

Brook nodded. "I guess..."

I smiled. "And if it makes you feel better, I was just a little bit nervous."

"A little bit?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Fine," I sighed. "I was scared as shit," I caved. "Happy?"

Brook nodded, satisfied. "Very."

"Good," I smiled, kissing her.

"Alex?" she said my name, breaking from the kiss.

"Mmm..." I mumbled a response as I went in to kiss her again.

Brook slipped her arms around my neck, pulling me more on top of her. "I love you."
***

Notes

Story Title: Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Chapter Title: All Time Low - For Baltimore

I made this chapter a little longer to make up for the extra-shortness of that last one. :)
What do you think now that you have a little more insight into Jenn and her story? Drop a comment and let me know. :)

Also, I finally started posting my new story - Dirty Laundry. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do!

XO