Brook-

After our secret rendezvous, Alex and I took a few minutes to make ourselves look presentable again before exiting the bathroom.

He held tightly to my hand as we navigated back to the bar area where most of the guys stood around in a circle. Alex told me that he would convince his friends that he had gotten sick in the bathroom so no one would jump to any other conclusions, but I knew better.

As soon as the group noticed us standing there, a loud eruption of cheers and claps occurred, causing my cheeks to immediately turn beat red.

Alex tried to stick to the plan of saying he was sick but no one was buying it.

"Brook, you are now a member of an exclusive and elite club," Alex's friend Mark said. I raised my eyebrow and Jack giggled.

"We've all been hooking up in that bathroom since before we were probably old enough to even be in this bar," Jack explained. "But only a select few of us have been able to really score," he continued, winking in my direction before wiggling his eyebrows.

I laughed as Alex pulled me closer to his side, in a way to sort of shield me from this conversation but I wanted to take it. I wanted his friends to know that I could handle their crude and obnoxious antics.

"Alright. So, who had the best score?" I asked and the boys around me started to laugh.

"It has to be Alex," Jake said, his new bride Morgan standing to his side.

"Oh really?" I asked, looking up at Alex who suddenly looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"Of course. Because of you," he said quickly, leaning down and kissing me quick, as if he was ending the conversation right there.

"That might be true," Jack cut in. "But that definitely wasn't what he meant."

"Okay... So wha did he mean?"I pressed on.

"Alex was the king of the bathroom hook up. He could get into any girl's pants in there in thirty minutes flat," Jake said, a weird nostalgic and proud tone mixing in his voice.

"Didn't you even keep a tally?" Jack asked excitedly and Alex quickly shook his head no.

"Of course you did, bro. After every successful score, you'd scratch a tally mark with your keys behind the door."

I looked up at Alex again, my eyebrow raised a little. "Was I just another tally mark then?"

Alex shook his head. "Of course not," he insisted. "I wasn't even thinking of any other time I'd been in there. And these guys are assholes for even mentioning it."

"I'm just saying... You found your way to that room awfully quick, Alex."

Alex sighed, glaring around at his group of friends. "Fuck you guys, okay? Brook, you're not seriously upset about this, are you?"

I shrugged. "I don't think so. Maybe I'm just a little disappointed."

"Disappointed?" he gasped. "That's worse."

"I just thought that happened because of us and not to fulfill some teenage fantasy."

"Brook, that was because of us. I swear I wasn't even thinking about all the other girls."

"All the other girls?" I repeated. "Jeez, Alex. Really though, how many were there?"

At this point most of the guys standing around us broke off into their own conversations when they realized mine and Alex's had spiraled into something a little serious. Most of them, except for Jack.

"Those tallies are probably still scratched into the back of the door if you really wanted an accurate count," Jack butted in.

"Are you fucking kidding me, man?" Alex snapped at Jack before grabbing my hand and pulling me away from everyone. "I need to know right now how big of a fight this is going to be because if need be, we'll leave right now and talk this out."

He seemed kind of frantic and I couldn't deny the fact that we had both been drinking so our emotions and common sense thinking abilities were a little hindered.

I obviously knew what Alex was like before he met me. I'd heard about it enough times from enough people and there was always a part of me that really hated it. Save for a very few hiccups, Alex had never really done much for me to feel like he was treating me like one of those girls. I knew he loved me. And more importantly I knew he respected me.

"That's not necessary," I said, snaking my arms around his neck and leaning up on my toes. "Just promise me I'll be the last girl you're ever in there with."

Alex placed his hands on my hips and a light kiss on my forehead. "Oh, that I can guarantee."

I smiled and kissed him quickly. "Love you."

I saw something flash in his eyes for a second. Something that looked like he was super happy and it sort of made butterflies go wild in my stomach.

"I love you, too," he smiled and kissed me again.
*****

Later on that night, after way too Malibu Bay Breezes and lines of Tequila shots with Jack, I found myself escaping from the party craziness to the bathroom. I had stepped out of the stall and found Lina washing her hands at the sink.

For a second panic swept through my body because Cassadee wasn't by my side as a buffer to ease the tension.

"Hey!" Lina said excitedly when she saw me through the reflection in the mirror.

"Hi," I smiled, the panicked feeling slowly subsiding as I walked to the sink next to her to wash my own hands.

I had spoke with her briefly when she first arrived to the party and she was quick to greet me with a big hug hello. She'd actually gone to hug me first over Alex and Cassadee, who somehow managed to sneak out of LA for the weekend before the Voice finale aired.

"Having fun?" she asked me as she toyed with a few bobby pins in her hair.

I nodded. "Yeah, definitely. You?"

She smiled. "A blast."

Awkward silence set in between the two of us. It was like neither one of us wanted to be the first to leave the bathroom but neither one of us could come up with anything else to keep the conversation going.

"Oh! Hey, thanks for that birthday gift. It was really sweet of you guys." Lina finally said.

"Oh, you're welcome. I didn't even know you opened them."

She laughed. "Technically I didn't. A friend of mine from work decided to open them for me after she had one too many drinks."

"Well," I laughed. "I hope you enjoy it."

I felt it would have been really rude to turn up at this party with a gift for Matt and a gift for Rian, but nothing for Lina. I asked Alex for a suggestion on what to give her since he clearly knew the girl better than me. I don't know if he thought it was a trick question or if he really just didn't care, but he was no help at all. I ended up getting her a gift certificate to a spa downtown for her and a friend to enjoy a day of pampering. I figured any girl would like that.

"Oh, I'm sure I will," she said. "Actually, I was kind of thinking that maybe we could enjoy it."

I blinked a few times, going over her words a few times in my head to make sure I heard them correctly.

"We?" I finally questioned.

She nodded. "I thought it might be a good bonding moment for us. Plus, I know how stressful dating Alex can be."

I laughed a little. "You'd really want to spend the day like that with me?"

Lina nodded, a genuine smile on her face. "The way I see it is we're going to be in each other's lives for a while now. There's no reason you and I can't be friends. So what that you're Alex's girlfriend now and I used to be Alex girlfriend before... I think you're really sweet and all my girl friends love you."

"Wow," I smiled, a little speechless by the whole thing.

"You know, when Alex first introduced you to all our friends, I got a ton of texts from the girls about you. They were all Alex's new girlfriend is adorable. Alex's new girlfriend is the nicest person. But some offered to hate you on my behalf and for a second, I considered it. They were my friends first, their loyalties should be with me, right?"

I nodded slowly, that panicked feeling creeping back up.

"But then I rationally thought about it and if you were as awesome as they made you out to be, you deserved a fair chance. And I'm glad I thought that way because I really think you and I could be friends."

I exhaled a huge breath I wasn't sure I even knew I had been holding in. "Would it be totally lame to give you a hug right now?"

Lina laughed and wrapped arms around my shoulders, squeezing me tightly. "Alex means a lot to me. Maybe not in the same way he used to but he's still an important person in my life and his happiness is important to me. You definitely make him more happy than I ever could," Lina said, once she released me.

I smiled. "He makes me really happy too."

"I knew there was something different with him when he called me right before they came home from that Canadian tour earlier this year. He told me that anything that had been happening between me and him since we broke up in the spring was over, that he had met this new girl that he really liked and wanted to try to make it work with her. The way he talked about you, Brook, I knew it was serious."

I smiled before her words started repeated in my head.

He called me right before they came home from that Canadian tour earlier this year.

That was right before he asked me to be his girlfriend...

Lina didn't seem to realize that I suddenly felt like I was about to pass out and she just kept talking.

"There were a few times after the break up where I thought maybe him and I were going to work it out. But even after spending the night with him on New Years and one drunk night in Europe, I could sense he was more distant than usual," she said with a shrug.

My heart sank lower with every word she said.

"You spent New Years with him?" I stupidly asked.

She nodded. "Well, yeah. But nothing actually happened. I just drank too much and couldn't drive home. I only passed out in Alex's bed because everywhere else in the house was taken."

"No," I shook my head. "It's fine. I mean, we had only just met two weeks before New Years."

Lina bit her lip, suddenly looking very guilty. "I didn't mean..."

"I know," I cut her off. "It's fine."

"We never slept together. I mean, there was a time or two where we slept in the same bed. But we never had sex. And there was that time our paths crossed in Europe and Alex went weeks thinking that we had sex until I set him straight. We kissed a few times. And some of the kisses were more heated than others but that was it..." Lina nervously rambled.

My head was spinning and I throat burned with the threat of the Tequila making its way back up. Before I could even fathom a reply to all the information I was just given, the bathroom door opened and Cassadee walked in.

"Oh," she seemed surprised to see Lina and me in there together. Alone.

"Everything okay?" Cass asked, no doubt watching the color drain from my face more and more with each passing second.

"Everything is fine," I said quickly, shooting Lina a reassuring smile.

Lina nodded, putting a smile on her face as well. "Yeah. We were just chatting."

Cassadee nodded but I didn't think she bought it.

"Well, it's actually convenient that I saw you both in here. I wanted to say goodnight. I'm heading out."

"What? Why?" Lina asked quickly.

"I shouldn't even have been here as late as I was. I'm supposed to be resting and preparing for the show this week. It's a miracle they even let me leave just for this party."

"Well, I'm so glad you could. It was great having you here," Lina gushed, pulling Cass into a tight hug. She wished her luck with the Voice finale and promised to vote for her.

Once they released each other I stepped in and gave Lina a quick hug as well. "I'm gonna say goodnight now too. I'll head out with you, Cass."

"No," Lina gasped. "Not you too."

I shrugged. "It's okay. I think those Tequila shots are getting ready to rear their ugly head soon."

Lina nodded slowly. She probably knew I was lying.

We said goodbye again and I followed Cass out of the bathroom and through the bar where we found Alex and Rian.

"Hey," Alex beamed when he saw me and it made me really hard to be mad at him. "Where were you?" he asked, his hand quickly grasping my hip.

" I was around," I shrugged. "I'm actually not feeling so good so I'm going to head home now with Cassadee."

"What? No," he frowned.

"Too many shots," I shrugged as Cassadee passed me my jacket.

"Aww, Wendy, come on. Stay," he insisted.

"I'll see you at home," I said, kissing his cheek quickly before I followed Cassadee up the stairs and out the front exit of the bar where the cab she had already called was waiting.

It was freezing outside but I knew my body was shaking for a different reason.

"Brook, wait." I heard Alex's voice call from behind me and I turned around just before stepping into the cab. He grabbed my hand and pulled me close to him. "Are you sure everything is okay? I can come back with you guys," he offered.

"No," I shook my head. "That's okay. I'll be fine. I just need to sleep."

"You're sure?" I nodded.

"Totally sure."

"Okay," he said, leaning his forehead to mine. "I love you."

My mouth was having a hard time forming the words back but he didn't seem to notice because a second later Alex was pressing his lips gently to mine, kissing me slowly. His hands lightly cupped my face as he deepened the kiss slightly. It was almost as if he was kissing me like it was the last time he ever would.

I found that ironic.

"You're freezing," he pointed out when he pulled away.

If only that was the real reason I was shaking.

"Go ahead. Get going," he said, nudging me back towards the cab. "Just text me me when you're back at the house so I know you're safe, okay?"

I nodded. "I will," I said and he kissed the tip of my nose, sending butterflies exploding in my stomach. It took everything in me to focus on how mad I was again.

"Love you," he said one last time before I climbed into the back of the cab, sliding next to Cassadee.

She gave the driver Alex and Rian's address and I glanced out the window. Alex was still standing on the sidewalk, waiting for the cab to pull away. Once we started to roll down the block, Alex gave a small wave and blew me a kiss before heading back inside.

I kept telling myself I wasn't going to cry.

"Okay. You're so not really leaving because you don't feel good, huh?" Cass pried.

I shook my head, sniffling slightly as tears stung the back of my eyes.

"Brook... What is it?" Cassadee asked; she sounded so concerned as she lightly rested her hand over my shaking one.

I looked at her, wiping away a tear that managed to slip to my cheek before glancing back out the window, watching the city pass by for a few moments before I spoke.

"It's over."
***

Notes

Story Title: Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Chapter Title: Taylor Swift - Should've Said No


... dun dun dun