::Brook::

"You know that it would be a lot easier if you used both hands, right dear?" My Aunt Marie said, coming up behind me at the kitchen counter.

"What?" I looked up at her. "Oh. Yeah, I know, I just didn't want to get chopped meat slime on my phone," I shrugged.

It was Christmas Eve and I had arrived at my parents' house early in order to help my mom prepare for the day. I was given the job of making the meatballs.

My aunt stared at me for a second but she was quickly forgotten when my phone vibrated with another text, from Alex, of course.

What is green, white, and red all over?

What?

Alex was trying to prove to me that he was the master of Christmas jokes.

A sunburned elf

I laughed to myself as I read his response and my aunt nudge my shoulder. "Brook!"

"What?" I turned to her.

"Who is this guy that's got you off in another world right now?"

"Guy?" I shook my head. "No. There's no guy."

“Oh, there’s totally a guy,” my older cousin Bianca scoffed from the kitchen table where she was cutting up different cheeses and meats for an appetizer platter.

“There’s no guy!” I insisted, shoving my phone into my pocket and going back to the meatballs.

"You're a terrible liar, dear. What's his name?" Aunt Marie pried.

"Alex,” I caved. “Please don't tell mom."

"Please don't tell mom what?" My mom asked, coming into the kitchen in true ninja-mom fashion.

"Uh..." I stumbled over my words.

"Brook made the first few meatballs too small. I had her start over," my aunt covered for me.

"Oh," my mom shrugged. "That's fine. Marie, can you take over the meatballs now anyway? Brooky, I need you to run to the store."

"Okay," I said, dropping the last meatball I shaped into the pan and moving to the sink to wash my hands. "What do you need?"

"Well, first I need you to go to the bakery and pick up the bread and then..." she trailed off. "You know what? I'll make you a list."

"Okay. I'll go grab Jenn to come with me," I said, only then realizing I hadn't seen my friend since I started making the meatballs.

"Oh no. Jenny is busy. Ask Sami to go with you," my mom decided.

"What do you have Jenn doing?"

"She's helping me clean the bathroom upstairs."

I laughed. "Okay," I said, opening the basement door and yelling down stairs. "Sami, come up here please!"

A few moments later my sixteen year old cousin, Samantha, came barreling up the stairs. "What's up, B?"

"My mom needs me to run to the store and you've been volunteered to come with me."

"Oh. Okay, cool. I'll go get my coat and bag," she said before running off to the room she was staying in while her family was visiting.

If my mom had it her way, our entire family visiting from New York would have stayed at our house, but that would have required way too many adults sharing beds and sleeping on the floor and couch, so only Aunt Marie, Uncle Sal and my cousins Bianca and Sami were staying in our house. The rest were at a hotel a few blocks away.

"Here," my mom said, passing me the list of what she needed and her credit card. I began to protest that I would pay for it, but she wasn't hearing it.

"I'm ready," Sami yelled from the front door.

I slipped on my coat and pulled my keys from my bag. "Let's go."

Sami and I walked outside and headed towards my car. "Hey, Sam, do you have your permit on you?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It's in my wallet in my bag, why?"

I tossed her my keys and her eyes widened. "Really?"

I nodded. "You're taking Drivers' Ed right?"

"Of course," she said as we both got in the car and put our seat belts on. "I'm the best in my class."

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"The teacher doesn't hold onto the emergency brake when I drive like he does when the other kids do."

I had to laugh. "That would make sense."

Before we pulled away Sami asked if she could hook her iPod up to the radio. I was confused as to how she would do it so naturally, I was teased for my lack of technological knowledge, before she took the iPod from her bag and used a long black cord to hook it up to my car stereo.

"Oh no," I said, taking the iPod from her. "I control the music if you're going to drive."

"Deal," she said.

"Just show me how to turn it on," I laughed, passing the iPod back to her before she started driving.

"Here," she said sliding her thumb across the screen. "You can sort the library by artist, song or album, just click what you want to do."

I nodded as she passed me back the iPod and she finally drove off. I started to scroll through her library by artist and a stupid smile came over my face when I got to the middle of the As and saw All Time Low.

"Hey Sam, you're a fan of theirs?" I asked, clicking on the band's name and a song called A Party Song (The Walk of Shame) started.

She nodded, keeping her eyes on the road. "A big fan. They're so good. Have you heard of them? They're from here. Did you know that?"

"Yeah. I actually just learned that recently. Can I tell you a secret?"

"Absolutely," she said as I told her to make a left turn at the next corner.

"I sort of went out on a date with Alex the other night."

She slowed to a stop sign and turned to look at me. "What do you mean sort of?"

"Well, okay. I didn't sort of go on a date with Alex. I went out on a date with Alex."

"Oh my gosh," she gasped as she kept driving. "Tell me everything!"

"He took me out for dinner and then we went ice skating," I shrugged. "He's really sweet."

"So are you guys, like, boyfriend and girlfriend? Or are you just, ya know, doing it?"

"Sam!" I gasped. "We are not just doing it! We haven't even done it yet at all. And no, we're not boyfriend and girlfriend either."

"I'm sorry," Sami laughed. "It's just Alex sort of has an internet reputation of being a whore."

"What do you mean sort of?" I mocked her.

"I mean Alex is a whore," she answered bluntly, making another left when I told her to. "Well, was a whore. He may have grown out of it now that he was living with a girlfriend for a while. But even that relationship was dysfunctional."

I stared at her, maybe blinking once or twice. "How do you even know all this?" was the first question I decided to ask.

"The internet," she answered like it was obvious.

"So these are just rumors?"

She shrugged. "To some extent. But if you really dissect his lyrics, the songs pretty much tell the story."

I sighed, a weird knot forming in the pit of my stomach suddenly. "Does the internet still say he's dating this girlfriend he was living with?"

I hated asking her these questions. Just like I told Jenny when she told me to google him, I felt like I was cheating. But then again, it couldn’t hurt to protect myself.

"There are mixed reports, really. She went on some trip out of the country for her job and apparently she moved out right before she left."

I had to laugh. "Again. You know all of this because of the internet?"

She nodded. "I follow them on Twitter."

"Twitter?"

"It's a social networking website, Brook. Are you sure you're twenty-three years old?"

"Shut up," I hissed. "What should I do? Do you think I should keep seeing him?"

"I think you should. You said yourself that you're not boyfriend and girlfriend serious yet. Stick it out a little longer. I'm sure he'll tell you all his dirty little secrets."

"There's more?"

She laughed as I guided her to turn into the shopping centre parking lot. "There might be."

"Fantastic," I sighed taking off my seat belt and handing the iPod to Sam for her to turn off and put away before we climbed out of the car and walked into the store.

"Look, not that it means much at this point, but while the internet may paint Alex as a whore, it's also a known fact that he's a really nice guy and probably isn't intentionally going to hurt you."

I nodded. "Thanks," I said as I tried to navigate us through the store as quick as possible so we could get in and out before they closed early for the holiday.

"Plus, I may not see you all the time, but after everything with Josh, you definitely seem way happier than the last time I saw you."

I nodded again. "Well, that's true. I'm definitely happier."
***

::Alex::

"I don't have time for visitors right now," I mumbled to myself when there was a knock at my front door.

I was already running late to get to my parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner and the last thing I needed was someone stopping by my house uninvited to further distract me from getting out of the house on time.

"Merry Christmas!" Lina chirped when I opened the front door and found her standing there with her purse in one hand and a big Macy's shopping bag in the other.

"Uh thanks," I said slowly. "You too."

"Are you going to invite me in?"

"Um... I was actually on my way out. I'm running really late."

She peered behind me, looking at the kitchen table that was covered with gifts and rolls of wrapping paper. "Need help?"

I sighed. As much as I didn't want her to, I really did need her help. "Please," I said, opening the door all the way to let her in.

She smiled at me and walked into the house, the dogs (that we technically shared custody of) immediately running to her, greeting her with wagging tails and plenty of kisses.

"It's nice to know you guys missed me," she said, crouching down to the dogs and petting them all over while shooting me a glare.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring her little back-handed dig towards me. "Look, I'm sort of in a rush, so if you could help me out with these gifts, I'd appreciate it."

"Sure," she nodded putting her bags to the side and going over to the table and inspecting the gifts I had up there.

She wrapped the first 2 or 3 gifts in a really uncomfortable silence. Eventually it became too much for me to handle and I had to speak up. Lina wasn't just some girl I dated, we were serious for a while and I did know her since high school. We should be able to have a normal conversation like friends.

"So, how was your trip?" I asked.

She turned to me and smiled. "It was incredible. Europe is so beautiful. You must be excited to go back soon, huh?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "I can't wait."

"My meetings and everything were great. It definitely seems like our project is going to be able to expand over there."

"That's great. Congratulations."

"Thanks," she nodded. "I'm really excited."

"I thought you were visiting family out of town for the holidays," I said. "I didn't expect to see you for a while."

"We were supposed to go. But then something happened with my aunt's kitchen and she had to replace her stove and nothing was going to be ready in time and she was freaking out. So my mom just decided we'd do Christmas here."

"Oh. Okay," I said and we fell into silence again.

"I'm almost done," she said, reaching for the last bag of gifts on the table and I quickly stopped her.

"You don't have to wrap those," I said, quickly snatching the bag off the table.

"You sure?" she asked, gathering the left over paper scraps and tossing them in the garbage.

"Yeah. They're not gifts," I lied.

Truth was, they were gifts I'd gotten at the last minute for Brook and I felt weird having my ex-girlfriend wrap her gifts.

"Right," she nodded. "Well, the reason I stopped by was I'd done some Christmas shopping before I left and before we decided to take another break. So I have a few gifts for you and your parents."

"Oh," I bit my lip, kind of feeling like an asshole. "I'm sorry, Lina. I don't have anything for you. I only just did all my shopping the other day and I didn't think I was going see you and I didn't think we'd be exchanging and-"

"Alex," she held up her hand. "It's okay. I wasn't expecting anything. You know me. I start Christmas shopping as soon as Halloween is over."

I smiled a little because it was true. "Look, you don't have to give me anything. Return it. Get your money back. Or give it to your brother or something."

"Alex, don't be silly," she insisted, passing me three large wrapped boxes and two smaller ones. "Just open them and say thank you when you're done."

"Okay," I nodded, sitting down at a table and opened the first of the three bigger boxes.
Inside were a bunch of shirts that I could most definitely use for tour. "These are great, Lee, thanks."

She smiled. "You're welcome. Keep going," she encouraged.

I ripped the paper off one of the smaller boxes and found a bottle of my favorite cologne. "Ah, I needed this. I ran out."

"I know. I noticed you were running low the last time I was here," she said, gesturing to the last gift.

It was endearing how excited she was for me to open the gifts she'd gotten me.

I bit back a smile and pulled the paper off that last box to reveal a small black box. I looked up at her for a second before opening the top of the box to find a shiny silver watch. There was a designer label on the box and while I wasn’t good with labels, I knew this one wasn’t cheap.

"Lina, I can't accept this. It's too much," I protested, putting the top on the box and setting it back down on the table.

"Alex, it's a gift. You can't refuse a gift."

"Yeah but-"

"Don't insult me. Just say thank you."

I smiled, standing up and pulling her into a hug. "Thank you."

She hugged me back, squeezing me a little extra tight before she let me go. "Don't worry. I got a really good deal on the watch. Oh and the gift receipts are in the boxes if the shirts don't fit."

"They're perfect," I said.

"Oh same goes for the stuff I got your parents. The receipts are in the boxes. Oh and I know your Aunt Claire is going to be there with baby Olivia, so I have a little something for her too. I know I didn't have to, but I can't resist cute little baby girl clothes," she rambled.

I wasn't really sure what was going on in my head all of a sudden. On the one hand, I was completely sure that I was done with Lina. We'd tried for years to make it work and no matter what we did and how hard we worked, we still ended up eventually at each other's throats and breaking up every six months or so. But then on the other hand, she comes waltzing back into my life, completely unannounced being pretty much the same girl I fell in love with so many times before and it was hard to remember all the reasons I convinced myself we were over for in the first place.

"Alex, what's wrong?" she asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

"What? No. Nothing's wrong. I just spaced out, I guess. I'm sorry."

"Look. I know I should have called and said I was coming here so you could prepare yourself a little better. I guess I was just afraid you wouldn’t want me to."

"What makes you say that?"

She tilted her head to the side and gave me a look like the answer was obvious. "I called you twice yesterday and you didn't answer or call me back. And the handful of texts I sent you went unanswered as well."

"I'm sorry," I sighed. "It's just hard, you know?"

She nodded. "I know. Believe me. I spent three weeks in Europe swearing up and down that I was done with this relationship and that we were over and then I come home a few days ago and find these gifts and it was suddenly like I couldn't remember all the bad stuff anymore."

I nodded. "Exactly. What's wrong with us?" I laughed.

"I don't know," she shook her head. "Some have said we're crazy. And others-" she stopped herself from finishing.

"And others what?"

She sighed. "Others have said we're meant to be together."

I stared at her for a second. The words she just said echoing through my brain. Maybe those people were right. Maybe we were supposed to be together.

Or really, maybe I was just crazy.

"I think we need to just be friends right now," I told her and for some reason the words left a funny taste in my mouth.

Lina and I were never really able to be friends.

She nodded. "I think you're right."

"Shit," I hissed under my breath, catching the time on the clock above the kitchen sink. "I'm so late. I'm sorry. But I really have to go."

"Me too," she said, quickly grabbing two bones out of the bag of gifts she'd brought with her and passing one to each of the dogs.

"Merry Christmas, Alex," she said standing at my front door.

I pulled her into a hug. "Merry Christmas, Lina" I said. “Thank you again.”

We pulled back from the hug and our eyes locked and I immediately felt my mouth dry out. Her eyes fell closed and for the life of me I couldn't figure out who initiated it, but suddenly our lips were touching and we were most definitely kissing.

I let it happen for way longer than it should have and enjoyed it way more than I should have before rationality washed over me and I had to push her away.

"I-I'm sorry," I whispered.

"M-Me too," she nodded.

I noticed we were still standing way too close to one another and suddenly our lips were crashing against one another’s again and this time my hands were grasping her waist, pulling her close.

"No. No. No," she said this time, stepping away from me. "We can't."

"We can't..." I repeated but I made it sound more like a question. I shook my head quickly and stepped back. "No, you're right. We can't." I agreed.

"I have to go," she said, quickly kissing me again, despite her better judgment I'm sure, before all but running out of the house and into her car.

I closed the door once her car took off down the street and I sighed loudly and incredibly frustrated.

"I'm in trouble boys," I said as I filled the dogs’ water and food bowls.

I set them back on the floor and felt my phone buzz in my pocket. It was a text from Brook trying to prove she had better Christmas jokes than me.

What do you get if Santa goes down the chimney when a fire is lit?

Crisp Cringle. ;)

I looked away from my phone, my stomach fluttering a bit imagining the amused look on Brook's face as she typed out that message.

I looked back at the dogs as they ate and shook my head. "I'm in big trouble."
***

Notes

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

Dun, dun, dun...