Don't Make This Easy, I Want You to Mean It

“Alex, it’s too early!” I whined. It was 5am and Alex was attempting to drag me out of bed to start his newly arranged road trip. We’d all been more than happy to agree, until he told us we had to set off at 6am. My indignation had not been stifled by the obnoxious blaring of my alarm at 5am. I was not okay with this.
“Who cares? You can go back to sleep. I’m the first fucking driver,” he scowled, standing above me. Thankfully, he’d had the sense to bring coffee in with him, but I was still not okay.
“This wakeup call was your idea,” I yawned, finally sitting up and taking the coffee from him. I noted his damp hair as he sat down at the foot of my bed, wondering when he had actually woken up. We’d all stayed up way later than our alarms should have allowed, celebrating the boys officially signing their record deal, and I knew I’d been asleep before Alex had, so him being awake before me too was a serious achievement.
“But, Hols, we’re going to fricking Vegas for the weekend. Totally worth it.” I groaned, pulling his pillow from the other side of the bed and throwing it in the vague direction of his head. He chuckled lightly, easily dodging my misguided missile. “Get up, get a shower, I’m going to wake those two losers up.”
As soon as Alex left the room, I sprang from my bed, knowing that, without a doubt, Jack would be using all of the hot water if I didn’t get a move on. I grabbed my clothes, pausing briefly to take a long drink of coffee, before running straight into the bathroom and locking the door behind me.
After the boys (and, in Jack’s case, their parents) has returned from negotiating and signing their record deal, Alex and Jack had returned to my apartment in high spirits, gushing about their deal and everything that came with it. It had led, quite quickly, to making plans for ‘the best road trip ever’, which of course had to mean Vegas. When Marissa was reasonable, she pointed out that we were underage so of course we couldn’t enjoy ourselves the way we wanted to. But, then again, Alex and I had had fake IDs since the age of 16 and Jack hadn’t been far behind. That soon shut down the protests from Marissa, who admitted she had one too. The girl was a secret rebel, clearly.
The boys’ parents had quickly agreed to the trip, which I could only assume meant neither of them had told their parents exactly where we were heading to. Either that, or they were blissfully unaware of how easy it was for us to obtain our fake IDs.
I heard Jack pounding on the bathroom door and sighed, rinsing off my hair and getting out of the shower.
It was nearly an hour later and Alex and I were both sat in the car awaiting the other two. We had no idea what was taking so long, but could only assume it had something to do with Jack and his inability to do anything to a deadline.
“I’m totally going to fall asleep in like ten minutes,” I told Alex, yawning over my travel mug and snuggling further into the passenger side seat. “You didn’t tell me just how comfy your mom’s car was.”
“Don’t get used to it,” he snorted. “She hates my car, so the moment I get back she’s taking her keys off me.” Alex had, clearly, traded his car with his mother for the weekend, knowing that his car was not made for sleeping in (which was the plan given how long we had to drive for), nor was it likely to make it past New York, never mind all the way to Nevada. Frankly, none of our cars would have made it all the way there without either it dying or one of us ripping someone’s head off from sleep deprivation. Hey, we’re teenagers, we don’t function well without an over-abundance of sleep.
“This is the worst idea you’ve ever had,” Jack scowled, flinging himself into the backseat, followed quickly (and much more quietly) by Marissa.
“Well, you’re already late, butt munch, so try and be quiet.” Jack scoffed once more, but didn’t offer any further comment as Alex started the car and pulled out of the lot. “Before any of you buttholes fall asleep-“
“Your obsession with the word butt today confuses me,” I muttered, my eyes already beginning to close, despite the fact we’d been on the road less than five minutes.
“He’s always been obsessed with my butt,” Jack yawned, obviously not far behind me in falling back to sleep.
“Everyone is obsessed with your butt.”
“That’s because my butt is-“
“Guys, seriously.” I turned to face Alex at his words, which had stopped Jack short also. “You can go to sleep now, whatever, but we need to work out a rota for driving. My mom will flip out if she hears Jack drove, but she’s okay with Holly and Marissa. I say we swap out every three hours? You know, stretch our legs and take a breather too.”
“Don’t see why I’m the problem but Jasey isn’t,” Jack grumbled from the backseat. I grinned widely, knowing that I was indeed as bad of a driver as Jack, but I’d never managed to write off a car yet, so I was definitely doing better than him in provable incidents.
“Because she has seen the mess you made of your last car and doesn’t want hers to go the same way. And I don’t know what you’re grinning about, Holly. The only reason you’re driving is because splitting it between two of us would kill us off.” My grin fell and I pouted at my boyfriend, who merely shook his head at my reaction.
“Honestly, Alex, splitting the driving with her might kill all of us off anyway.” I scowled, turning in my seat and throwing my breakfast (a banana) at Jack for his snarky remark.
“You’re being a butthole again,” I stated. “Back off my driving. I can drive.”
“You drive like an alcoholic,” Marissa chimed in. I scowled again, slumping back in my seat.
“I hate you all.”
It was a few hours later when I found myself being awoken by Alex shaking me lightly and calling my name. I groaned as the sun hit my eyes, now fully up and telling me I’d slept longer than I’d meant to. A blanket fell from my shoulders as I sat up fully, making me pause as I stretched my back. I didn’t recall grabbing a blanket before I fell asleep, but I did tend to forget everything I did in the few minutes before I fully fell to sleep.
“Hey, we’re taking a break and swapping out drivers. You want some breakfast?” I nodded slowly, suppressing a yawn and pulling my still-damp hair into a messy bun.
“What time is it?” I asked, beginning to grab my bag and get out of the car, noticing that Jack and Marissa were decidedly absent from the back of the car.
“About 11. You guys all fell asleep pretty quickly and I didn’t wanna wake you to switch out,” he shrugged. I smiled lightly, adoring just how thoughtful he was about everyone, not just me. “Marissa woke up about a half hour ago and demanded we find a rest stop so she could drive.”
“That sounds like my girl,” I laughed. “She’s right though. You definitely shouldn’t have driven this long without a break.”
“Okay, mom, I’m sorry.” I hit him lightly on the arm as I followed him into the diner we’d stopped at. Jack had, apparently, already ordered a plate of pancakes for each of us, not waiting to see if we wanted it or not, so it took only a couple of minutes for the food to come out and for me to get another coffee. I was definitely not going to complain about Jack ordering for me right now, especially with the noises my stomach was making as we waited, which everyone had decided to make fun of.
“So, I have a confession to make,” Marissa told me, as we leaned over the bathroom sink in the restroom, attempting to make ourselves remotely presentable for the drive.
“Shoot,” I said, playing with my hair and trying to decide if I was going to keep my bun or throw it into a quick plait.
“Jack won me over.”
“Jack won you over months ago. Give me something juicy,” I snorted, figuring I had time now to do some quickly plaited pigtails. I was going full country girl with my plaid shirt and plaited hair, which just barely managed to stop me from giggling to myself.
“No, I mean about you and Alex.” I sighed, pausing momentarily with my hands tangled in my hair. I knew it would come to the day when she would openly side with Jack and pester me too, but she had to know as well as I did that I wasn’t ready to admit that yet. Yes, of course, she knew I loved him, she knew me better than even Jack did, so of course she could see it without me ever saying anything. On the same basis, surely she knew I wouldn’t ever admit that. Well, maybe not never, but definitely not right now.
“Come on, really?” I asked, resuming the plaiting of my hair. “Jack is a pain enough, but now I have to deal with you too?”
“Come on, Jase. Drop the ‘I don’t believe in love’ spiel. It’s just me and you. I know you love him, because you love me and Jack and you’d do anything for us, but add Alex into the mix and you don’t even hesitate to do everything for him when he asks.”
“And what about Alex, huh? What do you imagine happening when that version of me you’ve created declares her undying love for him? You think he’s going to fall to his knees and become all Prince Charming, or do you think he’s going to do what I would do and run for the hills?”
“Have you not seen the way he looks at you? He’s just being exactly what we expect and being too stubborn to be the first to say it. I mean, you were barely asleep for two minutes when he put that blanket over you in the car. Every time you so much as twitched in your sleep, he was checking on you. That isn’t plain old like, Jasey.”
“So, he put a blanket over me and he watches me sleep? Wow, sign me up for life.” I rolled my eyes, pulling the final strand into my braid and securing it. I had to admit, I’d figured he’d been the one to cover me over in my sleep, and I loved that he looked after me, but I wasn’t about to let Marissa or Jack in on that little secret any time soon. They didn’t need more ammo.
“Look, all I’m saying is don’t try and fob me off with your badass bullshit, because you know it doesn’t work on me. I know you. We’ve been friends since elementary school and you’ve always been there for me. I saw you up and change your persona one day and become ‘the girl who doesn’t give a fuck’, but you do. Alex is just the first person who’s managed to get under your skin.” I sighed lightly, knowing she was beyond right. I didn’t want to bicker with her over this.
“I’m sorry. I do love you, and Jack, but I’m not going to up and suddenly decide I’m in love with Alex. It’s different.”
“I know. Just promise me you’ll think it over? I wouldn’t be even saying any of this if I wasn’t positive about it, and I definitely wouldn’t be saying anything if I didn’t think it’d help you. So, just think about it. Okay? That’s all I’m saying.” I nodded, but remained silent. I already had thought about it. I already had decided how I felt. And I’d most certainly already decided it would not be helpful for me to tell Alex how I was feeling. That was what I’d thought about most of all.

Notes

I'm sorry. I'm awful, I know. It's been deadline season again, so utterly swamped.
If anyone is still out there, keep going. I'm getting on with this one quite nicely right now.
Also, if anyone reads A Story to Tell Your Friends, I'm halfway through the next chapter of that one. Not long, I promise!