Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You

“Beer me,” I demanded, holding my hand out to Pat and the bottle he had just opened.
“You’re the worst, Holly,” he grumbled, passing it over nonetheless and turning back for another from the table. I shrugged, taking a large drink.
“You guys look after me. What can I say? I’ve been spoiled.”
“You were spoiled long before we met, sweetheart,” John chuckled, taking a drink from his own beer.
“Look, alright, I’m an absolute daddy’s girl and I know how to work the puppy dog eyes. Back off.” He chuckled once more at my faux annoyance, pushing a kiss to the side of my head.
We had pulled over in some fricking parking lot in… well, in god knows where, so the drivers could take a rest on the way to Houston and, frankly, we’d all decided to get really drunk. As one of the few people old enough to buy beer, I’d been nominated, along with a couple of the guys, to make a booze run, so I figured I deserved to get really drunk. Alex still wasn’t talking to me, not that I really expected him to, which meant Jack was pretty absent too and I missed Marissa already. It had legitimately been less than twelve hours since she’d left. This long drive from Atlanta made me feel like tearing my hair out without her. I mean, John and I had been lingering in the back room of the bus for most of it making doe eyes and simply basking in each other, but that wasn’t really the point. Without someone to vent at about Alex, I was dwelling a little and that made the ride a drag. All I wanted to do was to call her and bitch it out, but I’d been so close to John all day that I couldn’t have even text her about it, never mind call.
And so, I drank. Like, a lot. Like Jasey-at-seventeen a lot. Like, Jasey-on-a-bender-because-she-was-angry-at-seventeen a lot.
It didn’t take me long to get so stupidly drunk it felt like I was back in high school. I know I discussed frequently drinking beer in John’s back yard or wherever, but I never really went more than two or three beers deep and I definitely didn’t sneak shots while the boys’ backs were turned and try and pass it off like I’d only had a couple. So, yeah, tonight was hitting me hard.
“Whoa, are you alright there, Jase?” Jack chuckled as I stumbled slightly on my walk over to the table, having managed to sneak away from John’s grasp for a moment when I saw Jack had finally lost his surly parasite.
That was cruel. He wasn’t a parasite, but I was a little angry at his accusations and the fact he wasn’t speaking to me. I could be bitter when I wanted to be. That wasn’t a character flaw I’d miraculously lost in the last two years.
“I am absolutely fine,” I insisted. “I just need another drink.” I reached for the bottle behind him to refill my cup. Jack clicked his tongue at me, moving in front of the bottle I was reaching for and causing me to scowl.
“You’re fucking hammered,” he told me, trying to push out a chuckle to take the edge off his words. “I think you’re good on the drinks.”
“Nope, I’m not. Wanna know why?”
“Sure,” he sighed “Why?”
“I’m going to do a Jasey,” I heard myself slurring this time, but continued laughing through my words.
“And what does a Jasey entail?” Jack laughed back. “There are a lot of things you used to do that we referred to as Jasey’s.”
“I’m going to get really drunk,” Jack muttered a ‘check’ at this, but I ignored it, “sleep with someone really pretty, draw a lot of attention to myself and forget it all tomorrow morning.”
“Ah, the classic,” he nodded. “Just don’t turn it into an Alex and ignore your pretty friend in the morning, alright?”
“Okay, okay,” I said, still giggling to myself. “But I’ll do an Alex right here and chug this beer, then I’ll do the Jasey.” I reached around him once more, succeeding in grabbing a bottle this time, swiftly opening the bottle and doing exactly as I had promised and chugging the beer before Jack could stop me. It might have all been hitting me hard but I had been way more drunk than this on many occasions and done stupider shit than I was planning to tonight. Jack shook his head at me as I finished the bottle, kissing him quickly on the cheek as I sauntered back over to John.
Okay, I’d hit affectionate and easy to dare (even if it was me daring myself), I had definitely had enough to drink for the night. Unfortunately for me, I had also hit the slutty part of my drinking personality. Hard.
“Johnnyyy,” I whined as I managed to locate him once again, sliding my arm around his waist as he slung his over my shoulder.
“What’s up, darlin’?” He asked, looking down at me with a smile. “You need something to drink?” He moved his drink, indicating that I could take it, but I shook my head to decline. I was drunk enough, I didn’t need any more. He raised his eyebrows at me in disbelief but I shrugged. John had not been drinking at the same pace as me and I could imagine he was still on his ‘let’s take this slow’ idea, so I wasn’t expecting much from him yet.
I took my chance as he was looking down at me, pushing my lips to his while he was vaguely the same height as me. He smiled into my lips, pulling me closer with the arm around my shoulders. I pushed myself further onto my tip toes, doing my best not to let him leave immediately.
“What was that for?” He asked as he pulled back, looking at me suspiciously.
“Nothing,” I grinned. “I’m drunk and you look super pretty.” He chuckled at me, shaking his head.
“I promise you, I’m just as drunk and you’re way prettier.” I tried to hide my smile, failing miserably and allowing him to kiss me once again. I whined a little (read: remarkably) pathetically as he pulled away the second time and he chuckled at me once more. “Slow and steady, sweetheart.”
“I disagree with slow and steady,” I replied, pouting.
“Me too,” he told me.
“Then bring me fun, drunk John. I need him right now.”
“He’s about,” he looked at his glass in his remaining free hand for a second, “this drink plus another away. Sorry.” I intensified my pouting and he shook his head.
“Seventeen-year-old me is so angry with you right now.”
“You’ll live,” he chuckled, giving me a far too short kiss and turning back to our friends, who had either not noticed our exchange or were deliberately ignoring us. As I looked around, trying to distract myself from the fact that I wasn’t getting what I wanted (I mean, seriously, who knew that was a thing?), my eyes landed on Alex, who had returned to sneering as he saw me with John, and I imagine he saw the pair of us happily wrapped up in one another not two minutes ago. I felt guilty, as I tended to do when I upset Alex, but I tried to push it from my mind and began to glance around everyone else. I realised I hardly knew these people we were touring with, that I’d spent the last two weeks wrapped up in John and Alex and all our pointless shit.
I spent the next half an hour sipping at a fresh beer to keep my ‘buzz’ (ha, okay, Jase) and attempting to begin mingling with some of the other guys. I didn’t want to be the one person everyone forgot about as soon as tour was over. That was definitely not my style. Given my best friend/comfort blanket had left me, I knew I would dwell if I didn’t try and make some new friends. I spent a while chatting with half of the guys in Every Avenue, thankful Dave had forgotten the way John spilled all over me that first night and gushed about everything I did.
“What are you up to, darling?” I heard John drawl, his arm being slung around my shoulder as he did so, alerting me to his presence, as I hadn’t noticed him sneaking up behind me until he spoke. I glanced over at him, departing my conversation briefly to flash him a smile.
“Just getting to know some of the guys,” I shrugged. “You seemed happy with the boys, so I didn’t want to pester.”
“You couldn’t pester me if you tried,” he grinned. “Let’s, uh, let’s go get a drink,” he suggested, glancing at the bottle in my hand, which still had a little left. I raised my eyebrows at him and he shrugged, beginning to tug me softly away from Dave and Josh. I shot a mildly exasperated look at the pair, before saying a brief goodbye and allowing John to lead me away.
I felt myself being pushed lightly into the cold metal of the bus as John led me decidedly not to the drinks table, capturing my mouth with his own. I smirked a little into his lips, the drunk John I’d been asking for less than an hour ago having appeared while I was off forgetting I wanted him.
I pushed John back toward our bus, trying my best not to stumble over my feet as I did so. I could hear him chuckling at me and I scowled, my attempt to not seem as drunk as I felt apparently failing. I hadn’t done this in forever. How on earth had I gotten almost blackout drunk at 17 and still remembered how to effectively seduce a guy and get him upstairs without falling on my face?
I allowed John to unlock the door, knowing I would take way longer than I was willing to allow to correctly punch in the code. I appreciated how well he knew what I wanted, without my having to say so. It felt like we were in sync, something I hadn’t felt in a long while.
“I thought we were making this time sweet, something to remember,” he said. I grinned mischievously, pulling his hips closer to my own. We had made our way inside, the pair of us still stumbling somewhat blindly toward the back of the bus, our lips attached.
“I mean, we could,” I shrugged, biting my lip softly as I looked up at him. “Or, well, we could take advantage of an empty bed and an otherwise occupied group of friends.”
“I swear, you’re killing me,” he groaned, pushing his lips to mine once again. “But I have to ask: as much as I want this, are you sure you want this? You don’t want to wait?” I looked at him, my heart fluttering despite my brain telling me this was annoying and to just get on with it. He actually god damn cared, and it was more endearing than pretty much anything I had ever experienced before.
“It’s been,” I paused briefly, counting the months in my head, “20 months. Yes, of course I fucking want this.” He chuckled briefly, his lips pressing themselves to mine again.
“Wait.” He stopped suddenly, looking at me confused. “That would be—so, you and I—that’s the last time?” I rolled my eyes at him, not sure what kind of point he was making here.
“John, we’re closing in on two years here. The last person I fucked was you, the next person I fuck had damn well better be you so, please, can we do this?” He groaned in what I took to be a happy way, pushing another kiss to my lips. “Say it again.”
“What? ‘Please’?” He nodded, still doing his best to keep our lips connected when I wasn’t talking to him. “If I say please, this had better be as good as I remember.”
“Better,” he assured me. “I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two since then.”
“Well, then, please show me, because I have learned nothing since then.” “Good,” he growled. His hands gripped the underside of my thighs, hoisting me up until I wrapped my legs around his waist, carrying me through the bus and into the back room.

Notes

I've been super MIA, I know. I'm working on it, I promise.
If you notice any formatting errors or typos, please let me know. I'm working on that same stupid tablet as last year and having to format manually using HTML when I copy it. Yawn!