Say This Sooner -A7X One Shot

I released the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. I don’t know why I was so relieved to be sharing a room with Jimmy, but I did know it wasn’t going to be with Brian, and I was happy about that.

Maybe it was because it would have been really awkward for me to share a room with just Matt. Being alone with him always made me so shy and I never knew how to speak properly anymore. I would always start stuttering because I could feel the butterflies in my stomach every time I was near him.

I did feel a little upset that I wasn’t going to be sharing it with him, but I guess in reality it would be better that I didn’t. Now I’m left wondering what it’s going to be like sharing a room and a bed with Jimmy…

We were just friends of course, but still, I've never actually slept in the same bed as any of the guys before. I just really hope it doesn’t become awkward between us.

Matt grunted in frustration. “Fuck, now I have to sleep in a small room that Brian’s going to turn into a fart box!”

Everyone laughed as Brian glared at him. “Shut up, it’s not going to be that bad. It’s not like any of you haven’t ever done it before!”

I went over and patted his shoulder. “It’s okay Bri. Don’t worry, no matter how badly you smell, we will always love you.” He smirked and picked up his bags.

“Okay guys, we can go put our stuff up, get changed and then we can meet up at the pool.” Matt directed, grabbing his things.

We all nodded and got into the elevator. “Are you coming with us Zacky?” I asked, noticing how tired he looked.

He shrugged. “Maybe for a little while, but soon after I’m going straight to sleep.”

“Me too,” Matt mumbled, giving Brian a look. “I want to fall asleep before he does.”

Brian shook his head and rolled his eyes angrily. “Anyone else who mentions any kind of flatulence one more damn time will severely be punished. Got it?” He hissed. We all just laughed and nodded.

“Yes, sir.” Jimmy mocked. Brian just glared at him through a side-glance and all Jimmy could do was try not to smirk.

I looked up at him. “So roomie, what’s our room number?”

He glanced down at the room keycard. “208. What about you guys?” He asked the others.

Matt shrugged. “211. Hopefully it will have a balcony to where I can escape and jump off if I need to.” He said, trying to hold back his smile. Brian just ignored him.

Johnny laughed. “Ours is 214.”

Jimmy grew serious. “Dude, I heard that room is haunted. I saw it on the Travel Channel one day. They were interviewing a maid at this exact hotel and she said a guy hung himself in that room.”

“What?” Johnny and Zack both asked at the same time. Johnny looked horrified as Zack was looking unconvinced.

Jimmy nodded. “Yeah, it was on last week or something. I personally don’t think it’s haunted, but I don’t know,” He shrugged. “I guess I’m just glad I don’t have that room.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Johnny shrieked and Jimmy nodded as we all stepped out of the elevator to go find our rooms.

“Quit Jimmy, you’re gonna scare him and make him stay up all night, and that’ll just keep me awake too.” Zack pleaded.

“No, he’s totally telling the truth. I saw that episode with him.” I cut in to help Jimmy out with his prank to scare Johnny, who was obviously a firm believer in ghosts.

“It was a story about this hotel and she was telling the show about a man who came here to have an affair, but then he felt so guilty for what he did that he hung himself, right above one of the beds in there.” I said, making it up as I went.

I have to say, I think I was pretty good at acting, ‘cause now I had everyone’s attention, and they all seemed convinced, except Jimmy who was trying not to laugh.

“Ah, hell no! I am not sleeping in that room!” Johnny shouted. “Give me your guys’ key!”

Brian snatched his hand away as Johnny tried to take it from him. “Fuck that, I am not switching you.You can sleep with the ghosts all you want, but not me.”

Matt’s eyes lit up and I could see he had sparked an idea. “Okay Johnny, you can switch places with me. I’m not afraid of any spirits.” Before anyone could protest, he snatched Johnny’s key and switched it with his.

“Deal!” Johnny shouted, but then just realized what had happened as Matt laughed and ran off towards his new room. “No, wait. Hey! Don’t make me sleep with Brian!”

“Oh, so now you’re planning on having sex with him too?” Jimmy teased as we walked to our rooms.

Johnny growled in frustration as Brian’s face twisted into disgust. “There isn’t enough alcohol in the world to get me drunk enough to sleep with him.” He muttered.

“Same to you, pal.” Johnny threw over his shoulder as he walked away. Brian caught up with him and the others as they went to their rooms.

“So, which one is ours again?” I asked Jimmy as it was just us in the hall now.

He looked around at all of the room numbers. “We’re in 208.” He shrugged, still not seeing it.

Then I noticed the last room at the end of the hall, with our room number right on the door. “Oh, there it is.” I pointed.

We walked down the hall to the door. He slid in the key and we both stepped inside. To my surprise, the room was actually beautiful and very spacious. The bed was gorgeous and was just big enough for the both of us, without having to lie too closely together. We both looked around in awe, wondering how we even got such room. Were the other’s rooms as awesome as this one?

“Well, this is uh…” Jimmy paused, still looking around.

“Nice,” I nodded, finishing his sentence.

He quickly looked down at the room key. “Are you sure we’re supposed to be in this room? The number is right and all, but…I don’t think we were given the right key.” He chuckled.

I shrugged. “Oh well, we’re already here, might as well make the best of it.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” His eyes lit up as he ran over to the window. “Whoa, check out this view! It’s fucking amazing!”

I laughed, joining him as he peered down at the rest of the city beneath us, the bright lights shining into mixtures of gold and silver underneath the darkening blue sky. There were only a few clouds above, but the sunset reflected off them and added even more color to the night. It all almost looked unreal, like a photograph or even a beautiful painting.

I sighed, feeling so at peace just staring out the window with him, not even wanting to move after sitting down on the edge of the comfortable bed. “Well it’s going to get dark soon. We should get changed so we can meet the others out at the pool.”

He turned away from the window to look at me. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You can take the bathroom and I'll change in here. It shouldn’t take me long.”

I nodded and picked my bag up, dragging it with me into the bathroom. “Okay, I'll be back in a sec.” I shut the door and pulled out my bathing suit, quickly pulling it on over myself. I pulled up my long dark hair and threw on a simple t-shirt and shorts to cover myself up until we got down to the pool to meet the others.

I made sure Jimmy was decent before leaving the bathroom. “Well it took ya long enough,” He teased with that crooked smile of his.

I playfully rolled my eyes, slipping on my flip-flops and grabbed a towel for the both of us and stuffed them in a beach bag that I had already had packed into one of my suitcases.

“You ready to go?” I asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.” He spun around and began to walk with me out the door.

That's when I noticed that he was in the swim trunks I had bought him one day when we were shopping at a mall together after one of their shows. I don’t know why, but it made me smile to see him wearing them. They looked great on him-

Wait a minute, stop thinking like that. You are not attracted to him. I tried to keep telling myself. You like Matt, remember? But Matt didn’t like me, at least, not that I knew for sure. Where was I even going with this? Matt would never like me the way I did him. I needed to get my head on straight. We were only friends and that’s all we would ever be. It was the same for Jimmy and me. There would never be anything more than a friendship between us…

Down at the pool, all of the guys were there, drinking on the beer Brian had snuck into the hotel after he visited the liquor store down the block. I hung out, sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet dangling in the water as I watched Zack dunk Johnny underneath a few times. No one did anything but watch and laugh, sipping on their beers. Poor Johnny.

Finally, he had enough and stayed down long enough to grab a hold of Zack and sweep his legs out from underneath him, bringing him down with him. As soon as Johnny resurfaced, he threw himself onto Zack’s shoulder and started holding him down for payback.

I felt a slightly worried for Zack’s safety, because I knew Johnny wasn’t going to let him up anytime soon. I could see air bubbles start to surface and I began to panic. I looked around me quickly, hoping to find something that could make Johnny stop because I knew he wouldn’t listen to me.

When I saw it at my left, I quickly picked up one of the guys’ shoes and chunked it at Johnny’s head. It bounced off the center of his forehead and plummeted into the water.

“OW!” Johnny screamed, looking around, not sure who had thrown it.

“Hey! That was my shoe!” Brian whined. He had seen me do it and was caught between laughter and getting mad at me.

I frantically waved at Johnny and Zack as he finally emerged from underneath the water, gasping for air. “He was drowning Zack! What else was I supposed to do?”

“He started it!” Johnny shouted, wincing as he reached up to touch his now red forehead. “Ah, damn it Antonia! Now there’s a big fucking bump on my head!”

I shrugged. “And you deserved it.” I looked down at Zack. “You okay?”

He grunted as he pulled himself up next to me. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. Thanks sis.” He smiled and wrapped an arm around me to pull me into a small hug.

Zack hardly ever showed much compassion with me since we bickered a lot, but when he did, it was always surprisingly sweet.

I smiled back. “You don’t have to thank me. If anyone’s going to drown you, it’ll be me in a pool of your own puke.” My smile turned sinister.

He gave me a frightened look and backed away. Not that I was serious or anything, but the look he gave me made me break out into an evil laughter.

“Hey!” Matt shouted, waving over someone from behind me. “There you guys are! I thought you would never make it!”

I swiftly turned around to be greeted by a group of girls, making their way over to us at the pool. They all looked like they were wearing bathing suits underneath their clothes. I could definitely tell by the one who was wearing a tube-top and short shorts. I recognized three of the four. The one who was dressed kind of sleazy I hadn’t met before. It was one of Gena, Lacey, and Michelle’s friends.

They all came over to greet their boyfriends and were about to get into the water after changing out of their clothes. I suddenly felt like a little girl again under my one piece, but luckily, I was still wearing my clothes over my swimsuit because I hadn’t been in the water yet.

I was surprised to see the blonde I haven’t met wearing anything underneath what she had on. It was already more revealing than an actual bathing suit. I stood and decided to be polite and introduce myself since I didn’t know this girl and didn’t want to become judgmental over someone I haven't even met yet.

“Yeah, sorry. Michelle just had to stop at the mall to check out the sale that was going on.” Lacey playfully rolled her eyes.

“Hey, I couldn’t help it. You know how I get when it comes to clothes shopping, and besides, it was my favorite store! Do you honestly expect me to miss out on a sale?” Michelle defended herself.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brian roll his eyes and shake his head. He was used to his girlfriend’s shopping addiction by now.

“Yeah, but did you have to get three new pairs of shoes?” Gena teased.

Brian's eyes grew wide in shock. “You bought three pairs of shoes?” He exclaimed. “Don’t you already have fifty other pairs infesting my closet at home?”

It was her turn to roll her eyes at him and waved him off. “Oh, quit your worrying. It was only a hundred and twenty-five bucks. I saved a ton of money.”

I tried so hard to hold in my laughter at her and then at Brian's expression. “Only a hundred and twent-” He paused, still in disbelief. “Are serious right now?”

That’s when the girls that I’ve known for years saw me and came to greet me. I gave them each a hug and asked how they’ve been. I was pretty good friends with the girls. Though they were a lot more girly than I was, we still hung out often and went shopping together, though after a while now, I promised myself to never agree to going with Michelle ever again. She could spend all day in just one store.

“Antonia, everybody, this is Amber. She’s been of my friends since high school.” Gena told everyone after giving me a hug.

Everyone smiled politely and greeted her, a little too politely I might say…All eyes were on her, more like just above where her shirt line started all the way down to where her shorts ended. Michelle caught Brian staring and snagged him in the ribs with her purse. He doubled over and grunted. I would have laughed if I hadn’t noticed Matt getting out of the pool and making his way over.

I felt my face instantly flush and my nerves began to flutter in my stomach. I knew he wasn’t coming over for me. He never looked at me the way he was looking at her right now.

I felt like I was going to puke as jealousy started to overcome me in a fit of rage. Why was I becoming jealous? He hasn’t even said one word to the girl. Why was I making such a big deal out of the way he looked at her? They were all looking at her that way.

He grabbed a towel before making his way to all of us and began to dry himself off on his way over. When he got to us, I swear, our eyes made contact for a brief second, but then he quickly reached up and pulled down his aviators, coming over to stand directly between her and me. He stood with his back almost to me and reached out to shake her hand.

“Hi, I’m Matt.” He grinned that famous, adorable, dimpled smile, the one I saw very little of directed towards me and more towards the girls he liked. She smiled back as she tucked her bangs behind her ear and shook his hand.

My heart felt shattered. I had to do something, anything to put an end to this before it could begin. “So, what are you guys doing here? I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Oh, well, we-” Michelle began.

“I invited them,” Matt threw over his shoulder, barely even acknowledging me afterwards.

I pursed my lips, trying to think of ways to get his attention, away from her at least. I had to do something. I was beginning to become desperate.

Notes