Michelle’s POV

It had been about a week since Brian had taken me out to the drive in and I just couldn’t get him out of my head. Those brown eyes and that cocky little smirk were engraved into my mind, haunting my thoughts.

Not to mention that no one had ever made me feel so good. And what was that spark that happened every time we touched? It was like he was sending an electric charge through my body, one that was both pleasurable and addicting. Hell when we kissed it felt like every nerve ending in my body was on fire, pulling me and drawing me toward him like a moth to the flame. I wanted more…

“Chelle? Did you hear a fucking word I just said?” Val yells, throwing a guitar pick at me and pulling me from my thoughts. I shake my head and look over at her with a sheepish smile. Okay, so maybe I’m a little more than distracted at band practice.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about that last chord progression,” I lie and take the time to adjust my strap so Val doesn’t catch my fib. “What were you saying?”

Val groans and rolls her eyes. “I said that we are going to change the form. We are going to put in a bridge with a guitar solo instead of repeating the refrain three times in a row.” Okay, I got it now. I wonder if this is how the guys’ band practice went? I had only heard them practice once at Brian’s but I think it was just mainly he and Jimmy.

“And then we go right back into the refrain?” Leana practically screams from behind the drum kit. I turn around and see her practically bouncing up and down from the excitement and energy coursing through her small frame. I guess the drums were a good outlet for her, huh?

“Yes, now let’s get going. We have to head home soon,” Val says and I frowned. “Mother Dearest and Captain Douchebag will be home soon. God it’s been a nice week without them.”

I laughed humorlessly as Leana counted us in, “Isn’t that the truth.”

By the end of the song, the three of us were looking around at each other with huge smiles on our faces. We didn’t sound too bad, especially not for just coming together. I was impressed! I mean, we still had a lot of work to do but for only having four practices together, we were really starting to find a groove!

“That was freaking sick,” I laugh, covering my mouth with my hands. “I seriously have goosebumps on my arms!”

“We’re gonna be ready for some gigs here in a few more weeks if we keep this up!” Leana yells as she stands on her stool. I swear that girl is going to kill herself doing that one-day, but I think her outlandishness was one of the reasons we were such good friends. She balanced out my shy side.

Val just shook her head and started to unplug the equipment from the generator we were using in the abandoned house. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Yes, we sound great but we’ve got a lot of work to do. So let’s just stay focused and we’ll meet on Sunday?”

Leana and I both nodded and exchanged a small smirk. Well, we both knew that we would probably be hung over after the party at the warehouse on Saturday night, but maybe I could talk Val into coming with me. At least if she was there, I would have a little buffer to keep Matt away. Yes, I had been avoiding him for the past week, claiming I was busy with a French project and grounded. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the guy but Brian was my main priority right now and I wanted to see where things were going with him first. I wonder if he would ask me to homecoming…

“So do you think Zacky is going to ask you to the homecoming dance, Leana?” I ask her as we pick up her equipment and stuff it into Zack’s car. One of us really had to get a car so we could move our equipment without relying on someone else.

The smile that was on Leana’s face instantly fell and she looked to the ground. “It wouldn’t matter if he did…” she sighs and walks toward the car with the bass drum and pedal.

I follow her out with my bass and stop her. “What do you mean?”

Leana set the drum in the back of the car and sighed, pinching her eyes closed. Well this was the quietest I had seen her about anything. What the hell was going on? “Because I’m not going.”

“What do you mean you’re not going?” I press, following her back inside. “Who is going to be my partner in crime?” and that was the truth! Leana was my dance partner and right-hand-gal at every party we had attended for the past year.

“You’ve replaced me? Well fuck you!” Val calls from the other side of the room and I roll my eyes. I held up my middle finger to her jokingly. She knew that Leana and I had become really close friends.

“Come on, Leana. What’s going on? Why don’t you want to go?” I ask, stopping her and taking her hands in mine.

“Yeah, why doesn’t the life of the party want to go to the biggest party of the year besides prom?” Val joined in the conversation.

“It’s not that I don’t want to go it’s just that I don’t have a fucking dress, okay!” Leana yells and Val and I just look at each other, having a nonverbal conversation like we so frequently do. There was no way that was the reason she wasn’t going to homecoming. “What?” she looks nervously between us and Val and I just smile.

“You’re going, and we are going to make sure you have a killer dress,” I tell her, Val nodding in agreement.
“And tell you what, we’re going to go to the mall tomorrow and we are going to pick something out. We will be the three hottest bitches in the place, that’s for damn sure,” Val announces and I can't help but smile. It seemed like ages since I had been shopping. I think the last time was before school started and in my opinion that was way too long.

Leana shook her head and looked between us. “No, I can’t let you guys do that…” Did she really think we were going to take that for an answer? She was coming and she was getting a dress with us, damn it!

“Oh, just think of it as a thank you for joining our band,” Val shrugs, leading us out of the house and to the car. “So obviously Leana is going to go with Zacky, that’s a given since you’re basically attached at the hip.”

“We’re just friends,” Leana yells at us as she backs out of the long hidden driveway.

“Friends with benefits,” Val snorts as she takes out her pack of cigarettes and lights up. “Please, there is no way you’re not fucking. Not with how he is always up your ass and lets you borrow his car.”

“Okay so maybe we’re friends with benefits,” she laughs, holding a hand up as she drives. From the side I can see the twinkle in her eyes and I know that she is scheming in her head. “So who do you want to go with?” Suddenly those dark eyes are staring me down and I know exactly what she’s thinking: Brian or Matt?

You see ever since that night that Leana and Zacky caught Brian and I at drive in, she had been asking me a million questions: What happened between you and Matt? So now you’re sleeping with Haner?
Which one was I going to go with? Had I lost my v-card to either of them yet? No, I hadn’t slept with either of them, well, nothing past third base but I didn’t know what I wanted. Well, let me take that back. I knew who I wanted more but the question was, did they want the same?

I knew Matt liked me and wanted a relationship with me, hell he had told me so multiple times but I just couldn’t shake the way Brian made me feel. Was I crazy for that? I mean, Matt was there for me when I needed him while I knew Brian was rumored to be a player. I don’t know, after growing up next door to him, I didn’t see him that way. I saw him as the very attractive, loveable goofball that he was.

“Yeah, who do you want to go with, Chelle?” Val pipes up from the back seat and I groan inwardly. Of course she wants to know! Then she could finally figure out if there was something between Matt and I or not.

“I don’t know,” I shrug, averting my eyes from both of them. Well, it was partly the truth. “I guess I’ll have to see who asks me. What about you Val?” Only she wasn’t buying.

“Oh come on, out with it! You’ve always got a crush on someone. Who is it now?” Val pressed, ignoring my question. Figured as much. “Sean Michaels? Sanders? Or are you still falling for Haner’s bullshit?”

My eyes instantly snapped up to hers as the panic set in. What did she know? Had someone slipped something? Shit, no one was supposed to know about Matt or Brian except for Leana and I kept things very vague with her. Well, I guess she knew who I liked more, as I had told her as much but would she tell Val?

“I thought Haner was more of your cup of tea now,” I shot back, feeling a ping of jealousy as I thought back to a few weeks ago at school. Calm down, Michelle, Brian told you that he chose you. There is no need to get worked up and pull a jealous girlfriend when you don’t even have the title. That is the best way to scare him away. Get your shit together.

Val shrugged her shoulders and leaned back in her seat with a smirk on her face. What the hell was that about? “I wouldn’t complain if Gates asked me to homecoming. There are worse ways I’d rather spend my night,” she chuckles and I have to look out the window to fight the odd feeling rising inside of me.

So Val still liked Brian? Had he not told her that he wasn’t interested anymore? Or maybe he was avoiding her like I was avoiding Matt? Oh, well I wasn’t going to worry about it right now. Brian hadn’t given me a reason not to trust him yet so I would give him the benefit of the doubt. But what would she say if Brian took me to homecoming instead? Did I really care?

“So you want to go with Gates?” Leana gasps, looking at me with wide eyes. Don’t you dare say a word Leana McFadden or I will seriously kick your ass. “Would you go with any of the other guys?”

“Who does that leave, Sanders or Shadows?” Val mocks with a musical laugh. “Please, we’d kill each other if we went together. But enough about that, we’ll just have to wait and see who has the balls to ask,” she finishes just as we pull up to our house. “So meet us at the bus stop at one tomorrow, Silver?”

“Of course!” she gushed before pulling us both into a hug with a huge smile. “I’m so fucking excited! See you in the morning!” Leana calls as we got out of the car and grabbed our gear. We wave goodbye before we head up the path and I instantly feel my anxiety rise when I see mom standing in the kitchen.

“And how are we going to afford to get her a dress?” I whisper as we walk up the path after dropping our equipment in the garage. “You know she’s going to throw a fit about us needing a dress anyway. I’m sure she’ll say ‘wear something you have.”

Val scoffed and shook her head. “That’s not fucking happening and I have an idea.” And there was that wicked smirk that told me that she had a terrible idea. Shit, she was going to get us both in big trouble isn’t she? I hated being in trouble, especially when it came to mom. I don’t know what happened to her after she started dating David, but she wasn’t the woman I used to love with all of my heart. It was like he changed her but I had no idea how.

“Val…” I whine. “What are you planning?” Please don’t be something stupid. Please for the love of god don’t let it be anything stupid!

“Why don’t you just leave that to me, okay? It will make things easier for you,” she says before she opens the door, not giving me an opportunity to argue back. She was always doing this. I should have freaking expected it!

“Psst, Michelle?”

I turned around to see Brain stepping through the bushes. What the hell was he doing here? Everyone could see him through the kitchen window. Shit, I had to get him out of here before
Mom or worse, Val saw him. I didn’t need her to know that we were starting to see each other.

I looked at him incredulously before I made a shooing motion with my hand. He couldn’t be here right now. Without thinking, I motioned upstairs and hoped that he would get the hint to meet me upstairs in my room. I just hoped he wouldn’t get caught.

“Michelle, get in here and shut the door you’re letting the air out!” Mother Dearest calls. Well at least she doesn’t sound awful today. “Where have you two been?” she continues as soon as I shut the door behind me.

“We were out with our friend Leana McFadden. We went and walked around the park,” Val automatically crossed her arms and got into her defensive position, making me cringe inwardly. The last thing I wanted was to get in a fight right now.

“The park?” Mother scoffs. “Whatever, were there any calls or message when we were out.” Those dark eyes turned on me and I felt like I was in her line of fire now.

“I wrote them down on the book by the phone but nothing besides David’s dental appointment on Tuesday next week,” I nervously twisted my hands in front of me, hoping she didn’t find me doing something wrong.

“And there is a stack of mail over on the desk,” Val adds, stepping next to me and taking my arm. “But we wanted to ask you something…”

“And what could you possibly want, Valary?” Ouch that was a little cold wasn’t it, especially when she hadn’t seen us in over a week. What happened to the loving woman we used to know?

“Well…” I start, not wanting to have Val get the full blow of her anger. “You see…homecoming is coming up and—“

“Absolutely not!” Mom interrupts and my face instantly falls. And it was exactly what I thought… “I’m not buying your guys another dress when you have a closet full of them! Wear something you have because I’m not wasting my hard earned money on something stupid. You two were spoiled enough at the start of school.” Though I wouldn’t call getting basic necessity as ‘spoiled’. We hadn’t been spoiled since dad died and mom started dating David.

“That’s not fair! We haven’t asked for anything in months!” Val argued.

“Not fair? I’ll tell you what’s not fucking fair Valary—“ Mom yelled back and I couldn’t stand there and listen to them scream back and forth about it. I quickly hightailed it up to my room and shut the door, jumping when I saw Brian standing there.

“Damn it, Brian…” I sigh and hold my racing heart. I totally forgot that I had him come up here. “You’re really starting to get in the habit of scaring the shit out of me!”

“I think you like meeting me like this,” and there was that smirk that made me feel weak in the knees. My eyes instantly went to his lips, remembering how they felt on mine. Damn I wanted to kiss him! “It’s exciting and you and I both know what happens when you’re excited…” Brian took a step towards me as I licked my lips. He must have been feeling the same way too because within a few seconds his lips were pressed to mine.

The second his lips touched mine, I felt every nerve ending explode in my body and I instantly melted into his arms. God he tasted good, like an intoxicating mix of spearmint, smoke, and his unique flavor. My fingers moved up and twisted in his hair and with two steps backwards Brian had me on my bed. “Wait,” I say, pushing gently on his chest even though I can feel his growing need stabbing me in the thigh. “We can't…Val could walk in…what did you want anyway?”

“This,” he says and presses his lips back to mine, pushing me down into the mattress with his body and causing my head to spin. It took me a few more seconds to regain myself and find the strength to push him away.

“I’m serious, Val will be coming up here soon and she can’t find you here,” I urge and Brian sighs.

“Okay fine but will you come see me later?” His brown eyes bore down into mine and I bit down on my lower lip. Why was he so tempting?

“I-I don’t know if I can get out tonight…plus we have plans early tomorrow morning,” I admit with a small frown. I hated seeing that frown come over his face, though it was kind of cute.

“Well then tomorrow night? I’ll take you out somewhere? Maybe a walk in the park? Just the two of us?” He asks, running his calloused fingers over my bottom lip. I looked up to meet his gaze and how can I say no to those eyes? I mean, hell just looking at them was making my heart race.

“Okay, tomorrow night but you have to go!” I say, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs. “Go! Quick!” I push him toward the window but Brian steals one more kiss from me before he slips out the window. At that exact moment my bedroom door flew open and Val walks in looking pissed. Oh, no what happened now?

“What are you doing?” she asks, seeing me standing awkwardly by the window.

“Just opening the window,” I lie, looking at the floor as I move over to my bed. I couldn’t believe how wet he had made me with just a few kisses. I mean, why did he make me feel so alive? Brian was really starting to become addicting and I wanted more and more. “What happened?”

Val quietly closed my bedroom door and pulled out a gold Master card out of her back pocket. My jaw dropped as I looked at her, not believing my eyes. No, there was no fucking way she stole Mom’s credit card. She was going to seriously kill us when she realized it was missing! “No…Val…you have to put that back, we are going to get in trouble!” I say, shaking my head.

“No way, this is step two of operation bad girl. And on top of getting dresses we are getting a new party outfit AND we are sneaking out to go to a party. There is no way I am staying home on a Saturday night!” Val says and I can't believe my ears.

“Did you forget who or mother is now?” I say, still not liking the idea. “She may literally beat the shit out of us for this…”

“I don’t give a damn, Mich,” Val took my head and sat me down on my bed. “We need this. We need to show her that we don’t give a damn what she says. She obviously doesn’t care about us anymore so we shouldn’t care about her. This is payback for all the shit she’s put us through and that’s if she even notices! She buys so much shit she won't even notice a few extra charges. So just relax okay?”

“Yeah…” I sigh, still not liking the idea.

The next morning, Val and I met Leana at the bus stop and the three of us made our way to the mall. I still didn’t feel right about stealing mom’s card, but the more we walked around the more I became okay with the idea. Man there were just some many cute outfits that I wanted to buy.

“There they are!” Leana screams as she pulls both Val and I to the dress and tuxedo shop. “Oh my god…I want them all!” she gushes, hugging the fabric. And she wasn’t kidding I had no idea how I was going to pick.

Within minutes, I had a stack of dresses in hand and made my way to the dressing room with my sister and Leana. I pulled my favorite off the hanger and pulled it on, the dress fitting my curves perfectly. It was a red lace, open back, floor length dress that hugged me in all the right places. Damn…this was the one…

I carefully opened the door and stepped out to the area with the full-length mirrors as I heard a gasp behind me.

“Wow Chelle…you look…stunning….”

Matt’s POV

All throughout band rehearsal I was distracted. I just didn’t understand what had happened between Michelle and I. I mean I did everything right! I took my time with her, I told her I was okay with her being a virgin because I really was. It was fucking hot that she was still a virgin and I hoped that one day she would give me the privilege of showing her the dance between the sheets. But ever since I told her that I would wait and wanted a public relationship with her, she had been avoiding me. What the hell gives?

She said it was something about having a French project and being grounded but I didn’t buy it. Especially since Val said they were out of town for the week to Brian. So what the hell happened?

“All right, all right, enough,” Jimmy says stopping his grove and shaking his head. “That fucking sucked and you missed your entrance twice now, Shads.”

“Yeah, what the fuck, dude?” Gates adds and I just roll my eyes. Yeah like he was perfect. He was looking out the garage door half the time anyway. What was he looking for? No one we knew lived around me.

“I’m sorry,” I groan. “Let’s just try it one more time. I’ve got it this time,” I assure them but they didn’t look convinced. So maybe this was second or third time I had said this but I was serious this time. I was going to push Michelle out of my head, at least for the time being.

“No, screw it, I’m starving and Johnny is starting to piss me off with that stupid look on his face,” Rev says and we all laugh. It was true. Johnny always got the dumbest look I had ever seen when he was thinking really hard about something. Which apparently was all the time when he played.

“Fuck you, you’re just jealous because the ladies love a bass player,” Johnny counters which only makes us laugh harder. Yeah, that was definitely it. All the girls were going to go after the freshman! Please…my ass. Besides what wasn’t he dating an eighth grader? That was just fucking sick.

“Yeah, and you can’t spell bass without ass so go figure on that one, short shit,” Zack adds and now we are really dying.

“Haha well at least I have a fucking band name!” Oh, yeah because that made you taller or less of a douche? Don’t get me wrong, he was a great friend of mine. We just loved to give him a hard time. He was our whipping boy if you will.

“What’s that wiener dick?” Gates teases and I just roll my eyes as we start to pick up equipment.

“It’s Johnny fucking Christ you assholes and will you stop with the fucking short jokes. I get it! Though, I’ve still got time…so you just wait. I’ll be taller than all of you assholes!” he says before he storms out of the garage. Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.

As I moved around and picked up the amp and microphone chords, my thoughts wandered back to Michelle and the one night we spent in here on my couch. I fucking missed her touch and her smell, the way her lips felt when they touched mine. Damn, why was that girl stuck in my mind?

“What’s up?” Zack asks, pulling me from my thoughts. “You look like someone ran over your dog.”

I threw the chords in the tote box and ran my hands over my face. “It’s just fucking….” I looked around to make sure no one else was standing in close proximity. Thankfully Brian and Jimmy were standing out by the cars so that I could finally get some of this shit off my chest. “Its just fucking Chelle…” I finally sigh.

“What do you mean?” Oh come on, Zee, don’t play stupid. You know that Michelle and I have been seeing each other for weeks now at these parties. He had to notice that she wasn’t around as much recently right?

“She’s just been fucking avoiding me and I don’t get it,” I groan, not believing that he was making me say all that out loud. “I mean I’ve done everything right…I’ve given her time. I’ve taken it slow…I even told her that I wanted to fucking date her and ever since then she’s been pretending I’m not around.

“That’s rough man, and I don’t really know what to tell you. Maybe give her some time?” Zack offers but that’s not really helping me right now.

“And that’s not even the worst fucking part!” I was starting to get frustrated now and ran my hands over my face before I pulled at my hair. “I told her I wanted to be in a relationship with her and that I would wait until she was ready to have sex because she’s a fucking virgin! A fucking virgin!” I groan, feeling like I was losing the best thing in the world. “What more can I do besides tell her I’ll wait? How did that fucking scare her away?”

A light chuckle filled the garage and both Zack and I turned to see Brain grabbing his amp. “Maybe she’s avoiding you because you’re not the guy she wants,” he says with that cocky ass smirk on his face. What did he do? Was this all his fault?

“What the hell does that mean, Gates?” I growl, feeling my temper and jealousy rising inside my chest.

“Just what I said. Maybe she decided she wanted something or someone else,” he shrugs. “I guess we’ll just have to see who she’ll go to homecoming with, won't we? Come on, Zee, let’s get out of here,” and with that he turns and walks out of the garage with Zack, leaving me gaping after him with clenched fist.

Zack turned around and shrugged his shoulders apologetically at me. What the fuck did he mean we’ll see who she goes to homecoming with? Since when did Brian go to school dances? Was he fucking saying he was going to ask Michelle? No, that wasn’t going to fly with me. I swear if he was making a moves on Michelle and trying to get in between us, I was going to kill him, especially when I heard he was fucking Val. I called dibs on Michelle and damn it, Synyster Gates wasn’t going to get in the middle of that.

Notes

Next chapter. Oh, the drama! Please comment/vote/subscribe. We need to hear from you. :)