BRIAN

I'll never forget how I met her. It's like the memory is etched in my brain like a fucking scar. No matter how hard I tried, it never faded.

Today was just another regular day and I was supposed to meet the guys about an hour ago at Matt's parents' garage. But I had to grab some new shit from the guitar center, so I ran a little late. But finally, I made it.

"What took you so long, Haner?" Matt asked as I bumped into him in the porch, that too with an unknown brunette. I just nodded at my stuff, he'd understand. "Meg, that's Brian-" he said to the brunette standing beside him. She smiled warmly and waved a hand at me. I smiled back with a nod; I got that she's Meg, but who was she?

"And she's Meg, Erika's friend." Not again, Sanders. Who was Erika now?!

"We have the whole summer for doing introductions and getting to know each other." Meg said motioning her hands between her and I before looking at Matt. "Right now, I just want you to take me inside and to the washroom." She said with what seemed like a forced smile. When he didn't respond, I spoke up, "What are you waiting for? Take her in." Meg looked at me incredulously, "I know right." I simply nodded with a grin.

"Yeah, let's go." Matt replied and proceeded to take her in. "I bet we'll get along, uh, Brian right?" Meg called out looking back at me. I cocked a brow and showed her a thumbs up, "Of course, and yeah, it's Brian." Hmm, she did seem interesting. Anyways, I went in to the garage only to find the others with another chick.

She was going through some of the lyrics probably, with deep concentration. Holy fucking fudge cakes. Seriously, she looked like she'd just walked off a fucking movie set. I couldn't resist breaking the silence that filled the air. "Who's the chick?" She turned her attention to me, making me smirk. Her look told me I was obviously going to annoy her.

"She's Erika, my cousin. E, that's Brian." Next to me, Zacky said as he fixed his amp. I glanced at him quickly to see if they had any facial similarities, and then at Erika. I looked over her more closely, she had natural dark hair and her eyes sparkled from the light that came through the open door.

She was fairly skinny, nice tits too. Oh shit, I just saw Jimmy looking at me staring at them. She looked like she was in the popular clique, she just had that air. She looked at me and was about to open her mouth, but stopped. For some reason, I wanted to hear her voice. But when she didn't say anything at all, I suppressed a smile and continued to admire her silently with a nonchalant look.

As Jimmy and Zacky talked about string pitches, Erika sat down with them and seemed to focus on the conversation. By the look on her face, anyone could tell she wasn't getting anything that was being talked about. Every time they spoke of a chord, the look on Erika's face got more confused. Unfortunately, she caught me looking at her and I shot her an amused look, only to earn a glare from her. Now if that wasn't hot, then I didn't know what was.

"What are you smirking at?" She asked me with narrowed eyes. Was she trying to intimidate me? Oh boy she was. Hmm, I didn't mind playing a little game with her now. So I replied confidently, "A hot chick." I knew that Jimmy and Zacky were too busy in their conversation, and they wouldn't hear anything that I'd say now.

Erika probably seemed surprised by my answer and didn't say anything. I swear I saw her cheeks turn red but she quickly covered that by narrowing her eyes at me. I wanted to compliment her again, but didn't wanna seem too desperate. So I kept looking at her silently, not in a creepy way though, and studied her features again. She was slightly tanned and her blue eyes took her beauty to another level.

She glanced at me occasionally, shooting me the evil eye which did nothing except make her look more beautiful to me. I wanted to talk to her but stayed quiet, someone else could engage us into a conversation. But unfortunately, nobody did.

Matt and Meg came back a while later, and I didn't fail to notice how Erika's posture changed as Matt sat down beside her. Both of them shared a small smile with each other, and I cocked a brow. Had something happened here already before I arrived?

"How do you people do that?" Meg's voice made me look at her in confusion. "Do...what?" I asked slightly clueless, and she pointed at my face with a finger. "That thing with one brow. I think it's pretty cool, raising only one of them. Cuz who can't raise both the brows, except for Sara Brown who shaved her eyebrows accidentally as she puts it." She said, leaving me clueless about who Sara Brown was.

I smiled anyways, "That's a gift from my dad, I guess."

While everyone was talking amongst themselves, I was given a few bits and pieces of information by Meg about the girl who tried to blast my head off by glaring at me a while ago. My assumption about her was correct; she was in the popular clique along with Meg.

As far as I got to know about her, it seemed like Erika was the one who wore the crown of the sarcastic-mild, mean girl. I figured out that she was used to pulling people's legs occasionally and having almost everybody do and say what she wanted them to. Seems like the tables were about to turn now.

Meg and I talked for a while, and turns out that she's a pretty cool chick. We got along well despite her best friend not really liking me. And while I was telling her about our music, guess who decided to interrupt out conversation? "Meg." Erika's voice made us both look at her. She looked kinda annoyed but did a pretty good job trying to hide it. Damn, if she looked this hot when she was annoyed, then how gorgeous would she fucking look when she smiled?

"Can I talk to you in private for a minute?" She said, glancing at me. A small smirk fell over my face as I sensed the irritation in her voice. The fact that I was making her somewhat mad gave me an odd feeling of satisfaction. "I'll be back soon." Meg said to me before following Erika outside. As soon as the girls were out, Jimmy got up from his kit and walked over to Zack.

"You are one fucking, partial left-handed guitarist!" Jimmy roared, pointing a finger at Zack accusingly while we just stared at them in confusion. I shared a look with Matt and Johnny who seemed just as confused as I was. "What the fuck did I do?" Zack asked, not really paying attention to Jimmy.

"What did you do?! When I went to welcome Erika with a hug, you said 'get away from her'-" Jimmy mimicked Zack's voice terribly before continuing, "And now Shads is getting all the 'Erika time' to himself only, and you're keeping fucking mum!" He exclaimed in such a way, it wasn't even scary or threatening; more like fucking hilarious. What did he just say though?

"It's not like I'm forcing her to talk to Matt, that's her choice." Zack said carelessly as he fiddled with a guitar. "Absolutely." Matt added and shrugged. Of course he was calm about the situation.

"May I cut in?" I said in a bored tone. "It's not like I want some 'Erika time'-" I said nonchalantly, "But Jimmy's right." I ended with a shrug. "See?! Even Haner agrees," Jimmy said in a high pitched voice before going back to his kit. Time to play the right cards now, Haner. "Man, just chill-" I said to Matt and Zack who looked confused as fuck. "He's just... a little jealous cuz Erika's giving you attention and not him." I said to Matt with a shrug.

A small frown made it's way to his face while Zack wore a bored look. "If you just give him an opportunity to chitchat with her, he'll be fine. You know how us guys can get. And besides, it seems like she's really into you," I muttered. "Let Jimmy do whatever he wants, or else we'll have to face his bitchy and cranky side." Johnny said in a low and weary tone. Poor kid, Jimmy must've done something to scare him again.

"Johnny's right." I added and looked at Zack, waiting for him to speak. "Of course he's right. Matt-" Zack looked at him before saying, "I'm honestly really glad E's getting along with you well, after all I did want her to like you guys. But you know that even I don't wanna come across cranky Jimmy." I looked at Matt next, "Of course we can all have our own, yeah, 'Erika time'. But you can't really blame me if her and I get along so well." Matt said as if it was no big deal. Hmm, he must've flashed her his dimples.

"Hey E, Meg." Zack said with a smile as the girls came back in. I looked at them, Erika to be specific, who now wore a smile while Meg looked confused. "Uh, Jimmy's working on a new track, wanna hear it?" Zack offered and Erika's eyes lit up. "Sure." She said slightly enthusiastically before joining Jimmy, and Meg was once again with me.

"What's with that look?" I said, referring to both the looks on her and Erika's faces. "Geez, I don't know, seems like my best friend's kinda, sorta jealous. And trust me, Erika Nolan never gets jealous." Meg informed me with a disbelieving look. Erika was jealous? I'd be fucking honored if I was the reason behind it. "Why, what's up?" I asked amused.

"Can you believe it, she's jealous of you?" Meg said, scrunching her brows in confusion at me. I was fucking ecstatic to know it and couldn't help but smirk. "Whoa, what did I do?" I asked. Meg sighed and glanced at Erika who was with Jimmy and the others. "Since you and I have a lot in common, surprisingly, she's getting kinda insecure I'd say."

As soon as the words left Meg's mouth, I looked at Erika with a grin. Little E was jealous of me? Whoa, hold on. First, she looks at me like she's planning my demise which she definitely was. And now she envies me? Hell, if that isn't cute then I didn't know what was. "Well Meg, sorry but I don't think there's a cure to your friend's little dilemma. Let's just enjoy the summer, shall we?" I shot her a smile, getting an even bigger one in response.

"But do enlighten me, what's going on between little E and my friend Matthew?" I asked, looking at them in front of me. Matt was standing behind Erika with a grin while she laughed at something Jimmy was saying. She even threw her head back as she laughed that made her look, if it was actually fucking possible, ten times more beautiful than she already was.

"Oh, they just seem to get along well like you and I do." Meg replied and ran a hand through her hair.

Erika got along well with Matt, but she shoots me glares. Hell, there was probably no way that she'd be willing to add me in her good books. Or was there? But the question was, did I care? Maybe I did, or maybe not?

Notes

Here u go, the third chapter!

I don't really feel like writing any notes now, so... ;p

But do leave comments! <3