"FUCK!" I open my eyes and sit up. I hear Jack spitting a line of curses. I rub my eyes and step out of bed, walking out to the kitchen, where Alex is drinking a cup of coffee. 

"Is Jack okay?" I ask, sitting across from Alex. He shrugs and takes a long sip. I turn to Nick and Brendon, still dead in their sleep. "I wish I could be a deeper sleeper sometimes." 

"Kellin, honey, you are the deepest sleeper in this group, unless they," he gestures to the passed out men, sleeping away their problems, "are drunk," Alex chuckles. 

"But they're always drunk, so, therefore, your statement is incorrect," I shoot back. 

"ALEX!" Jack shouts from the bedroom. Alex rolls his eyes and grabs a cup of water and some Advil. 

"Kellin?" Nick sits up. "Nope-" he groans and lays back down. I get another cup of water and bring it over to Nick. 

"I have no clue where the Advil it, so you're just going to have to wait for Alex and Jack to stop making out."

"I heard that!" Alex shouts. 

"STOP SHOUTING!" Jack's voice shouts afterward. 

Nick lets out a soft laugh. "Have you ever been drunk, Kells?" He asks. "I can't remember, because if you were drunk, I was probably drunk too." 

I roll my eyes and sit down where his legs are. He curls them closer to himself to give me more room. "I would only ever get slightly buzzed. But I got really drunk once," I bite my lower lip. 

"Really?" He smirks. "Kelly got brain-dead drunk once?" He fake gasps. 

"No, Nick. You don't understand. It was stupid anyway," I mumble. "Besides it was like five years ago." 

He blinks and grabs my arm. "Kellin, you're only twenty-one, five years ago would mean you were sixteen." 

"What can I say? I have a dark past," I shrug. 

He grabs both my shoulders and vigorously shakes them. "YOU DRUNK ILLEGALLY? FIVE YEARS AGO? THAT MAKES YOU SIXTEEN."  

"It was him. He decided to send me a fucking message, through a guy," I mutter bitterly. 

He stops and his expression goes angry. "What did he fucking do, and say?" He spits. He knows everything, so I wouldn't blame him. 

"Not here," I whisper. "And not now," I add. He nods and pulls me into a tight hug. 

"If he tries to hurt you, I will tear him apart with my scissors from preschool," Nick mumbles against my ear. 

I pull away. "Wait- you still have those? What the fuck, you hoarder," I shake my head in disgust. 

"Yeah, still has the dried up drool all over that shit," he winks and stands up, immediately sitting back down. "Yeah, maybe tomorrow. I'll just lay here all day," he sighs as he leans back into the seat. 

~~~

"So why are we going to the store and leaving behind three hungover guys in your place?" I ask as Alex leads me to their closest store. 

"Because we're out of food, and therefore need more food," Alex deadpans. 

"Really? I thought all you ever ate was ramen and the occasional sandwich," I roll my eyes. 

He gasps and gives me a hurt look. "Kellin. I'll have you know that we also have cereal." He tuts and shakes his head disapprovingly. "After all this time, you'd think someone would finally get it. Cereal. Always remember the cereal." 

"Why are you so hooked on cereal?" 

He gives me another hurt expression. "Are you a peasant twat with no brain? Have you tried cereal before?" 

"Yeah, duh. Everyone's had cereal at some point in their life," I roll my eyes again. At this point, I'm worried my eyes will just roll off. That's how annoyed these people make me. 

"Then you should understand why cereal is very important," he speaks, sounding annoyed at me. 

"Okay, whatever," I put my hands up. "Cereal-logy is important." 

He opens the door and slides in so it closes on me. I hear his stupid little laugh as he walks away into the store. I sigh and walk in, not even bothering to find him. 

I walk straight to a random aisle and manage to bump into someone. 

"Shoot, I'm so sorry," I mumble. The man meets my eyes and a flicker of panic crosses through them for a split second. 

"Oh no, it's fine. I'm Oliver," he shakes my hand. 

"Kellin," I nod. 

"I'm guessing you're from around here?" He asks, looking at the different cans. 

"Yeah, I go to SDSU," I answer, looking around at the cans. All canned food, which I'm pretty sure is bad for you. But what do I know?

"Oh cool," he mumbles, picking one up. 

"You?" I turn and face him. He shakes his head. 

"Never went to college," he shrugs. "Well, it was nice meeting you," he waves before walking out of sight. 

I feel a tap on my shoulder and I spin around, actually ready to attack them. 

Alex giggles and waves in my face. 

"Alex, I could have punched you!" I groan. 

"Yeah right, with those puny arms," he stares at my arms. I self-consciously wrap them around my chest. 

"Oh yeah, what about your stick arms?" I shoot back. 

"Oh, you wanna go?!" He sets the basket down and puts both fists up. I roll my eyes and his arms drop to his sides. He chuckles and picks up his basket. "Anyway, I'm done. You?" 

"Wasn't planning to get anything anyway," I mutter. He shrugs and walks to the cashier. As he's paying I turn and see the guy from earlier- Oliver- calling someone on his phone. I turn back to Alex and he grabs the plastic bag of food. We start walking and as we pass Oliver I hear a sliver of the conversation. 

"He's leaving," Oliver speaks softly into the phone. "Yes, I know," he mumbles and makes eye contact with me. He sends me a smile before walking away out of ear-shot. 

I furrow my eyebrows as Alex and I walk out of the store. 

"Oh did you meet a guy?" Alex teases. "Are you cheating on Vin?" 

"Vic. And no. But technically, Vic and I aren't official." 

"That doesn't make it okay either way," he points out. "Who's the guy?" 

"His name is Oliver, and that's all I know about him. Whatever, I'll probably never see him again anyway," I shrug. Alex drops the topic and gestures at two guys holding hands. 

"I wish I could ever have that confidence," he speaks longingly. "It's so unfair that every time I even think of holding a guy's hand, I'm terrified someone will beat me up." 

"Do you really feel like that?" I ask. I don't- well then again, I didn't even know I would like a guy until about two days ago.

He nods and lets out a long sigh. "Back in high school, I got punched for looking at a guy. I guess that shit just shapes you, huh?" He lets out a bitter laugh. 

"Alex, that's terrible!" I exclaim, stopping him from walking. "What happened?" 

"I glanced at the captain of the football team and he took it the wrong way, got a swing at me, the good thing is a teacher intervened. Spent the rest of my time looking down at the ground- unless I was with Jack." 

"So Jack knows about it?" 

He nods. "Jack was the only person I ever really talked to, of course, he knows,"  he says like he can't even believe I could think Jack wouldn't know. 

"Alex, do you like Jack?" I blurt out. He looks taken back and lets out a soft laugh. 

"No-" he makes the O sound a bit too long to seem convincing. "I could never," he laughs awkwardly. I cross my arms and watch as his cheeks turn more and pinker. 

"Alex, do you like Jack?" I ask again. 

"Would it be bad if I kinda sorta felt a small little feeling sometimes, every so often, but maybe not all the time- or maybe all the time I don't know?" He rambles. 

I shove his shoulder with mine. "So you love your best friend, huh?" I wink. 

His cheeks go at least ten shades of red now. "Kellin, stop!" He swats me away from him. 

"I won't tell, but you should. You two could get married and adopt like fifty kids and grow old together and it'll be so cute." 

"Kellin," he sighs, "you've never acted gayer," he shakes his head and starts walking again. 

"To be fair, I didn't know I could ever be gay until two days ago," I point out. "But don't you dare break my ship, Gaymask," I command. "If you break my ship, I'll break you- but not too much, because I still love you and shit like that- but I'll break you." 

"Alright, Kelly bear, whatever you say," he speaks like he's speaking to a child. "Wait- did you just call me Gaymask?" 

"Would you prefer Gayscarf? Gaymask? Gaysmurf? Gayporn?" 

"Where the fuck did you get Gayporn?" 

I shrug. "It was a dark and stormy night, I was sitting on my bed, and happened to look at a picture of you and Jack. And then it came to me. Alexander William Gayporn." 

He groans and smacks his forehead. "You make me lose brain cells." 

"And you make me lose faith in humanity," I shoot back. 

A/N

Sorry for taking so long. A lot happened in my life, but that's okay. I'M TIRED, OKAY? 

But yeah, I'll try to update more often!

On that note, happy birthday Emerson Barrett.

And happy late birthday to 

Yeah, I'll try to update more often!

~Lunar