Who The Fxck Is Jack Barakat?!

Part 21

I feel a light breeze around my nose and slowly open my eyes. I blink dozily to get my eyes accustomed to the bright sunlight and am confused by my surroundings until I notice the two arms that are wrapped around me. I look over my shoulder to see Jack lying next to me. He's still sleeping and I don't want to wake him so I decide to relax and cuddle up to him.

We haven't left the field last night due to me not wanting to say good night, as it's been the best night I could have ever imagined. Just us, the moon, thousands of stars... If anybody had asked me what my definition of a perfect evening out with your boyfriend was, this would have definitely been it. I can't help but smile, thinking about the memories of last night. I can be your personal night sky. I play these words over and over in my head. There wasn't any hint of insincerity in voice, his words were honest and almost like a promise to me. I'm not sure whether he always knows that he's saying the right things when I need them the most but I can't thank whoever runs this universe enough for letting me bump into him at the festival.

Suddenly I hear a loud yawn next to me and I turn around so I can face my boyfriend.

"Good morning" I whisper and smile.

"Morning gorgeous" He replies huskily and pecks my lips. "Did we really spend the night here?"

"Apparently yes" I giggle and run a hand through my hair. "Oh god, I probably look like a zombie, I'm not much of a morning person."

"Me neither" He laughs and takes my hand. "But you don't look like a zombie, trust me. I think I'm able to notice whether I'm dating an undead or not." He adds with a smirk.

"Thank you very much, how very charming of you" I stick my tongue out at him.

"Well, what can I say, I'm Prince Charming in person" He claims and I simply roll my eyes at him.

"Whatever. Is the majesty's horse ready to leave the magic field to bring the princess back to her castle? She needs to meet her lovely brother to grace the world with their wonderful music. Plus she is close to a disastrous death from starvation." I flutter my eyelashes. Ha, he didn't expect that.

Jack sighs. "Alright, you win, what exactly did you want to say?"

"I need to get back home because I promised my brother to practice with his band because their guitarist is ill and I'm hungry" I translate for him.

"I think I can manage to get the princess back to her castle. However, I could as well steal her away and live with her happily ever after."

"As much as I like that idea, I really have to get back. But don't forget what you've said, one day I'll maybe take you up on that, Prince Charming."

"Deal." He agrees and we seal our plan with a kiss.

Around three hours later I find myself playing Mario Kart with my brother and two of his band mates, Noah and Joe, while we're waiting for the last not ill band member aka Charlie to arrive. Matt, the other guitarist alongside Mark, got a flu so the boys asked me to fill in for him. They have a couple of shows coming up in the next weeks, including one in the store where I work, and they need to practice as often as possible, they can't afford it to cancel a practice just because one of them is ill. I've been supporting this band since the beginning and they're one of the hardest working bands I know, I really hope they'll finally get the attention they deserve within the next shows. And I hope they'll get better at Mario Kart at some point because I've been winning the third race in a row and it's getting boring.

"FUCK THIS SHIT I'M OUT" Joe yells as he drives with Yoshi into a canyon and slams his controller down.

"Dude, at least you aren't one whole round behind everybody else like Mark" Noah replies while concentrating on not making the same mistake as Joe.

"Oh come on, you know that Rainbow Boulevard is the shittiest track ever, it isn't possible to make it through this without failing completely" Mark defends himself and falls off the street again.

"If it was impossible, my Koopa wouldn't be cheering in his car right now, would he?" I answer him back with a triumphal smile.

"And if you weren't my sister, you'd be dead by now" He glares at me and slips on a banana peel. "Okay that's it, I give up."

"Mario Kart, ruining friendships and families since... I don't know, how old's the game? Anyway, I'm sure you get what I want to say" Noah laughs and we all join in, even my brother.

"Sometimes while watching Mark and Liz playing video games I just have to wonder how they survived 23 years together" Joe admits and my brother throws his controller at him.

"And sometimes I wonder how you've been friends since high school and never killed each other" I sigh and roll my eyes at them. "Alright, next game?"

The others agree with me but we don't get to actually play it because Charlie finally manages to show up. After a few "manly hugs" between the boys and a proper hug between Charlie and me, we head to Noah's garage and set our stuff up. Well, that means 4/5 of us are setting our instruments up while Joe, the singer of the band, is being a pain in the ass.

"Guyssss, hurry up, please" He whines while sitting on one of my amps.

"How many times do I need to tell you that you aren't allowed to sit on my amps?" I bristle with anger and Joe winces.

"Matt always lets me sit on them" Joe pouts.

"And how many times has Matt already had to replace them?" I ask him but of course I don't want an answer.

"You know, instead of getting on our nerves you could as well help me with my drums for example" Charlie reminds his friend and luckily Joe listens to him. They finish their work within minutes and eventually we can start practicing.

"Hello Maryland, we are Riots At Night and our first song is called Shadow In The Dark..." Joe begins but gets interrupted by Mark.

"Joe. This is Noah's garage. All 5 of us know who we are. You don't have to introduce us to a non-existent crowd."

"You don't want to let me have some fun today, do you?" The singer says and pouts again.

"WE ARE RIOTS AT NIGHT AND THIS SONG'S CALLED SHADOW IN THE DARK" Charlie suddenly shouts and starts playing. We look at each other, shrug and join in.

Shadow In The Dark might be my personal favourite out of all of their songs, it was written by my brother and Joe some months ago and I connected with it immediately. Joe's vocals match the lyrics and the melody perfectly, the guitars sound huge, the bass underlines what the guitars want to say and the drums give the song a swift yet somehow relaxing beat. We play through it without any mistakes for the first time in forever and are quite content with that.

"Woah, that was awesome!" Noah opines happily.

"I think it was because of Liz, her guitar skills are out of this world today" Charlie predicates and applauds me. "What's your secret, Knight?"

"I don't know, I'm happy and my guitar is happy and maybe that's the reason why..." I smile.

"Is it because of your boyfriend?" Mark interrogates me.

"Wait - how do you even..."

"We're siblings. We have a psychic bond." My brother grins at me.

"Yeah, sure, psychic bond" I doubt his theory.

"Yep" He replies, popping the p. "But I'm glad you've finally found someone who makes you this happy, he seems to be a keeper."

"Thanks man" I blush and nudge him. "But can we please go back to the band practice now?"

"Only if you keep on playing like that" Joe smirks. "And now one, two, three, four..."