DIRTY LAUNDRY - ALEX GASKARTH

3

september 8th, 1993

"jasey? what are you doing?" my little sister, penny, asked, her big brown eyes looking at me.
i was sitting on my bedroom floor, surrounded by clothes. i couldn't decide what to wear for when alex and the rest of the guys picked me up.
"i don't know what to wear" i said, exasperated

penny sat down on my bed, looking at me, confused.
"daddy's not gonna let you go" she said, sad
"ben's got my back though" i said, picking up a jean skirt and pink shirt.
"are you sure?" she asked, her big eyes full of fear
"i'm sure" i said, smiling at her and then walking to the bathroom.

i put on the skirt and shirt, and then straightened my hair. i pulled down the sleeves on my shirt, making sure to hide the bruises and then put on my familiar pink converse, running downstairs.

ben was sitting on the couch, listening to music on his cassette player that my father had surprisingly not taken his anger out on yet.
"he'll be home in 2 hours. good luck kid"

i sat on the white porch swing until i heard carry on my wayward son being blasted through car speakers, and a bunch of out of tune voices singing along.

i saw a red beat up car pull up in my driveway and started laughing. alex ran up to me, wearing a tight guns and roses t shirt and jeans, making me smile like an idiot.

"is that my fake boyfriend?" i asked, looking him up and down
"more confident now are we?" alex asked, smirking
i laughed awkwardly and then stood up
"race you to the car!" i screamed as we ran to the car, me winning by nearly one second.

"ah so close" alex said, looking at me and smiling. i rolled my eyes and got in the backseat, sitting between him and zack and rian and jack were in the front seat.

"so i brought some records if you wanna-" i said awkwardly when jack basically threw himself into the back of the car, grabbing my bag and searching it. he pulled out led zeppelin and green day vinyls, smiling. "cool!"

i smiled shyly and nodded.
alex shoved me lightly in the shoulder, making me wince in pain. my dad had left a huge ugly bruise there about a week or so ago.
alex looked at me with a concerned face.
"are you okay?" he asked.
i laughed a little "uh- yeah"

eventually we pulled up to a cute little white house with a red door. the guys got out of the car and i followed.

as soon as we walked through the door we saw a beautiful middle aged woman, alexs mom probably, at the door. she smiled and hugged all the boys, kissing them all on the cheek.

"hi mom!" alex said, smiling widely when she hugged him. what a mommas boy. cute.
"alexander, is that a girl?" she said in a british accent.
"hi" i said, smiling shyly

"oh she's perfect! peter!" his mother said, as a man walked into the room.
"is this a girl? alex brought a girl home?" the man said in his british accent, excitedly

"i'm jasey. alex and i are friends" i said, trying not to blush
"well it's lovely meeting you" the woman smiled
i smiled "lovely meeting you too!"

as we ran up the stairs i looked at a bunch of framed photos on the wall, some of alex, some of a boy who looked like an older version of alex. the photos stopped at a certain age though.

"oh does alex have a brother?" i asked rian, and rians face went into a shocked state.
"uhhh"

we all kept running until we reached a room that was covered in band posters. it had a bed in the corner and band t shirts all over the floor but the room was surprisingly neat other than that. there was a record player on a little table in the other corner.

the beatles started playing through the room and jack was on the floor already, singing along half heartedly.

alex hopped onto his bed and so did rian, and zack sat in a chair next to alexs desk.

i just stood their awkwardly.

"come sit down we don't bite" rian said in his usual cheerful tone.

"unnnlesss you want them to!" jack chimed in

i couldn't hold it in, and i burst into laughter.
eventually everyone else was laughing at jacks statement. i sat on the edge of the bed, my pink converse wearing feet dangling off the side.

"so tell us about jasey rae" alex said, falling back on the bed. his guns n' roses shirt lifted up a little and i looked up at the ceiling.

"well uh"

all four of them were listening intently so i just sucked it up and continued.

"well uh i'm jasey...i guess you already know that....uh i'm actually pretty good at guitar but um my dad kinda uh...never mind." i said.

they looked up at me with concerned faces but i kept going.

"i have a little sister, penny. and an older brother, ben. they're pretty cool. i moved here because my mom passed away. i live with my siblings and my dad.oh and i really like music" i said.

"we're in a band!!!" jack said, sitting up excitedly.

"really??" i asked.

"yeah! want us to play you a song?" rian asked

i don't know what came over me in that very moment. at one point i was really shy and awkward around them, but then i hopped up from the bed and said

"hell yeah!"