How To Tame The Beasts -- Alex Gaskarth Fan Fic

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Those are some pretty gnarly scratches," Jenna remarked as I looked into my locker mirror. There was three scratches; two of them short and on my cheek while there was one long one going down my neck. They only stung a little bit, but they weren't the prettiest thing to look at.

"They're not that bad," I commented back, closing my locker door.

"They sure aren't anything compared to the bruise you gave Nicki!" Jenna giggled now, causing me to smile. Her laugh was rather contagious.

"She shouldn't have wanted to fight me, not after last time."

She raised an eyebrow now. "You fought her before?"

"Well, nothing that big. I just threw her to the ground at one of the lame Clique parties," I said, waving my hand off as we entered the courtyard. It was finally warm enough for lunch outside so, of course, the Trouble-Makers siezed the opprotunity. Plus, we had to remain under the radar and hope that none of the teachers would come up to us about the incident if Kellin decided to rat us out.

"Oh, yeah! I remember hearing about that," Jenna gushed now. I had to admit, after hanging around only guys for so long, it was nice to have a chick friend to hang out with. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I have this cousin, Iris, who I was pretty close with when I was younger. She's kind of a punk and taught me all kinds of things to do when you're in a fight," I explained.

"I have to meet this chick," she concluded as she split off from me to sit next to Mike while I went and sat next to Alex. Despite yesterday's events, none of the crew's spirits were dampered as our talk was uplifted.

"Who's ready for graduation?" I asked, knowing it was fastly approaching in a week. This next school week was going to be packed with rehearsals to prepare for it and, hopefully, we'd all be attending.

"Not me," Mike muttered, not liking the idea of all his friends graduating without him.

"Aw, don't worry about it, you have me!" Jenna said with a bright smile and leaning into the boy who now blushed.

"And me," Dave added, shooting a wink from across the table causing everyone to laugh.

"Seriously, though, Jack is probably going to trip on stage," Alex teased, leaning back with his arm around me.

Jack raised an eyebrow at that. "I would think Jaime would be the one for that."

"You kidding?" Jaime asked now. "That'd be Rian."

Rian shook his head. "Nope, Alex."

"How did this get back to me?" he demanded, a smile spreading across his face. Leave it to the crew to push the blame on everyone else.

"I don't even think I'm ready to leave this place," Jack remarked, his tone growing serious as he let his fork push around in his food.

"I feel you, man," Jaime said, slapping a hand to Jack's back. "I don't think any of us are."

"Growing up sucks, dude, I don't want to do it." Jack shook his head.

"Everyone's got to do it sometime," I said dismissively, but just by that remark Jack was now sulking. Instead of dwelling on that, I decided to change the topic. "So, night before graduation, who wants to sleep over at my house?"

"All of us?" Jenna asked, a bit surprised.

"Yeah," I spoke. "My dad's going to be working and I've got access to the whiskey cabinent."

"You've just turned back into my favorite person again," Jaime said, leaning forward at the idea of drinking.

"Just think of it as a party to celebrate getting out of this hell hole."

"I dig it," Alex said with a nod and kissing the top of my head.

***

Jay meowed at my feet as I leaned over the mirror and quickly wiped it down. Since I mostly just lived by myself and when my dad was home he didn't clean, it was on my shoulders that the house looked presentable. And, on top of that, I had to make sure everything was cleaned up afterwards so my dad didn't find out about me having a house full of people stay over. To be honest, I wasn't even sure if he could make it to the ceremony, not that I really minded if he missed it though. I understood he needed to work.

"Who's ready to party?!" I heard Jack's voice shout from the other room - I was assuming it was the living room. If he was here, I was sure the rest of the crew was here too.

I took a step away from the mirror and, by now, Jay had already ran off to see the company. I walked out of the bathroom, nearly colliding with Dave who bursted into a fit of giggles as he walked past me. I frowned and turned towards the living room, catching eyes with Rian as he followed after the boy.

"Have you guys already started drinking?"

Rian shook his head, showing off his bright smile. "Just Dave and we have no idea where he got it from," he said chasing after the initiate.

"I need whiskey and I need it now," Jack pouted, collapsing onto the ground in a heap. Next running into the room was Jaime who jumped on top of Jack, causing him to cry out, and lastly, Alex sat himself on top. "I didn't ask for this!"

"Get off," Jaime said through a laugh, pushing Alex off of him before he stood up himself.

I walked over to my boyfriend laying on the ground and grabbed his hand, pulling him up to his feet. "Hey, babe," he said, pulling me into a tight hug. Everyone was certainly in a great mood.

"Everyone's spirits are up," I remarked, standing up on my tip toes to peck his lips.

"I don't want you guys to leave," Mike cried out, walking into the living room hand in hand with Jenna. I shot a look towards my female friend and she blushed.

"Stop your whining, Jenna and Dave are going to be official Trouble-Makers tomorrow," Jack said, standing up.

"Yeah, and you guys won't be anymore." Mike pouted his lip out.

Jack opened his mouth to say something but it seemed to hit him just then that he wasn't going to be a Trouble-Maker anymore. I suppose he never really thought of it and his face turned to stone. He turned away, walking into the kitchen and I let out a small sigh, sharing a look with Alex.

"I'll talk to him," he murmured, walking after his friend.

"What did I say?" Mike asked, frowning.

Jaime waved it off. "As much as he tries to act like a tough guy who doesn't care about anything, this is hitting him pretty hard. This crew is all he really has."

I sucked in a breath at that.

"Dang, well, you all are still going to be friends, right?" Jenna asked, tilting her head.

"Of course," Jaime said. "No way we couldn't be."

"Let's get this party started!" Alex shouted, walking into the living room with Jack. Cups filled their arms and I guess Alex had found my dads stash since he had the large whiskey bottle. "Tomorrow we have to grow up, so let's live it up while we can!"