The Two Middles

Chapter 21: Refrain from PDA in Front of the Best Friend

"That was awesome!" Mel yelled and clapped her hands before planting one on Dean's mouth.

"PLEASE!" I covered my eyes. "REFRAIN FROM PDA IN FRONT OF THE BEST FRIEND! REFRAIN!"

"Aubrey," Dean said. "Stop overreacting."

"She's doing anything but overreacting, dude. That is seriously just gross," Troye said.

"How is it gross?" Melody asked, her brow knitted. "We watch movies with people kissing in them all the time! Why is it not gross then?"

Troye opened his mouth to answer and start an argument no doubt, but Tiara intervened with in all her resolving glory, "It's gross when we're all here as friends. Dean, don't kiss Mel. Mel, don't kiss Dean. End of conversation. Going back to the previous conversation, that really was awesome! How long has it been since we've done this? And why did we stop?"

"A year, and I have absolutely no idea, though my dad making me lose all hope in ever pursuing music must've played a role in it." I said, resentfully.

"Yeah, how's that going, anyway?"  Troye asked. 

"Pretty okay," I said. "Even though we hardly speak to each other, things are cool between us. He still isn't completely in favour of me doing this - " I pointed to my guitar, " - for life, but he's getting there. He's trying, and it's all that matters."

Dean sighed in relief, "That's amazing. I'm glad he's coming around. Besides, I've missed having someone to play the guitar with." 

I smiled at him, "Well then, Deany-boy. Whatcha waiting for? Let's play!" I yelled before strumming my guitar and breaking into song.

A long time ago, Mel, Dean, Troye, Tiara and I would meet up almost once every month outside of school and have a good time. This good time would usually be accompanied by Dean and I bringing our guitars out and playing. Obviously, Dean's way better than me, but he doesn't mind, and in his opinion, I rock at it. Well, if he says so...

But, yeah, we'd kind of given up on that tradition since my dad had stepped in with his you-can't-play-the-worthless-guitar-for-the-rest-of-your-life talks, and I'd sorta given it up. Then Dean wouldn't like to play alone, and the whole custom went down the drain. However, since I'd got my will to live, i.e. my guitar, back, Mel had suggested the five of us hang out again. So we did.

I finished playing the song and laughed as Troye concluded his little dance with a very unnecessary "OW!" and thrust his hip out. 

Somehow I never failed to have a good time with these people. Somehow they always made be feel better. Somehow they felt like family, like my blood. Somehow they always managed to make me the happiest, much like Jaden did. Somehow Jaden kept popping into my head at all times. Somehow I didn't mind it as much as I should've. Somehow I like having him in my head. 

I was snapped out of my 'somehow' trance by Tiara jumping on me.

"Aubrey?" she called from on top of me. "You with us?"

"What in hell was that for?!" 

"Well," she said. "You looked out of it..."

"So you decided to jump on me?" 

"It's not even a jump, more like a bear hug," she (very wrongly) clarified. 

I was on the verge of opening my mouth to respond and tell her that it was, in fact, not a bear hug, and that I would know because Shane more often than not gave me one, but my train of thought had other plans for me. 

Shane's bear hugs and Tiara's "bear hugs" made me think of yesterday, when shane had not-so-subtly told me about his crush on Tiara. It took all I had to not squeal like a five-year-old with a new Barbie and hug Shane then and there. But apparently, all I had wasn't enough, because I did squeal like a five-year-old with a new Barbie and I did hug Shane. I also proceeded to tell him how adorable it was that he had a crush on her, and talked about it for the rest of our walk. He wasn't very comfortable talking about it at first, because he hadn't told anyone before me, not even Jaden, and turned red in the face everytime I got over-excited about it. It honestly was adorable.