With Me Tonight

"Alannnn!" I yell up the stairs, holding a kitchen knife in my hands.

No, I am not going to kill him, in fact, I'm going to ask him to help me make dinner.
Syd is currently out with a few friends and my dad is buried into his work in the office, so I need the only other reasonable candidate to help me cook.

It has been a week since Alan first showed up with my band and yes, he's still here. It's honestly been great; like a really long sleepover with your best friend.
I thought I was close with him before, but even though I saw him everyday over the summer, we never truly got to hang out and 'bond' with each other like we do now.

He was planning to stay in town anyway because he wanted to help and see his old friends that live only 20 minutes away from me, so we've been letting him stay here.
I actually went to the funeral with Alan for support and met some of his friends, but it wasn't the most ideal time because one of their good buddies was in the coffin across the room. But ever since then we've done a lot together. He's even got me to open up to him a little more about what I've been doing and now he can't tell me that stupid crap about 'my walls being up.'

I had another AAA meeting today that he came to with me, also. And believe it or not, he's even been on board with the healthy thing. Sure, he complains a lot and constantly talks about ice cream and candy, but he's down with the idea. I even got him to come to the gym with me a few times to workout together, but then he stopped coming when I showed him up by lifting more than him. He was embarrassed.

"Jesus, Haze, did you call me down here to kill me?" Alan asks as he starts coming down the stairs while whipping his wet hair around, spotting the knife in my hand.

"Well, I was going to ask you to help me make dinner.. but that is an equally as good option," I tease, a smile playing at my lips as he joins me at the bottom of the stairs. He snorts a laugh and throws and arm around my shoulder while slipping the knife out of my hand. "Whatcha' wand me to do, chica?" He asks as he inspects the knife and we walk into the kitchen, leaning on each other and matching our steps up.

"Can you marinate the chicken breast and start to chop it up for me, please? I have to watch the stuff on the stove," I say as we get to the kitchen and I point to my pots and pans.

"I'm just going to say now I'm probably the worst cook you will ever find... seriously...ever... but I'll give it a shot," he shrugs, removing his arm from around my shoulder to look down at the chicken breast I had in a baggie, sitting on the cutting board on the counter for him.

"Thanks, bub," I say, bumping his side with my hip before heading over to the stove.

"Do we get any dessert tonight?" Alan asks as he starts to work with the chicken, his voice hopeful. I laughed at how much he sounded like a little child. "I may have made something special since you've been such a good boy... but I'm not telling," I lean over my shoulder to wink at him when I see him looking at me with wide, happy eyes. I must have been torturing so much more than I thought with all this healthy food.

I laugh again and turn back to working on my part, leaving Alan to cut up the chicken. "Do we have any plans today, Haze?" Alan asks as we work.

I smile when he uses 'we' because we've basically been doing everything together this past week. I've actually found out a lot more about Alan then I ever have and I realized how little I knew before. Like, who would have known Alan was into painting? And hockey? That he used to be blonde as a kid? That his favorite drink (besides beer) is Mountain Dew: Baha Blast? And that he is a really good skateboarder? And he has an ex that still texts him nearly every night to annoy him? And I found out he is one of the funniest people I know.

It's all pointless information, but it's more than I knew before. But, the more non-pointless stuff was crazy, too. Like his obsession with cats (he says it's the most important thing anyone needs to know).

And the best part is, this whole week no mention of what happened with Austin and I has been brought up. Especially not about losing my baby, that's a big no-no to bring up. But I can think it now, just like I can say Austin's name. It's a step forward. Even though it feels like I took two steps back because all that I can feel when I say Austin's name is anger. Hate.

"Eh," I shrug. "Dominic wanted me to go over to his place later tonight, but I think I'm gona pass. Wana watch a movie?"

"Why don't you want to go?" Alan laughs. "I know I'm fabulous and all, but..."

I roll my eyes. "I don't know," I shrug. "He just said a couple of his buddies are gona be there too and I'm not on great terms with them, plus, all they do when I'm there is shove booze in my face," okay, that wasn't totally a lie, but I know deep down the main reason is because I'm afraid of being alone with Dom for long enough that something will happen. Believe it or not, I'm not ready for sex this time. And maybe it's just Dom because I've realized lately that maybe I was selfish and really started dating him to make myself less empty on the inside and to distract myself. Because now that Alan's here, I don't have much of an urge to see him.. at all...

I'm a terrible person, I know.

"Your own boyfriend doesn't know you don't drink?" Alan looks behind his shoulder, away from the chicken as he raises an eyebrow.

I shrug again, not saying anything because I know Alan can see right through me.

"Well then, I guess if you're offering..." He exaggerates his words. "Then we can totally watch 500 Days of- FUCK!"

I laugh a little bit, about to mock him as I look behind my shoulder, but then shut up when I see him groaning and holding his finger he just sliced open. "I swear to God this shit is totally not worth being healthy. I told you I'm a sucky cook! God dammit, why can't we just go get some chicken nuggets?!" He pouted.

I laugh aloud this time as I set down the spoon in my hand and come over to him. He clutched his hand that was bleeding in his other hand, shooting me a look for laughing, but trying not to crack a smile too. I grabbed onto his hands and led them over to the sink, turning on the water to clean it. He hissed, but when the small amount of blood was watched away I saw how truly small the wound was.

"You big baby, it's not even that bad," I chuckle, getting some soap to clean it out.

"Shut up," he pouts, making me laugh more. "It still hurts."

"I can tell," I tease, rubbing the soap lightly over his finger. After I cleaned it up and put on a band-aid (one with butterflies on it-Alan's request), I threw out the chicken he got blood on and then put the rest of the stuff in the oven. "Okay, that has to cook for like a half hour, so I'm gona go shower real quick," I say after setting the timer on the oven.

Alan nods, following me upstairs.


Alan's pov:

I plop down on Hazel's bed as she comes in to grab a change of clothes, heading to the shower after telling me to take the chicken out of the oven if it's done before she is. I agree and watch her leave, laying down and holding my hand above my head when she's gone. I inspect my finger that is throbbing like a bitch, poking at it a bit.

Stupid Hazel and her stupid healthy eating.

Just kidding. Well, at the same time not kidding because if it wasn't for her being so healthy I wouldn't have sliced my finger or gotten so publicly fucking embarrassed when she lifted more than me at the gym. Even some old guy laughed which sucked, but I've got to hand it to Hazel for turning herself around.

I mean, she was absolutely in no way fat before, but she turned herself around in the sense that she's healthier and happier now or whatever. And she's a lot cooler than I remember. Like not even because she's letting me stay here and is taking care of me, but I've actually gotten to get to know her a lot better.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I made a quick movement to slide it out, seeing a text from Austin telling me to answer my Skype. I made a weird huffing/farting noise with my mouth as I pushed myself up, reaching into my bag that was lying on the ground to pull out my laptop.

Before the computer even loaded all the way, a notification that Austin was Skype calling me showed up. I quickly answered it to get the annoying noise to stop, watching as the image of him sitting at home popped up. "Dude!"

"Sup," I say, watching as he spun around in his chair to grab something that was on the ground, holding it up to the camera after. "Oh my God! My baby!" My kitten that Austin was watching for me was being held up to the screen.

"This is the weirdest cat ever, dude," Austin says as he drops her back on the ground. I groan, wanting to pet her and love her because she's my baby! "She fuckin' hisses at me all the time like I'm not even doing anything!"

I laugh, "she must not be too found of you, then. Or she just misses her mommy," I joke, making a baby voice.

Austin laughs, running a hand through his hair. "Hows everything goin with your friends?" He changes the subject to a more serious note. I sigh, the whole reason I came down here was to go to the funeral of one of my good friends from high school's little brother. I haven't seen him too much since we graduated, but when he told me that his brother got into a car crash, I had to come down. It's been like a twisted high school reunion.

"Eh, it's pretty chill right now. I'm meeting up with a couple of old friends tomorrow, but that it's and I should be on my way home the day after that," I didn't mention that I would be bringing Hazel home with me. Sure, he knows that they're touring with us, but that's it. And he hasn't said a thing about it; just walked away when I told him.

"Thats good," Austin nods, then starts laughing a moment after. "Dude, what kind of hotel are you at? I've never seen a room look like that," he points and I look to where he is pointing at to hide the panic on my face. Yeah, Austin doesn't know that I've been with Hazel all week, so...

I was about to come up with something to say when I saw Austin's eyes locking on to something behind me. I followed them and saw Hazel's old, demented, teddy bear that she sleeps with every night. Fuck, Austin must recognize it... Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Where are you, Alan?" He asks, his voice quiet and serious.

"Uhh..." I kind of just sit there, not exactly sure what to say. I'm so screwed. But then it only gets worse when Hazel's voice starts booming down from the hallway and into the room when she walks in, singing some song. I recognize it as some All Time Low song.

My eyes widen and I look frantically from Austin on the screen to Hazel. This is technically the closest they've been since summer... in a way.

I watch as Austin nearly melts at her singing, but then as soon as he realizes that it's her singing, his expression hardens and I swear I can see his face go from pale to red in a second.

"Did the oven go off?" Hazel asks as she grabs a sweatshirt to put on from her closet.

"Uh," I clear my throat, taking my attention away from the computer so she doesn't get curious. "N-No.. No, it didn't."

Thankfully she didn't pay much attention to the fact that I'm practically pissing myself and just nodded. I glanced down to the screen to see Austin harshly staring at his computer. I immediately take my eyes away and look back to Hazel. "I'll go finish up so you don't bleed all over again," she laughs, opening the door to walk out, calling back behind her that she'll yell up when it's ready.

I call something back, but I'm not sure she heard it, but I also don't care because Austin is well... pissed. I thought about telling him that it was no big deal and I was just here to visit, but I knew he wouldn't listen. He was alike Hazel in the way that he wanted to completely cut her and their baby out of his life so much that he would forget, but it never worked. Hell, if he wasn't crying, he was drinking and going out and partying to try and forget about her in the beginning. He still does now, but not as much because it just leaves him feeling worse after. It's not hard to tell.

Maybe he's jealous? Maybe I should tell him that Hazel has a boyfriend anyway so he doesn't think anything would happen, but that wouldn't help... at all. He'd just get more pissed and upset.

Fuck.

"Uh... I'm at... I'm at Hazel's..." I finally respond, stating the obvious.

Man, this is going to be a trip.

Notes

I just wrote this in a half hour!! And I'm half asleep! I should win an award! (But sorry if it's sucky though. I really shouldn't get an award.)

I gave you guys a tiny bit of Austin in this chapter, but I really just wanted to focus on Hazel and Alan's blossoming friendship for a bit. Thank you for being patient with me while I take this story slow! I know we all want Austin! Lol I'm just trying to show some character development or whatever. The next chapter they are saying their goodbyes to Washington!!

Hopefully I'll update again for you guys tomorrow:)

Keep up the votes and comments, they always make my day! I hope you guys enjoy!