expectations.

Presley sucks in a breath, stunned.

Alan Ashby wants to date me. Alan Ashby wants to be my boyfriend.

“B-but I mean like, if you don’t want to that’s cool and-” “Alan,” she interrupts, placing a hand on his bicep. “I would love to be your girlfriend.” A beaming smile breaks out on his face and it duplicates onto hers as well.

He places a delicate soft kiss on her lips, wiping the tear stained mascara out from under her eyes with the pads of his thumbs.

A chorus of ‘aww’s echo around the van and the two look up, surprised at the sudden sound.

Several faces crowd around the windows and Alan flips them off, more than a bit annoyed at their intrusion.

“Go away, you asses!” Presley shouts, laughing. All the tension from earlier is forgotten as the group walks back to their still burning bonfire.

Alan grabs her hand and squeezes it, a smile on his face.

The couple sits down right in front of the fire, Presley sitting in his lap while balancing a guitar on her leg.

Sage and Vic duplicate the pose and Austin snaps a picture of the two pairs before posting it on instagram.

Pres’s phone buzzes at the notification and she sticks her tongue out a Austin as she reads the caption.

“You guys have these two beautiful ladies to thank for the acoustic covers we will be updating shortly.” It read.

“yeah, yeah. flattery gets you no where, carlile.” Is her reply. Alan looks back and forth between the two, smirking as he watches his best friend and girlfriend interact without actually talking.

“not what your mom said last night, young.” Presley throws her head back, laughing as she types her reply.

“really? your mom jokes? grow up aust.”

The likes on the picture goes up as the fans soak up the conversation between the two.

“never!! Im peter pan!”

Pres sticks her tongue out, trying to think of a reply.

Alan secretly takes a picture before uploading it onto instagram. He captions it, ‘Watching my best friend and girlfriend fight has got to be the funniest thing ever. Even funnier than watching Rian Dawson play beer pong.”

The picture is instantly flooded with comments.

“She’s beautiful!” Is one of the main ones, along with the few guaranteed hate comments.

He deletes the ones he sees, but knows that most will slip through his fingers. A gasp is issued from Pres as she realizes what Alan just did.

“You guys went public?” Sage shrieks, outraged that she wasn’t informed about the decision. The group laughs and Vic pokes her cheek playfully. “Are you mad or naw?” Jaime asks and Presley can’t help but giggle.

“Let’s play some music.” Tino says, reminding them all of the promise to upload videos to the fans.

“How about we just do a livestream from the bus?” Sage suggests. “Wouldn’t it be easier?” The group nods before deciding to do the stream from Of Mice’s bus.

“Is this thing on?” Alan asks, making funny faces towards the laptop camera. Replies flood in, all of them saying yes, and most of them mentioning how cute he is.

“Hey guys!” Vic butts in, Sage in his arms.

“Meet my girlfriend, Sage!” Sage blushes a bit as he kisses her nose before falling backwards onto the couch.

Presley watches their encounter smiling at her friends. The boys sing most of the fan requests and they’re about four songs in before someone asks where Pres is.

“Presley, get in here!” Jaime yells, grinning.

“No way!” She shouts back, taking a sip of her Diet Coke. “Don’t make me come get you!” Alan threatens. She just shrugs, going back to her phone.

She shrieks when two rather large hands grasp her waist, pulling her off the counter and onto his shoulder.

“Alan, put me down!” He smirks, plopping down on the couch and moving her so that she sits in his lap in front of the webcam.

She hides her face behind her hands in embarrassment and the group laughs. “Hey! That’s a good suggestion!” Austin exclaims, pointing at a tweet that read, ‘presley should sing ain’t it fun by paramore!’

She groans as someone forces the guitar in her hands.

“I don’t wanna!” They all give her disapproving looks. Well, all of them excluding Alan. He gives her his best set of puppy dog eyes, begging, “Please babe?” She practically melts.

“Alright, alright.” She takes a deep breath before starting the song.

“I don't mind letting you down easy
But just give it time.
If it don't hurt now then just wait, just wait a while.

You're not the big fish in the pond no more;
You are what they're feeding on.”

She pulls a goofy look at the camera before stopping. Shouts come from all of her friends, urging her to keep playing. She laughs before jumping to her favorite part of the song.

“Ain't it fun living in the real world?
Ain't it good being all alone?”

Notes

Yo, so this chapter is long but idk if it like, feels right?? Eh, maybe I'm just overthinking.