Chapter 29: So Tell Me What Your Best Friend Knows That I Don't Know
Alex's POV
"You know what I think?" Jack said, smirking. "I think that you, Alex Gaskarth, are in love with her."
"Psh," I waved him off, "you're outta your mind, Jack."
"Am I?" He raised an eyebrow.
Was I in love with Autumn? As much as I didn't want to admit it, he might have been on to something. But I'd never let him have that satisfaction. "Yes. You are, in fact, out of your mind," I said.
Jack shook his head with a look that basically said he didn't believe me. He pulled his legs up onto my couch in my living room so they were crossed. "So, is that why you won't shut up about her?" he asked. "Is that why you called her beautiful?" He shrugged. "Alex, you love her."
I shook my head, more to myself than to him. "I just like her, Jack. A lot."
"See? Now, you're lying to yourself."
"No, I'm not." Was I? "I do not love Autumn." Jack didn't say anything for a few seconds, just smirked at me. "What?" I asked, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.
"I never said her name, Alex."
"And, what does the prove?"
"That, even though no names were said, when I said 'you love her,' she came to mind." Jack shrugged. "It was a simple test of your mind. And, by the looks of it, you aced it."
"Probably the only test I'll ever get an A on," I mumbled.
Autumn's POV
"So, are you wearing the black one or white one?"
"What do you think?" Madison asked from her closet. "I wore the black one to homecoming, but I'm not sure."
I was sitting on her bed, flipping through a magazine she had in her room. "I like the white one better," I said, flipping a page. "It's not like a Barbie dress, but it's so pretty."
She poked her head out of the closet and put a hand over her heart. "I've done a good job. You sound like a girl!"
"Screw you," I laughed, flipping another page.
The white dress that she walked out of the closet with was glittery and very, very sparkly thanks to the glitter. It went down passed her knees and had a bow that tied in the back. Plus, she had white heels to match. Madison took the hanger and hung it up on the top of her closet door before going back into her closet, probably for the shoes.
"So, are you going to prom with Jack?" I asked.
I heard a crash from inside her closet, making me giggle because I knew what I asked had surprised her. She poked her head out of the closet as I flipped yet another magazine page. "W-what?" she replied.
"Are you going to prom with Jack?" I repeated.
"I don't-I mean, he didn't ask me, or anything." Madison disappeared into her closet, but quickly came back with a dark blue shoebox in her hand.
I gasped. "You finally came out of the closet!" I exclaimed before breaking out in giggles.
She threw a dirty sock at me from her floor. "Gosh, you're so immature."
"Be quiet, Mads." Page flip. "By the way, how did you get all your stuff here?"
"This morning when I left, I went to go get my dresses and shoes from my mom's house that, surprisingly, had my room the way I left it."
"Alright, we'll talk about that later." I closed the magazine and threw it on her pillow. "Back to Jack."
"Rhyme, ha." She grinned before she started going through her dresser for something. "I don't know where we stand."
"He never stopped liking you," I told her.
Madison's head snapped around to look at me. "Really?"
I nodded. "He told me that himself." I got up and went over to her dresser, retrieving the strapless bra I knew she was looking for. "You should ask him to go out to dinner before prom," I said, smiling and hip bumping her.
She shook her head, furiously. "No. I-I can't do that."
"You can, too," I argued.
"No, I can't," she insisted.
"Fine. Where's your phone?"
"My pillow. Why?" I didn't answer her. Instead, I jumped on her bed, landing so I was laying down on my stomach, and picked up her phone-an old one of mine that I had given her. "Autumn, what are you doing?"
"Something to make you love me forever," I answered, composing a text message.
"Autumn..."
"Shh..." I glanced over my shoulder at her. "You talk too much."
"I'll tackle you," she threatened.
"Worth it." I typed in Jack's number. Sure enough, she tackled me, but I didn't move except jumping a little in surprise. "This is hot, Madison. Such a turn on," I joked. She slapped my shoulder, but made no movements to get up. As I typed the message to Jack for her, asking if he wanted to go to dinner before prom, she just watched me. When I was done, I flipped her phone closed. "And now we wait," I said.
Madison climbed off of me to stand next to her bed. I rolled over onto my back and she crossed her arms. "I should be pissed at you, but I won't be because I secretly wanted you to do that."
"Told ya you'd love me." I grinned at her.
Alex's POV
"See you at prom?" Jack asked as we both walked to my front door.
"Of course," I replied as Jack's phone beeped
He pulled it out of his pocket and read his text before showing me the screen. "That's interesting."
I read his screen, seeing a text from Madison that said, "Hey, want to go to dinner before prom? ;)"
"Winky face. Sounds serious," I teased, smirking.
Jack rolled his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with a curious expression. "Should I go?"
"Do you want to go?"
He hesitated, not meeting my eyes. "Kinda..."
"Then go," I chuckled, shrugging.
He bit his lip for a second then quickly typed a reply. "Alright. Now I really have to go."
"Okay. See ya later."
"Later, Alex." He left my house and I turned around, looking at the stairs before walking up them to my room.
Taking a shower went by quickly, getting dressed was easy, and my hair was surprisingly cooperating tonight. Because of all of that, I made it downstairs ten minutes before I had to leave. My mom gushed (typical), and I got Autumn's corsage out of the fridge (no judging), then put on my own (Successfully, I only stabbed myself twice before I got it on). I said goodbye to my parents and left my house, taking my mom's car. Man, I need my own car.
Another ten minutes later and I was walking up the steps to Autumn's house. I took a deep breath as I felt nerves take over me and knocked on her door, shifting my feet and shaking out my hands to maybe calm me down a little. Much to my disappointment, but slight relief thanks to my nerves, Madison answered the door. She was already in a white dress with matching shoes and her hair was curly. She also had a sliver head band on. "Hey, Alex," she said.
"Hi." I smiled and waved a bit. "You look pretty."
"Thanks. You look good, too." She smiled.
"Autumn ready yet?"
"Almost she's putting on her shoes."
Madison let me in their house and shut the door just as Autumn walked downstairs. My breath caught in my throat when I saw her and I'm pretty sure my eyes widened, not to mention the world started moving in slow motion (I'm not high, I promise). Next to me, Madison grinned while I just blinked.
"Hi." Autumn said once she got to the bottom of the stairs. She smiled and I just blinked more.
"Um...ga...em," or something like that is what I managed to choke out. Madison smirked and walked into the kitchen, but I wasn't paying any attention to that. I only saw Autumn.
She laughed and said, "Wanna try and enunciate?"
Trust me, if I could, I would. I cleared my throat and only said, "Whoa."
"That's good, right?" she asked, nervousness forming in her eyes.
I shook my head, composing my thoughts. "You look...absolutely gorgeous," was the first full sentence I said since seeing her.
Her dress was light blue and stood out a lot against her tan skin. Her orange hair was straight and the hair on the left side was pulled back with a blue barrette that had a glittery flower on it. The dress went down to her knees and didn't show too much at all. Not to mention her legs in those sliver heels. Hands down, she was going to be the prettiest girl at prom tonight.
I smiled when I saw the blush that formed on her cheeks, but she said, "You look really nice, too," and smiled.
Then I remembered the corsage I have in my hand. I held it up, still in its little plastic container, and said, "I couldn't resist."
She blinked from surprise and I took the bracelet of flowers out of the small container then slid it onto her wrist. Autumn looked down at the purple, sky blue, and lime green flowers on her wrist. "So, that's what those colors were for?" she asked me.
I nodded, still smiling and kind of surprised she remembered me asking for three colors two weeks ago. "I was getting it when I texted you."
She didn't reply, just wrapped her arms around my neck in a hug that I returned by sliding my arms around her waist. "Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome." I kissed her temple.
We separated when we heard Madison say, "Awww." I looked up to see she was smiling and Autumn stuck her tongue out at her.
"So, where's Jack, Madison?" I teased as Autumn took my hand in her own.
"He's coming." She crossed her arms and shrugged.
I looked down at Autumn. "Are you ready to go?"
She nodded. "But my mom wants to take a picture of us."
"My mom's gonna want a copy of that picture," I replied, half smiling.
So we took pictures and then left to go to the restaurant. Once we got our table, Autumn was looking at the menu, but I was looking at her. She caught me staring, though, and looked up. Slowly smiling, she asked, "What?"
I shook my head, returning the smile. But before I knew what was coming out of my mouth, I said, "Nothing. You just look really beautiful."
Autumn blushed again and smiled. "And you look very handsome."
That shocked me a little. "Thanks," I said, but was thinking, I look nothing compared to you.
Conversation always came easy with Autumn and tonight was no different. I happened to notice the waiter was checking out Autumn and couldn't help but get a little jealous. But, hell, she was going to turn heads tonight if not already. I also smiled to myself at that, though, because she wasn't paying the waiter any mind.
We ate and I paid, even though she offered to pay for her meal more than once. She sighed in defeat, crossed her arms, and leaned back once I won that argument, which I chuckled at. About twenty minutes later, we were walking into the school where the prom was being held in the cafeteria. I grabbed her hand as we walked in, where we met up with Jack and Madison in the hallway shortly after.
"Snap, Autumn," Jack said then put on a stereotypical gay guy accent. "You look fabulous, girl."
Autumn smirked and rolled her eyes, but said, "You look good, too, Kitty Cat."
"You have so many nicknames for him," I said. She just shrugged as a response and then Rian came over to us with Kara. We said hi, compliments were thrown around, and then we made our way into the cafeteria.
Autumn's POV
"Boo."
I jumped and looked to my right, almost smacking Matt. "What did I tell you about scaring me like that? Stop giving me heart attacks."
He laughed and held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, couldn't resist."
He was wearing a suit with a red tie, and I wondered if he had a date or just came by himself. But then I got kind of confused at why my brain decided it'd be cool to think that thought. After those thoughts ran through my mind, Matt brought me back to reality when he said something.
"You look nice." He smiled.
I returned it. "So do you."
"So, I'm kind of just hanging out, but save me a dance later? Promise?"
I wasn't sure what to say, mainly because I was still trying to figure out if he really did like me. But, thankfully, before I got the chance to reply, Alex walked up and slid his hand in mine.
"Hey, Matt." He smiled.
"Hey." Matt half smiled then glanced from me to Alex.
Alex looked at me. "Jack's looking for you."
"Oh," I said. "Okay." I looked back at Matt. "I'll talk to you later, 'kay?" He nodded and Alex and I turned to walk away, but Matt called my name to make us stop and me look back at him.
"Promise?" he asked.
I took a deep breath, swallowed hard, nodded, and said, "Promise."
A few more dances with Alex later, one with Jack, one with Rian, and one with Kara, I was walking around as I looked for Matt. I found him talking to another member of ATL's crew who's name I couldn't remember. They were standing by the wall and when I got over there, What's-his-name waved at me. I returned it then I said, "Still wanna dance?"
Matt nodded and I let him take my hand and lead me to somewhere close to the middle of the dance floor. I looked around for Alex, frowning when I didn't see him. But then a slow song came on and I cursed myself, but looked at Matt, who smiled. I wrapped my arms around his neck and his hands rested on my waist as we started to sway to the music.
"You do look really pretty, Autumn," he said.
"Thanks." I smiled a bit and added, "You look really nice, too." He smiled and I glanced around some more, trying to think of something to talk about. Then I laughed when I saw Jack trip over his own feet while dancing with Madison. She giggled at him and Matt glanced behind him before looking back at me. "What?"
I shook my head, still smiling a bit and pointing behind Matt. "Nothing. Jack's just clumsy is all."
"Oh." He paused then nodded. "Yeah. He is." I chuckled a little at that.
This is stupid, I thought. I don't know for sure if he likes me or not, so I say fuck it. Since we weren't really talking anyways, I laid my head on shoulder. He rested his head on mine and we stayed like that until the end of the song. And once the song was over it was quickly replaced by something fast paced and poppy, and this was also when Alex walked up.
"Hey, I was looking for you." He smiled at me.
"I was just dancing with Matt." I shrugged.
"Oh." Alex looked at Matt. "Wanna come hang out with us?"
Matt half smiled, but shook his head. "Nah, I'll meet up with you later."
"Alright." Alex took my hand. "See ya later then?"
Matt nodded and looked at me. "Thanks for the dance." I nodded my response before we walked off in opposite directions.
What in the world?
