It took me a while to figure out what to wear, I didn't know if I wanted to go with sexy or cute. Tonight was important. I decided to wear my black denim skinny jeans, my long, low cut, green flower shirt with my black flats.

Time flew by and once I peeked over at the clock, I was already late. I put on the last touches and grabbed my sweater and skipped out the door. I was locking the building door when footsteps were creeping up on me. I flipped around with my key extended, only to sigh in embarrassment. It was Jack. I pushed at his chest.

"Don't do that! You scared me!"

"Oh Grace, I'm sorry." he pulled my still extended arms and wrapped them around him. He stroked my hair, comforting me.

He finally let me go and took my hand. He had his old BMW parked by the sidewalk. We drove over to a small music joint where all bands, local and quite famous, showed off their stuff. Jack led me to the back, where I would be staying a portion of the concert. Alex and the guys were already back their doing a sound check. It was crazy backstage. Everyone was running around fixing, fixing and re-fixing. I quickly got myself out of the way of their business and found myself in the green room in the back.

I was sitting in the director's chair with the title 'Big Jack' on the back. Looking at myself in the round mirror, I wondered how I got here. I looked myself up and down, obviously picking out my flaws. I was quite petite, with lightly tanned skin. I was a natural brunette and my hair had now reached my mid-waist. Compared to Jack, I was just a piece of furniture. I started breathing heavily, but stopped myself and took another long deep breath.

Out of nowhere, one of the stage managers appeared in the doorway. She was a small blond woman who immediately ordered me to get on stage. My mind blanked. Why would I be needed on stage? Without thinking, I hopped up off the 'Big Jack' chair and walked back into the chaos. The small blond lead me to the right side of the stage. I could see Alex, Zack, Rian and of course, Jack. I could tell they were having fun.

They were just finishing a song when Jack looked over at me. He smiled and gestured me to come on stage. A Mic was put in my hands and suddenly I was being pushed to center stage. The lights were bright, the screams were piercing, and my stomach was already doing flips. Jack pulled me to his side, and automatically wrapped his arms around me.

"Everyone!" Jack said into his Mic. The crowd was still crazy but lightly calmed to hear him, "I would like you to meet someone." he looked down at me and touched his forehead to mine. The crowd was a chorus of amused 'awes'. I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back as he leaned down to kiss me. Zack was right, this romance was rekindling.

"Hi." was all I could choke out into the Mic, "I'm Grace." then Jack kissed me again, this time, with more passion, I could tell he was falling too.

"Grace? What song should we play next?" he said as he met my delighted gaze. I could barely think, I could barley hear myself think. But I already knew my favorite.

"Stay Awake." the crowd went crazy. Apparently I wasn't the only fan of the song.

Jack quickly switched off his Mic, "Can you sing Grace?"

"I have no idea. All I ever did was choir." something didn't sound right.

"Well I know you love this song, so go up there with Alex and and sing your heart out." before I could protest, he was kissing me again. He took my face in his soft hands and looked me directly in the eye, "For me?" how could I resist his eyes?

"OK." I said nervously. I didn't have any problem with the song, I knew every lyric, but I had no idea what my voice was like. I was afraid of screwing up in front of everyone. All of Jack's fans.

I shook off my nerves as I met Alex a the front of the stage. He looked at me and smiled, wrapping his arm around me, in the big-brother kind of way. I tried to lean away considering the kiss we shared earlier.

My nerves got the best of me in the first verse. My voice couldn't have been heard. But by the time the chorus came around, magically, confidence surged through me. I belted out the lyrics and hit them flawlessly.

By the time the song was coming to an end, and the slow part of the song came along, it was getting kind of steamy between me and Alex. Nothing too serious, I could never do that right after Jack announcing me to his fans. But me and Alex had some kind of connection. We both hit the last note perfectly, but I realized he was gazing at me. It felt really weird, so to end the weird-ness, I ran back into Jack's arms. I felt safe with him.

I pretty much avoided Alex the rest of the night. The boys decided not to have an after party, so we just headed back to the hotel. They all took their showers as I watched some TV. Zack was the first one out, so he sat with me as we watched old cartoons. I was feeling pretty drowsy after a little while. I ended up with my head leaned against his shoulder, but, since Zack is an awesome guy, he woke me up before Jack was out of the shower.

That night was quite similar to the ones before it. But it was a little uncomfortable for me. It was weird being around Alex, I just felt an odd tension, but I wasn't sure if it was good, or bad. So I waited until Jack was asleep and it was around midnight. I decided to get away from it all and just sit by the hotel's pool and breathe.

I took one last whiff of Jack and kissed his sleeping face. I silently slid out of his security-like grasp and tip-toed out of the room. I grabbed the key card Jack gave to me just in case and as quietly as possible, shut the door on my way out.

The air was crisp as it whipped at my ankles. I shivered and shrugged on my sweater. When I got down to the pool, it said that it closed at 10, but oddly enough, the gates were wide open. I went over to the hot tub and slid my feet in the mildly worm water. It felt hot considering the air outside was extremely cold. I sat there and thought about the last week and a half.

Being reunited with my ex, going to a concert, meeting and flirting with his best friends/band mates and so on. It was a crazy week.

All of a sudden, I heard footsteps coming closer. I didn't think it was Jack this time, but before doing something stupid, I quickly turned, and sighed.

It was Zack.

What was he doing here?

"Zack?"

"What are you doing out here, Grace? It's freezing!"

"The hot tub is warm." I added. He laughed quietly and walked over to sit next to me.

"So what brought you here, on this cold night?" he asked with I smile breaking his straight face.

"I don't know, I have a lot on my mind." I sighed.

"Well tell big, bad Zack!" I quietly giggled but kept my eyes on my hands.

"All this crazy shit is happening so fast." I whispered.

"Well at least you have Me, Jack, Alex and Rian to help." he smiled. I couldn't help but look up at him. He seemed to be slightly nervous. I leaned over and gave him a one and a half armed hug. But, when pulling away, I stopped. Our faces were close, too close. He was looking at me funny, and it made me feel funny too. He lightly, and quickly, kissed my cheek. My face tingled and my entire body shivered, and not from the 30 degree air outside.

But before anything else happened, I brought myself back to reality and scooted away from Zack. I was being a terrible person.

"I should get back upstairs." I said awkwardly.

"Yeah, I should too."

Once I was back upstairs, I crawled back into Jack's arms. But I couldn't sleep. I was thinking about Alex and Zack. I even felt myself having small feelings for both of them. I felt like a little whore. And the only reason I wasn't lusting after Rian was because he had a serious girlfriend. I was just horrible.

Who knows why, but I got up at 6 'o clock the next morning. I quickly took a shower and threw on my clothes I brought. I walked downstairs to grab a snack, but when I got back, I received a phone call.

"Hello?" I said.

"Grace?" my dad said, with a worried tone. Something wasn't right.

"Yeah dad. Whats up?" there was a short pause before he answered.

"Grace, mom died last night."