The Hustler [Alex Gaskarth]

Chapter Thirteen: The Ex

     After the show, most of which I watched from backstage, the guys all came running back, sweaty and smelly, and Jack threw his arms around me jubilantly.

     "Smell my stanky pits, Bloody Mary!"

     "OH MY god, Jack! Get off! I can't breathe!" I shrieked. "What the hell, did you roll around in the Dumpster before you went onstage?"

     "Rian!" He yelled. "You said no one would know!"

     "Fuck," Rian laughed, running off as Jack tried to catch him. Soon Alex got in on the act, trying to grab Rian's arms so he could hold him still while Jack kicked his knee.

     Zack and I stood calmly off to the side, watching the other three try and kill each other. He had a small, serene smile on his face, like a father watching his sons fight over the last popsicle.

     "How do you deal with this all the time?" I asked him.

     He startled, as though he were surprised to still see me standing there, but recovered quickly. "It's a little intense, isn't it?"

     "A little bit, yeah."

     Zack laughed. "I forget sometimes, how weird it looks to people on the outside. I guess I've just gotten used to Jack and Alex acting like kids. It's in their nature. Don't get me wrong, they're both serious when they have to be, but when they don't have to..."

     "This happens?" I finished, gesturing to the wrestling match on the ground in front of us.

     "Exactly," he nodded. "This is what I deal with on a daily basis. Usually Rian and I will leave them alone, unless they pull us into it. Then we play along."

     "I guess if you have to deal with them all the time, it's better to just play along sometimes. Save your energy for something worth fighting over."

     "Yeah. Like my own bed, or ketchup or something."

     "Zack Merrick, did you just make a joke?" I pretended to be shocked.

     "No. I never joke about ketchup." He deadpanned.

     "Are you bugging 'Lia about ketchup?" Alex asked, approaching us with a slightly disheveled look about him. "Zack, leave the poor girl alone. Not everyone hoards that shit like you do."

     Zack shook his head and punched Alex in the shoulder. "Fuck off, I was being nice to your guest, since you were being an asshole."

     "It's true. I initiated the conversation. I take full responsibility for wherever it ended up, Alex. Because I was feeling so alone and unloved." I stuck my tongue out at him, and he gnashed his front teeth together, as if he were going to try and bite it off.

     "I can do that again," he warned. "But this time, I'm thinking bigger. Maybe in the middle of Times Square. On a two hundred foot tall screen. With fireworks."

     "Nobody likes you."

     Jack butted in, squeezing his best friend by the shoulders. "I do! I love you, Alex!"

     "Get off me, you smelly bastard!" Alex pushed him away, earning himself a mock-hurt look from his brown-eyed best friend. "I'm kidding, buddy. I wuv you too."

     "Aww. Kodak moment," someone behind me purred. I turned around and saw a black-haired woman, probably seven inches taller and eighty shades more orange than me. Alex suddenly placed his hand across my waist and pushed me just slightly behind him. Zack, Rian, and Jack suddenly came closer as well.