***Jaime’s POV-

“Are you sure you’re okay with doing this..? I mean… It may not work…” Jack Barakat tells me and I nod in agreement.

“I know, but it’s the only thing I can do without coming out and telling Vic I like him. If I do that, I could ruin our relationship if he doesn’t like me, and then ruin the band in the process. But this way, if he doesn’t react at all to us flirting and getting real close and stuff, then I know he doesn’t like me. If he does seem to get mad or jealous, then I know he does, you know?” I tell him, my logic making complete sense in my head.

The two of us, myself and Jack Barakat had had a long talk a few nights before, since his band, All Time Low and my band, Pierce the Veil have been on tour together. We talked about things not really anyone else knows about us. The two of us are both gay, or so we think. We both are in love with a member of our own bands.

I myself have never really been attracted to anyone except Vic. Ever since I’ve met him, I’ve thought he was attractive, but honestly, who doesn’t? In the seven years that we’ve been in a band together, I developed feelings for him. I would find myself being rude to his girlfriends, blaming them for taking him away. I very much enjoyed all the ‘flirting’ we do. On my side, the flirting is real, for him, I don’t know. I don’t know if he does it just for the interviews or not.

Jack and I have hatched a plan. The two of us, for the remainder of tour, or until it works, are going to flirt a lot, it’s not too hard, maybe even say we’re dating. If I notice Vic or he notices Alex getting jealous or upset about it, we’re going to stop it all and talk to whichever one it is.

He looks worried, and I know it’s because he’s scared of finding out Alex may not like him, too, and I feel the same way about Vic.

“Hey, it’ll be okay. I have faith in our plan,” I tell him, pulling him into a hug, “By the way, I apologize in advance for any ass grabbing or possible kissing I may throw out there.” I grin.

He busts up laughing and I do, too, trying to calm my nerves as we pull apart.

***Vic’s POV-

“I can’t believe you seriously did that!” I laugh, playfully punching my brother, Mike, in his arm. We had just left a diner close to the venue we’re at. The waitress there had asked for his number and he suddenly pretended to be blind, groping her chest in his attempt to ‘find her’.

He laughs and shrugs, moving away so he’s out of arms reach so I can’t punch him again, “Oh, go fuck yourself,” he grins then wiggles his eyebrows, “Or Jaime. Whichever you prefer.”

I squeak and my eyes go wide, blushing deeply, “That’s the last time I’ll ever tell you I like someone.” I grumble, running after him as he cackles.

As we round the corner, I stop short, my heart dropping into my stomach at what I see.

Jaime is sitting on the lap of Jack Barakat, giggling as he wiggles around, his dimples prominent on his cheeks as he singsongs something I can’t quite catch.

“Hey Vic!” I look up to see my brother frowning as he pulls his eyes away from them, turning back to me, “You know they’re just playing around. Just like you and Jaime do. And you and Alex do. And Jack and Alex do. Don’t read too much into it.”

“Yeah. I’m going to go find Alex. See if he wants to play Xbox or something.” I mumble, waving a little to him and turning, starting to walk away.

“Vic!” That beautiful voice stops me in my tracks, and I can’t but think of all the nights we’d stay up so late and write songs, us taking turns singing them. I preferred when he sang them, his voice is beautiful.

I slowly turn around, watching blankly as Jaime hurries over to me, Jack bouncing right along behind him. I feel a bubble of jealousy and anger in my stomach when I see that their hands are intertwined.

I can’t help but blurt out, “Wh-What’s that about?” I ask, motioning to their hands.

“We uh…” Jaime grins a little, looking down and scuffing his shoe on the ground, much like a little child, “Yeah…”

“So you’re like… Dating or something?” I ask, both of them looking taken aback by me flat out asking.

I don’t know if I can handle the answer I’m pretty sure I’m going to get, so as Jaime opens his mouth again, I decide I’d rather just suspect, “You know what? I don’t care. I’m going to hang out with Alex.”

His eyes widen at the harshness of my voice and I turn away, mentally berating myself as tears pool in my eyes. Of course. I’ve known Jaime was into me. He admitted it one night while we were drunk off our asses. Of course, I liked him, too. Always have, since my little brother brought him to our house as just another person to audition for our band.

But guess what? Vic was too chicken shit to do anything that night, and this last three months after that night. I pretended I didn’t see the ulterior motives behind the flirting we’ve always done. But now I’ve waited too long. I’ve lost my chance. He moved on.

“Whoa! Victor! What’s wrong??” Alex asks, jumping up from where I didn’t notice him sitting at a table nearby, alone and from the way he sways, he’s had a couple shots.

I hiccup and wipe furiously at my eyes, “Nothing.” I tell him, hoping he’s drunk enough to buy it, but I’m not. Unluckily, or luckily for me, he’s in that stage where he’s not too drunk, but tipsy enough to think he’s ten foot tall and bulletproof, which means he’ll say anything he feels he should, no holds barred.

“Liar. What is it?” He demands, resting a hand on my arm and frowning worriedly. In the last few weeks our bands have been on tour, Alex and I have become close friends, he’s someone I can really count on. And someone I’ve entrusted with my biggest secret: my love for my bassist, Jaime Preciado.

I sigh deeply, “Jaime and J-Jack were holding h-hands.” I stutter out, shaking my head to get the image out of my head.

“They [i]what?![/i]” He screeches, flailing his arms a little. A fire lights behind his eyes and I realize I should have come up with a lie to tell him.

He turns on his heel and stalks toward the other side of the buses where they were. I gasp and chase after him.

“Alex! No! Think about this, what you’re about to do!” I screech, begging him to not go to them, tugging at his arm.

He yanks his arm from my grasp and frowns, turning to me, “Look how much you’re hurting, Vic. How bad that makes you feel just that they’re holding hands. You don’t deserve that and I don’t deserve to feel the way I feel about it. They need to know.”

“But, what about what’ll happen to the bands! This isn’t right, Alex!” I exclaim, tugging at his arm again.

“No, Victor. What isn’t right is what is going on here. If something happens to the bands, then obviously they weren’t very strong to begin with, that a problem broke them up. But our bands are strong enough for that. They deserve to know. We deserve to not have to be holding back anymore.” He says, turning and rounding the corner, yelling Jack’s full name.

I gasp and run around the bus, grabbing his arm again, but I’m too late. He’s already began.

“What the fuck is even going on here?!” He asks loudly.

The two part from where they were standing very close to each other, their hands still intertwined as they talked and laughed at Rian and Tony arguing about one of the Star Wars movies.

Their eyes widen, and I’m sure mine are as well, “What are you talking about, Alexander?” Jack asks, mocking Alex’s using his full name.

“The fact that you two are fucking flaunting yourselves around without a care in the world! It’s fucking bullshit! [i]Bullshit.[/i] How is it so fucking hard to see when someone is in love with you, Jack?! I’m your best friend! You say you know everything about me! How could you not know?! Then fucking throwing yourselves at each other half this fucking tour! Or do you know and you not fucking care?! Why can’t you fuckers see what you’re doing?! Vic was in tears because Jaime’s been all over you. And do you care? Apparently fucking not! You’re eating that shit up! Jack, I fucking love you, okay?! [i]I love you![/i]” By the time Alex finished, most of the guys and the drivers have turned to us, their eyes wide at his little rant.

Jack is dumbfounded, his eyes sad at the tears that have make a track down Alex’s face. He steps forward, inhaling shakily and biting his lip, trying to find words to say.

My eyes are wide and staring at Alex, in shock about what just happened that I don’t even notice that Jaime has moved over to me until I hear a soft, meek, “Vic…”

I gasp softly and bite my lip, looking down at him. His bottom lip is sucked a little into his mouth as he chews on it, his dimples not showing which makes me extremely sad. His eyes look sad, boring into mine, and I’m shocked to see his eyes are watery.

“I-is it true..?” He whispers.

“Is what true, Jaime?” I ask, knowing exactly what he means, I’m just trying to buy myself some time.

“You h-have feelings for m-me…” He says, his voice still only a whisper, “Is i-it true…?

I close my eyes against tears threatening to fall, he opens his mouth again, this time loud enough to talk to both Alex and me, effectively stopping the other two from arguing.

“This was all a plan. Jack and I agreed to pretend to flirt and like we were dating to make you guys jealous. There’s feelings there and we all knew it, just all of us were too chicken shit to admit to any of it. So I ask again,” He says, Alex turns to look at Jack with wide eyes, him looking sheepish and I turn back to Jaime, who’s looking up at me, his lower lip trembling and I feel his soft touch on my forearm, “Is it true?”

“Yes it is true, Jaime.” I finally admit in a whisper, “I want to be with you, Jaime, and I have for a very long time.”

He gasps, a tear falling down his cheek and I can’t stop myself from reaching up and cupping his cheek, softly wiping the tear away with my thumb.

“I… You… S-so have I…” he whispers, “I was so scared y-you wouldn’t feel the s-same way…” He says, his eyes boring into mine.

I’m honestly at a loss for words, so I do the only thing I can think of, the thing I’ve wanted to do for years.

I kiss him.

Notes

Finished! :D let me know what you think! This story is also on mibba; title is the same. Author is me: ofmiceandme <3