These Stars Defy Love

The next morning I rolled over and reached for the person who I had fallen asleep next to, just to feel my arm fall against a pillow instead. I opened my eyes and blinked slowly at the empty spot next to me. As I slowly woke up I could feel the hammering in my head start. Oh God. I drank soooo much last night. I rolled over onto my back and thought about the night before. HOLY FUCK... I tried to kiss Vic... I pulled myself out of bed and glanced at the clock on the wall as I grabbed a pair of sweats from the floor and pulled them on. No. No. No. I fucked up so bad. I pushed the door open and started down the stairs. It was 2 in the afternoon and the boys had already picked the house up. Where were they? Where was Vic? I stumbled into the kitchen and found Jamie digging through the fridge. "Um. Morning." I pushed him out of the way to grab a bottle of Gatorade.

"Haha. Morning party animal. You're alive!" Jamie reached out to high five me and I just shook my head.

"I'm not alive, and I don't deserve to applaud myself. I drank too much last night. Wayyy too much." Jamie laughed and went back to digging through the fridge. "Um. Hey do you know where Vic is?" I tried as hard as I could to sound nonchalant as I asked. I chewed on my lip as I waited for his response. He didn't even look away from his search for whatever it was that had evaded him in the fridge.

"Yeah he's down in the studio."

"Thanks." I hurried out of the kitchen and rushed over to the stairs to the basement. I paused when I reached halfway down them. Why was I rushing to find him? What was I even going to say? It didn't matter. I had to figure something out. I couldn't fuck up the good thing I had going for me here. I continued down the stairs, twirling my hair and trying to figure out what I was going to say. I walked into the studio and leaned against the doorframe for a second. Vic didn't notice I had walked in, so I went and sat on the keyboard bench and coughed a little. His head shot up and he took his headphones off and turned around quickly.

"Oh shit. Sorry, I didn't even hear you come in. What's up?" I squinted at him and didn't say anything for a minute. "Ah... so you do remember last night. You weren't as drunk as I thought." I continued to stare at him for a moment and then words began to tumble out of my mouth before I could even think to stop them.

"Listen Vic. I'm really really sorry. I drank way way way too much. I don't really know why I did what I did or why I said what I said and I'm really sorry I crossed the lines I crossed and I..." He put his finger over my mouth and scooted closer to me.

"Hey Eves? You don't have anything to be sorry for. You were just being open about feelings with me. That's nothing to apologize for." I pushed his finger away and bit my lip hard. He reached up and gently pulled my lip from between my teeth.

"Yeah, but I don't want... I didn't mean to make... and you don't... I don't know."

"I don't what?" He kept looking at me with this weird expression that I couldn't put my finger on. It was somewhere between humored and sad and happy and excited and I didn't have any idea what to think of it.

"Well... you stopped me." I peeked up at him through my bangs. He chuckled and pushed my hair out of my face.

"Hey Eves. I thought you were blackout drunk. Of course I stopped you."

"Oh." I had no idea how to respond to that. And I couldn't think of anything to say. So I stood up to leave. "Okay then. Well never mind then." I started to walk out of the room and he jumped up and grabbed my arm. I turned to look at him.

"So you weren't blackout drunk?"

"Nope."

"Would you have done the same thing if you had been sober?"

"I..." I looked down quickly as I felt my cheeks turn red. I looked back up at him and he was smiling. I raised an eyebrow at him and the next thing I knew he pushed me against the wall and moved close to me, his body against mine.

"Would you have?" I couldn't make my tongue form words so I just nodded and wrapped my arms around his neck. This kiss that followed was nothing like what I was expecting, but everything I had ever wanted a kiss to be. It was so soft and sweet and his mouth was so gentle against mine. No one had ever kissed me like that and I felt myself melt into him. I pulled away slowly and took a slow breath before looking up at him. He was smiling the biggest, cutest smile I had ever seen. I felt a small smile creep across my own lips before I buried my head in his chest.

"I'm scared. I'm sorry Vic. I'm just too scared..."

"Hey." He pulled away from me and held me at arms length. "Look at me." He lifted my chin softly with one finger and brushed away a tear I hadn't even realized I cried. "This doesn't have to mean anything immediately. I know you've been through a lot, and a lot of people have hurt you. We can take this as slow as you want. I just really wanted to do that. And you clearly did too." He winked at me and I giggled and then bit my lip again.

"So it's okay if I want to take it slow?"

"Of course Everly. We can take it at whatever pace you want to." I smiled and buried my face in his chest again. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead. "But I do have a phone call I have to make to a studio real fast, and some other calls I gotta make before the mini tour next month, okay?" I pulled away from him, nodded, and gave him a quick kiss before skipping out of the room. I heard him chuckle behind me and couldn't help but smile to myself. I didn't know what I was doing, or what this meant, but it felt really good, and I felt really happy. I ran up the stairs and past the kitchen.

"You find him?" Jamie shouted at me as I ran past.

"Mhm!" I responded as I ran all the way upstairs. I knew Mike would be in bed. He was the worst with hangovers. I threw open his door and plopped down next to him. I poked him a couple times and he scooted over and I laid down next to him and kept poking him.
"Jesus christ Evee. I never would have let you move in with me if I had known you would constantly be waking me up."

"Hey um.... Mikey? I have something I need to tell you."

"What could possibly be important enough to wake my hungover ass up?"

"Well um. I did something last night when I was drunk..." His eyes shot open and he sat up.

"Oh God, Everly. No. That sentence has never, ever led to anything good from you." I snickered and rolled onto my back and looked up at him.

"Well. I tried to do something last night. But Vic stopped me." He scowled at me and I smiled really big. "But then I was sober, so he did it..."

"What. What on Earth did you and Vic do?" I beamed at him and pulled his blanket up and hid my face and then peeked out at him. "DID YOU FUCK MY BROTHER?!" I threw my hand over his mouth and shushed him.

"First of all, no. Second, hush. I don't want anyone else knowing yet. And third of all, we just kissed..." Mike sighed fell back on his pillow.

"Shit. I thought you were telling me you had rebound sex with him and I was going to be furious with you."

"Why would that make you angry."

"Because. I know he has feelings for you and I'm pretty sure you have feelings for him too."

Notes

Like I said before, sorry these first few chapters are so choppy. Converting this from a one shot has proved to be more work than I thought and I am waayyy too impatient to take it slow.