- Foo Fighters, Everlong -

https://open.spotify.com/track/5UWwZ5lm5PKu6eKsHAGxOk

- March 25th -

The week after Ethan's birthday was mostly spent trying to work out what to do different next time at Rock Central. We knew we had been lucky to get one gig there so a call-back was a pure luxury. Most of our time was spent perfecting the playlist and rearranging the original songs untill my head was thundering.
In addition, Ethan was distrating me. He infected my every waking thought. I dropped lyric lines over a smile from him and a simple touch had my brain spacing out. And I worried constantly about how close he was with his sister.

"So... You and Selma got along, huh?" He asked on the wednesday.

I felt myself holding back a cringe at the thought of what she might have told him.

"Yeah. She's cool," I replied trying to sound nonchalant.

Fearing that I might see a smug, mocking look on his face if I lifted my eyes, I kept my head down. I had my sketchpad on my lap and was trying to work out a basic design for Oddball's tattoo.

"What did you talk about?" He asked, sounding slightly insecure.

I dared a look at him. He was looking at my sketch.

"Nothing much... girl stuff," I replied.

"Girl-stuff?" He asked and looked up to face me.

Again, I struggled to gain control over my breathing when his eyes met mine. There was a curious, uncertain look in his eyes and I had to look away before giving away more than I should.

"Yeah. Girl-stuff," I shrugged.

"Okay?" He asked.

"Why?" I asked.

"It's just weird how much she talks about you..." he mumbled.

There wasn't a chance to say anything before Simon came and sat next to me.

"Hey, baby!" He said with a cheeky grin at me.

"Don't ever call me that!" I muttered.

"Why not, baby?" Simon asked grinning wider.

"We've had this conversation," I replied with a serious look at him.

"Okay. What 'cha doing, baby?" Simon continued.

"I was sketching up Odd's tattoodesign... but now I'm tempted to whack you," I said dryly.

"Why is that, baby?" Simon taunted.

"Because you keep calling me baby," I replied with a look that should have shut him up but only made him chuckle.

"Don't you like it, baby?" he continued with childish glee.

"Simon! One: it's demeaning. Two: I'm an adult. Three: you're being an ass!" I said firmly.

"But it's so much fuuunn!" Simon laughed.

I shot him a telling frown.

"Okay. I'll just call you baby girl," he grinned mischievously.

I gave in to my impulses and whacked him with my sketchpad.
Repeatedly.
Simon just laughed and grabbed the sketch to look at it.

"Odd's tattoo, huh?" He said.

"Yeah. He wanted a black pattern design," I said, hoping he was done being stupid.

Simon took my pencil and added a few lines to one of my ideas.

"Well... if we sharpen the corners here and soften this bit ot kinda looks like a stylised flame.

"If you make that bit thinner it could look like a music note too," Ethan supplied as he leaned over me to point at the sketch. My skin erupted in goosebumps as he practically lay on my lap to get to Simon.

"Getting comfy there?" Oddball chuckled as he sat across from me effectively hindering Ethan from scooting over to Simon and forcing him to wiggle closer to me in order to sit up.
Ethan muttered an embarassed "sorry" as he sat himself up.
I just grabbed the sketchpad back from Simon and put it somewhere in the middle, where all our knees met.

"I like this one," Oddball said, pointing at a wonky squiggle that had started out as a stylised drumset, complete with hi-hats and bass-drum.

"If we make this end into something like this..." Simon said and sketched a corner into what looked like the tuning keys from a guitar.

"And add this," I said and drew strings across the bassdrum.
The whole thing looked a bit messy but somehow we had incorporated all the instruments.
Between Simon and me we redrew it into a very simple curl.

"I like it!" Oddball said with a smile.

"I'll clean it up and draw it up properly tonight," I said.

"Awsome!" Oddball said and looked at his watch.

We all looked at him in confusion as he stood, picked up his bag and headed for the door.

"I've got an extra course in sound technology," he shrugged.

I studied him carefully. Something was being held back.

"It's coursework... And I kinda figured it might help our demos," he grinned.

The look of embarrassment was so out of place on his face that I had to laugh.

"Have fun," I called after him as he slipped through the door.

"Who'd have thought it. Oddball doing extra coursework?" Simon said with a doubtful shake of the head.

- March 26th -

Thursday afternoon we were in my basement again. The plan was to record a demo of our original songs and a couple of our best covers to bring to Rock Central.

Elsie was sat on the floor with my guitar practicing something Ethan had taught her.
I was sat with a felt pen drawing up an even simpler cleaner version of our earlier sketch with Simon next to me and Ethan in the armchair on the end.
Oddball was sat with Elsie trying to get her rhythm right.

I was humming 'Everlong' by Foo Fighters while I worked to try to get it right without stumbling on all the insinuations in the lyrics.

"You did good, baby," Simon grinned at my drawing.

"Consider yourself warned!" I said with a don't-mess-with-me look at him.

"Do you want me to whack him for you?" Ethan asked with a mischievous smirk.

"Yes please!" I grinned back.

"As you wish," Ethan said with a bow and a smile as he leaned forward.

"Don't you fucking dare!" Simon warned just as Ethan's hand flew out and caught Simon over the head.

Simon pointed a warning finger at Ethan.

"The lady gets what the lady wants," Ethan shrugged just as Oddball lifted his grin towards us.

There was a few seconds of Simon and Ethan staring each other down in mutual challenge. There was a cheeky smirk on Oddball's face as he looked at Ethan, before he turned to Simon with a mocking frown.

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You insulted Izzy. Now prepare to be tickled," Oddball said and jumped up to attack Simon.

As Simon scrambled over the back of the sofa, away from Oddball, I scooted closer to Elsie to get away from the mayhem. She was sat in wide eyed shock watching her brother and Ethan wrestle Simon down on the floor for a tickle attack.

"Boys!" I shrugged at her while trying to hold back a laugh.

She turned to look at me suspiciously.

"What just happened?" Elsie asked.

There was a moment of utter confusion at the three grown puppy-dogs laughing and wrestling on my floor. I looked back at Elsie.

"Why did he quote 'The Princess Bride'?" Elsie asked carefully.

"I have absolutely no idea," I replied watching as her face harden towards me.

The younger girl's eyes slowly shifted to the pile of limbs with a strange look of worry on her face.

A few minutes later I had three hysterically giggling, dishevelled boys on the floor.

"Lesson learned?" Oddball asked Simon.

"Yeah...about that..." Simon grinned and winked cheekily at Oddball before receiving a new whack. The two of them ended up in another giggly scuffle that ended up with Oddball somehow sitting on Simon.

Ethan escaped the scuffle, stood up and headed straight for Elsie.

Again I had to conciously will my eyes from him as he ran his fingers through his messy hair. His eyes still glittering with laughter.

"How are you doing with that guitar," he asked with a smile, earning a careful smile and a shrug back.

He sat down on the floor in front of her.

"We're not normally wild beasts..." he told her when he noticed her worried face.

Elsie nodded carefully.

"Okay. So are we ready to record something or do you want to play around with it some more?" Ethan asked.

"Record?" She asked.

"Yeah. You've been playing the basic chords to 'Dark Days'. You might as well own it," Ethan told her.

Elsie beamed a smile towards him.

Oddball dumped down next to me, slightly out of breath from the wrestlingmatch.

"Hey. That looks good!" he grinned at my drawing as he tried to reassemble his hair into a ponytail.

I had simplified it even more making it similar to a G-clef while still keeping some shapes to hint at instruments.
The resulting squiggle had a clear resemblance to musical symbols while being quite abstract.

"What do you think?" Odd asked his sister, holding the drawing.

"It's okay...." she said.

"Right. So that's in the maybe-pile," Oddball mumbled.

"You really want it?" Elsie asked.

"Yeah. I want a tattoo. But I promised you..." he started.

Elsie studied he drawing for a moment.

"If you make the line thicker some places it will be better," she said.

I drew some of the lines fatter and Elsie nodded.

"We'll get some more sketched up," I said.

Elsie shrugged.

"It's on my shortlist!" Oddball grinned.

Curious to know what a tattoo might look like on me, I pulled up my left shirtsleeve and drew the curly design on my wrist.

"Thinking about getting one too?" Odd asked.

"Maybe..." I mused looking at the pen lines on my arm.

"Maybe we should all get the same one," Simon said, grabbing my wrist to study the lines I had drawn.

- March 27th -

Friday afternoon, we decided to just relax. We had everything loaded into Oddball's van, ready for the gig the next day. There were probably parties going on, but none of us were really in the mood. There was beer and pizza boxes on the table in my basement and quite honestly it was my kind of a party.
Just us.

I was sat between Simon and Ethan, watching some action movie.
It had been their turn to choose.
I curled my legs under me and surreptiously laid my head on Ethan's shoulder. He turned his head slightly to acknowledge my touch before he turned back to the movie.
I felt my eyes grow heavy.

An unknown amount of time later I woke up and registered a few things.

I was no longer sitting upright with my head on Ethan's shoulder.

I was in fact lying down on my side with my head on someone's chest and the sound of his heartbeat in my ear. I knew it was a boy's chest because my hand was resting on a pectoral muscle and an unmistakeable male scent filled my nostrils. I also had my top leg wound around his leg and his arm wrapped around my back. He had placed the leg that I hadn't claimed on the floor and was half sitting up against the armrest of the sofa. There was also the almost ticklish sensation of calloused fingers gently stroking the bare piece of skin between my jeans and my t-shirt in lazy circles.

The movie was over. The tv was on and I heard some nature documentary with the sound turned low and three familiar voices were talking very softly around me.

I fluttered my eyes open and shifted my head to see who I was using as a cushion and saw the underside of a lightly stubbled jaw. His face was twisted uncomfortably towards Odd who was sitting in the armchair. From the location of the voices I heard, Simon was still sitting down in the other end of the sofa, by my feet.
Which left the boy with the infinite, gray eyes, suddenly looking into mine with a tender smile.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty," he said softly.

His mouth held that crooked little smile just long enough to make me want to reach up and touch his lips with my fingers. I felt my own face smile back at him and the rest of the world melt away.

Suddenly my brain caught up with my awake state and I mentally shook myself. Clumsily I scrambled into an upright position while blinking the sleep from my consciousness.

"Good nap?" Simon asked with a chuckle as I looked around to try to reorient myself.

I looked back at the reclining form of Ethan, who's fingers were still gently touching my skin at the hem of my jeans and I realised I was resting my hand on his chest. I slowly removed my hand while blinking and feeling very embarrassed.

"I'm so sorry!" I said looking at him, feeling my blush spread.

He smiled back warmly.

"Don't be. It was actually quite comfortable. I haven't had a cuddle like that for ages," he said with a teasing glint in his eyes.

His fingers continued trace small circles on my skin, just out of the other two's line of sight, giving me goosebumps. It felt so good, I never wanted him to stop.

Odd stood up and streched.

"Right then. Now that Ethan is free of his limpet, I would like to go home. Izzy looks like she should be getting some more sleep. Who wants a ride?" he asked.

I looked at the clock and registered that I had slept for a couple of hours. It was decidedly bedtime.

"Yep," Simon said and stood from the sofa.

"I should go too," Ethan said and started sitting up untill his face was uncomfortably close to mine.

I couldn't help stare at him as he looked at me with an amused look in his eyes.

"Unless you plan to cuddle me some more, I think I will need my leg back," he whispered softly with a touch of something slightly wicked in the curve of his lip.

I suddenly registered that I was still effectively straddling his thigh, locking him into place.

"Oh. Shit. Sorry," I muttered and scrambled up from the sofa to let him go.

He stood up, ending up really close to me. His smile was somewhere between laughter and serious as he studied my face closely.

"Thanks for the cuddle," he said with a careful smile.

My heart both stopped and galloped at the warm look in his eyes. I wanted to kiss him so much it hurt. For a couple of seconds I was unable to move as my eyes were locked on his. Those ever changing brown spots in the dark gray were golden and I was completely in his power.

The magic bubble burst as he blinked a couple of times and stepped away.

I walked them to the door and waited as they got ready to leave.

Simon wrapped an arm around my shoulder and gave me a clumsy hug.

"Go get some sleep Iz. You are looking rather dazed," he whispered into my ear with a small laugh.

I hugged him back. I realised that I missed the close touch I just had with Ethan and hugging Simon was a poor substitute, although a safe one.

"I will," I said, grateful for the concern.

Oddball came and gave me a hug too.

"I'll pick you up at four tomorrow. Give us time to set up," he said and squeezed the air out of me making me laugh.

"Thank you," I giggled as he released me.

Ethan was looking very self conscious for a moment before looking at me with a cheeky smile.

"I suppose I had my hug earlier?" he asked.

I didn't want to wait for a direct invitation so I just walked over and gently wrapped my arms around him.

"I always have extra hugs for you," I said nuzzling into his neck inhaling his scent.

"Good. I like your hugs," he said quietly into my hair.

I released him when Odd opened the door and watched them troop out into the night. As they got into the van, I blew a kiss off my hand in their direction, hoping it would get some kind of message through.

"Goodnight Izzy," Simon called out of the window as Odd started the engine. As the van backed away I caugh Ethan giving me a wink, sending my pulse rocketing as the floor turned to rubber.
I locked the door and leaned back on it wondering if I was ever getting my heart back. Just when I thought I had my feelings under control, one soft smile was all it took to tip me into the abyss again.
I was still feeling the traces of his fingers on the small of my back. His scent was still on my t-shirt.
The look in his eyes when he realised I was awake had settled in my mind like the taste of cotton candy after you come home from the fun fair.
I wanted him to look at me like that again.
Every day.
All the time.
As if I was the only person in the world.
As if I was the only thing that mattered.

(A/N:
The drawing in the banner/sidebar is my idea of what Izzy's tattoodesign looks like.
What do you think?
Would it suit someone like Oddball?

And another missed opportunity.
I know I'm writing this but sometimes it feels more like I'm watching it happen.
And I just want to shake Izzy sometimes....

I love your votes and comments!
Keep it coming!)