FicWad

A month and a half passed and I was still regularly going out with Pete. He hadn't asked me to be his girlfriend, though, and I was wondering if he ever would. I tried not to let it bother me and instead, Ifocused on having a good time with him.

Adam, Kevin, Dylan and I had been working tirelessly, perfecting our new sound and practicing the new versions of my old songs. We were set to have our first performance as a band in a week, a few days after Fall Out Boy's new album came out.

The album, 'From Under the Cork Tree' was getting a release party and everything. Pete had already asked me to be his date.



Fast Forward to Release Party

Pete took my arm and led me inside the club they had decided to hold the FUCT (A/N: that acronym never gets old does it? Makes me giggle every time) release party in. They had gone with a club instead of a bigger venue because they didn't want too many people. Once inside, we met up with Joe and Tanaya, who I had been spending a lot of time with lately.

"Andy said he brought his girlfriend tonight." Pete said to me.

I nodded happily, since I hadn't gotten to meet either Patrick's or Andy's girlfriends yet.

"I'll go find them." Pete said, letting go of my hand.

He returned a few minutes later with Andy and a tan girl with dark, curly brown hair and light blue eyes. Andy introduced us. "Alex, this is my girlfriend, Mara. Mara, this is Alex."

She gave me a smile and stuck out her hand. I returned the smile and shook her hand. "Nice to finally meet you. Andy talks about you a lot."I told her, honestly. Mara grinned up at Andy, who took her hand.

Patrick wandered over and flashed a smile at us. "Hey guys."

"Hey." We all replied. "Is your girlfriend here?" I asked him.

"No, she couldn't make it." He said in a disappointed tone.

I playfully hit him on the shoulder. "Come on! I need to meet her."

He grinned and shrugged. "She's just really busy."

Joe came over, leading Tanaya by the hand. "Come on, we have to go get ready to perform." He told Pete, Andy and Patrick.

Andy gave Mara a quick kiss and Pete squeezed my hand. "See ya in a bit." He said cheerfully.

Tanaya, Mara and I walked over to near the front of the stage when Fall Out Boy came on to play. We cheered along with everyone else as Pete took the microphone. "As you all know, we're here tonight to celebrate the release of our new album, 'From Under the Cork Tree', or FUCT as we like to call it." There were cheers at this. "So we're gonna play you some of the stuff off of it." With that, they immediately launched into a song I recognized as'Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner'.

About 20 minutes later, Pete took the microphone again."We're gonna play one last song for you after this and it's called 'Dance, Dance'. It's a song we really like and I hope you all enjoy it, but before we play it, there's something I have to do real quick. Alex, would you come up on stage?" I didn't even register what he had said until Mara nudged me forward."Go!" She said smiling. Tanaya also had a big smile on her face. They all know something I don't know. I walked to the stage and Pete stuck his hand down to pull me up. Once I was standing next to him, he continued. "Alex here is someone I met a while ago after we played a show. We've gone out on quite afew dates since then and I'd just like to take this opportunity to ask her to be my girlfriend." He put the microphone back in its stand and turned to me."Alex, will you be my girlfriend?" He said quietly.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face. "Okay." I said. It was the same thing I had said when he asked me out... I need to learn some wittier responses.

Pete took the microphone again and grinned out at the crowd."She said yes!" He yelled happily. The crowd started cheering and I took that as my cue to get back into the crowd. I hopped off the stage as they started'Dance, Dance.' Everyone inside the club went crazy as they finished and they all exited the stage with big, goofy smiles on their faces.

Pete came over to me and Mara and Tanaya smiled at me and said they were going to find Andy and Joe. I moved to give him a hug but he stopped me. "This is what I was going to do before you left the stage."He said with a smirk. Before I could answer, he dipped me down and gave me the most romantic kiss I've ever gotten. Everyone around us started aww-ing. When he stood me up again, I laughed and said, "that was the most embarrassing thing anyone's ever done to me." I laughed more at his face. "But also the sweetest."He grinned and kissed me again.





A few days later, it was time for my band to play our very first show. We still didn't have a name, but we were working on it. We got to the club early to set up our equipment and Pete, Andy and Mara met us there to help.

Pete greeted me with a kiss and a smile. "I have a surprise for you later." He said.

I just sighed and focused on setting up. "I'm too nervous to think about surprises."

"Aw, don't be nervous." He said, rubbing my back a bit.

"Pete, this is my first show with a band. The songs are completely different than they were. What if I accidentally start out playing one of the old ones? Plus, no one has heard any of our stuff yet. Not even you. What if everyone hates it?"

He just sighed. "None of that stuff is going to happen. Everything will be fine. Relax."

I grumbled and went to go find Adam to make him set up his owndrum set, since I had no idea what I was doing.

A few hours later, Joe and Tanaya arrived, along with Patrick. Tanaya gave me a hug and then went to go find Dylan, Adam and Kevin to wish them luck as well. The club was starting to fill up. Our show had been highly publicized thanks to Pete and his big mouth. I was huddled backstage going over some last minute chord changes with Dylan when Mara and Andy came back to give us hugs. "Break a leg." Andy said.

"Don't say that, she might really do it." Mara laughed. Iwould have laughed but I was too nervous.

They left and I heard Pete's voice from the stage. He was announcing us.

"Hey everyone. Thanks for coming out tonight. This is this band's first performance. They're so new, they don't even have a name yet, but I know for a fact that they're gonna be awesome." I gave Dylan, Adam and Kevin all hugs and we headed out on stage. I took the microphone. "Hi. Uh, as Pete said, we're new at this but we'll try our hardest to get a name so we don't have to go by 'that band' anymore." I smiled. "I'm Alex Peara and I'm the lead vocalist, to my left is Dylan O'Neil on lead guitar, to my right is Kevin Sommers on bass and behind me is Adam Wilson, our drummer." The crowd cheered and I felt some of the butterflies ease up.

As we played, they disappeared entirely and by the end of the set, the crowd was going crazy. I grabbed the mic one last time and yelled,"Thank you! You've been a great crowd. We'll try and be back soon!" With that we walked off the stage and I walked straight into Pete's arms. He gave me atight hug and kissed the top of my head. "Told you, you could do it." He smirked at me. "Ready for your surprise now?"

I just nodded and he motioned for Kevin, Adam and Dylan to come over. "Okay. So, I've been talking to some people at Fueled by Ramen about starting my own record label and I want you guys to be the first band on it."

I was speechless. Us? Signed? I did the only thing Icould think of to do. I jumped on Pete and gave him the biggest hug I could. Ihead Dylan say "Seriously?!" I felt Pete nod as he gently set me down. "There's still some negotiations going on, but I'll try to have everything set up by the end of next month. You guys can record an album."

I still couldn't talk, I just smiled a lot and finally managed a "thank you" to Pete. He grinned. "Anything for you."

I laughed. "Cheesiest line ever but right now, I couldn't care less."

We were interrupted by Andy, Mara, Joe, Tanaya and Patrick coming backstage and tackling all of us in hugs. What did I do to deserve such a perfect life?