I Believe In Love At First Sight

[xx Leila xx]

I SAID STOP WITH THE TOMATOES!!!! >.< lol don't worry bunny...time will tell

[xx Leila xx]

Deryck's POV

Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit. Staring out the window of my hotel and thinking about Avril, I felt a lump in my throat. I slapped my hand down on the table in frustration.

"Hey, Deryck?" said Steve softly from behind me. "You know, what happened last night wasn't your fault. You were more buzzed than a fucking electric fence."

"I love her." It felt so strange for that to come out of my mouth. I turned around to face Steve and saw that he was just as shocked as I was.

"Uhh...you guys have had, like, two minutes of conversation."

"Yeah. I know. And I'm pretty sure I'm in love. But I fucking lost her again." This time, I couldn't stop myself from crying. Steve gave me an awkward pat on the back.

"You need another night out. No more thinking about women, okay?" I had to agree with that, so Steve and I went to the lobby of the hotel to inquire about local pubs. The concierge gave us the name of something ten blocks away, and I got ready to catch a cab.

"Hey, Stevo, hurry up."

"...D, whatever you do, don't turn around," my best friend said softly. By instinct, I whipped around, and my heart broke.

It was Avril Lavigne. She was with a group of guys older than her, closer to my and Steve's age. I actually knew most of the guys she was with; we had grown up near each other. I recognized Evan, Charlie, Matt, and Jesse. Jesse had his arm around Avril, and she was smiling at him.

"She...she never said she had a boyfriend," I whispered. There was a pain in my chest that I couldn't identify.

"I don't think you ever asked...D, I'm so sorry," muttered Steve. "You really love her?"

Before I could answer, I heard Avril yell across the lobby, "Yo! Deryck Whibley!" Oh God. My first sober meeting with the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and one of my high school friends holding her.

Avril and her gang walked up to us. "I didn't know you guys were staying here," she said. I wasn't able to say anything. I was too afraid of bursting into tears and looking like a wuss in front of Avril.

"Yeah. We didn't know you guys were here either," Steve answered for me. "Speaking of which...I didn't know you guys were in Avril's band."

"Uhm, yeah, this is my band." She gestured to the five guys.

"Yeah, we know some of them. Nice to see you guys again." All four of them replied with an unenthusiastic "hey".

"That's my big brother Matt." Avril pointed to the guy at the back of the crowd who was looking rather bored. "He's kind of my bodyguard."

How could this happen? Not only is she taken, but it's by someone I was friends with and didn't even know was associated with her. I had no idea what to do. Jesse broke the ice by inviting us to go to a different pub with them, and Steve accepted the offer for both of us.

After all eight of us had gotten into a cab together, I finally managed to swallow the lump in my throat and say something. "Uhm...Avril...I don't think we've met before while not under the influence."

"Yeah, well, Avril's 'under the influence' of Coronas most of the time," said Evan. Avril rolled her eyes.

"I like to party. Is that a problem?"

"No," I replied. "Just...kind of...surprising?" Her older brother grinned.

"She looks completely harmless, doesn't she?" I gave a weak smile in response. She's not harmless. She's torn my heart apart without even knowing it.

Oddly enough, Jesse said something similar to what I was thinking. "Harmless is the last word I'd use to describe Av. She stole my heart when I met her." The chest pain came back, even stronger this time. I saw Avril blush a bit. For some reason, she didn't seem comfortable with her boyfriend.

"How long have you two been dating?" I let out an internal sigh of relief and sent a telepathic thank you to Steve. He always saved my ass in front of girls.

"Uhm...dating?" The two of them exchanged glances. "This is our first date," grinned Jesse. He seemed rather pleased with himself. Damn you, I thought. You have no idea how lucky you are. I shot him a death glare, but I don't think he noticed.

"Yeah...." Avril was being very quiet on the subject of her relationship with Jesse. "We...never mind." She leaned back against Jesse a bit and her mousy brown hair fell into her eyes.

"Jesse had a psycho crush on Avril," said Charlie. "They pronounced themselves together about...." He glanced at his watch. "Forty-five minutes ago."

Forty-five minutes too late....

Avril's POV

Charlie looked at his watch and told Deryck that Jesse and I had been a couple for three quarters of an hour. I felt my heart being crushed. I thought I could see an inkling of hurt on Deryck's face, but I figured I was imagining it. It was just so hard to sit there and let my bandmates tell the guy I was in love with that I was already taken, but I was feeling too shy to say anything. If I was going to say anything, it would be one-on-one with the person concerned.

He was just forty-five minutes too late. We could have had each other.

The cab stopped, and everyone drifted out. I grabbed Jesse and pulled him into the back ally, muttering, "We need to talk." Jesse glanced over his shoulder nervously as the rest of our group proceeded into the bar.

"What's this, Av?" he asked.

I swallowed nervously. I wasn't sure what to tell Jesse. "I don't love you. I love someone else I've only known for a few weeks." "Well, it's been a great forty-five minutes, but we're breaking up." "Those wonderful few minutes we shared...that kiss...yeah, that was just a fluke. See ya."

Before I could figure anything out, Jesse blurted out, "I'm sorry." I looked at him in shock. "If you don't want me blabbing about...you know...this, to anyone else, I won't."

I cared about Jesse. I had traveled with him for months, and therefore he was my friend. I didn't want to be the one to break his heart. "I'll never be happy with you."

"Look, Jesse...I just...I have a crush on Deryck." I was shocked when I blurted it out. I had meant to be a little more tactful.

"But...we...what about what happened this morning? I mean we...." I held up my hand for Jesse to stop.

"But...I like you too. I care about you...I just...can't work out how I feel about you. I don't know if I want to just stay friends or not, but I...." Jesse looked so confused. I felt so confused. I wasn't going to tell him that I felt a "connection" with Deryck. No way...I wasn't going to tell anyone that.

I sighed. "Forget this conversation ever happened. I...I want to be with you, Jesse. I just don't want you talking about our relationship in front of Deryck and his friend. It's too stressful." Now Jesse was angry.

"Well, which of us do you want?!"

"Look, I just feel like Deryck and I...we could be good friends. I have lots of guy friends, Jesse, so you should get used to it. I just don't want you to scare Deryck away." Wow. I should win a medal for that. Way to cover yourself, Av. But how do I really feel? I'm in love with Deryck. But I want to try dating Jesse. At least Jesse wants it. Yeah, there's a funny pain around my heart when I think of just being friends with Deryck, but so what? He doesn't like me and that's that.

"Come on, let's go get wasted," I suggested to Jesse with a sigh.

"Wonderful idea." Jesse held out his hand, and I interlaced fingers with him.

_____________

EDIT: I found out that the guys from Sum 41 actually knew Avril's band cause they all come from the same part of Ontario, so I had to change this a little bit.

[Morenor]

Oh my, I'm this close to pick up a tomatoe and throw it, not at you leila, at Jesse !!! Wow, I can't stand this guy..

At least, long and A.M.A.Z.I.N.G UPDATE !!

[avrilrocks4lyf]

whoa that was an amazing update but im so agreeing with lilja about throwing something at Jesse hmm does and one have a cannon and a cannon ball ?? ....

[xx Leila xx]

*hands over the cannon* fire away...but uhm, there's no cannonballs, too dangerous. i loaded the cannon with bananas. have fun lauching at jesse!

[punkrocker22]

cool

[xx Leila xx]

hahaha >.< guess what? i was wrong about being wrong lol. i did my math wrong and assumed avril turned 18 in 2003 (dunno why i thought that...it was actually 2002). she and jesse weren't pictured together in public until summer of 2003. so everything's good, and i'll work on an update when i get the time.