She'll Fall in Love With You

“Lauren? Where are you?”

I sat up groggily from my bed and looked around the hotel room. Her bed was made and she was nowhere to be seen in our suite. (We had decided to splurge and stayed in a really nice hotel.) She was probably getting breakfast or something. I wasn’t that worried. I got out of bed and walked into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I felt really grungy because I hadn’t taken a shower OR brushed my teeth the night before, well I should say earlier that morning, since I hadn’t gotten to bed until nearly 4 am.

I walked back out into the suite to get some clothes so I could take a shower. I noticed a piece of Hotel Paper on Lauren’s bed that I hadn’t seen before. It read:

Emma-Lee-
I got up really early this morning and you were pooped yesterday, so I let you sleep. I was starving so I went to get breakfast and then I’m doing some shopping. See you around 1:30.
-Lauren

She must have remembered that I like to sleep in since she wasn’t planning on being back until almost 2. I glanced at the clock on the bed stand. 12:05.

“Cool. If I go take a shower and grab something to eat at the restaurant, it should put me back here in time for Lauren to get back.” I said to my luggage since no one else was in the room.

I jumped into the shower and was shampooing my hair when a song popped into my head.

“Another day and you’ve had your fill of sinking with the life held in your hands are shaking cold, these hands are meant to hold. Speak to me.”

I hadn’t listened to my All-American Rejects CD in forever so I thought it was a bit weird that one of their songs should pop into my head. I just decided to go with it and sang it out loud.

“When all you got to keep is strong, move along, move along. Like I know you do. And even when your hope is gone, move along, move along. Just to make it through. Move along…”

As I put all my stuff away in my suitcase I was thinking about the night before. It seemed like I had just dreamed it, but I didn't have any other memories of the night so it had to be real, right? I felt like I needed to talk to Lauren, just to make sure that my memories weren't faulty. I grabbed my pants and folded them and put them into my 'Dirty Clothes' bag. Then I reached over for my sweatshirt. As I did I remembered that it wasn't mine. Or at least I didn't think so. I held it up and sure enough, it was a Role Model sweatshirt. How else would I have gotten it unless last night was real!? I started to freak out slightly. And when I say slightly, I mean I started screaming and jumping up and down on the bed, clutching the sweatshirt.

'And when I say the woods, I mean the deli.'

Oh my gosh. It was happening again. Katie, my friend from high school had said that line about the woods once when we were telling funny stories. This made me wig out even more. She had popped into my head, like 3 or 4 times in the past 2 days. What did it mean!? I was a big proponent of signs, and everything happening for a reason, so this whole Pierre/Katie business was really starting to get to me. I needed to take a serious chill pill. I walked over to the kitchen area and opened the mini-fridge to see if there was some water in there. There was some fancy-shmancy mineral water stuff, so I grabbed a bottle and went to sit on the couch and collected myself. I plopped down and just thought. About everything. Last night, Katie, how good Pierre's sweatshirt smelled... I still had it in my hand so I held it up and looked at it. I thought back to what he said when I left.

"Emma-Lee, we're in town till tomorrow night doing promo stuff like Seb said, so I'll call you alright? And maybe we can hang out."

I thought about it and a smile spread across my face. But, wait a tick! We never exchanged phone numbers. We never even talked about ANY form of communication, whatsoever. Was he just trying to get a piece of ass last night? It was all just a ploy! Romance the girl, get some, then leave. What a jerk. I couldn't believe it. But then I thought about how sincere he had been when I was freaking out over my jacket. Other guys probably would have just said 'Oh that sucks. Want an autograph?’ But Pierre actually helped me try to go find it. But that could have just been part of his 'nice-guy' scheme. I was so confused!

I sighed and let my hands fall into my lap. I looked down at the sweater and saw something sticking out of one of the pockets. I reached down to pull it out and saw that it had some numbers written on it. I think it was a phone number, but it looked like it had gotten wet, so the numbers were a little blurred. There were letters on it too. Probably someone’s name. It looked like it said ‘Duck’. Who names their kid Duck? Seriously. Luck? No, that’s lamer than Duck. CHUCK! It said Chuck! I thought back to last night when I heard him talking about how some girls stole his phone. I bet this was his new number. I decided to just call it and see what I could do about getting Pierre’s jacket back to him. I grabbed my cell phone out of my purse and dialed the number.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Chuck?”

“Yes.”

“Hi. This is Emma-Lee. I was with Pierre last night and he let me borrow his jacket and I never gave it back to him but I found a piece of paper in the pocket with your number on it and I figured you could help me get it back to him.” I let the words rush out of my mouth without pausing.

“Oh! I’m glad you called. Pierre keeps beating himself up over forgetting to give you his phone number. Maybe at least now that you’ve called he’ll finally shut up and give the rest of us some peace and quiet.” Chuck replied laughing.

“Really? He’s really freaking out? I mean- uhm, well, where should I go to give him his sweatshirt? Should we meet or something?”

“I don’t know. I’ll just let you talk to him. Just a second.”

“Okay. Thanks Chuck.”

“No problem.”

After about a minute of muffled noises, someone breathlessly answered the phone.

“Hello? Emma-Lee?”

“Hi. Yes, it’s Emma-Lee.”

“Hi. It’s Pierre. So you have my jacket?”

“Uh, yeah I do.” I said, a little let down.

I was expecting a little more than that after what Chuck had just said. Maybe Chuck was just trying to make me feel better. Ugh. Why do guys have to be so confusing? I thought that maybe he liked me, but the way he had just asked about his jacket, it seemed that it was all he cared about.

“Oh. Well. I was, uh, thinking that maybe we could meet for lunch or something and you could bring the sweatshirt if you wanted. I mean, it’s not really that big of a deal. But after I’m done with this magazine promo stuff, I’m gonna be hungry so I thought lunch would be a good idea.”

Okay, maybe not?

“Yeah. Actually that sounds great. Did you have any place in mind? I’m not from here, so I don’t really know of any good places.”

“Dang it! I was hoping you would know of a place because I definitely don’t.” He replied laughing. “Well we can figure out where we’re gonna eat later. What hotel are you staying at and I will pick you up around… how about 2 o’clock?”

“Two sounds fine. I’m staying at The Carlton. Do you know where that is?”

“Do I know where it is? I’m at it right now. The conference room is where they’re doing the promo stuff. We’re actually staying here too. What a coincidence!”

“Yes. How convenient.” I replied giggling. “So how about I will walk down to the conference room at two and we can go from there?”

“Sounds like a plan. See you then.”

“Yep. See you then. Bye Pierre.” I thanked God he couldn't see the stupid grin on my face, and prayed he couldn't hear the smile in my voice.

“Bye Emma-Lee.”

I hung up the phone, put it back in my purse then ran and jumped onto the bed and screamed into a pillow. I was about to go on a date with this amazing guy who had these amazing eyes and was just... I don't know, uhm, amazing!? The excitement was almost more than I could bear. I looked over at the clock. It was exactly 1:30. Lauren should be here any minute. I decided to go into the bathroom and double check my makeup and do some last minute primping while I waited for her. After she got here I was going to tell her everything then run off to go on my 'lunch date'. I felt bad because she had kind of planned this weekend for us, and so far, the only time we spent together was on the ride down here and at the actual music portion of the concert. I hoped she would understand. And I hoped that I looked okay, because I had to leave in 10 minutes.

"Oh my god Lauren! Thank god you're finally here! I'm gonna be late!"

"Hi. Nice to see you too. Late for what?" she asked slowly.

"Um, a date. With Pierre. I'm supposed to meet him downstairs in like 2 minutes."

She gave me a look that implored that I explain myself. So I did. I told her everything about me freaking out about what if he didn't really like me, and the phone number in the pocket of the jacket and the phone call.

"And now it's your turn to explain. Where were you today?"

"I had to do some... shopping."

"For?"

"Uh, this thing."

"Lauren, I don't have all day. What thing?"

"Well there is this promotional thing for Lava records tonight, and it's a black-tie kind of event and I don't have that kind of thing with me, so I had to go buy it."

"Wait. What am I missing? Why are you going to a black-tie event for Lava Records? And isn't that Simple Plan's label?"

She just smiled and raised her eyebrows.

"Pat?"

"Yep." she smiled and did a little jump. "I am so excited Emma-Lee. You have no idea."

"I think I do. And speaking of, I have to go like right now. I wish I could stay and look at what you got but I hate being late. Bye!" I yelled as I ran out the door.

"Have fun!" she called after me.

As I walked down the hall to the elevators, I could barely keep from shaking right out of my clothes. I was so nervous. I tried to tell myself that things should be fine. I mean I already have talked to this boy for like 3 hours and I knew that he at least liked me enough to ask me to lunch. What was there to be nervous about? But apparently there was plenty because I felt as if there were about 300 butterflies in my stomach. There was no way I was going to be able to eat. I walked out of the elevators and towards the large conference room of the hotel. I looked around me.

There were reporters and camera crews and screaming teenagers everywhere I looked. For a split second I wondered what they would be doing at the hotel and then I laid eyes on a huge sign that said 'Simple Plan' and it all snapped into place. Simple Plan; It was weird, but I kept forgetting that he was in a band. A famous one at that; Now that I was reminded of that one tiny detail, my nervousness factor went up by about 500 percent.