I Know We'll Stay Like This Forever

Jared's POV.

Car rides with Beau were never boring. He always had something to talk about, no matter how fun, crazy or random it was. But, he seemed kinda blank today. Like there was something on his mind that he didn't want to bring up. Yeah, he was still as cheerful as ever. I've just learned to read him so well that I can tell if even the smallest thing is bothering him.

"Love, what's wrong?" I finally asked him when we'd stopped at a light. I looked over in his direction and noticed that we was chewing on his fingernails.

"Nothing, babe." He looked up at me with a hesitant smile and sighed.

"You lie, Beau. What's on your mind?"

"I miss LA. I miss my family & all of my friends. I just wanna go visit..." He trailed off as he rested his head against the glass on the window, but continued to hold my hand. I softly ran my fingers along his hand before picking it up and quickly kissing it. Green light. I lightly tapped the gas to go and carried on with our conversation.

"You make it sound like it would be impossible for you to go out there and see everybody, babe." He looked over at me and I quickly glanced back at him. "I'm sure your mom would love for you to come out there and visit her."

"That's the thing, Jared. I don't wanna go out there by myself. I want you to come with me. I want you to meet my entire family. My mom, my sisters, my cousins, all my friends. I want to be able to introduce them to you as my boyfriend." He sighed and put his feet on the seat, curling up a but & resting his head on his knees to look over and stare at me.

"Why couldn't we do that, Beau?" He set his head up quickly and looked at me. He was excited. I could tell.

"I didn't think you'd be down to go out there and meet everybody as my... boyfriend?" He had hesitation in his voice. I think he still has it in his mind that I don't want anybody to know. But, now, it's really the opposite. I want everybody to know. My band knows, and I screamed it in front a bunch of people. I couldn't care who knows, now.

"I'd love that, babe. I really would. I'd want to meet everybody exactly how we actually are, a couple." I smiled at him as he returned the smile and sat himself up in his seat again, confidence was clear in his posture. "We'll look at flights when we get home later on tonight?" A smile grew on his face after I spoke and after he noticed that we were pulling into the parking lot of both Starbucks and Pei Wei.

"That sounds perfect, my love!" He leaned over and kissed my cheek as I pulled the car into a parking spot and shut it off. We both got out of the car quickly and when we met up, I reached out for his hand and laced my fingers with his. I never in a million years thought I'd be holding Beau's hand when we were somewhere at home. We know so many people here and chances are that we're going to see somebody that we know. But, I really couldn't care. He's my boyfriend. I'm happy about that. There's nothing to be ashamed of!