Find Your Twitching Hart in Vegas

I found myself dressed in a pair of jeans and a tank the first Friday after school started. The Senior Summer Showcase was a big deal around here for all the art majors; we got to show off what we were good at. I couldn’t help but feel more nervous than anything; this was one of the first times I’d ever been in front of the camera in any of the pictures I showed to my professor. I didn’t like having my picture taken, I didn’t think I was very photogenic, Aryn on the other hand!

I sighed softly and ran a hand through my blonde hair, feeling that nervous energy building in my stomach. I hated doing this; it was…not my favorite part of being an art major. It was a pin that people would come in and talk about my art. I just liked doing it, I didn’t care if other people did, but putting it on display was always nerve wracking. I walked over to Aryn and rested my head on her shoulder “shoot me right now.” She laughed and shook her head “the world would miss a great photographer.”

“Yeah but I don’t wanna have my art on display, you know how much I hate it. I like being in magazines, then people can’t come up to me and tell me they hate it.” I groaned quietly as people filed into the large art hall and began to inspect the different forms of artistic creativity people had tossed out into the world for them to view.

“You’ll be fine hun,” she soothed, making me feel a little bit better now if only I had a tattooed, toned Freestyle Motocross rider, I’d feel a whole lot better. Shaking my head to break my thoughts away from Carey I saw my parents approaching the area that had been roped off for my photographs. Mike, yes the crazy ex-boyfriend Mike, was with them. And I could just feel how pissed he was when he saw the pictures of Carey and myself. Mike had it in his head that we’d be getting back together, I had it in mine that we wouldn’t.

“Oh…great,” I mumbled as my mother started walking over to me with my father and Mike close behind.

“Who’s the man in those pictures with you?” She asked, her hands coming to rest on her hips lightly. I could tell she wasn’t happy with the outward appearances that Carey gave off.

“A really nice guy that owns his own business and that…for all his ability to annoy me can still make me smile,” I mumbled, knowing my mother wouldn’t hear a word of it, but making Aryn ‘awe’ from beside me.

“I still have the ability to annoy you? Yes!” I whipped around and saw Carey standing there with his hands in his pockets and a big white smile on his features. I wanted to squeal and jump on him, but that would be unprofessional. Oh fuck it. I jumped and tackled him, making him laugh and fall over.

“You…you…stupid head,” I couldn’t think of a better insult, hey don’t blame me; I haven’t seen him in what seems like forever.

“Really Jess stupid head?” He laughed and let me sit on his hips with my hands resting on his shoulders, holding my torso up.

“Shut up, you could have at least told me you were coming here.” I mumbled pouting a little “and ruin the surprise?” He laughed “not a chance.”

I slowly, and I do mean at a snail’s pace, moved off of Carey before standing and righting myself, looking around like I hadn’t just jumped on him. Carey stood up and looped an arm around my shoulders, making Mike, who wasn’t by any means tiny, back off a little ways. I continued standing with Carey, content to ignore the people around me, who were staring at my pictures.

“Oh my god it’s Carey Hart!” One of the…girls…in my class screamed excitedly upon seeing Carey standing next to me. I sighed and stepped away from him so as not to get caught in the middle of the crazy fan girls.

My father pulled out his phone, that evil iPhone and I’m sure started looking Carey up since he had no clue who he was. I did fine not knowing about what Carey had done in the past, it’s just how I was. I didn’t need to know about every detail of his life. That was just me. Once my father had gotten all the info on my, maybe, boyfriend that he wanted he shut the phone down and motioned me over.

“You know he was married before right?” If I’d been drinking anything it would have been sprayed everywhere.

“Uh no, past relationships hadn’t really come up in polite conversation at this point since we’re just getting to know each other.” I stressed the words hoping that my parents would let it drop and leave me alone about Carey. Unfortunately my parents were those kind of people and my mother had to rail on me about outward appearances. Saying how Mike was a better guy and the whole nine yards. News flash mother! Who’s making more money? Not that it really mattered to me, but the answer to that would be Carey. Mike was broke and living at home with his parents, just cause he had an MBA didn’t make him any better a man than Carey.

In fact I thought Carey was more man than Mike would ever be. He just…got me.

My mother sighed softly and frowned when Carey stepped back over “sorry about that, I figured something like that wouldn’t happen. Guess I was wrong.” He chuckled and I noticed now that Aryn was missing.

“Is Jeremy here too?” I asked looking up at him causing him to chuckle and nod “took you long enough.”

“Shut up…you’re distracting.” I mumbled more to myself than anyone around me but my cousin started cracking up, meaning she’d heard me. At least I knew one of my family members liked Carey. Well I can’t say my parents didn’t like him, but I wasn’t sure how they felt about him. But HELLO I’m 21 I can make my own damn choices!

That night, Carey went back to the hotel he and Twitch were staying at and I returned to the apartment I was sharing with Aryn and collapsed on the couch before my phone started ringing.

I hit the ignore button, not caring who was calling and crawled into my bed, passing out almost immediately after changing into a jersey I’d stolen from Carey before I left Vegas. Tomorrow and the coming year were going to be hell.