But I Never Promised You

I woke up the next morning to a knock at the door.

I tried getting up, but something was holding me back. I noticed Alex’s arm around my waist and carefully, as to not wake him, moved his arm and stood up off the couch.

I looked through the peek hole in the door and saw Jack. I opened the door about half way, leaning against the doorway.

“Hi, Jack.”

“I was wondering, if you’ve seen Alex…” Jack trailed off when he really caught the sight of me, “Did I wake you up? You look like a mess.”

“Yes, actually, you did Jack. And to answer your other question,” I opened the door fully before continuing, “he’s asleep on the couch.”

Jack smiled and ran past me jumping on the couch and consequently Alex, waking him up.

“Alex! Alex! Alex!” Jack yelled excitedly.

“Jack? What are you doing here and why are you waking me up?”

Jack started to pout, “But…today we were going to go to the store.”

“You can’t go to the store without me?”

Jack shook his head.

“We’ll go later. Okay?”

Jack started to cheer up again, “Okay!” Jack climbed off Alex and walked over to me. “Mika, let’s go get you looking pretty.”

“It’s early, Jack. I want to go back to sleep.”

“But…”

Groaning, I said, “Fine. Let me shower first.”

Jack smiled and crawled into my recliner, rocking back and forth.

Walking into my bedroom, I pulled out my outfit for the day. I started the water and quickly undressed.

After my shower, I walked back into the living room to see Alex gone.

“Where’d Alex go?”

“He went to shower. Let’s make you pretty now. Back to the bathroom with you.”

I started walking back to the bathroom, but apparently it wasn’t fast enough for Jack. He started pushing me forward.

“Faster.”

“Jack, we have time. We’re not going anywhere for a while.”

“You don’t want Alex to see you looking not so pretty do you?”

I blushed, “Why does it matter what I look like?”

“If you’re not pretty all the time, he might find a new girl he likes. I don’t want that. You’re more fun than his other girlfriends.”

“I’m not his girlfriend.”

“Not yet.”

“What makes you sat that, Jack?”

“If he likes you, he won’t stop until you’re his.”

Jack sat me down in front of the mirror and snooped around until he found my hair dryer and straightener.

Jack was surprisingly good at doing hair. It looked better than when I tried to style it.

Next was make-up.

“I think I can handle this part, Jack.”

He just shook his head, “Nope, you’ll let me finish. There is a certain look I’m thinking for our trip today.”

I just sat there, defeated.

A few minutes later, Jack finally said, “Done. You can look now.”

Looking in the mirror, I saw a completely different person. She was actually pretty, not average looking, like I normally am.

“Jack, you’re getting me ready every morning.”

He just smiled and started bouncing up and down, “Yay! I get to play stylist every day.”

“Calm down, Jack.”

He just shook his head, “I can’t.” He jumped at me, squishing me in a bear hug.

“Can’t…breathe…”

He let go quickly, but just stood there smiling at me.

“What are you thinking, Jack?”

“Let’s go see Alex. He should be out of the shower by now.”

Just as we were walking out of the bathroom there was a knock on my front door. Looking at Jack, he nodded, “That’s probably him.”

He beat me to the door, so he answered it.

“Jack, is she ready yet? We’re ready to go to the store.”

“Yep,” Jack said, popping the p.

I quickly grabbed my purse and walked to the door where Jack was beckoning me. Opening the door farther, I stepped into the hallway where the boys were now standing.

“You ready?” I asked.

Alex just stared at me, mouth open. After a couple seconds, he shook his head, trying to snap out of it.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Wow! Mika you look great.”

“Told you,” Jack said.

“Shut up,” I mumbled to Jack as I elbowed him in the side.

“Ow!” Jack practically yelled. “That wasn’t nice! I’m telling Rian on you.”

I started laughing at Jack, “Okay, Jack, you go tell Rian I’ve been a bad girl.”

Jack stomped off, presumably to go tell on me to Rian.

When Alex and I were alone, he came a bit closer.

“Hi,” I said shyly, looking at my feet.

Alex chuckled and tilted my chin up, “You really do look extremely pretty today, Mika.”

I blushed, but I couldn’t think of anything to say.

Alex tucked a loose strand of my hair behind my ear.

I bit my lip. He made me too nervous for my liking.

Alex smiled and kissed my forehead, “Come on. Let’s go find everyone.” He turned and started walking towards his apartment door.

“Wait.”

Alex stopped and turned around to face me again, “Yes, Mika?”

“Come here for a second.”

He walked back over to me, a questioning look in his eyes.

I closed the distance between us and stood up on my tiptoes, gently pressing my lips to his, “We can go now.”

“Not yet,” Alex said before kissing me again, “Now, we can go.”

Walking through the door, I saw Jack talking to Rian. I giggled.

“Can we hurry up? I want to get there before rush. You know how many people recognize us, even with our disguises,” Alex said.

Zack stood up off the couch and walked over to us.

“Jack, Rian, are you two coming?” I asked.

After about another minute they finally walked over to where we were standing by the door.

“How are we getting there?” I asked the guys.

“Driving,” Rian said.

“I figured that, but driving what?”

“A car,” Zack answered.

“Okay, again, obvious. Who’s car?”

“The one we rented.”

“Which is what kind of car?”

“A Cadillac Escalade,” Alex said.

“I like those.”

We had all walked out to the parking garage for our building and were trying to find where Alex had parked the car.

“Don’t you remember?” I asked.

He shook his head, “I never remember where I park.”

I laughed.

When we finally reached the car, Jack asked me the question I was hoping to avoid for a while.

“So, Mika, tell us about your life before you came to California.”