La Vie En Rose

Goodnight Moon - Go Radio

House parties were somewhat foreign to me. Back in my high school years, they were considered prominent since there wasn’t much to do in Arizona. When I graduated two years ago, I figured that would be the last of them. I was convinced that my presence at house parties and my early, ignorant teenage years would be no more the minute I was handed my high school diploma on a make shift stage on the football field.

Yet, here I was, standing awkwardly in front of a bright, teal-painted, two story house, ready to attend yet another ‘wild’ house party.

“What a beautiful way to end a stressful day.” Alma announced with a satisfied grin slapped on her face. “Booze, drugs and a good dose of complete strangers. Perfect.”

I couldn’t tell if her last remark was sarcastic or if she was actually being serious. Better yet, I still couldn’t believe she was here, standing right next to me, in an unfamiliar neighborhood located in Long Beach, California. I was baffled at the thought. How did fate decide to bring us here, to this very moment? It absolutely, positively, blew my mind.

I followed the guys’ lead up the packed driveway with Alma and crew in tow. Paul had to follow the band’s van up here since he wasn’t familiar with the Long Beach area - which was understandable after I witnessed the countless number of tiny streets, roads, lanes, you name it. How could anyone not get lost every time they try to get to their house?

The minute Pat swung the front door open, the first thing I felt was a waft of weed. Yes, felt. The smoke literally smacked me in the face. I cringed, thinking about the stale scent would now linger on my hair for the rest of the night. I was never a fan of the smell.

It was easily perceived that The Maine had an approving reputation here in California. The minute we were in sight, a bunch of ‘AYE!’’s and ‘AW YEAH!’’s were thrown out by most people surrounding the front rooms of the house. Everyone started to disperse into the crowd, giving people they recognized hugs and ‘man-shakes’. Suddenly, I was very thankful to have Alma and her friends with me. If they weren’t here, I would of feared this party to be very awkward. But, let’s not dwell on what could have been.

“Mikey and I are going to find the booze.” Paul announced as he looped his arm around Mikey’s. “Do you want anything in particular, ladies?”

“Coke and Vodka.” I replied quickly, noticing John hugging an attractive blonde girl. I could feel the jealous instantly rage within me. I hated seeing him interact with other girls, especially ones who looked like they just came back from a Playboy photo shoot.

“Just get me a beer.” Alma smiled at Paul before they flew off in the direction of the kitchen. Louise had already recognized someone she knew and had disappeared within minutes, leaving Alma and I alone.

“Come on then, shall we do a lay of the land?” Alma asked, nodding her head in the direction that Paul and Mikey had just vanished.

“Why not?” I asked, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the crowded house.

As we made our way through the house, I noticed there was a re-occurring theme going on amongst the guest in the house. Colorful tattoos on various body parts, nose piercings, an abundance of plaid and tight denim, fedora hats and keychains, clipped on the belt loops of pants. At first, I thought the guys failed to mention there was a theme that went along with this party, when it dawned on me: the majority of the guest were made of band members or people who are in the music scene. Wonderful. I stick out like a sore thumb.

Sticking out from everyone else has started to become a regular thing on the west coast, I noticed.

While a random Lady Gaga song pumped through the house, Alma and I bumped into Paul and Mikey with the drinks we requested.

“Some house, huh?” Paul leaned close to us so we could hear him. “Has a phenomenal view and everything.”

I looked out the kitchen window and couldn’t agree more. There was a small, wooden patio, just outside the kitchen, that held nothing but a couple of people with their beers. If you look a little bit past the patio, low and behold, a sandy beach could be seen. A beach as a backyard? Now that was something I only heard about or saw on television. I couldn’t imagine how sumptuous it must be, to have the ability to wake up in the morning, have a cup of coffee and and take a quick morning dip in the North Pacific Ocean before starting my day.

While Mikey, Paul and Alma carried on a conversation about how great this Katy Perry song was playing, I took a moment to appreciate the sunset that was taking place in front of me. I have seen the sunrise on the east coast but sunset on the west was something completely different. It was quite a sight to behold.

“Hold up.” Alma’s voice brought me back to the conversation. “Is that-is that Dirk Mai!?”

“Who?” I asked, trying to spot the person she was pointing at.

“Gigi, where have you been? He is like, a prodigy in band photography.” She explained to me. She continued. “I must-I HAVE to talk to him. Excuse me.”

She took off across the room in a confident stride, tapping on a shoulder of a tall man with greasy hair. I took a sip of my drink and smiled. I always did admire Alma’s confidence when it came to confronting strangers.

When Mikey and Paul were pulled into a conversation with a group of people in the kitchen, I politely excuse myself and decided to go on a quest: find the door that leads out to the porch. Ignoring all the curious stares I was getting from random boys, I carefully weaved my way over to the sliding glass doors and walked out onto the deck. Only a couple of people were occupying the deck - five or six at most - but the deck stretched out far enough that I wasn’t intruding on any conversations.

I walked over to the deck railing, my heels clicking loudly against the wood, and lightly rested my elbows on it as I observed the supposed ‘backyard’. The fierce breeze picked up loose strands of my hair but I barely noticed, since I was in such a hypnotic state.

The scenery in front of me could be described as a painting: vibrant colors, such as red, orange, yellow and royal blue, were bleeding into each other in the great sky while the sea reflected the colors with such a sharp clarity, it took my breath away. The waves crashed lazily against the shore, turning into a white foam the minute it hit the sand. The faint sound of the water could be heard, as it wiped up against the damp sand.

“It’s something else, isn’t it?” A girl had now joined me at the deck railing, also taking in the breath-taking view. “You wouldn’t believe how expensive it is to live in a house on the beach. I always dubbed myself as crazy but the sunsets make it worth-while.”

Oh, so this was the girl who was hosting the party? I glanced at her and noticed she had fine, long hair that was a vigorous color of red. No, red would be an understatement - this girl’s hair was the color of an orange highlighter. How on earth did she get her hair to be that color?

She didn’t give me a chance to respond to her previous comment. She put her hand out in front of me and introduced herself. “I’m Jac, by the way, Jac Vanek.”

I took her hand and shook it politely before replying. “Gigi King.”

“Oh, so you’re the infamous Gigi.” She gave me a knowing smile. “I should of suspected so when I noticed you were the only girl in this house wearing sheer tights.”

I raised my eyebrow in confusion. What on earth was she going on about? When she noticed my expression, she laughed whole-heartedly before explaining. “The boys talk about you all the time.”

“Really?” My heart started to beat rapidly. They talked about me? Did that mean John talked about me?

She nodded before continuing. “John has really taken a liking to you, especially. He always seems to bring you up in conversation when I call him. ‘Theres a new girl in town!’ he would say, ‘She’s really cool!’. It’s adorable. They all hold you in such high regard, actually.”

I stood there in complete shock. I couldn’t believe this girl, whom I only just met, was telling me that John has taken ‘a liking’ to me. A rush of butterflies filled my stomach as I wondered what else he could of possibly said about me.

I smiled and looked at the horizon before speaking. “That really..baffles me. I only met them a month ago.”

She laughed again and nodded, showing me she understood. “Trust me, if they like you, they latch on fast. Consider yourself lucky; they’re the most genuine guys you will ever meet.”

I did consider myself lucky. I was so grateful to have met John, Kennedy, Garrett and the rest of the guys. I was so confounded by the fact that they cared enough to tell their friends about me. Suddenly, I felt a whole new fondness for all of them.

“Hey, speak of the devil!” Jac had now turned her back to the ocean and called out behind Gigi. I swiftly turned her head to see who she was calling to, assuming it was one of the guys. I spotted John walking through the doorway with a smile on his face. My heart dropped instantly. “We were just talking about you!”

“You were?” He questioned, walking up to us. I carefully tucked a loose strand of hair, that was picked up by the wind, behind my ear before giving John a quick smile. “I see you two already met.”

“Yep!” Jac exclaimed with delight. She had barely let me get a word in. “I couldn’t go another second without meeting the infamous Gigi!”

I blushed at her overly-friendly praise. I almost felt guilty for not knowing one thing about her, when she led me to believe she knew quite a lot about me.

“Yo Jac!” A random guy called from inside the house. “We have a situation.”

Jac moaned. “Thats my que. I’ll leave you guys to it then. Nice meeting you Gigi!”

“Nice meeting you too.” I responded. She gave me one last smile before patting John’s shoulder and going back into the house.

The butterflies fluttered around madly in my stomach the minute we were left alone. John walked over to where Jac was once standing, leaning his elbows on the wooden railing as he took in the view. He was wearing his usual attire: regular white v-neck, black hoodie, a leather jacket and the skinny jeans to match. I couldn’t help but notice that when we stood next to each other, it made us look like we were some random biker couple in our leather jackets - surprisingly, I didn’t hate it.

John stayed silent as he starred out at the horizon so I decided to speak first. “She seems nice. She uh...talks a lot.”

John laughed at this and looked at me. “Yeah, she tends to ramble on about stuff. Doesn’t know when to stop her mouth.”

“Reminds me of Lola.” I replied with a chuckle, squinting my eyes when a gust of wind flew past my face. The wind lifted my bangs lightly off my forehead for a second, before dropping them again in a tangle. I reached up and ran my fingers through them in a lame attempt to fix them.

“So I was thinking,” John said, standing up straight now and turning his body to face me. “it’s time for another one of our adventures.”

“Oh God.” I said. “You and your adventures. Where to now?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he gave me a lop-sided smile and looked back down at the beach. I caught on quick to what he was implying.

“No!” I exclaimed immediately, shaking my head rapidly. “No, John! There is no way!”

I hate John O’Callaghan.

That was all I could think as the cold sand hit the bottom of my feet. I could feel the little grains of sand getting caught in between the threads of my tights. It was safe to say they were officially ruined. To think, I almost considered wearing them tomorrow to my NYLON interview tomorrow. I have no idea how John persuaded me to think that this was a good idea.

My feet would sink into several inches of sand with every step I took, making me lose my balance slightly. I grabbed my shoes tightly in one hand as I extended my arm to steady myself. I looked at John and noticed he was a couple of feet in front from me. “Hey, would you slow down? You’re running!”

John turned around to look at me and laughed. “I’m not running! You’re just a slow-poke!”

I stopped walking and glared at him. “I am not!”

He stopped walking and motioned for me to come to him. “Alright fine. Look, I stopped walking. I’m waiting patiently for you. See?”

I marched up to him and playfully pushed him. “You’re such a wiseass!”

He laughed again as he caught up with me. “Come on, let’s go over there.”

He pointed to an aged-looking lifeguard hut, that sat several yards away from us. It was built out of power blue-painted wood, raised several feet of the ground so it could see far across the horizon. I bit my lip, nervously observing it. “Do you think we’re allowed to go up there?”

We were now standing at the bottom of the small ramp that led up to little hut. John already dropped his shoes on the ground and started walking up the ramp when I asked the question. He turned around and looked at me before answering. “Probably not. But we’re not doing anything illegal so I don’t see how it could hurt.”

“Are you sure?” I asked again, peering past him and look at the tinted-windows. “What if someone is in there-”

“Gigi.” John said. “No one is here, trust me. Why would there be any lifeguards around when no one is swimming?”

“You do make a valid point...” I admitted, carefully dropping my heels next to John’s shoes.

He offered his hand to me and grinned. “Come on, live a little.”

I rolled my eyes and took his hand, the butterflies instantly acting up inside me. I barely noticed how cold it was getting now that the sun was moving lower in the sky. It didn’t bother me in the slightest - my body promptly heated up by itself, when my hand held onto Johns.

“This place is beautiful.” I commented as I walked around on the rickety hut. The sun was now almost touching the sea line as it carefully made it’s way down. “Kinda reminds me of that show ‘The O.C’. I remember being jealous when I would watch that show because those stupid, spoiled teenagers were always spending their time on the stinkin’ beach. I always wondered what it was like, you know, since Arizona kinda...lacked in the beach department-what?”

I noticed John was just watching me and not adding anything to the conversation. Suddenly, I felt very self-conscious. Was there something on my face? Was my make-up smeared? Did my hair look like shit?

“What is it?” I laughed nervously as a smile appeared on his lips. “Is there a crab on my head or something?”

He shook his head and slowly walked up to me. Now, we were only inches apart. My breath caught in my throat as my cheeks started burning. We were very, very close.

“It’s nothing. It’s just-” He caught a stand of hair that was softly carried by the wind, and tucked it behind my ear. “God, Gigi. I’m so crazy about you.”

Oh my fucking God.

I said nothing. I just looked at him with complete disbelief. This was not happening. I was imagining this. Paul and Mikey must of slipped a roofie in my drink or something, because this is not real life.

“I can’t keep it a secret anymore.” He went on, his emerald eyes looking intently into mine. “I like you so much. Everything about you is just so...perfect. You’re funny, easy to talk to, happy all the time...not to mention down-right sarcastic when you want to be.”

I looked down at my feet and laughed at that one. I was practically shaking at this point. I couldn’t believe the things he was saying to me right now. I wasn’t sure how to react. I started to feel light-headed as my thoughts ran a mile a minute.

He carefully put a finger under my chin, and lifted my face towards his, so he could look me in the eyes again. It was as if he was searching for any kind of emotion in my eyes. My heart was so close to exploding at this point. “Even your laugh, sends my heart into overdrive, Gigi. I can’t even begin to explain to you, how jealous I was when you went on a date with that guy last week. I couldn’t stand the fact that it wasn’t me, picking you up and taking you out to dinner. And when you came down those stairs, in that black dress, I couldn’t believe how gorgeous you looked. I had to do everything in my power, to stop myself from kissing you right then and there.”

He stopped speaking. We both stood there in complete silence, just starring at each other. His expression quickly turned into worry as I watched him quietly.

“Gigi, please say something.” He pleaded, watching me cautiously.

I didn’t say anything. Instead, I placed my hands on his warm cheeks, and pulled him closer to me, letting our lips finally catch each other. He instantly responded to the kiss, moving his hands down to my waist and carefully pushed me up against the tinted window. I let my hands fall to the back of his neck as he tilted his head slightly to deepen the kiss. Goosebumps erupted everywhere, my skin turning numb. The slight scent of his cologne lingered as our bodies were pressed together. Everything was perfect and nothing else mattered. As far as I knew, the world didn’t exist right now.

I guess, being human, we had to come up for air at some point. When our lips unhooked, we were both breathing heavily, his forehead resting against mine. A huge smile made it’s way onto my lips as I spoke in a low voice. “I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.”

John grinned and pecked me on the lips again before responding. “Tell me about it.”

By the time we decided to go back to the party, the sun was completely down and a little sliver of a moon, was now high above in the dark sky. The only source of light that could be seen was within the windows of the beach houses that sat along the coast. John and I picked up our shoes and reluctantly made our way back, holding hands while doing so. I couldn’t wipe the huge smile off my face. I was grateful it was dark out because I was pretty sure my face was tomato red at this point.

When John and I arrived back at the party, nothing had changed. Everyone was still drinking, dancing and talking amongst each other. They had barely noticed our arrival.

“I’m gonna go find the rest of the guys.” John said. “I’ll see what time they want to leave.”

“Okay.” I nodded, unwillingly letting his hand go. “I’m going to go see where Alma went.”

He gave me one last grin before disappearing into the crowd. The minute he was out of sight, I let out a huge, heavenly sigh. I needed to find Alma. Pronto.

I was in a daze as I searched the house for Alma, Paul and Mikey. I couldn’t quite get my thoughts in order as I lazily looked around with a dumb smile on my face. Could you honestly blame me though?

“THERE YOU ARE!” I heard Alma’s voice yell loudly. I looked around, trying to find where her voice came from. I finally spotted her, Paul and Mikey leaning against the back of a green sofa. “Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Oh um...no where.” I answered dumbly, running my fingers through my messy bangs before resting my hand back on my hip. Trying to act natural was a little bit harder than I thought.

Paul looked at me strangely. “Why are you glowing?”

The minute the words left his mouth, Alma’s eyes widened to the size of saucers and stood up straight. She pointed at me and opened her mouth. “OH MY GOD, YOU MADE-”

I hurriedly covered her mouth with the palm of my hand, muffling the rest of her sentence. “Ssshh!!”

“What..is going on?” Mikey looked back and forth between Alma and I.
“Don’t worry about it.” I gave a quick laugh before shushing Alma again as she tried to remove my hand from her mouth.

“Women.” Paul raised his eyes up to the ceiling as he shook his head. “And they wonder why we prefer men? I need to pee. Come with me, Mikey?”

“Of course.” Mikey agreed and followed Paul.

When Alma and I were finally left alone, I reclaimed my hand. “Don’t say anything.”

“You hooked up with John!?” She whispered excitedly, grabbing onto my arm. When I nodded, she squealed. “Oh my God!!”

“You can’t say anything!” I said quickly, looking around. “No one knows. It only just happened.”

“Lips are sealed.” She pretended to zip her mouth shut and lock it with a key. “But, I’m so excited for you right now, you don’t even know. Was it good?”

“Alma!”

“Come on, tell me!”

I laughed and shook my head. “It’s not safe here! I’ll have to update you later.”

“Update her about what?” A male voice asked behind me.

I whipped around and saw Kennedy standing behind me with a look of curiosity. I nervously laughed, racking my brains for a quick excuse.

“Update me about her interview with NYLON tomorrow.” Alma spoke up. “I’ll be on my way home to Washington the same time she’s going so she’ll have to update me about it later. Right, Gigi?”

“Right.” I confirmed, giving Kennedy a grin.

He looked at the both of us with a weird expression on his face before speaking. “You are acting very strange, G-spot.”

“No I’m not!” I quickly defended. “I probably just....had one too many drinks. Thats it.”

“Yeah, you need to stop drinking so much, you alcoholic.” Alma joked behind me. I turned around and glared at her.

“Anyways, Gigi, I think the guys want to leave soon.” Kennedy informed me. “We have to get up early tomorrow morning to finish up the video so they want to head back to the hotel.”

“Sounds good to me.” I replied.

Ten minutes later, after Kennedy gathered everyone, we all headed outside. Alma and crew decided to leave the same time as us since she had to go back to Paul’s house and get her stuff packed for her flight tomorrow. Before I headed into the van, I hugged all of them goodbye, thanking them for the millionth time for helping me with the auditions. I squeezed Alma tightly and promised her a call after the interview tomorrow. It wasn’t too depressing saying goodbye, since I’d be seeing her back in New York in a couple of weeks.

When I climbed into the van, John pulled me into the last row with him. My heart started beating rapidly once more as I sat next to him. Surprisingly, no one thought of this as suspicious in any way and climbed into the rest of the rows. Once Jared started up the van and drove out of the neighborhood, I felt John’s hand reach for mine and lace our fingers together. I looked at him and smiled, my stomach immediately tormented by the butterflies that filled it. When no one was looking, he planted an innocent kiss against my cheek. The rest of the guys didn’t notice a thing.

What a night.