Memories Never Seem To Fade

A week. That’s how long it’s been since I first learned about Jack’s little news—nothing much happened either. I mainly stayed at home in my apartment, looking through the classified ad’s thinking that maybe I’d be able to find some sort of job. Every once in a while, though, Jack and I would talk on the phone discussing little things about what time he’d be in and where he wanted to go out to lunch. And I even hung out with Jamie when I decided I wanted to procrastinate.

“KEELS!”

My head snapped in the direction the shout came from the very second I set foot inside the little diner Jack and I had selected. We used to go here with the rest of the band back in high school.

“Keely Michelle Palmer!” My eyes continued to dart around trying to figure out where exactly the voice was coming from, until I finally noticed the flailing arms. I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head smirking. There was Jack sitting down in a booth near the window with a menu situated in front of him—he hadn’t really changed much from the last time I saw him. Maybe gotten a little taller—or had I just gotten shorter?

Next thing I knew he was jumping up from the booth and running towards me with his arms spread out. I squealed in shock from the impact, and started screaming when my feet were being lifted from the ground my body spinning around in circles. “Jack Barakat, set me down this instant!” The spinning continued. “JACK!” I hit one of my hands against his back, letting out another scream.

A chuckle passed through my best friend’s lips as he finally set me back down on the ground. A large smile was painted on his lips and he had this innocent look in his eyes. As much as I wanted to be mad at him, I just couldn’t find the power to do so. My glare softened in a matter of seconds as I shook my head and smoothed out my shirt before heading over to the booth.

Jack sat across from me a second later and set his elbows on the table so he could place his head in his hands. He blinked a few times, and I just looked at him amused by his mood.

“Damn, Jack, you have it bad.” I muttered rolling my eyes while picking up the menu to look at it.

“Oh, Keely, she’s perfect.” The brunette in front of my gushed animatedly, “You’d lover her! I just know it. The two of you would get along perfectly. Her name’s Ashleigh; she’s twenty-four, blonde, amazing, perfect, sweet, gorgeous—”

“Hold on there, Jack-o.” I lowered my menu slightly, watching him list off her ‘amazing’ qualities on his hands. “One thing at a time, okay?”

Jack opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking like a fish out of water, before finally nodding his head.

“How long ago did you guys meet?” To tell you the truth, I didn’t care. I had made up my mind a week ago that Jack was jumping into this way too soon. Sure it had been months since the two of us had made contact with each other, but if some girl this ‘perfect’ had walked into his life months ago he would have called me straight up. This had to have been a rash decision, and as I sat here I knew I didn’t want to see him go through with the wedding. I’d be the one having to pick up the pieces to his broken heart when it all fell through and I didn’t want that to happen.

“Three weeks ago,” Jack stated, bringing my out of my thoughts. “God, Keels, she’s honestly just the most—”

“Jack! Focus!” I yelled, cutting him off before he could go on his rant a second time. My patience was running thin.

“Right, I’m sorry…”

“Now, how did the two of you meet?”

“The guys and I had had a day off, so we decided to browse around the streets of Cali. We got to Rodeo drive…”

“Rodeo drive?” I repeated lamely, clearly confused as to where this was.

“It’s in Beverly Hills. You know, that one street in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts goes shopping?” I nodded slowly trying to remember what part in the movie he was talking about, until finally it hit me and I nodded a little faster with a smile on my face to show him he could continue on with the story. “Anyway, they have a store there named ‘Barakat’ and even though I’ve stood in front of it before, I felt the need to go in this time. I went in walked around a bit, grew bored, and decided to walk back out. The guys had seemingly vanished at this point, so I started panicking and ran off in a random direction. I probably should have called one of them up, but well, then I wouldn’t have met Ashleigh.”

I blinked a few times as he stopped the story momentarily. I opened my mouth to ask him to continue, except someone else started talking before I had.

“My name is Hayden, and I’ll be your waitress for the day. Can I get you guys anything to drink?” I turned my head slightly to take a quick glance at who the voice was coming from. Her eyes however, were locked on Jack and I shuddered the second I realized she was eye-fucking him.

“I’ll take a glass of stop-undressing-my-friend-with-your-eyes.”

“What was that?” The waitress turned to look at me, a glare evident in her eyes and a forced smile on her lips. “I don’t think I heard you.”

“She’ll have a Dr. Pepper and I’ll take a milkshake.” Jack cut in, shooting a warning glance in my direction.

“Coming right up!”

Jack watched her walk away, and pointed a finger at me as soon as she was out of ear shot. “Really Keely?”

“Hey!” I yelled defensively, trying to hold back my laughter. “It’s not my fault we got stuck with some teenage bitch that decides they want to fuck you in their brain.”

It took him a moment to try and come up with a response, though he ended up bursting into a fit of laughter. I joined in not long after, my hands tightening their grasp on the menu as I tried to control it.

“Okay, anyway, I’m running in a random direction not exactly paying attention to the people around me. Next thing I know my ass is on the ground and my forehead is throbbing. I’d ended up running into this blonde girl, and as I went to help her up she noticed I was bleeding slightly from my eyebrow. She managed to persuade me up to her apartment so she could treat it. The rest is simple. We talked, we hung out, I asked her to marry me a week and a half later.”

If I hadn’t already been hesitant before, I definitely would have been now. Jack had known the girl, what, 3 weeks now? Not even 2 when proposed to her? This was a sticky situation and I didn’t like the sound of it. I sat there for a while, not saying anything. When the drinks came I still said nothing. I just sat there and stared down at the menu as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

There was no way in hell I’d allow Jack to marry this girl. He’d get himself hurt, and by the looks of it, pretty badly. A sigh slipped out of my mouth and I nibbled at my bottom lip before glancing up at my best friend. “Do you love her Jack?”

The response was immediate, and of course it was the one I’d been expecting but also didn’t want to hear come out of his lips. “Yes. Keely, I do, I really really do.”

“Okay, tell me about her then?”

The rest of the lunch went on from there. He was able to tell me about Ashleigh without repeating ‘amazing’ and ‘perfect’ more than fifty times each, and somehow we had managed to catch up on each other’s lives. He told me about touring with the boys, and I told him about how I was fired from my job. Stories went back and forth, and we only really stopped talking to eat.

It was nice having my best friend back. Sure, Jack had changed. He was whipped by some girl he’d just met, overly repetitive about said girl, but he was still the same person I’d grown up with.

“Do you have the number written down?” I whispered, trying not to laugh as I stole a quick look at Hayden—which I had deemed ‘bitchy teenage waitress’ as her nickname—who was currently catering to another table.

“I do.” Jack confirmed fanning out the napkin in front of my face. I grinned.

“Great! Do you remember what to do?”

“Yeah,” He started repeating the instructions I had given him not even a few minutes ago. “When she gives me my bill, I pay for it with cash and slip this sliver of the napkin holding the number to the rejection hotline, in-between the dollar bills. Then, before she can stop us, we get the hell out of here.”

I nodded in response, and my smile only seemed to grow. This plan was genius, or at least I saw it as such. Alright, so maybe it was a little cliché and overdone but that’s not the point—it was going to be amusing and that was all that mattered to me.

When our checks came, the plan was set in motion. I paid for my meal; Jack paid for his, and slipped in the phony number. We looked at each other for a split second, nodded, and then jumped out of the booth speed-walking to the front of the store and outside. Jack and I both leaned up against the brick of the building. Every few seconds I’d peek through the window to see if Bitchy Teenage Waitress had collected our bills just yet.

A laugh passed through my lips when I noticed that she was making her way to the booth eagerly. I waved my hand in signal, getting Jack to peek through the window with me—our laughter now leaving our mouths uncontrollably. Bitchy Teenage Waitress picked up Jack’s first and sure enough the little sliver of napkin fell from the pile. She looked at it for a second, confused I assume, before picking it up and reading it and then holding it up against her chest and looking up at the ceiling before spinning around. She bought it. She actually bought it.

The brunette behind me was the first one to react. He ended up laughing even harder and literally falling down to the ground being unable to laugh standing up. His hands gripped his stomach tightly as he laughed. I started laughing also, and whenever I tried to stop I’d just end up laughing all over again because of how Jack looked on the ground. People passed by us on the streets shooting odd looks, but the two of us didn’t care. We were basking in our happiness and no one would be able to bring that down.

It took a good five minutes for the laughter to die down. Jack and I had managed to maneuver ourselves against the brick exterior of the diner, which was where we remained trying to calm down.

I took in a breath and ran a hand through my hair shaking my head in hopes to keep the laughter at bay.

“Lunch was great, Keelz, thank you. I forgot how much fun we used to have together. ”

I turned to look at my best friend and held a hand up to my chest feigning hurt. “You forgot about our fun?! Oh, Barakat, that cut me real deep. Real, real deep. I don’t think I’ll be able to recover from this wound!”

“But you must! Keely-Cat, you can’t leave me alone on this god forsaken planet!”

“You should have thought about that before you stabbed my heart with your words.”

“Nine-One-One! Somebody call nine-one-one! My bestest friend is fatally wounded from words, HELP IS NEEDED!”

I closed my eyes, and stuck out my tongue pretending to have died. I blinked open an eye though once I heard him speaking again.

“Flyzik! Keelz keeled over on me! … No she’s not bleeding … yes, she’s hurt but … Matt … ugh, fuck you. Suck my dick, bitch.”

A giggle slipped through my mouth, the second Jack started swearing at his Matt, blowing my cover.

“It’s a miracle!” Jack exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air. “My best friend has been revived!”

Punching him in the shoulder, I let out a few more laughs. “Yeah, yeah.”

“SHIT!”

My eyes widened in confusion at my best friend’s sudden outburst. “Jack, what is it?”

“I need to be somewhere in ten minutes.” I waved my hand, trying to get him to elaborate but he just shook his head. “Come with me?”

“Okay… but where are we going?”

“The airport.”

I had a feeling I was going to regret saying yes to him.