Finders Keepers

My favorite part of winter break was the absence of tests to prepare for, papers to write, and things to read. School got pushed to the very back of my mind while I was on break and it was the absolute last thing I worried about until closer to the end of January when I returned to the hellhole. I concentrated on sleeping late, going out with friends, and overall having a good time. Break was my time to de-stress, and that was exactly what I planned on doing.

After the infamous New Year’s Eve party with John and the guys, and after my little spat with Garrett, I had drunk myself into an oblivion that night. It was impressive, really, considering I don’t think I had ever been that drunk in my life. I spent all day on New Year’s re-cooping and recovering from the hangover from hell. Even though I had done nothing but lay around all day, by the time Sunday rolled around I was downright exhausted.

That didn’t stop John, though. He was determined to get me out of my apartment.

“Come on, Kendall,” he whined as I took a seat on the couch to continue my marathon of Gilmore Girls. I had been watching it for the past two days straight; needless to say it was my favorite show and I owned every season on DVD.

“Shush,” I quieted him as I hit ply and continued the episode. It was the one where Rory and Lorelai entered the 24 hour dance competition, and coincidentally my favorite episode of all time and John was ruining it with his whining.

“You’ve been cooped up for two days doing... what, exactly? Watching marathons of Gilmore Girls while the world passes you by?”

I sighed and paused the episode just as Lorelai and Rory started the competition. “You know John, I’ve only known you a few days, and you’re already irritating the hell out of me. Now what do you want, and why are you bugging me?”

He chuckled. “I want you to go get ice cream with Kennedy and I.”

I let out an exasperated sigh and started paying attention to the TV again. “I don’t feel like going anywhere right now, John. I’d rather stay home and finish my mini-marathon.”

“Come on! You’re my new friend, and I want to treat you to ice cream. Especially because I may or may not feel a little guilty.”

I looked at him with a smirk. Now we were getting somewhere. “Guilty how?”

“Because I heard that Garrett called you a bitch and I feel bad for that, so I want to get you ice cream.” The smile on his face was genuine, but it also seemed like he was trying to win me over with it. He obviously had done this before with many other girls.

I rolled my eyes again and got off the couch, shutting the TV off while I did. “Give me twenty minute to get changed,” I said as a response and then went to change out of my sweats and t-shirt.

I threw on a pair of jeans and a grey 3/4 length sleeve shirt with ‘OBEY’ written diagonally across the chest. I slipped on my black vans and grabbed my black North Face jacket just in case and then met John in the living room again. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”

***

“Frozen yogurt.”

“Ice cream.”

“Frozen yogurt!”

“Ice cream!”

Just as Kennedy was opening his mouth to argue with John again, I reached around into the back of John’s car and gently smacked him on the back of the head. “You two sound like two three year olds right now,” I muttered, falling back into the passenger side seat. “Stop it.”

Kennedy whimpered while John laughed at him in the rearview mirror. “Don’t laugh,” I warned him, pointing a finger at him accusingly, “or you’ll be next.”

That shut him up quickly.

The ride was quiet for only a few minutes before John piped up again. “So, ice cream or frozen yogurt?”

I groaned and rolled my eyes, lightly smacking my forehead in exasperation. “Just pick one!” I ground out between my teeth. Suddenly, I didn’t care where we went, as long as I got out of this care as soon as possible.

We were pulling into a Cold Stone Creamery soon after. I practically threw my body out of the car as soon as John parked it and waited impatiently as the two of them took their sweet old time meeting me on the sidewalk. John laughed, assuming at my impatience, and then gestured inside.

After we got out ice cream--cake batter with Snickers and gummy bears for me, chocolate with Oreo’s for Kennedy, and cheesecake with graham crackers and strawberries for John--we took our seats at a table and dug in. It was quiet for awhile until John felt the need to interrupt the silence.

“So, again, sorry for Garrett and his bitchy attitude.”

I shrugged, taking another bite of my ice cream and biting into a chunk of Snickers. “It’s whatever. If he doesn’t like me, he doesn’t like me. An explanation would be nice though. I mean, I was nothing but nice to him until he started being all prick-ish.”

Kennedy choked back a laugh and when I looked at him curiously he just shrugged. “Prick-ish, that’s funny.”

I rolled my eyes and took another bite of ice cream.

John laughed lightly at this. “He has been a bitch lately, but we’re around it so much that it doesn’t even phase us. That and we’re cutting him some slack because we know why.”

Confusion covered my face. “Talk, John,” I demanded.

He shrugged, taking a bite of his own ice cream and chewing very slowly. Good time waster, I thought with a mental eye roll. “He and his girlfriend broke up last week.”

My jaw dropped. That was it? “Seriously?” I all but screamed. “Bullshit!”

Kennedy sighed. “There’s more to it than that they just broke up,” he added quickly.

“Well?”

“They were together for four years, and then all of a sudden, well... they weren’t.”

My jaw was still to the floor at this half assed explanation. “Okay, I’ve been through my fair share of breakups, but I never treated people I hardly knew like complete shit.”

“Four years, Kendall,” Kennedy stressed. “They were together for four years, and best friends before that. But then all of a sudden, we come back from tour and she’s all ‘we have to break-up, I can’t do this, blah blah blah.’ That is bullshit.”

I stopped short before continuing another rant on how much Garrett sucked. Four years was a long time. He obviously loved her a lot. It would be a completely different story if they had a mutual break-up, but from the sounds of it, they hadn’t. It sounded like it was this girl’s decision, and it sounded like she broke Garrett’s heart in the process.

“Okay. So she broke Garrett’s heart, and that sucks and I guess I can see why he’s in such a bad mood. But I was actually trying to be nice to him and he was having none of it.”

John took over then. “He’s having some trouble, Kendall. He wants to move on, but it’s like he physically can’t do it. Put yourself in his shoes.”

“Yeah, imagine if someone you had loved for four years broke your heart, and you wanted to move on in the worst way but you couldn’t,” Kennedy added.

I looked at them skeptically, but when neither of them blinked I gave. “Okay, okay!” I exclaimed, putting my hands up in surrender. “He’s not a complete prick head.”

John smirked. “Oh no, he’s a prick head. But we need you to forgive him for being a prick head.”

“Fine,” I said shortly, taking the last bite of my ice cream and chewing on a gummy bear thoughtfully. “Why do you want me to forgive him so badly? Why does it matter?”

Both John and Kennedy stopped and looked at each for a moment. They seemed like they were having a silent debate. Finally, they turned back to me and said simultaneously, “We want you to help him.”

I scoffed loudly immediately after the words left their mouth. “I said I forgive him. I don’t owe him or you guys anything though.”

“We realize that,” John said, pushing his empty ice cream cup out in front of him, “but we would like it if you would help him. For me. For us.”

“How exactly am I supposed to help him, John? I mean, really?”

He smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

***

It was ridiculous. John was ridiculous. I didn’t want to help Garrett, and I didn’t think I could help Garrett. Moving on from his ex-girlfriend was something he had to do entirely on his, I thought, but John had other plans.

As I stood out in front of Garrett’s house, no cars in the driveway but a bright yellow one which John told me was Garrett’s, I realized that this plan was ridiculous. It wasn’t going to work, so why were we bothering?

I still found myself raising my first to knock on the wooden door, though. I wasn’t even nervous, although maybe I should have been. I was going to some boy’s house who I hardly knew, who hated me, to try and help him move on with his life.

It was absolutely ridiculous.

I knocked, though, and I kept knocking until a boy with copper hair stood in front of him, his hair disheveled and his t-shirt looking like he grabbed it out of a dirty clothes hamper.

He scowled at me as soon as it registered on his face who I was. “What are you doing here?”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and sighed. “Nice to see you too, Garrett.”

“What are you doing here?” he repeated.

“I came to apologize,” I blurted out quickly. “For the other night, for being a bitch,” I clarified, as if he didn’t remember the one encounter we had with each other.

He scoffed. “This should be good,” he muttered under his breath, mimicking my own pose by crossing his arms tight across his chest. I caught sight of a tattoo on his arm that read ‘Make your line’. If I wasn’t so irritated by his cold demeanor, I would have complimented his tattoo. I had a thing for good tattoos.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally, dragging my eyes up to meet his. “I’m sorry for calling you a prick, and I’m sorry for the panties in a twist comment too.”

“Why?” he asked.

I shrugged and decided to just be honest with him. “John told me about your ex, and I know how much it sucks to get broken up with and how it can put you in such a bad mood.”

He shook his head. “Un-fucking-believable,” he grumbled under his breath before looking up at me again. “Look, fine whatever, I accept your apology. But if this is some kind of pity dance, then forget it because I don’t need it.”

“Fine,” I quipped, angered by his sudden outburst. I was trying to do him a favor and all he could do was get mad? My earlier accusations of his prick-ish-ness were standing true.

“Fine?”

“Fine. I was just trying to be nice, because I have been where you are and I know how badly it sucks to just want to move on but you can’t because you just want to love that person again. I’ve been there, and I figured maybe I could help, but you know what? I don’t want to help you anymore. Goodbye Garrett,” I snapped, turning on my heel to leave. My car was idling in Garrett’s driveway. All I had to do was hop in, drive off, and I would never have to deal with Garrett again.

“Hold on,” he called suddenly, stopping me in my tracks. It wasn’t an angry hold on like it had been at the party, it was a genuine one and it surprised me so that I had to stop and see what he wanted.

“You really want to help me?” he asked when he got to me.

I shrugged. “I guess so, yeah.”

He looked at me skeptically, but then, just as if the guard he had up had been shattered, he dropped his shoulders in defeat and looked at the ground. “I can’t count on the whole me being a prick thing to go away right away,” he said finally.

I smirked. “That’s okay, because I can’t count on the whole me being a bitch thing to go away either.”

He looked at me then and gave me a tiny, microscopic smile.

And just like that, the plan was put into action.