Hollywould Fix

After breakfast I went upstairs to properly get dressed and tame my hair. Mrs. Wentz insisted that we go shopping for the house; she felt it wasn't "home-y" enough. She said that even though Pete was rarely home it didn't have to look like it. Pete protested but quickly gave up. Mrs. Wentz was easily the only person more stubborn than Pete that I had ever met.

My cell phone rang just as I had finished wrangling my unruly curls into a tight elastic ponytail holder. "Hello?"

"Hey what are you up to?"

Ryan and I were close enough now that I knew without asking who was on the other line. "Hey Pete's mom came into town early and surprised us. She wants to take us shopping for the house but you can come if you want."

"Sounds good I'll be there in 20 minutes."

About an hour later we entered the store. It was overwhelming the amount of colors and fabrics there were for all of the blankets, curtains, pillows, sheets, rugs, wall paper etc. Mrs. Wentz immediately went to town as the rest of us followed bewilderingly behind her. We tried to keep up as she started rattling off suggestions to us and asking about color palettes and whether or not Chintz was a masculine or feminine fabric. Even Ryan, who normally would be into this kind of stuff looked scared. "I think I'm going to go look...over here," he said vaguely beginning to wander off.

"Ryan," I hisssed loudly after him, "Don't leave me here."

He looked back with a mischevious grin and disappeared down another aisle.

"Reina what do you think?"

I quickly snapped my attention back to Mrs. Wentz having completely missed part of the conversation. "Huh?"

"What do you think about these pillows for the living room couch?"

"They have flowers on them. They're too girly, even for me, Rey tell her they're too girly," Pete's eyes pleaded with me.

"Well they are slightly feminine," I said gently looking at the rose pink and greyish blue flowers on an asian themed pillow.

"Well Reina you're the fashion designer what do you like," asked Mrs. Wentz almost challengingly.

I looked to Pete who nodded for me to be honest. It reminded me of the the first day we met when I had spoken up to give critiques about his fashion line for DKNY that seemed so long ago now. "Well I like this one," I said standing on my tippy toes to reach it, "The red and blue are classic colors that will add color to the room and the fact that they're striped means they won't be too girly but the thin gold stripe makes it pretty too." I waited in anticipation as she looked me up and down taking in my opinion.

"I like it," she said finally. We all let out a sigh of relief. "You have good taste Reina."

I thought I caught a glimpse of a snarl on Ashlee's lips. Not that I would have blamed her. It seemed like Pete's girlfriend would be the more logical choice to ask about decoration opinions.

Mrs. Wentz started piling pillows onto a cart and immediately started off again in search of things to match them. Ashlee followed close behind rattling off her own suggestions with Mrs. Wentz not paying as much attention to her as the signs above the aisles. I started to follow after them when when Pete grabbed my arm causing me to slow down. "I don't know why we're going through with this. We all know that Hemmy will have torn those pillows to shreds by tomorrow morning. Where are you taking me," I asked as he pulled me into a corner where we were surrounded by comforter sets in clear plastic bags.

He put his finger to my lips to silence me and then crashed his lips roughly into mine. After a solid three minutes of lip on lip contact we pulled apart to catch our breath. "You're crazy we could have gotten caught," I said but I was far from mad as I tried desperately to wipe the smirk off of my face.

"I know," he said with a frown, "but I just couldn't resist. It's kind of adorable that you're scared of my mom." He chuckled and then touched his hand lightly to my cheek. "Don't worry she likes you."

"How do you know," I challenged.

"How could she not," he shrugged.

"We better get back before they suspect something."

He nodded and kissed my nose gently before walking down the aisle. I decided to walk the opposite way and take my time so we wouldn't be so obvious. I turned around only to walk straight into someone. "Oof, sorry," I said automatically. I looked up to see who I had walked into only to find Ryan looking back at me an unrecognizable expression on his face. "Hey that's where you went to," I said cheerfully. He didn't respond. he only stared at me as every human emotion ran across his face one by one. "How long have you been standing there," I asked quietly.

"I can't believe you," he said angrily as he began to walk off.

"Ryan wait!" I began to walk after him. I practically had to run to keep up with his long strides. "Ryan please don't walk away from me. Can't we just talk?"

He slowed down a bit seeming to contemplate my proposition. "Fine."

"Outside," I suggested glancing around nervously and hoping we hadn't caused a scene. I followed him outside once again needing to quicken my steps to keep up with him.

Once we were outside he turned toward me leaning again the brick of the building. "I can't believe you," he said again.

"Why?"

"I just saw you kissing Pete. He has a girlfriend." He was practically yelling.

"I know."

"And you lied to me. You told me you didn't want to be with me because you were hung up on someone's else. It's him isn't it?" I could hear the hurt in his voice that he was trying to not let show.

I sighed. "Ryan I didn't lie to you. I was hung up on Peter...am hung up...I don't know. I didn't say that to hurt you I said it because I do like you a lot and if we had met at a different time we might have even been more than friends but I didn't want to lead you on and hurt you. You mean too much to me for that," I added.

Ryan seemed to soften but only slightly. "He has a girlfriend Reina," he repeated, "I know you. You would never do something like that. How does that make you any better than Brianna?"

It stung instantly to be compared to the girl that had come between Alex and I, my first love. It stung even worse because I knew he was right. "It doesn't but Pete promised to break up with Ashlee when she came back from being on tour. He said he owed it to her to at least do it in person. He was going to..."

"Let me guess he couldn't do it. I can't believe you let him use you like that Reina. You really believed he was going to break up with her? That's the most classic line in cheaters history."

"It wasn't like that," I said defensively, "He really was going to break up with her but something happened. I can't tell you what because I promised to keep it a secret but you'll find out soon enough. The point is he can't leave her now, so we broke up. It's over."

"It doesn't look over to me," he snorted.

"We have our moments. It's really hard but trust me it's over."

Ryan searched my face and took in the sadness that had come over me in talking about it. "I'm sorry."

I wasn't sure what exactly he was sorry for. Sorry for the way he had acted? Sorry for how things had turned out for me and Pete? Perhaps it was both, at any rate I decided I better take what I could get. "I'm sorry too. I never meant to hurt you or keep secrets from you. Ryan promise me you won't tell anyone. Not even Hobo," I teased. But I was serious. He had no idea the damage that could be caused if anyone else found out.

"I promise not even Hobo."