The Reality of Dreams

“Ellie? Are you still with me here? Hello?” Taylor said. I just sat there and stared at him with a dumbfounded expression and my mouth gaping open and closed like a fish out of water.

“Y-yeah. Um…” I trailed off.

“So what do you think?” he asked. I furrowed my brow and started fidgeting with my hands. I tried again to say something, anything that would be a good enough reason for him to not be suspicious about her not wanting to go public.

“Umm…” I tried again. “Are you sure? I-I mean, I’m just starting to make a small name for myself and-“ My brain was working overtime trying to word my excuse.

“You’d get even more publicity if everyone knew we were together.” He said with a chuckle.

“Yeah but it would be bad publicity because then people would think that I’m only with you so I can be famous.” I said knowing it was more truth than excuse. Taylor looked a little defeated by my lack of enthusiasm over his news so I reached over and grabbed his hand.

“Taylor.” I said softly. He lifted his head and had this very sad look in his eyes that damn near broke my heart. I got up from my seat and went over to his side of the table and sat on his lap. I placed my hand on his cheek and gently rubbed the smooth surface. “Taylor, I would love, more than anything to let the world know that we are together. I would love for the world to know just how much I love you, but-“

“What?” he said cutting me off as his eyes went wide and a smile began to form on his lips. “Y-you love me?” he asked sounding a little insecure and I smiled sweetly at him.

“Yes I do. Taylor Daniel Lautner, I love you.” I said and began to feel much better than I had in days. The smile on his face widened and he pulled my face to his for a kiss.

“I love you. I love you so much.” He proclaimed between kisses. “You have no idea how much I’ve been wanting to tell you that. I just didn’t know if it was too soon or what.” He said placing his forehead against mine. I just smiled, not really sure how to respond.

“I want the world to know. Just, now isn’t the right time.” I whispered in his ear. He took a deep breath and looked up into my eyes before nodding slowly. “I still love you.” I said with a smile and he grinned back at me.

“Yeah I know. I love you too.” He said.

We spent the rest of breakfast talking about his upcoming trip to Australia and how much I wished that I could go with him. I told him he would have to take lots of pictures while he was there, like a true tourist. He agreed to but I knew he probably wouldn’t even leave the hotel room.

We left the restaurant and went back to his place. He had just moved out of his parents’ house and was so eager to show off his new apartment despite the fact that there was practically no furniture except for a futon and boxes lining every inch of the walls. He showed me around the two-bedroom apartment with so much enthusiasm that he kept tripping over his words and boxes telling me all of the ideas he had for fixing up the place. I thought it was so cute how excited he was getting and couldn’t help but giggle as he zipped across each room tugging me along with him. When he finally made it to the master bedroom, which would obviously become his bedroom I stopped him in the middle of his vision explanation by pressing my lips against his.

It didn’t take long for him to place his hands on my hips and pull me closer to him. I ran my fingers through his hair reveling in the soft tresses before moving them down towards his neck and holding his face between my palms. I pulled back just enough to put an inch of space between us and smiled at him.

“I love you.” I said and Taylor began grinning from ear to ear before repeating those words back to me.

***
At around six o’clock that night after just laying on the floor in his new apartment Taylor took me back to the hotel. I kissed him goodbye and he told me that he would call me later. I smiled as he walked away satisfied with my life so far. Right before I opened the door to my room my phone went off alerting me to a new text message. I opened the screen and saw that there was a new message from Taylor consisting of three little words “I love you.” I smiled and turned towards the elevator where I saw him standing looking at me with a smile on his face.

I waved as I walked into my room closing the door behind me and leaning my back against it. I sighed in contentment before pushing myself off of the door and jumping into my bed landing face first onto the mattress regretting that choice a second before landing. I was dosing off when my phone began ringing again. I answered it with out reading the caller id thinking that it was Taylor.

“Hey baby.” I said.

“Well hello to you too love.” Christian said on the other end. I shot up in my bed clasping my head at the same time as the most awful head rush came over me.

“Sorry. I thought you were Taylor.” I explained to him. “What’s up?”

“I was just calling to see if you were ready.” I didn’t know what he was talking about until I thought about it and remembered that he and I were supposed to have another “date” tonight.

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed jumping out of the bed and running to the dresser searching for an outfit to wear. “I’m sorry I completely forgot.” I apologized. “Give me 15 minutes and I’ll be ready to go. Are you here already?”

“Yeah I’m down in the lobby.” He said. I told hi I’d be down in a bit and went to take a quick shower. When I finished getting ready I practically ran down to the lobby and greeted Christian in a huff. We hopped in his car and drove to the steakhouse restaurant where the paparazzi would surely be waiting.

The hostess escorted us to a table next to one of the big windows and she told us our waiter would be with us shortly. Not long after the waiter came up and took our orders and as he was leaving Christian and I began talking about our days.

“So get this, Taylor wants to go public.” I told him.

“Are you serious?” he asked with an incredulous look on his face. “Wait does he know about us?” I shook my head taking a sip of my drink. “What? Why haven’t you told him about us?”

“Because I didn’t know how he would react or how jealous he would get if he knew about our pretend relationship.”

“Ellie. We are pretending to be together. I highly doubt that he is going to get jealous knowing that we are not really together.”

“But he could be the kind of guy that gets intimidated by other guys being close to their lady or could get mad because he thinks we’d get too close and that I’d leave him for you, something that, no offense to you, I would never do.”

“None taken.” He said nodding his head.

“I’ve only been with him for a month, and yes we already said that we love each other-“

“Wait what?” Christian interrupted. “You already told him that you love him?” I nodded. “You who said that you would never tell a man you love them until you’ve been with them for at least three months.” I dropped my head laughing lightly.

“I was in middle school then, and I can’t believe you remember that.”

“Well we were together for a while.”

“Yeah since 7th grade.” I mused thinking back to when we first started dating.

We had been talking for and flirting with each other for about two week before he got the courage to ask me to be his girlfriend. I was on the way to mi earth science class when he stopped me in the middle of the hallway grabbed my binder and slipped a folded up note in it. When I got into class I opened the note and on it read three short questions:

Do you like me?
Do you have a boyfriend?
Will you go out with me?

Thinking back on it, it seemed like the cutest thing ever. Our relationship lasted up until sophomore year when he moved to California. We probably still would be together if it wasn’t for-NO! I was not about to start remembering the past. There was a reason why I forgot about it.

I shook my head trying to physically rid myself of the thoughts and continued eating the rest of my meal.

“What?” Christian asked.

“Nothing.” I sighed.

“No, you were thinking about something. You just had your thinking face on.” I couldn’t help but start giggling.

“My thinking face?”

“Yeah, you know your eyebrows scrunch together, you lips pucker slightly and your eyes narrow and glaze over slightly. It’s actually kind of cute.” He said.

“Am I just that beautiful that you have to stare at me?” I asked with a smile.

“Yes.” He replied and my smile dropped instantly. “Not really, I’ve seen that look many times before. Which leads to my next statement, you think too much.”

“Thinking is a good thing. You should do it more often.” I sniped at him with a smile.

“Oh baby, I do think. A lot.” He said wiggling his eyebrows.

“Eww. You are such a pervert.” I replied with a laugh.

We finished eating and decided to go hit up a movie before going our separate ways until the next time we were supposed to go out. Christian flagged down the waiter and paid for our dinner. It still amazed me that he continued to use his own money even after the multiple times that Rosario offered to fund our “dates”. We got up from the table and took a deep breath before exiting out of the restaurant into the awaiting flashes and questions of the paparazzi.

I don’t know why but something told me to look to my right and when I did I noticed that there was a small gap between the camera happy people. Through that gap I could see Taylor heading towards the restaurant right next to the one I had just come out of. I ducked behind Christian pulling him to the car as fast as possible just as Taylor was starting to turn in our direction and prayed as hard as possible that he didn’t see me.

***

Anger began to fill him as he watched her try to sneak away clutching the other man’s arm tightly. He knew there was something else going on that would cause his girlfriend to not want the world to know that they were together he just never expected her to be playing him.

He couldn’t figure out what hurts worse, the fact that she was seeing another man or the fact that he found out the same day, only a few hours after they confessed their love for each other. As the hurt began to turn into rage he turned around and got right back into his car making a sharp U-turn heading back to his apartment.