Girls Do What They Want

John's POV
As I finished taking a picture with one of the last fans, I watched as Carter and her friend Molly climb into her car. I swallowed, my throat going dry as I watched her long brunette hair get tangled up in the late LA night wind.
"She has a lot of nerve coming out here." Jared muttered, walking over to me.
"Yeah." I said quietly, continuing to watch as they pulled out of the parking lot.
"I can't believe Garrett invited her. She lied to us, does anybody else besides us realize that?" He continued. Carter still infacuated my thoughts; she was perfect in every way. It was no secret that I was in love with her -- almost everyone knew that she was the reason I had been so distant in the past four months. But I refused to talk to her, she shouldn't mean anything to me and I knew that. She fucked our band over and lied to us. She didn't deserve us.
As soon as everybody got onto the tour bus and we started driving, tension was high in the air. Garrett was playing on his phone while Pat and Kennedy were filming a video in the back lounge. Jared sat in the front lounge, across from Garrett, staring him down as if he was waiting for him to say something. I sat down next to Tim, avoiding eye contact with Jared. Something was going to happen tonight. Something bad.
Garrett put down his iPhone, looking around the bus.
"Geez, lighten up, guys." He said, pushing his thick framed glasses up.
"Lighten up? You want us to lighten up?" Jared exploded. Oh, great. I locked eyes with Tim; we were probably thinking the same thing.
"Yeah, Jared. Look, she's really fucking sorry about what happened. You and John are just being immature by living in the past. She got her 'karma', or whatever bad things you wished upon her. Carter's a good person, why can't you just fucking forgive her already?" Garrett yelled, his voice heightening with every word. Jared stood, balling his fists up.
"How could you fucking invite her to our show?! She doesn't deserve to be friends with us! She doesn't deserve to be let back into our lives so easily! She dropped off the tour and wouldn't even tell us why, and lied about losing her job! Obviously, we were so hard to deal with, right?" Jared screamed, inching towards Garrett.
"Calm down, Jare," Tim said, standing up. I chose to keep quiet; I didn't want anything to do with Carter or the fight that was about to break out and was caused by her.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Pat asked, walking into the front lounge, Kennedy trailing behind him.
"You're fucking ridiculous, Jared. How old are you, 15? Come on! She's sorry, why can't you accept her apology and move on?"
"Because she's a liar, a whore, and annoying!" Jared exclaimed angrily. Then, within a few seconds, Garrett's fist collided with Jared's jaw.
I instantly stood up, joining Tim in trying to break the two apart as Jared began punching Garrett.
"Who's the immature one now, Garrett?!" Jared screamed as Tim restrained him. He had a bloody lip and was holding his jaw in pain. I helped Garrett up, who was holding his stomach.
"Fucking ridiculous," Jared muttered as Tim dragged him into the back lounge. I sat Garrett down on the bench.
"You okay?" I asked him. He nodded, sighing deeply.
"I'm alright." He shrugged, panting heavily.
"You guys gotta chill," I said as Kennedy and Pat sat across from us. "You can't let her affect our band like this."
"She's one of my best friends, John. I'll do anything for her. And I know you would've done the same if you weren't hiding your feelings for Carter." Garrett replied. I flinched at her name.
"You're in love with her, dude," He continued. "Everybody knows it except you and her. Why can't you just get over yourself and admit it so we can all be happy?"
"Because she fucked us over, Garrett!" I exclaimed. "I can't... I mean... I-I just can't, okay?"
"Dude, Tim was more than fucking happy to take over as our TM! So what, she said a little white lie? Whatever, you move on. You don't have a legitamate reason for not forgiving her, other than the fact that you're fucking in love with Carter Hall and you just have too much pride to admit it!"
For the first time in hours, there was complete silence on the bus. I thought about Garrett's words. No. Carter meant nothing to me. He was just being persistent because he was best friends with her.
"Whatever, man." I muttered, standing up and climbing into my bunk. I stuck my headphones into my ears, shutting my eyes, hoping sleep would come over me soon enough.
~
Carter's POV
"Well... at least Garrett, Kennedy, and Pat are nice." Molly said, sipping her the wine in her glass. After the show, we decided to come back to my apartment and have some girl time, rather than dwell on John and Jared.
"Yeah," I said. "They're probably the nicest. I'm closest with Garrett."
As soon as I said his name, Molly's face flushed.
"Um... y-yeah."
I furrowed my eyebrows at her. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Molly asked, playing dumb.
"That!" I exclaimed. "You blushed!"
Suddenly, I realized it. "Oh my gosh! You like Gare!"
"No I don't!" She protested. "I don't like Garrett!"
"You like Garrett!" I yelled, jumping up, spilling a bit of my wine.
"He's cute," Molly corrected. "But I don't like him. I mean, I just met him, I don't know anything about him."
"So you're interested." I smirked.
Molly shrugged sheepishly. "I guess. But I have a kid. That's a major turn-off for dudes."
"You and Gare would be so adorable!" I shrieked. "He wouldn't care about you have a son, trust me."
"I don't know, Car. Every guy I've dated has always dumped me whenever I told them I have a son."
"Garrett won't," I said. "He's a good guy, Molls. You guys would be perfect for each other."
Molly shrugged, taking another sip of her red wine.
"We'll see."
~~
Molly's POV
"C'mon Ethan, please take a nap for mommy." I begged my five year old son, sighing in frustration as he shook his head.
"Please, baby? Mommy has to call her friend and she needs to have Ethan taking his nap."
"No!" Ethan refused, crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly. My phone suddenly vibrated in my lap. I looked down, smiling softly as I saw Garrett's name flash across the screen. Although we had met two weeks ago, Garrett and I exchanged numbers thanks to Carter and had been talking nonstop.
Ethan continued lying there as my phone rang. I wanted to answer, mostly because my interest for Garrett had only grown since getting to know him better. Sighing, I quickly pressed the 'answer' button and bit my lip, whispering into the phone.
"Hey," I greeted quietly, watching my son intently.
"Hey. Why are you whispering?" Garrett greeted back in the same hushed tone. I giggled, attempting to keep my voice down.
"I'm trying to get my son to go to sleep and he's not having it."
"What's his name again? Ethan?"
"Yup." I answered, butterflies fluttering in my stomach.
"Ethan, take a nap so I can talk to your mommy!" Garrett exclaimed, making me laugh. I watched my son, who's eyes were shut close.
"I actually think he went down," I said, playing with his short brunette hair. I stood, quietly exiting his room, closing the door behind me.
"Ha! So he listened to me!" I could hear Garrett grinning through his excitement.
I giggled. "I guess so."
"So we just got home last week," Garrett began. "And I was thinking maybe you, Carter, and your son could come down here to Arizona to come visit us. Y'know, if you want."
My eyes widened. He wanted to meet Ethan! Well, he was also inviting Carter so it technically wasn't anything serious. I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up but Garrett was unlike any guys I had ever liked before.
"Uh... that would be awesome," I said, grinning. "But I don't know if I can get off from work. And I can't really afford a hotel room, even if Carter and I split it."
"You guys could stay at my house..." Garrett offered.
"Really?" I asked in shock.
"Yeah," He replied. "I mean, if you're okay with that. And we could maybe get Carter and John talking. They're so in love with each other it's ridiculous."
"I know," I said sadly. "Everytime she talks about him, she has this glimmer in her eyes. It's amazing. She tried getting over him so many times but she knows it's impossible."
"Same for John, except he won't admit it. Everybody knows that he loves her though."
"That would be really awesome, Gare. I'll definitely talk to Carter about it." I said, biting my lip.
"Okay, cool. Well I gotta go Molly. I'll talk to you later." Garrett said. A small frown appeared on my face.
"Oh, alright. Bye, Garrett."
"Later."
The line went dead and I sighed, trying to ignore the exciting butterflies in my stomach. I knew I had feelings for Garrett, but I just didn't have time for boyfriends. Plus I had a son. What guy wanted to date a mother?
The doorbell rang, and I hopped up, answering the door. No surprise, Carter was there.
"Hey." She greeted, tying her hair into a messy ponytail.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" I questioned, closing the door behind us. She was on her shift at the restaurant.
"Lunch break."
Carter walked over to my kitchen, tearing open the cabinents.
"Hey, don't eat all my food, Hall!" I told her, trying to scold her without waking Ethan up.
"Yeah, yeah," Carter waved me off. Since she was at my apartment and Ethan was asleep, I took it as a perfect oppurtunity to bring up Garrett's suggestion.
"Soooo," I began as she gave me a skeptical look. "I just got off the phone with Garrett."
"Oh, yeah?" She asked. "He's a really nice guy."
I nodded. "He, uh... invited me to Arizona. For like, a week."
Carter raised her eyebrows. "Are you gonna go?"
"I would like to," I answered. "But I'm not the only person he invited."
"Ethan?" She guessed.
"Yeah, and you."
Carter's jaw dropped.
"No! Absolutely not, Molly! I'm not going!" She exclaimed.
"Shut up!" I hissed. "Ethan's asleep!"
Carter instantly stopped talking, continuing to go through my kitchen.
"Why not?" I whispered. "Garrett offered us his place and everything. You could work everything out with Jared and John, and everything could be okay again. Please, Car?"
She sighed hesitantly. She grabbed a box of Cheerios, dumping the rest of the cereal into a bowl and eating it. I stared at her, awaiting her answer.
"Fine," Carter sighed. "A week. Seven days. That's it. And I'll only go if you promise you won't make any babies with Garrett."
I grinned happily, wrapping my arms around her.
"Yay!" I squealed. "I promise, no baby making. This is gonna be so much fun, Car!"
Carter rolled her eyes, reluctantly embracing me back.