Listen to Your Heart

A couple of days later, Rachel and I decided to hang out. We were sitting inside a local coffee shop enjoying the drinks and muffins we had ordered.

"Are you and Garrett settled into the house now?" I asked her after I finished my muffin.

"Yeah, we love it," she said. "We're thinking about repainting, but other than that everything else is fine."

"That's good. That was a really fun party you both had."

"I could tell you were really enjoying yourself," she said as she smirked at me.

"Shut up," I said as I smiled.

"John looked as if he were having a good time as well before Heather had to be a bitch and butt in," she said as she rolled her eyes. "I did enjoy watching her be jealous though."

"I don't know what she has to be jealous about," I said as I shrugged. "She's the one that has John. I don't."

"Because she can tell that you're competition."

"How am I competition?" I asked as I gave her a weird look.

"You're the total package, Brooke," she said as if it should have been obvious to me. "You're also more John's type than she is and she knows it. I think she also knows you have feelings for him."

"If I were more his type, then he would be with me wouldn't he?"

"Yes, but he doesn't realize it right now," she said. "Just give it time."

"Whatever," I said after I took a sip from my drink.

We soon got off of that subject and began to talk about other things until we were interrupted.

"What's up, guys?"

We both looked up to find Garrett and John standing before us. I raised my eyebrows and looked towards Rachel who shrugged.

"Not much," Rachel said. "What are you two doing here?"

"Well, I knew you said you and Brooke were coming here," Garrett said. "John and I were hanging out so I thought it would be okay if we joined you."

"Sure, babe," she said, "but I thought this was your guy time and my girl time."

"Yeah, but I thought this would be alright," Garrett said as he sat in the chair beside Rachel. "We were pretty bored."

John took the seat next to me and sat down. I looked over at him and smiled, which he returned with his own. I couldn't help but smile everytime he was around. I am such a dork sometimes.

"How are you, Brooke?" he asked.

"I'm fine," I said. "How are you?"

"I'm good."

"Where's Heather, John?" Rachel asked after a moment.

"She's out of town for a couple of days," he said as he shrugged.

"Really?" Rachel asked as she smiled over at me without him noticing. "Plenty of free time then, huh?"

"I guess so," he said.

"That's great," she said. I could tell she was up to something. "I think all four of us should do something tonight. It could be like old times. The fair is in town. We could check it out."

I was obviously correct.

"That sounds like fun," Garrett said.

"Are you guys in?" Rachel asked me and John.

I looked at her and then at John who seemed to like the idea. I surely didn't mind it.

"Sure," he said as he shrugged. "Why not? Let's try not to get ourselves almost thrown out this time."

"That was your doing, John," I said to him.

"Hey, that guy asked for it," he said. "He was being a jerk to you. That really pissed me off. No one treats you like that."

The last time all of us had been to the fair together, I had had an encounter with some drunk guy that was trying to flirt with me. I told him nicely I wasn't interested, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. That's when John stepped in and things got out of hand. The two got into a fight and some workers had to break them apart. Luckily, we weren't thrown out. I appreciated John sticking up for me even though it had gone too far, but that was how John was. He was protective of the people that were close to him.

"Anyways," Rachel said. "We can meet you guys there. John, you can pick Brooke up, right?"

"Yeah, no problem," he said. "We'll meet you guys there."

As they all began talking about something else, I couldn't help but smile on the inside at the thought of getting to hang out with John later that night. I knew, though, it would only be as friends.