Waiting for My Sun to Shine

With only a few shows left their final day off was spent in Chico, California at Justin Richards home. Kadi Olsen also joined her boyfriend Jared on the tour, flying in early this morning. But of course she wasted no time to catch up on all the gossip that took place over the last month with Hallie and John. While the boys hung out in the backyard of Justin's home barbequing dinner, the girls took a walk around the neighborhood to get some alone time.

"You slapped him?!" Lily asked in shock.

"Did he cry?" Kadi was the only one amused by all of the drama.

"What do you think?" Hallie gave her a sarcastic look. "I didn't take the time to ask him if his face was okay. I just got the hell out of there."

As much as Hallie missed being around her friends and enjoyed her time with them, she was counting down the days until she returned back to New York. As hectic and stressful as her job was, it was the only thing to keep her busy and her mind focused on things other than John, Ashley or the pregnancy. As long as he was around, she was never going to feel one hundred percent comfortable in her own skin. After everything that's happened over the last month she knew in her heart that it was best for them to stay far away from each other.

"We should buy some beer and drink out in the open like we did in Europe." Kadi suggested.

"Yeah, let's just get drunk and lost in this city instead of going back to Justin's where the boys are making dinner for us." Sarcasm was evident in Lily's voice as she looked over to Hallie for support.

"You know what, that's not a bad idea." Hallie ignored Lily and sided with Kadi this time. "Let's go find a beer store."

Back at Justin's home the boys were already getting drunk in his backyard. Gary Ferenchak was manning the grill while Austin, Jared, Nick, and Trey made up a few songs on their acoustic guitars. Everyone else was scattered around the yard, either sitting by fire pit making small talk or playing beer pong. No one seem to notice that the girls were gone for quite some time, they figured since the three of them were together they would be okay.

"I haven't heard from you all month. Would it kill you to check in with your parents." John paced up and down Justin's living room while listening his mother complain over the phone. "Every time I call I get your voice mail, I talked Jared's parents and they seem to be able to communicate with their son just fine. I don't know what I'm gonna do with you, John."

"Mom... I'm sorry." He didn't know what else to say.

"I even talked to Kennedy's parents and they seem to have no issue with reaching their son or daughter..." She rambled on. "And how come you didn't tell me Hallie was on tour with you guys?"

"Mom, I have a lot going on." He sat down on the edge of the couch and closed his eyes.

"Don't you think I know that? Of course I know you've got more on your mind than just tour. You didn't get much time to process Ashley's pregnancy and I wanna know how my son is dealing with it." John could hear in his mother's voice how worried she really was for him. "You've got a lot of obstacles ahead of you and I just want you to be ready for whatever comes your way. I know you and Ashley don't always see eye to eye-"

"We always end up fighting." He interjected.

"Exactly, so maybe it's a good thing that Hallie's on tour with you. I'm sure you've been venting to her about everything that's going on in your head, right?"

"Not exactly..." John hesitated before saying anything further to his mother. He didn't have the heart to tell her that him and Hallie's friendship blew up in flames a long time ago, and as the days go by he seems to be making it worse. As far as his mother knew, from the time Hallie left for college, her and John's relationship grew since then and even with all the distance in their friendship over the last couple of years, she was glad her son had Hallie in his life.

"What did you do?" She asked in a not so happy tone.

"Nothing... well... this pregnancy just screwed up a lot of things." He was beating around the bush. "We got our own things going on... I don't want to bother her."

"Son, Hallie is the most level headed person you know. She's a great listener and I'm sure whatever is going on between the two of you, if you just talk to her genuinely she'll do whatever she can to fix the problem." She encouraged him.

John needed to vent to someone other than his mother because he knew she would give him typical cliche answers that he didn't want to hear. If he spoke to Ashley they would end up fighting and he was tired of her same old responses as well. John wanted to believe his mother's words, he knew it was a long shot to even attempt to speak to Hallie, but he figured what's the harm in trying.

"Thanks, mom."



Hallie, Lily, and Kadi spent most of their night trying to find their way back to Justin's house. Even in their tipsy state of mind all three girls made an adventure out of it as they walked in circles. This time around Hallie didn't have a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach like she usually had whenever she was out with Mia. She felt relaxed and didn't mind if they spent their entire night walking around Chico, she was with her best friends and that was enough to keep her happy.

"I am going to kill the two of you.'Oh, leave your phone behind Lily, we don't need it... Let's drink in a park, we know our way back...'" Lily rambled.

Earlier when they left the house for their walk, they purposely left their phones back at Justin's to avoid any distractions. Kadi who was walking a few steps ahead of them looked around to see if she could find some sort of land mark to point them in the right direction. She followed her instincts, but at this point all three of them were frozen and Hallie had to endure the cold in a thin plain grey t-shirt and navy blue skinny jeans while Kadi and Lily were smart and wore sweaters. By chance they saw the figure of Jared out ahead of them and all three girls ran towards him with excitement.

"Where were you guys?" He asked as he wrapped Kadi in his arms and followed the other two who ran in the house.

"Freezing our asses off." Lily shivered as she hugged onto Kennedy. Hallie ran into Justin's guest bedroom where she left her purse and sweater. When she entered Eric was already underneath the covers, sleeping. She decided to get into bed with him, stealing some of his body heat.

"Holy shit." Eric jumped up when her feet touched his. "You're ice cold."

"Tell me something I don't know." Hallie's teeth chattered. Immediately Eric wrapped his arms around her tightly and put his feet back on hers. She rested her head in the crook of his neck as he rubbed the sides of her arms with the palm of his hands.

"I think you're too good for John." Eric whispered.

"What?" Hallie moved her head to look at him.

"You said, 'tell me something I don't know' and I just did." His eyes were closed even as she stared at him in disbelief. "John is terrified of the day you realize how much better off you are without him."

This was the first time Eric had ever spoken up on how he felt about Hallie and John's complicated relationship. She always heard Lily and Kadi's opinions and even Mia's, but never did Eric say anything to persuade her thoughts. He didn't like the way either of his best friends treated each other, but he remained neutral all this time to avoid the drama. Maybe Eric was being selfish because he always had a special place in his heart for Hallie even before her new transformation. He never explored his feelings for her, but he figured now would be a good time.

"Shit." He opened his eyes to see a few tears fall from her cheek. "I didn't mean to make you cry... I care about you a lot and I-"

"You've always been there for me... I don't know what I'd do without you." Hallie sniffled back her tears. She leaned over and kissed him on the lips softly before resting her head back on his chest.



Out in the backyard John played a round of beer pong with Garrett as his teammate. They played against Chee and Andrew Cook who lost in the end. He walked back into the house and saw that Lily and Kadi were sitting at the kitchen table with Kennedy and Jared. He knew that there was never going to be a right time to talk to Hallie, so it didn't matter to him when or where he would confront her, he just thought it should be done right now.

"Where's Hallie?" He asked.

Kennedy and Jared pointed down the hallway as Kadi and Lily both stared at each other with wide eyes. Ignoring their awkward glances he walked passed them and towards the guest bedroom. Opening the door quietly he found Eric and Hallie cuddled together underneath the sheets. He softly closed the door back once he saw the way his best friend was kissing Hallie deeply. Not being able to bear the sight of what he had just seen, he walked out the house and into the cold.

"I thought there'd be fireworks after making out with you." Eric chuckled, completely oblivious to the fact that John walked in on them. Hallie hit him in the chest playfully making it seem as though she was really offended. "Don't get me wrong you're a good kisser. But I guess it's not what either of us were expecting, huh?"

"Can we still cuddle like this as friends? Even when I'm not sad and miserable." Hallie hugged onto him tighter.

"Of course, anytime." Eric kissed the crown of her head.

The curiosity the two had about each other was finally put to rest. Hallie and Eric loved each other, but that was all there was, nothing romantic and they were okay with that. They cared about each other very much and if it were even possible they became closer from that experience. However, half way down the street a distraught John walked briskly but with nowhere to go. He wish he could turn back time and break up the kiss between Hallie and Eric, but then he thought back further and realized there were so many things he wish he could change. His thoughts were scattered and when his phone began to vibrate in his front pocket he felt like throwing it on the concrete and breaking it into little pieces with his foot.

"Hi." He answered.

"Babe, you know that thing I wanted to talk to you about, but I wanted to wait until we saw each other on Monday?" Ashley seemed very excited on the other end of the call, John inhaled and exhaled deeply but slowly before for she continued. "Well, I can't wait anymore!"

"What is it?"