Good Love

It was one in the afternoon, and Annie had just driven Macy to the airport in her new car. Even though she had plenty of friends and another best friend back here in Arizona, she was still going to miss Macy infinitely while she was back in Chicago for another semester of school. The uncertainty of when they’d get to see each other again was looming over her head, making her sad and grumpy all day.

After resolving the fight with her brother, things in Tempe had calmed down. Their big group of friends still hung out weekly, having a big party or a small get-together every weekend. No more dates with Rex, and thankfully there were no hard feelings. Annie continued her routine, spending a few days a week helping Dirk out at the studio while the rest of the week was spent sleeping. She did a lot of that, these days. Austin would drop by the house some days and try to drag her out of bed before three in the afternoon, almost always failing. Only John could get her up with threats of pouring ice water on her again.

She thought about John a lot, those days. After the day he’d sort of held her hand when Jared was apologizing about their fight, John hadn’t touched her again. They still hung out all the time, considering they lived together, but something was off. Something felt different, and Annie didn’t know what to think about it. She missed the comfort of his presence.

Currently, Annie was walking down the sidewalk, her boots squelching on wet concrete. Her hair and clothes were nearly soaked, but she didn’t care. She liked feeling the rain prick her face and cold shivers run through her spine.

She was halfway down the block when a familiar white truck pulled up to the curb next to her, lightly honking the horn. She turned as the window rolled down, revealing the exact person she expected. Speak of the devil.

“What the hell are you doin’, Monaco?” he called, having to speak louder over the pounding rain.

Annie tilted her head and looked at him. “Going for a walk,” she answered, shrugging her shoulders as if walking in the rain was normal for her.

John laughed and shook his head. “You’re going to catch a cold. Come on, get in,” he said, gesturing towards the passenger seat of his old truck.

“I’m walking in the rain on purpose, John.” She didn’t feel like talking, or explaining why she liked the rain so much, so she simply turned and starting walking down the pavement again.

She didn’t have to look to know John had driven away; she could hear his engine popping as he drove, the noise slowly getting quieter and quieter.

Annie continued walking, not really paying attention to where she was going. She just took in everything around her: cars spraying rain water as they drove through puddles, traffic lights glistening and contrasting with the dark sky behind them, the refreshing feeling of the rain soaking her body, like it was washing her from the inside out.

She was maybe two blocks away from the apartment when she heard footsteps running on the sidewalk behind her. She moved to the edge of the concrete, thinking it was probably a jogger who enjoyed the rain like she did.

But instead, the footsteps slowed as they reached her, and she was surprised to see John standing there, out of breath, holding an umbrella and wearing a shy smile. Annie loved that smile of his the most, much more than his cocky grin or smirk. This one was real and honest and happy.

“God, you look so sexy in the rain,” John said quietly, leaning towards her as his lips stretched into a bigger smile.

Annie rolled her eyes and hoped he wouldn’t see the blush on her cheeks.

“So where are we going?” he asked, opening the umbrella and holding it above their heads.

“Nowhere in particular,” Annie said, still surprised that he had actually ran two blocks in the rain just to catch up to her.

He looked down at her, the umbrella blocking out most of the scene around them, and at that moment Annie felt a twist in her stomach. His eyes were so bright and so green, making the freckles on his cheeks stand out. A crooked, half-smile was hanging on his lips, and a lock of hair was dripping water onto his forehead. She had to admit, he looked pretty damn sexy in the rain, too.

“Nowhere? Well in that case, I’ve got a perfect place we can go,” he said, urging her forward. “Turn here,” he instructed, guiding her with his hand on her back.

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise. You’ll love it, trust me.”

***

Annie turned another corner, walking into a small room full of glass sculptures. She was in awe at all of the beautiful art exhibits she’d seen, ranging from paintings to pottery and everything in between. There were pieces in all shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. Her senses were in overdrive.

John had taken her seven blocks in the rain, holding the umbrella above their heads and his hand on the small of her back the whole time, and brought her to the art district of old Scottsdale, another part of Phoenix. There were entire streets of shops dedicated to art, and Annie was undeniably in love.

She was lightly running her fingers over a piece of smooth glass when a voice whispered in her ear, “So do you love it?”

Annie jumped, her instincts taking over, causing her to tense up and prepare to fight. All in a matter of seconds.

She calmed when she saw it was just John, grinning but showing concern in his eyes. He’d been noticing more and more about Annie, lately. About how fucked up she was.

“I absolutely love it,” she said, letting out the deep breath she’d been holding in. “Everything’s so beautiful in here. I just can’t believe...” she trailed off, walking over to another exhibit next to them.

“Can’t believe what?” John prompted. God, how he loved to pick her brain.

“I can’t believe that this place has been here all this time, and I never knew about it. When I was a kid, I never knew this was here. And I would have loved it.”

“This whole ‘old’ Scottsdale thing just started up a few years ago. This place used to be really empty, but they turned it into a big district when more people started showing up,” he explained, leading her towards the door, where it was still raining outside.

“Ann, come on, we haven’t even seen the best place yet!” John said, tugging on her wrist to follow. Their hands only touched for a second, but John spent the rest of the night relishing the feeling of her soft skin against his.

They ran through the rain to a studio across the street, entering a large gallery that promised photographs, paintings, and drawings.

“Oh god, this smells like my classroom back at Northwestern,” she sighed, taking a deep breath in.

“I don’t think these fumes are good to inhale like that, blondie,” John laughed. But Annie, the free spirit, was already walking towards another room full of paintings. He let her go for a minute, knowing she liked her space.

A few minutes later, he walked towards the room she’d entered. He found her staring at the walls, which were completely covered, floor to ceiling, with the most beautiful paintings John had ever seen.

Apparently Annie thought so too, by the looks of her wide, brown eyes and mouth slightly open.

“How do they do it?” she whispered. John didn’t know if she was talking to him or talking to herself. He didn’t even know if she noticed he was there or not.

“Hey look, there’s a guy over there painting,” John said, following her towards the man in the corner of the room. He looked about in his sixties, with a mop of white hair on his head.

“Are you the artist?” Annie blurted. “I mean, did you paint all these?”

The old man looked up at her, revealing a worn and wrinkled face with large spectacles. “I sure did,” he said, his voice sounding like gravel.

“They’re amazing. They’re... they’re so brilliant. They make me second guess every piece I’ve ever done,” Annie said, smiling sincerely.

The old man smiled back at her. “I take it you’re an artist too, eh?”

She shrugged and glanced around the room again. “Sort of. I used to paint when I was younger, but now I have a major in photography.”

He nodded. “The best art is finding beauty in what is already here,” he said. “Take a look at my newest painting, over in the far corner. I just finished it earlier today.”

Annie walked like a ghost to the direction he pointed towards, with John trailing her. She read the little sign below the painting first: Do Not Touch, Wet Paint. John watched as her eyes flicked up, analyzing the blue painting in front of her.

He watched realization come across her face as she saw the painting; it was an up-close portrait of raindrops sitting in someone’s palm.

She almost laughed in disbelief. “It’s gorgeous. I didn’t know something could be this unbelievably beautiful.”

“I did,” John said. But he wasn’t looking at the painting.

At his words, Annie looked up at him. She knew he was talking about her, but didn’t have the courage to question him. Instead, she broke their gaze and looked at the paintings again. “Yeah, but you’ve seen the whole world, John. You’ve seen a whole lot more than I have.”

She could see him shake his head out of the corner of her eye. “I prefer live art, actually. Much more interesting. Because, not only do you get the beauty of the outside, but the inside, too.”

After those words left his mouth he knew she’d look up at him, and she did. Annie stared at him, not knowing what to say. Just staring. He thought she was beautiful? Since when? Or was he just messing with her? It was John, after all.

“Oh yeah?” she asked. He could hear her voice getting hard. “What are you getting at, O’Callaghan?” He knew damn well that she didn’t like playing games. But this time she wasn’t frustrated because of him; she was frustrated because she actually felt like she was falling for it.

Before he could answer, a crack of lightning, followed by a roaring boom of thunder, shook the building. The lights in the room flickered, and finally, shut off completely, leaving the room completely dark. They couldn’t see a thing. Everything was silent in the gallery for a minute, and then voices came back to life in the darkness, creating a slight chaos.

“John?” Annie said, hating how small her own voice sounded. John could feel her body heat as she stood close next to him.

“Yeah, Ann?”

“Where are you?”

They both stuck their arms out, bumping into each other. He didn’t have time to react as she slipped her hand down his arm, finally reaching his hand and entwining their fingers.

“Can we get out of here?”

Right then, he wanted to smack himself in the face. Here he was, taking care of his best friend’s little sister like Jared had asked, standing in a room full of paintings, and John still thought she was more alluring than all of them.

***

Annie twisted the doorknob of their apartment, becoming surprised when she realized it was unlocked. Jared never left the door unlocked.

John was following behind her, aimlessly trailing his fingers through his wet hair. This time it was him in a daze, and not Annie. He didn’t know what was going on with them. He didn’t know if it was good or bad.

And he still had so many fucking questions running in his mind. No one had told him what was up with Annie “going to the doctor,” and he was too afraid to ask, but he had hopes that she had gotten over whatever illness she had; she still seemed perfectly fine, physically. And he never asked how her date with Rex had gone, though he hadn’t heard news of a second date, which inflated his ego. He thought he might have actually been getting through to her.

“There you guys are! Did you forget about movie night, or what?” Jared asked, stepping towards them with a bowl of popcorn in his hands. Tessa was on the love seat, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders as the main menu screen popped up on the tv.

As a matter of fact, they had forgotten. They’d both been so wrapped up in their own thoughts and in what was going on in front of them that they hadn’t bothered to remember that it was Thursday; Movie Night.

“Sorry, we walked home,” John replied, slipping off his shoes and shoving them into the closet by the front door. He slipped off his wet rain jacket and hung it up, then tugged on Annie’s sleeve to get her attention. She smiled at him as he pulled her jacket off for her and hung it up next to his.

“Why’d you walk? It’s raining,” Tessa asked as Jared took a seat next to her, wrapping an arm around her. It made John jealous, how his best friend already had the girl he wanted. He didn’t have to spend every day fighting for her.

“Annie wanted to walk in the rain, and you know there’s no stopping her,” John replied, nudging her shoulder teasingly.

“Just come on. I wanna get this movie started,” Jared whined.

Annie huffed out a sigh and headed towards her room, peeling off her wet clothes and putting on pajamas before tying up her wet hair.

John beat her, flopping onto couch and stretching his legs. When she walked out, she scowled at him, and in return he smirked widely.

“Move, John. You’re taking up the whole couch,” Annie groaned, grabbing his sock-clad feet and throwing them off the cushion. In a flash, they were back to their original spot. “Stop it,” she said again, trying not to let out the smile she was holding in.

John loved teasing her -everyone knew that- and it used to drive her completely insane. But like the way things were starting to seem different.. if John was having fun, she was having fun.

She was going crazy, fighting the feeling in her chest. She didn’t know what those feelings even meant. Did they even mean anything, or was she putting too much thought into a simple friendship?

John, in a moment of pure confidence as Annie continued to push and pull at his legs, attempting to get him to make room, grabbed the girl around the waist and pulled her down so that she was sitting in front of his long body on the couch. She inhaled sharply when he pulled her against him, so that she was lying across the couch like he was, her body flesh against his.

Annie’s nerves were in overdrive: they were spooning. Fucking spooning. Right in front of her big brother. John was the big spoon, and she was the little spoon, and goddamn it, she was comfortable.

She could feel Tessa’s stare on her as John’s arm loosely laid itself over her waist, but ignored it and settled into him as Jared pressed play and began the movie.

They lay like that the entire movie, neither of them wanting to move. Normally Annie thought she’d be sick with uncomfortableness in this situation, but it was actually the complete opposite; she didn’t think she would have been this comfortable -not counting the twinge of butterflies in her stomach- with anyone else in the world, except maybe Austin or her brother.

After the movie -which was Taken, and creeped the fuck out of Annie- she slipped off the couch, careful not to wake John, who’d fallen asleep in the last ten minutes of the movie, and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

“Annie, baby, there is some serious tension going on between you and JohnO. I’d be careful, if I were you,” Tessa said. It was late; Annie figured she was spending the night again, like she had so many times before.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Tess,” she replied innocently, sipping on her water.

Tessa gave her a look as she backed out of the kitchen, heading towards the living room where John was softly snoring. Annie looked at him, studying his features while they weren’t hardened with his usual smirk or scowl. He looked so peaceful, Annie couldn’t help but lay back down next to him and pull a blanket over the two of them; she felt so safe with John. Like he’d never let something happen to her like what happened in Chicago.

A few minutes later, when Jared carelessly shut his bedroom door, John awoke at the sound, grumbling and rubbing his eyes. “The movie’s over?”

“Yes, sleepyhead,” she giggled. “You missed the ending.”

“Ah, I don’t even care. That movie freaked me out,” he said, sitting both of them up. Annie tried to ignore the fact that his arm was still around her waist, but failed.

“Me too. I don’t think I’ll sleep for the next two weeks,” she mumbled.

“More like two months.”

“Awe, does the wittle baby want me to sleep with him tonight?” Annie teased, a smile on both of their faces.

“Well.. now that you’ve offered,” John grinned, jumping up and throwing her over his shoulder. He ran down the hallway, Annie laughing and shouting all the way, begging him to put her down. Instead, he threw her down onto his bed with a wicked grin.

When Annie protested, he started tickling her. She began laughing, probably loud enough to wake up Jared and Tessa, if they were asleep already. And by the time she and John eventually calmed down, the two of them were already falling into a deep sleep, her head on his chest.

“Hey Annie?” he whispered in the dark of his room.

“Yeah?” she replied, her voice heavy with sleep.

“I promise I’ll never let anything happen to you like what happened in that movie. I’ll keep you safe.”

And it felt like he was confirming all her fears without even being asked to. It was like he just knew. He knew what to say and what to do to make her feel better no matter what.