OverExposed: Making Me Love You

It was the obnoxious, shrill ringing of my cell phone that pulled me out of my slumber to gaze sleepily around the bedroom. Derek was lying on his stomach beside me using his hands as a pillow since his had fallen off sometime during the passionate night we’d shared. I stretched my limbs still looking for my ringing phone before realizing it was still in the living room. Cursing at the fact I would have to get out of my warm bed, I grabbed up Derek’s shirt that had been tossed on the floor and threw it on.

I padded softly down the hallway making it to my phone just before it cut into the voicemail.

“Hello?” I answered stifling back a yawn.

“Alyce? Hey, did I wake you?” a familiar male voice asked worriedly. My eyebrows pinched together as I pulled the phone away from my ear to stare at the Caller I.D. Adam’s name was like a slap in the face, sobering my up quickly from the haziness of sleep.

“Adam! Hey!” I greeted happily with a smile. “Yeah, I guess I must have slept it. Anyways what’s up?”

“Well, I know we said we’d get together tomorrow evening, but we never set a time…” he nervously chuckled.

My thoughts spun back to last night. A blush burned my cheeks as I remembered the things Derek had been doing to me while I tried to set up a dinner date with Adam.

“Oh, right, well how about—”

“Actually, I was thinking that if you didn’t mind…maybe we could get together earlier?”

“Oh? What did you have in mind?”

“Well, I figured we could go grab lunch, maybe hang out for a bit, then catch a movie if you’re interested?”

“Sounds a lot like a date, Adam,” I chuckled relaxing against the back of the sofa much like I had last night while talking to him.

“It’ll be completely platonic,” he assured. I could hear the rising hope in his voice. I dug my toe into the carpet of the floor as I thought over his words.

“The movie theatre might be a bad place to go though. You know, with you being famous and all. We’d never be able to watch the movie,” I sighed thinking of all the ‘will you sign this?’ or ‘can I take a picture with you?’ questions. Not to mention the amateur paparazzi that would be all over the place.

“I know,” he laughed. “That’s why I planned for the movie to be at my hotel room.”

My eyes widened. Not only was he a couple steps ahead of me, but he was offering me to come back to his room.

“And will the band members be there with us?” I cautiously asked hoping that they would be while at the same time wanting to be alone with Adam. As long as Adam and I did nothing and we were on a platonic outing with one another then it couldn’t be said I was cheating on Derek right? Adam and I were only friends and that’s how things would have to stay for us. Not only because I had Derek in my life, but because Adam was so famous. I’m not sure I could deal with having constant pictures snapped of me and having my words twisted around to make for good gossip for the journalists. It makes me wonder how Adam is even able to put up with it all.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Jesse is going on hiatus to focus more on his music studies. As for Mickey, James, and Matt, they’ll probably head out into the city and check out the place. Maybe hit up some bars, so we may or may not see them sometime during the evening,” Adam explained. I could almost see Adam shrug those lean shoulders of his nonchalantly.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and released a long sigh. I just knew I was going to regret this either soon or somewhere down the road.

“Alright, that would be fine. As long as this stays completely platonic,” I emphasized for good measure.

“I know because you have a…boyfriend…” Adam grumbled out slightly almost like he sounded a bit disappointed by the thought.

“Yes. A boyfriend I love very much,” I reminded him. Although in honesty I wasn’t sure if I was reminding him or myself about Derek.

“Well, do you want to meet at the little café shop just outside of campus at around, oh I don’t know…two?”

I glanced over at the clock on the kitchen stove just now realizing that Is was a quarter past eleven. Damn, I had really slept in hadn’t I? I was typically out of bed each morning by eight. Seven if I had early morning classes, but since it was the weekend…I guess it didn’t hurt. Especially since I had the day off from work and I could volunteer at the shelter anytime I wanted. Although they did like for us to keep to a schedule every now and again.

“Two sounds great. See you then!”

“Great! Oh and wear something comfortable,” he quickly informed me.

“Why?” I asked curious as to what he had planned.

“You’ll see. I’ll come in a disguise so no one immediately recognizes me when I pick you up, ok? So you don’t have to worry about being seen in public with me,” he teased, the most adorable giggle ending his sentence.

A smile lit up my face at hearing that giggle.

“You know me so well already,” I noted. “See you soon.”

I released a happy sigh as I hung up the phone and clutched the device to my chest. I, Alyce Jameson, was going on a (platonic) date with Adam Levine. Tonight. I stifled the urge to giggle like a little schoolgirl as I bounced around in a circle excitedly. Abruptly stopping my actions I came to a horrible realization. What was I going to wear? And what if Ashley or Kennedy saw me out with him? Ashley wouldn’t mind all that much. But Kennedy…

Kennedy would kill me.

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::Kennedy’s P.O.V::

I sat in the small café that was located right outside of campus. It might have been a small drive away from the apartment, but it had the best coffee in town. Even better than Starbuck’s in my opinion and a hell of a lot cheaper, too. As a rather poor college student, I needed to save up as much money as possible that I received from my job.

I glanced around the area noticing that there weren’t very many people here surprisingly for it being a Saturday afternoon. I figured a place like this would be packed during this time of day. I shrugged my shoulders and sipped at my latté. I was waiting for Phillip to arrive when I heard the soft jingle of the bell signaling a new patron. Curious I swung my gaze up to look at the person walking in only to feel my eyes grow wide. What was Alyce doing here? Not that it was abnormal for her to come to a café since she probably sucked down more coffee than I did, but she looked almost…nervous about something.

Her eyes darted around the area causing me to quickly bury my nose in the book I had brought with me since I had arrived almost a half hour early than the scheduled time. I tend to arrive early when I get overly anxious about things. She must not have noticed me because she sat down at a table that was about three down from mine with her back to me. She brushed her fingers back through her dark brunette waves as she messed around on her phone.

I glanced at the time on my watch noticing it was about ten ‘til two, so I still had a few minutes before Phillip was scheduled to be here. I started thinking about getting up and heading over to her table to chat with her for a few when I heard the bell jingle once more. Thinking it was Phillip, I lifted my head from the cover of my book and looked in the direction of the door. It was a man that had entered, that was for sure, but it was certainly no Phillip. The man was wearing a brown leather jacket that was pulled on over a light green top that accentuated the toned muscles of his chest. Around his legs he wore stonewashed jeans with a frayed hole ripped into one of the knees and a pair of black tennis shoes.

He wore a pair of square rimmed glasses over a pair of startling hazel green eyes with a baseball cap pulled down low over his face. I quirked a brow in curiosity at the appearance of the man. With it being spring, it was odd to see someone wearing such a heavy jacket on a beautifully warm day such as this one. Not only that, but I could tell by the lack of reflection on the glasses that there were no lenses in them. My curiosity became even more piqued when he sat down across from Alyce. This guy was certainly not Derek. I may not have seen him all that much for as long as he had been dating Alyce, but I knew for a fact that wasn’t him. Nor would he ever wear those clothes that had an essence of style to them. Derek wouldn’t know what style was even if a gay man suddenly took over his body. It made me wonder why she would be meeting with such a man if she had Derek. Was it possible they had broken up and she hadn’t told me? I couldn’t see Alyce cheating on him. That wasn’t like the Hatter I had come to know and love.

There was something about the man that scratched at my brain telling me I should know him. He looked familiar…like I had seen him from somewhere recently. I watched as the man removed his jacket, waving a hand in front of his face signaling he was hot. He motioned his thumb toward the door probably asking if Alyce wanted to leave and that’s when it hit me.

I stood up from my chair and stormed over to her table before she could get up and escape with him. I slammed my hands down onto their table causing the few other patrons that were in the café to stare over at me in a curious (and somewhat annoyed) manner. Alyce’s eyes grew wide with surprise as they flicked over to meet eyes with him.

She knew that I knew. I could tell by the way he eyes softened with an unspoken apology filled with regret.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” I hissed knowing she probably wouldn’t want to make this public especially in a café.

“Kennedy, let me ex—”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were dating Adam Levine?”