Hope for Better Weather

I groaned as I set a box in the moving van. Spending my workday packing up Dirk’s things and loading them into the van that would take them to California was not my idea of fun.

“Are we almost done?” Garret groaned as he came up behind me and put the box he was carrying in the van.

“I don’t think so,” I shook my head. “Dirk has a ton of stuff. I’m convinced he’s a hoarder.”

“If the two of you would stop complaining we’d get this done faster. Anyway, it could be worse…it could be the middle of the summer,” Dirk playfully glared at us.

“Touché,” I laughed before looking at the boys of The Maine minus one. “Where’s John?”

“Shouldn’t you know that? You’re his fiancée,” Kennedy smirked as I rolled my eyes.

“He said he had a meeting or something,” Jared shrugged. “He should be here soon though.”

“Well speak of the devil,” Pat said as John’s car came into view.

He parked it and smiled as he began walking over to us.

“Hey man, where you been?” Jared asked once John was a few feet from us.

“I had an errand to run. So what do you want me to help with?” John asked.

Dirk immediately pointed out everything that still needed to be moved from the studio to the van. I kept trying to catch John’s eye but he seemed to be avoiding me. Every time I was outside he seemed to be in the studio and every time I was in the studio he seemed to be outside.

I was beginning to become worried when he came up next to me and asked, “Do you want to go grab something to eat when we’re done here?”

I smiled and nodded but my relief was short lived and ended when he said, “Great, I need to talk to you about something.”

We finished loading up Dirk’s things fifteen minutes later and I followed John to his car amid catcalls from the rest of the guys.

“Are you hungry? Because I’m starving, so I was thinking about running to In N Out to get lunch,” John asked as he put the car in reverse to pull out of the parking spot.

“Yeah, that sounds good to me.”

The rest of the ten minute car ride was spent in silence with the only sounds coming from the Tom Petty cd playing softly in the background.

We went in and John ordered, already having my order memorized even though we’d only been here together once before. We grabbed a seat and began eating as the silence continued.

“You said you had something you needed to talk to me about?” I asked, hoping John would tell me what was on his mind because the silence was making me nervous and a tad bit uncomfortable.

“Yeah…well, um…Laci and I are back together. I told her that our relationship was just a set-up for the holidays,” John stuttered out without ever looking me in the eye.

I sat there in shock for a few seconds until I was finally able to speak, although I didn’t do so very coherently. “Wow…um…wow. I, uh, was not expecting that.”

“Yeah, it was a bit unexpected,” John said sheepishly. “I just figured you should know though since we have this whole fake dating arrangement. I’m definitely willing to continue that as originally planned though. I don’t want your family to get mad at you just because I’ve started dating Laci.”

I shook my head. “No, John. You have a girlfriend now so we’re not going to continue this.”

“I made a promise to you…I’m not going to break it.”

“I’m sure Laci will be thrilled to hear that,” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I was thinking about not telling her…” John trailed off.

“Are you kidding me?”

“She’s not very understanding with some things and this is definitely one of those things.”

“This sounds like your relationship is off to a great start,” I sarcastically muttered.

“It’s not any of your business,” John snapped.

“When you’re going to continue pretending to date me and not tell you girlfriend, yeah, it kind of is my business.”

“Well you don’t know about Laci and me; so don’t act like you do.”

I rolled my eyes at John’s childishness. “I’ve heard all I need to know from the boys and your family. Speaking of… do they know about your rekindled romance?”

I waited for John to answer me but no answer came.

“You silence tells me all I need to know,” I sarcastically laughed.

John and I quickly finished our lunches before heading back to his car. It was obvious that the both of us were anxious to get away from each other. An uncomfortable silence engulfed us on the car ride back to the studio.

I got out of the car as soon as John pulled up next to mine. “Thanks for lunch and thanks for pretending to be my boyfriend while it lasted.”

“What are you going to tell your family?”

I shrugged. “Not sure. I’ll figure it out.”

“I can help if you want,” John said as his anger momentarily subsided.

“I think you have enough on your hands with telling everyone about you and Laci being back together,” I smirked and then slammed the car door before he could respond.

As soon as I got home I grabbed my stash of cookie dough from the fridge and curled up on the couch with Laguna Beach playing on the television. I knew I was in depression mode but I didn’t want to admit it; especially since I knew it was stupid to be upset over a guy that I wasn’t even actually dating.

I’d watched three episodes of Laguna Beach when Henley came bursting through my front door without even bothering to knock.

“Tim just told me.”

“Can nothing be kept a secret in this town?” I grumbled.

“John told the guys so of course Tim told me which means that I’m obviously going to run over her to see if you’re fine.”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

Henley gave me a look as she grabbed the cookie dough out of my hand. “Gee, I don’t know… maybe because you like John, even if you won’t admit it.”

“Well it’s too late now.”

“Why didn’t you tell him about what she said to you at the engagement party and in the grocery store? I bet if you had told him he wouldn’t have gone back out with Laci.”

“He’s a big boy. He can figure it out for himself.”

“You should have told him your feelings,” Henley argued.

“Henley!” I snapped. “This isn’t some sort of Disney movie; not everyone gets a happily ever after.”

Henley pursed her lips but calmly said, “You’re right. So which episode is this?”

“The one where they’re in Cabo when Stephen and Kristen break up so LC thinks Stephen will finally be hers.”

“How appropriate,” Henley muttered but I chose to ignore her.

Henley and I continued to watch Laguna Beach into the night and in my head I kept telling LC to stay strong because boys just weren’t worth it.