Hutch or Peck?

It was when my mother called was when I was made aware of the amount of time that had been spent away from home.

Hutch held the outfits seeing as we were by this point about an hour later on the first floor in the lobby of the hotel sitting at a table together. I hadn’t cried in a long time since earlier and we had been immersed in a deep conversation, diverting entirely from the actions Peck exhibited earlier in the previous hour.

However, I knew it would be inevitable to talk about him so after she called, I finally decided to give Hutch my thoughts about the issue.

“I don’t mean to linger on this, but I honestly don’t know why Peck reacted the way he did earlier,” I got out.

For the first time, I saw Hutch’s face get filled with a hint of jealous instead of his suave, nonchalant attitude which surprised me.

“Can I be honest with you?” he asked catching me off guard. I nodded my head in response.

“Here’s what I see from my perspective, so if I’m wrong about anything, correct me, OK?” he asked and I nodded again.

He waited a few seconds after I nodded before speaking.

“You’ve known Josh a lot longer than you’ve known me, but even though we’ve only known each other for a couple of days even I can see how he really feels about you,” he said causing me to get confused.

“How he feels about me? Peck doesn’t feel anything besides friendly feelings,” I said.

That statement alone caused Hutch to laugh, but it was without humor.

“So, you haven’t noticed any change in Peck’s attitude since we’ve begun hanging out lately?” he asked causing me to think about the matter.

My mind quickly made the connections of Peck’s attitude the entire day, but I didn’t really count that as ‘feelings’.

“Besides today, he hasn’t changed,” I answered slowly.

“You didn’t notice how we were at the party before I kissed you, he ‘coincidentally’ opened the sliding door?” he asked shooting me a look.

“Maybe it was a coincidence?” I asked in a hopeful tone, but seemed to only irritate Hutch.

He groaned angrily before speaking.

“Do you hear yourself right now? The guy whom you’ve obviously liked for almost a year or whatever amount of time doesn’t give you the time of day when he’s obviously seen the hints you gave him that you had feelings for him all of a sudden wants to actually care when you’re interested in someone who genuinely likes you?” he asked heatedly.

I thought about Hutch’s words, but he was far from finished.

“If you don’t believe that, then answer me this: If you don’t think Josh has feelings for you, then why did he try to stop you from answering my question when I asked you out?” he asked sealing the deal.

It didn’t hit me like a ton of bricks like it would have had half a year ago, but it wasn’t the information about Peck that bothered me; it was Hutch’s attitude towards the situation.

I licked my lips as I tried to regain confidence in myself to speak, but in the end, we sat in silence for another few seconds before my voice decided to work.

“I have to ask him for myself,” I said with confidence.

“So you don’t believe me,” Hutch said, but it sounded more like a question than a statement.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you; everything you’ve pointed out makes sense, but I just want to hear it from Peck’s mouth,” I replied simply.

“And what if he agrees with what I said?” he asked stumping me entirely.

“Well, I’ll just have to tell him it’s too late,” I answered, but it was forced.

Sure, I had feelings for Peck, but it was far too late considering the simple facts that he was with Allison while Hutch and I were in the process of getting together.

Suddenly however, Hutch stood abruptly and put on his sunglasses.

“We’d better get you back home before your mom calls again,” he said, but he didn’t look at me.

In fact, he looked towards his left as though he were avoiding my eyes for some reason. A deep sigh escaped me before I stood, putting my sunglasses on and we piled into the car as the long ride home was filled with silence.

~~~~~~~

“Ooh, that sounds good, Sam!” Joe gushed reading over my shoulder in his head the lyrics I had on my paper.

“Joe, I’m not finished yet!” I retorted with a laugh as I stood and walked towards the door which was on the opposite side of where I was sitting originally, but Joe followed me.

“Awh, come on! At least let Kevin and Nick hear it!” he partially whined, but a laugh escaped him as well.

It quickly became a mini-chase even in the somewhat large room, but of course, Joe was clumsy and this time caused me to trip and fall right on top of Nick. Our faces were centimeters from each other causing me to get nervous.

Awkwardly, I scrambled to get up, hearing a smack and Joe saying, “ow” just as I got to my feet.

“Sorry,” I got out sheepishly as I took my notepad sat in the very corner of the room on the same side I was originally was causing things to get even more embarrassing.

I felt the heat rise in my cheeks as the humiliating thoughts went through me.

Good going, Joe. I fell on Nick and I think I felt something after I fell.

I didn’t realize I was shaking my head at the predicament as my mind raced, but a voice brought me out of my thoughts entirely.

“Sam, are you alright?” Kevin asked standing a few feet from me.

My eyes snapped up at his hazel ones as I plastered a fake smile to my lips.

“Of course I’m fine!” I lied, but that only made the matter worse.

Nick’s phone went off, but Hello Beautiful played signaling that it was someone important. He swiftly answered the phone as a smile covered his lips.

“Hey, Smiley,” he said happily.

Joe started making kissy faces at Nick to tease him, but Kevin merely rolled his eyes. I stared confused at the situation and of course, Kevin filled me in. He bent down to my level, but wasn’t as close to my face as Nick was to mine minutes previously and spoke.

“Nick’s talking to Miley. Don’t mind Joe, he always does that to him,” he explained.

Joe started doing other things to annoy Nick like get in his personal space and that was when I took charge. I stood, grabbing Joe by the hand and nearly dragged him out of the room, closing the door behind us. Once we reached the hall and the door closed, I roughly let go of his hand sort of causing him to swing towards the wall opposite to me.

“What’s your problem?” he asked actually looking and sounding angry this time.

“You shouldn’t do that. Nick’s talking to his girlfriend,” I said in a stern tone.

“So what? I always tease him like that,” he said nonchalantly.

“So? You’re his brother. I’m sure you wouldn’t want him doing that to you if you were talking to someone you liked,” I retorted heatedly.

Suddenly, Joe moved so quickly that I was up against the wall and he was inches from my face.

“You mean if I was talking to someone like you?” he asked in a low whisper.

When I say his demeanor changed entirely, I mean it changed. It was as though his focus was entirely on me.

My dark brown eyes searched frantically in his light brown ones and he made it inches from my lips, but didn’t stop there. He lowered to my ear and continued to whisper.

“I’m not joking, either,” he whispered sending shivers down my spine, but I knew the shivers were only from his breath.

He pulled away from my ear and went in to kiss me, but pulled away at the last second just as the door swung open and revealed Nick.

“Sam, I just-,” he began before stopping abruptly.

“Awh, Nick! You had to ruin the meaningful conversation Sammy and I were just having! Oh well. Gotta finish those lyrics. We can talk later,” he concluded before walking into the room.

My eyes drifted after Joe’s figure until he disappeared. Did I mention that I was still up against the wall and that the only things that moved were my head and eyes?

Naturally, Nick closed the door behind his brother, but not before staring suspiciously back at him before staring at me with a concerned look.

“Are you alright, Sam?” he asked.

My heartbeat echoed loudly in my ears, but my brain processed his words while at the same time Joe’s actions went through my mind again.

He was so close.

My body decided to work for me since mentally, I was still stuck on those actions.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I need some air,” I got out before I walked outside.

I swiftly answered my phone somehow as it rung, not even bothering to look at the ID.

“Hello?” I answered just as I reached the back door.

“Time’s up. Get your stuff ready. We’re leaving in five minutes,” my mom said swiftly, hanging up without even giving me a chance to respond.

I slowly pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it. My stunned state instantly turned into anger towards my mother’s actions as confusion filled me with Joe’s actions.

I wasn’t confused nor did I want Joe to kiss me; I just couldn’t move because I didn’t know if he actually was going to go through with it. But still, even through all of that, there was only one person who came to my rescue as I tried to gather my thoughts and self together.

The door opened and revealed my savior.

“Is everything OK?” he asked.

“I need to get out of here. Can we go away for an hour or so?” I asked in an almost begging tone.

I didn’t care how pathetic I had to have sounded at the moment. He stared at me before nodding, holding his hand out before we ran out of the building not looking back.