And After All This Time, I'm Still Into You

The next day, I had made good on my promise to Jeremy and called him to set up a lunch date. I made sure to pick a place that was outside in the city, away from the closeness of this area. In the city, it was less likely to run into anyone I knew, due to there being so many places to choose from. The city was packed with last minute Christmas shoppers, huddling inside their coats to keep warm in the chilly Baltimore air.

When I pulled up to the small cafe, I seen Jeremy through the shop window, sipping a coffee. I got out of my car and walked up, waving at him once he seen me.

"I'm glad you actually called. I was worried you were going to leave without catching up." Jeremy said after hugs once I had reached the table where he sat. The waitress came over and set a menu down in front of me.

"I would never, Jeremy." I told him as I gave the waitress me drink order. "Anyways, how have you been? What's been going on since you left for college all those years ago?"

"Well," he said, eager to tell me. "I graduated from NYU about 2 years ago. Fashion." he said the last part as if it was obvious. "Then I came home for the holidays and met this guy and I just...I had to move back home."

"What about the whole fashion thing?" I asked.

"Oh honey, I wasn't going to get anywhere in that field. I only went to college to please my parents." he scoffed. "But partially because of it, I opened up my own fashion business, actually. Right here in the city. Peter, my boyfriend, has a degree in business so he helped me. I guess you could say it's both ours. He handles the financial part and I take care of everything else."

"I'm happy for you, Jere. And you have someone you love. That's even better." I said, genuinely happy for him.

The waitress came back and took our orders.

"Yeah well." Jeremy said, blushing. "Enough about me. What about you? You live in New York?"

I nodded my head. "Yup. I work as a wedding planner."

Jeremy's eyes widened. "A wedding planner? Really?" I nodded once more. "Wow, that's amazing. I remember you being interested in all that. I hear that’s stressful work, though" he chuckled.

"Trust me, it is. Especially now. Winter weddings are all the rage. I want to open my own practice one day though. Maybe then it'll be less stressful."

"So no boyfriend or anything?" He asked.

I sighed, my hand lifting to my neck where I had replaced the necklace, the ring sitting against my skin. "I'm actually divorced." I said softly. "That's why I came down here."

"Oh no! Sweetie, I'm so sorry." Jeremy said as he placed his hand upon my own in a comforting manner.

"It's okay. It was over a long time ago. It just took 3 years to actually start the process of filing papers I guess. And it was him that did it. He's getting remarried." I say. Jeremy looks at me sympathetically. "I guess maybe...I thought one day he’d actually come back. You know, you think everything is perfect. And then one day, it's not."

"Perfect is overrated." Jeremy says trying to make me feel better.

"Yeah well, people are right when they say marrying your high school sweetheart isn't ideal." I mumble.

"Whoa. High school sweetheart? As in, Alex Gaskarth? Hottie with the band that made it big, Alex Gaskarth?" I groan and nod, thanking the fact that our food is being placed in front of us so I can put off talking for a bit.

"Wow. I just...I can't believe you married Alex!" Jeremy says after a while. "I would ask how it all happened, but you probably don't want to think about it."

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. It was so long ago."

So, Jeremy proceeded to ask questions. He asked how he proposed, where we got married, was Jack still straight.

"You have a boyfriend, Jeremy." I chuckled as I reminded him. "Besides, I haven't seen him in about 3 years. But my guess, he's still straight. Sorry."

"I just...I seriously thought you guys would actually get married, so that doesn't really come as a shock to me. But to hear you guys got divorced? I never would imagined it. I mean, I didn't know how you guys were during your marriage so I can't really give my input on that. But still...you guys were like, the IT couple." Jeremy looked at me, sympathy written all over his face. "Wait, he's marrying that Stacey chick, right?" I think for a while before nodding. "I heard about that. She's friends with my cousin Marnie."

"I don't even know who she is, or what she looks like." I said.

Jeremy raised his eyebrow, a signal that he was about to tell me everything about her. I was right. "She's not that great. It was pretty shocking when I heard they were dating. Even more so when I found out they were getting married. She's the complete opposite of him."

"What do you mean?" I asked, leaning forward. I was curious as ever.

"Well, she's a total goody good. I mean, she could probably be a virgin for all I know." We both chuckled. "No, but for real, she's so shy. And just, so proper. She's part of a damn country club for God sakes. She's like Spencer Hastings, but without the hot bad girl attitude." Jeremy said, referencing Pretty Little Liars. "She dresses in like, sundresses and cardigans most of the time. And it's weird because she met Alex at a concert. She doesn't seem like the type to do concerts. Especially an All Time Low one."

"Well, she's marrying Alex, so there must be something she did right. Probably all those sundresses." I mumbled sarcastically.

We talk for a few more minutes about stuff other than Alex and his new soon-to-be-bride. Jeremy leaves after, having to get back to work. I sigh as I think over the stuff he told me about this girl and it throws me into a memory.

"Why can't you just pick one?" I groan as I stand in front of the mirror in the department store dressing room.

"Because I like all of them. What can I say, I like seeing you in dresses." Alex says from his seat on the bench right outside. His head is poking in from the doorway so he could see me.

I scoff. "You just like dresses because of the easy access." He smirks and I just roll my eyes, continuing to examine myself in the mirror. Alex comes and wraps his arms around my waist, kissing my exposed neck before looking at me in the mirror.

"I really do like all of them. They make you look more beautiful. Besides, it's L.A. Warm weather equals dress weather." He says like it's obvious and runs his hand down my arms.

"I'm not going to be wearing dresses everyday though. I still want to wear shorts and tanks." I say, ignoring the urge to turn around and kiss him.

"I'd rather you not be wearing anything." he whispers and I roll my eyes, turning around to push him into the stall quickly before anyone sees.

I can still feel his lips on my body, the way his hands hold me up, gripping me tightly so I don't fall. I look around, making sure no one is looking at me while I think of inappropriate memories from so long ago. Deciding it's time to leave, I rummage through my purse, looking for a tip to leave. My fingers grasp a paper and I pull it out, realizing it's my ticket for the dry cleaners. I groan as I remember I was supposed to pick it up and throw down a tip before leaving out the door.

When I pull up to the dry cleaners 20 minutes later, I see that a sign is up. As I look closer, it’s an out to lunch sign. I decide to park my car in front and go into the various other shops around. It's in one of these shops that I run into none other than Jack Barakat.

"I hear that album is better than their first." A voice says above me as I'm kneeling in a small record store, looking at All Time Low records. I look up and quietly gasp as I see who it is.

I quickly put down the album in my hand and stand up. "Um, yeah. I wouldn't know. I don't really listen to their music anymore."

Jack's small smile falters for a fraction of a second before it's back, his eyes scanning mine. "You know, I heard from Alex you were in town, but I could've swore he said you left."

"Yeah well, I might've lied to him." I replied, giving him a smile. "It's really nice to see you Jack Barakitty." I whisper and he engulfs me in a hug, chuckling at the nickname. His bony body is no longer so bony. He's still tall, his body towering over my 5 foot 4 inch frame. His hair is still the same two tone color, black with that patch of blonde.

"I won't tell Alex you're still here, if that's what you want." Jack mumbles into my hair.

"Thanks." I say pulling away. "The last thing I need is him trying to find me. I know he wants to talk, but I just don't think there's anything left to say. Not anymore."

"He told me you changed your name back." Jack said nonchalantly as he walked down the aisle, looking at random CD's. "You had to come all the way down to Baltimore to do that?"

I followed, quickly grabbing the three All Time Low CD's I didn't have so I could buy them. "I could've had them fax me everything over, but doing it in person is better. If there's anything else I needed to fill out, which I did, then it would've been faster. I had to answer a lot of questions too. They wanted to know if I wanted money or anything else, and if so there would be additional paperwork. But I said no, of course. I don't want to take away anything from Alex. I don’t need his money. Plus it gave me an excuse to come see my parents."

Jack nodded in understanding. He took notice of the contents in my hands before smiling. "You know I could just get those for you, right? I kind of have an in with the guitarist." I roll my eyes and he chuckles. "You've heard all the songs on here." he says pointing to one named Nothing Personal.

"Yeah, I recognize most of these." I mumble, turning over the CD in my hand.

"It was released right after you..." Jack trails off. I know what he was going to say. After I left. They already had everything recorded. Everything was set. But Alex was struggling on one song.

"I see he finally got that song right." I say, acknowledging the first title.

Jack nods. "Yeah. And he wrote an extra song. Check out track 9 when you have a chance." he smiles and I stare at him. "It's all he wanted to say and more." He mumbles and I know what he means. He looks at the other CD's. "Oh, don't get mad at this one." he says pointing to Dirty Work. "You know Alex, he needs to get words out there to feel better. This one, Don't Panic, we just released a few months back. It's my favorite." By this time we're at the register, ready for me to pay.

Once I'm done, Jack walks me out the store. "We need to catch up. I know Rian and Zack miss you. And Lisa." I smile at the names of my old best friends.

"How are you and Lisa?" I say, ignoring the whole 'we need to catch up' bit. "Are you guys still together?"

Jack nods and blushes a bit. "On and off. But this time, I think we're on for good. We've both made some shitty decisions but we've both realized that we love each other and we're going to make it work this time." I smile at him and he rolls his eyes. "Stop stalling though. Everyone will probably want to see you. I know they do."

"I don't know, Jack. I just don't want to risk running into Alex." I say apprehensively.

"Don't you think you're risking that by being out in the streets?" he asks.

I shrug. By now, we're at my car. I open it and I can see him glance back, almost as if he's nervous. I throw in my bag of purchases in the passenger seat before I close the door, ready to go into the dry cleaners.

"Where are you going?" he asks.

"The whole reason I came here was to pick up my dress from dry cleaners." I say, trying to pass Jack. He steps to the side, not letting me.

"Jack, I have to get my dress. Move please." he shakes his head. I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion. His actions seem like he's trying to prevent me from seeing someone. I look into the dry cleaners, the young lady behind the counter the only person in the shop. It's not like Alex is in there.

I hug Jack, wrapping my arms tightly around him, waiting for him to do the same. When he does, I quickly turn us around, letting him go and running into the shop. "Jenna!" he yells and follows. I smirk as I reach the counter, pulling out my ticket to give to the girl.

"Hey Jack!" she says once he's inside before she turns to go grab my dress. I turn to Jack and smile. I bet he always gets noticed by his fans here in this town. He looks at me with a scared sort of look.

"Jack! Man, what are you doing here?" I turn to look at Alex, who has just entered the shop and my eyes widen when he notices me. "Jenna? I thought...I thought you left back to New York?"

My mouth is dry. I can't even speak. “Jenna, we should just go.” Jack mumbles, tugging my arm. And then, it’s like I know what’s going on before I can even comprehend. My eyes glaze over with tears as I hear her voice, shouting his name.

"Alex!" I can see her, from the corner of my eyes, as she emerges from the back. My dress is placed on the counter beside me as she runs straight to him. We hold each others stare even as he wraps his arms around her tiny frame. “I thought you were coming before closing time?”

"I...I just..." he trails off as he quickly looks at her then looks back at me. I gulp and grab my dress, trying to hurry out the door.

"Jenna wait!" Jack grabs my arm and pulls me back.

"Jack, let me go. Please." I mumble, different emotions racing through me.

"Jenna?" The girl says, realization hitting her.

"Stacey...." I hear Alex say and I pull my arm from Jack's grasp, running to my car and unlocking it quickly. I put the key in the ignition and look up. Three faces stare back at me from within the shop. I reverse quickly, driving away.