Los Angeles

It had been a few months since the interaction with John. Instead of trying to smell as if he had spent his entire life in a bar around me, he smelt less of whiskey and smoke. I rarely found him smoking around me because he knew that I always thought it was a disgusting habit for someone to have. I had watched my grandmother on my mom's side basically kill herself by smoking them to the day of her death, even though she knew very well that she had lung cancer. She didn't last as long as my mom had hoped.

As I set out the centerpieces in the hall for Quinn and Kennedy's baby shower, John was seated in the back room trying to tie perfect pink bows with ribbons I had cut and given to him. He wasn't succeeding as much as he wanted to and I could almost see frustration cross his face as he scrunched his nose up. I stepped into the room to grab out the plates to see him finishing his, at least, third one. I let out a sigh and rolled my eyes, stepping towards him with a few paper plates and napkins in my hand.

"Take a smoke break, calm yourself and then direct the kitchen staff where to put the trays of food." I said as he let out a sigh of relief and took the plates and napkins from my hands. Once he had left the room, I sat down in the seat that he was just seated in and began to tie the ribbons around the small baggies of M&Ms and Skittles I had made for the younger kids that may be coming from the families and would set them out on the table.

After finishing a ton more than John would've been capable of in an hour, I quickly made my way out to the dining area and began setting the small candies onto the tables and looked up as I saw John stepping inside with Quinn and Kennedy. Quinn instantly squealed at what we had accomplished with decorating the tables the way she had exactly wanted and pulled me into a tight hug although there was now a baby bump keeping us apart.

"You guys did amazing!" Quinn said as she looked at the table we had stood by as Kennedy stood beside her and nodded with her in agreement. John stood in the little group we had formed as well, his hands tucked away in the pockets of his jeans. "Me and Kennedy thought you two were going to pull each other's hair out this morning." Quinn's bluntness only worsened with her pregnancy and it was best not to fight back because once you set her off, she would hold a grudge on you until you apologized almost fifty times. It came from experience with Tim.

Quinn then went off to pick at the few foods that laid out on the table as I sat down with John in the front where close relatives and friends were welcomed. We sat there in silence for a moment before I heard John say, "You don't want to pull my hair out yet, do you?" I let out a quiet chuckle and shook my head as he only nodded his and the two of us waited until the rest of our friends and their family had arrived.

We had gone from sitting around a quiet table to cracking jokes on everyone that sat with us.

"Dude, you totally fell out of the window trying to escape from her house!" Tim exclaimed over to Kennedy as Kennedy furrowed his eyebrows and popped an M&M into his mouth. "And then Pat was driving the getaway car and I will never let him do that ever again."

"I took it as something more serious than it was. It was late and I was tired." Pat defended while giving his brother a glare as we had all sat and laughed around the table. Soon the laughter had died around us as we had all gone back to eating, leaning back in my seat as I crossed my legs underneath the table which caused my heel to hit John's skinny leg.

"Sorry." I whispered to him as he only shook his head and pushed his plate away from him, excusing himself from the table to answer his phone outside. I raised an eyebrow before shrugging it off, looking over at Tim had rolled his eyes as did everyone else around me at the table. "What?"

"John has a date." Sara said, stabbing her salad with her fork almost violently as I furrowed my eyebrows. Was this girl that bad? I had been living under the same roof of Sara and Jared and still hadn't heard word of John being coupled with some other girl. "She's not even cute!"

"Calm yourself, demon child." Jared joked after we had all watched her stab her fork a few times with the anger. I learned that it was someone I hated being around in high school much sooner than I had wanted. She stepped into the room in a lace dress and Louboutins on her feet. I instantly grimaced and once John had led her over to the table, I stood up and quickly left the hall to head over to my car.

This was about the time that I wanted to rip out John's hair, even with his parents sitting a table away from us.



Soon after the presents had been unwrapped with the help of me and Kennedy, her mom, Veronica, stood up and suddenly all of the attention was on her. "Now I have one more surprise for you, Quinn. Come here, sweetie." Veronica held her hands out to her daughter as I watched my friend stand up from the chair with help from Kennedy and stepped over to her as the two had smiled and held hands in unison.

"Now, lovebug, I know how important it was to have your brother here ever since he had been shipped off to Iraq in April. So, I managed to make something happen." We all looked as curious as she did until we had saw her brother stepping into the hall with a bouquet of roses in hand. A wide smile formed on his face as he saw his little sister standing there as she had rushed towards him and gave him the longest hug to man.

Once she had pulled back, I realized that he looked so much different. All of his hair was shaved off which showed his blue eyes much better. His hair was always very shaggy and hung over to hide his forehead. His smile showed perfect white teeth. He still wore his camo and he stepped over to Kennedy to give him a hug as well. He used to be such a rebel, but he was something entirely different. I think I had enjoyed the change.

After awhile, everyone was soon talking to him and feeling in all the bits and pieces that he managed to miss. I was still seated at my table with Pat and Jared who were knee deep in conversation about the new music and the fans approval. Glancing over out of the corner of my eye, I found the military man himself taking John's seat to sit beside me. John was talking to his family, but I could almost feel a death glare on the two of us when he watched Quinn's brother sit next to me.

"Come here often?" Quinn's brother asked with a raised eyebrow as I let out a laugh at his question. That's when his name had finally popped back into my head: Jeremy. I swear I could feel a fluttering feeling from my stomach when I thought of the name now.

"Definitely. I live for baby showers." I told him, taking a sip from the lemonade I had gotten earlier as he let out a quiet laugh at my response and kept his eyebrow raised. "I don't know if you remember me or not, but I'm Lily. Your sister's best friend from high school."

"No shit." He said in sudden awe as he looked at my features, his eyes running from the heels I wore on my feet to the blonde loose curls I had made with a sky blue headband forcing my bangs back. "You look.. amazing." He smiled once he had found the word, flashing his pearly whites as I let out the weirdest giggle before pretending to cough in front of Pat and Jared when they looked at me suspiciously.

The two of us began talking for awhile, mostly on what I had been doing with my life since he had learned about everyone else's in forty-five minutes. But our conversation seemed to drag on longer than that. We talked about almost anything that popped into our minds and we suddenly had inside jokes with one another. We talked about the people we didn't recognize and made jokes to keep ourselves occupied until our laughter and conversation had finally died down.

"Let me take you out." Jeremy told me, turning to face me as I did the same. I raised an eyebrow as he let out a quiet chuckle and placed his hands on either side of my chair to pull me in closer. "One drink. I won't disappoint. I won't even touch you, if you're into that." I let out a quiet laugh myself and had almost forgotten that for someone who was in the military didn't seem as uptight or unsocial.

"You can take me out Saturday. 7:00 and be there sharp. Quinn can give you the directions to Jared's place." I told him as the two of us had leaned in and stared into each other's smile with almost the same smile I was used to giving John. I watched as Jeremy nodded with a smile and pecked a kiss to my cheek before leaving the table to go and be with his sister.

By the time I turned my head, I saw that John wasn't in his seat anymore. He was standing up to leave and he was giving me the meanest look almost any person could manage.