Sooner or Later

“Welcome back,” Kenzie greeted John as she swung open the front door to her apartment. He’d left along with the others earlier that afternoon and had only come back now, in the early evening. They had planned to have a night in and watch some movies.

John grinned from the other side of the door and stepped inside. His demeanor had certainly changed since this morning. For someone who had been moody and cranky, right now he was all smiles.

“So what are we watching? And if you say chick flick I’m leaving. That’s what you have Garrett for now,” he flopped down on her couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

“Iron Man actually.” John made a noise between a groan and a laugh. “Not the second one. Don’t worry, I’ve learned from the best.” She rolled her eyes as she popped the DVD into the player and tossed John the remote. “Want a beer?”

She headed towards the kitchen as she heard the beginning scenes from the movie start. She pulled open the fridge to discover that she had no beer left. True, she and Garrett had drank it all the other night when he’d come over to try and plan their scheme. After a bit of rummaging she found out that she was dry of any alcohol. Dang it. Tea would have to do. She made a couple of cups and headed back to the couch with John. She sat on the opposite end and handed him his drink.

“I need to make friends who drink less booze,” she laughed as she placed her feet onto his lap.

“Three sugars, two milk?” John asked once he’d taken the first sip.

“Yeah of course.” He smiled softly and took another sip. Even after years of friendship he could still be astonished about how much this girl really knew about him. She never cessed to amaze him.

Halfway through the movie Kenzie got a text message from Garrett. He wanted to know what she was doing tonight because he wanted to tell her about some new development he had come up with. When she replied that she was with John however, he lost it. He called her phone until she picked up. She angrily stormed off to her room to answer the call.

“What the fuck are you doing with John? You’re going to ruin all the ground work we’ve put down!” He exclaimed the second she had her phone to her ear.

“I’m hanging out with my best friend Garrett. And just to remind you, I’m not your real girlfriend so you can’t dictate what I can and can’t do!” she snapped back. She had to make sure to whisper so John wouldn’t hear her from down the hall.

“I’m coming over,” the boy huffed.

“No Garrett, you’re going to stay home and let me spend time with John. Alone. “

“This isn’t over Kenzie.” The line went dead. The girl took a deep breath before heading back out to the living room.

“Trouble in paradise?” John asked, peering over the top of the couch. Was that a hint of hopefulness in his eyes? Kenzie rolled her eyes and plopped back down on the couch.

“If he shows up here tonight, I’m going to kick his ass,” she muttered.

“What is up his ass anyway? Is it me? He knows we’re only friends right?” Well that was a blow to the heart.

“Yeah, no it’s not that… He had a surprise planned and he’s upset I’m going to miss it…” The more she lied, the easier it seemed to be becoming for her to do so. John’s face fell.

“Kenz, if he’s taken the time to put something together for you don’t bail on him for me…”

“It’s fine John, really. It’s something that can be rescheduled. This is us trying to not let our relationships get in the way of our friendship, John. I’m not going to ditch you for him right now.” He smiled a little.

“Alright. But if tries to kick my ass tomorrow and gets hurt, this is getting blamed on you.” She sighed and turned my gaze back to the television. “Hey come here, don’t be upset.” John said, pulling her into his side, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “You really like him don’t you?”

“Yeah John, I do.” He was quiet for a moment before nodding.

“I’m happy that you finally found someone Kenz. I suppose it is a bonus that it’s someone I can trust not to break your heart.”

Oh shit, what had she just done?

Thankfully Garrett hadn’t shown up, but Kenzie was left with a weird feeling that she had done something wrong. Not with her fake boyfriend; with John. He’d made her talk about her relationship with Garrett and confided in him with stuff. Stuff that wasn’t true, but still he was doing his best to accept that his best friend now had another man in her life. While he might start liking this whole thing, Kenzie couldn’t help but regret all of it.

“I told you no good would come from this!” Garrett scolded her the next morning when she went over to his and Pat’s place to confide in him. “Damn it Kenzie, can’t you just listen to me one time? You’ve made him comfortable with the idea of us dating now. Slowly, he’s going to accept that you’re taken and he’s going to fall more in love with Shannon. Do you really still want to have to bring me to their wedding as your fake boyfriend?”

Kenzie gulped, trying to choke back tears.

“Kenz don’t cry,” Garrett sighed. He pulled her to his chest and rocket them back and forth slowly. “I didn’t mean to make you cry Ken. It’ll be fine, we can fix this.” He rubbed her back, trying to get her to calm down as his housemate came down the stairs.

“Aww, first fight?” he cooed as he walked past the living room towards the kitchen. The girl looked up at bearded fellow.

“I guess it was,” she agreed. “Look at us, moving forward with our relationship.”

“Speaking of, we have a double date with John and Shannon tonight. She and I set it up yesterday. We’ll assess the damage done then.” Kenzie pouted. She didn’t like the idea of double dating them. She had to sit around for two hours or more, watching them get all hands-y and love-y dove-y with each other. “Come on, it won’t be so bad we’re just going to the movies. You can get all dolled up for him if you want.”

And that’s exactly what they did, by 9 p.m. they were waiting for John and Shannon at the theater. The couple showed up holding hands, laughing about something. John was only wearing a t-shirt, despite the colder weather; Shannon had his leather jacket around her shoulders. Kenzie tensed up at the sight, she didn’t want to admit this but Garrett had been right; she had really fucked up big time last night.

“Hey guys!” Shannon greeted them. She pulled Kenzie in for a tight, and slightly awkward, hug. They decided on a movie, a chick flick as per Shannon’s request, and headed into the theater. Kenzie and Garrett were walking hand in hand a couple of paces behind their friends.

“You need to relax okay Kenz? If you’re too tense he’s going to think something is up…”

“Good, then maybe he’ll think he still has a chance with me,” she hissed back.

“I’m going to up the PDA a little, don’t freak out,” Garrett said, ignoring her last comment. He dropped her hand and slipped his around her waist and into the back pocket of her jeans, making her jump a little at the contact. ‘Stay cool’ she repeated to herself. ‘Look like you’re enjoying this. It’s totally normal that Garrett has his hand on your ass. It’s not weird so don’t act weird.’ They got some snacks before heading into the theater. The seating went Shannon, John, Kenzie and Garrett. It was horribly uncomfortable, at least for Kenzie anyway. John kept whispering to Shannon, distracting them all from the movie and making her giggle. He was pretty open with the PDA once the lights went off too, which wasn’t normal for him and it, as well as the cheesy movie, was making Kenzie want to hurl. Garrett was trying his best to keep up but it just wasn’t working.

It was nearing the end of the movie though and both couples seemed to have ceased the PDA war. Relief washed over Kenzie as John leaned towards her a little. Maybe she hadn’t fucked things up too badly. Maybe this double date was what they needed to get back on track!

“Could you tell your boyfriend that it’s my arm he keeps accidentally brushing with his hand?” he whispered. Or things could be going even further south, once more.

“Sorry dude!” Garrett replied from the other side of the girl. Clearly he’d been doing it on purpose, trying to rile John up, but failing miserably.

After the movie, the four decided that they were hungry and that they would go grab a bite to eat from the diner around the corner from the cinema.

Garrett and Kenzie finally got some much needed alone time as they climbed into the car to drive to the restaurant.

“It’s worse that I thought,” the boy muttered, putting the car in drive and following John’s beat up white truck out of the parking lot.

“I’m sorry Gar. I really fucked up this time. I was being selfish. I don’t know what I was thinking, he wanted to spend time with me alone and I jumped at the chance without even thinking about the consequences. I’m so stupid,” the girl cursed smacking her head against her headrest a couple of times for good measure.

“Hey, hey, hey, stop that!” Garrett exclaimed, reaching over to make her stop so that she wouldn’t give herself brain damage of any sort. “You said you needed to patch things up with your best friend and you did. That’s a good thing Kenzie, focus on that for now. We’ll be able to fix the rest don’t worry, I’ve already got a plan.”

“Of course you do…You live for this, don’t you?” she muttered rolling her eyes.

“Do you want my help or not?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. She stayed quiet. She needed his help right now. “That’s what I thought. So John seems to have accepted that we’re dating, so we need to up things to the next level. Push his buttons a little more. Now, clearly I can’t propose to you, but I have something that might work just as well…The only thing is I’m not so sure how much you’re going to like it…”

“Gary, whether I like it or not is not even an option at this point anymore…I’m in deep… I want him more than anything…” It was scary how true this was.

“We need to sleep together.”

“WHAT?!” she exclaimed, she’ll admit she had not been expecting that.

“Alright, bad choice of words; we need to make people believe that we’ve slept together. We wait a week, let things simmer down, then start dropping not so subtle hints about us taking our relationship to the next level.”

“Are you sure proposing is out of the question?” Garrett laughed.

“Yes, that would require too much lying to too many people. You got to trust me on this.” They pulled up to the diner and Garrett put the car in park, turning to face Kenzie. “You up for it?”

“I supposed. Yes Garrett, I would fake sleep with you,” Kenzie sighed. Oh the things people did for those they loved.

“Don’t make it sound like such a bad thing. Believe me; you would be so lucky to sleep with such a pimp like me.” Kenzie laughed out loud at his comment. “There’s the smile I’ve been looking for all night. Now come on, let’s get in there and show that bastard what he’s missing out on.