Status: Updates Every Friday. xxx

Happiest Place on Earth

Records and Friends

“Thanks for taking pity on me and allowing me to accompany you for the night,”
I rolled my eyes again.
“Oh it wasn’t pity…. And it’s only five,”
“I know,” He smirked.
The smirk was a new feature that I had been introduced to since meeting Preston two weeks ago. Surprisingly enough to me, we’ve spent a lot of time together since the night we met. Conversation was easy between, as it has been since we met, and I enjoyed his company. I liked spending time with Preston. He wasn’t like my friends. I love my friends to death, but Grace loves to go out and party, Bennett is having some mid-mid life crisis, no one knows what Jenna is into, and Devin is still trying to go after Kailey.
I’ve confided just a little bit into Preston about them. I still haven’t told him that I work as a Disney Princess. I just felt weird about actually telling him something like that, and I could blame it on the fact he knew who I really am. I don’t like mixing the two together very often. I’m a little weird when it comes to my personal life, rockstar life, and the Disney life all mixing together.
“Do you want to go to the record store or not?” I crossed my arms. I would’ve arched an eyebrow but it’s not exactly in my skill set.
“Sassy,” He laughed but looped his arm around my shoulders instead of actually continuing the conversation like a normal person. In the sort time I’ve known Preston, I realized very quickly that he was one to do that instead. It was his personality. I didn’t exactly hate it. I think I found it endearing. “So is this place your absolute favorite place in Florida?”
“One of them,” I smirked up at him the best that I could as we walked out of my apartment building. Once again, Florida’s weather is freaking hell, so I had my hair tied up in another messy bun. I kinda wanted to look a little cute so I added a bandana to make it look cuter.
“Wanna switch sunglasses?” He squeezed my shoulder.
It really is too hot to be this close to someone, but then again I don’t care.
“What is the point of that?”
“I want to see you in my sunglasses?”
“Oh…okay,” I muttered before pulling off my sunglasses and handing them over to him. He took him with his hand and because his hands are gigantic (like the rest of his awkwardly tall body), he pulled his and put them on my face.
“There,” He beamed. “Cute as a button,”
“Why thank you,” I smiled back before I pointed in the direction we needed to walk. “We’ve gotta go that way. I know it says opposite on that map of yours, but please just trust me,”
I looked up at him the best I could from my angle.
“Another one of your famous short cuts?”
“That’s exactly what it is,” I beamed. “Let’s go, daylight IS wasting here.”
“Okay, okay”
Most of our walk was comfortably silent. He pointed out places that he wanted to go or had already been with me promising that we would go there someday. Still, his arm never moved from around my shoulders as we walked toward the store. The people around us didn’t seem all that thrilled with how much time we were taking, but I found that I really didn’t care. I had managed to get us there faster than I would have liked, much to Preston’s surprise.
The second that we walked into the record store, the owner hopped over the counter to greet me with a hug. I hugged him back as tightly as I possibly could. He was my godfather, and basically the only proper father figure I had in my life. He was a friend of my dad’s from a band that toured with them forever ago. That’s how it felt anyway when It actually had only been about thirty years. He pulled back from the hug to kiss my forehead.
“Jagger great to see you!”
“Thanks, Uncle Jake.” I replied.
“Who’s this?” He questioned, looking at Preston up and down as he stood in shock.
“Preston….” I replied slowly. “Are you okay?”
“Holy cow,” He stated, shaking his head. “You’re Jake Allen! You’re from one of my favorite bands of all time!”
“Good to see a fan,” He chuckled. “You’re old enough to be my son.”
“I’m sorry, sir….y-you’re a legand,”
“Far from it kido,” He shook his head. “Pick any record from the store, it’s on the house.”
“Are you for real right now?”
I laughed, tugging on Preston’s arm.
“Come on,”
He slowly followed me toward the ‘A’ section before he was finally about to form a coherent sentence again.
“I can’t…that was Jake Allen….”
“Yes?”
“And you just called him Uncle Jake.” He stated. “You’re officially the coolest person that I have ever met in my life.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I’m not cool. I’m weird and misplaced. Now stop that before my head blows up,”
Preston shook his head and smirked.
“I’m heading toward the ‘R’s.” He informed me. “If I’m getting a free record, It will be a great one that I do not own yet,”
I sighed to myself as he walked away.
“He’s quite the looker,”
I jumped, and quickly looked to see Uncle Jake standing next to me.
“He’s a sweetheart,”
“He knew who I was,”
“Yes….”
Uncle Jake sighed heavily and shook his head. He balanced the pile of records on top of the already stacked ones. He pulled his long hair back into a low pony tail.
“I’ve warned you before, but be careful with boys like him,”
“He’s not like Prince,” I immediately defended him. “He’s different,”
“He’s British,” He snorted. “If he’s anything like the guys I’ve met; you need to be careful.”
I huffed.
“Weren’t you telling me to broaden my horizons or something like that?”
“All in due timing,” He winked as he picked up the rest of the records and went back to putting them in their proper place. I took my time in searching through the records. There were some on vinyl that I hadn’t seen in a while. I made sure to grab some from Aerosmith and Blondie before I continued to make my way toward Preston. He was hunched over quite a few of the records. His brows were furrowed and he had his hand cupping his chin. I grabbed my phone out and snapped a picture to post to twitter later just for fun.
“You did not just take a photo of me,”
“I just did,” I laughed. “What do you have pulled?”
“Out Of Our Heads from The Stones, Young Loud and Snotty from The Dead Boys, Halfway To Sanity from the Ramone’s, and Native Tongue from Poison.”
“Oh my goodness,” I shook my head.
“Which one should I get?”
“Get them all,” I shrugged. “Things flow in and out of here all of the time, so you might want to grab it while it’s here,”
“Are you sure?” He chewed on his lip. “Do I really need them?”
“Yes, you do,” I smirked. “At least get the Ramones,”
“Okay,”
“Yeah?”
“Yes,”
By the time we left the record store, Preston had the wide smile on his face. He looked genuinely happy. He just kept talking about how awesome it was to actually meet the Jake Allen. He was a little fan-girl ish if you ask me. He kept telling me how much he had been inspired by his band as a kid. I smiled as I watched him talk. He just looked like the happiest person in the world, and I never wanted to see him frown again…ever.
We walked for a bit more before giving in and going to a seafood restaurant. We made the mistake of getting way too much food, and not having enough hands to carry the leftovers. Luckily for me, Preston is a giant of a man and was able to carry much more than I was able to. It was pushing nine-thirty by the time that we made it back to my flat. Still the flat was empty; something that I was a grateful for. I grabbed one of his new albums, the Ramones, and put it in my record player in the living room. He spread out on the couch, leaving just enough room for me to cuddle to him. I was way more than okay with that. Before I could lay down, I went to the kitchen to put away the food. As I pulled out my phone, I noticed that the picture I tweeted of Preston earlier had a healthy 5,000 retweets. All I had to do was put a stupid winky face and people lost their marbles of him. I shrugged and headed back to the living room.
“So, I was reading the other day,”
“Oh this can’t be good,” I teased as I pulled the rest of the blanket over top of my body. I sunk closer to him before he could reply.
“Hey!” He chuckled. “Anyway…so I was reading the other day that your dad wasn’t born with his actual name. Is that true?”
I sighed.
“Yeah, He changed it so that he could be in the band. They were all thinking that it was cool to have a different name.”
“So, is your last name really Ramone or is that some sick joke?”
I shook my head laughing.
“Ramone is my real last night. My dad did eventually get it legally changed before he met my mom.”
“Your mum seems like she would’ve been a wonderful lady,”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I mumbled
Preston didn’t say anything, instead he just rested his head on top of mine. I’ve never actually had someone who didn’t pry into my life (my friends), and just wanted to be there for me when I needed them. It was a nice difference.
I eventually fell asleep like that. Preston was snoozing long before I did. He looked like he needed sleep though. I could tell that he had circles underneath his eyes. I wasn’t that sure why he looked so tired; but my bet is on his work. We both have to go to work tomorrow, so that means that we don’t get to spend as much time together. Before I went to sleep, I kept thinking about how he sees me. I mean, does Preston like me? Does he want friendship or does he want more? There are way too many questions floating around in my head. I really like to over-think things anyway.
I wanted to scream when I heard my friends enter my apartment. It wasn’t just Grace and Jenna either. It was the entire group of them; I could hear them from outside. I was awake enough to realize that it was really late and Preston was still there sleeping on the couch with me. My first instinct was to yell and groan, but instead I just cuddled closer. I was going to pretend that this moment wasn’t going to be interrupted for as long as I possibly could. It didn’t last nearly long enough. Preston started to stir the second that their voices filled the apartment. This time I really did groan as they made their presence known.
“Ohhhh Jaggerrrrrrrr,” I heard Grace call out.
“Come out, come out wherever you areeeeee,” Bennett added.
“Guys…I don’t think-“ Jenna started but was interrupted.
“Found her…”
I could practically hear Devin’s smirk.
“And she’s not alone,” Jenna laughed.
“No she isn’t, and she’s not happy you woke her up,” I stated, slowly turning my head toward them. “What in the world are you doing?”
“Slumber party!” Devin stated happily.
I rolled my eyes at my friends and let my head fall heavily down on Preston’s arm. I looked up in time to notice that he was slowly starting to wake up. The arm that was around my body moved to stretch, and then his eyes opened. Preston took a minute to take in his surroundings. It was then that I noticed that his record of The Ramones still happened to be playing. I figured that this day would definitely come, but I definitely didn’t want it to happen now. As I leaned up off of Preston’s arm, I definitely noticed that his tank top that he was wearing had ridden up. No, I did not salivate like I wanted to. He wasn’t in any rush to pull it down either.
Preston took his time sitting up. His entire body looked more than cramped on our small couch. He swung them to the floor and leaned heavily against me with his head on top of mine. I could see Grace making flirty eyes at the two of us, Jenna just starting, and the boys were a little taken off guard. It took us both a minute to wake up.
“What ‘ime is it?” He stated, his accent coming out rougher than it normally is. “How long have we been out?”
I shrugged with a yawn before he stood up to his full height.
“A think a few hours…I think I got up to turn the record over….”
“I think so too,” He laughed. “The loo?”
“Down the hall,” I smiled before he ruffled my hair and offered a wave to my friends as he passed. I didn’t say anything to my friends as I walked toward the record player to put the record back into the case. They tried to ask me questions, ones that I just dismissed. I wasn’t going to answer any of their questions until after Preston left….or never.
“Do you want tea?” Preston asked as soon as he entered the living room again. “Tea anyone?” He asked around.
“Uh….” Jenna stated, just staring.
“Sure?” Devin shrugged.
“I’d love some,” I smiled. “I’ll go help.”
“I can handle it, love,” Preston laughed, pressing a kiss to my forehead before he moved to the kitchen.
I audibly sighed and sat right back down on the couch.
“He’s perfect,”
Bennett rolled his eyes.
“Wow.”
“What?!”
“Jay, you’re literally a little girl. Stop it,” He replied. “I thought it was going to barf,”
“He’s British!” Grace squealed. “You did not tell me that!”
“It just slipped my mind,”
Nothing else was able to be said as Preston appeared around the corner to lean up against the doorway. He crossed his tattoo-covered arms and just smirked in my direction.
“Is this the part where I pretend that you lot aren’t gabbing like birds about me?” He stated. “Because I can pretend,”
“Oh hush,” I rolled my eyes. “Do you want to meet them properly or not?”
“I’m down for whatever,” He laughed. “I’m A- Preston.”
“Apreston?”
“No, just Preston,” He laughed.
“This is Jenna, Grace, Bennett and Devin,” I stated while I pointed to each of them. He smiled and walked forward to shake all of their hands.
“You’re the one who’s been taking up all of our Jay’s free time,” Bennett stated. “Are you two like dating?”
Preston looked at me, almost begging to answer.
“Uh…not really?” I replied, realizing how stupid it sounded out loud.
“She’s a pretty cool bird,” He laughed. “Tea’s ready….”
It was awkward to say the least, but I’m pretty sure that was mostly my fault. I think my friends were a little on the tipsy side, and they were a little more open than they usually were. They grilled Preston to the point that he was slowly becoming uncomfortable. He kept looking at me every time they asked him a really personal question that he didn’t seem to want to answer at all. It made me a little on edge myself, as Preston and I hadn’t gotten quite that deep into our newfound friendship.
Bennett was particularly quiet. Normally he was the most protective over me, but this time he didn’t say a word. He just sat opposite of me with a blank stare on his face. Jenna just kept like slobbering all over the place every time that Preston so much as looked in her direction. It disgusted me a little bit. Grace just kept throwing sexual references every time she got the chance, and Devin was asking the weirdest questions from his sex life to what it was like being a school boy in England. It wasn’t until Preston was literally just sitting on his hands that I decided to put a stop to it. I grabbed Preston’s arm and drug him to the living room. He just shrugged nonchalantly, and reached for his records.
“You can stay…”
“I better not,” He sighed. “Your friends are….”
“Rough,” I admitted. “You’d think they’d be angels because of their jobs but nope.” Preston’s eyebrows furrowed as I spoke. “I’m sorry,”
“I’ve got to go,” He sighed, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll see you around, Jagger.”

I didn’t see Preston for two more weeks.
♠ ♠ ♠
Happy V Day!

xoxo Rae