California Sunshine

Jessica’s house is far from anything average. In fact, it is basically a palace compared to the Wisconsin home they both grew up in. Apparently that happens when you are a star on a hit TV show, you tend to make a stupid amount of money… and then buy big houses.

Ana walks up the stairs and into her new room (which is just one of the many guest rooms in the house) and sets down her bags. It is pretty plain as far as rooms go, but it already has a bed, desk, and dresser with a mirror on top of it so at least Ana doesn't have to worry about getting furniture.

“Alright, now hurry up and get your stuff all unpacked because tonight we are going out in West Hollywood with some folks,” Jessica declares behind Ana.

“Jess, I am only 20. They probably won’t let me in any clubs,” Ana replies.

“Oh pish posh! We’ll just have to woo the bouncer a bit.” She replies with a wink. “Besides, we gotta get you over that douchebag you were seeing, she pauses for a second and then her eyes light up, "Ooh ooh! Maybe that Harry fellow’ll be there! A lot of celebrities tend to hang out in that area of L.A.”

“Oh wonderful! Conceited boybanders with a painfully annoying fan-base! You sure know how to tempt a woman…” Ana retorts sardonically.

After the two of them got into the car at the airport, Jess mentioned that she had recognized the british chap and proceeded to fill Ana in on who he is. His name is Harry Styles, and he is a singer in the boy-band called One Direction. Ana of course had heard of One Direction, you literally can’t go 5 minutes without hearing one of their poppy fluff songs on the radio. She had just never seen what any of them had looked like, or knew that they were British.

“I’m sure he was not THAT bad, but nonetheless, you don’t have a choice in the matter for going out. We have to celebrate your arrival!” Jessica exclaims excitedly and walks out of the room. Truth be told, Ana is excited to go out and meet new people tonight. After all, she is in a new place with new faces (celebrities included), and that is just too alluring.

Ana lets out a contented sigh and proceeds to open up her big suitcase to begin unpacking her clothes and belongings. She had just begun to put some of her clothes in her closet when she hears her cellphone buzzing. When she looks to see who it is, her heart begins to race and drop at the same time. She hesitates before answering.

“Um, hello?” She calls out to the person on the other line.

“Hey Ana, how’s it going?” Hearing his familiar greeting makes her heart sink all over again.

“Oh hi Adam,” Ana hesitates, “How are you doing?” She warily replies. He does this every so often; calling her at random times and filling the conversation with meaningless small talk. There are so many words exchanged, but neither person is actually saying anything. It is almost as if he called because he refuses for Ana to stop thinking about him.

“Oh I am doing great, what have you been up to?” he responds quickly.

“Well I officially just moved to Los Angeles, and I am currently unpacking as we speak.”

“Oh…” There is a pause on the other line, “I didn’t know you were moving?” Ana unmistakably hears something weird in his voice, disappointment maybe? No… she can’t let herself think that.

“Yeah I moved in with my sister and am registered to go to school out here.” As if he didn’t see her Facebook or like her status! (which she had already seen that he did)

“Wow that’s a big move,” he pauses “Maybe if I ever make a trip out there I can come visit ya.” Why is he talking about visiting? This guy is seriously good at messing with her.

“Sure, if you’d like,” Ana agrees, but really she knows that he would never make that trip, even though she secretly wishes the opposite. Upon realizing this, she immediately tries changing the subject. “So why else are you calling?”

“Well, I had just heard Counting Stars by One Republic on the radio and it made me think of you. Since I know that is your favorite band and all,” Ugh. Ana had told him that on their first date, and of course he brings it up now after she was thousands of miles away. What a douche. Ana thinks, heartache in full force.

“Oh,” Ana hesitates again, “I’m surprised you remembered,” Ana says in response, her pulse now at an uncontrollable rate. It always does that when he says things to her like that.

“I remember a lot of things about you, Ana,” is all Adam quietly replies and there is a small silence that falls between them. Ana’s mind us now buzzing with what seems like 100 different questions at once. Does this mean he finally changed his mind? Why did he wait until now? Or is he just messing with her again?

Before Ana has the chance to ask any of these questions or respond at all though, she hears Adam’s voice coming through the receiver again.

“Well I need to get going but I hope we can talk again soon, especially with you in California and all that,” Adam says, leaving her dumbfounded once again. Its like she can’t ever find the right words to keep him talking to her; to keep him interested.

“Oh, alright. And yeah I hope for the same.” Her heart sinking a little bit. Of course he hasn’t changed his mind.

“Well I wish you the best out there, I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Sounds good. Talk to you later, Adam” Ana lamely replies.

“Buh-bye!” Adam exclaimed goofily, seemingly unaware of the intensity of emotions that are flowing through Ana at that moment. A “click” shortly followed the farewell.

Ana had only been seeing Adam for a few months, and they didn’t even get the label of boyfriend/girlfriend. However to Ana, it sure felt like they had. They had actually officially met because of the Green Bay Packers. Ana’s family had just fulfilled every die-hard Packer fan’s dream and had recently became box seat season ticket owners at Lambeau Field (A feat that is not easy considering there is a continuous 30 year waiting list).

The Szohrs were attending one of the last games of the season and Adam’s family just so happened to be in the box next to them. The two of them had run into each other in the hallway and both instantly thought that the other had looked familiar. After a very short amount of probing to one another, they had discovered that they both gone to UW-Madison and seemingly decided that they had just seen each other around campus. Off of a whim, Adam then asked Ana for her number and they began to talk immediately once they got back to school.

Never before had she clicked so well with someone. The first time they hung out, Adam invited Ana over to his house for a small party he was throwing with his roommates. However as soon as she arrived, (fashionably late of course, she wanted to look cool, y’know?) Adam brought out his tandem bicycle and told her to hop on the back seat. It was such a quirky thing to do that Ana couldn’t help but be charmed by it. They then continued to tandem around the entire city that night, not a care in the world about how late it was. They continued to talk about their dreams and also what their perfect day looked like, all of it matching up perfectly with what the other was saying. They had continued to hang out several more times after that, each time just as great as the first.

There was serious chemistry between them, and Ana was undoubtedly under his spell.

But then all of a sudden, something had changed. Adam stopped calling Ana as much, and even though he still answered her calls and acted incredibly nice to her when they did talk, he seemed to start coming up with more and more excuses for not hanging out.

Ana didn’t think much of it at first; she wasn’t terribly needy when it came to guys/boyfriends because she had her own life too. However, when a couple weeks had passed and he had still not asked her to hang out, she started to realize that something was up…Even though she did not want to fully admit it. They had connected so well, and she knew that he had felt the same… At least that is what he had said to her.

The next time they had hung out though they stayed very casual, too casual. In fact it was practically eating away at her how nonchalant he was being. So when he was about to leave, Ana asked him the dreaded question that involved something along the lines of “where are we at.” He responded with a “having a crazy schedule, and not being ready for a relationship” response.

From then on, she realized that she needed to try and get over him. This wasn’t her first rodeo…Guys had done this before. The slow-fade or whatever it was called.

But then began the calls from him around 2:30 AM. Still being as head over heels as she was, she lowered her resolve and obliged to having him come over, or she even went over to his place at times. This happened for far longer than she would have liked, and she hated herself for it. More and more each time it happened. All for the single hope of validation, that she had actually meant something to him.

Then one night, a local band was having a concert near campus that both Ana and Adam had gone to. Ana was used to seeing him out; they had similar friends and interests so it was quite common actually. When she saw him approach the bar close to where she was standing, she naturally struck up a conversation with the guy next to her; pretending to flirt with giggles and such.

Thinking victoriously that she was succeeding in making him jealous, she chanced a brief glance at him. But with a pang in her chest, she wished she hadn’t looked over at all.

He wasn’t getting jealous of her. All she saw of him was his back to her, and his arms were around another girl…Another girl that had her lips on his.

Ana’s face had immediately dropped and she had mentally checked out from whatever the dude next to her was saying.

She REALLY didn’t need to see that.

She had been consistently hurt by this one guy so many times that this just put her over the edge. The worst part was that he didn’t even know that she had seen it. It wasn’t just to make her jealous like her flirting with someone else; it was because he wanted to. She decided then that she officially needed to get OUT…And preferably as far away as possible.

So now here she is. After a phone call to her sister, and a couple months of planning and paperwork from the two Universities, she finally put it into action. Now she is gratefully beginning her new life. And a stupid someone calling her is NOT going to affect that.

-------

After a couple of hours had passed of Ana unpacking and settling into her room, Jessica walks back through the doorway.

“What’s up, buttercup?” she say while plopping down on the bed, “Are ya done yet or what?”

“Just finished actually! It still needs decorations, obviously. But I will eventually make it look less like a prison cell.” Ana says referring to the whitest of white walls around her.

“Hey!” Jess jokingly whines, “I worked hard on that prison-like feel, thank you very much!”

“Well gosh, I apologize for undoing all that hard work then!” Ana says with a laugh, “What time do you want to head out tonight?”

“Well, Ed is gonna be here around 9 for a couple of drinks beforehand. And then we will probably head out around 10:00 or so.”

“Oh so you and Ed are back together?” Ana questions, “Last I heard you guys had broken up,”

Jessica only laughs in response, “You can’t believe everything that you read on the internet, silly. Yes we are STILL together; never broke up.”

“Ahh, well in that case, I am SO looking forward to being your third-wheel all night!” Ana mocks sarcastically while holding a “thumbs up” sign.

“Oh stop it, you know that is not the case,” Jessica responds with a wave of her hand, “Besides we are meeting Leighton at the club anyway, and I remember you two being quite chummy the last time you were here.”

“Leighton Meester? Ahh yeah she was a fun time!” Ana had previously come to visit a few times and been introduced to a few of Jess’ old Gossip Girl cast mates including Leighton Meester and also Jessica’s boyfriend, Ed Westwick, who played Blair and Chuck on the show. Initially, Ana was a little nervous around “celebrities,” but was surprised by how nice they were to her and just about everyone else. It was like they were real people or something.

Jessica s right though; Ana and Leighton had really hit it off and instantly became friends despite their age difference. Ana just found her super relate-able and also a good laugh. So upon hearing that she is coming out tonight made her all that more excited.

“Yeah we are gonna have some fun tonight, that’s for sure,” Jess smiles, “So go ahead and get ready. We have some drinking to be had!”

“Sounds good, I was just about to change and whatnot, so I’ll just meet ya downstairs when I am good to go.”

“Alright cool, hurry up so we can have a shot or two before Ed gets here!”

“Ahh I’m so glad your Wisconsin drinking roots haven’t been changed by coming you out here!” Ana says with a laugh. The stereotype that people from Wisconsin know how to drink holds a lot of truth, especially in the Szohr family. It's just too cold there to be sober.

As Jessica gets up from the bed and headed for the door she replies with a smirk, “You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but you can’t take Wisconsin out of the girl!”

“How very profound of you!” Ana mocks joyously. Jessica only laughs and heads out of the room.

Ana then walks up to her mirror and begins to get out her hair and make-up stuff. She decides she is not going to let that phone call affect her, and is ready to have a good time. She then starts to get ready and takes her time to perfect her look. There is a certain fierceness or single girl swag in her attitude, and she decides that she is going to look GOOD tonight.