Ray of Sunshine

“Man, you can COOK,” Sam told Johnny, finishing his third burger. He got up from the sectional and threw away his paper plate.
Johnny smiled. He was sitting at the table with Matty, Nikki, and Lauren. “Thanks bro. Glad you enjoyed it.” He looked over at Matty. “He eats like Dylan. He owned Dylan at GTA. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the two were long lost brothers.”
Matty chuckled. “I’m with you on that one. But hey, he’s pretty cool.”
Nikki and Lauren exchanged a confused expression. Johnny caught it, and raised an eyebrow. “You two clearly think we’re nuts.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “No, it’s just we’ve never seen this side of Sam. Actually, we rarely see Sam aside from recording and performing. He pretty much hangs out by himself and plays his online games. It is pretty cool though,” she added with a smile.
Sam rolled his eyes as he took his seat on the sectional. He looked at Harley and James, who were smirking. “Y’all act like I’m a hermit or something.”
“Well, you kinda are,” Harley said matter-of-factly.
Dylan smiled. “Ok, we need a new game. How’s Destiny sound?”
Sam’s jaw dropped. “You have Destiny, and we’ve been playing GTA??”
Harley laughed and looked over at James. “He does realize he has to leave with us later, right?”
James smirked. “I’m pretty sure he and Johnny are both hoping later never comes.” He looked over to the table where Johnny was talking about the tour they’d just returned from. Nikki and Matty were clearly enjoying watching their friends forget about their surroundings again. It never fazed them when Nikki excused herself to go to the car to retrieve the backpack she’d brought her swimsuit in. Matty had already changed into his trunks after he finished eating. Nikki reentered the house a few minutes later and quickly changed in the bathroom.
“Anybody else wanna go swimming?” Matty addressed the group.
“The backpack is still in the bathroom,” Nikki told Harley and James. She had had everyone put their swimwear in her backpack before they left.
“After you,” Harley told James. James nodded and went to change. When he was done, Harley followed suit and the four of them headed to the ocean.
Johnny frowned at Lauren. “Not big on swimming?”
“I swim,” she told him. “Not today though.”
He nodded. “You’re like me. I have to be in a swimming mood.”
“Exactly,” she agreed with a laugh.
“How does a walk sound?” he asked.
“Sounds good,” she answered. “I’m pretty sure they’ll never notice they’re alone,” she said, referring to Dylan and Sam, who were so engrossed in Destiny they didn’t even hear their friends talking about them.
Johnny smiled, thinking of the irony of her statement. He led the way to the door and opened it, letting her pass first. “Ladies first.”
“Thanks,” she said with a grin. “You always this nice?”
“Nope,” he answered with a smirk. “Actually, this is the point when I would normally sit on the beach and just write.”
Lauren looked up at him knowingly. “I hear that.”
Johnny smiled. “So what exactly is The Zone?” he inquired.
Lauren burst out laughing. “Let me guess. James?” When he confirmed this with a nod, she continued. “The Zone is how I focus on writing. Not just music either. The others don’t know this, but I’m actually working on a book. Writing was a big part of my therapy, it helped so much. It’s always been a passion of mine. My imagination would probably scare even the scariest of people,” she winked at him as she said this. “I basically sit in the floor with my laptop, phone, notebooks, and pens. If a thought hits me that I deem worthy of revisiting later on, I write it down and move on. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don’t. It just depends on how well my imagination coincides with the storyline in question. What?” she asked, confused as to why he’d stopped walking and was staring at her with a surprised expression.
He hesitated, trying to formulate a coherent sentence. This revelation had stunned him. She was writing an actual book? He enjoyed writing screenplays himself, but had never tried to sit down and actually try to write a full novel. But still the fact remained, they had something in common, their passion for writing. He himself had written songs for the group. “Nothing,” he answered quickly. “It’s just, when James told me you write a lot of songs from The Zone, I wasn’t entirely sure how to picture it. I’m not entirely sure what I did picture, actually. But I never pictured you writing a book. I actually write screenplays,” he told her, to which she cocked her head to the side and raised a brow. “If you’d like to read the one I’m working on, I’d welcome your opinion.”
“Really?” How exciting!
He nodded. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He extended his hand.
She took it, and together they walked back to the house, where Sam and Dylan were still playing Destiny. Johnny led her to the basement, which turned out to be his living space. And a huge one at that! There were actually two rooms down here aside from the living area, one of which was most likely for Ava, Johnny’s daughter, when she came over. Johnny nodded toward his massive leather couch, and she sat while he went to his desk and grabbed his laptop before sitting beside her. He found the file, and brought it up, then handed her the laptop.
“I’m not an expert or anything,” he told her rather shyly.
She chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll be nice,” she said, earning a smile from him.
He watched her read, trying to gauge her expressions. She must’ve sensed this, because she remained blank at first. But once she started getting deeper into it, her face began to light up. He tried to hide his sigh of relief, but she caught it and giggled. “Really, Ragan?”
He pinched her arm playfully. “Just keep reading.”
She did as she was told, and when she finished, she looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. “That. Was. AWESOME!” She told him, opening her eyes and looking over at him. “You’ve got serious talent, Ragan.”
“Thanks,” he replied with a huge smile. “I’m glad you liked it.”
“How long have you been working on this?” she asked.
“Honestly? I’m not sure. It’s been on hold the last few months what with the tour. Plus I’m stuck,” he added, taking the laptop and placing it on the coffee table at the end of the couch.
“Oh?” she asked, turning slightly to face him. “It’s very good, what’s the problem?”
“Well,” he paused for a moment. “Honestly, I’m not really sure if I want a happy ending.”
This took her by surprise. “Really?”
“I mean I know that people read to get away from reality, but that’s not life. Life isn’t always happy endings and sunshine and roses. I want to write something real, you know? I mean, I’m not talking anything terrible, just you know, show people it’s ok that everything didn’t work out the way they think it should, that sometimes it’s okay for things to turn out differently. You ever see The Breakup?” When she nodded, he continued. “I spent that whole movie waiting for them to get back together. But they didn’t. And that was okay, you know? Everything turned out okay for both of them, they just weren’t together at the end, and that’s probably what was best, but the audience of course shipped it, and got upset when they didn’t get back together. I loved that about it. And that’s what I want to do. I’m just not sure how to go about it.”
Lauren took a moment to process all this before she spoke. “That’s very unique. I like that. I’m excited to read the finished product,” she added pointedly.
“You’ll be the first to know,” he replied.
They were both startled by the sound of footsteps and voices upstairs, meaning the group had come back in from swimming and were changing back into their regular clothes. Johnny looked over at the clock on the wall and sighed.
“You guys are gonna leave here soon, aren’t you?” he asked solemnly.
She nodded. “Probably.”
“Do me a favor?” he requested, lowering his voice and taking her hand. When she nodded he continued, “Hand me your phone.”
Confused, she dug her phone out of her back pocket with her free hand and typed in the code to unlock it before handing it to him. He took it and quickly saved his number before returning it to her.
“Call me,” he said sternly. “The second you get home and get settled.”
She nodded. “Will do, Ragan.”
A grin crept across his face. “You better.” He kissed her forehead and stood, pulling her up with him, and together they went back upstairs to join their friends and say their goodbyes.