You Saved Me

The last performance of the play was by far their best yet and Mrs. Creole wouldn’t stop giving Brittany praise for her amazing performance and Bobby showed up and brought her a bouquet of flowers and a balloon for a congratulation present.

And also, the kiss Joe and Brittany shared at the end of the play was probably the best one and probably the most non acting one they ever did.

They had to kiss, and for the performances before they made up, they would be practically a peck and nothing more, but the last one, the last one left them both breathless.

It was a full out, Joe’s hand cradling her neck and face while he pressed himself against her while she had her arms around his neck to pull him closer to her if possible and they kissed until the curtain closed.

And it was even better when the curtain was closed and they had to move out of the way so they could line up for their bowing that he apologized, but then immediately took it back, saying that he’d been dying to do that one last time since they broke up.

“So, when are you getting back?” Brittany asked him as Joe, herself and Steph walked down the hallway to the cafeteria for lunch the following Thursday.

It was insane in the cafeteria. Kids were practically bouncing off the walls from the upcoming 4 day weekend.

“We’re getting back Sunday night around 5 or 6. Oh! And I guess we’re having two thanksgiving dinners. One in Jersey with our whole family and then one here when we get back and of course you and Steph are welcome to come over Sunday night. Bobby can come too if he’s not to busy.” he informed them as they set their backpacks down at their table and went to get in line for their food.

“That sounds like fun!” Brittany said excitedly.

Even though she so badly wanted to tell Joe everything so they could be together again, she knew she couldn’t. But there was a reason as to why she got so much praise for her amazing performance as Cinderella.

She was a great actress. And would continue to be until everything was fixed.

“Hey Steph, did you want me to pick you up or something and we could head over there together?”
Brittany turned back towards Steph to ask her, only to turn back towards Joe when he said, “Um….actually…”

Steph’s eyebrows lifted a little bit higher on her forehead before she quickly went around the couple to grab some food so they could talk a little more privately.

“What?” Brittany asked him, completely at a loss for his new behavior.

She watched as he ran a hand through his hair and licked his lips quickly before he pursed his lips and looked around everywhere except at her.

The only other time she’d seen him act so nervous was when he had to tell her about him leaving to go to New York.

“I was wondering….I don’t know….maybe we…” he stuttered out and she chuckled slightly under her breath before smacking his arm playfully while saying, “Spit it out Joe!”

He sent her an apologetic smile before taking a deep breath and grabbing her hand to pull her out of line so they could get away from the eavesdropping ears of their fellow classmates.

“Joe…seriously, what is the matter with you? You’re totally freaking me out here. Did something happen at home? Or something with the tour? What?” she listed off, trying to think of anything that possibly could have happened that he’d have a hard time telling her.

They had been perfectly fine ever since they made up 5 days ago. Except with a few minor set backs in the quest to be ‘friends’ again.

Like when she was walking down the hallway Monday after school because she needed some Econ help and stayed after for it and Joe randomly showed up next to her and before they knew it, they were making out against the lockers. Or Wednesday morning he left a little note in her locker saying that he couldn’t wait to see her in Econ that day.

Yeah. They tried to be friends, and were still trying, but sometimes the temptation to want to be like they were as couple together got too hard to handle and they would both give in.

It was undeniable that they still cared about each other and little bit too much to be friends, but they both knew it was for the best, right now anyways that they shouldn’t be together.

“No. No. Nothing like that happened it’s just…” he trialed off again and looked up at the ceiling while squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose to show how stressed out he was.

“Joe. Calm down ok? Just take a deep breath. This is me your talking to. You can talk to me about anything. Ok?” she said to him and pulled him into a hug to let him know that everything would be ok.

“I miss you so much.” he whispered into her ear like he was on the brink of tears and her breath hitched in her throat before she pulled away from him.

“Joe. We can’t keep doing this. Remember the last time you said that?” she asked him with a pain staked look on her face.

He smirked slightly to her question and she playfully swatted him in the stomach before a small smirk came onto her face.

“We made out.” he stated smugly while pulling her further down the corridor so they were farther away from wandering eyes and eavesdroppers.

“And that’s why this isn’t getting any easier. We need to actually just be friends because we’re right back where we started to begin with.” she laid it out for him and his smirk slowly disappeared to be replaced with an understanding look.

He nodded his head once before saying, “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m sorry. I’ll try and stop. I promise. Now. Anyways, what I was going to say was that I’m picking you up for dinner Sunday night.”

She chuckled slightly under her breath from remembering how nervous he got.

“That’s what you were so worried and nervous to tell me? Oh my gosh Joe! You had me freaked out over nothing.”

“Well, the touring company called and we set up a date for when we would be going on tour.” he stated slowly while looking down at her with a nervous look.

“Seriously Joe. Out of everything we’ve been through, do you really think I’m gonna get mad? Jeez. It’s like you don’t know me at all.” she snapped back at him with a small giggle at the end to show she was just goofing around with him.

“Fine. We’re leaving two days after New Year’s.” he blurted out and then took a step away from her while cringing a little bit.

She couldn’t help but laugh at the way he looked right after he said that and his scared and worried composure changed to a completely dumb founded one from hearing her laugh.

“Seriously Joe. Why do you think I’m gonna get mad at you for doing your job?” she asked as she took a step towards him and pulled him into a hug.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just so used to girls getting mad at me whenever they hear I’m gonna be leaving them or something.”

She chuckled slightly and held him arm’s length away and looked straight into his eyes and said, “Joe. Like I told you when we barely knew each other for two weeks, I’m not like other girls. So quit expecting me to be one. Got it?”

A smile quickly spread across his face before he pulled her into a tight hug while he faintly said, “That’s why I love you.”

“I love you too.” she whispered and tried her hardest to contain her tears but she nearly had a heat attack when he shoved her off of him to arm’s length away and asked, loudly, “You what?”

Her joking around and laughing behavior quickly switched to a nervous and scared one.

Sweating slightly and looking around at everything except him and his wide eyes while she mentally scolded herself for saying that she never was happier in her life to hear the bell ring, indicating lunch was over.

“Gotta go!” she said quickly and ripped her arms out of his hands and took off through the swarm of people that flooded the hallway at the moment, leaving a wide eyed and slack jawed rockstar behind.

* * * * *

“I can’t believe you actually said that! Brittany, you know he’s gonna be going insane these next 4 days right?!” Steph yelled at her after school and after the boys already left for New Jersey.

She was supposed to go over there after school to say good bye to them, but since she was doing such an excellent job of avoiding Joe all day after the little lunch incident, she figured she wouldn’t go over there and say goodbye.

It would just lead to a whole ‘nother him asking questions of why they can’t be together and her lying and breaking her heart even more by saying that she still wanted him to give up his dream.

“Don’t you think I know that?! I’ve gotten like four texts from him already and they’ve only been gone an hour!” she yelled back at her friend before she started pounding her head against the wall where her bed was leaning up against.

As she let her head make another thud, she felt the bed dip down slightly, indicating the extra body weight as Steph and she ceased her head banging to look over and see her friend sitting there next to her with a perplexed look on her face.

“It’s fine. We’ll just do damage control or something. Like, just say that you meant you loved him in the sense of a friend or something.” Steph said softly, trying to think and talk at the same time in hopes that it would come out right.

Brittany snapped her head up at her friend and looked at her like she was delusional.

“I can’t do that. I can’t lie to him like that.” she stated simply.

“Like you’re not already lying to him? Brittany, this is like the only other way I can think of to make it less awkward between you two besides spilling the beans and telling him everything. If you tell him that you love him, he’s gonna ask you again why you can’t be together and use that ever so famous reverse psychology line, “If you love me so much, you wouldn’t make me ‘insert whatever here’.”

“I know. But this is like…the only thing that I can tell him the truth about. My feelings for him. Everything else I can’t and he at least deserves that much after everything I’ve put him through and will put him through.” she snapped back at Steph and instantly felt guilty as soon as the words left her mouth.

All Steph was trying to do was help and here Brittany was, yelling at the only person who she could really count on.

During those 5 days before school let out it was like Jess and Katie turned the whole school against the two somehow with them saying that they don’t care about anyone or anything except each other and Joe and Kevin.

Yes. It was childish, but there was nothing Steph or Brittany could do at this point because even themselves couldn’t deny the fact that it was true.

Steph was basically Brittany’s life line. Her mother type figure, if you will, and over the course of the last 2 weeks, she took the hits for Brittany from whatever everyone was saying.

It was bad enough that her and Joe’s relationship was so wishy-washy but then to have all your friends turn on you except for one was even harder.

Guess they really weren’t real friends to begin with and the saying, ‘Truth hurts.’ was actually full out true.

“I’m sorry.” Brittany whispered quietly as she held her head in her hands let out a loud and upset groan. “Everything is just…..”

“Floopy?” Steph finished for her with an understanding smile.

Brittany chuckled at her friends uncanny ability to make up words and yet have them make perfect sense at the same time.

“Yeah. Floopy is the perfect word for how things are going right now. And I’m really sorry that I yelled at you just now. I guess I’m just a little high strung right now and I promise, I’ll try to tone it down until it gets un-floopy again.”

“That’s totally not a word.” Steph said immediately with a laugh as Brittany looked at her friend like she was insane but nodded her head anyways to agree with her.

“Hey Trisha is St-” Bobby’s voice boomed throughout the house and he cut himself off when he reached her bedroom doorway to see the two girls sitting there on her bed.

“Oh. Hi Steph. I was gonna ask if you wanted to stay for dinner tonight? And possibly come over with your family on Thanksgiving for a thank you dinner for taking care of my girl since I haven’t been around much.” Bobby offered up and Brittany’s face light up when she heard him say, ‘my girl.’

Even though Bobby wasn’t around very often the last two weeks due to his work, he still tried his hardest to keep up his ‘father’ persona.

He still called as much as possible to check up on her and see how she was doing and he would always make sure there was at least 20 bucks laying out for her if he wasn’t going to make it home for dinner. He even told her one time over the phone that he really missed seeing her and that he was going to make it up to her whenever he got the chance. And luckily, this weekend looked like it was going to be the that chance.

He told her yesterday before he left for work that he took off for 4 days to co-inside with her 4 days off of school to spend some extra time with her.

“Um…thanks Bobby but my parents and I are driving to Nevada to have Thanksgiving with my family. But maybe we could have a left over Thanksgiving dinner.” Steph tried to compromise but her and Brittany both laughed when they saw the disgusted look on Bobby’s face.

“You know I don’t do leftovers.” he said while sticking his tongue out in disgust as the girls giggled somewhat.

“Well, I gotta get back to work really quick and finish up some stuff before I go on my 4 day break. So I’ll see you when I get back Trish and Steph if your not here for some uncanny reason, I hope you drive careful and have fun in Nevada with your family.” Bobby said as he made his way into Brittany’s room and gave her a hug around the shoulders before planting a kiss on top of her head, punching fists with Steph and then making his leave.

“He’s really cool. Sometimes, I wish I had someone like that in my family.” Steph stated while getting up from her seat on the bed.

I wish he was family.

“I’ve gotta go to the bathroom. Be right back.” she stated and then walked leisurely out of the room.

Brittany let out a loud sigh and let her head bang against the wall one last time and left it there while she mulled everything over in her head.

Steph knew everything. Joe knew some things. Bobby knew nothing.

That basically summed it up.

She jumped slightly when she heard her phone vibrate against her wall from where it was placed last from the last time she checked it.

She knew instantly who it was going to be and yet, she couldn’t not look at it.

Did you really mean that? What you said at lunch?

She let out a disgruntled groan before throwing herself back onto her bed so she was laying down and grabbed a pillow to muffle her confused and upset yell.

Please say something Britt. You can’t leave it like that between us for 4 days.

She read off of her phone 3 minutes later and she wondered what the heck Steph was doing in the bathroom.

She went to school with the girl and she knew she could use the bathroom in less than 3 minutes.

With a sigh she hit the end button and watched as her phone powered down.

Gables better be coming back so things can be finished.