The Motivation Proclamation

You only have a half an hour left of work and Joel still hasn’t showed up. You knew it was too good to be true. You must have dreamt it all… *like Joel Madden would ever kiss me* You look around and don’t see anyone waiting to have their order taken so you go in the back, you only have 15 minutes left and you don’t expect Joel to show up. After just a few minutes though Pete comes in the back to find you.
“Brittany- there’s someone out front looking for you.”
“Who is it?”
“It’s one of the guy’s that was in here yesterday that you talked to.”
You smile, “Thanks Pete!”
He smiles, “No problem- I would want you to tell me if a total hottie was looking for me!”
You laugh and head towards the front and see Joel standing there with a smile on his face.

“Hey,” you smile at him.
He smiles back, “how much longer do you have to work?”
“About ten minutes.”
“nah- go now. I’ll cover for you," Pete says while throwing an arm over your shoulder.
“I can’t- I’m already walking on thin ice because I was late. If I lose my job I’ll have to move back to Michigan.”
“It’s okay,” Joel says, “I can wait ten minutes. But- I’m going to need a coffee.” You take his order then he goes and stands near the door patiently waiting for you to get off work. You walk over to him when you’re finally finished and the two of you walk out of Starbucks hand in hand- you wave bye to Pete and Joel walks you over to your vehicle.

“So… what are we going to do?” You ask him.
He stands next to the driver side door and looks at you, “we can just go back to your place and hang out. Talk maybe watch some TV or a movie or something.”
“That sounds good to me.” He opens the door for you and you climb in. Then he goes around and gets in on the passengers side.
“Um, how’d you get here anyways?”
“I had my brother drop me off.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”
“He told me to tell you thanks, again.”
You smile, “Cashdogg was a pleasure to have. Even though Izzy was around him more than I was,” you sigh. Joel asks you what’s wrong. You tell him, “nothing- it’s nothing.” then start the vehicle and drive to your place.

When you walk in the house and see Izzy sitting on the couch, she smiles and gets up, “Hey, Izzy, where are you going?”
“I’m going to my room- I have something to do in there.”
“No you don’t. Come back. You don’t have to leave. Argh.” You throw a pillow at her and she laughs.
“Fine, I’ll stay… so this is Joel?”
“Yeah, Joel- Izzy, Izzy- Joel”. They shake and exchange ‘nice to meet you’ then you turn to Joel. “So… um, I’m not to good with this stuff… so what do you want to do?”
“Well we could go to your room and talk, so we can get to know each other.”
“Okay.” You show him to your room (which is upstairs) then go downstairs to get some sodas. You see Izzy sitting on the couch and you sit down next to her real quick.
“Ugh, what am I going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well technically I’m still going out with Pat.”
“Brittany- Pat is probably cheating on you right now… you said you wanted to break up with him, so this is your perfect chance. Here” she hands you the phone “call him and leave him a message.”
“But that’s so… lame.”
“He doesn’t deserve much better.” You hug her, “thanks. I’m so glad we’re still friends!” After you call Pat and tell him it’s over you go back up to your room.

Joel is sitting comfortably on your bed surfing TV channels. “Sorry I was gone so long,”
“It’s okay. Come sit next to me.” he pats the bed and you walk over to him, after handing him the can of soda you brought up you sit with your knees pulled up in front of you and you wrap your arms around them.
“I’m 18 and you’re 28,” you blurt out.
“Yeah, I know that.”
“You have money and I’m struggling to keep my head above water… you have fans all around the world- I have Pete and Izzy… you have a life, I have nothing.”

Quickly Joel puts his arm around you so he could pull you towards him.
“Those things you said may be true, but that doesn’t mean we have to acknowledge them. I like you Brittany, something about you has pulled me towards you, and I can’t explain that. All I can say is that I hope you feel the same.”
You’re silent for maybe a minute, “I do…” You look at him and he kisses you.
“So tell me about yourself… why California?”
You begin to laugh, knowing that the reason you chose California was such an idiotic one, “I don’t know… I knew you and Benji lived here… I think that was the only thing that drew me towards the west coast. I’ve loved Good Charlotte for five long years, and, well, I didn’t really have anywhere else to go.”
He looks at you, “well I’m glad you came here. I’m glad that you didn’t move to, say, Maryland, where I came from.”
You don’t know what to say to that so you change the subject to him, “so why did you come to California?”
“It made sense- I’ve been here before and I just loved the idea- so did Benji. We just decided this is where we wanted to live, growing up with nothing was ridiculous, and we just wanted to be around all these signs of money. You know?”
“Yeah I get that- maybe that’s a part of the reason why I wanted to come out here… I didn’t have much money growing up either- I mean we got by, we had more than enough to get by on, but not enough to make me happy I guess.” You chuckle, “Now I sound totally superficial and self-centered.”
“No, you just sound like you know what you want.”
“But I don’t. I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I graduated high school, and then I moved out here. I was supposed to go to the community college- but I didn’t. Me and Izzy both skipped college to come out here- but her parents are helping with the payments because she promised to go to college after this year.”
“Everything works out in the end, we may not know what’s happening now, but God will show us when we need to see.”
“God. Me and him haven’t talked for a while. I don’t know how to.”
“What do you mean you don’t know how to?”
“I’ve done some stupid stuff, and I still do some stupid stuff, and I just don’t want to give up my life to love him.”
“You don’t have to give up your life, love him how you can and he’ll love you back because you’re making an effort.”
“Yeah. I don’t really want a religion though, I just want to do it on my own terms and everything.”
“Yeah- as long as you tell him you love him, ask him for help when you need it, and keep your promises- it’s all good.”
You look at him, “I’ve never talked so easily with anyone else. I’ve always been so shy. Even with the people I call my friends, I’ve never shared all my feelings about religion… I think that makes you special.”
“Me, special?” he smiles at you. “No, I think you’re the special one.”
Suddenly you blush and realize he still has his arm around you so you lean into him. “Do you want to watch a movie? I’m starting to feel all weird from sharing so much.”
“Yeah I think a movie would be good.”

You gracefully stand from the bed and go to the TV and effortlessly open the doors of the stand that it sits on. “What kind of movie do you want to watch? Action, Drama, Comedy, Family?”
“Either an Action or a Comedy.”
Looking through the movies you find two movies that catch your eye. You hold up Rush Hour 3 and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry “which one?”
“Rush Hour 3, it’s both an action and a comedy.” he smiles a crooked smile at you.
“I absolutely love your smile- it’s cute and goofy at the same time!”
He smiles even harder which forces you turn your back on him as you start to giggle. After the movie started you climb back on your bed and pull the covers over yourself. “I can’t watch a movie without blankets!” you say to his smirk. Then you climb back out of the bed so you can turn the light off and shut the blinds. When you climb back in bed you say, “much better!”
Joel slides under the covers and moves closer to you, “much better!” he mimics. You smile at him, and then shush him as the movie starts. Your hand is lying on your stomach and you feel Joel’s hand find yours. You look at him and he smiles; you let him hold your hand as you move closer to him. Soon the movie is forgotten because Joel leans in to kiss you. You have your arms wrapped around him and he has his wrapped around you. After many many minutes one of his arms moves to the button on your pants. You quickly pull away.
“I’m not your average teenager, Joel.”
“I’m sorry, I mean… I’m sorry, Brittany.”
“It’s okay, really it is, but see there’s something I haven’t told you yet... I’m not sexually active. I’ve basically chosen to stay a virgin until I get married. Although I’m technically not a virgin…” He looks at you questioningly and you explain to him that one weekend you got wasted at a party with a few friends and the person who bought the alcohol took advantage of the state you were in.
“Oh, I don’t know what to say.”
You look at Joel, “It’s okay. Nothing needs to be said. That was about a year ago, I’m over it. But I really do mean what I said. No sex until marriage.”
He pulls you closer to him. “That’s fine with me- but we can still kiss can’t we?”
You giggle and kiss him. “We most definitely can."