I knocked on the door after seeing that it was closed despite being buzzed into the apartment building just a minute before. All my belongings were already in the car downstairs, I was just missing the person who was supposed to come with me. We had decided to meet up at nine in the morning, it was already half past because I was stuck in traffic, and something told me that Jack still wasn’t ready. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t there all ready to go and that I was being locked out instead.

As I expected, Jack opened the door quite frantically and quickly pecked me on the lips. “Hey, I’m almost ready, it will just take a couple of seconds, come in.”

“You’re literally still in your boxers,” I pointed out, assuming this wasn’t just going to take a ‘couple of seconds’.

“Hey, you are late yourself!” he retorted as he closed the door and started bouncing back to his bedroom.

“Because of traffic. And that totally doesn’t help your case,” I laughed as he swatted the air to get me to shut up before disappearing into his bedroom, leaving me with the roommates who I still didn’t really know.

Just like the last time I had seen them, they were all looking at me. Only, I wasn’t as awkward. I knew Jack was fine with me being here and we knew each other a lot better than that first time. There wasn’t any ambiguity. However, although Jack and I got to know each other, I did not really get to know his roommates any better. I knew a little through stories he told, but that was it really. We never really hung out at his place. He usually came over to mine.

“You know,” I broke the tension as I looked back at them all eating at the large dining table, “you guys can’t just always only stare at me whenever I come over. It’s a little creepy.”

“Don’t you usually come with a bodyguard?” The guy who actually should have had his back to me, but was turned around to look, and also whose name I knew was Andrew, asked.

“Yes, usually.” I nodded, staying where I was, letting one of my feet trail the grain of the wood floor. It was a slightly weird question, but it was a start. “But I decided not to take him along this time, which I’m probably going to regret, but it will be fine.”

“Regret?” He rose one eyebrow and acted like he was interrogating me.

“People tend to… swarm,” I replied and made a circular gesture. “I’m just praying that won’t happen the next few days. I can be lucky.”

“Just don’t expect Jack to protect you,” another roommate, whose name was Dan, snorted and stuffed some cereal into his mouth. “You could probably beat him in a fistfight.”

“Oh, I know,” I emphasized, starting to like him more than Andrew who seemed too skeptic of me. “I still train with a personal trainer five times a week, depending on my schedule. Jack prefers to train how many shots he can drink in the span of one night.”

“I was about to say, you can be better an anything you want, but you won’t beat Jack in a drinking game!”

“I’m not a lightweight either,” I laughed, yet had to agree, “but Jack would definitely win.”

“Stop flirting with my girlfriend!” Jack complained jokingly as he finally came out of his bedroom fully dressed and with a duffle bag on his shoulder.

“Sorry, I’ve already decided I’m leaving you and running off with them,” I apologized.

“Oh, ha ha, you’re funny,” Jack poked fun at me and threw an arm around my shoulders to get me to leave with him and not waste more time with his roommates.

“If Jack dies, we’re calling the cops on you,” Andrew worded like a joke, but sounded a tad too serious.

“I’ll plead voluntary manslaughter!” I retorted with a smile.

It was all okay. Jack had a roommate that didn’t particularly like me. Maybe it was because he hated my movies, maybe he hated the person the media made me look like, maybe he didn’t like the idea of Jack just dating me in general, but that was all okay. It wasn’t just coming from one side. I also had somebody who disapproved of my relationship with Jack. David still hated Jack for the sole reason that he was a guy in a band. But that wasn’t stopping Jack from seeing me. Similarly, I wasn’t going to let Andrew stop me from dating Jack.

“Bring him back by ten!” Dan shouted after us after we had gone out of the front door and were about to close it.

“Can’t, we’re gone for a couple of days!” Jack responded and let the door fall shut.

We walked downstairs together and put his bag in the back of the car as well. It seemed like not spending much time at Jack’s apartment was actually paying off. Usually, paparazzi hung around areas they knew a celebrity came to often. If they found out I was a regular at Jack’s they would be scoping the area non-stop and would have already caught me during the short distance from the building to my car in the parking lot.

I automatically went to the driver’s side since it was my car and I had driven there in the first place. Yet, Jack still felt obliged to ask, “don’t you want me to drive?”

“Nah,” I shook my head and unlocked doors, quickly poking my head over the car to look at him, “but you can be in charge of the music!”

“Oh, you’re going to be getting some great music education. I’m making you listen to all my favorite albums from when I was a teenager!”

“It’s not that long of a drive, but if you say so.”

It was exactly what he did. Different bands made an appearance. We rarely listened to an entire song. Jack would talk about things he would love about a specific song, make me listen to it, then describe it again excitedly, before going to the next song. Only his absolute favorites were listened to in ‘silence’. He would request that silence, only to make comments himself. It was quite hectic, especially whenever traffic got exceptionally busy. However, I loved hearing Jack talk and be enthusiastic about something he was passionate about. It actually influenced my own opinion on the music and made me like it just a little more.

I gave Jack a quick tour of the apartment when we arrived and decided to bring our stuff in. Well, I called it an ‘apartment’, but that was a bit of an understatement. I just called it that because it was an easier way to refer to it. You see, it wasn’t exactly in an apartment building. Nobody lived above me, below me, or next to me. It was one story, though.

Oh, who was I kidding, it was a house. It just technically belonged to a larger complex.

There were two bedrooms and bathrooms, so that’s already to say it was quite large. The kitchen wasn’t just a small thing pushed up on one wall, it actually had an island. And the dining room wasn’t literally a table next to it, it was another room that had large sliding doors. However, the best part was the living room with large windows on the side that showed the beach. It was literally on the beach when you opened those sliding doors, the floor transitioning seamlessly into the balcony with the very unnecessary pool and glass railing. And then there were stairs leading directly to the beach. It really was the place for me to throw parties when I was younger. Now, though, I only felt a little embarrassed by it. Jack seemed in shock from what it actually was.

“So…” I breathed out when we got back to the living room, the doors already wide open from showing it before. “What do you want to do first? Head down to the beach straight away or--”

Jack smoothly hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me into him as he pressed his lips against mine. I happily kissed him back and let my arms circle around his neck. Despite the two hour drive, he still smelled like he had just recently showered, making the kiss just that tiny bit more pleasant.

“I believe I’ve gotten my answer,” I pulled away briefly only to be pulled back in.

Jack leaned on the back of the couch and his hands went to rest on my hips, his fingers just grazing the top of my ass. Although anybody on the beach could literally look in and watch the show, I still stood between his legs and deepened the kiss, craning my neck down more. I had only been in the hospital for a few days and was a little wary after that, but I was all ready to get down again.

“Mhh.” Jack carefully pushed me away and gazing into the distance. “I can’t do this with your wedding photo with Travis staring at us.”

“Oh, right.” I nodded and looked around to where he was staring.

The photo he was talking about was on a bookshelf. I quickly shuffled to where it was and flipped it so it was face down. But I didn’t want to risk Jack interrupting us again, so I started doing the same to all the pictures of me and Travis. There were quite a lot. A couple on a dresser and another next to the TV. It was totally inappropriate and I got why it was weirding Jack out a little.

“I’m sorry,” I giggled awkwardly and went back to him and checked around myself one last time. “I haven’t been here in a while…”

“I get it,” he said before giving me a smirk and held out his hands for me to resume my position between his legs.

“I’ll get rid of them as soon as--” I started to tell him, but he cut me off by restarting our kiss.

I actually didn’t want to get rid of them. They were part of my life, and a happy one at that. It wasn’t like I had had a horrible divorce and wanted to get rid of all the memories. Travis and I were still very good friends. But I also didn’t have any other pictures with my friends here. Maybe one was okay along with all the other photos I had with friends and family at my house. I could always keep the others in a photo album to remember. There was no need to rub it all in Jack’s face.

Quite a while later, we finally got into our swimming costumes and decided to spend some time at the beach, which is why we originally came out here in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, I loved what we were doing beforehand, but it would be a waste to not actually got to the beach. We were only here for two days.

I closed the sliding doors after we stepped out on the balcony and locked it before I hid the key close by. It wasn’t that I was afraid that somebody would come in to try and rob me while I was out in the water. Although technically illegal, some paparazzi would do anything to get their million dollar shot. I didn’t need somebody hiding out in my bedroom or bathroom.

I scrunched up my nose as we stepped onto the sand, “I hate the feeling of sand between my toes.”

“What?” Jack laughed, seeing me leaving my towel on the steps and did the same. “Shouldn’t you love the feeling along with late night walks on the beach?”

“I just hate sand! It gets everywhere and I can guarantee that whenever I want to wear an article of clothing I brought with me here again later back home, I will still find sand. Especially in shoes!”

“That’s why you don’t wear shoes on the beach, babe,” he teased.

“I’m not wearing shoes now, am I?” I retorted back and started walking further towards the water. “And it feels horrible. It makes everything inside my body cringe.”

“Fine,” Jack sighed dramatically and bent over, holding his hands out backward, “I’ll carry you on my back.”

Although it wasn’t the outcome I was expecting, I hopped on his back, pushing myself up until my legs were comfortably around his waist and he could hold them. Without warning, he started charging towards the water despite the extra weight. It didn’t seem like he was going to slow down before he actually reached it, so I started screaming. The water started splashing everywhere as he ran into it until it was up until his hips, causing the water to occasionally touch the back of my legs and butt, making me squirm.

“Don’t you dare drop me! Don’t you dare!” I screamed, trying to get a better hold of him by pressing myself up further against his back.

And Jack didn’t drop me. He did something worse. He jumped up a little and plunged us backward so we both were submerged completely by salty sea water.

“It’s cold!” I sputtered as I got back up to the surface while Jack laughed. I immediately reached for him and tried to get close, hoping to feel a little more heat.

“Of course it’s cold,” he continued to laugh as he let me wrap my legs around his waist--from the front this time--and hug myself close to him, “what did you expect?”

“A nice calm walk into the water, maybe go up until my legs, not be dunked into the water with my head under.”

“Oh my god, you’re actually shivering.” There was still humor in his voice, but he was slowly becoming more serious again.

“If my lips turn blue and I die of hypothermia, it’s your fault.”

“I’ll plead voluntary manslaughter!” he referenced what I had shouted out earlier that day at his roommates.

We continued to float around for a little bit despite me being quite cold. I decided to suck it up until I really couldn’t take it anymore. After all, we decided to go to the beach late in the year. It wasn’t summer anymore. But it was a pleasant exceptionally hot day. I started trying to fix Jack’s hair while we were taking. Since it had gotten wet, it was all floppy now and looked quite funny. Although my attempts were useless, it was still fun.

“We should totally just have sex on the beach,” Jack said randomly as a joke at one point. “There is literally nobody here.”

“Not true.” I shook my head and continued to look at him. “There’s a guy with a large camera hiding and taking pictures.”

“Really? What?”

“Yeah, he’s been there for a bit. I’m an expert at spotting them, but I tend to ignore them. They’re a little like birds or something. They just exist in the world.” I shrugged while looking in the direction where I could still see the guy thinking he was sneaky taking pictures behind rocks. “But when one find us, more will come. So, soon, they will be like literal birds and flock around.”

“Should we head back inside then?” Jack suggested, still unsure how to act during these really personal moments. I got it, he wanted privacy, but I hadn’t had that since my first movie came out. It just took a while to get used to. Travis and I used to go to the beach and would have paparazzi blocking the view when we sat on our towels and we just ignored it all.

“If you want to,” I told him, wanting to make him as comfortable as possible. “I’d like to go back cause I’m fucking freezing.”

“Well, then we’ll just go back right?” he chuckled and held me close before starting to head out of the water.

“What are you doing?” I shrieked when I noticed he wasn’t going to let go and that he was carrying me.

“You hate the feeling of walking on sand right?” he continued to hold me as he got out of the water and started walking on the beach.

As if on cue, paparazzi started making their way on the beach to get their own shots. Jack put me down on the steps to my house and picked up both towels. He wrapped the first one around me so I could warm up before putting the other on over his shoulders. As I started going up the steps, I heard my name being called out in the distance, but I ignored it, Jack doing to same.

“They’re going to keep taking photos even when we get inside, especially since there is so much glass,” I murmured so only Jack could hear. “Even when they can’t see us anymore, they’ll wait out until they can. So, just be wary of where you change.”

“I was thinking of doing something a little different than changing,” he whispered back deeply and kissed my cheek.

“But I must request a shower first to get rid of the sand in places it shouldn’t be.” I found the key back where I had hidden it and unlocked the door, opening it just far enough for us to enter. As much as I loved having them open, it was quite pleasant having something separate me from the people now swarming outside.

“And I shall help you with that.” He winked and took the towel from his shoulders.

“The guest bathroom only has super tiny windows, we’ll go there.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him with me, knowing I would hate myself later for not making him clean the sand off his feet and legs before we went inside.

Notes

Hey guys! I have nothing interesting to say but I started a new story (yes, again, I know).
Over here:
http://www.alltimelowfanfiction.com/Story/91080/Chasing-The-Missing-Paths/