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Mibba

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Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You

Nineteen.

I was currently outside the restaurant, waiting for John’s arrival. My parents were inside, my bag packed and in the back of their car, ready to head straight on to Charlotte after this. I’d spent most of the afternoon with Marissa, and she knew my plan for the night. I hadn’t spoken to Jack or Alex all day. Honestly, I’d hardly even spoken to John. I had spent my day confined to my bubble with Marissa. She’d returned from the library midmorning and we’d spent the rest of the day in the apartment, drinking coffee and bitching about everyone we had gone to high school with. I’d also spent way too long asking her if it was too early for John to meet my parents. It was, but she insisted that we’d been friends so long beforehand that making this step so early was reasonable.
I had spent the two hours before my parents picked me up painstakingly getting ready. I felt nervous. I hadn’t told them John would be coming, but it was a reasonably nice restaurant, so I wanted to look nice. Adding in that John would be there and I really wanted to look nice. After our conversation the night before, I really wanted to make an effort at this. I didn’t want to play my nonchalant cards like I had with Alex, because making this work was actually important to me.
And, so, here I was. Waiting outside a restaurant wearing a nice, light blue tea dress I’d stolen from Marissa, my hair half pinned back and wavy.
And John was late.
I tried not to be upset. He had never stood me up on any of our plans before now, as well as having text me to say he’d made his train in New York, so I knew he was coming. The voice in the back of my head that always encouraged my apathy was currently mocking me for caring so much. I checked my phone once again, still with no update from John. I wanted to text and ask where the hell he was, but the apathetic voice was currently in control of my hands.
“I’m so sorry,” he panted, coming around the corner in a hurry and spotting me immediately. I felt myself relax as I heard his voice, just grateful that he had made it. “I got lost.” He looked at me sheepishly and I rolled my eyes but allowed a smile to form on my face.
“I suppose you can be forgiven for not knowing a city you’ve never been to,” I replied.
“Good,” he smiled, pushing a kiss to my forehead as he pulled me into a hug. “You look amazing, by the way.” I felt my smile widening, an unfamiliar heat rising in my cheeks. It had been a while since I’d felt like this at someone’s compliments.
“You do too,” I told him. From what I’d seen of his outfit, he’d really made an effort. He was still in jeans, but he’d worn a white button-down shirt, his sleeves rolled up so as to make himself seem a little more casual. Judging from his hair, he’d spent about as long in front of the mirror today as I had. I kinda liked that he was nervous. Mr. Easy Going was nervous about something. “Come on, my parents already think I’m up to something.” I pulled out of his grip, grabbing his hand almost immediately and pulling him into the building.
I scanned the room quickly, seeing my parents located on the far side and began to weave through the sea of tables. My nerves returned as my mother spotted me, my hand still linked with John’s. I could see her eyebrows raise as we got closer, a somewhat knowing smirk on her face. I held back the desire to roll my eyes.
“You’ve multiplied,” she said as I finally made it to the table.
“Mom, dad, you remember John,” I said, sucking down my nerves. “John, these are my parents, Karen and Stephen.”
“It’s nice to see you again, John,” my mom smiled. “We were only just talking about you yesterday.” I suppressed a groan, sitting in my seat opposite her and praying she wasn’t going to embarrass me too much.
“Nothing too bad, I hope,” he chuckled nervously. “It’s nice to see you both again.” My dad said his greetings also as John sat down next to me. I felt way more nervous than I should do, knowing my mother had openly admitted to loving him only the day before. However, her opinions differed greatly with very little difficulty, so I suppose it was fair to be nervous. She could pull what she’d done that Christmas and decide she hated John because I’d made the decision for myself. I was hoping she’d grown up in the last three years.
“I’m going to be honest, we didn’t expect you tonight,” my mom told him. “I told Holly she should have brought you, but she never said she’d invited you.”
“Yeah, because I was going to call you up when Isobel was there,” I scoffed. I’d been informed that Isobel would be at my parents’ most of the day, it being the day when she and my mother tended to catch up and have lunch at either house. They had remained close, despite Alex and I’s break up, and I was thankful one family relationship hadn’t dissolved. My dad had found out Alex had cheated on me and immediately stopped talking to Peter, his protective side I hardly knew he had showing through. “That would have been fun. ‘Hey, mom, hey Isobel, I’m bringing my boyfriend out. Oh, Is, you should totally come too.’”
“Hilarious, Holly.” I felt John looking at me, unsure who I was discussing and I realised that in the last few weeks, I genuinely hadn’t told him Alex literally lived next door to my parents. I cringed inwardly, trying to find a way to explain it without openly admitting that he had no idea what was going on.
“Well, just because she’s your neighbour doesn’t mean I want my ex’s mom finding all about my new boyfriend. It’s weird.” A brief look of understanding crossed John’s face and I relaxed a little. I wanted us all to be on equal footing here, so that seemed reasonable enough. What I didn’t want to admit was that Isobel knew all about John before my own mother. That would get me into a world of trouble.
“Fine, fine, I get it.” She waved me off and turned back to John, though not without shooting me a small look about my repeated use of the word ‘boyfriend’. “So, tell me something about yourself, John. All I’ve gotten from Holly is that you’re in a band. You know she’s not one to gush.” I looked pointedly at my dad, silently pleading with him to reign in his wife. He smiled at me, amused by my exasperation, but said nothing to silence her.
“Um, there’s not all that much to say, really,” he shrugged, his complete lack of arrogance shining through. I adored that about him. “I grew up in Arizona, I’m 20, I think your daughter’s cute as shit and I’ve never really been the guy girls take home to meet their parents.” He chuckled awkwardly and I rolled my eyes. He’d never really picked a girl who he could take home to his parents either, nor had he gotten serious enough. It dawned on me that this might actually be the first time John had done this.
“You’re doing great so far,” my mother assured him. “You’re definitely not the worst one we’ve met.” She shot me a pointed look that screamed ‘Mike’ and I turned away, looking at John and shooting him a reassuring smile.
“You remember that one who she brought back the first time? The cocky one,” my dad said, seemingly ignoring my exasperation as well now. At least my mother had attempted to be subtle.
“Apparently, she learned from that one.”
“Can you guys not?” I groaned. I felt John’s hand linking with my own under the table.
“We’re your parents. If we can’t embarrass you, who can?” My dad chuckled back at me.
“I definitely need to hear about this,” John laughed, taking a small sip of his water. “She tells me absolutely nothing about stuff like this.” I groaned again, feeling all three of them ganging up on me. It was infuriating, but I couldn’t help but love how they all got on so well already. John was definitely the type of guy you took home to meet your parents, no matter what he said.
“What’s there to say? She used to like popular football players, not guys in bands,” my mom laughed. “But, you know the type, they’re the worst. At least you’re normal. He hardly spoke to us and she followed him around like he was the best thing in the world.”
“I did not!”
“No, you definitely did.”
“Football players, huh?” John smirked and I rolled my eyes.
“Singular,” I grumbled. “And he became captain our senior year, so that makes me popular as fuck, I’ll have you know.”
“Whatever you say, darlin’.” I shook my head but smiled nonetheless. It could have been worse. At least they had the sense not to discuss Alex openly in front of him.
“We like this one,” my mother gushed an hour and a half later, all of us having eaten and John in the bathroom while my dad settled the cheque behind his back. Apparently it was a guy thing.
“I do too,” I admitted. “But it is new, so do not get all gushy about it, okay?”
“He’s not like Alex,” she said, ignoring the last half of my sentence.
“He’s not supposed to be.” I hated that. I hated that everyone compared my relationship with John to my relationship with Alex. They were completely different, and so was our time together. Just because Alex had been my only real, somewhat long-term relationship, didn’t mean he needed to be the reference point.
“No, but we expected him to be similar.” I raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for further explanation. “I mean, I like Alex, if you ignore all that stuff at the end, and we could see he tried his best, but this one is so easy going. You need someone a little less like you.”
“Gee, thanks mom,” I drawled. “It’s nice to know you think I’m overdramatic and cocky.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You mean you like John and you approve. Noted.”
“The guys say they’ll be here in twenty,” John told me, sitting back down to my right, tucking his phone back into his jean pocket.
“Great,” I groaned. “Sweaty boy central is back.” I tried not to think about the jeering that would occur when John and I got onto the bus mildly dressed up. The guys had no chill at all. I was going to be mocked relentlessly for looking like a real girl for once in my life.
“You love it,” he joked. I pouted, shaking my head.
“I hate that I haven’t had a break from all your friends since the beginning of last year.”
“They love you too, don’t worry,” he chuckled, pressing a soft kiss to my lips to stop my continued pouting.
“Jasey?” I heard behind me as I debated stealing another kiss, knowing my mother was still here. I froze a little at the sound of the voice, John frowning as my eyes widened. This night had been going so well. “Oh, my god, it is you,” the voice laughed harshly. “And here I was thinking I’d managed to actually get rid of you way back when.”
“Fuck off, Jodie,” I said, not even bothering to look at her. I didn’t want to see her. She’d been a large part of having my heart torn out and I’d barely managed to get through reuniting with Alex, who I had actually enjoyed seeing once upon a time.
“Aw, but it’s been so long,” she whined. I looked over at her as she pretended to pout at me. She hadn’t changed a bit. Still just as ridiculously hypocritical and irritating as she always had been.
“Not long enough,” I replied simply.
“Who’s the new guy? He’s cute,” she laughed mockingly, shooting a wink in John’s direction and ignoring how little anyone wanted her here, as she always had done. My blood was boiling. She, at the very least, used to be a little subtler than this. My running away had, clearly, given her ego an unnecessary boost.
“Tell me that again, I dare you.”
“What? You don’t see it? He’s cuter than the last one.”
“Let’s be grateful that you won’t have two years and three bottles of vodka to convince this one to sleep you with,” I responded.
“Ooh, ouch,” she laughed again. “Where will you run to this time? I hear Europe’s nice. You can find me a cultured guy to steal from you.” I felt myself standing up and moving toward her, my heartbeat pounding loudly and my fists clenched.
“Give me one more reason to punch you. Please.”
“Oh, sweetie,” she cackled. “You’re the kind who runs, not the kind who fights. That’s exactly how I ended up with Alex after you left.”
“But you didn’t, did you?” I scoffed. “Tell me, after I left, how broken down did he look? Did he fall into your arms, or did he completely ignore you in the halls like he always should have done?” Her mouth clamped shut, scowling at me. She didn’t seem to know that Alex and I had spoken, that I’d been hanging about with our old friends, that I knew almost everything. “What do you think, Jodie? Do you think he would drive across the country for you after you ignored him for six months? Or do you think he’d throw himself a fucking party?”
“Bullshit,” she replied. “I know all about your shit. You were gone. Nobody knew where you were and nobody missed you. You were the school slut and you’d gotten old fast. ‘Oh, look, Jasey slept with some other asshole this weekend, I’m so shocked,’” she drawled sarcastically. “Does this one know? Honey, you better get yourself checked out because this one has been round the block more than once, if you know what I mean.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I spat, moving even closer to her as she addressed John.
“Holly, no, come on,” John pleaded, attempting to hold me back. I wanted to push forward, my anger beginning to get the better of me. I’d never gotten this riled up by Jodie before, but this was different. She’d actually succeeded in her attempts before, and I’d been so sure that she hadn’t had a shot in hell then either.
“No, this—this is the reason we can’t have a nice fucking tour,” I hissed, still glaring at the smirking girl in front of me. “This fucking slut is why we can’t be fucking drama free.”
“She’s also why we met,” he replied, having figured out from the argument just who was in front of us. He might not have known her name before tonight, but he knew Alex had cheated and that was enough context.
“I was going to Arizona anyway.”
“You were going to Arizona with Alex,” he countered. I felt my attempts to get myself free of his grip lessening. I suddenly became acutely aware of the scene I was causing and while I didn’t want to see Jodie’s face smirking over at me, I knew I needed to let this go.
“You so much as look at my boyfriend, and I will hurt you,” I threatened her.
“Tell Alex I say hi,” she responded, smiling sweetly before turning to leave.
“Tell him yourself,” I spat, throwing myself back into my seat. All I needed to top this visit off now was for Mike to walk through the door and I’d never come back to this place ever again. After yesterday’s encounter with Chase and today’s with Jodie, I’d had my fill of bullshit. I looked at my parents (my dad having returned from paying the bill during my argument), both of whom were looking at me shocked. “Oh, yeah, in case you hadn’t noticed, that’s who Alex cheated on me with. I can’t say I care for her.”
“We should go,” my dad muttered, trying not to seem as shocked as I knew he was. Now that I was no longer in the midst of the argument, I realised how much about me she had actually said in front of my parents that I didn’t want them to know. Sure, I’d all but told my mother about my antics as a teenager, trying to rile her up but, now I’d grown a little, I didn’t want to tell them about it.
I didn’t know what to say as the pair of them waited with John and I. My mother had always brushed off anything I told her as me trying to get a reaction, but she’d heard it from someone else now, so her argument was invalid. Being a ridiculous daddy’s girl most of the time, I’d never attempted to tell my father anything about my party girl nonsense.
The bus pulled up and I bade my farewells to my parents, allowing myself to leave without discussing with them what they’d heard. I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. I wanted them to plant their heads firmly in the sand as they always had done. They took it like absolute champs, not allowing the goodbyes to come across awkward and inviting John to visit the next time I did, whenever that may be.
“Oh, my God. Holy shit,” Kennedy stuttered as John and I walked through the door, one hand firmly clasped around my own and bringing my bag in using the other. “Guys!” He shouted, drawing the attention of the others, who I could only assume were sat out back. “Holly is wearing a dress. She’s a girl.” I rolled my eyes as the other boys made an appearance, only to shake their heads at Kennedy’s words, having expected there to be something actually serious going on, not just my wearing a dress. I did say I expected to be mocked when I got back on the bus. “So, how did meeting the parents go?”
John put my bag down as the bus kicked back to life, shrugging lightly as I freed myself from his grip. I didn’t have anything to say about this. My parents loved him, of course they did, but after my run in with Jodie, I was exhausted and just utterly done with the day. My purse vibrated as I threw it on the counter and I could only assume it was Marissa checking in. I didn’t bother checking.
“I’m going to bed,” I muttered, not waiting for a response. I saw John looking at my sympathetically, but I paid it no mind. He would probably explain everything to the guys, and that was fine. I didn’t want to have to relive it right now but I also didn’t want them thinking the entire night had been a disaster, which was a fair assumption given the way I was acting. I changed quickly into my pyjamas before curling up into my bunk and falling asleep to the sounds of the bus and the five boys muttering to each other.

Notes

I'm bummed out and writing a lot.
It doesn't bode well for any character in any of my stories, but have another chapter because I'm on a roll.

Comments

@settle for me.
Two words. Character Development. SHES SO SHALLOW RIGHT NOW. I've met people like her and they make my blood boil and skin crawl.
I'm not one to talk about stories being too long... it's difficult.

@gamble with desire.
I'm not sure Jasey knows what she wants to be honest. :')

@aweirdkindofyellow
I always forget how much you dislike her. But, you'll have to see how this goes! I need to cut a load of stuff I already have written because it doesn't fit in a chapter in a way that makes sense and I don't want to go on too long. The first time I wrote this sequel it was like... 17 chapters long, and now I'll be lucky if I finish under 50.

Ooooh yay she’s hitching a ride with Alex! I’m not happy John hurt her by breaking up with her, but I’m kinda glad he did it because he’s just been weird this whole time. And Jasey really wants to be with Alex, I can tell!

@settle for me.
I'm scared that Holly will get back together with Alex. I'm scared that she will continue to be a brat. I'm scared that she only cares about herself.